On Friday night some friends and I went to watch Chicago. After a scurry to find the theatre underestimating the amount of time it takes to get anywhere in London, I sat down out of breath to hopefully the first of many West End experiences in the new London chapter of my life.
Nothing quite beats the energy of live performances. I have blogged before about how the digital world has made things that can be reproduced virtually free, and how I think this is good even if whole old world industries are destroyed. What you can't replace is flesh and blood theatre, sport, friendships and experiences. The digital world enhances by spreading the ideas, getting people to pick up the phone, sparking conversations and generating energy. But nothing replaces live performance.
I was the only person who saw what I saw on Friday. As I watched, my eyes would wander around the spectacle focusing on different actors faces. My thoughts would wander remembering experiences with friends that were sparked. My friend sitting next to me and I would laugh and celebrate fun scenes by throwing our hands up in the air and going 'Yay!'... an 'internal joke' from New Years eve where random things were cause for celebration. Each actors performance would have been slightly different from any other night they had performed. The mistake(s) that were made, made it that much more real.
The world is changing and fast. We are replacing books with ebooks, paper with bits, and recording every piece of literature, audio and visual works in 1s and 0s.
But I think it is wrong to think that that will ever replace human interaction. I think that it will spur more interaction, deeper relationships and a vibrant burst of ideas.
Exciting Times
oh... and happy birthday to me ;-)
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