Monday, 15 December 2008

Repetitive music

Altough we seem to be having a private discussion with nanaimo :) showing how activity is at an all-time low, here is some stuff related to my latest cultural endeavours to amuse you in case you have some time off the celebrations!

Most of the things I've seen seem to be focused on repetitiveness - I sware it is a concidence. The first is the 1000-year-old Korean Court Rituals - it sounded more modern that I have ever imagined (a bit like Bartók, actually). Besides the funny instruments (like the back of a wooden tiger) and spectacular costumes, the whole thing was a rather nice surprise music-wise as well. Here is a really good description by a korean girl (unfortunately in French, but please check out the pics and video!) Although the sample has singing in it, which, in my opinion, makes it weird in a way, it gives a good idea about the style.

The second is a dance, also partly Asian-related, done with shaolin monks - it is inventive and very enjoyable, take a look youself: (and maybe watch the "rehearsal" videos, they are interesting, too).



And the third one ...is also a dance! With some performance (because of i, it will always mean "naked man pissing in a glass" to me but never mind :-D) . Here , it was a "poem" by Ligeti, on 100 metronomes. You can listen to here (if you are veryvery brave) but the funniest thing was, most people did not even realise that it was part of the play - they though it was a break and others needed to shush them after a while.... There was also dance, of course: for "Phases" the idea is that the two girls are dancing the same thing (just like the two pianos play the same tune) but because of some very minor difference , their dance/music will become de-phased. Hm. Another version here.

Question of the day: do you like repetitive things? I though I would hate them forever but I actually enjoy it more and more. Dementia? Old age?

Wednesday, 10 December 2008

Advent, winter depression and doing good


Hi,
It's me again...
We are well within the advent and religious or not, I think this time of the year is special for everyone: we are preparing for the big event of Christmas Eve.

This year I hate the commercial side of the holiday more than ever. I just heard that at the opening of the grand christmas sale at Wal-Mart (the not fair trade, not fair employer but cheap store-line) the door-opener person was killed by the pushing crowd. At 5am.
I started to be more conscius about what else to do with Christmas in mind. I am concentrating on home-made gifts, environmental friendly decorations and such, but today I found a very simple idea: do something good every day. Every day. Sounds more like christmas spirit to me.
It might be hard, don't you think? Even if it's not a big thing, and not necessarily done for strangers (ocassionally you can be good to your beloved ones too :)).
On the other hand, I can imagine that it might help to ease winter depression too.
Also, that would be a thing to aim for the next year, all year round. Can it be habit-forming? The coming New Years Eve I may have something to promis myself. Let's see how persistent I can be.
Ps. the question mark above was done by a snail at the beach of Tofino.