The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz
The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz |
| Making beautiful music from recycled junk Posted: 21 Aug 2011 03:33 AM PDT WASHINGTON, Aug 21 — It's all junk — until it's not. Clay flowerpots, a washtub, garbage cans, assorted kitchenware, an old futon frame, circular saw blades, cast iron skillets and more.  Terry Dame at the Kennedy Centre gushes about the "junk" instruments she made herself. — Reuters pic "Believe it or not, the frying pans are all pitched," musician, composer, and instrument maker Terry Dame said, pointing to a black cast iron skillet standing upright on its handle near the front of the stage. Dame is the leader of the veteran musicians who have been performing together as the Electric Junkyard Gamelan since 2000. The band members, ranging in age from 31 to 51, include drummer Lee Free, bass player Mary Feaster and Julian Hintz, a classically trained percussionist. Dame built all of the band's unusual instruments. "I'm a fabricator . . . I just love to make things with my hands," she told Reuters as the group prepared for a recent concert on the Kennedy Centre's Millennium Stage. Most of the strange-looking contraptions taking shape on the stage bear little resemblance to musical instruments as we know them, although some of the names may sound vaguely familiar. There's the Sitello — a combination electric cello and sitar; the Terraphone — a horn made from copper pipe; the Clayrimba — a marimba made from garden-variety clay pots; a Big Barp and a Rubarp — electric harps made with rubber bands. Except for the clay pots, which Dame used to buy but now makes herself, the instruments are made with recycled objects. "That stringed instrument . . . that's wood from an old futon frame I found on the street," she said. "The hanging base instrument — that's an old folding table base. A lot of the hardware I got from tag sales and stuff like that." Everything on the band's percussion rig is "found stuff", she added, referring to an arrangement of frying pans, garbage cans, aluminium wash tub alongside an assortment of pots, pans and lids suspended from a rack. Asked whether there was a story behind an instrument made of circular saw blades, Dame said: "They just make a beautiful sound." "I don't care what it looks like; it if makes a beautiful sound, I'll figure out a way to play it," she added. Eclectic sound The band's eclectic music does not fit neatly into any category, and often sounded nothing like what audiences might expect to hear, Dame said. "Some venues are kind of scared of us because it seems like it's going to be a lot weirder than it is. In actuality, the music is pretty accessible," she said. "We always get invited back if I can get my foot in the door." Originally inspired by Indonesian music, the song list of Electric Junkyard Gamelan (EJG) includes hints of familiar styles such as jazz, funk, pop, world music, and even hip-hop. The term gamelan refers to musical ensembles from Java and Bali in which gongs and metal xylophones are the predominant instruments, explains gamelan scholar Sumarsam. "Traditionally, gamelan is an essential accompaniment to puppet shows, dances, feasts and ceremonies," he said in an email describing the music. The sound is distinctively percussive, with layers of complex rhythms and melodic tones, said Sumarsam, a music professor at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. He said he could hear the Balinese influence in EJG's music. The group's sound — as much as its unique instruments — caught the ear of the organisers of the "Music for People and Thingamajigs Festival" in Oakland, California, where EJG is booked to play in late September. Festival spokesman Edward Schocker said even in the small world of artists who used found objects of recycled materials to make instruments, Dame's group stood out. "What was really great about Terry and the Electric Junkyard Gamelan was that they found a way to make non-musicians interested in what they do," Schocker said. "She's able to take these instruments and create music with it that is open to so many different people." Dame, who composes EJG's music, was first attracted to gamelan as a graduate student at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. She also built her first instrument there as part of a graduate thesis project. She has been experimenting with objects and sound since then, and says her instruments have been evolving. "Things get tweaked. Things get added occasionally. I've tried to stop adding, because you can't fit anything else in the van," she said, laughing. — Reuters |
| Reality star Kim Kardashian weds Kris Humphries Posted: 20 Aug 2011 07:55 PM PDT  Kim Kardashian (left) and Kourtney Kardashian arrive at the Teen Choice Awards in Los Angeles. — Reuters pic Kardashian, 30, one of the highest-earning reality TV stars, and New Jersey Nets player Humphries, 26, exchanged vows in a ceremony on a private estate in the Southern California hill town of Montecito, her spokeswoman told People magazine and E! television. People magazine bought exclusive rights to the wedding, which is also being filmed as a two-part special called "Kim's Fairytale Wedding: A Kardashian Event" to be broadcast in October on E! television. Kardashian, who stars with her three sisters and their mother in "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," began dating Humphries in late 2010 and he proposed in May with a whopping 20.5 carat diamond ring. The family and US celebrity media have since talked and tweeted about little else than preparations for the wedding. The 440 guests today included "Desperate Housewives" actress Eva Longoria and Lindsay Lohan, People said. Kardashian wore an ivory, lace-trimmed gown designed by Vera Wang, People said. She is widely reported to have wanted her cake in the same style as Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton, who married in April. Kardashian is thought to be the highest-paid reality star on US television with 2010 earnings estimated at US$6 million (RM22.10 million) from the show and its two spinoffs, her clothing line, perfume, jewelry, tanning cream and other product endorsements and paid appearances. Today's wedding was the first for Humphries and the second for Kardashian, whose 2000 marriage to music producer Damon Thomas ended in divorce in 2004 — three years before "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" started its TV run. Kim Kardashian is the daughter of the late attorney Robert Kardashian, a member of the legal defence team for football player O.J. Simpson during his trial and sensational acquittal on murder charges in 1995. — Reuters |
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