I was on TV

So, I was on TV and it even looked pretty good. Here's the video:

Translation...

I'll work on it. Basically the larger point is "foreigner teaches Korean culture and loves it, maybe more than we do."

Daeboreum (First Full Moon of the Lunar New Year)

February 16th, 2011
Worked on the computer all day.

February 17th, 2011
Today was 대보름 Daeboreum, the first full moon of the lunar new year. In the morning I tried to get stuff done on the computer as I have a couple deadlines next week, but I left my house a bit before 2 and headed to 서울놀이마당 for the Daeboreum Festival. When I arrived we were preparing long sticks by wrapping them in tape. Then balls of fabric (later to be soaked in fuel and used as torches) were attached to the end. We had made the balls the previous Saturday. I was rather stressed not about my own performance (as one of the 등롱 deungnong lantern carriers) in the performance of 송파다리밟기 Songpa Dari Balpgi, but because the four KNUA students who I had roped into participating really weren't being given the information they needed to participate to their best and I felt like we were looking unprofessional in front of them as a result. I want them (희수 Heesu came today, too, in addition to 재윤 Jaeyun, 정우 Jeong-u and 장호 Jangho the guy I did not previously know) to think of the Songpa folks as professionals or at least serious about what they're doing, but I am afraid they didn't appear that way.

We had an early dinner (or late lunch?) at a restaurant we often go to and then went back to preparing (I got into my 민복 minbok and continued to try to rope 탄종원 Tahn Jongwon, the only one I could trust to remember and explain clearly, into telling the boys how to do the performance). Eventually we did have the tiniest bit of rehearsal (3 minutes?) before we had to go and distribute peanuts and drinks to the assembled audience as the 풍물 pungmul performance was going on. Actually considering that it was an outdoor nighttime performance in February and about freezing, it was a great turn out. After a 민요 minyo performance we did Songpa Dari Balpgi. At first everyone was cold and stiff and not in sync with each other, however as the performance went on things loosened up and straightened out. I ended up having a lot of fun with only one small error. As we ended the performance morphed into the torch lit parade along the banks of the lake with the pungmul group dominating the soundscape. I sprinted to the practice room, dropped my lantern and grabbed my camera. After our march we ended up at the 달집 daljip (house of the moon), a branches and bamboo wrapped up with thousands of wishes for the new year (the wishes had been collected at Songpa Noli Madang for over a week). My wish was in there, of course. After more pungmul and speeches by the local government official (the head of Songpa District) the bonfire was lit and we continued to dance around it until it was burned down to the ground and the pungmul players were exhausted.

One thing about the pungmul team- the leader of the team (the 상쇠 sangsoi or lead 꽹과리 ggwaenggwari player), who also chanted the ceremonial wish-chant during the speeches and 고사 gosa ceremony- turned out to be my friend 박연식 Bak Yeonshik from my 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum class. The world of Korean traditional performing arts really is quite small.

After everything was finished I was still, for lack of a better term, high on the communal release of energy. There is not much I like more than dancing to ecstatic drum music by a bonfire under a full moon. I hung around hoping something good would happen, eventually 김영숙 Kim Yeongsuk, 이수환 Yi Suhwan, 서병무 Seo Byeongmu, Tahn Jongwon and I went out for a late dinner and some more drinks. With the exception of Seo Byeongmu those are just about my favorite people from Songpa Sandae Noli, so I was happy, but then after only about one drink Seo turned into an argumentative nonsensical annoying drunk. Actually he's always an annoying drunk, but I hadn't realized he'd already been drinking so he only needed a bit more to tip him over into unacceptable.

Recruiting Performers

February 13th, 2011
Ironically despite going to bed early, I managed to sleep late. So late, in fact, that I woke up only 41 minutes before I needed to be at the subway station by 송파산대놀이 Songpa Sandae Noli. I allow, ordinarily, an hour and twenty minutes for the trip; it's nowhere near my house. By slipping into the wrong clothes (for movement) and skipping any sort of grooming or eating I was able to get into a taxi in eight minutes and make it to the subway station so early I had time to buy a half dozen donuts before 허창열 Heo Changyeol, 심재윤 Shim Jaeyun, 이정우 Yi Jeong'u and their classmate from KNUA 장호 Jangho showed up.

I walked with them to 서울놀이마당 Seoul Noli Madang, feeling sicker by the moment. We bowed in the office, then proceeded to the practice room where 이병옥 Yi Byeong'ok talked to them about the art and led everyone through basic motions. I must admit the three students (not Changyeol) were a bit confused, since this wasn't rehearsal for the performance on Thursday, but I want to snare them into liking Songpa Sandae Noli, so they've got to get introduced at some point! However I felt so lousy I had a hard time following along and felt sort of embarrassed at my performance.

After that we walked through the 송파다리밟기 Songpa Dari Balpgi performance under the assumption that they would all do the part of lantern carriers (this was later changed on the phone).

I hurried home, rested and then wrote in Chans Bros (coffee shop) until closing.

From Sangmo to Songpa Dari Balpgi

February 11th, 2011
In the morning I practiced 상모 sangmo with the class until at 11:20 when everyone went outside and bowed goodbye to me. 이재정 Yi Jaejeong ran me to the bus station. Unfortunately just as I was leaving I realized that my hat (a green fleece hat my mom made) was misplaced. I couldn't find it again in my few minutes before leaving even though I checked the most obvious places. Frustrating!

In 전주 Jeonju I had lunch at a vegetarian buffet with my awesome friend 월덕 Woldeok who has gotten engaged (and chosen a wedding date) since I saw her a month ago.

I reached Seoul rather later than I wanted to and scrambled to go meet a friend who was on her way from one country to another and only in Seoul for about 15 hours as a layover. She spent the night. I'd say who except she doesn't want other friends in Korea to feel dissed because she only saw me. It was really awesome to see her, but I'm afraid she was so jet-lagged I did most of the talking.

February 12th, 2011
I had to wake up at 5:30 to prepare a very light breakfast and walk my friend to the airport shuttle, and surprisingly I stayed awake afterwards and got some work done. At 1:30 I arrived at 서울 놀이 마당 Seoul Noli Madang, the home of 송파산대놀이 Songpa Sandae Noli for rehearsal of 송파다리밟기 Songpa Dari Balpgi (Songpa Bridge Crossing).

Songpa Dari Balpgi is registered for protection by the City of Seoul (Songpa Sandae Noli is registered by the nation). Dari Balpgi is a perfect example of a reenactment. The life of the ceremony is gone, it's just motions that people (we) are going through because it has some historical significance and has been chosen (somewhat arbitrarily) to be labeled "important heritage" that should be protected. It is taxidermized culture. On the other hand, if you openly admit something is a reenactment, and don't pretend that people in the modern world actually do march around Seoul guarding and escorting local governmental figures as they survey the region on important days of the year, there isn't any harm in it, right? Ceremonies, like Songpa Dari Balpgi, tend to be quite openly reenactments and acknowledged by participants and observers as non-living culture. There are some other reenactments that are not clearly taxidermized; chief among these is National Intangible Cultural Asset # 1, 종묘제례(악) Jongmyo Jerye(ak). This is a ceremony for honoring the ancestors of the Yi (former ruling family) line and the associated music (ak). The participants include professional musicians and college students BUT they also include a large number of Yi descendants holding tablets with ancestral names. To those people it's a pretty big deal to be part of the ceremony, and they (maybe not all of them) do feel a real connection to their ancestors. So –that- ceremonial reenactment is in much more of a grey area.

As I explained last summer when I performed in Songpa Dari Balpgi, most of the performers are members of Songpa Sandae Noli with a group of about 8 singers (who manipulate 소고 sogo) who sing 선소리 Seonsori (standing songs) during a key part of the reenactment. These singers and about a half dozen other people are not Songpa Sandae Noli members, but the rest are. And on Saturday we prepared for the big 대보름 Daeboreum (first full moon of the lunar new year) event first by filling small bags with roasted in the shell peanuts while others made bundles of cloth for torches, then by rehearsing Dari Balpgi. We had to rehearse outside, of course, and it was -10 celsius which made it so we really rushed through practice.

Cell photos of An Byeong'in directing us and a bunch of us milling around the 마당 madang practicing.



Afterwards 김영숙 Kim Yeongsuk, my friend and the office manager, asked if I knew one more person we could get to perform with us (someone had bailed out). I agreed to contact some people and she clarified that she wanted as many young men as possible to show up on Sunday morning at 10:30 to rehearse Songpa Sandae Noli. I contacted friends from KNUA and by the end of the day had a good response.

The rest of the day I just worked on some computer stuff and went to bed super early.

Songpa Dari Balpgi Performance

August 29th, 2010

I was fifteen minutes early for the 1:30 meeting time of our 등롱 lantern bearer group, the entire group was told to be there at 2:00. 장규식 Jang Gyushik was there slightly afterwards, with 김밥 kimbap. I had eaten 삼각김밥 samgak kimbap on the walk, so I guess we were both thinking alike. Karjam, on the other hand, was able to go back to the Lotte complex, look around and eat lunch slowly. Eventually the whole 등롱 lantern bearer group arrived and we rehearsed. Everyone in costume, we waited in the practice room, I sat with 이수환 Yi Suhwan on one side of me but within the circle of lantern bearers including 탄종원 Tan Jongwon, 장규식 Jang Gyushik and 서범무 Seo Byeongmu. There are 8 lantern bearers, the other three men I don’t know, the other woman’s name I forget. First they had to use an iphone to determine exactly where I’m from (right down to Snowberry Lane), then they searched for the homes of overseas relatives and what not. Suhwan, on the other hand, was more concerned with discussing traditional culture and social media platforms (he’s a recent Facebook joiner) as a path to disseminate information. That evening he uploaded a bunch of photos of himself performing with reasonably extensive captions about Songpa Sandae Noli. There was a different show first, starting at 3, a drumming and fusion drumming with vaguely traditional dance. I barely watched any, but Karjam saw the whole thing.

When we went out to do Songpa Dari Balpgi the music was so much louder (with amplification) than it had been the day before that it was very hard to hear the directions and counting (turn around after 1, 2, 3, 4…) and eventually I did make a (not too important) mistake. Everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun except for one particularly articulate member, 김명하 Kim Myeongha, who has a perpetual hangdog expression and had injured his wrist in rehearsal the day before. I expected us to go out afterwards, we didn’t, instead people just changed out of their (sweat soaked) performance clothes, putting special costume items (I had a top knot hairdo, a hat and a sort of vest) and props (lantern and lantern rod) into the appropriate containers. While I was changing and what not Karjam started talking to Seo Byeongmu who can speak English, he's a really interesting guy, but he specifically wanted to tell Karjam that his brother observes Tibetan Buddhism and the location of a temple, they also discussed the fact that Byeongmu's nephew is Tiger JK of Drunken Tiger. We also talked with 이병옥 Yi Byeongok, because Yeongsuk insists he should find Karjam performing opportunities. I came home in the evening and wrote up a short bio for Karjam in Korean and wonderful friend 정회정 Jeong Hoijeong edited it.

The next morning Yeongsuk called to ask my bank account number so she can pay me for the performance. I am not sure what I will do about getting paid, I’m thinking I should just give it all back at the end of the year, because it’s too exhausting to argue each rehearsal and performance. Plus I haven’t won any of the arguments so far. It’s not much, though.

Songpa Dari Balpgi Rehearsal

August 28th, 2010

Karjam and I took the 새마울 Saemaeul train back to Seoul. The Saemaeul is 5 bucks more each than the bus would be, but the KTX (express) train is even more, and I can’t justify that expense. It was raining heavily again when we disembarked and we took a taxi home where I grabbed a hurried lunch.

I was supposed to be at rehearsal for 송파다리 밟기 Songpa Dari Balpgi (Songpa Bridge Crossing Ceremony) at 2:30, but didn’t get there until 2:45, fortunately I was not the only person from my group that was late. After giving 김영숙 Kim Yeongsuk some grapes I went to the practice room. We all stretched and then did basic beginning exercises for 송파산대놀이 Songpa Sandae Noli, with 함완식 Hahm Wanshik drumming and 이병옥 Yi Byeongok leading the dancers, then Hahm had the latecomers do a separate set led by a different senior member. When I danced, I stuck close behind the most experienced dancers, but felt very awkward, it’s been so long since I danced. Sitting down while the second group practiced I was told by my neighbor, 서병무 Seo Byeongmu, that I should “let the sleeves be so heavy that you can’t lift the arms all the way” “let it be a last minute tip-over when you conquer the weight of the sleeves, not a continuous smooth motion” (many of the characters in Songpa Sandae Noli are wearing huge loose sleeves) “keep moving from the compression and extension of the knees.” Perhaps it’s fortunate I’m not such a good dancer, because I get to observe even more how things are taught as a result of needing correction. My group danced beginning motions once more, 안병인 Ahn Byeong’in began the rehearsal with more explanation using the white board and diagrams. The students recruited to be part of 송파다리밟기 Songpa Dari Balpgi are according to Yeongsuk (sitting by me during the meeting) almost all majors in Korean percussion (타악) in university, they are attending several different schools, some of which don’t have 타악 to the best of my knowledge—Ewha, Suwon, Chugae and Danguk Universities are represented. My group is the 등롱 group, or lantern bearers. There are 8 of us, 4 pairs. As the entire performance is explained what we do is “go forward for 2 장단 jangdan (rhythmic pattern, so go forward for two entire cycles of, for example, a 12 beat rhythmic pattern), go right for 4 jangdan” and so on. Then we change what we’re doing following directions like this: “자전모리 나오면…” “When the Jajeonmori jangdan starts then…” We practiced all the way through, twice, with a break in the middle during which time my lantern team continued to practice, and afterwards we also practiced more. I hung out in the office with 탄종원 Tan Jongwon and Yeongsuk for awhile afterwards, getting the dates of the upcoming shows and listening to gossip about who was screwing up the rehearsal and probably the performance (not to be repeated here of course), and then we went to a restaurant for dinner.