BRAAANNNG! Updated on 18 March 2021
There s a fascinating moment in Disney s Fantasia where Deems Taylor invites the soundtrack onto the centre stage. This is the flickering line that carries the movie s audio, and with Disney s animators in charge it starts to ripple and splatter as music rushes through it. Spirograph curls and lily pads drifting across the surfaces of ponds, writing their own wakes. And then it s over and back to the main event.
I haven t seen Fantasia in about 30 years, but I still think of that moment every time I bend my head forward, which is quite often, all things considered. When I bend my head forward, I get a blast of energy rushing down my spine. It s a friendly thing for me, a warm jolt, but as it burns out in my ankles, I almost see that dispersing, collapsing wave rush of the Fantasia soundtrack. It s a symptom - in my case of a lesion on the spine, highly indicative of multiple sclerosis - but it s almost a musi