Alaskan Mirth

Here's a great story! Please enjoy the wonderfully playful and uplifting "cue card Hallelujah Chorus" video created by 5th graders at a small school in Quinhagak, Alaska (pop. 555) which went viral (as of today 475,000 hits) on YouTube in December. To tell the story a bit more succinctly than I can- here is a link to the Washington Examiner's story:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/opinion-zone/2010/12/flash-mob-hallelujah-chorus-alaska-style


Yes, you've basically seen this idea before -the "silent monks" with the cue cards spelling out the Halleujah chorus (not sure how this started actually and not sure the origin needs sleuthing out). But this top o' the world version is actually far more creative with the premise and so charming in its display of all the wonderful personalities of the people in the video. The young teacher who put this together, James Barthelman, was so creative in his approach and wound up doing something brilliantly outside the box by getting the whole village involved- and all of this tied to Mr. Handel's groovy score proves once again that our spirits can join, in this case through classical music, in a dizzyingly joyful, transcendent dance. Click the link to see the video if you haven't already:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyviyF-N23A


Can you imagine Handel's reaction if he were to see this? I can't help but to think that he would be smiling and laughing to the hilt, and amazed to see that his music had survived so many years and made it all the many miles to Alaska.

Kudos to James Barthelman, his school's students and the entire village.