singing and data mining

There are some good things going on, depending on how you look at it of course. 

Some lovely stuff, wonderful conversations and story telling and picture sharing and dog adventures with the grandchild - all via the camera on my smartphone. 

Some inspirational stuff like the free online lectures from various organisations including my city's adult education center, the university, many schools and churches on how to ditch, circumvent, replace US oligarch social media platforms, servers, online shops, streaming services, browsers, data clouds and so on. Every day, the hahstag #unplugtrump is in the news, even the big national outlets provide ever longer lists and instructions of the many alternatives that at least appear to prevent data theft, data collection, commercial (ab)use of shared images, information, family and professional details. Don't let them get rich on your data, don't let them spy on you, don't give them personal information and so on. I am working my way through it. The old idea of an internet for all is slowly coming out from a dark shadow. I am learning a lot about digital monopoly and how big tech is controlling our lives. This is the English version of one of the online lectures from last week, click here if you are interested.

A rich man and a poor man, there they stood,
And judged each other as best they could.
The poor man said, his voice at low pitch,
If I were not poor you’d not be rich.

Bertolt Brecht

Some nice stuff like the singing group I have joined recently. It is not a choir, we don't really know how to sing well. It's not karaoke. It's a group of mostly women, two men so far, of all ages, young students with rasta hair, middle-aged mothers, some with headscarves, several grannies. We meet up once a week in a room at the local school and for about two hours, we just sing as best we can. The initiative came from a retired opera singer and she starts each session with a bit of breathing and do-re-mi and then we're off. Usually, it's a mix of well-known German folk songs, the odd hymn, lullabies, pop music, even an aria or two. We each bring sheets with the lyrics, sometimes talking a bit about what the song means to us and usually someone/most know the melody. We also try our luck with harmonies and rounders, there is a lot of clapping, snapping and even dancing. Also lots of laughter.

This week we sang The Ode to Joy, Yesterday, Muss I denn (Elvis called it Wooden Heart), Moon River, a couple of German and two Turkish folk songs, Que sera sera, Le Champs Elyssees and If I Had a Hammer.  

To finish the session, we belt out rounders of Frère Jacques in German, French, Turkish and English at the top of our voices and then it's Good Bye, see you next week.