Here’s the clip of me from today’s broadcast of Kubota Min’yo Okunimeguri.

I can say now, since I’ve watched the video, that I was terrified that they were going to show the part of my English class where I misspelled “pomegranate” (as “pomegranite”). Luckily that was edited out though.

All in all, I think it’s a good segment (as I did with the NHK segment), but I do think that the editing they did for the song at the end is far from seamless… It’s pretty easy to spot where they have video of me doing one thing, and the audio is something else.

That’s TV for you, though.

Again, all Japanese, sorry.

High Quality (about 89Mb)

Low Quality (about 12Mb)

I came across the term, “Wabi Sabi”, while studying music in Japan this year.

In talking to the idea with various people, I often ran into the idea that “Wabi Sabi is not something that foreigners can understand.” Perhaps not, but this attitude doesn’t seem to support my goals of fostering international understanding.

So of course I foisted my ideas on my unsuspecting English class, in that in the 21st Century we enjoy incredibly quick communication that allows people all over the world to experience arts from a variety of different cultures. So while Japanese people are enjoying western pop-music, perhaps a foreigner can appreciate a Japanese aesthetic.

Regardless, I was inspired to rewrite some chorales that I composed around some haiku by Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), thinking about my studies this year in music and aesthetics as well is in the Japanese language.

I’m not sure if the pieces reflect the concept of “Wabi Sabi,” but I would challenge anyone who says that they don’t to find two people who agree on the definition of the term.

Three Haiku (score only) (formerly “Three Poems by Basho”)

Sorry to everyone who woke up early this morning to watch me on “Kubota Min’you Okunimeguri”, and, of course, didn’t see me. If it makes you feel any better, I was up too.

I didn’t get any notice about a change in time for my segment, and I’ve just eMailed the producer. I’m assuming the broadcast will be next week, but check back here for more details.

It seems that the producer was occupied with covering the earthquake and didn’t have a chance to get in touch, but the broadcast has indeed been moved to the 22nd.