Skip to main content

Christmas Firsts #4 : Outer Space

"Santa sighted  in space" - WS 2017 
And today, just for something different in this line up of Christmas FIRSTS - The first song ever broadcast from outer space!
On 16 December, 1965,  that much loved Christmas carol ‘Jingle Bells” was the first song broadcast  in a “space” Christmas prank, performed by Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra, Gemini 6 astronauts as they were preparing to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
 …they sent this report to  Mission Control :
Gemini VII, this is Gemini VI. We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, up in a polar orbit. He's in a very low trajectory travelling from north to south and has a very high climbing ratio. It looks like it might even be a ... Very low. Looks like he might be going to reenter soon. Stand by one ... You might just let me try to pick up that thing.
The astronauts then produced a smuggled harmonica and sleigh bells and broadcast a rendition of "Jingle Bells.    (from Wikipedia)  And here is the recording at Jingle Bells from Gemini 6. 


This was the first recorded musical performance in space but certainly not the  most famous... 

One of the best tributes to  David Bowie (and appropriate, given his stratospheric reach) is Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield’s stirring rendition of the singer’s 1969 single “Space Oddity,” recorded on board the International Space Station (ISS) in 2013. Hadfield’s video of the performance made history as the  first musical recording in space and has been viewed on YouTube almost 28 million times.
Chris Hadfield - Space Oddity at International Space Station. 
And on this fourth day of Advent with thoughts of Christmas carols in space, I wish you all "Peace on Earth " this festive season. 
PS : Did you know that Jingle Bells was originally written to be sung  at Thanksgiving, and was never meant to have anything to do with Christmas? It is now the song most associated with Christmas? 

Sources : https://www.theverge.com/2016/1/11/10749622/david-bowie-space-oddity-chris-hadfield-cover-memoriam
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingle_Bells
 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading my blog and please share your thoughts about my blog post by leaving a comment.Your comment won't appear immediately as comments are verified before publication in an effort to reduce the amount of spam appearing. Anonymous comments will not be published.

Popular posts from this blog

Stitched Faces

I   've always enjoyed that imperfect line of  "not quite in control' free motion machine stitching....  I think it really suits creating portraits , giving them some character and even a quirkiness that hints of personality plus.  These ones below are from my " Red Cheeks" series from a couple of years ago, and are amongst my favourite stitched portraits.  The current Stitch Club ( textileartist.org) workshop, by  Batool Showghi has inspired me to stitch more this week. Batool , of course, is in complete control of her machine stitching and her works are exquisite and they tell a moving story.  ... " Working with paper, print, paint and stitch, her textile art bears witness to displacement, silenced women and the damage that authoritarian regimes impose on ordinary lives. Batool’s mixed media wall pieces are incredibly striking, but her artist books truly set her apart. Printed imagery of family photographs, birth certificate documents and her o...
Post a Comment
Read more

A spider sandwich for lunch?

Close -up of the base of "witch with sticks' art doll   Did you know that if you were a witch, eating a spider sandwich could give you special powers? Rosemary Ellen Guiley says in her  Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft, and Wicca  that in some traditions of folk magic, a black spider “eaten between two slices of buttered bread” will imbue a witch with great power. If you’re not interested in eating spiders, some traditions say that catching a spider and carrying it in a silk pouch around your neck will help prevent illness... So, while creating my art doll witch, a spider was always there amongst the drawings and plans. rough drawing of an idea for the base of the doll    I rarely take photos during the process of making a doll, only because I get so engaged in the making I forget to take a photo at each step of the way . I am not entirely comfortable creating witches, so I took a few photos of my process....  when I remembered.... sc...
1 comment
Read more

Lilly Pilly

Today is Australia Day. I chose a photo of some Lilly Pilly berries as a celebratory image for this national day. Lilly Pilly is  a common name for a plant, Syzygium smithii which grows mostly in Eastern Australia, from the northern  rain forests of Queensland, throughout NSW to the southern Wilson's Promontory in Victoria. In New Zealand it is called "monkey apple, but other names used in Australia, besides lilly pilly, are Eungella Gum and Coast Satinash. The largest Lilly Pilly recorded was found in Dingo Creek Flora Reserve, near Tenterfield where I once lived.  The tree now growing in my garden was once a small seedling which I was gifted when I left Woolgoolga, a small coastal town in northern NSW. Its name  is said to come from the Aboriginal word 'weelgoolga' describing the lilly pilly which grows in profusion there. It is probably no surprise that the lilly pilly berries are edible as bush tucker, and make a beautiful jam or jelly. I have even seen re...
Post a Comment
Read more