Idols: Demons and Saints by John Wellington

　太鼓教室で知り合ったジョージさんにお呼ばれして、イースト・ビレッジにあるドロムというバーに行ってきました。なんでも、アジアのポップ・カルチャーを前面に押し出したイベントということで、会場のドロムには主催者のジョン・ウェリントンさんの中々にアバンギャルドな作品が展示されていました。（ジョンさんの作品はコチラ）。一見していただければ分かるようにピカチュウやら、キティちゃんやら、鉄腕アトムやら、フィギュアっぽいのやら、日本のいわゆるオタク文化がテーマになっているようです。題名は『偶像たち：悪魔と聖者』となってます。うーむ、どこらへんが悪魔で聖者なのかは凡人の小生には全く分からないのですが、とにかく見たことがない作品群であることは確かです。

My new friend, George, from taiko school invited me to the event which has the theme of Asian pop culture. It was held at the Drom in East Village and the Avant-garde paintings of today's presenter, John Wellington, were hanged in everywhere. (You can check out his works at his home page). He includes lots of stuff from Japanese pop culture; such as Poke-Mon, Hello Kitty, Astro Boy, and the plastic figures from comic books and anime which are very popular in Japan nowadays. The title of the exhibition was "Idols: Demons and Saints." Mmm, well, I am just an ordinary man so I cannot quite tell which part is demon or saints, but the artworks sure are interesting. The appeal of mismatches. I can tell you that you have never seen anything like them before. You should check it out.

　さて、このアバンギャルドな雰囲気に包まれた中でカズミさんのベリーダンスで始まり、マサエさんのキャバレーの様なダンスに移り、そして伽耶琴（カヤグム）奏者のラミ・ソさんがタブラとコラボで素晴らしい演奏を見せていただいた後、ニューヨークで唯一の沖縄ポップバンドのHappyFunSmileが出てきました。素晴らしいですね。何が素晴らしいって、あなた、このバンド、チンドン屋がモチーフです。そうです。プカドンドンとチラシを配りながら町を練り歩くアレです。奇抜なファッションも踊りも全てそこから来ていると思います。そのチンドン屋が舞台用にアレンジがされてて、アイデアといい、目の付けどころといい、『お見事』の一言です。こういう型破りなバンドを毛嫌いする人もいるかもしれませんが、これこそ最も根源的で健康的なミュージシャンの姿だと思います。変に上品ぶる必要はないのですよ。音楽は祭りであり、野生であり、狂気なのです。

　今日は素晴らしいバンドに出会えて、一平、上機嫌でございます。

The show started in this Avant-garde atmosphere with Kazumi's beautiful belly dance, which continued to Masae's very exotic Cabaret style dance, then Rami Seo, the gayakeum (Korean Zither) player, showed her virtuosity on her instrument with a great tabla player. To wrap up the whole night, one and only Okinawan pop band in New York, HappyFunSmile, came onto the stage. The whole act is based on Chindon-ya, which are the strolling musicians who advertise for shop openings and sales and so on. They go streets to streets playing music, dancing, handing flyers. They usually wear some kind of costumes to get people's attention. You don't see too many of them any more but that was how lots of local advertising were done in Japan. Anyway, let's get back to HappyFunSmile. These guys transformed this strolling advertising to a great stage act. WELL-DONE!! This is really great idea to make a show out of it. Their act is fun, loud and crazy. Some people might not be able to digest this craziness but I think this is the origin of music, this is the healthiest appearance of musicians. We do not have to put on airs. Music is jubilance, wilderness and insanity.

I was so happy to see such a great band today.