The Roots of Japanese Cinema and Anime Preserving Katsuben : Unique Performance Art by Larry Greenberg

I am in total shock at the current availability of film and media now available in the Sultanate of Oman. We were truely treated a few weeks ago when the Japanese Embassy organized for Mr Larry Greenberg founder of Urban Connections and Digital Meme to come and give a lecture on the roots of Japanese cinema and anime with a focus on the unique performance art of Katsuben.

The event was held at the Culture Club in the Qurum area of Muscat, a very suitable location for such an event. There were three screens presenting the work making it very easy for all members of the audience to view the films easily. Unfortunately for the event holders the audience was minimal, mostly consisting of students who are studying Japanese at Sultan Qaboos University. However, with these events only beginning to get a foothold in the Muscat social calendar I am sure they will not be abandoned so soon.

The history of Katsuben and how it affected Japanese cinema and consequently anime was fascinating and it was obvious that Mr Greenberg is not only fluent in Japanese, but also Japanese film culture.

All of the films we watched have been digitally restored by Mr Greenberg's companies and are now being marketed as boxsets of anime's. While I am not a hugs fan of anime's Mr Greenberg did a great job of picking selections that would appeal to all sorts. My favorite being an anime about a baseball game between rabbits and beavers. Truely beautiful animation and amazing understanding of human body language and how that can be reflected in the animal kingdom.

Thankfully, this event has not and I"m sure will not be the only of it's kind in the coming year. This will be the second day of the Korean film festival here in Muscat and tomorrow starts a Documentary Film festival at The French-Omani Center here in the capital, both of which run for three days showing one film a night. Shame I'm cooped up at home with the flu. However, I may try and pop out to catch the last Korean film tomorrow night. It's so true that if people don't show up for these events, then often they never happen again. Let's hope this is not the case cause right now I"m loving all the media exposure here. It's way more than I was getting in New York and much more affordable!

Next - Bring on the Muscat Film Festival! :D

#reverb10 - December 9th

It's December 9th already?!!!!!


Prompt: Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans.


I attended what may be my last St. Andrews Night Ball last weekend.  I wasn't expecting to go but got a ticket from my parents as a birthday gift.  They're afraid that once I move back to the USA I will forget or bury my Scottish heritage deep underground!  My mom believed that flinging me around the dance floor a few hundred times (as Scottish mothers tend to do - no joke) would knock as much Scottishness into me as possible before I leave.


As usual the ball took place in the gardens of the Intercontinental Hotel in Muscat where the band Skippinish entertained us for most of the night.  The theme was 40 years of Scottish music (due to the 40th National Day Oman is celebrating this year) and we were all led to sit at tables named after Scottish musicians.  Our table was named Amy McDonald.  I would have preferred to sit at Snow Patrol or Glasvegas' table, but Amy treated us well.


We were all gifted with a box of Amouage perfume (we were short a few boxes, but luckily I'm allergic so didn't touch the stuff) and a photograph, which we took as a group.  I'm starting to wonder if the guys at our table are really undercover here and actually work for WikiLeaks or something cause they're faces were all completely obliterated by shadows in the photo.  We had asked the photographer if the photo turned out good to which she smiled and nodded and shrugged her shoulders simultaneously.  You would think that seeing as we have all lived in the Middle East for a considerable number of years we would have learned not to ask yes/no questions!    Nevermind, us ladies looked gorgeous!


The speeches were thankfully short as St. Andrews Night is all about the dancing (if you want speeches you go to a Burns Supper).  Then we were onto the meal.  The less said about that the better.  Our table has been going to these balls for 10 years now and they said the food has never been as bad as it was last weekend.  However, credit where credits due, the starter, soup and desert were great.  But the main meal was soooo awful that it made the whole meal a disappointment.


On that note, we got up and dancing as quick as we could.  The band consisted of a drummer and 3 bagpipers, which is quite a lot of pipers to hear play all at once(thank goodness we were outdoors!).  They played pretty much the same dances throughout the night and broke those up with waltzes, which was a godsend for the lungs!  Let's put it this way - I still have bruises under my arms from a strip the willow I had danced with my mom, and I had already done yoga that day!  I was pretty much dead by the end of the night.


Everyone was dolled up to the nines in their ball-gowns, kilts and suits as usual.  The dance floor was rather hazardous to those wearing heels or slidey dance shoes due to the humidity, which left pools of water on the dance floor.  A couple of people actually fell.  But they were hopefully drunk and relaxed enough that no major damage was done (this is a Scottish event!).  


Later in the evening, we got to hear the beautiful accent of a guy from KwaZulu-Natal auction off a car to raise money for a hospital in Scotland that takes care of sick soldiers.  As a child of Africa that always brings me comfort!  We also won a CD player in the raffle draw, so all in all it was a great evening.


As much as I sometimes find it hard to identify with my Scottish roots, being the TCK that I am.  I do have to say one thing - the Scottish know how to throw a great dance party that benefits charity!  (And you thought the Scottish were mean!!!)