We did it! We actually did it! Our lockdown video is finally live. Thank you Hannah Gray, Jane Griffiths, Colin Fletcher, Tracey Rimell, and Joshua Robson-Hemmings for contributing your talents on flute, fiddle, bass, vocals and guitar. This project kept me going and only occasionally drove me up the wall. I hope you enjoy it. If you do, why not share it with someone who has contributed to, and/or alleviated your lockdown grumpiness?
I was struggling to find the best way to celebrate the launch of our lockdown video. While I really enjoyed live streaming this summer for both FloFest and Folk Weekend Oxford, now that quarantine is easing and the weather is so beautiful I just can’t stomach making another date with a screen, however wonderful the humans at the other end of the fibre optic cables might be. I loved one Facebook friend’s suggestion of an outdoor live screening in a large public space. The logistics of making it happen, however, were more than I could face. So I asked myself: what do I have to hand that I like using, and which could be a conduit for some sort of positive emotion inspired by the by-no-means-world-historic but nonetheless important-to-me event of our video release? And my eye fell upon a humble pen.
Markers and paper have been very important in our household during this pandemic. Sometimes we doodle. Sometimes we make our own games. Sometimes we colour things in. Often while listening to a podcast, of an entertaining or educational nature. We especially like The Infinite Monkey Cage, You’re Dead to Me, This American Life, The Celtic Myths and Legends Podcast, Agatha Christie’s Poirot, and The Unbelieveable Truth.
So in celebration of the release of the Grumpy Lockdown video (9 pm BST on Thursday 6 August 2020), I offer you the printable below. Print out as many as you want. Give them to your children. Fill one in yourself. Fill in ten, each with a different colour scheme. Share the link with your parents and ask them to do the same. Put them in your window. Or use them as bedding for your new hamster. Whatever. But please, acknowledge the grumpiness and transcend it, with help from music, wry laughter and markers. At the very least you might distract yourself for a while.
Please do take a photo and send it to me through the magic of the internet. That would make my day.
samtwigg.net 