Mal Hombre's Culture Corner

[Mal Hombre]

Much as I enjoy mindless filth ,I do like to spend a few minutes a day on cultural pursuits as in this clip I found:

[Mal Hombre]

More cerebral pleasures with the art of the Figure skater:
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/1469589/5017683

[Attila The Hun]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q1MPwD7zCI - 'Sagi Musume' I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP4Td...eature=related - 'Sagi Musume' II

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6O7K...eature=related - 'Sagi Musume' III

- Performer: Godaime Bando Tamasaburo

[deepsepia]

Thanks for the Kabuki links. This stuff is hard to understand, you really have to have a narrator and a guide to references. When I was in college, I tutored some Japanese students who were reading Faulkner (my first advice was "Faulkner, are you kidding?" -- he's hard even if you're a native English speaker, even if you know US history well)

If you haven't seen it, Kurosawa uses lots of elements of Kabuki and Noh in his magnificent last film, "Dreams" . . . highly recommended, and more accessible than the classical pieces

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHusu...eature=related

[dogsbreath]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXzpS...eature=related

She's eye candy also.

[deepsepia]

Personally, I usually find opera kinda tired . . . interesting historically and musically, but what's actually going on on stage doesn't engage me . . . and not much written recently is worth much/

But there are a few modern operas that really are worth it . . . I put John Adams' "Nixon in China" at the top of the heap. The music is great, the characterizations of Pat & Richard Nixon, Mao and Madam Mao, Chao en-Lai and Henry Kissinger are fascinating.

Very much worth your while. This singer, really does channel the fierce spirit of Madame Mao-- she's not some obese whale, she does look a scary Maoist, holding up the Red Book




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mtMI...eature=related

[sweatyhat]

Originally Posted by deepsepia

Haven't seen it, but would like to -- have you?

If irreverence doesn't shock or amuse you, there's not much to see, especially for this atheist.
The wailing of various religious groups has shone an undeserved limelight on this production. They failed to recognise that in the UK, no-one is above ridicule. When people saw the likes of Stephen Green from the protest group Christian Voice demonstrating outside cinemas, they probably thought it worth a look.
Here's a pic of the madman, and the vid shows a bird shitting on him during the sort of immodest show of public piety his Jebus would never have done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYxY39GL64Y

[theequestrian]

To paraphrase The Bard:

"Kwality, Kwality, eternal Kwality" - one of the French guys in one of those Henry plays

[Attila The Hun]

Originally Posted by deepsepia

Thanks for the Kabuki links.

You are quite welcome. It is a beautiful artform.

If you haven't seen it, Kurosawa uses lots of elements of Kabuki and Noh in his magnificent last film, "Dreams" . . . highly recommended, and more accessible than the classical pieces

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHusu...eature=related

'Dreams' is indeed a good film (one of his best, though I like 'Ran' and 'Kagemusha' a lot too). The influence of Japanese theatre influences are the strongest in the first two segments, if I remember rightly. A few of the segments are influence by folklore too (as are many, if notmost, stories in Noh and Kabuki theatre), which is why we can see a Fox's (Kitsune) wedding procession and Yuki-Onna in the picture.

On a related note:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chwADnoFDng - 'Sakura Sakura'.

''Sakura'' means ''cherry blossom''. 'Sakura Sakura' is a late folk tune from the Edo period. It depicts the spring, when the cherry trees blossom. The song that often accompanies the tune would be translated into English thus:

''Cherry blossom, cherry blossom,
Upon the hills and mountains
As far as can be seen.
Is it a haze or the clouds?
Redolent under the dawning sun.
Cherry blossom, cherry blossom,
Flowers in bloom.
Cherry blossom, cherry blossom,
In the spring sky,
As far as can be seen.
Is it a haze or the clouds?
Redolent in the air.
Come, come,
Let us look at last!''

[Attila The Hun]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq4VZhZM__I - 'Vesti la Giubba' sung by the great Caruso, from 'Pagliacci'. Canio cries into song whilst changing into his costume; that of a clown, with his false smile to hide his inner pain at his beloved wife's adultery. This is the origin of the phrase ''tears of a clown'.