Alive Inside

[ksmith]

The video of the nursing home patient reawakened by the music he loved has been rocketing around the internet:

There’s a follow-up article in today’s Washington Post. You can donate old iPods so that others can feel the same magic again:

According to Dan Cohen, spokesman for the Music and Memory Project, the reaction to the clip has been tremendous. “I am truly delighted and surprised,” he told The Washington Post in a Thursday phone call.

For those interested in helping the project, Music and Memory accepts donations of iPods of any kind, he said. The group starts people out with the iPod shuffle, but also uses other iPods and iPads to help improve the lives of nursing home residents.

http://www.musicandmemory.org/index.html

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.

Comments

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

Truly incredible. I know that music is my lifeline...but only some music. And not the same music for every person. I thought it was significant and interesting that the therapist assumed he wanted Gospel music because he had earlier wanted a Bible...but clearly his real interest is in big band, Cab Calloway, show tunes/pop music of that era. He responded to the "church music" she chose for him, but the music he sang was pop.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I noticed that, too. The link to his good ol' days, maybe. Dances with his wife. Music can evoke so many memories.

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it was a link to his younger days. He said himself he went out, he went to dances (and no doubt not only with his wife--before he was married, for instance.) But the therapist was clearly more comfortable if he wanted to listen to church music than something that lit his libido. I hope they explore, following his preferences, to find the boundaries of his musical taste and then offer him that.

I'm often stunned at the assumptions made about the music poor or uneducated people are supposed to like. Although the homeless in downtown are welcome to attend any service at our church, there's a special service for them--that assumes their taste in music is...limited, let's say. And yet we have some who come regularly to the services at which the auditioned choir sings serious, even great music: they come also to the special programs we do several times a year (such as the Faure _Requiem_.) Why should they be limited to evangelical hymns and praise music in "their" service, music that has a limited emotional range? Why NOT give them a taste of other music--if only one piece per service?

Maybe I should make out the playlist I hope someone will give me if I'm ever stuck in a nursing home like that. (Did you ever see such a sterile place? Typical, alas.)

[goingferal.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that link--was worth watching.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

You're welcome

[seachanges.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. That was really moving, thank you.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

You're welcome

[harnessphoto.livejournal.com]

...and this is what would happen to me if I was in a nursing home and you brought me a horse. LOL

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

...or if someone brought me a dog.