Last night, Steph and I went to one of her friends’ birthday parties.  She was turning 50 and wanted it to be a memorable occasion — it definitely was.  She had the Marching Cobras come in and perform.  They’re spectacular.  At one point in the evening, the members ran up and grabbed everyone and had us dance with them.  Invigorating and delightful.  At the end, the girl who tugged us into the dancing beat hugged Steph and I and said “thank you so much.”  If you ever get the chance to see them, do. 

I had this funny feeling of coordinated choas while watching them.  Take a look at the video below and you can see for yourself.  Everyone is sort of doing their own thing, but together it is tighly coordinated.  Hard to explain….  If you watched one person doing it, it wouldn’t necessarily be very impressive.  Together, it’s amazing. 

The African-American marching band is fairly famous…it’s made up of young and old, thin and heavyset, and men, women and children.  It was like watching something happen that is simultaneously old and tribal and yet novel and urban.  Did I mention it was spectacular?  Click on the link above to go to their home page.  If you click through the link to YouTube, you can see more videos of them.  Here’s a video to see (though dimly) what they’re like performing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyS2z_QlE0Q

On an additional note, I found this video a couple of days ago.  It’s been inspiring to me and I get chills every time I watch it (which is often, at least once a day since I’ve found it).  There’s a lot of hope I feel when I watch…sadness, too.  I wonder how long the locales Matt dances in will be there, and at the same time, I marvel in the wonder and diversity there is in the world.  We miss out when we think the American Experience is the cumulation of humanity.

This has opened up a deep longing, and at the same time, a deep satisfaction in me….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkh5opBp6K4