01-28-2013, 11:21 AM
The Shaolin Show
About a month ago, theQueen received a missive from our neighborhood association announcing the Shaolin Monks were going to be performing at a local elementary school in January across the freeway in Mount Washington. Wow! There were going to be my Shaolin Monks in my neighborhood? I put this down in the very odd category. I figured it would be best if I investigated.
I informed the Drunk Monk , but he didn’t seem to have much information about the troop either. I sent off a bunch emails to Mr. Warren Christensen about the upcoming performance of the ‘Shaolin Temple Kung Fu Team’. The main focus of the show was to be the Huxia Orchestra and their performance on some 2000 year old musical instruments. But at the intermission there was going to be a martial arts performance.
I decided to attend for a couple of reasons. One, it was about a minute from my house and I felt obligated to go because of my KFM association. Two, in my hubris and my current vast knowledge of all things Shaolin, I thought I might see some monks I recognize. Three, it was to be a relatively rare show. This was to be the only Southern California performance. I couldn’t find any listing of their tour dates, so I didn’t even know if they were going to be performing anywhere else in California. Finally, I wanted to confirm their provenance. I did mention my advanced level of Shaolin expertise, didn’t I?
I set up the meet with Warren Christensen, the head of the Friends of Mountain Washington School. I asked about interviews. I asked about filming. I got the sense that I wasn’t the highest priority on Mr. Christensen’s list. We settled on me showing early to interview some of the monks. There was also the tentative offer to join them after the show for dinner.
The week leading up to the Friday night show, my lungs filled with butter as the temperature in my skull rose above their normal limits. But I had bugged Mr. Christensen for a pass, so I strapped on my big boy pants on and headed across the freeway to the wilds of Mount Washington.
When you name an auditorium at a school after some beneficiaries, you expect a really nice facility. In my mind, the Jack and Denny Smith Library and Auditorium was going to be luxury facility with padded seats and an elevated rear projection booth where I could set up my camera gear in secluded comfort.
So, I was less than pleased to spot all the folding chairs spread from wall to wall in the school cafeteria with a small stage at the front of the room. You could tell it was the school cafeteria because it had the tables that folded into the wall.
I found a person to direct me towards my contact for the evening, Mr. Christensen. He was still in full freak out mode getting ready for the show. I was just one more pebble on his mountain of tasks. As soon as he handed me off to the Chinese Official, Na-Na, he told me I was on my own.
I admit it, I still don’t have all the cool skills that make up a good interview. I’m still figuring out the flow of questions to use that I can later make into a good story. The interview with Na-Na, as translator, and the head of the martial arts team, who’s name I could not quite get, was probably the worst interview I have ever done.
First off, Na-Na, wearing her government approved shiny puffy winter jacket, seemed to want to be anywhere else but doing this interview. The martial arts leader was equally thrilled about the experience. When I suggested that we move out of the auditorium because they were practicing Shaolin whips on stage and it was quite loud, I got blank stares. When they moved next, it was going to be away from me.
One of the things I learned in interview school was that you ask questions that lead the interviewee into giving long answers, that let them tell stories. You don’t ask yes or no questions because they will answer yes or no and the question is done.
I asked them about their experiences in the United States. They were good. I ask how the tour was going. It was fine. I asked them what I would see in the show. Shaolin things. What was your favorite stop on the tour? Oregon. Why? It was green. Have you taken your vows at Shaolin Temple?
That was kind of the question that killed it. I had inkling they weren’t from the Temple. This question got a little bit of agitation about they weren’t a religious troop. It circled down to the drain from there. Being so successful at this interview, I retreated rather than trying to interview any of the musicians.
I guessed, because of the rain and the obscurity of the subject matter, that there wouldn’t be that many people in attendance for the show. Mt Washington prove me wrong. By 7:45 the place was packed.All 550 seats were filled. I was having to fight for my chair on the aisle, that I had commandeered next to my camera and tripod.
A good majority of the audience were squirming kids that parents wanted to introduce to Chinese culture. There was one kid in my row that climbed over my tripod at least a dozen times before the show even started. Two minutes before the show started, he decided he didn’t want to be there at all. His father made him give the show a chance before they bailed. He lasted ten minutes into the show. I almost punched him on the last exit because I wanted him to wait until a break so he wouldn’t jar my camera one more time. He did not heed my threats and climbed out over my protestations.
The show was divided into three parts. In the first one, the Huxia Orchestra demonstrated different two thousand year old instruments. I was expecting, this expectation built up by the program, that I would hear ancient Chinese music.
Instead I heard renditions of Christmas Carols, American folk tunes and Amazing grace. There might have been Chinese songs thrown in there, but I was playing with cameras and I tend to stop hearing as I fight to get images.
In the middle, the Shaolin Troop performed their show of Shaolin things.
The show ended with the Chinese Lantern Play. Basically a pantomime of courting in ancient China accompanied by the thousand year old instruments. It aimed for humor but went on a bit too long.
Rapturous applause greeted the performers at the end of the show. The Shaolin Troop came out for their round of applause. There was supposed to be some sort of guessing game at the end, but that was coordinated poorly. The crowd started to leave as the performers started to mingle for the game. Lots of confused looks.
I’m going to say the families of Mt Washington really enjoyed the show and probably enjoyed everything they saw especially the martial artists.
At this point, I have seen quite a few martial artist shows. Granted, I am not even in the league of the Drunk Monk, but I am not the dewey eyed viewer I was six years ago. And as I was watching this crop of performers, it occurred to me I had seen this show before.
Not these performers, but all the elements that went into the show. They had the opening group form. Then they broke into individual performances. One guy did an Eagle Claw Routine. Another performed a frog set. Two guys, one with a staff, did a combat set. Then there were the physical demos. They popped the balloon. One man broke a steel bar over his head. The whole group then came out and lifted the leader on four spear points. They finished with some quick elements of 8 piece brocade. They ended with some more flips and finally a big group pose.
I’ve seen sharper demonstrations. This group seemed to emphasize yelling and flips. When it was time for an exit or an entrance, there had to be a flip. I have seen Jenny Tu do a better Eagle Claw. The frog set seemed to focus on puffing out the cheeks. There might have been a monkey king routine, but the guy was moving way too fast for the monkey bits to come through.
But the crowd loved it. The martial artists did things they had never seen before. It was a great break between musical performances.
All I could think, though, was this is the Shaolin Show, a show I have seen many times. What really drove it home was how they introduced the balloon break and the steel bar break. It seemed the rule is some one has to parade the entire stage with the props held above your head for the audience to see.
I’ll call foul on this balloon break, because the guy throwing the steel needles stood about a foot from the glass. But Kudos to the steel bar guy since he broke two steel bars over his head rather than the usual one.
Now, the question is (sorry DM) is it a good thing or bad thing for there to be a standard Shaolin Show? I debated this question with the queen. My analogy was that the Shaolin Temple was Shakespeare and The Shaolin Show was Hamlet.
There are plenty of performances of Hamlet out there. Everyone has done one. Everyone has seen one. There are good versions and bad versions. It will be performed forever because it is such a classic.
But we all know there is a lot more to Shakespeare than just Hamlet. He has dozens of plays of equal import. But how will we get to know those other facets if the only show people perform is Hamlet?
Granted, if you have never seen Shakespeare and might never see Shakespeare again, you can’t go far wrong seeing Hamlet. For me, it would be nice to see some variation in the show.
I think the reason for this is you can worry that this is all there is to Shaolin. That this is how they have chose to represent the legacy of the Temple, The Shaolin Show. And that is all they are going to show. I’d like to see what else they can do. What other cool things are in the skill set of the Monks that they could be showing us. If all I ever see is the The Shaolin Show, I will never know.
Yes, I am the spoiled child at the dinner table screaming for desert. As we all know, “How can you have your pudding, if you don’t eat your meat”
But I had a little bit of meat. Just a tidbit. I went to the Shaolin Temple and I saw the Shaolin Show. Granted, it was a vastly superior to the show I saw on Friday, but at it’s core, it was the same show.
I’m tempted to correlate my snippets of video of the various Shaolin Show’s I have seen to give further evidence to my point, but I don’t want to come off as heretical or worse snarky.
About a month ago, theQueen received a missive from our neighborhood association announcing the Shaolin Monks were going to be performing at a local elementary school in January across the freeway in Mount Washington. Wow! There were going to be my Shaolin Monks in my neighborhood? I put this down in the very odd category. I figured it would be best if I investigated.
I informed the Drunk Monk , but he didn’t seem to have much information about the troop either. I sent off a bunch emails to Mr. Warren Christensen about the upcoming performance of the ‘Shaolin Temple Kung Fu Team’. The main focus of the show was to be the Huxia Orchestra and their performance on some 2000 year old musical instruments. But at the intermission there was going to be a martial arts performance.
I decided to attend for a couple of reasons. One, it was about a minute from my house and I felt obligated to go because of my KFM association. Two, in my hubris and my current vast knowledge of all things Shaolin, I thought I might see some monks I recognize. Three, it was to be a relatively rare show. This was to be the only Southern California performance. I couldn’t find any listing of their tour dates, so I didn’t even know if they were going to be performing anywhere else in California. Finally, I wanted to confirm their provenance. I did mention my advanced level of Shaolin expertise, didn’t I?
I set up the meet with Warren Christensen, the head of the Friends of Mountain Washington School. I asked about interviews. I asked about filming. I got the sense that I wasn’t the highest priority on Mr. Christensen’s list. We settled on me showing early to interview some of the monks. There was also the tentative offer to join them after the show for dinner.
The week leading up to the Friday night show, my lungs filled with butter as the temperature in my skull rose above their normal limits. But I had bugged Mr. Christensen for a pass, so I strapped on my big boy pants on and headed across the freeway to the wilds of Mount Washington.
When you name an auditorium at a school after some beneficiaries, you expect a really nice facility. In my mind, the Jack and Denny Smith Library and Auditorium was going to be luxury facility with padded seats and an elevated rear projection booth where I could set up my camera gear in secluded comfort.
So, I was less than pleased to spot all the folding chairs spread from wall to wall in the school cafeteria with a small stage at the front of the room. You could tell it was the school cafeteria because it had the tables that folded into the wall.
I found a person to direct me towards my contact for the evening, Mr. Christensen. He was still in full freak out mode getting ready for the show. I was just one more pebble on his mountain of tasks. As soon as he handed me off to the Chinese Official, Na-Na, he told me I was on my own.
I admit it, I still don’t have all the cool skills that make up a good interview. I’m still figuring out the flow of questions to use that I can later make into a good story. The interview with Na-Na, as translator, and the head of the martial arts team, who’s name I could not quite get, was probably the worst interview I have ever done.
First off, Na-Na, wearing her government approved shiny puffy winter jacket, seemed to want to be anywhere else but doing this interview. The martial arts leader was equally thrilled about the experience. When I suggested that we move out of the auditorium because they were practicing Shaolin whips on stage and it was quite loud, I got blank stares. When they moved next, it was going to be away from me.
One of the things I learned in interview school was that you ask questions that lead the interviewee into giving long answers, that let them tell stories. You don’t ask yes or no questions because they will answer yes or no and the question is done.
I asked them about their experiences in the United States. They were good. I ask how the tour was going. It was fine. I asked them what I would see in the show. Shaolin things. What was your favorite stop on the tour? Oregon. Why? It was green. Have you taken your vows at Shaolin Temple?
That was kind of the question that killed it. I had inkling they weren’t from the Temple. This question got a little bit of agitation about they weren’t a religious troop. It circled down to the drain from there. Being so successful at this interview, I retreated rather than trying to interview any of the musicians.
I guessed, because of the rain and the obscurity of the subject matter, that there wouldn’t be that many people in attendance for the show. Mt Washington prove me wrong. By 7:45 the place was packed.All 550 seats were filled. I was having to fight for my chair on the aisle, that I had commandeered next to my camera and tripod.
A good majority of the audience were squirming kids that parents wanted to introduce to Chinese culture. There was one kid in my row that climbed over my tripod at least a dozen times before the show even started. Two minutes before the show started, he decided he didn’t want to be there at all. His father made him give the show a chance before they bailed. He lasted ten minutes into the show. I almost punched him on the last exit because I wanted him to wait until a break so he wouldn’t jar my camera one more time. He did not heed my threats and climbed out over my protestations.
The show was divided into three parts. In the first one, the Huxia Orchestra demonstrated different two thousand year old instruments. I was expecting, this expectation built up by the program, that I would hear ancient Chinese music.
Instead I heard renditions of Christmas Carols, American folk tunes and Amazing grace. There might have been Chinese songs thrown in there, but I was playing with cameras and I tend to stop hearing as I fight to get images.
In the middle, the Shaolin Troop performed their show of Shaolin things.
The show ended with the Chinese Lantern Play. Basically a pantomime of courting in ancient China accompanied by the thousand year old instruments. It aimed for humor but went on a bit too long.
Rapturous applause greeted the performers at the end of the show. The Shaolin Troop came out for their round of applause. There was supposed to be some sort of guessing game at the end, but that was coordinated poorly. The crowd started to leave as the performers started to mingle for the game. Lots of confused looks.
I’m going to say the families of Mt Washington really enjoyed the show and probably enjoyed everything they saw especially the martial artists.
At this point, I have seen quite a few martial artist shows. Granted, I am not even in the league of the Drunk Monk, but I am not the dewey eyed viewer I was six years ago. And as I was watching this crop of performers, it occurred to me I had seen this show before.
Not these performers, but all the elements that went into the show. They had the opening group form. Then they broke into individual performances. One guy did an Eagle Claw Routine. Another performed a frog set. Two guys, one with a staff, did a combat set. Then there were the physical demos. They popped the balloon. One man broke a steel bar over his head. The whole group then came out and lifted the leader on four spear points. They finished with some quick elements of 8 piece brocade. They ended with some more flips and finally a big group pose.
I’ve seen sharper demonstrations. This group seemed to emphasize yelling and flips. When it was time for an exit or an entrance, there had to be a flip. I have seen Jenny Tu do a better Eagle Claw. The frog set seemed to focus on puffing out the cheeks. There might have been a monkey king routine, but the guy was moving way too fast for the monkey bits to come through.
But the crowd loved it. The martial artists did things they had never seen before. It was a great break between musical performances.
All I could think, though, was this is the Shaolin Show, a show I have seen many times. What really drove it home was how they introduced the balloon break and the steel bar break. It seemed the rule is some one has to parade the entire stage with the props held above your head for the audience to see.
I’ll call foul on this balloon break, because the guy throwing the steel needles stood about a foot from the glass. But Kudos to the steel bar guy since he broke two steel bars over his head rather than the usual one.
Now, the question is (sorry DM) is it a good thing or bad thing for there to be a standard Shaolin Show? I debated this question with the queen. My analogy was that the Shaolin Temple was Shakespeare and The Shaolin Show was Hamlet.
There are plenty of performances of Hamlet out there. Everyone has done one. Everyone has seen one. There are good versions and bad versions. It will be performed forever because it is such a classic.
But we all know there is a lot more to Shakespeare than just Hamlet. He has dozens of plays of equal import. But how will we get to know those other facets if the only show people perform is Hamlet?
Granted, if you have never seen Shakespeare and might never see Shakespeare again, you can’t go far wrong seeing Hamlet. For me, it would be nice to see some variation in the show.
I think the reason for this is you can worry that this is all there is to Shaolin. That this is how they have chose to represent the legacy of the Temple, The Shaolin Show. And that is all they are going to show. I’d like to see what else they can do. What other cool things are in the skill set of the Monks that they could be showing us. If all I ever see is the The Shaolin Show, I will never know.
Yes, I am the spoiled child at the dinner table screaming for desert. As we all know, “How can you have your pudding, if you don’t eat your meat”
But I had a little bit of meat. Just a tidbit. I went to the Shaolin Temple and I saw the Shaolin Show. Granted, it was a vastly superior to the show I saw on Friday, but at it’s core, it was the same show.
I’m tempted to correlate my snippets of video of the various Shaolin Show’s I have seen to give further evidence to my point, but I don’t want to come off as heretical or worse snarky.
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit
