We don’t get out much. Live shows can be expensive and these cold nights don’t exactly encourage going out after dark. Living near a university, even if you can’t officially be part of it, has its benefits, though. Over the weekend we went to see Yamato: The Drummers of Japan. Our daughter introduced us to the concept while living in Ithaca, a town that has a college or two, I hear. These drummer groups create what might be termed a sound bath, that is profoundly musical while featuring mainly percussion. Now, I can’t keep a beat for too long—I’m one of those guys who overthinks clapping in time—but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate those who can. The timing of the members of Yamato was incredibly precise, and moving. At times even funny. It’s a show I’d definitely recommend.
This particular tour is titled “Hito No Chikara: The Power of Human Strength.” Now this isn’t advertising their impressively well-toned bodies, but is a celebration of human spirit under fire from AI. The program notes point out some recurring themes of this blog: to be human is to experience emotion, and to know physical limitations, and to be truly creative. Would a non-biological “intelligence” think to wrap dead animal skins around hollowed out tree trunks, pound them with sticks and encourage hundreds of others to experience the emotions that accompany such things? I live in a workaday world that thinks AI is pretty cool. Humans, on the other hand, can say “I don’t know” and still play drums until late in the night. We know the joy of movement. The exhilaration of community. I think I can see why they titled their show the way they did.
Bowerbirds will create nests that can only be called intentionally artful. Something in biological existence helps us appreciate what they’re doing and respond in wonder. Theirs is an innate appreciation for art. It spans the animal world. Japan is one of many places I’ve never been. I’ve never played in any kind of band and you don’t want me setting time for your pacemaker. If a computer keeps such precise timing we think nothing of it. It’s part of what humans created them to do. When a group of people gets together, stretching their muscles and working in perfect synchronicity, we sit up and take notice. We’ll even pay to watch and hear them do it. Art, in all its forms, is purely and profoundly biological. And it is something we know, at our best, to appreciate with our emotions and our minds.
