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Sunday, April 16, 2006

Q: A song for the chocolate factory after dark?


Easter is the focal point of the year if you are a) a chicken, b) a christian, or c) work in a chocolate factory, where you're on crazy overtime, hands deep in the brown delight until Good Friday. Then the factories shut down, the chimnies cool, and the great conveyor belts of pralines and cream-filled eggs and molded bunnies come to a screeching, hesitant stop. And the lights go out.
Imagine breaking in. Imagine walking along the great belts, dipping fingers into vats, turning on the lights, and putting a song on the PA, to fill the halls while you dance and try and taste. What would it be?
My choice, and I admit that it's a rather obvious one (ha, but not the most obvious, see footnote), is the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, a sweet and suitably creepy piece of music. And on a particular twisted night I would even go for the Portsmouth Sinfonia's rendition of the same (from Portsmouth Sinfonia Plays..., 1973, out of print). This now defunct orchestra was founded on the idea of harnessing the raw energy of people with no or little experience on their respective instruments, and combining them with some seasoned players who knew what the music was roughly supposed to sound like. Boasting a pre-Roxy Music Brian Eno and film composer Michael Nyman among its players, it was quickly and rightfully billed as the world's worst orchestra, but it worked. At least in curdling all the chocolate factory's milk, and shaking loose all its sugar-crusted bolts.
Here it is, and remember to turn out all the lights when you're done ...

A: Portsmouth Sinfonia - Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

(and as a bonus, the more obvious choices would be something from the original Willie Wonka's factory, like The Candyman, or an initially creepy, then strangely wonderful Gene Wilder singing 'Pure Imagination'.
A: Gene Wilder - Pure Imagination)

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