I recently went to a concert for a singer called Jonsi, who is the lead singer for an Iceland band called Sigur Ros. They are a really great band, one of the most popular postmodern-rock band in the world right now, so it was really great to see him live in concert. When I see them on the stage, his voice and music really touched me a lot. Throughout the concert, there are many images of nature and life, of stars and skies, it was very lovely and artistic. As the concert went on, the beautiful images turned into the destruction of the forest and nature, being cut down or burned to the ground because of the human greed. They are like fairy or spirits who came out from the forest who came out to sing, to tell us their stories. I closed my eyes and feel the music filling me up, touching every part of my bones, feeling their pain and struggling. I wanted to cry.
At the very end of the concert, they ended with a very powerful song that sounded like a big thunderstorm and the singer was singing in the middle of it, the image of it is like he is a big big storm and chaos and running in the middle of it, shouting and yelling for help with all his might, but no one was listening in the world. It was so sad, so lonely, but yet so powerful. It is like the prophets in the wild where no one is listening. There is a documentary film done a couple of years ago called “Screaming Masterpiece”, exploring why there are so many great music coming out of Iceland, people like Bjork, Mum, Sigur Ros. I think it is really because these people are just surrounded by the great nature around them, they see the beautiful scenery everyday, in touch with the Earth and the animals, that it was able to inspired them to do the great music. There is a recent documentary called “Dreamland” from hotdocs, looking at how Iceland is the only country in the world that have the ice glaciers, volcano, many waterfalls and great mountains all in one. One looking at the place will see the many wonders of God’s creativity. But because the country is in great economic trouble, big corporations who only cared about profits and are taking advantage of that and go into build many projects, taking these natural resources, raping the earth. I get really angry and heartbroken at the sight of that. I get even more upset when these issues are not voices out or discussed when a lot of people today are so self-absorbed in their own needs, thinking it is not their problem. Things like poverty or education or human trafficking, all contribute to a larger problem like natural disaster, famine, terroristism that no one can escape. How can we be more aware of these issues? And is it to naive to think that a small group of people can have an impact against the big countries and corporations?
Jonsi - GO DO Video on Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6HjT4SQKJI
