Archive for the ‘Kultcha’ Category
Monday, October 9th, 2006
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Hi Pam,
I saw from your recent post that you are interested in traveling to South America. I thought I would pass along our website, which we launched a few months ago.
On The Road Travel (www.ontheroadtravel.com) is a resource for culturally-focused independent travelers. We have local editors who keep our content up-to-date and provide unique cultural insights. Although we are only covering three countries at the moment we have plans to expand throughout Latin America shortly.
Enjoy!
Jen Hamilton
Founder, On The Road Travel
www.ontheroadtravel.com
Posted in Kultcha | 1 Comment »
Sunday, August 27th, 2006
The biggest obstacle between me and my paints over the past few years hasn’t been time or even, really, money. It’s been finding a place to work. About two months ago I moved into a little basement space that’s seven blocks from my front door. And finally, things are starting to come together the way I want them to. It’s pretty painful to think about getting on a plane just when I’m learning how to use my materials again.
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While I’m being all alt-kultcha, I heard a track by Dave Bazan on the radio the other day and I really like it. Go here and select Selling Advertising from the play box in the top right corner. Them’s some scathing lyrics, Mr. Bazan. Ouch.
[tags]art, painting, oil paints, wax medium, studio space, Dave Bazan[/tags]
Posted in Kultcha | 3 Comments »
Friday, August 25th, 2006
If you think you don’t want to see a play about semi-pro wrestling, especially one that has an overtly homoerotic subplot, well, to my stunned surprise, you’re wrong.
Last night I was lucky enough to catch Piledriver at the Cap Hill Arts Center. I found it wildly entertaining. Oh, sure, it’s obscene. It’s rife with profanity. It openly represents and explicity discusses gay sex. And there’s a whole lotta body slammin’ going on - after all, it’s about semi-pro wrestling. But tangled in all the showy head banging and theatrical bouncing off the ropes, there’s a good story, rich character development, and loads of laugh out loud humor.
The unlikely hero of the show is the writer. Harvey is a lumpy, aging, ex drag queen with crazy hair who sets up all the story lines around each night’s show. My friend K - who invited me to tag along - is an editor and writer and the two of us cheered like crazy when ever they made writing gags. (I didn’t mention the whole audience particpation thing.) Something that had us both hysterical? A scene where the wrestlers are arguing about the plot line. Harvey interupts with something like:
You don’t like the plot line? You don’t like where things are going? Well, F**K YOU! It’s my show. I’m the writer and you’ll follow the story EXACTLY THE WAY I TELL YOU TO.
Close enough.We were also big fans of this classic bit of ridiculous snark:
Do I look smaller to you? That’s because I’m WALKING AWAY!
The play is funny, raunchy, well staged, well acted, engaging, and, simply, a really good time. But hurry up, it’s only on for two more nights at CHAC. Get tix here.
Posted in Kultcha, Seattle | 1 Comment »
Sunday, July 30th, 2006
Do a little dance…
make a little love…
get down tonight!
More pictures here of burly dudes in skirts kilts hurling heavy things, folks of all sizes pounding on stuff and blowing into other stuff, and plaid, plaid, and more plaid. And Knox has a nice write up of our day out here.
[tags]Scottish Highland Games, Enumclaw, tartan, kilts[/tags]
Posted in Kultcha, Pics | 1 Comment »
Sunday, July 16th, 2006
Click here for Bon Odori music (Windows Media Player) and here for pictures.
During the Bon Odori festival in Seattle, our Japanese American neighbors put on traditional dress and dance in the streets to honor their ancestors. There are taiko drums and snacks and exhibits in the Buddhist temple. It’s also a very welcoming festival - everyone can join in the dance. While the dancers circle the street, there are leaders in the middle where you can see them. The motions are fairly simple. There’s a fishing song that includes the motions of throwing nets in to the sea and pulling them back in, and a digging song, where it’s easy to imagine the shovels. There’s a lantern dance with slow and deliberate motions. Once, when the street was particularly packed, the MC joyfully called out - “Ah, the ancestors are very happy now!”
The religions underpinnigs of the festival are found the story of the monk, Mokuren. While meditating, he saw his deceased mother starving in the Hell of Hungry Ghosts. Any food she touched burst into flames. Mokuren appealed to Shakyamuni Buddha to save her. Shakyamuni told Mokuren that in order overcome his mother’s selfish past life karma, he should feed his fellow monks upon their upcoming return from a retreat. The monk followed Shakyamuni’s instructions and danced for joy when his mother and seven generations of his ancestors were freed from their suffering. (Copied and edited from the San Francisco Buddhist Church site)
It’s a nice morality tale. Feeding your fellow man makes the ancestors happy. And that makes you happy. Seeing our neighbors dancing together in the streets certainly made me happy.
[tags]Bon Odori, Seattle, Japanese culture, dancing[/tags]
Posted in Kultcha, Seattle | 1 Comment »
Saturday, July 8th, 2006
No, I couldn’t wait. Sorry. Sort of. Okay, not really. No spoilers, I promise.
- Octopus head Davy Jones is just not the adversary that Geoffrey Rush (Barbossa) was, even with a sea monster at his beck and call.
- If scurvy really did do a number on your choppers, there’s some reasonable facsimiles of shipboard dental work amongst the character actors.
- Maurading islanders in a tropic paradise is a movie theme that never gets old, no matter how hokey it is.
- Swordfighting stunts, on the other hand, unless extremely well done, start to bore me.
- Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightly could well be the most beautiful stars of the big screen today, but I’d trade both in the blink of an eye for Johnny Depp in beaded dreadlocks and smudged eyeliner.
Posted in Kultcha | 1 Comment »
