What's Up, Doc?

I attended 2 screenings at Hot Docs, the documentary film festival in Toronto. The first film is Korean Wedding Chest by Ulrike Ottinger.

In Korean Wedding Chest, new and old wedding rituals are explored by Ottinger. Without a narrator, we are left to ponder the meaning of the rituals on our own. Sometimes, a participant may clue us in; for example, a shop-keeper at a wedding store explained the various items that goes into a Korean wedding chest. I particularly enjoyed looking at the old rituals such as the wedding chest or the traditional tea ceremony (similar to that of Chinese weddings). Some of the cheesiness of a modern wedding (which North American weddings are also not exempt from) also got some chuckles.

However, the lack of explanation short-changed or deceived the viewer with respect to other rituals. At the beginning, there were scenes involving a shamaness and also a temple called The Temple of Wish-Fulfillment. But these were not tied in to the wedding that comprised the bulk of the film. It was unclear to me how a shamaness might be involved in a Korean wedding. Does she preside over some weddings? Regarding the temple, do people get married there? Do they come with their sweethearts and swear their love or get engaged?

Other rituals presented would involve so few Koreans or are not even Korean-specific that it seems disingenuous to include in the film. One showed a couple getting a picture from a booth. This picture has been rendered by the machine into an "oil painting". Other options include pencil sketch, watercolour, etc. Well, I saw a functionally identical booth at my local mall. Another scene had couples declaring their love by writing their names on a "padlock of love" and chaining it to a fence along with other love padlocks. A quick search on the internet reveals that this fad probably started in Europe in recent years, and given that the love fence is located on top of a single building in Seoul, this non-Korean expression would statistically be practiced by a tiny, tiny minority of Koreans. As such, it has about as much relevance as showing teens writing "K+L 4ever" on bus seats in a film about North American wedding rituals.

3 thumbs up (out of 5).

Elementary, My Dear Watson

I attended a pop concert at Trinity-St.Paul's United Church on Saturday with headliner Patrick Watson, a Montreal native, and opening act Laura Barrett. Short review of the night: I liked their music though I didn't love it.

I first heard Laura Barrett at last year's Word on the Street book festival. She writes interesting, quirky songs and her primary musical is the marimba (or thumb piano). Since then, she has gotten more mainstream exposure including a profile in the Globe and Mail. Judging from her MySpace page over the last year or so, her music has taken her to some interesting places and venues.

Her songs are probably better appreciated with the lusher arrangements on her latest album or in a more intimate setting. In the larger setting of the church and with a stripped down band, her songs had a plinkety-plink sameness. The enthusiasm that first greeted her died down to polite applause after the second song. Only the final song "Deception Island Optimists Club", a more "conventional" love song, was well received. Perhaps she should have done more songs where she played the piano.

I came for Laura, I stayed for Patrick. Unlike myself who knew nothing about Patrick Watson, most people were obviously there for this singer, especially the women who made up about 70% of the audience. In any case, Patrick was backed by a 3 member band as well as the occasional 4 piece strings section. Like Laura, he doesn't write too many love songs either. His music was great to listen to but I had a hard time understanding the lyrics. He frequently mushed the words into one long melody line of "ah-wah-shah-blah-rah-tah-you". Overall, as a 1st time listener, I felt there was a sameness to the songs which I'll call "Anthem Pop".

Anthem Pop begins with the singer and a simple backing of perhaps piano or guitar. The drummer might provide some soft accompaniment on vibraphone, wooden blocks, or some other "percussion"-y sounds. Next comes bass and perhaps some strings. By the 2nd chorus, an insistent bass drum drives the song forward. By the time of the extended coda, a frantic rhythm is laid down by the drummer, and guitar and piano have become cacophanous. The singer has gone into full "white man wailing" mode (as A.O. Scott once described the movie Once).

It certainly makes the heart beat faster. But when more than half the songs were like this, I started to think "Hey, didn't Arcade Fire do this song?" This impression was not helped when the band waded into the audience with megaphone in hand during the encore. (Yes, Arcade Fire does that too). To be fair, Patrick Watson has at least 3 albums out. So given that he probably only did 1/3 of his repertoire, hopefully it means that he only writes maybe 20% Anthem Pop? The 2 waltz-like (3/4 time) songs that I heard were quite lovely. Overall though, a fun evening of music in a great venue.