Monday, February 19, 2007

A lil' Tabla Poetry for Ya, babe...

Dhagenatin/If You Find One (Tabla Poetry #1)
Run Time: 1min 0sec
Creator's Page: This is another video collaboration between gALLIxSEE::media:: (me!) and James Whezel of Funketabla.com


***Click to Play!!!***


James Whetzel and I have a lot of fun with our collaborations. This one was shot in a day on location in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle. It happened to be snowing that day. Unprotected bald heads and snow make for quite a bit of cursing and hilarity. I'm not normally one to laugh at others' pain, but this was just funny (you have to watch the video all the way through to know what I'm referencing here).

James called me just after Christmas to tell me he wanted to make this video. He had performed his tabla poetry compositions for a group at a Christmas party and the response was quite positive. We chose quintessential Seattle locations and backgrounds for this video: Lakeview Cemetery (where we shot the snow scene), Volunteer Park Conservatory, and paintings/sculptures from Seattle Artists Francis Celantano and Parks Anderson, respectively.

If you're wondering what exactly Tabla Poetry is, James explains it like this:

"What it is is putting English words to the rhythms of tabla compositions. First there is a simple gat (tabla composition) and then an English poem set to the melody and rhythm of the gat."

I've included the lyrics in the image below. Whaddya think? Tabla Poetry #2 will be in production in March... and it looks to be even more interesting than #1... we're shooting on location at the Seattle Center with a cast and full run of the grounds. And I even get a PA this time! Hooray! Stay tuned...

TablaPoetry #1