Akio Suzuki

On saturday I went to go see Akio at the powerhouse. Because public transport is so advanced in Brisbane it only took me 3 hours (this is not a joke, I left at 4:15 and got there at 7:30, so in actual fact it took 3 hours in 15 mins, but whos counting...). Considering how hot and muggy it was today, it was actually not a bad night (not too cold, not too hot). Anyway, getting there was the easy part. Waiting 30 mins at the powerhouse was not...

See there was this show called "Dances of the World" and it there was an intermission, and a lot of children running around. It was crazy. So in the interests of my own personal saftey (and some other peoples...) I took a walk around, and found the "Notice" sign. If you have not seen this sign, I strongly suggest you hop on a CityCat and go find it. Its at the powerhouse, somewhere. If you find it and have a camera with you take a picture for me. Thanks. Its worth going just for the sign.

While at New Farm I noticed a lot of drunken people drinking on the lawn. Now I respect people's choice to drink etc and dont want to spoil the cool deal that New Farm has with whoever they neeed to have a deal with. But how is this different to other people drinking in parks.... As long as people don't do anything stupid then it should be ok. I agree. But as far as danger goes, New Farm is probably the most dangerous place to be drinking as its next to a RIVER. With no rails to stop you from falling in... Anyway I can't be bothered writting about this as theres no point. Or rather I have made my point and don't need to keep explaining it futher.

Back to the main reason for going to this part of town... Akio Suzuki. So eventualy we get to go in. Initialy there wasnt very many people, but eventually it filled up about 1/3 of the theater so I guess thats a few (4 x 20 x 2 = 160). I would say about 100 people, so thats a lot. More than I would figure there would be. Before the main attraction (Akio), there was a video presentation form some Americans living in Berlin. There was these two TV's with two different things showing at the same time. Basicly it was the same room filmed during the day and at night. And for 25 mins we watch two people opening and closing windows. The one at night started off with them walking very slowly and doing things slowly, by the end of the tape there were going fast (running). In the day film it started with them running, and then slowing down... Remeber there were both shown at the same time, so it was kinda weird, but a waste of tape at the same time.... As they were trying to "explore the urban sound scape" and the effect that windows have in blocking that sound..... It was stupid to say the least.

Then came Akio. He was awesome. The his first set was called "newspaper", which bascily consisted of him tearing paper. Even though this was a step up from what I had just witnessed, I was thinking I had just wasted 4 hours of my life... By the end of it, this was not what I was thinking. I don't know what it was, but near the end I think I started to understand what he was on about.

The second set was and instrument he had made. Which was sort of like an adult version of the "paper cup walkie talkie". But the insane sounds that came out was just amazing. And because there was two cups it had some weird stereo effect. I cant really explain the sounds, but just imagine you were the ocean and there was a whale inside of you that could play a musical instrument.

The third set was with the use of another homebrew instrument, after getting a closer look, it was some glass tubes. Again, the number of different sounds that came out of this one thing is a credit to his genius.

The last set saw him use two rocks. I did not even know rocks could make that kind of sound. I have increased respect for pebbels now. Some how made them sound like a scicada and some other cool stuff.

Overall it was an awesome audiable experiance (I can't get underline to work, but if I could "experiance" would be underlined).