Saturday, March 26, 2011

ASL and Music

When I was about 12 my best friend was named David. His mother was deaf, completely deaf. She was able to talk...with that monotone way deaf people talk. And when she got pissed! Whoo! Look out. Well, I loved her. She was just plain cool. And, I had a crush on her son, so that helped. One day we had the ghetto blaster on....that's what we called it then. Hey, it was cool - then. And, we were blasting it. Well, David's Mom finally got our attention and the hands began to fly. I had no idea she would haved a problem with the loud music as I didn't think she'd notice. That was one of the fun aspects of playing at David's house; we could scream and laugh all we wanted and no one cared. Unfortunately for us, she could feel vibrations and I guess we had the whole house shaking. Oops. So, both she and David were talking in ASL, hands flying and he was trying to translate as fast as he could. The jist of it: what was the awful racket that was shaking her house down? This was it - Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. She made him sign the whole song and both of us to sing it...mostly for comic relief, I'm sure as we danced along. But, from that point on I fell in love with the use of ASL and music, especially with someone who is a talented dancer. The expression and emotion that can be conveyed through ASL and dance is phenomenal. It takes understanding, of course, to get the full effect. It's been so long, I have forgotten most of what I knew through lack of use. I only know one sign, it's universal though :) I have a couple other songs in here for the heck of it. I loved the movie "Mr. Holland's Opus", and here is the clip from that. Also, I love Sarah McLaughlin's voice....can't spell her name, tho.