Well, what a day! I woke up at 8:50am. What a horrendous time to be awake! Still, after picking up Jay and a short drive we were at our Leeds Youth Opera rehearsal - a regular fixture for us nowadays.
The reheasal finished at 12:15, so then it was back to Huddersfield, pausing only to change into a different top before heading down to Jay’s to complete the mixing on the Olive Branch tracks we’ve been recording over the last few months. I finished around midnight and, after ascertaining that Jay wasn’t going to be back from his rehearsal for quite some time, I decided to head on home, taking keys with me so that I can get back in and hand over the tracks tomorrow.
So, up to that point I’d been up around 15 hours. I then came home, ate a very yummy meal that Cinders had made for me - beef medallion with dauphinoise potatoes, and apple crumble with custard to finish. My gods, am I full now.
And for the last couple of hours I’ve been catching up on the week’s TV online - one of the things I watched was that Derren Brown thing where he stuck lots of people to their seats. I wasn’t fixed to the spot, per se, but I felt a lot of heaviness on my thighs, and when I tried to get up my mind did a weird “I can get up, but I can’t be arsed” reaction.
“Go on,” I willed my mind.
“Oh, alright then…”
So with much effort I managed to stand up, and was stood for about three seconds, but there was so much tension in my thighs I had to sit back down again. Then it was quite clear it was just going to be much easier to sit and watch the rest of the show. What a ratings boost this show must have got! Sure enough, when the release tone was played, after a second or two the tension in my legs was relieved and I was able to stand up without a problem.
It was a pretty cool trick - I watched the segment again, and sure enough more powerful results this time (perhaps because I knew what to expect, or was more suggestible than usual). I did notice, though, that he was actually hypnotising the audience long enough before the film was played. I don’t really want to reveal more about it, as some people might not have seen it yet and I don’t want to spoil the effect of it. Suffice it to say, though, that Derren Brown is a very clever man indeed - Jay dubbed his talent as ‘sleight of mind’, and I think that describes it perfectly.
If anyone’s interested, I’m writing an hour-long piece of hypnotic music at the moment; it’s slow going, but it’ll be worth it when it’s done.
Goodnight for now, blogosphere.
~PLUR~
