Sunday, December 21, 2008
Hallelujah, Core, Us
My religious views to the contrary, I love choral music and Christmas carols. In high school I was in the Acappella Choir, singing religious music with gusto, because the harmonies thrilled me. (I was in a few musicals, too, in high school and college, playing the gamut from Pore Jud to Sir Joseph Porter KCB to Conrad Birdie.) Get a caroling group together, and I'm there (used to be, more accurately), baritoning or bassing my way from porch to porch, harmonizing my ass off. Testing my wife's tolerance (of me, not of the songs), I'll belt it out in the car, too, any time a good carol comes on.
One time, at the old County Hospital in San Francisco (long since torn down and replaced), where I cut my teeth and the skin of others, the night OR crew included several who'd been in choirs, and we managed pretty much all parts as we sang The Hallelujah Chorus while I attended to the latest trauma case. In that ancient OR of the amphitheater variety, with its tile walls and high ceiling, it sounded like a church! I wondered if the poor guy on whom we were operating might have heard through his anesthetic fog and thought he was being welcomed to heaven. Probably would have surprised him, since he'd been shot by the cops while committing some heinous crime or other.
In any case, as good as we thought we sounded, it probably was nothing like the above girl group, giving it a whole new twist.
(And from the other side of the universe, there's this.)
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Thats one nice thing about the South, Sid, no annoying Carolers going through the Neighborhood ruining your enjoyment of the last 2 minutes of NFL Football. We like our Carols the old fashioned way, with Dogs barking Jingle Bells, or maybe even Elvis...And unless you're Neil Diamond or Mick Jagger, Men should only sing in the Shower...Happy Hanukkah anyways,
ReplyDeleteFrank
Loved the Leonard Cohen, brother.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely one of a kind, is he. Great song.
ReplyDeleteAgreed on the Leonard Cohen - seems like every mainstream medical TV show today has used it in the obligatory 'memorable patient dying' episode, too.
ReplyDeleteAh, Sid....I was a notorious O.R. singer, too, with the frequent dancing. Heck, I do it pretty much everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI worked with an Ortho Doc who was a huge Jimmy Buffett fan. During those endless trauma cases, Jimmy kept us going and we had quite the sing-alongs. Good times.
Loved the Cohen song, always have and I find it interesting that you posted the link.
Here's a Cohen quote. It suits you.
"It's, as I say, a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal religious way but with enthusiasm, with emotion.... It's a rather joyous song." ~ Leonard Cohen
Now, if you'd been singing Dylan and "Knock Knock Knocking on Heaven's Door," that might have been something else entirely. The Hallelujah chorus, the thug probably thought you were singing his praises. Funny image either way--thanks!
ReplyDeleteOkay, Sid, found this for you:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hospitalgowns.com/Buy_Cap_Pages/A0266c.htm A surgeon's cap with a jazzy riff on piano keys. Cool.
Cool hat, Allison. Definitely the key to a happy OR.
ReplyDelete