Took a break from costuming (only mostly) yesterday to go see the Yoshida Brothers, a shamisen playing duo at Yoshi's jazz club in San Francisco. I found them by stumbling on this Youtube video some time ago. Then I heard that they were playing this week and figured they were worth seeing after listening to some of their other songs. They have some surprising influences in their songs, including blues and rock, for an instrument that sounds very traditionally Japanese. My current favorite songs of theirs are Storm (the song in the video above), Kodo, Rising and Indigo.
I'd never been to Yoshi's in SF before. The performance area was intimate and people were crammed in at small cocktail tables on several tiers. The sign outside said it can hold maybe 400 people, but it felt smaller than that. Last night, the brothers were accompanied by a really good drummer using a wide variety of percussion instruments from snares and cymbals to bongos and what looked like a set of chimes. Clearly they'd been working with him before because their point-counterpoint exchanges sounded dead on even with their complex syncopation. Everything in the performance seemed very exacting, even down to the timing and shape of the lighting that went with the music. Watching them play, their fingers flying over the three strings, made my fingers hurt. Afterwards, they were available for CD signing so we added their Best of CD to our collection.
I have a feeling I'll be sewing to the sounds of shamisen in the next couple of weeks.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Musical Intermission: Yoshida Brothers
Sunday, June 27, 2010
High Heel Peace
I hate wearing high heels. I don't care that I'm short and could use the extra height. They're uncomfortable, unstable and unhealthy. Research has shown that high heels can contribute to the development of chronic knee pain, sprained ankles and back problems. It's a conspiracy of fashion to sacrifice women's health for the sake of beauty. I'll never be a fashion plate because given the choice, I'll pick comfort and health over looks. However, when it comes to wearing dresses for evening wear, I don't have much choice in shoes. But to my shock, I've just discovered one very specific case where wearing high heels may help me more than hurt me.
Last night we went salsa dancing for the first time in four years or so. We stopped because it was frustrating for Lee and painful for my ankles. Ever since I pulled my Achilles tendon playing ultimate frisbee, my puny little ankles have never been the same. If I don't have healthy ankles, knees, legs then I can't go to karate practice which would make me grumpy. In fact, I've had to curtail all dancing except for special occasions because of ankle trouble.
A couple of weeks ago, my friend Maria suggested we go salsa dancing. I figured that it had been a while since I went dancing and agreed. But I didn't have decent dance shoes. The pair I have is sufficiently low-heeled but gives me blisters and is more suitable for swing fashion than salsa fashion. So I ordered a pair with 2.5 inch heels that the internet reviews claimed was very comfortable provided you ordered a size up (which I did).
Imagine my surprise when I tested them out in my living room to find that they were quite comfortable to dance in. I had to stay on my toes because putting weight back on my heels was a guaranteed wobble. The cool thing was that because of the heels, I was taking more of the physical strain in my calves - a much bigger, stronger part of my body than my ankles. I figured out that the higher heel prevented me from flexing my foot on a backwards step to the degree that my ankles don't like.
The true test was the actual salsa club. After five hours at the club, the part of me that was sore were my toes, not my ankles, not even my calves. For a night of salsa dancing, I consider that a success of health and I attribute it largely to my new dance shoes. It remains to be seen whether we do more salsa dancing, but I think I may be back in the game if we do, thanks to high heeled shoes.
I still hate high heels for most other applications, but in salsa dancing I don't think I'll wear any other kind.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Speeches and Geeks
I'm supposed to be writing my Toastmaster Speech 10 right now. I'm supposed to be writing an inspiring speech.
Instead, I'm procrastinating. The video above has absolutely nothing to do with writing a speech other than the fact that I'm listening to it. The musician is Jonathan Coulton and I'm working my way through his discography instead of being inspiring. I especially like The Future Soon and his cover of Baby Got Back. It's fun, entertaining music which makes it perfect for my current purpose.
Anyway, about speech-writing: I'm not so secretly* resenting that my club has arranged a recruiting event around my 10th speech completing my Competent Communicator manual. (*At least not secretly to my friends who have been hearing me rant and whine about it for the last week. Sorry guys. It'll be over by 1pm on Thursday.) My friend, Chris pointed out to me that it's what I get for being good at speechifying. I'm not so sure about that, but since he's a far better public speaker than I am and a tough critic to boot, I suppose I should take it as a compliment. It just ratchets up the expectation that I give a fantastic speech. Which amounts to guaranteed writer's block.
Ooh, now it's time for karate practice. Maybe I'll come up with something brilliant for the speech when I get kicked in the head.
PS: Nope, no brilliant ideas, but I think that's because I got kicked in the hand rather than the head. I should aim better next time.
Friday, February 5, 2010
My Top Five Video Games of All Time
That's a daunting title. I went through an entire discussion in my head why I don't need to do this (and honestly I don't except for I wouldn't have this blog post otherwise). That stating my Top Five OF ALL TIME would commit me to supporting this post for the rest of my life even if I change my mind and I would end up with a miserable existence supporting something I knew to be a lie and I would never respect myself again.
Then I took a deep breath and talked myself into a better perspective; this list is for fun. My criteria for the games making this list is whether I remember playing the heck out of the game. There are many other good games I liked, but I didn't repeatedly play it. This can be a misleading metric for me because of my obsessive tendencies. I may play the heck out of a game merely because it's the phase I was in at the time, but it doesn't necessarily mean it was good or I really liked it. Don't ask.
On to the list.
Dragon Age: Origins
This is probably on here because I'm still currently playing the heck out of this game. It's the source of ridicule from my gaming friends (and husband) but I don't care. In typical fashion with BioWare games, I replay the game because I want to see the story as a good guy and a bad guy. I'm currently replaying Dragon Age as four different characters concurrently, one of which is an exact (but better looking version) of a character I've already played through. If the 'obsessions' part of this blog wasn't evident before, here's some proof.
Final Fantasy 12
While I'd played previous Final Fantasy games (8, 10, and 10-2 specifically), this one snuck up on me. It was already out by the time I noticed it and I didn't even rush out and get it. I really enjoyed the characters, particularly one whom I consider Square's best character to date: Balthier. I had my share of annoyances with the game, but he made it interesting enough for me to finish the game. The story itself left some room for improvement. Without that, I wouldn't have been motivated to write my own behind the scenes interpretations to explain what they didn't. Perhaps I should thank Square for rekindling my interest in writing.
Dance Dance Revolution Series
Thus begins my music/rhythm game fascination. I saw these mini dance club floors in the arcades and at first thought it was silly to call playing Simon Sez with your feet 'dancing'. Then I found the home version (I didn't really want to spend time and quarters learning it in the public arcades) and played it on our PS2. Since that first game, I collected the subsequent releases with new music. I could play it to the point of injury after which Lee counseled me to put it away for my own good. It just so happened that one of those later game discs provided a preview of another game that had you singing into a microphone and dancing. Which leads me to the next entry.
SingStar/Karaoke Revolution Series
I grew up being told I couldn't sing and making people cringe when I attempted. This is why I was a band geek all through middle and high school instead. But I think I had some of my grandfather in me and I couldn't just leave well enough alone. (My grandfather would take any party as an opportunity to serenade my grandmother to her feigned embarrassment.) These games measured my pitch and timing, giving me feedback as to how far off the mark I was so I could correct myself. As a result, I could learn the right notes to hit and maybe inspire less cringing. I'm still not going to perform like my sisters can, but my car singing may be more palatable. I also played these games to the point of hoarseness.
Guitar Hero/Rock Band
I wasn't initially interested in these when they were plastic guitars only. Once they added drums and allowed a group of four to play as a fake band, I was all over it. Knowing myself, I would have played the plastic guitar to the detriment of my hands. But playing the drums seemed more ergonomically friendly and I looked forward to banging on plastic drums. And if I got tired of drums, I could switch to the guitar or bass and when I got tired of that, I could drop back to singing. Turns out I had to fight Lee for the drums, so I play guitar/bass more often than not, but it's still fun.
That's the five games. Three of which are music series. This was originally meant to be a Top Ten, but I only came up with maybe seven. 'Top Seven' doesn't ring as nicely so I'm down to Top Five with a few honorable mentions.
Monkey Island Series
This is a set of adventure puzzle games featuring an atypical pirate named Guybrush Threepwood. Adventure puzzle games have been in decline for some time because it takes a lot of resources to produce and not very many people play it. Nevertheless, I was delighted when they developed some recent episodes to visit with Guybrush again. (I still have 4 of the 5 episodes to finish).
Knights of the Old Republic
Another BioWare game and possibly the first one of theirs that I played. Again, I played it more than once. But it makes it on this list because I will occasionally quote myself to hearken back to myself playing the game.*
*Language deliberately obtuse to prevent spoilers. I guess this is only funny to Lee because he's the only one who's heard me quote myself.
And I'm done. No one hold me to this list because I don't want to have to live a lie. But I'll take cake.
Monday, October 5, 2009
I Gotta Feelin'
My new favorite song. I don't think I'm capable of sitting still when this song comes on. The video above is a special version they performed for Oprah. The crowd is a flash mob of approximately 21,000 people that all learned the dance moves.
Now I want to spend some time with the following video to learn the dance, for no other reason than um.. I like learning dances to fun songs. For the record, my current dance is more like the one the lone girl in the crowd starts the song off with - a whole lot of bouncing and waving my hands in the air.
We saw them perform this live at Golden Gate Park at the Outside Lands concert at the end of August. They are definitely a high-energy, fun band to watch.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Witchy, Witchy Night
We took my youngest sister, Jessica to see Wicked for her birthday a week ago. I bought the tickets sometime in January so we had a few months of anticipation. I tried to see Wicked on Broadway when I was at a conference in NYC several years ago but it was always sold out. I'm happy to report that Wicked didn't disappoint. I laughed, I cried. I'm going to see it again and again (well maybe my checkbook won't let me).
Wicked is a stage adaptation of Gregory Maguire's book of the same title. I picked up the book because I grew up watching The Wizard of Oz and was intrigued with the premise of seeing the other side of Oz. In short, the book was a mess; a meandering plot that picked up complexities as if it were a collector with a cat's attention span. The musical plot line was cleaner, straightforward and well-suited for a stage presentation. The musical focused on the relationship between Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West and G(a)linda, the Good Witch of the North. Although Elphaba is the main character, the story did a good job of making Glinda more than just the opposite foil to Elphaba's goals. She had her own valid point of view even if I didn't particularly relate to her.
To my mind, the success of the performance really came down to the quality of Elphaba's and Glinda's actresses. I was a little nervous when our program notified us that the standby actress would be playing Elphaba's role. Vicki Noon had some big shoes to fill because I'm a huge fan of Idina Menzel, who played the role on Broadway. But my doubts went away when she sang her first notes of "The Wizard and I." Kendra Kassebaum played Glinda adorably. She had the lion's share of funny lines through the show and she delivered hilariously. I managed to get seats in the fourth row so we really got to see the actors' expressions and the details of their costumes. While the rest of the cast enriched the story (and we had some wonderful actors for the other parts - Patty Duke played Madame Morrible and David Garrison played the Wizard), it was only when either of the witches were on stage that the performance felt gravity defying.
Speaking of which, "Defying Gravity" closed out the first act and was the highlight of the whole show. Jess made fun of me for tearing up as that song closed but it's not as if I could have helped it. As Elphaba rose above the stage, haloed by a star of lights, her soaring voice brought with it such an overwhelming sense of triumph and hope that one can't help but respond.
A fantastic, magical event overall. Go see it! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go listen to "Defying Gravity" again. And again.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Dancing Globally
When I could use a big smile, I watch this video.
The sheer exuberance of the dancers from all over the world captures the joy and magic of dancing for me. And the fact that their dancing is largely goofy, perhaps even dorky, unselfconscious and utterly gleeful is my answer to anyone who has deprived themselves of the experience of channeling the music into movement. Try it, you might even enjoy yourself like these people did.
Monday, February 2, 2009
My New Favorite Band: Journey
They're not a new band. I didn't even know they had a new lead singer until my sister sent me a text yesterday to the effect of: "filipinos rock! did you see the new singer of journey? Since I was in the yard when I got the message, I didn't see it. So I headed to youtube to find out what she was talking about and found a huge list of Arnel Pineda singing 80s hits from Bryan Adams, Aerosmith, Sting and yes, Journey. He's an amazing singer and an amazing mimic. I played his Journey renditions for Lee, who knew something was up since I asked him who was singing when it was obviously Steve Perry to the ear.
But it's the sight of this Filipino guy belting out rock ballads of the 80's that makes me a new fan. The video above is his performance at the pre-game show of the Superbowl yesterday.
After I devoured a bunch of his songs with his band The Zoo, I headed to Wikipedia where I read a story that could be a Rock Band game story or a Hollywood flick. Here's an interview CBS News did with the band. I especially like that he sounds so much like Steve Perry in song, but speaks with my relatives' accents when he speaks. Pinoy Pride!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Video Games the Musical
We have finally succumbed to the Guitar Hero/Rock Band tidal wave of video games. I think it was the drums that did it. Oh and playing Guitar Hero World Tour (the full band version) at a friend's house. Aside from my lack of drumming skills, it was fun. We'd played Guitar Hero at another friend's house a few years ago, but with my repetitive stress issues with my wrists, I didn't think it would be healthy for me to injure myself on a video game, playing a mock instrument I hadn't previously expressed any interest in learning.
So when Guitar Hero added drums and vocals to their game, we perked up. Rock Band had already started out with the full band experience, but all reviews pointed to the guitar controllers of Guitar Hero being better made. After test playing it at the aforementioned friend's house, we headed out to Target and gave it to ourselves as a Christmas present. I later found out via internet research that the controllers for Guitar Hero World Tour would also work for Rock Band 2 so we got that also. After a few weeks of playing it, we've mostly switched over to Rock Band 2 (with Guitar Hero controllers) as our music game of choice.
Our music game collection (at my instigation) started with something very different: Dance Dance Revolution. I saw these in the arcades and movie theater lobbies and I was intrigued watching the people who were clearly very skilled at it. They had their water bottles and towels nearby, hopping in intricate patterns in time with the arrows scrolling by on the screen. In many cases they weren't even looking at the screen; they had memorized the steps from playing it so much. Over time, we bought the game and all subsequent releases, and even upgraded our flimsy dance pads to hard plastic ones in the quest for mastering harder and harder songs. Then, I pulled my Achilles tendon playing ultimate frisbee. Once I healed (many weeks later) I got back into my DDR habit only to find that it was painful. I have this weird quirk where I'll ignore non-excruciating pain when I'm really focused on achieving a goal (finishing a song or 15 in this case). I thought it might be best for my health if I put it away.
But there was a game preview on one of the Dance Dance Revolution games that bridged the way to my next music game obsession - Karaoke Revolution. With my dreams of Dance Dance Revolution divinity dashed, I turned to the less physically strenuous activity of singing. But it was more than just singing, this game would tell me when I was off pitch and possibly train me to sing more acceptably in bathroom acoustics. I come from a musical family. My sisters and mom are all trained singers, performing solos and in choirs, etc. My Lolo (grandfather on my dad's side) would always serenade my Lola (grandmother) whenever there was a microphone and an audience available. For my part, I once attempted singing in public, but it was probably an event best left to the bloopers reel.
At any rate, with practice in my own home and a scoring system, I got up enough confidence to agree to semi-regular karaoke parties at Todd and Ali's house complete with cocktails. Once again, I collected every version of Karaoke Revolution and SingStar games that they put out and have now started the collection on the Playstation 3.
This meanders me back to the Guitar Hero/Rock Band 2 acquisition. The nice thing about the band experience is that if my arms start to hurt from the guitar, I can switch to the drums and even if that starts hurting, I can fall back to the singing. Nothing like cross-training to keep the music flowing. According to Lee, who has actually been part of a rock band, the games actually do a decent simulation of the cohesive feeling playing in a band and trying to keep the songs together. I suspect, having never been in a rock band, that the real thing did not require near blinding focus on little colored bars or dots scrolling by on the screen (concert band, marching band, pep band, jazz band: yes. rock band: no. Yes, I was once a band geek, why do you ask?).
Rock Band 2 seems to do a better job at actually teaching beginners how to work with the instruments than Guitar Hero does. They have tutorials on the disk for guitar, vocals and drums - how to read the symbols on the screen, how to make the guitar work and beginner practice sessions and even trickier tips for the more advanced. For the drummers, they have a whole series of beats and rhythms to practice without getting scored. It also has a wider selection of downloadable songs for pay. We've probably spent an additional $20 on additional songs for Rock Band 2 and haven't bought any for Guitar Hero.
There's character creations for both games. A friend of mine insists on creating as close of a personal likeness as he can, while I prefer trying on the craziest outfits I can find. I did try creating myself in Rock Band 2 this past weekend and my normal t-shirt and jeans just doesn't look like it belongs on that sort of stage. I figure if I were actually a rock star, I would have a wardrobe and makeup to match the production level of the concert. I might be more casual for a small bar setting and crazy glammed out for an amphitheatre setting. My latest phase is creating my favorite video game characters so that I can watch them rock out in this video game.
One thing I don't think these music video games does is teach you how to play the actual instrument. Perhaps vocals might be the closest, because you're actually using the real thing - your voice. But as I said earlier, it mostly helps you find the right pitches in song rather than teach you how to sing well. Drums might be the next closest. There are fewer drums in the game than you can actually play in a drum set. But it does make you practice rhythms and coordinating your eyes, hands and one foot to follow the screen. While they do provide you with real drumsticks, I'm sure the drums themselves have a completely different feel. The guitar is the farthest away from the real thing. Unless of course you take away five of the strings on a real guitar and make that remaining string really thick. Interestingly, a lot of my friends who actually do play guitar seem to enjoy the mock guitar playing anyway.
I don't have any delusions that I'm going to take my music game prowess on a public stage, but it combines my love of music, satisfaction in improving a skill and the capability to gather with some friends and enjoy an evening of gaming. Who ever said gamers can't be social?
Thursday, October 23, 2008
A Taste of Margaritaville
My uncle once told me that if I only went to one concert in my entire life, to make it a Jimmy Buffett concert. Well, I've already seen more than one concert in my life and expect to make it to more, but Tuesday night I finally took my uncle's advice. And for the price of a lawn seat and an hour's drive after work, I was transported to the Jimmy Buffett brand of island living.
My first exposure to Jimmy Buffett's music was actually through my grandmother. She's responsible for my taste in show tunes when I would spend summer days with her watching Oklahoma, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, etc. One day, she asked me to put in a new tape (that's cassette for the younger generation) in the stereo that she wanted to listen to. I knew I liked it as soon as the steel drums started and songs of margaritas and cheeseburgers came out of the speakers. I was happily bopping to the beat, helping my grandmother prepare veggies for dinner when after a long, spoken intro, the next song came on. To my abject horror, I heard Jimmy sing, "Why don't we get drunk and screw?" over the speakers accompanied by a large crowd. I listen specifically to lyrics of songs, but I wasn't sure how widely among my family that was known. With a quick glance at my grandmother, certain that I would be in trouble if I seemed to enjoy the topic of a song that was strictly taboo with children of my age. I furrowed my brow and pretended to focus intently on the carrots I was chopping just in time for my grandmother to look over at me. She said, "Ooh, turn the volume up, will you? I like this song. I think it's funny." Then she went back to her task and missed the shocked pause it took me to register her words and go turn the music up.
Years later, sitting on a grass on rented chairs, with a barbecue sandwich dinner in my stomach, I stood up and cheered with a vast, multi-colored, pot-smoking, drunk and festive crowd as Jimmy took the stage with the Coral Reefer band. Whether he sang gleefully of parties, sailing and surfing or poignantly of lost loves and past accomplishments, the crowd danced, sang along, and cheered enthusiastically. On the jumbo-tron video screens (we were too far away from the stage to see the actual band) he showed videos of his travels both around the world and around the Bay Area and other Parrotheads he's played for in between live shots of the current concert. He wore a t-shirt, flower-printed shorts and went barefoot on the stage - clearly a man who has made a life of doing things he enjoys. That's not a bad thing to accomplish in your life, I thought.
And for about four hours in the middle of a work week, I got to escape to a little island town called Margaritaville. I know I want to be back again someday.