Cool Stuff and Wrap Up

Beautiful Chinese Dance

I found this video when looking for some of the China Olympic videos. The blurb by the person who posted it didn't give a great explanation of where it's from, but I think it is beautiful. It encompasses ideas of a major religion in the area. It also has the highly choreographed hand movements.

Gamelan with Dance

Here you can watch a man dancing to the Gamelan. Notice his clothing. I think it's pretty, but looks effeminate. The drum player is jamming! I can't tell if the dancer is actually playing. His movements are detailed and meticulous.

Karate (Taylor Lautner)

Karate is a Japanese word. When my father was in the military, he broke his wrist playing football and didn't have to go to Vietnam. Instead he was sent to Japan where he earned a black belt in Karate. So here's the catch - I couldn't find a very good video of karate.. so we're going to watch famous werewolf Taylor Lautner who was world champion in martial arts as a boy. His stunts are amazing.

Aussie Party

We went over Aborigines music in Australia. I watched this clip on best week ever, and it features a teenage from Australia. It shows that teens have bad attitudes, break the rules, and just want to have fun in Australia as well!! I think that the last 28 seconds are the funniest. Enjoy.

1. What is something you learned about another culture this term that surprised or intrigued you?

The lament in Ecuador at the child’s wake particularly moved me. It was heart wrenching, but it was a beautiful expression of universal human emotion. The love for a child and grief for her loss was mingled with a celebration for the afterlife. I was intrigued that these emotions were expressed though dissonant music (vacacion). I felt that the order of the music was metaphorical for the way we cope after death. The wailing had the greatest affect on me. It's still very potent in my mind.

2. What is something that you realized about your own culture through our discussions.

I realized the despite that the distance between my home and the places we’ve studied, the musical cultures are not so far removed. My culture shares many of the same values. We have music for mourning, fighting, courting, dancing, and worship. I also observed how intermingled music becomes. Not only do we have similar reasons for making music, but our musical styles, especially in popular music today, have adopted music from all over the world.

3. What is something that this course has inspired you to learn more about.

The Tibetan monks have inspired me to learn more about the practice of sustained notes. I was fascinated by how low the voices were singing and how they achieved the obvious overtones. I also want to learn more about music enhances meditation and how music helps keep balance among the chakras.