Comments on: Glissendo

Glissendo

geoff. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:07:23 -0800

Monks on Segways, with fire on the top of their heads, playing "Lightning" by Philip Glass.

By: furtive

furtive — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:10:18 -0800

Does exactly what it says on the box.

By: Stunt

Stunt — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:12:53 -0800

That is an absurdly neat use of a segway. I'm pretty sure I've had nightmares like that though.

By: snofoam

snofoam — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:13:41 -0800

Concept and technical design by Ulik (the mechanical clown). Of course.

By: DU

DU — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:14:03 -0800

*mouth hangs open for 5 minutes* For some reason I have a very strong memory of (robot?) monks in black robes gliding silently around, possibly even with fire on their heads. Canticle for Liebowitz?

By: dirty lies

dirty lies — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:14:50 -0800

And you said Segways were just ostentatious toys for the lazy rich.

By: dirty lies

dirty lies — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:15:10 -0800

It is trombones that are ostentatious toys for people who blow.

By: maudlin

maudlin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:18:13 -0800

Jaunty, melancholy and terrifying all at once. Love it.

By: snofoam

snofoam — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:19:00 -0800

Also, if this turns out to be viral marketing for some mobile phone company, I will be super pissed.

By: SemiSophos

SemiSophos — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:19:40 -0800

I'm uncultured. Are other Glass compositions like this? What is this style of music called? Where can I find more?

By: YoBananaBoy

YoBananaBoy — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:20:15 -0800

Needs more yakety sax.

By: geoff.

geoff. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:23:23 -0800

Are other Glass compositions like this? Philip Glass on Sesame Street, Geometry of Colors. To this day I'm horrified by Euclidean geometry.

By: maudlin

maudlin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:24:39 -0800

SemiSophos, try The Glass Engine. (Previously). If it doesn't work for you, you'll need Java.

By: mhjb

mhjb — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:28:54 -0800

For a while now I've been looking for THE SINGLE GREATEST THING EVER. Thanks geoff.

By: furious

furious — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:31:49 -0800

For some reason I have a very strong memory of (robot?) monks in black robes gliding silently around :/

By: DecemberBoy

DecemberBoy — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:34:30 -0800

Philip Glass on Sesame Street, Geometry of Colors. Holy crap. No wonder so many of my generation grew up to enjoy listening to repetitive music on hallucinogenic drugs.

By: Wanderlust88

Wanderlust88 — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:40:15 -0800

Reminds me of Jarra from MIB II

By: doctor_negative

doctor_negative — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:43:50 -0800

Never really thought of Glass as something you could adapt to a marching band, but if you're going to you might as well set it on fire while you're at it. That was amazing.

By: netbros

netbros — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:50:36 -0800

Those aren't real monks. I can tell. Real monks play Akhnaten.

By: Lipstick Thespian

Lipstick Thespian — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:01:37 -0800

No.

By: phrontist

phrontist — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:02:03 -0800

Doesn't seem right... maybe if it were shot time lapse over the course of a few days.

By: phrontist

phrontist — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:05:50 -0800

Damn this is just so awesome. Thank you so much for posting this. Are other Glass compositions like this? Different instrumentation, no funky percussion, but yeah. The style is called "minimalism", though no one, least of all glass, self-identifies with this genre.

By: Xoebe

Xoebe — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:06:40 -0800

This gives me hope.

By: Dr. Zira

Dr. Zira — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:11:10 -0800

The beat is a little slow, but I'm going to go ahead and give them a 9 1/2 for use of banjo.

By: ocherdraco

ocherdraco — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:12:17 -0800

Yes! Yes! YES!

By: eriko

eriko — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:14:49 -0800

This is so much better than cops on Segways at O'Hare. Did we mention the banjo? The banjo just makes it. (On Preview) Yes, we mentioned banjos. Carry on.

By: spiderskull

spiderskull — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:17:55 -0800

Jesus son of a shit that's awesome.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:20:38 -0800

As advertised. Speaking of Segways, did you hear about the guy in Brooklyn who impersonated his dead mother and collected more than $100,000 in benefits over a six year period?

By: sonic meat machine

sonic meat machine — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:33:03 -0800

SemiSophos, you might check out the movie Mishima, which had a score by Philip Glass. The entire movie has a strange, hallucinogenic quality—and the score certainly contributes to its feeling.

By: maxwelton

maxwelton — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:03:09 -0800

That made my night. (I was eating ice cream while watching it, too.) If there had been a Swedish airline hostess here serving grilled cheese I think my spirit would have left my body.

By: spiderskull

spiderskull — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:17:34 -0800

THIS IS DEBILITATINGLY EPIC.

By: spiderskull

spiderskull — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:24:14 -0800

I'm going to go ahead and give them a 9 1/2 for use of banjo. I'm going to go ahead and give them several hundred million billion googleplex points out of 10.

By: lalochezia

lalochezia — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:29:48 -0800

What if the fire coming from their heads was their souls aether flaring off like so much natural gas from an oilstrike and the Segways were in fact connected by huge rods to the center of the earth where a thousand armed creature was manipulating the rods, and the robes covered black and brown and yellow vortices through which different aspects of reality could be perceived, but we weren't ready to See Them so they had to remain robed and the instruments were powered by the puffing not of the monks but of the vaccum generated by the soul gas emenation and the small exhalations of the thousandarmed creature with her multiple mouths?

By: katillathehun

katillathehun — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:36:12 -0800

Awesomeness. That's what.

By: Super Hans

Super Hans — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:36:54 -0800

Wow, I have never debated so little with myself before clicking a link. I just knew. This is a thing I wanted to see. That was terrifically awesome.

By: shadytrees

shadytrees — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:50:55 -0800

Thus concludes this chapter of the internet. Take five, everybody. We'll start storyboarding the next chapter tomorrow.

By: eye of newt

eye of newt — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:56:39 -0800

This is awesome. Every marching/rolling band should have banjos and crazy brass instruments. In fact this is Dr Seuss come to life, rolling right out of the page.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:12:45 -0800

Reminded me of the menacing Santas in two Doctor Who Christmas specials .... and, uh, the Flaming Carrot. Ut!

By: Ritchie

Ritchie — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:16:38 -0800

What if the fire coming from their heads was... Well, I think it's pretty obvious that that's exactly how they did it, duh.

By: oozy rat in a sanitary zoo

oozy rat in a sanitary zoo — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:19:16 -0800

Metafilter: jaunty, melancholy and terrifying all at once.

By: blahblah

blahblah — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:29:24 -0800

Growing up as a little boy, I always imagined that Europeans were all like this.

By: slickvaguely

slickvaguely — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:44:34 -0800

definitely the best use of a Segway since Gob

By: mediareport

mediareport — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:50:13 -0800

Just beautiful.

By: darkstar

darkstar — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:15:07 -0800

There's no better prescription to cure the symptoms of existential ennui than seeing something like that right there. As you catch your breath, you realize that, no, you haven't quite seen all this little planetful of people has to show you, yet. Not by a long shot.

By: Jeff_Larson

Jeff_Larson — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:52:28 -0800

I love people.

By: memebake

memebake — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:57:27 -0800

How are they steering the Segways without using their arms?

By: undecided

undecided — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:16:20 -0800

Start the Sesame Street clip and then open the Beastmaster clip in a window in front of it with the sound off. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

By: ZenMasterThis

ZenMasterThis — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:22:47 -0800

Is it Burning Man time already?

By: mmoncur

mmoncur — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:32:24 -0800

So this is hereby elected "The one video clip to represent the entire country of France." Now to figure out what to assign to all of the other countries. Sorry, UK, you're already stuck with cheese rolling.

By: Megami

Megami — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:32:46 -0800

Thanks for explaining, with this clip, why the internet was invented.

By: nj_subgenius

nj_subgenius — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:42:43 -0800

the banjo really adds that homey twinkle.

By: spiderskull

spiderskull — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:49:30 -0800

Screw the internet, this is why monks were invented. And segways, probably.

By: maxwelton

maxwelton — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:02:21 -0800

Is this the official "10th" meetup costume?

By: mammary16

mammary16 — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:27:21 -0800

Glad to see this, since Segways usually just make me sad. Once, I almost had a job in the Segway industry. This was after college, when I had a brand spanking new English degree and an clean, empty resume. I was living at home with my parents. Desperate for work, I responded to a listing in Craigslist for a company offering Segway tours of the downtown area. Better yet, the company was two blocks away from my parent's house, so I could walk to work. My father helped me with the interview prep. I prepared a list of strategic questions about the industry - where do you see it in a few years? Is there room for personal growth? I then dressed up in an oversized suit and tie and walked to the house of the company's owner. Turns out it was a joint venture between him and his wife, who had recently left him. I would be taking the place of his wife, working in his basement as a coordinator of Segway tours. I asked him: "Where do you see the industry going in a few years?" and his answer, immediately, was "To be honest, this is just a fad, and will probably dry up by next summer." I looked around the room at all the posters of smiling tourists on Segways, next to all the pictures of his wife and daughter (both moved out) that crawled along the walls of his living room. After that I decided against the position and got a temp job changing slurry codes for Andy Capp's cheddar fries. Now I can't even look at a Slim Jim and every time I see a Segway I am reminded of broken dreams and broken homes.

By: Phanx

Phanx — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:47:57 -0800

I really think this may be the finest performance of its kind that I have ever seen.

By: acro

acro — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:49:23 -0800

15 months? Really, internet?

By: Jon-o

Jon-o — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:50:33 -0800

Their performance almost sounds more like Mr. Bungle than Philip Glass. That makes it even more awesome, somehow.

By: msconduct

msconduct — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:19:45 -0800

i can't access youtube at work, but this will be the first thing i do when i boot up at home this afternoon. rolling banjo bands of burning monks? playing phillip glass? maybe i'll go home for lunch.

By: Spatch

Spatch — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:21:39 -0800

Monks? Cool. On Segways? Interesting. With fire on the top of their heads? Awesome. Playing the works of Philip Glass? MetaFilter.

By: Mastercheddaar

Mastercheddaar — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:56:56 -0800

I understand monks playing Philip Glass. They have hobbies too. I can see the use of fire for them to see where they are going. They places are normally very spartan and don't have electricity. I can see the use of segways. It is an excellent way to jet around. BUT to add them altogether in a 5 minute youtube link is why Al Gore made the internet.

By: nebulawindphone

nebulawindphone — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:24:26 -0800

Steering a Segway hands-free between two trails of fire ought to count as some kind of absurdly slow-motion extreme sport.

By: orme

orme — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:54:14 -0800

As soon as I can figure out how they laid down those fiery tracks, I am definitely setting fire to the streets around town on my bike.

By: The Bellman

The Bellman — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:00:14 -0800

Screw the internet, this is why monks were invented. And segways, probably. And fire.

By: educatedslacker

educatedslacker — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:29:39 -0800

You had me at "Monks on Segways". The "with fire on the top of their heads" was the icing on the cake (which then melted due to the intense heat of the fire, but still, it was a damn good cake).

By: PuppyCat

PuppyCat — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:42:17 -0800

That's hot.

By: marginaliana

marginaliana — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:45:39 -0800

There are downsides to my usual method of reading mefi posts first and then clicking the link if the comments indicate it's worth doing so. Because I read the first couple of comments and then decided to click, and the video somehow wasn't at all what I was expecting. I was thinking it would be more active, somehow, more in your face. It took me a while to get into it, and I admit that for the first minute I was going "60 favorites, really?" But then it was like my brain let go of those preconceptions and I could enjoy it for what it was - subtle, melancholy, whimsical. And it is great.

By: educatedslacker

educatedslacker — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:12:25 -0800

It took me a while to get into it, and I admit that for the first minute I was going "60 favorites, really?" Cartman: No, see, this is the fundamental flaw with the check, check-plus, check-minus system!

By: scottatdrake

scottatdrake — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:19:24 -0800

I was waiting to see those robes burst into flames à la Andre the Giant in Princess Bride. Still pretty cool, though.

By: nushustu

nushustu — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:42:04 -0800

Was anybody else disappointed at first because they read the FPP as MONKEYS on Segways... Because I was. But the disappointment was short-lived, because it was still kick-ass.

By: mazola

mazola — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:07:25 -0800

Here's a link to the artist page. I don't see anything about being monks though.

By: mazola

mazola — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:25:42 -0800

Concept and technical design by Ulik (the mechanical clown). Ulik seems like an interesting guy.

By: aldus_manutius

aldus_manutius — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:37:08 -0800

MetaFilter:Monks on Segways No, seriously, this was just. Bizarre. In the just the right way. Does anyone know where in France this event took place?

By: small_ruminant

small_ruminant — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:41:44 -0800

this is definitely not what makes crop circles, its far too loud cazzanostra (9 hours ago) This is an excellent YouTube comment.

By: idiopath

idiopath — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:42:19 -0800

mazola: am I going to need a facebook account in order to see that link? Because I really don't want one, but I am interested in finding out more about the artist.

By: mazola

mazola — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:09:46 -0800

mazola: am I going to need a facebook account in order to see that link? Because I really don't want one, but I am interested in finding out more about the artist. Whoops. Meant to link this. It's just more YouTube schtick, but interesting in a street performer way.

By: memebake

memebake — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:47:26 -0800

Here are Glissendo playing a Michael Nyman's "Chasing Sheep" in Monaco

By: essband

essband — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:43:55 -0800

I don't comment often, more of a lurker, really, but thank you, geoff. and Metafilter. This is, indeed, what the intertubes are for.

By: msconduct

msconduct — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:54:32 -0800

i must admit, i fed the cats before i hit the link, but hit the link i did. beautiful concept, excellent execution, and i'm thinking i need to find me a bunch of segways for mardi gras next years. now i just need to learn to play the banjo.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:53:33 -0800

This is so much better than cops on Segways at O'Hare. It's even better than Chinese cops on Segways at the Olympics. Actually, that gives me an idea: Segways mounted with flamethrowers.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:55:07 -0800

I wasn't able to watch this until just now, but upon reading what it says on the can, I thought "This can only possibly be THE BEST THING EVER!" I was not disappointed.

By: orme

orme — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:28:13 -0800

Was anybody else disappointed at first because they read the FPP as MONKEYS on Segways... I copied and pasted this just for you, nushustu...

By: Elagabalus

Elagabalus — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:35:32 -0800

Monks on Segways, with fires on top of their heads, playing Kashmir by Led Zeppelin. And Erik Satie's Gymnopedie #1, plus other stuff I don't recognize. I wish I spoke french now.

By: lorenzlm

lorenzlm — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:13:45 -0800

For some reason I have a very strong memory of (robot?) monks in black robes gliding silently around, possibly even with fire on their heads. :-) (Not exactly black robes and not exactly with their heads on fire, but try 2:30 or 4:50, and of course the whole thing is worth watching.)