When are candles not candles? When they’re pretending, of course!
So, the story.
We got a phone call, the nearest-and-dearest’s firstest daughter..Bill! How was the concert?
Here I was, caught short, only because I always try to pass her in to her mumsy, and that seems to take presidence over having a natter..so, a word popped into the noggin..magnificent! Duly reported..so, down the track, that got me thinking. Bad habit, yes I know..magnificent..yes, it was. Not every day I can sit down and be entertained by live musos, and even rarer, the violin and double bass variety. The man on the night made a point of saying..you (lot/mob) might think that we’re classical musicians..but tonight that isnt true..this is a Whitney Housten tribute performance, and she was jazz through and through.
I did think..aargh…at the time..oh goodie..singing too!. Um..not the case, sadly! I am not well versed in her songs without vocals..one or two were familiar, though..we had humming from all around, and a Someone down the back knew the words..
yaas, candles!

Hundreds of them. Was a billed as a Candlelight concert, after all. All the same type, different sizes, as in some looked to be shorter than others…more authentic looking. I got to thinking..another aaargh..we are subjected to an ad on the capitalistic tv, whereby a candle sets alight a curtain..the girl panics..then we freeze frame, the saviour from one of the many insurance mobs materialises, closes the window, and negates the whole thing. Same saviour winds back a trip, resulting in a nasty scratch in a wall, by removing a shoe that was tripped over, negates the whole thing..oh, ten minutes later, maybe..
Yes. So we take another look at these candles.

The flame is actually a wee mirror on a pivot, reflecting light from underneath, wobbling around, and must be a battery/power source and lightglobe type of affair underneath…theres air movement, but the flicker is not regular/synchronised, so a fan of sorts down there as well. So, draping flammeable curtains over these candles doesn’t present a problem! Spilling isnt an issue, either. Klever! Concert wasn’t that long..and I didn’t see a single candle that was unlit..ie, flat battery, so the electronics was impressive, eh. Another possibility would have been wires connecting them all..a bit tricky I would have thought, or fibreoptic cable, more trickier. Didn’t see any connecting bits and pieces, however. Hmm! much food for thought! Last but not least..in one of these circus type shows, years ago, there was a guy put an ordinary looking fluoro tube up to his mouth..and the fluoro turned on! Answer was…to all accounts, you direct a stream of electrons/darth vader ray or whatever at the fluoro, and the fluoroscent coating in the tube is activated….yaas, using this method, the whole hall full of people would have been irradiated…somehow I don’t think so!