Lauren Wilson

Recent Posts by Lauren Wilson

Musical Recycling: Paraguayan Youth Turn Landfill Trash Into an Orchestra (Video)

landfill_harmonicIf you close your eyes as Juan Manuel Chavez plays the prelude from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, it would sound like any other instrument from your average music shop. However, open them and you’d see the 19-year-old’s cello is actually composed of an oil drum, wood and old kitchen tools — all recycled trash. That’s because where Chavez comes from, a real violin is worth more than a house.

The first teaser for the marvelous-looking documentary “Landfill Harmonic” is making the rounds online. It centers on a “recycled orchestra” in Cateura, Paraguay, that uses instruments fashioned by impoverished slum residents.

Check out their heartwarming story in this trailer:


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Moore’s Law means that more and more things can be done practically for free, if only it weren’t for those people who want to be paid. People are the flies in Moore’s Law’s ointment. When machines get incredibly cheap to run, people seem correspondingly expensive.

— From Jaron Lanier’s new book, “Who Owns the Future?” excerpted on Wired.com