Tycho drumming- class on Nov. 19

Class on Wednesday was very informative and entertaining. I found it interesting that tycho drum performing is used to communicate the art of an Asian male's body, and to eliminate or disprove stereotypes of Asians in general. Watching him perform and watching the videos he showed us in class made me want to start playing the drums again. I like that the art is not restricted to Japanese people. I think tycho drumming would stir up a lot of interest in colleges.
On another note, as Guru Francis pointed out, many of the time-keeper beats are similar to those that we learned in class. We could also use some of the beats as chants in our Banjar.

November 12- the practice before the Kimball performance

The Kimball performance is only two days away. I came to class a little late because of registration, but when I arrived, the banjar that was not performing at Kimball joined the Kimball banjar. I think this was really helpful for us because as a member of the "non-Kimball" banjar, I felt like we would have a lot to learn next week for the middle school performance. Joining in with everyone was easy and fun. I also liked seeing Guru Francis's cute kids :)
I think the Kimball performance banjar will do very well on Friday and I'm looking forward to our middle school performance!

Nov. 5- Discussion and Dance

Talking in the Banjar today about the recent election was very refreshing. We did not discuss Obama's victory in any of my other classes, and I'm glad that people felt comfortable enough to share their views in our class community. Just like Guru Francis was referring to, I too was excited about living through an election that will be recorded in history books and about the idea that change is coming. Guru Francis's discussion made me realize that a lot of progress still needs to be made in terms of discrimination and ignorance. I appreciate him sharing his personal experiences with facing racism to enlighten us about the prevalence of the current issue.
The two groups (the Kimball banjar and the other banjar) have improved a lot in their performance. As a part of the "other" banjar, I felt it was a little difficult to go through with the scenes because not everyone could come to class the same days. This may be problematic considering we only have a few classes left, but I think everything will work out well.

Week of October 29

This past week, I was unable to attend class because of chondromalacia in my knee. I liked the fact that I was still able to participate this class period. The non-performance Banjar created and wrote down possible formations. I'm excited that we will be able to perform at the middle school, and that some of our classmates will perform at the Kimball. I'm curious to see how the scenes that we (the banjar that won't perform at the Kimball) will fuse with the scenes that the Kimball banjar is recreating. It seems like the final project will turn out well!