I found myself stuck in a rabbit hole...
It’s weird how it happened…
All it took was a single video to make me fall deep down a rabbit hole. The result was amazing! Let me backup a little so you can really understand what happened.
You see, one night I just happened to be meandering my way through YouTube--you know those nights. The ones where you aren't really looking for anything, but always looking for something. Where one video leads to another which leads to another and suddenly it's 2am and you realize you forgot to eat dinner but are thankful for the tub of Moose Tracks that you happened to grab during an ad break. Okay, I didn't have any Moose Tracks that night. I, thankfully, remembered to enjoy the delicious ratatouille that I had made earlier that evening, full of summer squash and carrots and.... oh sorry... Where was I... Oh yes. YouTube. It's addictive, am I right?
On this particular night, I started with a Pomplamoose video called We turned “Beautiful People” into a musical. I thought, "well, I love Pomplamoose, and I love musicals. So what could go wrong?" Quick summary--nothing did. The video is GREAT and I probably watched it five or six times in a row. I love watching the incredible musicianship: the arrangement they came up with, the way they all interacted with each other, the behind the scenes… plus the whole song was beautifully rendered. And more than that, they did it in 24 hours!! Wow! If you aren't familiar with Pomplamoose, you'll want to check them out. They produce a new music video every week, and they are incredible. Here, I'll just show you...
BUT NOW WE GET TO THE RABBIT HOLE PART...
Did you notice the flock of artists in the Pomplamoose video? Well, I was hooked. After watching the video over and over and over (5 or 6 times, remember?), I decided I needed to dig deeper into these artists. When you see something that good, you can't NOT explore it!
That's how I first met Ali Spagnola. (Okay, we didn't "meet" that night, but after watching all of her videos, I felt like I knew her! I'll get to our "meeting" a bit later.) I spent an embarrassing amount of time being absolutely floored by Ali's ability to reimagine all kinds of music into what you would swear were absolutely impossible versions. For example, take Lewis Capaldi's "Someone You Loved", one of the most heart-wrenching songs of the last decade, and try to imagine what it would sound like if it was actually recorded by the 1990s Euro Pop group, Aqua. It can't be done. There is no way such an upbeat, exciting, and happy group (literally ALL of their songs make you want to get up and dance around the room fist-pumping the air) could ever conceivably record such an incredibly sad tear-jerker of a song. Ali happily accepted the challenge, using her incredible musical skills to make it happen. She explains the whole process in a hilariously inviting way... here, check it out for yourself:
(Careful... you, too, might be on your way down the rabbit hole. I'll just see you at the other end.)
SO, THAT'S ALI...
...a freakishly talented, funny, and gifted musician and, me being me, I immediately thought the next logical step—Ali is missing something. She already plays keyboard, drums, saxophone, cowbell, vocals..... She needs a harp!. So, out of the blue, I sent her an email. Basically, I told her how awesome she is and how I'm incredibly in awe at her disgustingly ridiculous talent. We worked to get this incredible YouTube influencer her perfect harp - a white Fullsicle™ Harp with her blue and green eye-catching "Outrageous O" logo on the soundboard. We sent her the harp. Before we even had a chance to check in with her after it arrived, she did the incredible and impossible. Having NEVER played a harp before, and only having the harp for what could have been mere days, Ali published her next video... featuring the harp!!! And my oh my, it is good.
SO THERE YOU HAVE IT.
I would now like to formally introduce you to our newest Harpsicle® Harps Sponsored Artist. And she is Outrageously talented... right?!?
Now that you know her and are hooked (I know you are), head over to her YouTube and Patreon and follow her with me. We’ll all be Best Pal-ys together!
Happy Harping!
Pamela Rees