Wimps

Have you ever watched monks dance? No? Well, I can tell it it is a quite amusing experience. Especially when you have a wide concept for the word “dance” and really enjoy some amazing action with the human body.

I went with the Springload team to the opening night of Sutra, on the St. James Theatre on Wellington. The play was one of the most antecipated events of the New Zealand International Arts Festival of 2010. With a big knowledge of what was it about and a lot of expectation there I went to watch the thing.

My lot of excitement was exactly my biggest mistake. Yep, Sutra is amazing and breath taking at some moments but it wasn’t magical. Maybe because we are kind of use to see some of the movements on movies and stuff, even though it is not comparable when you see it live. Maybe it was all the anticipation built around it. But on the end we got a mixed review from everyone that went to it, which helped me made my peace of mind with my not-so-amazing impression.

On the stage there are 20 or so martial arts monks (one of them being a child) and the Belgium dancer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Sidi visited the Shaolin temple digging through the temple’s philosophy and the relationship between martial arts and dance. There he was asked to help promote the monks’ work throughout the world. Since 2008 they have been travelling around showing what they can do.

What I liked the most on the whole concept was the very clever use of the boxes. Sometimes they were shaped to make a stage on top of the stage, sometimes pilled together to form a dormitory and sometimes used as dominos with the monks inside, among other uses. The high points go to Sidi standing on his neck (!) and to the exciting sequence on the end with all the great fighting moves around the whole stage. The good matching with the music played by the live band is also a highlight of the play.

I don’t know if I recommend the concert or not. Maybe you can buy a ticket for another play in case you have options, but maybe not. Maybe you will think it is not enjoyable and you expected way more, but also there are high chances that maybe not. It wasn’t the greatest thing I’ve seen in my life, but I definitely give a lot of credit to the amazing work this “dancing monks” are able to pull off.

Quando a gente lê da música pela música, a gente se depara com coisas assim:

Trecho de Música, Cérebro e Êxtase, por Robert Jourdain

“[...] Uma idéia familiar do tempo está na ponta da nossas línguas: uma única dimensão que se estende para a frente e para trás, até a eternidade, sendo cada instante um ponto de duração infinitamente curta. Imprensado entre o passado e o futuro está algo chamado ‘o presente’, onde ocorre a experiência, inclusive a de ouvir música. Embora nossa vida inteira seja no presente (porque até as lembranças e expectativas são aí experimentadas), não podemos realmente pôr o dedo nesse momento que chamamos de ‘agora’. Afinal, não temos sensores para o tempo, como temos para a luz ou para o som. Não há, aí, nada de sentir. A experiência psicológica do tempo surge, em vez disso, da percepção que o sistema nervoso tem de suas próprias interações com o mundo. O tempo psicológico é a experiência de ter experiência.

Enquanto filósofos e físicos discutem interminvelmente a natureza absoluta do tempo, os neuropsicólogos assumem uma visão mais pragmática. Para eles, é tolice falar de um presente infinitesimal, de um presente que, na verdade, nao está absolutamente aí. Trabalho de laboratório mostra que, quando os acontecimentos se dão de forma extremamente rápida, ou extremamente lenta, o sistema nervoso deixa de senti-los. Sejam quais forem as verdades que oes instrumentos do físico ou as deduções do filósofo possam trazer, o ‘presente’, para o psicólogo, tem um extensão finita, que se pode medir. É o minimo tempo que se leva pra sentir, perceber e categorizar, e é ditado pela velocidade de estimulação dos neurônicos. [...]”

Photo by Sarah Hellas on Flickr

This blog could use some weeding. Will work on that ASAP.

If you ever heard of Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, Foo Fighters or Queens of the Stone Age you are a good fella. If you like one of them you already deserve some respect. If you like all of them then well, we could be friends if you want to.

If you never heard about Them Crooked Vultures then it’s a different matter. Them Crooked Vultures is the superband formed in 2009 with John Paul Jones (bass and keyboards, ex-Led Zeppelin), Josh Homme (vocal and guitars, Queens of the Stone Age) and Dave Grohl (drums, Nirvana / Foo Fighters). As expected the resulting work would be a mash up of all the three philosophies with a great dose of personality. And well, it is somehow.

Listening to the CD before the concert is a weird experience. It starts as a punch of sound in your head so strong you can barely hold yourself not to get up and start jumping like a teenager around the room. But then it gets quieter and almost boring by the end. It kind of gets you thinking how the concert is going to be. If it has the same dynamic of the CD you are very likely to go grab a drink and sit by the side of the crowd as it gets by the end.

For my delight no, it wasn’t. On the 28th of January the band arrived at Wellington for a astonishing and loud concert on the TSB Bank Arena.

To start with, seeing three legends like this together on a stage is breath taking itself. You make a small mapping on your mind of who they have been around to, what they did, where they played, all the DVDs and documentaries you saw about them and you wonder if this is real for a bit. Then you go and try to enjoy each one of them separately.

I think John Paul Jones the most legendary of the three. Seeing a Led Zeppelin member playing is a rare joy and has to be appreciated with caution. He is one of the low profile old school bass players, with a precise rock groove and a lot of consistency with the bass drum. And he is the reason that half of the crowd was there, so he had a concert for himself.

Josh Homme is probably one of the biggest douches of the universe. I really think he is too much out there. But well, you cannot deny how good a musician he is. His rock’n'roll attitude is annoying as he over do it all the time, but there, on the concert, it is kind of cool.

For me Dave Grohl is one of the most rock’n'roll being in the world. He is an idol for me not only because his work as a all-porpoise-musician, but as a drummer specifically. His simplicity always wondered me and his directions both in the Foo Fighters and in Nirvana are very respectable. This concert only made me realize that probably with weak band members his music wouldn’t be that good, but the greater the band is the greater he gets. Maaaaannnnn, what a awesome sensation to see him there.

And then there’s the show itself, as a group. No, it doesn’t get boring. I don’t know how they managed to pump up all the songs and there’s no low peak. Even on the slowest song they make a little dance, a little play with the lights and it all gets really interesting. The ideas applied on the light system behind the stage (you can see them on the picture above) are awesome and entertaining as well. And the best of all, they all look like they are having fun playing with friends and having a good time with some good rock music.

On the end of the day, a maaasssive neck soreness, buzzing ear but an indescribable sense of satisfaction. I guess that all means I really liked the concert.

So I bought an amazing drum kit some months ago and, for many reasons, it is sitting on my bedroom inside its bags. This really drives me crazy. On the best “I neeeeeed something going on” fashion I decided to make some other trials and see how it goes.

At the moment I’m taking singing and theory/piano classes. It’s been a month now and I couldn’t have made a better choice. My mind is stretching and I’m starting to see things differently. My music taste used to be based on rhythmic stuff with elaborated drums. All of the sudden I’m starting to appreciate other stuff on music construction such as harmonies and melodies and a lot of stuff is starting to make sense on music construction and progression. I’m really happy with it but already can see the no-turning-back path that I’m walking to.

Apart from that I’ve doing a lot of reading on pop and contemporary music. That actually was one of the main reasons to get back to the theory studies. I hope to have something to share here soon.

Tive uma das piores noites de pesadelos essa noite. Acidente de carro com meus flatmates, florestas pegando fogo, casas destruídas, amigos brigando comigo por coisa sem sentido, entre outros. Acordei gritando no meio da noite duas vezes e sinto uma pedra em cada um dos meus ombro resultado de uma noite tensa.

Eu não costumo mais analizar sonhos. Mesmo porque motivos pra isso eu não tenho. Mas eu sempre tenho um relativo controle sobre os meus sonhos. Aliás, não controle, mas tenho consciência de que estou sonhando – os tais sonhos lúcidos – quase sempre e vira e mexe uso esse fato pra mudar meu sonho. O negócio é que quando eu não consigo e tudo continua dando errado é frustrante.

Ver um monte de coisa ruim sem nenhum sentido ou lógica talvez seja a pior coisa. Outro fato é ver quem você gosta se machucando ou morrendo e cruzar pelo corredor com essa pessoa te dando bom dia na manhã seguinte. Bom e estranho ao mesmo tempo. Fora o tanto de gente que você está morrendo de saudade e que quando te ver diz as piores coisas, quissá tenta te bater.

Eu acho que vou ter um dia chato hoje.

A coisa é infindável e é por isso que eu a amo.

Esse fim de semana pela primeira vez tive oportunidade de ver coisas que eu nunca tinha ouvido nem visto ao vivo. Só nos discos e shows. Vi Big Band de Jazz de Nova York. Vi bluezistas com toda aquela pinta fodona. Vi cubano tocando Afro-Cuban Jazz a torto e qualquer direito. Vi gente cantando com uma voz que nunca tinha visto. Vi quinze músicos no palco dos mais variados países tocando o verdadeiro free-style jazz. Tive a oportunidade de sentar numa roda de Jazz com metalera, contra-baixo e bateria e ficar até de manhã ouvindo um monte de gente falando com sotaque de New Orleans e trocando as mais maravilhosas idéias com seus instrumentos, sem nenhuma sofisticação comercial.

É lá que eu quero chegar.