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gurdymonkey"Waaa, the SCA sucks!" (For various reasons to different people.)
Fine. Here are your options:
You can complain, which the Curmudgeon realizes feels SO GOOD, but ultimately doesn't do anything except make people cry, "Oh jeez, not you again" and hit the delete key.
You can go do something else that sucketh not in thy purview. LARP. Cosplay. American Civil War re-enacment. Swing dancing. Extreme tiddlywinks. If the SCA isn't doing it for you, that's OK. Go do something that is. I've left and come back a couple of times - smartest thing I ever did. Knowing that the world is bigger than the SCA is a Good Thing (TM).
You can play the game your way. Yes, you can.
You can CALL yourself anything you want, you just may not be able to register it with the College of Heralds. You can even call yourself by any title you want - as long as you are willing to accept the attendant aggravating consequences: offending or alienating people who have titles in this game and place value upon them for sentimental reasons (generally because someone higher up the food change said, "Poof! You have a title!"). And having to explain yourself constantly, that sort of thing.
You can show up at an event in fur jeans and horns (I know some of my readers will remember the apparition dubbed "Satyroo") - as long as you are willing to accept the attendant consequences.
You can be your badass Chinese or Japanese or Incan (or was it Aztec?) self - as long as you are willing to accept the attendant consequences.
You can be more period than thou (looking down upon the unwashed barbarian masses strictly optional). You can be less period than thou (sneering defensively and pre-emptively at the better dressed strictly optional). And anywhere in between. Seriously. If the nylon folding chairs and the chat about "Operation Runway" are getting on your nerves, make an atmospheric place for yourself and like minded attendees at events that welcomes persona play, or at least period-neutral conversation. You can do a lot with a picnic blanket and a little attitude. If you're here for beer and bellydancing, OK.
You can write to the Board about issues about which you are concerned. Hell, you can nominate yourself to serve on the Board - or volunteer to serve on the Grand Council.
It takes all kinds and the SCA is full of 'em. The broad (vague?) scope of the organization is a strength and a weakness. What you put in determines what you get out of it.
Hey,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
allergicone , does taiko drumming constitute "instrumental performance?"
Yes, I really DO get hairbrained ideas on my fresh air/walk breaks. This, is clearly one of them and why the jar for my brain requires an "Abby Normal" sticker when I croak.
Look! Documentation! http://www.tnm.go.jp/gallery/search/images/max/C0022476.jpg is a detail of a 16th century folding screen in the Tokyo National Museum Collection. It's party time. At the left is a guy pounding on a massive o-daiko and there's another guy next to him with cymbals. There are people with hand drums under the eaves of the building at the top and other drummers in the lower left section playing rope-tensioned shime-daiko. It's party time!
I could work up an original routine based on a whopping 22 weeks of classes and I could write documentation that would convince a judge it's in period style.
I could totally own this - based on the fact that the odds are very good whoever gets roped into judging the instrumental performance competition is going to know less than I do about taiko.
I could, you know, lie. Convincingly.
I don't know what period taiko drumming sounded like. Taiko was used ceremonially in Shinto rituals, it was used in war, and as shown in the cited genre painting, it was used for festivals. But you can't hear a painting.
Taiko as we know it today is heavily influenced by - wait for it - jazz drumming. Those big ensembles with drums of multiple sizes were inspired by Western style drum kits. Taiko as practiced in the United States is the same age as - wait for it - The Society For Creative Anachronism. Seichi Tanaka, founder of San Francisco Taiko Dojo, began playing for local festivals in 1968, while Reverend Masao Kodani and George Abe of Los Angeles' Sesshin Buddhist Temple were drumming for fun after the Obon celebration was over at roughly the same time. Every taiko group in America is decended from either San Francisco Taiko Dojo, Kinnara Taiko (the LA group) or San Jose Taiko and we can all claim decent through those three foundation groups from jazz-drummer-turned-taiko-patriarch Daihachi Oguchi, who passed away earlier this year. (Nice overview in better detail may be found here.)
Obviously, I am not going to fabricate an impressive looking bibliography and write up and perform a complete scam just to see if anyone catches on. This is just a public service announcement from Abby Normal.
Fine. Here are your options:
You can complain, which the Curmudgeon realizes feels SO GOOD, but ultimately doesn't do anything except make people cry, "Oh jeez, not you again" and hit the delete key.
You can go do something else that sucketh not in thy purview. LARP. Cosplay. American Civil War re-enacment. Swing dancing. Extreme tiddlywinks. If the SCA isn't doing it for you, that's OK. Go do something that is. I've left and come back a couple of times - smartest thing I ever did. Knowing that the world is bigger than the SCA is a Good Thing (TM).
You can play the game your way. Yes, you can.
You can CALL yourself anything you want, you just may not be able to register it with the College of Heralds. You can even call yourself by any title you want - as long as you are willing to accept the attendant aggravating consequences: offending or alienating people who have titles in this game and place value upon them for sentimental reasons (generally because someone higher up the food change said, "Poof! You have a title!"). And having to explain yourself constantly, that sort of thing.
You can show up at an event in fur jeans and horns (I know some of my readers will remember the apparition dubbed "Satyroo") - as long as you are willing to accept the attendant consequences.
You can be your badass Chinese or Japanese or Incan (or was it Aztec?) self - as long as you are willing to accept the attendant consequences.
You can be more period than thou (looking down upon the unwashed barbarian masses strictly optional). You can be less period than thou (sneering defensively and pre-emptively at the better dressed strictly optional). And anywhere in between. Seriously. If the nylon folding chairs and the chat about "Operation Runway" are getting on your nerves, make an atmospheric place for yourself and like minded attendees at events that welcomes persona play, or at least period-neutral conversation. You can do a lot with a picnic blanket and a little attitude. If you're here for beer and bellydancing, OK.
You can write to the Board about issues about which you are concerned. Hell, you can nominate yourself to serve on the Board - or volunteer to serve on the Grand Council.
It takes all kinds and the SCA is full of 'em. The broad (vague?) scope of the organization is a strength and a weakness. What you put in determines what you get out of it.
Hey,
allergicone , does taiko drumming constitute "instrumental performance?" Yes, I really DO get hairbrained ideas on my fresh air/walk breaks. This, is clearly one of them and why the jar for my brain requires an "Abby Normal" sticker when I croak.
Look! Documentation! http://www.tnm.go.jp/gallery/search/images/max/C0022476.jpg is a detail of a 16th century folding screen in the Tokyo National Museum Collection. It's party time. At the left is a guy pounding on a massive o-daiko and there's another guy next to him with cymbals. There are people with hand drums under the eaves of the building at the top and other drummers in the lower left section playing rope-tensioned shime-daiko. It's party time!
I could work up an original routine based on a whopping 22 weeks of classes and I could write documentation that would convince a judge it's in period style.
I could totally own this - based on the fact that the odds are very good whoever gets roped into judging the instrumental performance competition is going to know less than I do about taiko.
I could, you know, lie. Convincingly.
I don't know what period taiko drumming sounded like. Taiko was used ceremonially in Shinto rituals, it was used in war, and as shown in the cited genre painting, it was used for festivals. But you can't hear a painting.
Taiko as we know it today is heavily influenced by - wait for it - jazz drumming. Those big ensembles with drums of multiple sizes were inspired by Western style drum kits. Taiko as practiced in the United States is the same age as - wait for it - The Society For Creative Anachronism. Seichi Tanaka, founder of San Francisco Taiko Dojo, began playing for local festivals in 1968, while Reverend Masao Kodani and George Abe of Los Angeles' Sesshin Buddhist Temple were drumming for fun after the Obon celebration was over at roughly the same time. Every taiko group in America is decended from either San Francisco Taiko Dojo, Kinnara Taiko (the LA group) or San Jose Taiko and we can all claim decent through those three foundation groups from jazz-drummer-turned-taiko-patriarch Daihachi Oguchi, who passed away earlier this year. (Nice overview in better detail may be found here.)
Obviously, I am not going to fabricate an impressive looking bibliography and write up and perform a complete scam just to see if anyone catches on. This is just a public service announcement from Abby Normal.
