Singapore Strings

"Stop me if you've heard this one: a Korean, an American, and a German are on a plane..."

Last week, two string students and I flew to Singapore for the AMIS Honor Orchestra festival. The festival is organized by an association dedicated solely for the promotion of music in the international schools, and is essentially our version of an all-state ensemble, if you imagine the world as a state, and each country as a city or district. I was mildy bummed to be going to an orchestra event instead of a band event, as I'm not a "string guy", but the trip was marvelous and educational all the same...

Here is a blurry photo of the circumnavigational and indirect route our plane took to Bangkok en route to Singapore. Luckily, nobody with surface-to-air missiles lives in the Red Sea.

Now, I think the food on long-haul foreign flights is great (basically all variations on chicken with rice and vegetables. What's not to like?) However, if you haven't seen it yet, check out this extraordinary and funny complaint letter to Richard Branson of Virgin Air from a customer who didn't like his in-flight meal. Branson recently offered the author a job as a food tester for subsequent menus on the airline.

The terminal in the Bangkok airport feels as long as the span of the 520 bridge and has kingly and gloriously excessive stores. Here is a bottle of special-edition Johnnie Walker Blue Label (normally $700-$800 USD a regular bottle) that is bigger than my chest cavity:


Here is a Bangkok terminal sculpture display. Click to enlarge:



Once in Singapore, we were met at the airport by school staff and I took a taxi to a local hotel while my students were homestayed near the school. The next morning we had an opening ceremony at Singapore American School where we saw a traditional "Lion Dance", rife with comedy and jarring percussion (The "lions" are fed plates of lettuce and oranges, only to disgorge them violently and messily to the lion wrangler. They also wander around the audience causing havoc.


This lion produces a scroll from its mouth... (reminds me of that great Onion headline: "Fountain Simulates Vomiting Lion")


Which was then given to our guest conductors for the Festival, Mr. Lorraine Davis and Mr. Philip Green, both of whom were really great educators:


Afterward, we heard a performance by the T'ang Quartet, the hippest string quartet this side of Kronos. They played Beethoven, Haydn, and Fritz Kreisler, and had extraordinary communication (I later found out the cellist and violist were brothers.) Watching them count and look at one another for cues was a great lesson in musicianship. Here, the cellist MCs the event:


Singapore American School has about 3,800 students K-12, which is about five or six times as many as my school in Israel. Their campus is an enormous fortress divided into three sections, one for each school, including a wonderful performing arts center with two theaters. Here is a shot of our kids at the entrance with three teachers in the foreground (one from Mexico City, one from Tokyo, one from Kuala Lumpur):

The students rehearsed all day while we performed chaperoning duties and attended workshops, one of which was a talk by the T'ang cellist. He talked about the difficulties of being a professional string quartet in the East -- London would like to have you, but airfare is 6000 British pounds, and they have plenty of string players in England right down the street. China likes soloists, not quartets, and usually wants a Caucasian soloist anyway. However, they have been together for 10 years and are getting gigs without being bonded to the Singapore orchestra (which is an 8-year commitment) and are getting to play many 20th-century composers and new works, which they love to sink their teeth into.

After a day of rehearsing and chaperoning, we all take off to the Night Safari -- a kind of nocturnal wildlife preserve including lions, tapirs (amazing), giraffes, elephants, bats (I felt them whizzing by my face) leopards, and other extraordinary species. I didn't get pictures because flashes were forbidden, and it was night, and all my pictures look like they were taken by a crackpot trying to prove the existence of aliens in his backyard.

However, there was one thing I could photograph that was something I never heard of -- for 10 Singapore dollars (about $6.50 USD) you could submerge your feet in an aquarium for five minutes and there were little fish who would swarm around you and gently eat the dead skin off of your feet. It was amazing. It felt like electricity. I'm sorry I only got five minutes. Here I am in mid-soak:


There were some Singaporean fire-breathers and acrobats also.


This is the SAS middle school band room. They have a window with a view and a projector for the front. I got to talk with the band directors at length and observe some classes, which might have been the most valuable part of the trip for me. I keep forgetting how much I miss networking and sharing ideas.

The next day, another performance: this time by the abnormally brilliant Jack Glatzer, who performed the demonically complex caprices of Paganini. This was playing the likes of which I had never heard before -- during one piece ("The Hunt") he made the violin sound realistically like hunting horns and flutes by using sophisticated harmonics and bowing techniques. His virtuosity was so stunning that I felt the same combination of feelings as when I saw the opening of the 2008 Beijing Olympics: disbelief and awe, with a pinch of envy and anger that someone would spend so much time learning to do one thing flawlessly. And it was fantastic. Here is Glazer with a slide show of Paganini behind him:


After the Paganini concert, the students went back to rehearsal, while I got to realize a lifelong dream: playing Javanese gamelan. SAS has a complete gamelan set made by a master and installed in a complex ceremony. Here are a few photos of the various gongs, drums, xylophones and metallophones that comprise the set:


And here is a westernized diagram of Gamelan notation (in Java, it is taught entirely through individual instruction of rote repetition.) It's both more and less complex than it first appears; each number and color combination refers to a different instrument in the ensemble:


Singapore is an immaculate, island microstate on the southern tip of Malaysia. It has all kinds of cultural influences, some of which can be readily seen in the landscape, which is flat and verdant. It lies almost exactly on the equator, so the weather is always fairly hot and humid. Here is the view from my hotel room -- rare small row houses surrounded by huge high-density housing structures and offices:



How hip is this(?):


Here's a good example of the density and scope of Singaporean housing. If you're familiar with the UW campus, imagine McMahon hall writ large and a little more visually pleasing and you're pretty close. I think this one is small- to medium-sized by Singapore standards:


Here's a little more of a colonial flavor to a house not far from the school:


The final rehearsal with the combined Junior and Senior orchestras. Here is a sea of bass scrolls:


Mr. Green schools the cellos:

Everyone, as seen from the balcony. The synchronized bow movement from a sea of string instruments makes it look like a living organism -- much more fun to watch visually than a wind band.

No students allowed:

The teachers from International School in Zurich try three different flavors of Corn Nuts. I tell them that you can find these at any gas station display counter in the continental United States.

Warming up outside, shortly before a tropical rain.

The theater lobby at SAS has enormous vertical windows that can be opened to the elements:

My students and I, after the concert:

And finally, after the concert, drinking Singapore Slings on Orchard Road. Clockwise from left:

Lorraine, American School in London (originally from Virginia)
Your Narrator
Hanrich, Shanghai American School (originally from South Africa)
Anna, American School in London (originally from Finland)
Melica, Zurich Internaional School (originally from Serbia)
Jeffrey, JFK school Berlin (originally from Tennessee, taking the picture)

The Gaza Situation, and other less important things

Hey, all.

Sorry for the long interval between posts. It's been a few weeks of getting settled in and geared back into teaching mode after a fantastic holiday in the States.

First of all, Gaza -- I am sure you are curious about what it is like over here with a major military operation happening just down the highway. The military offensive began while I was still in Seattle, so I watched the news footage of things exploding and collapsing and people being rushed to hospitals before I came back.

Since I returned to Israel, I haven't seen or heard a single piece of evidence that we're militarily involved with anyone. No rockets, no sirens, no curfews. Granted, I haven't been further south than Tel Aviv, but were there no media, I would have no idea anything was different. So, please be advised that framing devices used in the media make things out to be much more dangerous to everyone than they actually are. I have no doubt that things in Gaza are absolutely hellish, but anyone who is not in the actual theater of combat has a life to lead, and they do.

Israeli reservists are being called up and dispatched, which is terrifying for some. One of our P.E. teachers who is taller than I am (hard to do in Israel) got called up, but his duty was to knock on doors and find malingering reservists who weren't reporting (and, believe me, if Doron knocked on your door, you'd probably do what he asked you.) However, he's back and teaching now.

As far as my personal take on the situation, I have a very mixed opinion on the effectiveness and the methods of the Israeli Defense Forces. However, I do believe from talking with the lovely people I've met, both reservists and civilians, that Israel wants peace and stability more than anything whereas Hamas just wants to destroy the opposition entirely, so I support Israel's intentions, though it means odious and continual fighting. War in general is tremendously more complex than anyone can imagine, so I apologize if this seems jingoistic, but I honestly don't want to follow the story too closely.

Anyway, onto other topics. As I mentioned earlier, I had a fantastic time back in Seattle. The feeling of living in two places is exactly that of watching two different movies concurrently -- pause one, start another . . . wait, where was I . . .? -- pause the other, resume the first. I look forward to an entire month home in the summer. Among the things I miss from the US:

Pumping my own gas
Ziploc bags
Drive-thru
Mexican food in any form
Choosing my own seat at the movie theater
Not having to be ultra-aggressive to get things done
Buying things on Saturday
Other band teachers
Coniferous trees
My friends and family

And, to be fair, things I will miss about Israel:

Spelling anything the way I want
The world's greatest yogurt (honestly!)
Uniformly gorgeous women
January here feels like April
People who are usually gregarious if and once you get to know them
Bauhaus architecture
Krembo (a winter confection with national treasure status -- kind of like a Ding Dong)
Free coffee machine in the staff lounge in Hebrew so you don't know what kind of coffee you're getting (button #5 from the top is pretty good)

There will be more eventually, but now back to getting settled in.

Hip-Hip-Hooray for Christmas Vacation

I will be in Seattle from the 20th until the 31st. Happy Holidays!

Plates

Cool, rainy and windy in Nof Yam today -- just the way I like it.

I'm short on interesting content today, so here are what the vehicle license plates look like over here:

First, the generic Israeli plate. Black on yellow, and the "IL" designation on the left:


Next, the Palestinian plate. You won't see one of these unless you're in the West Bank. Green on white with the "P" designation on the right below an Arabic script:


Finally, the very interesting and rare diplomat plate. This one gets you "God Mode" on parking spots and probably other goodies we don't know about. You must be operating in a documented diplomatic capacity to have these. I have an ex-diplomat car, but I have the yellow Israeli plates.

Black on white. Note the lack of nationality designation.


It's worth mentioning that if you need to change your license plates, you have to do it all at once: If a plateless car is seen parked anywhere, the police will assume it's a terrorist car and blow it up.

Early Thanksgiving bash at the Superintendent's house tonight. The Thanksgiving holiday next week is 4 days off at our school, just like in the US, but many people choose to go on trips, hence the early party. For the holiday, we're having a few low-caliber Thanksgiving dinners in our places, and inviting some Israeli friends.

Oktoberfest in Palestine (I kid you not)

Many teachers at my school are beer aficionados. I've yet to teach at a school without beer aficionados, but that should surprise no one who is already a teacher.

Now, Israel is not exactly a beer-lover's paradise. One can regularly find Carlsberg, Tuborg (which is Danish, I think), Heineken, Stella, and Goldstar, which is the Israeli dark lager, brewed a mere kilometer from our school's campus.

However, many believe the region's best domestic beer to be Taybeh, brewed in the Christian city of the same name, located just north of Jerusalem in the disputed West Bank. The Taybeh brewery has an annual Oktoberfest which attracts beer lovers of all stripes in the time-honored German tradition. If this sounds strange for the Middle East, it is. Three carloads of teachers went on a drove on a fine Saturday in October to sample the wares at Taybeh.

For those of you joining us with knowledge of the Northwest, Driving from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem feels almost exactly like driving from Seattle to Tacoma in terms of duration and difficulty. In terms of scenic beauty, it feels like a barren and miniature version of Snoqualmie Pass. Here are some photos that don't quite do the beautiful drive justice -- click to enlarge:



Taybeh is a charming city on a hill, similar to other cities on hills in the surrounding area. The rocky land actually feels and looks more biblical the more you look at it.




Here is the banner and pouring station for the beer:


These are authentic German dudes in lederhosen specially invited to lend some credibility to the proceedings.


Instead of pretzles, there was falafel, and lots of it. Delicious.



Here we are around a table in the beer garden. Note the city on the hill in the background and the hookah action in the foreground.


The Germans turned out the be a bonefide brass band. They played their polka and drank and toasted us in the audience.


There were beautiful remains on a Christian church near the site of the event. Here are a few pictures -- I like this one of the three people entering:


An oven or kiln of some kind, with offerings.



Mausoleums:




We had a fantastic time. A few shots from the drive back into Israel:

Yom Kippur

The month of October contains at least four Jewish high holy days. Of these holidays, Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, is the most solemn and important. Jews spend this 25-hour period fasting and praying, and mending the wrongs of the past year to start afresh. One source, I remember, calls the activity on this day "squaring yourself with God". This is one of the few holidays that is observed by even the most secular Jews, and synagogue attendance doubles or triples that of a normal Saturday.

Not only do most Secular Jews observe Yom Kippur, the entire state of Israel, as a definitively Jewish state, does as well. This means:

• No place of business is open
• No cars drive anywhere
  
• No planes take off or land
  
• No radio or television broadcasts

Which means me, as well. I don't think there's a law in the books, but as far as driving goes, it's just not done.

Q: So, what does this mean for non-observers?


A:






Bike shops have their biggest sales week of the year leading up to Yom Kippur. Once sundown hits, it's open season on the roads and freeways for anyone wanting to walk or bike, which usually means yelling kids. There is the occasional ambulance or emergency car, but nothing beats the post-apocalyptic thrill of laying supine in the freeway express lanes at 10pm on a Wednesday, watching the stars and feeling the dull warmth of the day's trapped heat in the blacktop.

In other news, a janitor came into my band room yesterday sporting a Washington hooded sweatshirt with an enormous purple logo "W". This was at first cool, then shocking. We didn't share a language, but I tried to tell him why I loved it by pointing enthusiastically to the shirt, then myself, then Seattle on a map of the world.

In the Desert

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the southern half of Israel is a desert -- the Negev. Vast, dry, and largely uninhabited, it is beautiful in the austere way deserts tend to be, with fascinating rock formations and sparse plant and animal life. A few teachers and I (and 20 high school seniors) visited the Negev for four days as part of a school-wide field trip program called "Week Without Walls". This trip took place in late September, so the desert was still quite hot. Above, our group treks into the Horseshoe Canyon in the enormous Ramon Crater. We stayed in an excellent youth hostel at a small town called Mitzpe Ramon which was perched on the lip of the crater. A few pictures from that trek (click to enlarge):

Our armed guard and medic with the red backpack.


A rare tree (a rattlin' tree)

A rare signpost. There were also painted color-coded signs on rocks throughout the hike. The Ramon Crater would be a terrible place in which to get lost, either in night or day.

The sky in the desert is amazing.

As are the rock formations.

A view of the crater from Mitzpe Ramon.

To me, the most interesting thing about the Negev Desert is the history of its inhabitants, the Nabateans. The Nabateans were nomadic Hasidic arabs who controlled a vast network of oases and storehouses between the Euphrates and the Red Sea, and subsequently controlled all trade of goods and spices between the East and West. We saw many examples of hidden water pools and storehouses where the Nabateans rested and stored their goods. And, as nobody else knew of or had access to these places, the Nabateans held a monopoly on trade until they were conquered by the Roman Empire.

We visited a man who lived in a house in the Negev and provided us with a choice between two activities -- Carving art out of desert rocks:


Or, Frisbee golf on a massive desert course (the circular rock formations that look like they were made by UFOs are the course targets:


Below, the tent where the desert art was being made, and my shadow in the setting sun in the foreground. Coen Brothers, eat your heart out.


We also rode camels (slow and painful) did a dance workshop at an area studio (awesome) and generally rode around the dusty crater in the blasting sun. The vast and unchanging nature of the desert has a strange psychological effect after a while, both restorative and timeless. Some final pictures:

Ibex. They are adorable.