Reflections on Aside 8
Impressions from Aside 8 – Sound
For me, it was all about sound. The hum of conversation between old and new friends amongst the mutterings of setting up and technical concerns. The pluck of a moon lute. The clearing of a throat before plunging into the poetic landscape of someone’s mind. The laughter and music of a tea party that is by turns joyful and mad. Strums of a guitar and the thrum of electronica, painting a soundscape of story and voice. With all of those sounds, I felt us all come together at Aside 8.
Music is a unifying force, and we all resonated with our feelings and experiences that certain music brings. One of Tina Ma’s songs reminded me of my young son, a lullaby-like melody that brought tears to my eyes. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, almost meditative, during Sophie’s song in Sanskrit and Chinese. There was the sense of camaraderie that I built with my companions in R4, and there were the stories of a journey through the body, the mind, and the soul from our wonderful musicians.
At a time in my life, where I just wanted to touch and come together, where I needed something more than ever to feed my soul, the night at Aside 8 was a godsend. It was a place where sound became touch, became nourishing food for the soul. It gave me a moment where I wasn’t alone.
Whiney Zahar
whitney.zahar@gmail.com
Aside
There was a hum as bodies began entering the room. Slowly the odd voice or two on the carpets became an eager patience standing in all corners, each one awaiting the questions from new faces before them and cheekily answering to familiar eyes. I saw the cheeks of the room become rosy again, and it was not just the wine warming us that evening.
Performers took us into their little nooks of secrets and stories, and swung us into their world with an unparalleled trust. The audience trusted them back. There were tears that night, particularly as Tina Ma recounted her experience with and her blessing from her mentor. It was a story of the tradition of Tradition, really. I learned to embrace the new with a reverence of the old. A lesson that will not allow me to waste the wisdom of our elders.
It’s impressive what the power of the voice, voices, vibrating strings, and a room full of warm bodies can do to a person. I left that evening tired but not spent, I slept very calmly, and I am pretty sure we all did that night, having spent a night around a metaphorical campfire, sharing the warmth that radiated from our souls as we saw each other not in the light of what we try to be, but what we really are.
Andrew Chau
drewdas@gmail.com
Red Room Radio Redux, March 2015
From the desk of Ruth Giordano ~~
We had a wonderfully “Mad Tea Party” at Aside 8@The Red Room on March 14. In fact, the whole evening went swimmingly. If you missed us at Aside, you can catch us at our next event: teatime poetry-reading at the brand new eatery NakedFood. Do you love poetry? Do you love food? How about poetry about food? And at NakedFood, the food is poetic. Join us in a round-table read-aloud, with works by D.H. Lawrence, Maya Angelou, and Roald Dahl, to name a few. We’ll finish up the afternoon with an R4 rendition of Lewis Carroll’s “The Mad Tea-Party” from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
For details about the Party and NakedFood, go to: https://www.facebook.com/events/1619620328257126/
CURRENTLY:
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be in post-production at the ICRT studio with a few short stories. (backstory: Last spring, we laid down vocal tracks for 1) James Thurber’s original Secret Life of Walter Mitty read by Nate Murray; 2) Butch Minds the Baby written by Damon Runyon (of Guys and Dolls fame) & read by Mark Lipsey of the TAS Upper School fame and, finally, Shirley Jackson’s classic The Lottery read by Yours Truly.
And that’s all we’ve got time for, folks. Tune in again next month when we bring you more news of the Radio Redux.
…kindling the power of the spoken word and populating the theatre of your imagination…
Stage Time & Juice, March 21 2015
The Juicers jumped into spring with a profusion of playful poems. Some of the poets presented were: Shel Silverstein, Douglas Florian, Karma Wilson, Jack Prelutsky, and Robert Pottle. There was also a reading of original limericks penned by a regular at the Juice event, who goes by the nom de plume, Pèi Xiao.
Some business also needed to be gotten through: The Awesome Playgroup News, Taipei City playgroup’s newspaper, drew the names of four lucky children who will be able to make Kiva loans with funds provided by the paper.
Other performances of note were a Schumann flute piece, a rendition of the classic “Shoo Fly,” and a few piano numbers, including “The Snake Dance,” which was the audience’s favorite. Jennifer Joy led the audience in a song game, and two young ladies discovered that a letterbox had been hidden behind the Red Room curtain.
To give the reader a taste of the high caliber of literature being performed at Juice, here is the full text of one of Pèi Xiao’s limericks:
There once was a boy who liked tea
But drinking too much made him pee
While camping he found
Not a bathroom around
So behind a tree did he flee.
And that’s what you missed at Stage Time and Juice!
Carol Yao
topia@tig.com.tw
News from the Red Room, January 2015
A very Happy New Year to everyone!
2014 has been a major year for Red Room – with Artist Beat the Flood, our 5th Year Anniversary, and the addition of Stage Time and Juice for our smaller friends. With many highlights at this year’s Stage Time events and Aside events, good times shared with friends old and new, we’d like to thank everyone that’s been on this year’s journey with us by contributing to the Red Room community, and by carrying the ideas Red Room represents into our everyday lives. We are a listening culture, a sharing space, and our hearts thrive off of the nourishment that the creative arts give us.
We look forward to seeing what 2015 will bring, as we believe it will be a very bright year, especially with such a wonderful community behind us. Thank you all for your continuous support, and let’s ring in the New Year by bringing that Red Room passion into all aspects of our lives.
Happy New Year, Red Room family, we love you!
Julia Kao, Red Room Photographer
Coming up at the Red Room January 2015
Stage Time & Wine Kolkata 3
15 January 2015
A Red Room event
Stage Time & Juice 63
17 January 2015
Stage Time & Wine 63
17 January 2015
A monthly Red Room event
Here is the link to Red Room’s 62nd Christmas Stage Time & Wine Flickr album.
A wonderfully entertaining evening! Enjoy!
https://flic.kr/s/aHsk7fV9B1