Many Days of Scanty Fieldnotes

May 2^nd, 2011

Monday I had 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum of course, but before that I went to meet Hilary and Won Il, a well known creative-contemporary-traditional performer and a professor of composition at K-Arts. I've wanted to meet him for some time, partially just because he sounds interesting, but mostly because since Karjam wants to record he'd be the right guy to introduce a studio or engineers or whatever. And sure enough he had some great ideas. It was a very productive, if quick meeting. Bongsan Talchum class was still a little under-populated, but Kim Yongcheol, Sumi, Yeonshik, Byeongho were there and one other guy whose name has slipped my mind. I did mini-interviews with Yongcheol and Byeongho.

May 3^rd, 2011

I had an amazing writing day, the first good days with several pages in weeks. In the evening I had 상모 sangmo with Hyeonseok and Yi Jonghui, of course. The latter took Hyeonseok and I out for dinner.

May 4^th, 2011

I intended to watch the K-Arts students rehearse, but I couldn't go because they'd be doing stage blocking with various staff members and it would have been a hassle to get permission for me to be there and I didn't want to trouble them when they were already stressing about the performance.

May 5^th, 2011

The K-Arts 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum team had their performance. I met Sumi at the subway station and we went together. The performance was outside and it got pretty chilly before the end, but we were getting sunburned in the beginning. Putting the sun behind the perfect angle to watch the performance is so silly. They could have oriented so the sun was over one shoulder or other…

Wonjung did an excellent job as 취발이 Chuibali, in general the performance was grand with many exciting things to watch, but not –good- mask dance. Many of the performers had no sense for the flavor that should come through with the performance, and the sections with 풍물 pungmul drumming and the singing section were by far the best, as they were closer to the natural talents and interests of the majority of students.

May 6^th, 2011

I had my first day of 사물놀이 samulnori class with 이종휘 Yi Jonghui. These classes will be at Sogang University, where 지용 Jiyong from 개전연 Gaejeonyeon is a student. When I arrived a few minutes before 8 there was a very strong 상모 sangmo vibe going on, and I had brought mine. We ended up doing sangmo until 9:30 then switching to 장구 janggu and 꽹과리ggwaenggwari until the end of class. I played janggu of course.