February 2000

Ballet Hispanico
This 30-year-old nationally reknowned New York dance company made their Portland debut tonight, at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. What they perform is not pure ballet, but a fusion of ballet and modern and Latin dance. It's not completely latino, either -- the company includes South African, Slovakian, Korean and Azerbaijani dancers. The program included: Bury Me Standing, a piece inspired by the long-suffering Roma (Gypsy) people; and Tony Award-winning Ann Reinking's Ritmo y Ruido (Rhythm and Noise), a series of explosive dance moves, each ending with "vogue-ing" poses. The way the dancers meld their bodies to music is just as amazing as the athletic feats at a pro sports game (probably more). When the houselights came up, many women in my section were congratulating their male escorts for making it through the show without sleeping or complaining.
- Dancers bring variety of influences to stage
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(29 Feb 2000)
Bridge to the Past
This afternoon I took in the American Institute of Architects exhibit Rediscovering Portland's Willamette River Bridges, which is part of the Historic American Engineering Record. Beginning with the Hawthorne Bridge in 1910, Portland has built 10 vehicular bridges across the Willamette River. The most recently completed was the Fremont Bridge in 1973. The culmination of the 5-year construction project was the raising of the 8,000-ton central span, recorded in the video "Closing the Gap" (complete with groovy 70s soundtrack and fashions). It took 40 hours, and required great precision -- there could be deviation of no more than 1 foot horizontally and 1.5 inches vertically! Also on display were old drawbridge control panels and decorative parts from a time when bridges were meant to be beautiful as well as functional.
American Institute of Architects, 315 SW 4th Avenue, Portland OR (503) 223-8757
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(23 Feb 2000)
"Asian" vs. "Oriental"
Tonight at my taiko course, the members of Portland Taiko told the students about their recent concert roadtrip to the predominantly white northern part of the neighbouring state of Idaho. It was apparently an eye-opener for all involved. PT bills themselves as an "Asian American drumming group", and one child attending their Idaho show asked, "What's an Asian?" The episode showed that much of racism is learned, not innate, and underlined the importance of cultural outreach programs like PT's. Or maybe this was a place where people from Asia are still called "orientals". Read a discussion on this topic on the "Oriental" page of the Ties Talk Message Archive.
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(20 Feb 2000)
The Heart Mountain Story
This afternoon I stopped by the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center to see their latest exhibit, a collection of photographs taken at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center near Cody WY during the World War II internment of Japanese Americans. Most of the Portland Nikkei-jin were interned at the Minidoka camp near Hunt ID, but some were sent to Heart Mountain. The photos were taken by Life magazine photographers Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel. Ironically, they were immigrants from Germany, with which America was also at war.
The photos went unpublished until 1995, when Mamoru Inoue, a Heart Mountain internee as a boy, undertook a project during his retirement to find out the stories behind the images. Some of the photos look posed, and the photographers were ordered to not include the sentry towers, but one does get a sense of what everyday camp life was like. The captions tell the stories of various internees, such as the camp high school class president who always maintained that JAs were loyal to America, volunteered for the U.S. Army after graduation, and was then killed in action during his first year of military service.
The Heart Mountain Story has only been seen before in Santa Clara CA, Philadelphia PA and Cheyenne WY. The opening at the ONLC on 19 February coincided with the anniversary of the signing by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942 of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the Internment. The exhibit will be on display until 20 May 2000.
I drove through Cody WY, near Yellowstone Park, during my 1998 Escape from Toronto. I did not know about the Heart Mountain camp then, but I do recall seeing a shop called "Sachiko's Flowers" and wondering how a Japanese person could have ended up in such a remote place. Now I know.
Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center, 117 NW 2nd Avenue, Portland OR 97209 (503) 224-1458
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(20 Feb 2000)
American Movie (USA 1999; Dir: Chris Smith & Sarah Price)
This much ballyhoo-ed documentary finally made it to Portland. The film follows struggling thirtysomething filmmaker Mark Borchardt as he tries to raise money for his dream project, Northwestern, a movie about life in his Wisconsin hometown. Borchardt's real life supporting cast of family and friends is far more interesting than anything a scriptwriter could conjure up, especially sidekick Mike and old Uncle Bill.
One side plot I would have been interested in seeing developed was Borchardt's parents' story: His mother is an immigrant from Sweden, yet there doesn't seem to have been anything particularly Scandinavian about his upbringing. His main influences are the horror classic Night of the Living Dead, heavy metal music, and beer.
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(17 Feb 2000)
Taiko: Physical Presence
Tonight I started another course in taiko (Japanese drumming) put on by Portland Taiko, the local Asian American drumming group. Taiko is a musical and physical way for people who cannot speak Japanese (this includes most Nikkei-jin) to learn about Japanese culture. This time around the class is big, 20 students, reflecting growing interest by the general public. Only a few are Nikkei-jin, though.
- The Taiko
  Multimedia site: see how a taiko is made
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(13 Feb 2000)
Origins: Meeting Kenny Endo
This evening I ventured up to the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center in North Portland to hear a talk in their "Origins" discussion series by Japanese American taiko master Kenny Endo. Over a 25-year period, he went from being a Los Angeles high school rock band drummer to an expert in Japanese classical percussion, the first foreigner to receive a natori (stage name) in that discipline. This involved spending ten years in Japan, which he says was "still not enough." He believes young taiko groups, especially those without a direct tie to Japan, must learn and respect the origins and history of Japanese drumming. These days he operates a taiko school in Hawai'i. He is currently on the mainland working with Portland Taiko on a new composition to celebrate the millennium.
He talked about and demonstrated how in kabuki theatre, specific, standard passages of taiko music establish a setting (runnning water, wind, waves, rain, snow) or mood (ghostly). This also showed that the drums (even the BIG odaiko) don't always have to be played loudly.
- Kabuki Sounds
As well, he played some of his original compositions, which feature Kabuki/Noh theatre-style vocalizations and creative ways to get sound out of all the parts of a taiko, including the tacks! After the show, the packed house of over 100 got to chat with him and enjoy some sushi.
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(10 Feb 2000)
Kodo: One Earth Tour 2000
Most taiko groups will say that their benchmark for excellence is the Japanese ensemble Kodo. In ancient Japan, the limits of a village were defined by the furthest distance at which its taiko could be heard. Since forming in 1981, Kodo has been on a continuous "One Earth Tour", bringing the sound of taiko to people around the world, in the belief that art can communicate across differences to create a "global village".
I last saw Kodo at the urging of non-Nikkei friend in 1989, when they came to Toronto's Roy Thompson Hall. What I remember of that performance was its sheer physicality -- an awesome display of power and stamina from a lean, disciplined, synchronized all-male group.
This time I asked my sister to get me a ticket for the first show of a five-day run at Seattle's Meany Theatre. Ten years later, Kodo has undergone a number of changes. Four women performers are now part of the touring group, and the attitude is kinder, gentler -- "festive" might be the best word. The performers are looser, visibly having fun, even grooving to the beat they create. Many of the pieces sound like the background music for a matsuri, with the onstage action jumbled and spontaneous as you might see at a festival -- a bunch of people milling about. The mobility was made possible by having okedo (lighter taiko with heads strung to the drum body) hanging by a shoulder strap. Yae-no-furyu, a piece for three women drummers, is based on Jangara-nenbutsu, a bon odori from Iwaki City in Fukushima Prefecture.
Some pieces worked well as freestanding numbers: Monochrome, one of their classics, is anything but what the title would suggest -- they elicit an incredibly dynamic auditory palette from the shime daiko. And there still were incredible physical numbers: Miyake had a demanding low-stance technique that made one's legs ache just watching; and taiko master Yoshikazu Fujimoto, at age 50 the oldest yet also the leanest drummer, pounded away at the o-daiko (the BIG drum, about 4 feet across) for about 10 minutes, then hopped down from the dais to perform the next piece, Yatai-bayashi, from the excruciating "half situp" position. In all, there were 9 pieces and 2 encores over 2 hours, a more varied experience than I had expected.
- Overview and History of Taiko
- The Thundering World of Taiko
This show was part of the West Coast leg of Kodo's One Earth Tour 2000. Apparently the group's big gong broke on the way to Seattle. At a pre-concert reception, tour manager Daniel Rosen related how he had spent the afternoon banging on gongs all over the Emerald City to determine whether there was one suitable for Kodo to borrow. If you have one, e-mail them at JDC03000@nifty.ne.jp.
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(09 Feb 2000)
Homepage Tweak
As you may have seen by now, I gave my homepage a bit of a tweak. The busy patterned background and the big, fat letters are gone in favour of a leaner, cleaner look that hopefully scans more easily and requires less scrolling. Let me know what you think.
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(08 Feb 2000)
I answered the call of two heritages this weekend:
- 50th Annual NHL All-Star Game
  (Setting: A Portland sports bar)
  ME: Would you be able to show the All-Star Game on one of your TVs?
  MGR: All-Star Game? That's not until next week.
  ME: Uh, no, it's supposed to be today.
  MGR: NBA? They're still playing league games -- see? (Points to virtually all the TVs. The rest are tuned to women's soccer, golf and beach football.)
  ME: Not NBA -- NHL.
  MGR: NFL? The Pro Bowl isn't due to start for a few hours yet. It's in Hawai'i.
  ME: Not NFL -- N-H-L: National Hockey League.
  MGR: Hmm ... what channel would that be?
  Eventually I did see the game, which was played in Toronto ON. The Russian Bure brothers and Team World showed their superior skill level in trouncing Team North America 9-4. Some might argue that All-Star Game hockey is not real, Stanley Cup playoff hockey, though. I felt a bit (only a bit) natsukashii seeing the aerial views of snowbound Toronto at the commercial breaks.
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- Portland Mochitsuki 2000
  I attended the Portland Nikkei community celebration of the Lunar New Year.
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(06 Feb 2000)
There's an update at the Nikkei Nexus
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(06 Feb 2000)
El Grillo Mexican Restaurant
I had a rare opportunity for a lunch out today when I visited the downtown offices of WebMD with my MINF 517 small group on business related to our project. We found this hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant that serves great food at very reasonable prices. Most items are just $3.50 to $5.00 -- cheaper and better tasting than fast food hamburgers. Today the special was pollo con mol�, an item not on the menu, apparently at the telephone request of one of the regular customers earlier in the day!
El Grillo, 703 SW Ankeny, Portland OR 97203 (503) 241-0462
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(02 Feb 2000)
New Intrapage Navigation Aid
The reading I have done for my MINF501 "Website Usability" research project gave me an idea for improving this section of the Runker Room. Beginning this year, I am adding an intrapage navigation aid to the top of each month's "What's New?" entries. After reading an entry of interest, click on "Back to TOP" to return to the navigation aid. Although this requires more behind-the-scenes programming code to implement, the significant benefit to the user is a reduction in the amount of scrolling needed to view the contents of the page. (This is just the first entry for February, but see how it works on full page: January 2000.) Let me know what you think.
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(01 Feb 2000)

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