SOUNDTRACK: BENNY SINGS-Tiny Desk Concert #501 (January 15, 2016).
Benny Sings is a Dutch singer songwriter. I had never heard of him, and no wonder, this was apparently his first performance in the United States. And “this is also where he performed with background vocalist Jennah Bell for the first time.”
The blurb says that he layers R&B, jazz and pop over hip-hop foundations. Although the first of two songs, “Love” is just him on the piano. For the second song “Beach House,” he busts out the drum machine. But it still comes across as an orchestra pop song (maybe like slower Elton John).
It’s all fine, but nothing special.
According to my records, this was the 500th Tiny Desk Concert. And if you count all of the concerts on their Tiny Desk Page, it tallies up to 500 today. But I know that they are planning something big for #500. So I don’t quite know what to think.
[READ: January 14, 2016] “Learning to Fly Part 3”
Part three of this story (see, I said it wouldn’t be too long before I continued with it) is all about the landing. Ferris explains that the landing has always been the hardest part for him. He managed turns and banks and rises and everything else, but frankly, had his teacher not been there he would have died dozens of times with bad landings.
He says that as you slowly (or quickly) sink towards the ground, your instinct is to pull up away from it, which is exactly what you shouldn’t do.
This particular part of the essay doesn’t have a lot of flying details in it, because most of it is taken up with his fears about his poor landings. Although the way Ferris tells of the time he easily should have died from not slowing down is pretty harrowing and exciting–how is his instructor so calm?
He sums up landing though you need patience when things are most hurried, composure when things are most fraught. You need focus when your attention is most scattered. You need a light touch on the controls when the urge to yank hard and pull them off the panel is at it strongest.
Then he describes all of the things that his instructor appears to be doing at once to land the plane:
He was descending, turning the yoke, applying back pressures, lowering the flaps, adjusting the trim, peddling the rudder, adding power, nosing down–all more or less simultaneously.
Ferris swears that he will quit. He cannot land the damned plane. His wife will be pleased that he has quit ans she is terrified of him crashing. But he knows that he will likely not quit–because it’s a challenge and any tough challenge is one you want to quit hundreds of times but which you never do,
But for his final lesson, he was going to go up once more and then quit. “And that was the day I had my first perfect landing.”
Great cliffhanger
The final part comes next.
