A Week In The Dojo

My project for Asian/American Pop-Culture Crosscurrents revolves around one book– Philip Sudo’s Zen Guitar. The book brings Asian philosophy to the West, and it centers on what is arguably one of the primary icons of pop-culture, a symbol of rebellion– the guitar. Even though I am a long-time rhythm guitarist, I have just begun learning to play bass; this is part of that journey.

Two weeks ago I reviewed the book to provide the proper context for my project. Last week I talked about the instrument of my choice and the tools I chose within the context of Zen Guitar. For this weeks entry I think it would be fun to chronicle a full week in my Bass-Guitar Dojo. Throughout the weeks to come I will focus on different parts of the book rather than following it page-by-page– which would take… well, a lifetime. “The way of Zen Guitar is a life long path…”

Mon. 27 Jan: Practice.

“The purpose of this dojo is to provide a training ground for those people who have the will and discipline to know the Way of Zen Guitar. The Japanese call this kind of practice shugyo– literally, mastering one’s deeds. Understand as long as you follow the path of Zen Guitar, you will be in shugyo. There will never come a point where practicing ends, even should you reach the black-belt level or beyond. The path of Zen Guitar goes on forever” (p39)

My practice session began with a specific goal in mind– to learn six songs for our upcoming Sunday morning service at Faith Assembly Lacey. Since this particular service is called “Softer Sunday,” it’s geared to people who prefer a mix of contemporary and traditional music. It is a mix that stretches my ability since I am unfamiliar with most of the songs– it just adds to the challenge. With all the business in my life, setting aside an hour or two to practice has been difficult, but doing so is a welcome break from the craziness of the day.

Tues. 28 Jan: Common Missteps.

“…are potholes along the path that every player must work to avoid at every point. Endeavoring to know the Way demands moment-to-moment vigilance. In one small detail, we can deviate from the path. If left unchecked, these deviations can, over time, lead to a wide divergence from the path. Like the alcoholic who says, “I’ll only have this one drink this one time,” many unsui think they are on the right track when they actually have fallen off it. Fro some people that “one drink” may be an excuse to skip practice; a year later, the guitar is shrouded in dust and cobwebs. Selfishness, egotism, laziness– a single act can lead to a long detour. You must check your path constantly and make corrections as you go. Failure to acknowledge these missteps can lead one far astray.” (p41)

Again, it was tough to set time aside– as is anything new to ones routine. but building on Monday’s practice session was important– I want to keep the momentum going, and keep chipping away at the stone– learning these new songs. Since I have to deal with a sever case of dyslexia, I can’t simply rely on chord sheets. Doing so would result in “seeing” the notes in the wrong position and playing the wrong chords. This makes practice sessions a bit more involved since I’ve got to really concentrate more on musical cues (drummer, singers , keys, etc.). The extra practice helps enable me to make corrections during the actual performance, and improvise when necessary. At the end of the nights session I had three of the six tunes down pretty good.

Wed. 29 Jan: Seven times down, eight times up.

“If you slip in your training, get up. Even should you think defeatist thoughts– “I can’t learn this, “My hands aren’t strong enough,” “I’ll never be any good” –never voice them aloud. Burn such thoughts from your mind before you make a singer utterance. The famed martial artist Bruce Lee was said to have done that exact thing” Whenever a negative thought came into his head, he would visualize writing the words down on a slip of paper and putting it to flames. Apply this thinking to your own training.” (p45)

My frustration with one of the songs was beginning to get the better of me. It has a lot of changes, and doesn’t follow a set pattern. Each of the verses build on each other, and the chorus is quite different. Add to that the tempo is ssooooo slow. A bass players job is to lock in with the drummer and establish the groove; the band follows the rhythm section. This song is much different. And quite frustrating. Following the advice from Zen Guitar I’m letting it go. Tomorrows a new day.

Thur/Fri. 30-31 Jan: When it has to be done.

“When you feel that you have so much to do you don’t know where to begin, start with one task, however small, and get it done. Then proceed to another. As the samurai say, ‘Attack the corners’ –the little things that stick out– then work your way in to the big things. A famous zen teaching illustrates the attitude required for this kind of discipline:

A monk approached the zen master Joshu and said, ‘I have just entered the monastery. Please teach me.’ Joshu said, ‘Have you eaten your rice porridge?’ The monk replied that he had. ‘Then you had better wash your bowl,’ Joshu said” (p58).

For the last five or six weeks I have been working on my grad school application. It has been a real challenge completing the required essay, personal statement and resume, coordinating recommendation letters, and collecting all the transcripts– while trying to keep up with our A-Pop coursework. The priority deadline for the application is Monday 3 Feb, and I still had some lose ends to tie up to make the deadline. I also had to catch up on our course reading– both nights pushed into the wee-hours… So I had to put off practicing for a few days as it was time to attack the corners.

Sat. 1 Feb: Prepare the Mind.

“The best way to make decisions about playing in the moment is to have already made them. That is, do your thinking ahead of time. Think before the time comes to act, think before the time comes to speak, think before the time comes [to] play a note. Then when the moment arrives, do not think. Just play” (p110).

“To play the truth, you must already have the correct attitude. When you look for it during the moment, you will still be looking for it when the moment has passed” (p111).

Having missed the last two days of practice I was excited to pick up where I left off, and prepare for tomorrows service. I spent the first few hours making sure I got the changes down and each song worked out. The notes I make on my chord sheets look confusing to my bandmates, but they are an essential part of my preparation. Next I set up my gear exactly as it will be on stage and play along with recordings. It always surprises me how fast time seems to pass during my practice sessions– tonight’s ended at 11pm, but I am ready to play.

Sun. 2 Feb: Play the Changes.

“What counts most in this dojo is not the difficulty of one’s music, but its spiritual depth. The true unsui of Zen Guitar become one with the changes. They know that to be fully present in the moment means to be constantly changing like the clouds. If one is fully present in the moment, every change occurs as naturally as the weather. This is the way of Zen Guitar” (p114).

The day began with an early visit to Starbucks for a large mocha– breakfast in a cup. I took my time setting up my gear when our leader came in announcing some changes to the mornings setlist. Thanks to my week-long preparation I was able to handle the changes easily and embraced the challenge. The first song was changed without notice while we were playing, but the changes made for a much better feel to the song. Another song was completely re-worked to a more traditional rendition. This tune was originally written to favor the piano and vocals, but again we were able to add our own flavor to it– changes that I would not have been able to play without the proper mindset and preparation. The theme of the morning became one of collaboration, and that is when music sounds the best. Of course the purpose of us benign there in the first place was to praise our creator– the one who put “the sound of the divine spark” within us in the first place! (p24).

Summary

“White belt in this dojo signifies the spirt of beginning. No matter how adept you are with the guitar already, wearing the white belt here means you have agreed to set aside all knowledge and preconceptions and open your mind to learning as though for the first time. In zen circles, this attitude is called carrying an empty cup” (p26).

I realI really enjoyed working the Zen approach into my practice routine. Integrating the book into my practice routine brought a fresh, new perspective to learning my new instrument, making practice sessions much more enjoyable. I actually found myself looking forward to practicing. It also helped me make connections between music and other aspects of my life as well. As Sudo writes;

“The Way of Zen guitar… provides a framework from which to tackle any new task. Once you learn the principles of Zen Guitar, you can apply them to any endeavor outside music. Follow the samurai maxim that says, ‘from one thing, know ten thousand things.’ Music can teach you everything you need to know” (p20).

A-Pop News: Superbowl Halftime Show Represents~

Did you notice the Superbowl halftime show featured Bruno Mars?

Of course you did.

I’ve never heard of him before the game, but I was impressed with his James Brown moves, and the band’s Commodores-esque choreography. The kid’s got talent.

How does this relate to A-Pop?

According to Wikipedia;

“Bruno Mars was born Peter Gene Hernandez on October 8, 1985, in Honolulu, Hawaii, and was raised in the Waikiki neighborhood of Honolulu.”

“His father is of half Puerto Rican and half Jewish (from Hungary and Ukraine) descent, and is originally from Brooklyn, New York.[13][14] Mars’ mother immigrated to Hawaii from the Philippines as a child, and was of Filipino, and some Spanish, descent.[13][15][16] His parents met while performing in a show, where his mother was a hula dancer and his father played percussion.[14] At the age of two, he was nicknamed “Bruno” by his father, because of his resemblance to legendary professional wrestler Bruno Sammartino.[17][18][19]“

To put his performance in the proper context, check out those who came before him:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Impressions with Joy Luck Club and Connections

First off, I recognized Ming-Na Wen, or Jude in this movie, by her voice immediately as Fa Mulan in both Mulan and Mulan II by Disney and Finn’s mother on one episode of Adventure Time.

With that out of the way, I found this movie fascinating. Instead of focusing on one character or one family, the movie views all the women involved in the Joy Luck Club and the lives of their daughters as well. Each woman in this film had an interesting back story before Jude’s party, each one unique to their lifestyles. If there is one thing that irked me in this movie, it probably has to be the depiction of Asian males. They were depicted as sexually aggressive or thinking that marriage is always half and half. It reminds me of The Slanted Screen where it mentions that the movie business does not want its villains depicted as “white”, but “Asian” works out. Besides that point, the movie was pretty good, even tragic, in a dramatic way, at some parts.

In connections with Slaying The Dragon, I noticed a few things. First off is that most of the daughters of the Joy Luck Club’s members had white husbands, which brought in the whole “white man and Asian woman” tidbit to mind. Not saying that’s bad, but it has been done plenty of times in movies already. Another was the whole “servitude” attitude. A few times in the movie, some of the women, mostly the mothers of the daughters, displayed this. For example, one of the mothers kept doing what her cheating husband told her to do, even though the audience knows it’s just wrong to follow him. In a broken state of despair, she drowns her own child to avoid him from being raised by such a man. Finally a minor one was the Asian woman being manipulative. This is subverted in a way since Waverly’s mom used manipulation to save herself from a life that was not the one she wanted to live. Sure she lied and tricked a few people, but at least she escaped from the wretched ex-mother-in-law.

Better Luck Tomorrow

“There’s no going back.” This is the last line that was said in the film Better Luck Tomorrow. Better Luck Tomorrow took the stereotypes of Asian Americans and put a spin on them. The film did include the typical stereotype of the brainy and determined Asian American, however, underneath those stereotypes is a whole different world. This movie takes advantage of the idea that not everything is as it seems. It also shows how quickly things can escalate from making cheat sheets, to doing drugs, to killing someone. Why? Because the more you break the rules, the more rules don’t affect you. The line between what’s right and what is wrong becomes blurred and all of a sudden things are out of hand.

The Slanted Screen, Saving Face

In The Slanting Face, the stereotypes of Asian and Asian American actors were described. There were many Asian actors in the film that said that they hoped that there would be more movies portraying Asians and Asian Americans in a non-stereotypical way. I feel that in Saving Face, that is what happened. The Asians and Asian Americans portrayed in this film were not stereotypical at all. It was a really good movie, and it showed them as people. Like when I was watching it I wasn’t thinking about them being Asian the whole time, in spite of the fact that there was a lot of cultural influence to the story line.

In terms of crisis I think there were many moments in this film when crisis could apply. First, when Wil began to realize that she had to officially come out to her mom. She knew what was going to happen and dreaded telling her mom. And when she finally did tell her, her mom stopped talking to her for a while. Another example of crisis in this film was when Vivian told Wil that she might be moving to Paris. And also when Vivian told Wil to kiss her in public and Wil couldn’t do it. Those were some of the telling moments in the movie when whatever choice was made, would determine the outcome.

I do think that this film portrayed the difficulties that some cultures can bring to someone’s sexuality. Wil was afraid to tell her mom about her sexuality because she knew that in their culture it was looked down upon. However, this movie went against typical representations of the Chinese culture not just because of Wil, but because of her mom too. Her mom got pregnant by a man half her age, without being married to him. It was comical, but it also showed how serious it was. Her mom was disowned by her father and her friends turned on her and wanted nothing to do with her. I think this is a good example of how someone’s culture can affect their life.

-Dave Chap 10

In chapter 10 in Dave’s book, I had the question how to choose the queens. And, I checked the Nisei Week web site, and found this movie which was the last year’s festival.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As we could know from this movie, they had to introduce themselves as one of the basis for the judgment. I noticed all of candidates in this festival must have had great courage, because to introduce themselves would mean that they became to know their backgrounds. As this book told us, “They were a perfect form of popular culture through which to see larger struggles over race, gender, and nation.” (Dave, p205) I suppose that they accepted this fact already before running for the queen. And, this festival would be great opportunity for them to know about themselves.

Reference material: http://www.niseiweek.org/lauren-naomi-iwata-crowned-73rd-nisei-week-queen/

The Debut

This film focused on showing aspects of the Filipino culture. I can relate to many of the things that were shown in this film. Mostly when it came to the family interactions that were portrayed. There was a lot of family pressure on the main character to live up to a certain standard. They wanted him to be a doctor, and there’s nothing wrong with that. However, I think it’s frustrating for the kids because they don’t feel like they’re talents are being acknowledged. Personally, I have experienced similar family pressures. My family is from Trinidad and the culture and expectations are very similar to what I saw in this film. However, my grandma is the one who tries to pressure me because my parents are out of the picture. I recently talked to my grandma, and she asked me for the millionth time what I was studying in school. I told her I was taking musical theater and she asked me how I was gonna make money and support myself. Usually I deal with this by ignoring it and making a joke or something.

There was a strong family connection in this film. It was obvious that Ben really loved his family, but at the same time he didn’t agree with everything they did. He wanted to make his own choices. He also struggled with being embarrassed by his family. At one point in the film he didn’t want his friends to be around his family and see how they were. I really liked how later in the movie he began to understand his culture and appreciate it for it’s differences rather than being ashamed of being different.

Dave-East Main Street

A part I examined in this book was where it says, “Through a consideration of cross-cultural influences and global cultural trends, the essays here thrive at the interdisciplinary intersection of Asian American studies with media, literature, sociology, film, performance, and cultural studies.” I like this because its a great part of what were learning here in this class and also from last quarter as well. I really like how were learning so much about Asian, Indian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese Americans and through contexts such as books, music, films, documentaries and I’m just like oh my god, I’m learning more than I dreamed of with all this stuff and after this quarter I don’t know whether to learn about a different culture or to go ahead and advance my knowledge that I obtained in both classes and excel it more for it began to continuous standing point of the here and now. I would love to do both, but there’s just so much a full-time student can do. Love this class and hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

Slay the Dragon/Joy Luck Club

This documentary that we watched was a bit of a new story for me. I had no knowledge of all of these things happening during this time during peoples careers of having these stereotypes of Asian Americans. This is not cool, just being blunt and saying that all this stuff they said about Asian American women being exotic and lusting and shit. This stuff is wrong and just degrading for people or media to say these things. I don’t remember that about my friends that are Asian American, all of my friends are just themselves. They are just being the way they are. Don’t matter if their different just like in Joy Luck Club, not all Asian Americans are slutty at all. Movie media just portrayed them at being that way. Whoever got that started should just stop and plus should of never said that in the first place. That’s not right. In the Slaying the dragon that I really thought was interesting was that so many Asian American women had so many roles, starring roles for that matter. I really like how they addressed that and in Joy Luck Club there was a lot of Asian American women was a delight to see most of the movie. In the book where is says, “The construction of the model minority was based on the political silence of Asian America.” I can relate that to Slaying the dragon because a lot of Asian American women broke that silence by becoming leading roles in the film industry. Power to the Asian American women that broke that barrier for them to shine on the big screen.

-My obsession “FOOD”

The other day, I talked about Japanese sushi culture. So, I researched about American sushi to know how different they are. As most people know, in Japan there aren’t the rolls like California rolls, Spicy Tuna rolls, and so on.

I wondered the reason why these rolls like California rolls became famous in America, and I found one of the answers. Interestingly, the seaweeds have the reason. Before Japanese foods were popular in America, most Americans had never had seaweeds. So, they tasted strange when they had seaweeds first time. However, Japanese chef who wanted to keep Japanese food culture thought and tried to make sushi with seaweeds. And, he made California rolls which was made by outside rice and inside seaweeds. In this case, people who had the rolls didn’t taste seaweeds directly.

Before I knew this fact, I was sometimes mad at people who think main sushi menu was California rolls, because they weren’t austenitic Japanese foods. However, now I change my mind, and I think it is okay that there is new food cultures as an Asian American culture to protect Japanese foods culture.

A-POP, Don't Stop

Winter 2014