through the looking glass

a friend had a bunch of people over for a lunch to dinner marathon afternoon yesterday. aside from my amazement that the wife in question (lower school teacher by day) cooked not one but two fabulous meals for a bunch of people (homemade mien for lunch, mmm, variety of garlic based dishes plus some leftover nu rou for dinner, droolworthy) was the sheer enjoyment of hanging out with a bunch of incredibly talented musicians. only one of whose day job involves music (he owns a guitar shop).

we’re greeted and shown right in to the music room where another friend already sits doodling at the electric guitar. acoustic guitar comes out next, followed by a set of bongos and finally, unbelievably, a full size djembe (african drum). what made the ensuing jam brilliant was not just the level of cohesion some of the participants managed, that wonderful pulse that happens when musicians begin to think and feel together and let it show through the tunes, but that every ten minutes or so everyone would switch instruments. granted, some were better at one instrument than others, but overall these guys seemed capable of riffing on anything you put in front of them. even the piano, once uncovered, became a perfect bass line from someone who otherwise might not have been able to pull off a mozart sonata on the thing.

the music moved from rhythmic to silly to covers back to silly. my favorite moments included : bug (huge, huge voice, tiny tiny man) on acoustic leading a fast paced, stylized version of pink floyd’s wish you were here. the computer entered the mix and started with some drum kit stuff and wandered without path through a number of bizarre themes, including reggae, trip hop, electronica and carribean (with guitars keeping admirable pace). in the middle of a heavy metal moment someone busted out with operatic female choral voices. soon thereafter bug burst first into the lyrics of the old dance hit ‘come on barbie’ followed immediately by loudly spoken, well, it sounded like he was quoting some what mao said stuff but that might just be wishful thinking, it could just as easily have been song lyrics, over some junior vasquez-worthy dance samples, brilliant. took a while to restart after that one, the laughter took over.

fluidity in action. the guitars found some subtly-changing chord progressions and traded off lead, point and counterpoint. perhaps they were songs I’ve simply never heard but I doubt it. there was a lifepulse to that music that took my breath away, I felt joined and played along in a way I haven’t in a long, long time.

I’ve hung out through piles of music store jams but the arrival of a non-kit drum meant that for the first time I was able to participate rather than just listen. I’m no percussionist but I did manage to get into the groove and find a nice counterbalance on a few occasions. and where the language sometimes barrs fluid communication with these guys I felt yesterday for the first time an unspoken communication, beyond winks and smiles and shared jokes, began.

I also managed to begin a dialogue with huang laoshi, our hostess. she’s always looked at me with open curiosity but has never really said much to me, so after dinner I decided to insist that she let me help clean up in hopes that with just the girls in the kitchen she might feel more free to talk or ask questions if she so desired. though I wasn’t much help at all, as she doesn’t dry dishes and there was only one sink which she wouldn’t let me near, I managed to put most of the things away on the first try and though she asked very few questions herself a wall came down. amusingly, when I spoke only in chiense I was greeted with a blank look of incomprehension, but when I started in english and translated into chinese she understood almost every time. she also, surprisingly, answered in english, it seems she teaches both chinese and a little english to her ten-year-old students. anyway, it’s a good thing when a new door opens.

in related musings I’ve realized that I tend to be the only female in what would otherwise be boys time. even though huang laoshi was in the apartment all afternoon she stayed in the other room doing her own thing, not to be seen between lunch and dinner. in america I am completely accustomed to being the only girl in a group of boys, I fall definitevely into the tomboy category and it’s never seemed strange there. perhaps this is an offshoot of the same thing, I smoke and drink with them, play sometimes silly games right along with them and ganbei with no ado. perhaps it’s simply because I blatantly cannot keep up with their fast dialect more often than not, though sometimes I will get the gist if not the specifics. perhaps the girls are invited but simply choose not to join in. I can honestly say I have absolutely no idea. will have to think about that one…

the above, in retrospect, took up very little of the ~ eight hour visit but for me, as cool as it was to listen to the plethora of random mp3 tunage and attempt to pick out bits and pieces from the boys jabbering in fast-paced tianshuihua (of which I have only picked up a few slang phrases and understand that ‘yi’ is ’sss’) yet these memories outshine the rest. and to think I almost didn’t go due to the tail end of yet another in a long line of colds. thanks, john, for making me promise to not say no to anything.