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Sunday, March 20, 2005
live life live
at the last minute (well, not really, like 4 hours before) i opted out of camp reunion and went to the Kiyoshi Nagata Ensemble and GaPa concert. I'm so glad i went, for a number of reasons. firstly, when did UTSC become so spiffy?? When I played vball there a few years ago, i remember it being a homely looking campus, with dingy lockers painted in that depressing 70s colour scheme lit by flickering fluorescent lights. It's now been transformed into a sleek and glassy set of buildings including a comfy theatre and brightly lit student centre. nice job UT. It still feels like a high school, but like, way nicer man. totally.
Secondly, at the concert, i ran into the most random assortment of acquaintances: Gideon from Tomo's concert, Terasawa-san and Kishibe-sensei. so random!! i luv it!
Finally, the music. Nothing beats seeing live music. I quietly delighted in watching and recognizing those first tentative moments before the first notes are played, when the audience and players feel each other out, eyes squinting in the sudden burst of light and heat, both sides gauging the vibe of the other, the air prickling with anticipation. loooove it. GaPa opened first (Ga is from Ganesh, Pa from Patrick). I wasn't quite sure what to expect-some kind of neo-Asian percussive music? whatever that means. It turns out GaPa aims to create neo-Asian percussive music, by combining traditional instruments in less formalized structures (i.e. taking instruments out of their religious/ceremonial functions). They used mostly small drums shaped like chinese steamers, a cool Arabian tambourine, a small acoustic instrument that sounded like a didjeridu but looked like the size of a harmonica, all played with virtuoustic finger technique. I had the good fortune to be sitting behind an older member of academia (i'm guessing this since he seemed to know lots of the "reserved seating" people) and his mother. They loooved GaPa, bopping their heads and shaking their shoulders to every note that punctured the air. it was so cute =) i think it was about the second or third piece which was a collaboration with the taiko drummers and GaPa that the pair seemed to be on the edge of a Dionysian outburst-their bodies twisting and lifting in delight.
And then there was the taiko. i was pretty excited to see them play, as it was my first encounter with taiko since japan and wanted to see if my reaction to it had changed. the 5 members of the Nagata ensemble strode out in their purple happi coats near the tail end of GaPa's second piece and took their places in the centre of the stage. they began singing an old-folk song which was beautiful...just the strength of the woman's solo being supported during the chorus by the rest of the members. rice fields and blue skies. i was feeling a bit shaky near the end of it-like my heart felt very full- and then they started drumming. within the first six or seven beats my heart just... broke or something and i started crying. ever since i was a kid, listening to taiko at the bazaars and matsuris at the old JCCC, standing on that old parquet floor and feeling the drum beats shuddering within my body, taiko has always moved me for some inexplicable reason. but this time i think hearing the drumming again reminded me of osaka and all of my memories tied up with that place, including how it felt to create music and just the joy of that process.
God, I miss... a lot of things, including taiko. But unfortunately taking it up again is not an option right now. In the meantime, it's up to me to find the time to create and give my time to others. Sigh. What to do.
I did manage to stop crying though =) phew. And their guest was a guy with a hurdy-gurdy, which basically sounds like a mix between bagpipes and a violin. The effect alternates from unnerving (think nails on blackboard) to soothing (think Enya). All in all, it was a good night.
at the last minute (well, not really, like 4 hours before) i opted out of camp reunion and went to the Kiyoshi Nagata Ensemble and GaPa concert. I'm so glad i went, for a number of reasons. firstly, when did UTSC become so spiffy?? When I played vball there a few years ago, i remember it being a homely looking campus, with dingy lockers painted in that depressing 70s colour scheme lit by flickering fluorescent lights. It's now been transformed into a sleek and glassy set of buildings including a comfy theatre and brightly lit student centre. nice job UT. It still feels like a high school, but like, way nicer man. totally.
Secondly, at the concert, i ran into the most random assortment of acquaintances: Gideon from Tomo's concert, Terasawa-san and Kishibe-sensei. so random!! i luv it!
Finally, the music. Nothing beats seeing live music. I quietly delighted in watching and recognizing those first tentative moments before the first notes are played, when the audience and players feel each other out, eyes squinting in the sudden burst of light and heat, both sides gauging the vibe of the other, the air prickling with anticipation. loooove it. GaPa opened first (Ga is from Ganesh, Pa from Patrick). I wasn't quite sure what to expect-some kind of neo-Asian percussive music? whatever that means. It turns out GaPa aims to create neo-Asian percussive music, by combining traditional instruments in less formalized structures (i.e. taking instruments out of their religious/ceremonial functions). They used mostly small drums shaped like chinese steamers, a cool Arabian tambourine, a small acoustic instrument that sounded like a didjeridu but looked like the size of a harmonica, all played with virtuoustic finger technique. I had the good fortune to be sitting behind an older member of academia (i'm guessing this since he seemed to know lots of the "reserved seating" people) and his mother. They loooved GaPa, bopping their heads and shaking their shoulders to every note that punctured the air. it was so cute =) i think it was about the second or third piece which was a collaboration with the taiko drummers and GaPa that the pair seemed to be on the edge of a Dionysian outburst-their bodies twisting and lifting in delight.
And then there was the taiko. i was pretty excited to see them play, as it was my first encounter with taiko since japan and wanted to see if my reaction to it had changed. the 5 members of the Nagata ensemble strode out in their purple happi coats near the tail end of GaPa's second piece and took their places in the centre of the stage. they began singing an old-folk song which was beautiful...just the strength of the woman's solo being supported during the chorus by the rest of the members. rice fields and blue skies. i was feeling a bit shaky near the end of it-like my heart felt very full- and then they started drumming. within the first six or seven beats my heart just... broke or something and i started crying. ever since i was a kid, listening to taiko at the bazaars and matsuris at the old JCCC, standing on that old parquet floor and feeling the drum beats shuddering within my body, taiko has always moved me for some inexplicable reason. but this time i think hearing the drumming again reminded me of osaka and all of my memories tied up with that place, including how it felt to create music and just the joy of that process.
God, I miss... a lot of things, including taiko. But unfortunately taking it up again is not an option right now. In the meantime, it's up to me to find the time to create and give my time to others. Sigh. What to do.
I did manage to stop crying though =) phew. And their guest was a guy with a hurdy-gurdy, which basically sounds like a mix between bagpipes and a violin. The effect alternates from unnerving (think nails on blackboard) to soothing (think Enya). All in all, it was a good night.
// posted by naomi @ 4:38 p.m. 
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Wow. maybe I should have gone. I was mostly put off by the sc, which I later discovered appended to UT. I had no idea how to get there by public transportation. And by the fact that you said you weren't going. ;P
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