July 22, 2010

Elma Cayi

Elma Cayi
Turkish Apple Tea

2 red apples, do not peel and do not remove the seeds, cut in 4 or 6
1 orange, do not peel, cut in 4 or 6
1 stick cinnamon
2 whole cloves
4 cup water

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer until the fruits are tender. Strain into the bowl pushing gently with the back of the spoon to remove all the liquid. Then pour into the tea glasses.

If you like you may sweeten with honey.

It won't kill you if you add sugar ... :)

found here: http://www.turkishcookbook.com/index.php

July 21, 2010

Spirits of Korea

 
  
 Ssitgim-gut performed by Park Byeong-cheon 
  
Tracks:
 
Spiritual Chanting and Prayer for Abundance
 
  1. Binari 08:34
 
Soul Chanting for Pacification of the Deceased
   
  2. Namdosamhyeon 01:29
  3. Yeongdotmari 03:21
  4. Gopuri 08:17
  5. Gilddakgeum 19:47
  
*Ssitgim performed by Park Byeong-cheon*
  

Park Byeong-cheon has been performing for someone for praying throughout his life. Such talent was inherited by his family and passed down through generations. His practices are engaged in equally not only for the living but also for the deceased. The sound that he unravels makes the living to be blessed, and it is the sound itself for spirits to find out the way of entering the other world for the deceased. His own sound thus is the embodiment of heaven, earth and human being.
 
He is a man of knowledge and understanding. This ability indeed leads him to solve all the concerns with ease, and this is achieved by his performances that are transformed into meaningful sounds. "My performing activities that I dance and sing should be regarded as life itself, not as artistic form", according to him, and this remark clearly delivers significant messages of what he performs. The jangdan (rhythmic cycle) our of dancing and songs that he unravels with his body may be an essential model that can be applied to the principle of Korean philosophy. The sound that he, in his 70s, releases certainly touches
our heart.
 
...
 
Praying & Well Wishing Remarks for the Living
  
Good health, longevity, wealth and prosperity are desired by all of us.
The shaman performs praying and well wishing remarks for the living.
 
...
 
Exorcising for the Deceased
  
Spirit of the dead becomes a soul, and it tends to continue to remain behind the living in order to enter the other world. Before getting into the better world, the spirit is cleaned by scented water and then it becomes a clean soul, when it is purified by mugwort, a fish and scorched smell are eliminated in it; when being purified by clean water, it becomes a clear soul. Then it is able to enter the other world when being exorcised the resentful spirit of the deceased. This is done by pallbearers' dirge who lead the purified spirit to the dead.
   
  

July 19, 2010

Bulut mu olsam

  
Bulut mu olsam

Denizin üstünde ala bulut
Yüzünde gümüş gemi
İçinde sarı balık
Dibinde mavi yosun
Dibinde mavi yosun

Kıyıda bir çıplak adam
Durmuş düşünür
Bulut mu olsam gemi mi yoksa
Yosun mu olsam balık mı yoksa

Ne o ne o ne o ne o
Deniz olunmalı oğlum

Bulutuyla gemisiyle balığıyla yosunuyla
Bulutuyla gemisiyle deniz olunmalı oğlum
   
***

Shall I be a cloud

over the sea
silver boat upon
yellow fish beneath
at the bottom blue algae
at the bottom blue algae

on the beach a naked man
stands thinking
shall I be a cloud, or a boat
shall I be algae, or a fish

no no neither this nor that
you must be the sea, my son

with the clouds, with the boats,
with the fish, with the algae, my son!
   
 this translation is the best I could do... if  you can do better...pls let us know


Music: Maria Farantouri Zülfü Livaneli - Ensemble
Poem: Nazim Hikmet
  

July 16, 2010

Frédéric Bruly Bouabré - the universalist

Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, was born in 1923 in Zéprégüé, Côte d’Ivoire.
The origin of all of Frédérick Bruly Bouabré ’s work stems from a revelatory experience: on March 11, 1948, “the heavens opened up before my eyes and seven colorful suns described a circle of beauty around their Mother-Sun, I became Cheik Nadro: ‘He who does not forget.’'
From then on Bruly Bouabré tackled every field of knowledge and collected his research in manuscripts about arts and traditions, poetry, tales, religion, esthetics, and philosophy, revealing himself to be an astonishing thinker, poet, encyclopedist, creator. Searching for a way to preserve and transmit the knowledge of the Bété people, as well as the knowledge of the entire world, he invented an alphabet of 448 monosyllabic pictograms to represent phonetic syllables. Bouabré’s alphabet, which can transcribe all human sounds, reflects the essence of his thought: to achieve universality and to unite mankind.
In the 1970s, Bouabré started to transfer his thoughts to hundreds of small
drawings in postcard format, using a ballpoint pen and colour crayons. These drawings, gathered under the title of Connaissance du Monde (World Knowledge), form an encyclopedia of universal knowledge and experience.
Other projects, such as Readings from Signs Observed in Oranges (1988), serve as visionary records of divination.
For Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, his drawings are representation of everything that is revealed or concealed—signs, divine thoughts, dreams, myths, the sciences, traditions—and he views his role as an artist as a redemptive calling. He has stated: “Now that we are recognized as artists, our duty is to organize into a society, and in such a way to create a framework for discussion and exchange among those who acquire and those who create. From that could arise a felicitous world civilisation.”




Fréderic Bruly Bouabré the universalist . VO.English Subtitled from Andres Alvarez on Vimeo.





July 12, 2010

Hallo happy people

Let's run to the hills to dance and sing in the morning sunshine.

Cannonball Adderley Quintet, The Happy People, 1972



July 8, 2010

Takoutsia with Filippos Rountas - 1961-1975-Zagori-Epirus-Simon Karas archive



















I got this ,along with many other interesting musics from Epirus ,very recently from a friend himself from Zagori the cultural heart of the area, who is  into releasing  old material from family recordings (as he explained to me, the family that  was inviting and paying the musicians for the celebrations , in many cases  was also recording during them and kept the tapes) through his newborn  homemade label.
Details in the future.
(and of course he was showered with wishes and African goodies)
Sooo Takoutsia with Filippos Rountas  from Simon Karas archive is accompanied with the best of recommendations.
If you are familiar with Takousia from the good  Inedit recording  you will easily understand that this is the real thing.
here is a nice place to share it.


Takoutsia




and as always look in the comments....
for the tasty part of the post.


.

July 6, 2010

Japonisme

A brief mediation on cultural appropriation and authenticity


RESPONSE TO NAUMA'S COMMENT:

Dear Nauma, thank you for your comment and observation. And yes, you are correct, the Japanese have also engaged the "otherness" of Western culture, however historical circumstances resulted in a different approach. It was the West that prised opened Japan. The Meiji Restoration resulted in an all-out push for modernization/westernization. This was a Top-Down initiative (truly being a Divine Fiat since the Emperor was a god...). For the west, the encounter with Japan was a new "Flavor of the Month"; for Japan, the West was a matter of political, military and economic expediency. THis scenario has played itself out through East and South East Asia many times.

Having travelled to Japan (and LOVING IT!), ye, there is an apprehesion of the "exotic" west but something gets lost in translation, so to speak. Previous western commentators would not the lapses or "incomplete" quality of Japanese appropriation of western models,be they artistic, architectural, musical or whatever. (Just as there is an extremely superficial quality to most Wesern appropriations of Japanese models...). What I believe ACTUALLY occurred was a process of cultural editing according to Japan's own unique aesthetics. There are NO "lapses" in my opinion; rather a conscious decision to work with the new material on Japanese aesthetic terms.

Sometimes things get a little... silly. For whatever reason (I have NO explaination...), some western quirk embeds itself in Japanese culture... DEEPLY. I submit for your approval a musical example. I recall my amazement a couple of years back while listening to a collection of vintage Japanese film music to hear what was, a JAPANESE version of Rudolph Friml's "Song of the Vagabonds" from his early 20th century operetta "The Vagabond King." It was featured in the early Japanese film "Father and Son." It's a really GOOD version!!! While researching the film and this odd cultural cross-pollination, I discovered that the song had grown legs and continued to be a HIT in Japan, long after Friml and his operettas were forgotten in the West!

The song later was used for the end credits (and Japanese title) of the 1982 film by Kinji Fukasaku, "Fall Guy." Fukasaku would later go on to direct the popular "Battle Royal" series of movies.

To this day, Friml's klezmeresque melody can be heard in Japan as the boarding chimes at Kamat Station in Tokyo.

I have no explaination... ^_^

Link: gone

Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGs87qSYLtI (Fall Guy end titles)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1en-lmDjSIg&feature=related (Kamata Station chimes)

July 5, 2010

John Coltrane - Spiritual Jazz




"My music is the spiritual expression of what I am --- my faith, my knowledge, my being" - John Coltrane


...In 1957, Coltrane suddenly went through what he explained as "An experience, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life." He once again dedicated his life to God and the spiritual, but not necessarily the Islamic method. Coltrane believed in what is described as a "cosmic mysticism," (Kofsky) though he generally considered himself to be a Christian. He found his own music to be thoroughly spiritual in nature, and his experience with God to be exclusively personal. He became interested in Eastern philosophy and music as a solution to his intense need for self-expression, and discovered Hinduism, the Yoruba Religion of West Africa, Buddhism and others in his search for understanding and meaning (Horst). While the musical styles these religions embodied did not pervade Coltrane's work after he discovered them, he fashioned his philosophy of the world from them. Later he absorbed the foundations of their music into his own. Trane began writing pieces with Indian undertones, such as 1961's "India." His work absorbed Eastern musical ideas, and moved in avenues previously unexplored.
Spiritual tones and Eastern ideas were later used in Coltrane's piece "Alabama", about the Sunday morning bombing of a Birmingham church in 1963 (Strickland). During this time of Black Nationalism, Coltrane's music was propelled by avant-garde ideas, but Coltrane himself remained a pacifist despite militant upwelling within the black community. This was most likely due to his close personal relation to his God and newfound Eastern philosophy. While he did not want to fight, he did however want:


to be a force for real good. In other words, I know that there are bad forces,
forces out here that bring suffering to others and misery to the world, but I
want to be the opposite, I want to be a force which is truly for good (Kofsky).



read more: http://everything2.com/title/John+Coltrane+%253A+spiritual+jazz


thanks to tyrian

July 3, 2010

Vocal Art from Java























Javanese literature of the 18th and 19th centuries is based essentially on
anonymous "macapat" poems which use various techniques of prosody.
These poems were generally handed down orally by the singers.
This record is by the finest reciter of the period, dalang R.S. Banjaransari, the street singer Sunarto
and finally, Niken Larasati who was the leading female singer
at Pakualaman Palace in Yogyakarta.

Unesco Auvidis
Recorded in 1975 - 1977
Text by Jacques Brunet

Track list

1. THE LEGEND OF DEWARUCI KACA Sung by R.S. Banjaransari

2. GAMBIRSAWIT Sung by Sunarto

3. SITERAN GAMBIRSAWIT Sung by Niken Larasati



art

---------------------------------------------------
the rest in comments...

:)