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It's that time of year again.
Time for the Black
Ships Festival at
Newport. No sumo this year! Sigh. Evidently the
organizers have decided it's too expensive to fly
in sumo wrestlers from Hawaii or Japan for this.
What with yesterday's traffic
jams and long workday, not to mention its being the
end of my first week of full time cubicle
employment in nearly 6 years, I was a bit too tired
to get up in time to drive to Newport for the film
festival featuring anime, which ran from 10:00 AM
to 4:00 PM today. It was all I could do to get to
the Taiko Drum Festival at the Tennis Hall of Fame
by 6:00 PM. I am glad they finally decided to add
anime to the festival agenda. It's about time.
There's also a manga workshop for kids. Now all we
need is vending machines and pachinko parlors for
the authentic modern Japan cultural
experience.
Anyway, the taiko festival
featured Odaiko New England and a group named
Matsuriza who came from Disney World, well Japan by
way of Disney World. We've seen Odaiko New England
at past festivals but this was the first time for
Matsuriza. They had a comedy interlude, which I've
never seen at a taiko concert before. A masked
clown/drummer comes in and tries to play, pushing
other drummers out of the way and doing pratfalls.
He was, of course, really a very good drummer.
A little kid in the box seats
in front of me keeps peaking up over the wall
between the box seats and the grandstand smiling
broadly. He starts drumming on the wall with
chopsticks! He can't be more than two but he
definitely has the beat. He has to be the happiest
little boy in Newport.
A woman in the box seats has
two optic yellow tennis balls in each hand and
she's clapping in time to the drumming. I keep
expecting her to send the tennis balls flying.
Behind her an artist draws the drummers in an
oversized sketchbook. The kids who've been invited
to sit on the grass as long as they remain seated,
dance and run and do anything but remain seated. A
little girl in a red kimono runs past the barrier
into the performance area. An older girl wearing a
yellow kimono runs to fetch her. The official
photographer has them pose for pictures before she
escorts them back behind the blue rope.
The audience is as much fun
to watch as the performers.
I still miss the
sumo.
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