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Visiting the Andalusian Music Festival

Olaf — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:32:50 +0000

Festival is, perhaps, a bit of an overstatement. However, there was a collection of artists who participated in the event held recently at the Rialto in Atlanta. My wife and I joined some acquaintances there to explore the culturally rich music of the Arabo-Andalusian. Representing the classical music were musicians from three cities; the Tunisian singer Lotfi Bouchnak, Wasla from Egypt, and the Orchestra of Tangier.

I knew very little of the meaning of this music. Fortunately, translations were provided in the program.

Any deer in the presence of lions
Will leap in flirtation
It was in the garden of eternity
For my suffering it remains in the open
Any shape that it has is slender
When it bends it leans
It drank the wine and the titmouse’s
Drool was flowing
His face was the full moon as it rises
In the darkness of the long night
Since he moistened the tall girls
With water coming from the fissure
Giving leaves in the darkness of decaying age
And sudden death from the black misery

Now I just need a translation into English.

The first to perform, the Sama’a, was Marouane Hajji with a short singing piece (less than 10 minutes). He was a 20-something Arab and a wonderful singer – apparently regarded as one of the best. Following Hajji’s bit, the Orchestra of Tangier performed an excerpt from the Nawbaat Hijaz al-Kabir.

There used to be twenty-four Nawbaat, each of which corresponded to an hour of the day (there may have been twenty-six Nawbaat). Only eleven Nawbaat have survived to date. Each Nawbaat consists of five movements (Mizans). Each movement is based on a certain rhythm.

It is interesting to note that a Nawbaat, made up of its Mizans, actually takes an hour to perform. I imagine that the entire collection has been performed in total at least once in history, but I cannot imagine staying awake through them. I barely made it through one. It’s also worth noting that, while brilliant musicians, the Orchestra of Tangier does not appear to be a “performance” group. They sat in chairs and played their music with little interest. Some actually looked bored. Perhaps it’s the style, but it does little to rouse the audience. Unfortunately, we had to leave on the fifth Mizan – Mizan al-Quddam – which picked up the pace and had the (Arab) audience clapping along. Some appeared to know the piece, while I was just trying to read along. It’s unfortunate that we left because following the intermission, the Lotfi Bouchnak Ensemble performed and was apparently more lively. They had people singing along, clapping, and included a much heavier repertoire of percussion. It was 9:30 when we finally left, so we couldn’t have stayed longer. We had children to collect from the mother-in-law!

World of Wheels

Olaf — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 16:11:07 +0000

We attended our first ever World of Wheels show in Atlanta this year with friends. We are largely unfamiliar with the “World of Wheels,” as it were, though it was actually cooler than I had imagined. Balthazar had a time running from brightly colored car to Hot Wheels-inspired dream. We enjoyed the fantastic detail put into the artwork in the show. I didn’t realize that the pros painted pin stripe details by hand! We watched a guy doing some work on a Power Wheels truck. The highlight for the boy was a Lightning McQueen replica and a cameo appearance of SpongeBob and friends. While the Nickelodeon cartoon stars don’t exactly say “World of Wheels,” they did entertain the children.

If one has skills…

Olaf — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 06:54:06 +0000

…if one has skills, one could make the slums bloom with no money at all, simply by work and skills.
— George Nakashima

An International Soiree

Olaf — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 15:28:18 +0000

We recently attended the Gypsy Mediterranean Arabic Balkan Dilos Musicians of Atlanta meetup.com event. It was a complete blast! I’ve not had the opportunity to play with such a diversity of talented musicians before. I wasn’t even sure what kind of music to expect given the group’s name, but I caught on quickly enough. For those of you not in the know, this type of music could be considered the Mediterranean region’s “bluegrass.” It’s the roots music that came from each of the diverse cultures surrounding the old world’s superhighway, the Mediterranean Sea. To the point of the group’s focus, or lack there of, it’s the convergence of those musical styles handed down through generations of cross-cultural stirring – especially through the nomadic gypsy types. We’re anticipating doing it again this month and I really look forward to it. I played drums, of course, and it was a great opportunity to better familiarize myself with the process of composing percussion to unknown music. We’re close to having some MP3′s put together from our last get-together; when they’re available, I’ll post it here too.

The Guerrilla Tipster

Olaf — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:21:36 +0000

The Guerrilla Tipster invokes his mighty right, passed down by the hands of the gods, to assert wisdom upon the unwitting.

Today I find the signature of the Guerrilla Tipster upon the windshield of a car in the Barnes and Noble parking lot of Duluth:

LEARN HOW TO PARK DUMB SHIT!!

The words are poignant. I only wish I could have been present when the recipient benefited from this sharing of wisdom. I’ll bet it was truly inspirational.

I’m considering having some custom stock made up with these choice words to continue the work of this Guerrilla Tipster. Perhaps with only slight grammatical adjustment:

Learn how to park, dumb shit!

…I don’t know, does a fully capitalized sentence give a sense of urgency? It certainly emotes well.

And to take the words of Ben Harper to heart, “What good is a cynic with no better plan,” some reeducation is in order. I’ve got some really brilliant ideas around this, but I should brainstorm on this to fully realize the genius. I’ll bring you more as this materializes.

Missed Scandinavian Fest [again]

Olaf — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 17:24:37 +0000

For the 13 years now, I’ve missed Atlanta’s very own Scandinavian Festival. The problem is that it’s hosted on one day of the year and I always seem to discover that day after the fact. This year, I was prepared all week. Well, mostly prepared. I had planned on going, though I didn’t bother to see the times or days of the event. I had assumed that the festival would be taking place all weekend, but I was mistaken. It’s a 1-day event at Oglethorpe University. This year, it was on the 13th of October. This time next, this post will remind me of this fact and this entry might actually be about the Scandinavian Festival instead of about how I missed it. If any of readers plan on going, let’s help each other remember to check the dates in advance.

Atlanta Scandinavian Festival

Dragon*Con 2007 :: Wrap-Up

Olaf — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 14:58:54 +0000

Upon arrival at DragonCon Friday evening, I was met by a frantic Jeff at the Hyatt hotel. It would seem that the hotel doesn’t actually guarantee two beds in reserved rooms. A curious approach, as we had booked the room for quad occupancy. To make matters worse, the room presented to Jeff had a window between the main room and the bathroom. Even if this room were used for an individual, It can’t justify a large window into the bathroom. So Jeff put the manager to task on finding us an alternative…and another bed. The hotel was out of beds, so after some time we made do with what they provided. It was actually a nice enough deal, though the time it took to straighten everything out took several hours. They did finally find another bed, but it was a single (small) roll-out bed and not incredibly useful to us. The ladies, arriving later than Jeff and I, picked up an air mattress on their way and saved the day.

Having spent the next couple of hours working around impetuous security personnel at the Hyatt hotel (you’d think it would be a little easier for actual guests to check-in), Jeff and I had fully unloaded three cars worth of supplies and costumes. It was a grueling effort even though we were parked only two blocks from the hotel. Finishing that, we had time enough to grab a quick dinner before the wife and I hit the DragonCon drum circle scene. I usually enjoy this very much and this was my inaugural jam to start the weekend off. As such, it was a little lame. The circle was in full force, but diametrically opposed. There was a small niche on one side that seemed to be taking it upon themselves to run the group. This is all well and good, except that they had formed a sub circle of their own – one that was not large enough to accommodate any dancers. That, and the other side of the room was cut-off and unable to hear their rhythm through the throng of dancers in the room. So they attempted to follow along only to create a contrast to the rhythm. It was also proving difficult running the circle on the star drummers that had taken the lead. Burn-out drummers, I can say. The type that crank up a really great sound up front, but drive everyone else to play faster. It just creates a chaos in the end that is destined to burn out. The larger the circle, the more definition needed to highlight the rhythm distinctions. The group that puts this on is in discussions on the subject for next year.

DragonCon in general proved to be more than the three hotels could manage under heightened security measures. Security was tighter than in years past and the con suffered for it. Despite there efforts however, some people did manage to slip through and attend the panels they had paid to see. We didn’t manage to see many panels ourselves, but only because we were busy doing other things. We did catch the Star Trek Reunion panel in which the audience asked some questions that the celebrities didn’t answer. Some of the questions were kind of lame, but the three cast members of Star Trek attending the con this year should have made more of an effort to answer the questions. Humor the geeks, mkay. If they do something like this in the future, the coordinators should really work up some questions before the panel and present them to the talent beforehand. That way proper answers can be prepared, and good questions often lead to more.

Masquerade this year was really good. Grant and Kari hosted the annual costume ball this year. They did a good job together. Grant was showing off his over-the-top nerd trivia. The guy knows his Sci-Fi! Spazz and Fox were also in the masquerade this year. A first for any of us! They dressed as the Duct Tape Pirates – also a first at DragonCon as far as any of us know. Their costumes were perfect! When they first entered the stage, the crowd gave them complimentary “oooohhhh’s” to the detailed description of their ornate costumes. Feathers, ornaments, lace, etc. At the end – we planned the description just right – they dropped the duct tape bomb on the crowd. It was smooooooth. They went wild. It was one of those roars of excitement that can only build from thousands of people. The girls got kudos everywhere we went that night and they deserved it. If not for the fantastic effort they put into their costumes, then for walking around in uncomfortable duct tape costumes while smiling for their adoring audience.

There’s too much for me to get my mind around, so I’ll just close this up with a link to the pictures. This year, Flickr really exploded after the event with DragonCon photos. If you want to see thousands more, check the tag dragoncon2007.

Flickr: Olaf’s Dragon*Con Set (Multiple Years)

Costume Parade on Peachtree St.

Olaf — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 16:45:18 +0000

Wake-up, coffee, parade, lunch. The morning just flew by, but being a drummer in the parade was a blast! We all took a part in it; Fox dancing, Jeff as PeeWee Herman, and Amanda as Ms. Yvonne.

I was able to work with the crowd more this year and give out some nods and smiles as I saw their faces. It doesn’t sound like much, but I find it really hard to do much of anything while I’m improvising on the dumbek.

Fox worked hard to keep up with float *and* entertain the crowd with a spot of performance here and there. It’s hard to walk at parade pace and belly dance. PeeWee and Ms. Yvonne were very unique in their costumes. Definitely an original idea, and one that got a lot of attention!

If you were in the 5th annual DragonCon parade, or an on-looker, leave me a comment with a link to your pictures or video! See you at the con!

DragonCon 2007

Olaf — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:12:49 +0000

It occurred to me half-way through this week that I hadn’t really said anything about DragonCon on my blog. Well, it’s that time again! The wife, and our surrogate siblings have been extremely busy – staying up into the wee-hours – to get things ready for the event. Whether it was finishing up other work or directly working on costumes, none of us have logged many hours of sleep this week. And that is good preparation for Labor Day weekend, as it’s unlikely we’ll get a lot of extra sleep in Atlanta at the biggest Sci-Fi/Fantasy/{insert genre here} conference in the world! If you aren’t going, you should at least swing into Altanta (Peachtree St. at the Big Three hotels – Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt) for the parade. Last year saw 1400 costumes and this years promises more. Once again, I’ll be on the drummer’s float with my wife dancing on the street. It should be a good time…

See last year’s pictures (and this year’s as they come), here.

Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone

Olaf — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 21:02:30 +0000

I broke out of my comfort zone in two big ways this weekend; both involving drumming. When it comes to personal challenges, those involving my creative efforts are the most difficult to engage. A failure at something coming from creativity is a personal one, to me. However, I don’t feel that I lost in either of my explorations this weekend.

I’ll start with the last event because I’ve only just sat down from it recently. The wife and I rallied the surrogate siblings (DR Boy and Spazzmanda) to join us in facilitating a drum circle for the United Hospice. The event was held at Tallulah Falls, GA for Camp Cocoon – a bereavement camp for children. Alchemy Drumming & Dance was called to put together a drum circle for children ages 5-17. About 60 of them. So four people made the trip to the Tallulah Gorge with a van full of buckets, beaters, and various percussion instruments. The intense sound of kids with percussion instruments filled every corner of an outdoor gymnasium. My wife and Spazzmanda brought their dance moves to the floor and got everybody hopping to the groove DR Boy and I laid down. I think we found some closet drummers, dancers, and gymnasts! The whole gig was a volunteer effort by the Alchemy crew and I think it was really rewarding to everyone. We got a lot of really great compliments from the camp organizers. Each of us also found a little something in ourselves in the challenge.

I also had a Friday night gig with Christine Zaarour at the Mezza lounge in Decatur. I met Christine at a debke workshop. My wife and her friend were there to learn the dance style and do a couple of performances afterwards. That’s also where I performed my first drum solo, and also the reason Christine was interested in having me out at her performance at Mezza. She’s from Lebanon and doesn’t know any drummers in the area, but “I’m the best drummer she knows” sounds better. It so happened that Mezza was having a private party coming that night and was standing room only. 50 or 60 people showed up to see Christine Zaarour perform her dance routines…and I’d have my ultimate test as a solo drum performer. I think everyone had a really good time – it was really a party by the end of the night, which came quite late. The food at Mezza is really wonderful as well. The nicest people, live entertainment, and delicious Lebanese food – this place has it all! Against the staff’s expectations, I also had some Arabic coffee. It’s not entirely different from the Minas coffee I’ve had from Bosnia.

So a weekend of opportunities taken. Stepping out of my comfort zone; once while performing as a solo drummer for Mezza, and again at Camp Cocoon as a facilitator for children of all ages. I think next weekend I’ll try mowing the lawn. Talk about breaking out of your comfort zone!