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Flirt with Wadaiko Taiko Drums

Taiko (太鼓) or Wadaiko (和太鼓) means “drum/wide drum” in Japanese and the taiko drumming ensemble is known as Kumi-daiko (組太鼓)

I was blown away with Tao Drum – Samurai of the Drum performance at the Palms@Crown.

A lil’ info on the Tao Drum troupe:

they were formed 16 years ago, with a 10 year plan on establishing themselves
the troupe is divided to Tao Red and Tao Yellow
Tao’s homegrown is Aso-Kuju National Park (that’s where they lived, trained, performed. Accommodation with full facilities such as halls, sauna, spa, theater, gym etc.)

Morning on the Handa Plateau, Aso-Kuju National Park. Good place to focus and practice.

Tao Red and Tao Yellow

The group that performed at the Palms was Tao Red as a recognized some familiar faces:

Arisa Nishi - the hot chick who plays the biggest drum

Maki Morifuji - the super hyper lion head

Takuya Era - the one who can really swing that stick :p

My seat at the Palms. Quite a good view for last row seats

No pictures allowed during performance but here are some pics from the Tao Drum Gallery

The humorous part where they tease each other

It's not only about hitting the drums, it's got body movements too

Drums and Flutes

My hyper lion head chick!!

Because they looked like they’re having so much fun, I wanna try it too. Before I start Googling, I found this in my bookmarks

Can’t remember why I bookmarked this last year but.. .yay!!

Contacted the instructor, Toshi Sakamoto and he asked me to come for the basic class (right timing, they were about to start the new term). I figure I could go for the Beginners class instead, since I’ve did drumming and percussion before (as long as its not constantly hitting the downbeats like triple cello parts in Steelpan >.< ….that still haunts me……) and plus I do play Taiko Drum Master (hwa hwa hwa)

Taiko Drum Master

Reached there early and got so excited when I hear the drums going on. The people in Abbortsford must be cursing these drums. I walked around the neighbourhood and I can still hear it a block a way.. its so LOUDDDDD (I guess that’s just how it is, Taiko Drums were meant to motivate military troops during war)

My Taiko Drum sticks

Taiko drumming isn’t just about hitting the drums. Its also about the pose, body movements making it all a great work out!!!

one hand hits the drum while the other make a circle while keeping your knees bend

Move 1: X across your chest

Move 2: Throw hands to the sides

Move 3: swing your right stick *swish*

These moves were part of the Umai, which generally have more spirited movements based on the rhythm. We had a brief session on Hachijodaiko, with two person hitting the drums at both sides and the rest of us following them, like a call and response.

Hachijodaiko (we had a much bigger drum)

Looking forward to my classes 🙂

Tags: comic, concert, fun, japanese, music

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Categories Music

Flirt with Tim Burton Exhibition

4 Jul

Tim Burton? Who’s that?

Is he a writer?

What’s a Tim Burton Exhibition? Is he gonna give a talk or something?

But when I mentioned the stuff that he did…

Oh I know Edward Scissorhands…or Nightmare before Xmas.. how about Batman?…Sleepy Hollow… emm maybe Mars Attack.. hmm not into old movies? Ok how about Planet of the Apes.. Big Fish..er..Charlie and the Chocolate Factory… like songs? how about Sweeney Todd… or maybe..just maybe even.. ALICE IN THE WONDERLAND?

This is Tim Burton

and this is what happened after years and years of making such awesomely insane works

What makes me love his films even more is that the regular team that he worked with are those that I admired, enjoyed watching and… have the hots for *sigh

Tim Burton with Danny Elfman during their younger days. Elfman is one of my most favourite filmscorer.. (actually stole some of his ideas for my FS project hehe)

Perfect Match. Helena Bonham Carter usually plays interestingly weird characters.

TIm Burton and his MAN, Johnny Depp

On 22 November 2009, MoMA gave Tim Burton a blockbuster retrospective of his 700+ objects and artworks. Ranging from childhood to matured works and those that did not make it to the silver screen, it was an exhibition not only meant for Tim Burton fans but to anyone else who wants to be inspired.

Entrance to Tim Burton's world - Please adjust your eyes before entering

Entrance at MoMA, slightly different with ACMI

Stereotypical 50's suburb

Tim Burton was born in a suburban area, Burbank in California. In his exhibition, it was stated that Edward Scissorhands was a reflection of himself, being slightly out of place at where he was growing up. I love how it portrays society’s ‘disability’ to accept unfamiliarity and stamped out anyone that does not conform to the norm as ‘social rejects.’

Tim Burton's signature drawing style of Edward Scissorhands

The first item shown in the exhibition was Edward Scissorhands very detailed suit. I remember its 3 belts across its body and mis-matched shoes, with one side having a higher length boot.

Edward Scissorhands' shears

The many faces of Vincent Price

By looking at his artworks, you can see that Tim Burton was heavily influenced by Dr. Seuss, Japanese cult films, and Vincent Price’s works (the father of horrors who acted as The Inventor in the movie aka Scissorhands’ father).

Vincent Price was also part of Tim Burton’s first stop motion movie, ‘Vincent’. Vincent was produced in 1982, after Tim Burton decided to call it quits at Walt Disney as he got bored of being a conceptual artist and his works not being accepted.

Vincent Malloy is seven years old He’s always polite and does what he’s told For a boy his age, he’s considerate and nice But he wants to be just like Vincent Price

The main character in the 6 minutes movie was a boy called Vincent Malloy who thinks he is Vincent Price. The voice over was done by Vincent Price himself.

The more popular stop motion film that he made was A Nightmare Before Christmas. Great characters and songs, composed and sang by Danny Elfman himself as Jack Skellington. News has it that Tim Burton will make another stop motion film for Addams Family using the traditional method in A Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride..maybe even black and white (yay!)

Me (Left) and Huinini's (Right) attempt on Jack Skellington. Notice Huinini's Santa Claus and 'red-pepper looking' pumpkin

Our artworks on the wall

Jack Skellington's original faces

Storyboard for Hansel and Gretel

Besides the mainstream stuff, the exhibition showed a lot of ‘never been seen’ films and art works. The one film that caught my attention was Tim Burton’s Hansel and Gretel, particularly because it is one of those stories that intrigued me since childhood. I revisited the Grimm’s Brothers Hansel and Gretel last year, and realized it’s actually very dark for a fairy tale… come to think about it, most fairy tales themes are dark and violent. Tim Burton’s obsession with Japanese culture can be seen from his version of Hansel and Gretel: American speaking Japanese cast, weird lookin’ Japanese toys, similar style and colour schemes with Godzilla.

Tim Burton’s works can also be viewed in his website, using Stainboy as the navigator.

Viewing the public gallery on Timburton.com

Stainboy is a character from The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy, an illustrated book of poems. Tim Burton made 6 Stainboy episodes meant for online viewing (how very generous of him)

List of episodes:

(L-R) The boy with nails in his eyes, Oysterboy, Voodoo Girl

Inspired by the book, four sets of Tragic Toys for Girls and Boys were produced such as The Boy with Nails in his Eyes, Voodoo Girl, Toxic Boy, Robot Boy and others.

My favourite poem is “Robot Boy”: Mr. Smith was mad at Mrs Smith as she had gave birth to a robot son because of her sexual relationship with a blender.

“He never forgave her unholy alliance: a sexual encounter with a kitchen appliance.”

Robot Boy at the exhibition

When me and Huinini first saw Robot Boy at the exhibition, its head was closed and we weren’t sure where was he from. After staring at it for a minute, we decided to move on with our viewing. Somehow I caught a glimpse of its head opening slowly and I was too ‘shock’ to speak and kept trying to get Huinini to turn around and see that. Just when she was about to turn, the head SLAM SHUT!! causing Huinini to jump.. hehehe… There were a couple of funny ‘Huinini incidents’. She tried to touch a carousel figurine and was stopped just few millimetres from it (oh so close…), and glow in the dark patches on her face when we entered the UV Light Room (it was from her UV protection sunscreen), and her failed attempt to use her phone snap a picture of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in the Wonderland in the most stealth-like way possible (her flash and the ‘after snapping picture’ tone totally gave it away).