March 14, 2004

• Hi

  
  

  Well, time keeps rolling on, bringing with it the usual accompaniments and a few high points. One such high point was a concert we went to see last night. It was a fundraiser for the local summer folk festival, and featured a wonderfully eclectic set of performers:

  
  

  First up was Enoch Kent, a legendary Scottish singer-songwriter and interpreter of traditional material. He's been at this for half a century, on his own and in groups with people like Peggy Seeger and Ewan McColl. he was great, with his gravelly voice and masterful stage presence.

  
  

  Next came Jeremy Moyer, a young Canadian who plays Chinese traditional music on a variety of fiddle-type instruments, as well as composing music for the erhu. He was accompanied by a guitarist and a percussionist and put on a dignified but fun set.

  
  

  After the intermission came some lovely bluegrass from Lyle Friesen and Tom Nunn (and another man whose name I can't remember). Guitar, fiddle and mandolin, played blazingly fast. Foot-stomping goodness.

  
  

  Rounding off the evening was Rukanas, a group from South America, playing the traditional music of the Andes. I love Peruvian music, and they were very good -- lots and lots of energy, and some of them played as many as 4 different instruments in the course of a single song!

  
  

  So that was the concert. A lovely evening. Unfortunately, it also served to highlight my displeasure with our current state of existence here -- too poor and uprooted to take advantage of most of the opportunities which come from living so close to the center of activity. Left me feeling kind of blue for the rest of the evening, though I'm doing a bit better today. I wish I had a better idea of what the future has in store for us, but that's not to be I guess. Just have to find out where we're going when we get there...

  
  

  Ok. On to the ridiculous. Another couple of sightings: A favourite recent one is a TV commercial for Nicorette¢ç, a nicotine gum. During one part, an actor pops one into his mouth and chews it. The caption at the bottome of the screen reads "Use proper chewing technique". The next thing comes from Korea. Which I was there, a book was released. it was a book to help you improve your English in practical ways. I just happen to think the title is a bit unfortunate.

  
  

  

  
  

  And one final thing for today. As many of you know, my wife and I lived in South Korea from October 2002 - October 2003. This evening, I've been dipping into some of the audio I made over there, and I thought you might like to hear some from my students. Today, I offer you my youngest students (ages 4-6) singing a song in Korean. I don't know the name of it, but they practiced it so much that I could practically sing along. If you like this one, I'll post more some time.

  
  

  Song (1.1Mb)

  
  

  Well, that's enough of that. I'm tickled pink by the recent wealth of visitors and comments, and I'd like to thank you all for dropping by.

  
  

  Take care
  -Justin-

  • 10:29 pm
  • 22 Comments