white dog

kamakiri and semi hear to see

2008-10-24T04:54:00.000-07:00

if you want to hear our free interpretation of praying mantis or japanese cicada, visit my myspace-address:
www.myspace.com/heininukari

kyoto full of water

2008-10-24T04:43:00.000-07:00

it has been raining for three days in kyoto. luckily our guest house has lots of transparent umbrellas for everybody to use. yesterday we made a kyoto-marathon. under our umbrellas, we criss-crossed the city by visiting numerous shrines, temples and zen-gardens. bamboo, moss and pines in their various greens and the mountains around kyoto steaming out the dampness makes you feel you want to breath in the landscape. it was a fine walk but little bit too long. in the we were so exhausted that our legs hardly carried us back up to our tatami room.
today we just stayed in our cosy neighbourhood up in the north of kyoto. i visited an old onsen which happens to be opposite our place. there is almost nothing better in the world than to be sitting in the hot outside bath, surrounded by stones and pines and feel the rain pouring down on the steaming skin.

spider above the akiyoshidai skyline

2008-10-17T02:01:00.000-07:00

in the backround you see the mountain with the cobwebed trail.

temple dog

2008-10-13T03:16:00.000-07:00

this is MIDORI-CHAN, a real japan dog. MIDORI CHAN is already 10 years old and lives in a small buddhist temple in the countryside. he never barks. his main occupation is to guard the temple and its 800-year-wooden sitting buddha silently. his past-time occupation is to be patient with the three small children of the temple's family. MIDORI-CHAN is also friends with a raccoon dog family (the famous TANUKI!). every evening the TANUKI mother with her kids is coming out of the forest to share MIDORI-CHAN's dinner cup outside the temple.

places of spirit

2008-10-05T20:08:00.000-07:00

we have visited many homes. we have been wellcomed by warm people who open their kitchens, gardens, tatami rooms and holy places for us. they guide us the through their rooms, reveal their best recipies and let us document a piece of their life.
we document pictures and sounds but i also wish we could capture the quality of air and smell. i have tuned myself and my field mike on every level of sound which is flowing in from all directions. cicadas seducing, kitchen knives cutting, mothers talking to themself, bells being shaked, nuts cracking, people laughing, radios and televisions sets singing on and on. and there in the middle of all this maybe one moment of silence and contemplation. the pictures of those places capture that moment.

observed by nature

2008-09-27T03:55:00.000-07:00

each day the japanese nature is revealing some new creatures and features. it is somewhat wilder than i remembered. last year i was almost every day climbing up the nearest mountain but this time i only did it once till now. one of the reasons is that the path is full of spider webs which cross the path in every possible angle. and the spiders are big. big and in various colors and types. their webs are full of victims. this all makes me hesitate. i don't want any physical contact with these spiders. the only way to proceed on the mountain trail, was to have a long stick with which i was breaking the webs in front of me and waiting for the spiders to move aside (which they did very reluctantly.) i made my way till the top of the mountain but i was bathed in sweat and somewhat mesmerized. furthermore, i felt like a coward being afraid of spiders!

there are lots of snakes as well. i respect them. this week we were observing one pretty impressive one with a beautiful ornament on his back. the snake was entering the stone pavement in front of our accomodation building. it coiled around a flower pot and thought himself hidden.

then the insects. we have been told that the end of summer is the high time for the insects. the most loud ones are the various cicadas in different pitches and melodies. some of them sound like garden machines, some like very fine bells. i have been recording their sound day and night. it is a wonder how their small bodies are able to produce such loud and fine sound! you almost never see the cicadas unless one drops dead in front of you. they only live seven days so it is possible. we found one and made a picture of it.
we also made a portrait of an other impressive insect which is the praying mantis. one day a dying mantis was right in front of joerg's dark room door. he picked the insect up and put it into the fridge where it died peacefully. praying mantis (=KAMAKIRI) has huge eyes which can indeed see. furthermore, its head can turn 300 degrees. when one approaches KAMAKIRI, it clearly turns its head towards you and looks. looks straight at you. it is confusing, being observed by an insect.

IKI IKI ladies in concert

2008-09-18T00:17:00.001-07:00

Last year i was blogging about my meeting with the legendary IKI IKI ladies, a choir of 40 elder women living in the village near Akiyoshidai. This group of vital women (the oldest being 96 years old) meets up once a month to sing Japanese songs. I have had the honor to be adopted as their grandchild and soulmate in singing. This time we were visiting together a hospital for very old people. This visit was connected with the national holiday for respecting the elderly. IKI IKI ladies had prepared a beautiful singing program which they performed all dressed in soft pink shirts. The last song was about TANUKI (refers to the famous japanese raccoon dog) called SHOO-JOO-JI. This was my moment to sing it first as a solo since TANUKI played a special role in my performance last year. This is a song which everybody knows and all the elderly and IKI IKIs were joining me. i felt old and young in the same time.
IKI IKI ladies will live long.
IKINAGA =longlivety

JAPAN part 2 -SHIROI KITSUNE

2008-09-18T00:17:00.000-07:00

long time ago, a white wounded fox was wandering around the area which is nowadays known as yamaguchi in the western japan. she was sniffing about the volcanic earth till she found several springs with crystal clear hot water. she put her wounded and tired paws into the steaming spring and relaxed. the water was healing her wounds, making her fur shine and giving the fox new energy. ever since, the hot springs in yamaguchi are dedicated to the SHIROI KITSUNE.

one day not so long time ago, a white dog arrived in yamaguchi. she was worn out after a long trip through the air. following the white fox’s example, she found her way to the hot springs and put her paws to the soothing water. how she was enjoying! the water had lost nothing of its healing powers. and it was for free and just by the street. even a poor dog could plunge her paws into the pool every day if she so wished! thank you KITSUNE!

pacific time 4

2008-04-01T21:25:00.000-07:00

i have recovered from my ear trouble and can fully enjoy the april in blooming california. it is also high time that i praise the place where i have been living already one month now: the headlands center of arts in the golden gate national recreation area in marin headlands. this artist residency is located by the ocean in a formal us army base which is why the nature has stayed more or less untouched, if you don’t count the rotting nike-and missile station relics which tell their own story about the history of fear in this country. but the sea air and the coastal scrubland have done its best to disguise those stains.
before the spanish came 1769, this area was inhabited by miwok-indians. last miwoks died already 100 years ago but the feeling of their energy has in some level survived over the spanish enslavement, the building up san francisco and the military times. it is somehow incoded in the nature; i can almost feel how the miwoks were peacefully living on this special soil and respecting the powerful ocean.
today this area is inhabited by wealthy hippies and us artists who stay in this wonderland for a while. it is amazing that this coastal wilderness is only 10 minutes drive from san francisco over the golden gate bridge and yet you can daily meet big-eyed deers, lazy-looking bowcats, sly coyotes and vulgar turkeys spyed by flying turkey vultures. there is also some mountain lions which i haven’t managed to encounter yet. instead i’ve seen sympathetic sea lions.the hills are full of blooming small flowers but also poison oak, a bitter pseudo-oak with poisonous oil on its leaves. the ocean is always cool, beautiful but unpredictable and the coastal slopes steep and crumbling. but when i watch the wide sea horizon, there is no doubt that our planet is round and i feel in peace with it.

pacific time 3

2008-03-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

i have a double ear infection in my left ear. for one week now i am half-deaf but hearing my own voice overly loud. anybody who has ever experienced ear infection, knows how uncomfortable state this is. my infection is a result of non-healed virus which has been storming inside my body for one month now. some months ago i was writing about my left side being the vulnerable yet creative part of me. so of course the infection attacked my left ear and stiffened all the muscles on the left side of my neck! loosing half of the hearing influences every bit of my life and on top of that there is the nauseous and spinning side-effects of antibiotics. my balance is shaky, my moving lacks groundedness and singing is no fun. in the company of others i feel cut off, isolated and different from them. i am caged in my own head-capsule listening my own blood bounce and mix with the undefined sonic information from somewhere outside. how long will the infection hold its grip of my ear?!
so, actually i wrote that text yesterday. my ear is still stuck but i can make the eardrum move little bit by pushing air in to the ear. i have been also inhaling fresh eucalyptus leaves and cones, which i collect just behind my house. you can always trust the nature, its remedies are there free for us to use.

pacific time 2

2008-02-25T20:30:00.000-08:00

where ever i go in the world, i meet wise old women. in the golden gate park's japanese tea garden i met a vivid old lady who told me her amazing life story. she emigrated from germany to america after the war about 60 years ago. she married a hawaiian tennis player and lived with him 20 years in Hawaii. since her husbands early died while playing tennis she lives near the golden gate park in san francisco and has a son who is a tennis teacher. she never visited germany again but was overjoyed to be able to talk german with me. we became friends and decided to meet again in the golden gate park.
yesterday there was a party in the house where i am staying this month. my landlady has a fantastic family who joined us towards the evening. i specially got the honor to get to know her mother who is a remarkable woman. she is well over 70 but keeps on traveling to china where she feels at home. we were talking about the manyfold roots which human beings can have; roots which reach far beyond our present lives. this woman has followed her heart and intuition and is radiating peace, warmth and understanding. i was touched by her.

pacific time 1

2008-02-20T20:11:00.000-08:00

total lunar eclipse took place today between 7 pm and 7:51 pm pacific time zone. i witnessed it by standing by the lake shore in oakland. the full moon was totally in earth's shadow but shining faintly through. i smoked a nat sherman cigarette while contemplating our sublime relation with the moon. i was not the only one observing the eclipse but mostly the people were just jogging and driving by. or sweating in the gyms in an after-work frenzy. people here are like uptight show horses with bit and blinkers but they do have to work hard to try to make their bodies fulfill the criteria.
but in the same time, there is a creative ease and joy, an open mind and direct friendliness which elevates the days and makes them fun:) more about this, that and other will follow...

left side

2007-12-21T02:11:00.000-08:00

i write with the left hand, i eat with the left hand. i use my right ear to talk in the phone and i prefer right side for doing card wheels. my right side is more stable but the left side is more like me. it is less regular: the left ear looks more unique than the right and my hair has a parting on the left side of the head. at the moment my left knee is cracking and my left shoulderplate has a twisted muscle which hurts. the resonance points in my left foot are more sensitive than in the right. the left part is communicating more. it might be capricious but therefore even more beloved. due to its unperfection, it has an ongoing potential for development and surprise.

white notes

2007-11-20T01:33:00.000-08:00

finally i own a white notebook. it has pretty much changed my life like a new house pet would. i feed it with my material and it feeds me back by digesting the things i feed it with. the most important is that it takes in my sounds and puts them to nice little data files which i can neatly name. it makes order out of my creative chaos. and then i can calmly sit down and start to play around with the sound datas: mix them, loop them, sing on to them and add little bit of nice echo effect. i know the danger of too much possibilities though, so i keep it simple and reduced with the motto less is more. but this is a revelation for me because finally i can proove myself that i am able to enter the world of digital audio language and use it to support the archaic but ever present ways of sounding.

360° stories

2007-10-30T06:11:00.000-07:00

last week i was performing for people who were sitting all around me. i noticed that this was the first time for me. during my solo i kept turning and turning. suddenly there were so many directions and every one of them felt different. i felt safe, surrounded by people, like in a nest.
i think this is the way people used to perform to each other: storyteller in the middle of a warm breathing circle. the frontal thinking in performing must have come much later, in a time when the form took over, the preoccupation of looks and surface.
i am myself often a captive of frontal flat thinking. i do like to create pictures which only work in certain directions, it's sometimes very neat but but but...it is a revelation not to worry about it. performing circular gives the spectators various point of views what comes to movement and sound. in a circle the concentration keeps better and is much more a shared experience.
one can also forget the angular and often boring and even ugly spaces (=rooms) in which performances take place. i want more of this round performing! i want more performing in general!

pedaling days

2007-09-24T09:54:00.000-07:00

this month i bike through the city every day. i zigzag among the tourist busses around check point charlie and stand on the traffic lights with other bikers on the crossing at alexanderplatz. in my bag i have training clothes, a water bottle, some self-made banana cake and a small book for notes and ideas. in the place where i’m heading, my body will be manipulated, strecthed, tickled and gently exhausted. it is made to sound and move, alone and with others, in direct and indirect relationships to itself, others and space.
we play our bodies with great concentration. we take seriously even the most strange bit of potential quality and give it a chance. big part of the work will not get a chance to develop outside this space but some bits will even end up being presented outside. it is like extracting gold out of a big junk of mixed minerals.
when i bike back at the end of the day, my training clothes are used, the water bottle empty and the cake finished while the body and the notebook are little bit more full of something exciting which keeps on cooking while standing in the traffic lights. but i also wonder how the other bikers’ day has been.

collector calls again

2007-08-31T08:26:00.000-07:00

in my nearest park there is a circular section called duft garten -blinden und behinderten garten = scent garden -garden for the blind and handicapped. i don't know what was the original idea for its name but is has some smelling herbs in it, planted high on the circular earthbeds. this week my collector's instinct was calling me so strongly that i went in with a plastic bag and collected thyme till an old copple stepped in and i had to hide the bag. now we have fresh thyme on our breakfast sandwiches. already this gives me satisfaction. i will soon go there again and collect the stock for the rest of the year.
maybe part of this instict is also my new membership in the biggest bio supermarket in town. the membershipcard gives me an alibi to discover ever so attractive bio products in this green consumer's paradise. but that's about the only place i buy anything anyway nowadays!

collector's instinct

2007-08-11T01:58:00.000-07:00

i belong to the group of people whose blood line must go back to the collector’s period, before the agricultural era began. i love to collect all kinds of goodies from the forest: blueberries, raspberries, cranberries and mushrooms. i experience a deep satisfaction and joy in finding good spoils in hidden places in the forest. then i am at peace with myself and with the world. my fingers are steadily working and stretching towards the berries and my thoughts are wandering freely. sometimes i’m crouching in impossible positions to reach a specially full branch of berries. i do feel pain in the back but i ignore it, at least to some point. i even endure the insects, mosquitos, ants and flyes of all kinds.
my joy has its roots in the collector’s instinct which again consists of pure survival need (food!) but also on the smells and colours these berries and mushrooms have. all my senses are partaking in the collecting.
the action is so overwhelming that later when i close my eyes, i continue to see berrybushes and mushrooms in the moss and my fingers keep smelling of them.
i don’t understand people who ignore all this abundance in the forest! luckily in finland it is aloud to pick up berries everywhere, no matter who owns the forest. i can move freely about but i do crouch and hide myself automatically if i see someone else. i think it’s somehow also an instict not to be seen by others while in the forest.(in order not to reveal the spoils for the other?)
specially the wild raspberries have been wonderful this year. i don't remeber any summer like this.there is relatively little worms and the berries almost drop to the hand. and the taste is so nobel and fine, the colour so raspberry-like red! it is a treat " de lux" to eat wild raspberries!
it is just sad that the only time i can follow my collector's instict is in the summer, that is in the month of july and part of august. no good. here in berlin they often plant wild berry bushes in the courtyards. this morning i was longingly noticing the riping berries in the buckthorn bushes outside this house...

climatic moods

2007-06-13T01:43:00.000-07:00

i am more and more affected by weather. when the air pressure sinks, my blood pressure goes down and my head spins. when electricity fills the air in the thunderstorm i feel my hair standing erect and excitement in the heart.
i think i'm not the only one. there is clearly days when the city is full of moody and nervous people and i think we can often blame the weather. it's as if the extreme weather conditions stretch our nerves and try to fragment our minds. furthermore, berlin is situated more or less exactly between two climatic fronts: the west-european cloudy humidity and the east-european continental dry air. and to these we can add the "böen" coming from somewhere. i can observe these different fronts meeting on the berliner sky from our flat in the 13th floor. this summer has performed already several thunderstorms with all the special effects. but also amazing rainbows which always seem to start and end from the same spot.
i think nobody can deny the fact that the climat is changing. global warming is everywhere. the term has become almost fashionable and it's shamelessly used in advertising whatever. oh, yes, it's good that we talk about it, so much so that the real seriousness behind it starts to vanish as we get used to it. only, it will get worse and this frightens me. the weather is taking on new unknown forms which affect us in unpredictable ways. indeed catastrophies...touching even the grey and "safe" mid-europe. in some ways i also wellcome them as the storms cleansing the air. and maybe, when we really hit the bottom or meet the eye of the hurricane, we will suddenly see more clearly.

sunglasses!

2007-05-27T06:35:00.000-07:00

i finally have them: big sunglasses which make me look like a fly.i have been hunting for them for two years.
i have a very difficult face for any kind of sunglasses. the round, childlike form with the ski jumper's nose makes most glasses look akward and not fitting. many years i was trying to convince myself that i cannot go for the big ones. but they are the only ones that fit and sit and protect! i need the sunglasses specially against the flying insects. when i'm biking they always tend to aim for my eyes.
why sunglasses make you feel cool? in a way, i'm against this sunglass-culture in which you can always hide yourself behind these dark windows. i feel abstract and uncomfortable when communicating with somebody without seeing their eyes. my glasses are at least not so dark. and on the other hand, the ultraviolet light is increasing and maybe it is worth to protect our precious eyes.so, let's all be flies...zzzzzzzz.

sounding in south of france

2007-05-08T14:43:00.000-07:00

i have been up-dating this blog already severyl times, but only in my mind. the last weeks i spent in the chateau de malerargues, a place among the mountains of cevennes in south of france where there was no chance to be linked with the net. that was good in many ways. i got to practise my hand writing and could fully concentrate on the subject i was there for: voice. i was training and exploring it with the excellent Roy Hart teachers. Or rather, i was "sounding" how Noah Pikes would call it.
How good it was to strech the vocal folds, the whole body and all its resonating parts from head to toe.this work dives deep into the unconscious and stirs the sources, wakes them up and gives sound for them. from giants and kings to queens, witches and femme fatales and everything between.ah, what a spectrum of stuff we are made of!!!
i indeed got a kick again. and it has something to do with the place itself, malerargues and france. it's little bit magic and sensual to go there. maybe already because it's very difficult to get there. this time i travelled by using the airplane, bus, three different trains and a car. but it's worth the trouble. now, back in berlin, i'm relishing my experiences and intending to keep on sounding.

lost in transition

2007-04-09T02:46:00.000-07:00

well, i didin't have a chance to blog in japan anymore. or let's say that we experienced so much every day through our trip to fukuoka, kyoto and tokyo that i didn't have mental space to write.every city was very different in landscape and atmosphere.in fukuoka there was the fresh ocean air, kyoto was like a mossy precious stone and tokyo like an urban dream. thank you to friends in fukuoka and tokyo for giving us such a special memories about those cities! now we are back in berlin but in the night i keep on dreaming about japan as if i'm still there. so in a way the japan time is still going on...
i don't know exactly how to continue this blog; here in europe i won't experience such a exciting things every day! but i have a wish to keep on writing anyway. maybe it will even help me to adapt to this life again. or to make me see it in a fresh way...hm, a bit difficult. berlin is berlin. lazy slow atmosphere, people sitting on the cafes outside, consuming amounts of cafe latte and "kuchen", casual cool behavior. biking, being practical, down to earth. but at least it's spring and the blackbirds are singing frantically!

leaving akiyoshidai

2007-03-20T17:21:00.000-07:00

i'm leaving the residency today. i am overwhelmed by the generosity of this place. yesterday we all climbed up the mountain for a pick-nick. i had my first beer here under the sun and got my nose red. on the way down we digged bambus sprouts from the wild boar's spoils. so indeed, the spring has arrived. today is the spring equinox and it is a holiday -one of the only ones-in japan.
now i start the 10-day sightseeing tour in japan with my man. it's gonna be very tightly scheduled adventure but luckily there is the shinkansen bullet train system to take me and joerg go comfortably from place to place with the speed of an arrow. i will blog if there is a chance.

experimental breakfast

2007-03-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

i insist on having breakfast here allthough it seems that for the japanese it's the least important meal of the day. i think traditionally it's miso soup, fish and pickles but nowadays they either eat the left overs from previous evening, take a bite on some plastic-like sweet bun or skip it alltogether. but i can't start my day like that! and i cannot eat just crackers for breakfast. they dry me up...
the difficulty is to find here the ingredients which belong to the solid finno-germanic breakfast culture. the thing they call bread here is the worst example of an american influenced jewy and chemically preserved toast. with cheese it's little bit better because the hokkaido prefecture has cows and therefore produces camembert which is actually quite tasty. that's the only cheese i find in the countryside shop. so, i have been improvising in the mornings: today i had three "mochis" (a sticky rice cake which grows when grilled) with soy sauce and grass from the forest. yesterday i had plain rice with umeboshi and sesam seeds. the day before yesterday i ate the left over spagetti soaked in olive oil and garnished with spinach, raisins and the hokkaido-cheese. sometimes i even cook a kind of my own style miso soup (without the fish broth) and eat it with soba noodles which i adore. and all these variations are combined with espresso coffee. i brought my own espresso machine (the very traditional aluminium one) with me. it took me over a month though to find out the one and only electric cooking plate which doesn't refuse to heat the alu pot! this means that before i have the breakfast in front of me, i have been running up and down the stairs between my room and the common kitchen with the alu-friendly plate.

niko niko maa maa

2007-03-04T23:30:00.000-08:00

i have finally presented all the finippon-go songs to the local audience. in the last week the songs, tanuki-stories and the movement nicely became a real performance called niko niko maa maa. themes around the animals, fishes, seaweed and umeboshi-pickles mixed with emotional songs about aurora borealis, happiness and the place of the heart. i was surprised how responding the japanese public was. but on the other hand i had the whole group of the iki iki-ladies sitting in the first rows and shining towards me! i think the highlight for the audience was the scene in which i announced my love for the umeboshi-plums. people were laughing but told afterwards that they were afraid to laugh too much...in case it would disturb me. i feel very happy and fulfilled now. let's see if there is some more future for the niko niko maa maa in this country, or elsewhere for that matter.
my residency here continues some two weeks still. today a local television has been following in my footsteps. probably the umeboshi-thing has made me famous, because they insisted on filming me in the local super market in front of the various umeboshi packages. they don't stop wondering how an alien person (that is how a foreigner is literally called here) can so much fancy this sour pickle! oh, and then we visited again the restaurant-lady with her fulfilled tanuki. she was happy to present her precious stuffed figure again and tell the story how her dog had hunted this tanuki for hours 25 years ago. and it took 1 1/2 days to fulfill the dead animal. and i got to touch this tanuki's balls again.

singing children and burning mountains

2007-02-24T01:28:00.000-08:00

the communication with the village people (or actually it's called shuho-town) is so active that it there is hardly time to rehearse my songs. one whole day we spent in the primary school where i was given 20 children, all about 7 to 8 years old. they were all in neat school uniforms and with well combed shiny hair but oh, so sweet and lively! they learnt niko niko maa maa very quickly and even showed real interest towards the land of moomins:) but the best part of the class was when i asked them to show me their songs...and soon we were playing together the "elephant song" (yksi pieni elefantti marssi nain...) and "stone, paper, scissors". in the end they all played mouth harmonica concert for me. after the class was lunch time. i was waiting in the teacher's room while the children were preparing the class room for the meal. when they caught me by the hand for lunch, everything was neatly organized in front of me: miso-soup, bowl of rise, fish, half a banana and a bottle of milk. it was fascinating to see the children eat everything and in the same time asking me to produce animal sounds...i had to be cat, sheep, dog and horse all over again. and while all this was going on, the directress of the school was praising my ability to use chopsticks and a local tv-company was filming close-ups of my eating skill. as a farewell present i got about dozen drawings about me and my japanese translater.
i just hope these children would stay so genuine and lively and not get stiffened up by the modern japanese society as they grow up.
an other communal event was the "yamayaki" or the "burning mountain" which took place this morning. every february since 700 years the village people burn the old grass on the akiyoshidai limestone plateau. the meaning of this ritual is to keep the plateau bare but help the new grass grow healthy. we scattered around this huge area on a circle and set the grass burning all in the same time. the wind was pretty strong and we had to be active hitting the too wild flames with branches to prevent it to escape to the forest. but these people know how to do it; in the end the fire was obediantly eating its way toward the center of the circle. we could just simply observe the fire performance and the black stony soil which the fire left behind.

for the ones who have followed my blog i have to confess that this week i missed the next meeting with the iki iki ladies! they had been waiting for me and i didn't come. i feel bad that i let them down but i still hope there will be a chance to meet them again.

finnippon-go

2007-02-18T01:16:00.000-08:00

now there is a name for this mix language i'm creating here: finnippon-go. the name was given by our japanese curator.
yesrterday i had the chance to try it in practise because we had invited local people to come and visit akiyoshidai art village.
i had made a list of some words which excist both in finnish and japanese or have similar sounds. furthermore, i presented one of my new finnippon-go-songs and i indeed got the people to sing it with me! it was a very special feeling to sing with them this song -maiasa maa maa - which does and doesn't make sense in finnish or japanese but fits for both languages. to help to keep the rhythm i used chopsticks. the next station this week will be teaching it at school for 7 years-old kids. so who knows, maybe yamaguchi prefecture is about to launch finnippon-go as one possible languge to study, at least as a song-writing language.

sense of distance

2007-02-10T23:31:00.000-08:00

time for a update. i have been very absorbed in my project the last week. my working space must have some very good vibes because it's so easy to concentrate there and i nicely forget the time. i don't have a clock in the studio but every time i leave the space it's later than i thought! my project has become somewhat wider. the jap-finno songs are still the main focus but i started to create movement as well. it started with the writing of japanese letters, hiragana and katakana. part of my daily practise is that i meticulously learn to draw these strange letters. by doing that with my clamsy, shaking hand, i noticed how it was about getting the distances right. all the relationships between the shapes are exactly measured and out of this comes the flow and beauty which specially hiragana has. this somehow nonchalant interconnectedness inspired me to try to bring this quality to movement. this week i also got the chance to visit old dancing ladies who practise popular japanese dances. i noticed the same harmonius flow in their steps. the dances which i saw (and took part in one) were very earthbound and feminine, often with fan or a flower in the hand. furthermore, yesterday i finally saw a piece of kyogen-theatre live. and see, there it was: the same sense of space and distances in it. this form of minimal theatre traditionally played only by men has always fascinated me. i would like to see it performed by women...and i will be commenting on that myself in the upcoming performance here.
hm, it turned out to a "working-nikki"(=diary) today. a propos, if you like to see some photos, you can visit the art village -blog. there are some funny shots and nice text in japanese:)
www.aiav.jp/blog/

iki iki ladies

2007-02-01T01:14:00.000-08:00

today 8 old singing ladies visited me. they were part of a group of 30 women who regularly gather to sing japanese songs. this incredably lively company came to visit me with a collection of songs they like and think i might like, a waterboiler, tea, coffee and various cakes and sweets. among the songs there was also "sakura sakura", a song which i remember from childhood. it was in the school music book and except the word sakura(=cherry blossom) translated to finnish.
i was impressed by their good voice and the curiosity they had towards me. now i'm invited to join their regular meetings!
they call themselves iki iki ladies. it's funny because i'm very busy with this word. in finnish iki means something very old, ancient. in japanese it has various meanings. literally it means breathing but iki has a whole esthetic ideology about the way of being and living. it's rather complicated to describe but basically it refers to simplicity, chic, open-mindness and calmness.
i use iki-word in my songs and hopefully with enough of tact.

tanuki

2007-01-31T01:47:00.000-08:00

talking about dog-like animals i have to tell about the "tanuki". this forest animal which is something between a badger and a raccoon dog (and in finnish it's probably mayra) is very present in japan, at least in mythological and symbolical way. right in the beginning of my stay here, i was invited with my fellow ars-residents to visit the living room of one old lady who was keeping a restaurant in the nearby village. the most precious thing in this living room was a fullfilled tanuki inside a glass vitrin. this animal was standing on its hind legs, wearing a straw hat and carrying a sake-bottle. we were to admire this tanuki and finally to touch its balls! it felt little bit strange at the time but now i start to realise what a big honour we were given...in the various songs telling about tanuki, he always has a pot-belly and these huge testicles. it's also a shape-shifter; it can for example turn into a tea kettle. so, i felt the necessity to learn some tanuki-songs.

green is the colour!

2007-01-25T01:35:00.002-08:00

i have very active time. maybe the activity is in the air here. without any strain my days became full of nice happenings and creative steps. but then again, that's how it's supposed to be in an art residence, isn't it? i have also thought that maybe it's the amount of green tea one drinks per day. i have lost the count of cups...i cook it myself and it's been offered to me in every occasion. furthermore, you can find green tea leaves in buiscits, nuudels and in a kind of jelly-like thick drink which is suppose to be very healthy. apart from tea, i enjoy the various kinds of green leave vegetables you can find here. every time i find some new forms in the market. they often have a kind of slightly bitter but very fresh taste. so, all this greenery i get inside must cleanse me and keep me crispy light awake:)

creative wild boar

2007-01-15T23:32:00.000-08:00

i have started my project here. i'm listening to japanese people talking and mimicking. i'm sitting in my room for hours with my finnish-japanese-finnish dictionary (the only one i found!) and picking up funny words. i find more and more japanese words which exist in finnish as well. mostly they don't mean the same, but sometimes the meaning is actually close in a surprising way. it's a nice game for me. here are some appetizers (specially for the finnsih speakers):
hikari= super quick express train ari=ant
hoho= cheeks
hana =nose
niko niko= smiley
sora= heaven
and so on...

just now i was sitting in a jury, choosing the prize-winning postcards of the year. people from yamaguchi area, young and old, had sent their postcard drawings to this competition. i was pretty impressed about the devotion and accuracy they presented. they were often graphically skillful, combaining text and picture.lots of drawings of animals, specially wild boar which is the animal of the soon starting new year, the winner.
lot of creativeness around.

japan dog

2007-01-12T02:52:00.000-08:00

japan japan, here i am! and finally got access in my blog after a hassle with computers changing from japanese writing to roman. the two first days in this country have been a lot about adjusting into their system. it started off with their heating system. too many oversensitive buttons for me. in the first night, jet-lagged and all, i succeeded to mix it up completely and in the end the blowers started to push cold air into the already freezing rooms! desperation. and the blowing machines make hellova noise.but slowly i adjust to this. my flat has a western style and a japanese style room. very nice. i keep the japanese room with tatamis as a singing space. i already created 2 songs mixing japanese and finnish:)
the nature is beautiful here and the air like honey. yesterday i climbed up the hill, passing through bambu forest. i didn't know they grow so tall and tight. the light was mystical green under and they make a great sound when you bang them. up the hill i was sitting in the sun, just breathing in the air and the landscape. i felt blessed.
so many impressions already. again my cheeks are burning but probably it's the amount of fresh air this time. i will soon write more.

first words

2007-01-03T12:09:00.000-08:00

berlin, on the day of the white rhythmical dog.
according to mayan calender that is my sign. so, a good day to open this blog. my new website also got ready today and we activate it soon. my cheeks are burning with excitement! the new website gives a form to my thoughts and concepts i have developed during the past year. this blog nicely supports and comments the website, giving it more life. it is a new experiment for me but i promise to myself to just simply keep on writing and see where it leads.
there will be adventures coming, inside and outside the web -i can smell it!