![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I'm sure I'll learn most of this on my MSc but I still wish I could go...
http://www.wepreserve.eu/events/prague-2008/
Digitisation course and it's in Prague...
http://www.wepreserve.eu/events/prague-2008/
Digitisation course and it's in Prague...
http://www.monkeyjourneytothewest.com/
It was an enjoyable show, though it definitely had some weak moments. I read that it was concieved by the Chinese director, who was the first Chinese director to put on a full verion of the Peony Pavillion this century, and his idea was to have a version of Journey to the West that highlighted traditional Chinese acrobatics. Of course it's been hailed as Damon Alban and Jamie Hewlett's version, and while the music was very western (I definitely heard shade's of Blur in there) the performers were at least all singing and speaking in Mandarin, and everyone on stage was Chinese. (And at least half of them were Gorgeous! - sigh - such a weakness for Kung fu types!)
I found most of the acrobatics and the kung fu displays really enjoyable, however, the actual "fights" particularly the one in heaven were quite dissapointing. Except for the women general of Princess Iron Fan.
My favorite song was definitely, 我们要吃玄奘肉 (We want to eat Xuánzàng's flesh)
And I loved the dance of the spider woman, (hanging and twisting herself into two long ribbons). (and singing about Chang E) While it wasn't the type of music I'd normally enjoy I may well get the cd, just for more mandarin practice. (Though I'm not sure how well it'll work without the visuals). To start with there were a lot more interactions between the cartoon bits, and the performers on stage, the most dramatic example where this worked the best I thought was the underwater scence visiting the dragon king).
Pigsy was well done, but poor Sandy was really left out. (Though did look pretty great as a green monster). It didn't feel like there was much charcterisation beyond monkey, (favorite monkey moment - when he stuck his head up Guan Yin's skirt while she was saving him from Princess Iron Fan!) And he did have 猴王 (monkey king) written on the back of his track suit!
Not all the mandarin was dubbed, Monkey kept repeating, "打死了!" (Hit to death!) which after the first time they didn't bother translating again. The translation was a bit funny, and when leaving the theatre overheard a woman saying, "Know I know how to say monkey in Mandarin, "wu kong" which of course is the name the monk gave him, and not Hou (monkey) but everytime they said his name, it was just translated as monkey.
This is rather unfortunate as 95 percent of the audience were white, and I'm guessing most of them were just there because of the Damon/Gorillaz element and didn't know mandarin, or much of the story. I swear I was the only person who laughed when the monk pulled out the golden band and started to put it on Sun Wukong's head!. I also found myself wondering if anyone got that the dragon he'd been fighting had just been turned into the horse he presented to the monk.
I think this was probably also sad for the performers as unlike when we saw the peony pavillion there was no applause between numbers, let alone for the complicated acts of kung fu or acrobatics. I did start to wonder if other people were enjoying it but there was lots of applase at the end.
At the end Damon (And Jamie Hewlett) came on stage, dear god has that boy put on weight! There were 2 of him I swear!
(![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
webcowgirl's proper review of the show can be seen here http://webcowgirl.wordpress.com/2008/07/25/review-of-the-opera-monkey-journey-to-the-west-royal-opera-house/)
It was an enjoyable show, though it definitely had some weak moments. I read that it was concieved by the Chinese director, who was the first Chinese director to put on a full verion of the Peony Pavillion this century, and his idea was to have a version of Journey to the West that highlighted traditional Chinese acrobatics. Of course it's been hailed as Damon Alban and Jamie Hewlett's version, and while the music was very western (I definitely heard shade's of Blur in there) the performers were at least all singing and speaking in Mandarin, and everyone on stage was Chinese. (And at least half of them were Gorgeous! - sigh - such a weakness for Kung fu types!)
I found most of the acrobatics and the kung fu displays really enjoyable, however, the actual "fights" particularly the one in heaven were quite dissapointing. Except for the women general of Princess Iron Fan.
My favorite song was definitely, 我们要吃玄奘肉 (We want to eat Xuánzàng's flesh)
And I loved the dance of the spider woman, (hanging and twisting herself into two long ribbons). (and singing about Chang E) While it wasn't the type of music I'd normally enjoy I may well get the cd, just for more mandarin practice. (Though I'm not sure how well it'll work without the visuals). To start with there were a lot more interactions between the cartoon bits, and the performers on stage, the most dramatic example where this worked the best I thought was the underwater scence visiting the dragon king).
Pigsy was well done, but poor Sandy was really left out. (Though did look pretty great as a green monster). It didn't feel like there was much charcterisation beyond monkey, (favorite monkey moment - when he stuck his head up Guan Yin's skirt while she was saving him from Princess Iron Fan!) And he did have 猴王 (monkey king) written on the back of his track suit!
Not all the mandarin was dubbed, Monkey kept repeating, "打死了!" (Hit to death!) which after the first time they didn't bother translating again. The translation was a bit funny, and when leaving the theatre overheard a woman saying, "Know I know how to say monkey in Mandarin, "wu kong" which of course is the name the monk gave him, and not Hou (monkey) but everytime they said his name, it was just translated as monkey.
This is rather unfortunate as 95 percent of the audience were white, and I'm guessing most of them were just there because of the Damon/Gorillaz element and didn't know mandarin, or much of the story. I swear I was the only person who laughed when the monk pulled out the golden band and started to put it on Sun Wukong's head!. I also found myself wondering if anyone got that the dragon he'd been fighting had just been turned into the horse he presented to the monk.
I think this was probably also sad for the performers as unlike when we saw the peony pavillion there was no applause between numbers, let alone for the complicated acts of kung fu or acrobatics. I did start to wonder if other people were enjoying it but there was lots of applase at the end.
At the end Damon (And Jamie Hewlett) came on stage, dear god has that boy put on weight! There were 2 of him I swear!
(
webcowgirl's proper review of the show can be seen here http://webcowgirl.wordpress.com/2008/07/25/review-of-the-opera-monkey-journey-to-the-west-royal-opera-house/)A wonderful book for reading and learning the current state of cosmology. It explains all the current theories in an easy to read format. Also makes a great reference and is GORGEOUSLY illustrated. And written by Brian May, Chris Lintott and Patrick Moore!!!!
I read the first edition of this book from work, the editors did a great job combining these stories. (Nowadays you have to buy them seperately) But it was a great combination, the first story was about his "angelic" brother who died as a child, the 2nd was about a mexican junkie. It was a terribly interesting combination.
Visions of Gerard I liked better than any of the other Dulouz stories I read. It was a very sweet version of a poor family with a deathly ill son, and was an interesting blend of catholism and buddhism.
Tristessa though was breath-takingly gorgeous! I realised half way through he'd just been sitting in a junkie's room in Mexico City (with Burroughs) and it had been fascinating! It was so beautifully written, and touching and sad and everything that I love best about Kerouac.
Visions of Gerard I liked better than any of the other Dulouz stories I read. It was a very sweet version of a poor family with a deathly ill son, and was an interesting blend of catholism and buddhism.
Tristessa though was breath-takingly gorgeous! I realised half way through he'd just been sitting in a junkie's room in Mexico City (with Burroughs) and it had been fascinating! It was so beautifully written, and touching and sad and everything that I love best about Kerouac.
.