Sangmo and a Performance at KOUS

April 19^th, 2011

We took care of some odds and ends including getting mom's business cards printed. In the evening mom went with me to 상모 sangmo practice. It was an unusual class because 이종휘 Yi Jonghui was out of town for a performance, so it was just 현석 Hyeonseok and me. Except when I arrived 은정 (도령) Eunjeong and 승민 Seungmin were there, along with a guy I don't know and a woman whose named I've never learned, though I've seen her a lot. A little later 유미 Yumi showed up, too. It was really good to see them. The reason they were there was to practice for the 계전연 Gaejeonyeon spring performance that will be held on the 30^th. Seungmin praised my improved sangmo, pointing out just how many people quit long before they get to the point I'm at.

Hyeonseok and I practiced more or less as we'd normally do with Jonghui there—moving through a logical series of motions, I didn’t do anything new, but I got a chance to practice until I was sweating.  

April 20^th, 2011

Karjam and mom went to the National Museum, I stayed home and worked on my computer. After making a nice dinner we all went to KOUS to see a performance.

The performance, another in the current dance series, was particularly attractive because 이윤석 Yi Yunseok, National Human Treasure for Goseong Ogwangdae, was performing 덧배기춤. It was a day when I knew half the audience, the entire regular crew from 봉천놀이마당 Bongcheon Noli Madang (about 10 people), plus 10 of the K-Arts students, plus 김성범 Kim Seongbeom and 허창열 Heo Changyeol as well as (performing a special 꽹과리 ggwaenggwari part during Yi's performance), 고석진 Go Seokjin. I had permission to take photos during Yi's piece (as long as I didn't take too many).

The entire performance was really amazingly good, one of the best I've seen and our front row (literally front row) seats were great for seeing every detail. Unfortunately mom (who always has a hard time sitting still during concerts and such) was falling asleep almost the entire show. That sort of distracted me because I need to feel the energy of the performance but I kept being worried that mom was missing out (and I took her so she could appreciate it, not take a nap). It was a great show, although I got a little pissed when we had to hear the announcing schtick stupid un-funny jokes. The 태평무 taepyeongmu by 강삼숙 was awesome, one of the best I've seen. And 이철진's 승무 seungmu was the best I've ever seen except for 정재만 Jeong Jaeman (who we're seeing next week!). 황지인's 입춤 ipchum  was really good. The 소고춤 sogochum by 임은주 from 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum (she's an이수자 isuja) was exuberant, very fast-paced and fun but somehow I'd been expecting something more. 김선정's 살풀이 salpuri was disappointing, I've seen the dance too many times and it has to be done really well to wow me. There was no special flavor to it. Next was Yi Yunseok's performance, but he was exhausted from the performing trip to Malaysia and it showed. We all screamed really loudly but for someone who didn't know him and have a connection I wonder how it would have seen. I was really pissed when 진옥섭 Jin Okseop came out after his performance and said "I think he forgot the last half of the dance and just repeated the first half." You don't say that, even if it might be true! Next was 양길순's 도살풀이 do salpuri. Karjam and I saw her last year and thought she was great, this time I wasn't quite as impressed. Last was 문근성 who performed 설장구 seoljanggu (dancing with the janggu drum) very very very well. It was a great end to the show.

After the show I talked with Go Seokjin, Changyeol, Yi Yunseok, some of the Bongcheon Noli Madang people and the kids. Finally the performers left and we bowed their van away before dispersing. 

Mom Arrives in Korea and the K-Arts Students Have a Show

April 14^th, 2011

We went to the airport on the new airport railroad and picked up mom. She'll be here for two weeks.

I ran off to 봉산탈춤 Bongsan Talchum soon after we arrived home. Class was sort of depressing. I made some silly mistakes when I intended to finally do this one part error free. I was just having an off night I guess but it really bummed me out.

April 15^th, 2011

I woke up at 3:30 (two hours sleep) and got mom up (not hard because of the time difference). We went to 조계사 Jogye Temple for the morning prayers. I think our taxi driver there was drunk.

The prayers were good but because of mom's bad knees she can't do any of the prostrations, which is too bad. I did 108 before the service actually started, then during the main prayer suddenly my knee sort of popped and it started to be almost torture to do any additional prostrations. The service was particularly long with a series of prayers I haven't do much, but a nice 보살 bosal (volunteer in the temple) came and brought me a prayer book that included those prayers and I really enjoyed chanting, I understood a lot of the prayers we recited, much more than I understand the prayers I'm used to doing.

Before we left we bought some things, she bought 3 little gifts and I bought a ring for myself with 반야심경 the prayer Banya Shimgyeong on it. I think mom enjoyed the trip to the temple. When we left it was just starting to get light a little. We headed to the bus stop and took the bus back home and napped.

After we got up we went to the 찜질방 Korean bathhouse/spa. It was a good place to take mom, I think. We enjoyed all the saunas and pools before we joined Karjam in the co-ed area. I think we were there about 3 hours, but when we left Karjam decided to stay.

In the evening we went to the Korean National University of the Arts for the new student performance. All the new students in the School for the Traditional Performing Arts performed. The first piece was a court orchestra piece and I was really impressed. Honestly, that's not my favorite style of Korean music but I thought that the performance was highly professional, really I could not perceive any difference between their performance and that of any ordinary traditional music orchestra, despite the fact that all the players were freshmen (who would be approximately 18-20 American age). The next three pieces featured 거문고 geomungo, 가야금 gayageum and 해금 haegeum. Although I was looking forward especially to the geomungo, the piece was just a boring composition (it was a new work). The gayageum piece was Pachabel's Canon on 3 different pitches of gayageum (with three players per pitch). Blah. I am not a fan of trying to recreate a Western sound on a Korean instrument. It's a waste of the capabilities of the instrument. The haegeum piece also was nothing special. Next we had a vocal number with four pansori singers, a gayageum byeongchang player/singer, several minyoperformers and one women doing jeongga. I found their performance pretty good but not great, at least it got mom fully awake (she is jet-lagged). One really super fun aspect was hearing this type of singing with a knowledgeable (and supportive) audience. There was so much well done 추임새 chuimsae. The next piece was dance, a giant rendition of taepyeongmu and the only performance for the night with upper classmen (why? I see no reason why they couldn't have just had fewer dancers on the stage). It was frankly the most boring and soulless rendition of taepyeongmu I think I've ever seen. Mom fell back asleep.

Of course the important part of the show was the last act: the performance by the 연희학과 Department of Traditional Folk Theatre. The show opened with 13 (of 15 new students) on stage playing seated 사물놀이 samulnori. Actually they all began on 장구 janggu then they switched to samulnori. I was glad off the video camera as it made it easy for me to spot Ga-eun who stayed on janggu and Heesu who switched to buk. Of course as soon as I saw that Wonjung and Inseon were not there, I knew it was because they were in costume somewhere off stage. They entered the stage and the drums switched to a smaller configuration and one player re-emerged on 태평소 taepyeongso. Wonjung was dressed as the old yangban husband and Inseon as the old grandmother, his wife. They discovered each other and exchanged various fairly typical dialogue, then introduced the tight-rope walker. The tight-rope walker was very good, certainly 80% as good as the top performers, National Human Treasures, who I've seen. After he was featured there was a section for standing 풍물 pungmul performers, with Ga-eun as one of the two 꽹과리 ggwaenggwari players. She had a wonderful section being featured dancing with the large poof of ostrich feather whip that they manipulate much like a sangmo. There were several dance solos, including Heesu on sogo with wonderful manipulation of the sangmo. I am totally impressed. Two other Namsadangnoli trick performers came out (I think one was the same guy as the tightrope) and they dealt with spinning tops and disks.

It was absolutely a wonderful performance and I was so proud of the students. Afterwards I gave my students some drinks and told them they did a good job, while I was talking to Ga-eun Professor Kim Duksu came up and asked her who I was. I was a bit tongue-tied, but managed to ask him for an interview. He passed me off to another professor, a theory expert. I guess I'll have to try to ask him again at another time when I'm more prepared! I think mom had fun but she was really exhausted by the time we got home. 

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.

Goseong Ogwangdae Mask Dance Intensive- Basic Motions Continued

January 18th, 2011
I had a hard time waking up, but was still probably only the third person moving around. Every break time- like after meals- at least half the students take a nap. Breakfast had meat, so I couldn't eat it, and late lunch did, too (partially because lunch recycled part of breakfast), so I ended up going out to lunch by myself (at breakfast time I ate a carrot, rice and one of the two side dishes).

I video-taped the entire morning class, which was more of 이윤석 Yi Yunseok, the National Human Treasure for over an hour, then Changyeol worked with us on our motions, including reviewing everything carefully. At that point we'd learned all the way to the end of the basic motion set. Therefore after lunch we learned 덧뷔기춤 deotbuigi chum (deotbuigi dance). It's a really fun set of motions, fast moving, too. Yi taught it to us and then we worked on it was Changyeol as well, although Seongbeom couldn't keep from interjecting (since the dance is so fast paced and the leader is calling out directions and explanations and the count, causing Changyeol to work up a good sweat, it looked like he appreciated the rest). Then we were told the group would be divided again (there were 42 people there, we counted off and the odds and evens split into two teams) and we'd each group perform deotbuigi chum and the basic motion set. Yi was insistent that we had to work as one, a theme he was on all day. In the morning he would hit one student (진규 Jin'gyu) and then we were all supposed to say "ow" or fall over when he fell over and stand up when he stood up, etc. We were very strongly told to abandon or ideas of being from particular schools or clubs and just cooperate and perform with one mind. So the odds performed, then the evens, then we all danced together with a great release of 신명 shinmyeong. It was pretty awesome, everyone got heated up and even sweaty, and afterwards I for one was super high on the rush of the group energy.

After a short break we divided into a 꽹과리 ggwaenggwari and a 장구 janggu group and learned at least something about accompanying Goseong Ogwangdae and the rhythms that usually accompanied it. I took the janggu class, which was taught by Dongsu. At the end of the class I ran out and Changyeol drove me to the bus station so that I could go back to Seoul and see the stupid doctor who insisted that only Wednesday and only that particular time (2:30 pm) which means that I am losing basically an entire day of class at Goseong (since the bus takes over 4 hours to Seoul, if I left tomorrow morning the only advantage would be to have practice this evening but I'd miss advantages like sleeping in and changing my clothes and I'd basically spend the entire day on the bus. As this is, I hope to make it back for evening practice on Wednesday.

The Day I Perform Sangmo in the Snow

January 14th, 2010 Two Days Before my Birthday (Phone calls and emails welcome because I'll be hanging out with a bunch of people who've never met me before, and I like b-day acknowledgement)

Woke up, ate breakfast, had morning class. The class went very well, although 수희 Suhee talked a lot, it was interesting and I learned a lot and remembered to record a fair amount of what she said with my voice recorder. One of the recently arrived 개전연 Gaejeonyeon people, 우현택 U Hyeon-taek, is a Korean traditional dance major. He was urged to stand up and give a small presentation. Part of the discussion after class ended was on the ways to evaluate different 장구 janggu. Basically, the more lines of the tree on the janggu the older it is, the slower growing, the better the wood, the better the sound. There are sizes to janggu, you should match it to your own size. 영록 Yeongnok, who is broad shouldered and nearing 6 feet tall, uses an 8. Usually if you're sitting to play you want a slightly larger one than if you play 풍물 pungmul a lot (since pungmul is properly played while dancing/marching around). A half size difference is about normal. Suhee, who is quite petite, uses a 6 for pungmul.

Lunch (totally meat, I barely ate anything but rice and the soup, which was thin black sesame gruel). Then I interviewed Janghyeok. Which was interesting, because I rarely can talk with anyone except people like 이종휘 Yi Jonghui and 김은주 Kim Eunju and 김영숙 Kim Yeongsuk about arts politics, unless I've made a special interview appointment to interview someone. It's been awhile since I had a discussion with someone new about this stuff and his age, well, it was just a very refreshing conversation.

At 2 the performers assembled in our practice room and talked about the performance and prepared ourselves. If the 상모 sangmo is loose on my head, it's hard to spin, avoiding that I erred on the side of so tight after awhile I thought I was cutting off circulation to my brain. Seriously, it was painful. We started playing around 2:40. It was two 북 buk, one 징 jing, two 장구 janggu, and two 꽹과리 gwaenggwari with two 소고 sogo dancers, two sangmo and sogo dancers (obviously one of those was me) and three elementary school children also on sangmo and sogo. Plus three people doing 잡색 japsaek, the characters who dance around in the performance. We started playing and then 국진 Geukjin, who was the 상쇠 sangsoi (lead gwaenggwari player who leads the whole group) led us onto the snow, which we were packing into sludgy ice with our steps. I was trying to spin my sangmo and my feet were slipping sideways at the same time. And my shoes didn't feel thick enough for dancing on snow/ice. After too long there, we moved, and paused at another spot, then we moved again in between the old traditional buildings where the instructors live. We re-enacted the ceremony at 대보름 Daeboreum (first full moon of the lunar new year) where you dance to someone's house and bless them and get fed and liquored up in return. Suhee and 원로 Wonno acted the part of the householders. We danced there and got fed a bit and some people drank soju, then I finally took off my sangmo (blessed relief) and packed it up to leave. We ended playing at 4:45 and Geukjin drove me to town, where I caught the bus to Jeonju.




In Jeonju I ate dinner and had tea with Bonnie, a friend from the US who is also in Korea on a Fulbright-Hays, and 김월덕 Kim Woldeok, one of my two closest Korean girlfriends. It was such a wonderful break from food at the training center.

Caught the bus to Seoul, the bus had internet! Man I love Korea.

Playing Janggu while Standing

January 13th, 2010
Woke up, breakfast, morning class (videotaped again), had a talk with the 수희 Suhee during break, she's a 전수자 jeonsuja, she started ten years ago. I also haven't mentioned yet that both 원로 Wonno and 은정 Eunjeong keep very detailed notes of how to perform things with the teacher's special directions, so they write down the order of rhythmic patterns through the piece, and special notes about where to accent or what feeling is needed. It's pretty cool.

Lunch. Interviewed 국진 Geukjin and 승민 Seungmin. After lunch Suhee had us practice some more then after break she had us put on our 장구 janggu (strap them on with two white strips of cloth). 영록 Yeongnok immediately appeared at my side with white cloth and helped me strap on my janggu. 개전연 Gaejeonyeon—my 풍물 pungmul family!! First she had us stand in place and play, then we moved around. To many people that is ordinary, but to some people it's fairly new, though none so new as me. It was so much fun. I have to tell you, I felt great. And I don't know if it was my imagination or not, but I played even better than ever, I think because movement allows me to feel rhythm. I know I did well, because the teacher tried to make me take a solo. I refused, because I knew the minute I wasn't next to another janggu player to feel his rhythm I'd probably screw up. It was really fun, though.
Class as of Thursday


Sohee:
Wonno:


At five we had a special class, 소고 sogo. The sogo teacher is the same one I had for a special sogo class last summer, I think she's incredibly patronizing. I kind of wanted to smack her, to tell the truth. She mostly left me alone, and I mostly ignored all but the most basic directions she had for us. In other words, I beat the sogo in the required manner, but I danced with it (even when we weren't moving) as I felt. I love the sogo.

Dinner, internet, afterwards I interviewed 은정 Eunjeong. Which was a very successful interview, she's just so comfortable with me and a very evocative story teller, too. We had our individual practice, but I was pretty exhausted, probably from one hour of sogo dancing. At the end it became a group jam, again. Awesome! Then there was a group meeting with 새미 Saemi and Suhee, too. We discussed how things were running at the training center, no one criticized anything. Then we figured out how to do the Friday performance. That was interesting, because usually in the summer I've experienced everyone together at the Friday performance, then just a selected group for Saturday. The more or less unspoken rule was that if you performed on Friday you wouldn't be on Saturday, although I'm not sure everyone understood that. At any rate, due to the small numbers there is unavoidable overlap. At that moment we had 23 people, because although some people have had to leave (like 선홍 Seonhong), other people have shown up (like 유미 Yumi, one of my original Gaejeonyeon friends.) After the meeting was wash-up time. About three people at a time can bathe, and the men of course aren't mixing in with the women. This means that sharing the one bathing room it takes about 8 rounds to finish the bathing, and some rounds go on way too long. This meant the 뒤풀이 duipuli was going to start so late, I'd lost all my energy and I just went to sleep (even so it was nearly midnight, and I can't sleep well until everyone's stopped moving around).

Drumming Again

January 12th, 2010
It snowed about an inch and a half during the night, covering all of our trails and paths, and making my first trip to the bathroom in the morning a very cold-footed affair.






Breakfast, then we practiced. This was the first time I brought the video camera to class. I video taped the entire class, without a break, to show what 2.5 hours of instruction looked like (playing with the camera and extra sleep last night meant I didn't space out). I will later analyze it for specific important reoccurring elements, to talk about exactly how 수희 Suhee teaches and compare it with teaching style of other teachers. Suhee still talked far too much, in my opinion, but it was a much better class because we practiced the same thing over and over (ten times to be exact). I am drumming the 장구 janggu better than I ever have before.

Lunch and then we had our game afternoon, a tradition here at the Training Center. It breaks up the week. We played three different games, my team lost. It was, however, pretty funny.














Gaming losing team (mine) being pelted with snow as our penalty (I escaped to use the camera, obviously)

Gaejeonyeon members (who were there on Wednesday)

With Wonno, Seungmin, Eunjeong and Yeongnok:

These guys don't LOOK like winners to me...


In the evening after dinner I quickly used the internet then we had our group practice. At first each person did their own thing, for nearly two hours. I spun the 상모 sangmo, but didn't feel super energetic and excited about it. At about twenty minutes to nine the group (again at 은정 Eunjeong's urging) jelled and began to perform as a group. I was going to put away my sangmo but then 지용 Jiyong who is also doing sangmo was still spinning his, so I stood next to him and copied. He can only do the moves I can, and not always better, so it worked out well.

We actually had really warm water, so after a group bathing out of the big bucket (the three of us dippered water out at a rate a bit faster than it replenished) I felt clean and nice, but it was time for 뒤풀이 duipuli, not sleep. The little kids who are studying in another building actually shared some of their duipuli food with us, that was so sweet. We then added more and had a good bunch of food, I mostly talked with 국진 Geukjin, who is a practicing traditional medicine doctor here for the week (he switches from 꽹과리 ggwaenggwari to 장구 janggu to occasionally for fun, 징 jing).

Another Day of Drumming!

January 11th, 2010
I woke up a tad before most of the group again, we all went to breakfast at 8. In case you didn't know, Korean breakfast is the same as every other Korean meal. We had rice, kimchi, soup (seaweed with nothing much in it to give it flavor besides MSG I hope not, maybe just salt), the side dishes were sausage in spicy sauce, flour and fish paste reconstituted into a pancake of fishy tasting flour, sauteed in a spicy sauce, and spinach (steamed).

Morning practice was a bit more frustrating for me than yesterday. The teacher, 수희Suhee literally only stops talking when she's hitting the drum or ggwaenggwari, and not always then. She talked for 35 minutes straight at one point. Yes, much is related to what we're studying, but one of her soliloquy was about a program she'd seen on the news on censorship in a high school. She didn't even explain it well. There was less testing of people's ability to make the rhythm this morning, I guess she's more sure of our ability now. Although she still did some checking (only once on the janggu players but several times on the ggwaenggwari) and spent a long time explaining 호허굿 (Ho heo gut). There seems to be some confusion over how to do it.

We had lunch and then I ended up helping to shovel snow off the very steep path to the cafeteria, it's incredibly dangerous the way it is. It's starting to snow again right now, so having one part of the path without snow or ice to be covered by more snow and ice will be nice. It's been a bit terrifying even to go to the cafeteria, and I've come back the long way almost every time.

Afternoon practice was more of the same; we practiced, but more than that we listened to Sohee speak about a wide variety of things. I continually space out or nod off when she's talking. Bad researcher, bad! Must take detailed field notes (my notebook is just next to me, uncapped pen at the correct page). After dinner, another meat heavy meal that I could barely eat, I felt so weak. I tried to do the evening independent practice—I put on my 상모 sangmo and spun for about thirty minutes, then I sat down and fell asleep for about twenty minutes, waking up I decided it made more sense to just give up entirely, and I went to sleep (until they came back from practice, because it's hard to sleep before everyone else has, but eventually they went downstairs to have 뒤풀이 duipuli and I fell back asleep). I think this was less because the surgery on Friday taxed my body and more because two meals in a row with mostly meat (lunch I could barely eat at all) meant that I wasn't fueled properly.


Seungmin:

Yeongnok:

The Drumming Begins

January 10th, 2010
I woke up at 7:27 and used my private bathroom before going to breakfast with the whole group. I think either someone in the kitchen has lost her sense of taste or we're getting untasted food after someone got way too liberal with the salt. Many people couldn't eat one of the breakfast dishes and one of the lunch dishes due to the pure saltiness. Each meal is much the same. Lunch was white rice, a green vegetable that had been dried and rehydrated- I have no idea what it is in English and doubt it has an English name (this was the super salty dish), jerked fish strips cooked in a spicy with corn syrup sauce, a light bean paste soup made with the same vegetable, a stewed egg dish (I didn't try that) and kimchi. That's about what each meal is. Rice, Kimchi, a soup and two or three side dishes. It gets old.

The morning class let me start to get to know 임수희 Im Suhee, our teacher for the week. All the students, since we're not much over 20 people, have been combined together into one class. Soheui talked a lot, much more than I expected, it almost felt like a lecture instead of a participatory class, but I know it won't be like that the whole time. She's very petite, and I've seen her perform 소고춤 sogo chum before, she's very talented. The room was so hot—our apartment in Seoul has rarely gotten over 14 degrees this winter, because the four outside walls, all with windows has been much too hard to heat (without spending a fortune), but the room was 22, causing me to be drowsy as Suhee talked on and on. Talking was, of course, punctuated by drumming. It was actually surprising, but I think I'm a better drummer now than in summer 2009 when I took the drumming class, and honestly I haven't practiced. Is that weird? She would talk, have us practice what she was talking about, talk some more, ask just the 꽹과리 ggwaenggwari players to play, or just those three people, or that one, and then she'd have us all try again.

Among things she taught us, or reminded us: She wants 장구 janggu players to keep our left elbow way up near shoulder height, except when we're moving from the shoulder (not from the elbow or the wrist) to hit the drum. She wants the ggwaenggwari players to stop moving the ggwaenggwari around, but just to keep it held just below the neck (in height) and out in front of the chest. She switched back and forth from the two instruments are she directed and led and gave examples. At one point she dissed the senior students who pass on their mistakes to junior students, this was directed at Kyunghee students who are here without any of their senior members (Suhee took that as arrogance that the senior members don't think they have anything to learn from the pros). She told a long story about her nephew, too. It wasn't all drumming lecture. Today we have 13 janggu players and 10 ggwaenggwari players but more people will slowly appear during the week. After lunch it was more of the same; a lot of talking, then demonstrations of a pattern, then testing us on it, then all practicing together. At 5:00 we went to the seminar room at the museum and watched a video of an old performance, I slept through a lot of it, others slept through all of it.

At six we went to dinner, the featured food was fried pork "cutlets." I was excited to see though that there was also lightly steamed broccoli. During the dinner break I also managed to bring my computer to the office so I could post my blog, send out my writing for the day to my dissertation group and let everyone know I'm recovering from my surgery.

Our evening practice is without a teacher, just us, and since we're just over twenty people, it's sort of like the same size as a slightly small pungmul group. It was awesome. I brought my 상모 sangmo and 소고 sogo with me, and during the evening two hour period I will concentrate on sangmo. As the dominant personality, 은정Eunjeong took over the practice. No one needed to be in charge of practice, the standard would be for each person to work on what they need to work on (a source of great cacophony) and for after a time each school to set up a mini-practice. But Eunjeong made it all into one big group practice. Naturally Eunjeong is also a 꽹과리 ggwaenggwari player, so she led for most of the time, but also (the people she chose, when she chose) also had a chance to lead the whole group. It was in many ways like a performance, with the ggwaenggwari player choosing players of other instruments to do solos or for janggu players to come out and do the synchronized performance of 설장구 seoljanggu, a highly choreographed piece. All of the players, I should clarify, were standing up, holding their instruments or with them strapped to their bodies. 잎새 Ipsae took a turn on the sogo for a solo and 영록 Yeongnok did a solo on the 징 jing. It was tons of fun. When we took a short break I talked to SBS. They want me to do some TV show. I'm really stupid if I agree, I'm still waiting to see what they'll propose I do.

Our 뒤풀이duipuli for the evening included the most awesome food ever at a duipuli. Yeongnok's mom is a cook and Eunjeong conceived of this dish so they brought everything for it, including the all important sauce that Yeongnok's mom made. The dish was a salad with cooked 라면 ramyeon (instant noodles) with the water all drained off, snails (from several cans of snails) cut down a bit to a more reasonable size and raw carrots, onions and cucumber. The sauce was a vinegared red pepper paste sauce with sesame seeds in it. It was so awesome. Also since I helped chop the veggies (Eunjeong said- "Now that's how a housewife can chop!"), I got extra slices of carrot. And I really was feeling the intense desire for some fresh veggies. I talked about my research and their current studies with three of the four guys from Kyunghee University. They are in English, Sociology and Business. Since the whole conversation featured Pilbong Nongak and 양진성 Yang Jinseong (the head of Imshil Pilbong Nongak) it was a conversation that we all had something to say about, not just me. The one in English is very shy about his ability ("I'm only a second year student" "Yes, but you've studied English since you were a kid.") So, like Wonno, he's an English major who does not (so far as I can see) speak English.



Duipuli:

Imshil Pilbong Nongak Training Center for Drumming Camp

January 9th, 2010
I made it to the bus on time, but I had to take a taxi because of my giant suitcase (including warm blue blanket), 장구janggu (the largest instrument… why didn't I decide to learn 꽹과리 ggwaenggwari the gong approximately the size of a salad plate and a little deeper than the length of the thumb?) and my shoulder bag with computer and various books.

Part of going with 개전연 (개인전수연합) gaejeonyeon, the group I joined in summer 2009, is getting into the group think of Korean group activities. This is when I'm glad Karjam's not with me. I love my husband but he's a serious barrier to me being able to just sink into the group for maximum participant observation research value. When we got to the rest-stop we had to wait outside the bathrooms for everyone to come out. In the convenience store everyone's drinks had to be bought together, which of course means that you should pick something reasonable like my 750 won bottle of water, it would be very bad form to grab a 2,200 won drink, even if you had the money, because the group was pooling their money. Then we bought snacks from the snack vendors, but everything had to be for sharing. I shared my toasted pressed dried fish (쥐포) and received a cookie, a package of cookies (brought from Seoul), a walnut cake stuffed with red bean paste and offers of several other things. It would have been incredibly rude for me not to share. There are several Gaejeonyeon members I don't know with us, most of them are members of 이화여대 Ewha Woman's [sic] University's team. 은정Eunjeong, our dominant personality, graduated from Ewha last year (February, that's Korean graduation month) and maintains a close connection to their team. The most eager team members who didn't feel that one week of practice (with their entire group) would be enough, have come this time as well. They will be returning with the other Ewha members in the same week that I return to do sangmo study. It seems that this will be a small week, traditionally the earlier weeks of the training camp are lightly attended, and winter sees less participants than the summer. There were thirty people pre-registered for the camp, by this evening we'll be able to see just what the attendance is going to be. Unfortunately one of the people going is 김린한 Kim Rinhan who I find absolutely the most annoying of anyone I've met associated with 임실필봉농악 Imshil Pilbong Nongak. We were in the same sangmo class last summer, and until recently he's also attended the Seoul Training Center classes. Eunjeong also finds him very irritating.

After we arrived at the Training Center we met 선홍 Seonhong, who I've been on two previous programs with and met up with at a festival, he's an Arabic major. He also was here the previous week, and so he was tasked with meeting us and telling us that we'd be staying in the 영산관 Yeongsan Hall. Almost all of us will stay in one big room, this is probably because it's cheaper to heat this building, and maybe they're even able to turn off the heat in some of the rooms. One other room is in use, a much smaller one. Gaejeonyeon has one half of the big room but more than one half the people.

Group think manifested again when we pooled our money so that one person could deal with finances for all of us. And when a giant paper was taped to the wall with our six rules, one more large paper, still in progress, tells us what we're responsible to clean on which day. And when it was time to go eat, we all went together. And then when two people had to go back to their rooms, I made sure that we didn't start eating until they got back, and when everyone finished eating we all stood up and turned in our plates, bowls, chopsticks and spoons at once. Actually I didn't have a bowl as the soup was made with meat, but the rest of the meal was fine. One of the girls sitting across from me, however, sat down and looked at her meal and said "this would be a good week for me to go on a diet."

After the meal we all hung around except for a few extra enthusiastic people who went to practice. At 8 we had a big group meeting to lay down the rules and expectations and answer any questions we might have. No one volunteered for the positions of 학생회장 Student President or 총무 Manager, although some did nominate their friends. At last 세미 Semi (Seh-mee), the manager of the winter camp picked too people, the President is 다원Dawon, a woman with an exceptionally great smile, the manager is one of the guys from 경희대 Gyeongheui (Kyunghee) University, 규광 Gyugwang. The three groups who are here are Gaejeonyeon, Kyunghee University and a high school thirty minutes away has sent three students. Then there are a few independent people who naturally are sucked into Gaejeonyeon, which means we are by far the largest and most dominant group. She told the women from our group to sleep in a separate room. In the morning when I woke up, I saw that mostly that's what happened. After reviewing the cleaning duties, the rules for safety and civility at the camp and offering several times to answer questions (no one had any) Semi ended the meeting.

I tagged after her and explained my health issue. She directed me to a restroom that is rarely used, warm and private. I will use that for things related to recovery from my surgery, and I feel confident that I can take care of myself well while I'm here.

We had our 뒤풀이 duipuli or after hours party starting a little earlier than we will the rest of the week, 승민 Seungmin made a huge pot of instant noodles and people shared out various other snacks as well. 막걸리 makgeolli was also shared around the circle. I spent most of my social time talking with 원모 Wonmo (don't get confused as the head of Gaejeonyeon is Wonno) and 휘 Hui, two participants from Kyunghee University. Group think was much in evidence as people shared noodles off the same plate or pan lid, refilled each other's glasses and collectively punished anyone who was out of line (by making them sing). I went to bed, or I went to lie down on the hot floor at a little after 11. I slept fairly well.

Tatu and Yuso Performance (Freaking Cold)

December 24th, 2010
I went to Severance Hospital to get my ear cleaned again. I might not have needed to, but as I told the nice resident, I didn't want to gamble on it not suddenly getting full of gunk and painful over the weekend. BE CAREFUL WITH YOUR EARS.

In the evening Karjam and I tried to hurry to the 국악원 Gukakwon for performances by 타투Tatu and 유소Yuso, but the bus was really uncooperative. We watched it pull out from the stop from the other side of the street and waited far too long for the next bus. The exact same thing happened on the way home as my toes turned to ice. Tatu performed first, which was fortunate, since even with hopping off the bus and into a very skilled taxi driver's vehicle we were still a tad late. The group presented several different acts from a bellydance (by totally non-competent dancers) plus Korean percussion piece for the first act to a 판굿 pan gut performance at the end, trying their best to enjoy 풍물 pungmul but also show something new and exciting to an audience that (of course) has seen pungmul before. In fact during their show I was worrying about Yuso. What was Yuso going to show that was much different from Tatu? However I needn't have worried.

Yuso's performance was spectacular. And I don't say that because 이종휘 Yi Jonghui is a really awesome 상모 sangmo instructor and I want to support him. It was truly a very amazing show. It wowed Karjam (he's been getting a bit jaded and bored with traditional Korean music). He kept exclaiming how much a Tibetan audience would love to see something like this! There were three parts to the performance. The first was a sort of 사물놀이 samulnori type piece with Jonghui playing 징 jing until it was time for him to play the second 꽹과리 ggwaenggwari part. The second part was a 모듬북 modeumbuk piece with one buk as large as those in the Buddhist temples plus others in various sizes. The final piece was their 판굿 pan gut piece, it was really awesome, the skills that the Yuso performers exhibited just blew me away. There was lots of great sangmo action, but I was tickled to see that Jonghui was not the featured sangmo performer.

Pungmul Performance at KOUS

December 22nd, 2010
I went to Severance again and got my ear cleaned again. Please, remember what I have learned about ears: don’t screw with your ears. Q-tips, fingers and other items should NOT be inserted into ears, ever (wet or dry). If perchance your ear is gunky and not cleaning itself like it should, go have your doctor clean it out.

My big research-related event for Wednesday was to attend a performance with 양은석 Yang Eunseok and one of his former university club fellows who I’ve met and two who I had not met before. The performance we went to see was featuring a female 상쇠 lead soi or 꽹과리 ggwaenggwari player. The player, 유순자 Yu Sunja plays호남우도Honam Udo 풍물 pungmul music (Pilbong is 호남좌도 Honam Jwado). I didn’t know how they were going to set it up as a distinct performance (the show was at KOUS and last featuring a set of three lead soi players). Although of course I assumed that the performance would feature the lead soi and include at least some straight up pungmul pieces. There is a lot more to being a lead soi player than just playing the ggwaenggwari or soi. Here is a video (an ad plays first) of a man playing ggwaeggwari (the man who talks at the start of the video is 김덕수 Kim Deoksu, the most famous 장구 janggu player in Korea). I chose to show this video partially because it demonstrates the vital dance component of playing the gwaenggwari. This video shows how a gwaenggwari player, the lead soi in particular is also sometime singing or chanting, the man singing here is 양진성 Yang Jinseong, who runs the 임실필봉농악Imshil Pilbong Nongak preservation association and is the lead soi player for the group.

The show was much more than I had expected, although I do have some confidence in KOUS arranging good shows. First of all it was amazing to see that not only was the lead soi player a woman but most of the group was made up of female performers. The only men were two 소고/상모 sogo/sangmo guys, the 태평소 taepyeongso player (who is actually employed at the same place that Yang Eunseok is working so he’s not the usual taepyeongso player for the group) and a man who came out and did a special sogo/sangmo solo (who I think was just there to show some visual variety, not a member of the same group). Although the lead soi player was great, the costumes were bright and fun (not being an ‘official’ protected group allows you to do things like wear feathers in your hair instead of big puffball flower hats), and everyone was really on top of their game it was one sixty-something year old lead sogo/sangmo woman that impressed me the most. She was so much fun! First of all, her sangmo and sogo were amazing. Even though she did not leap that high, she was fast and nimble, she accented motions so expertly and was so amazing that she was immediately the favorite of many in the crowd. She was also a total ham, dancing as though she was retarded at times (this is traditional in Korea, I don’t know what will happen if PC thought ever hits here- it’ll really screw with some traditional arts), demanding more applause before she went on and in general dancing at an energy level you’d not expect in a woman her age.

The lead soi and the second janggu player sang at one point, at another the MC pulled a famous singer out of the crowd and she and the lead soi player sang while everyone else was off stage. There was a solo by the sangmo/sogo lead and the first and second janggu player danced 설장구 seoljanggu together. The one strange thing was that there were no 북 buk players in the group! A guest sangmo/sogo man came out, he looked magnificent—the black and white makes it look like he was wearing black, silver and white—he was. It was really cool looking. He had to have had his sangmo custom made in that color scheme. The entire performance was really fun and I wish I could have gone out with Eunseok and the others for some makgeolli but Karjam is against women drinking… so I came home instead.

The Lead Soi:


Janggu Ladies:



One of the only two guys in the group:


Really amazing sangmo/sogo woman:







These flips are hard if you're twenty:



Clowning around:


Cool Sangmo/Sogo Soloist Man: