Taiko

[Bilbo]

I have played with other mainly drum music in the background before and enjoyed it. This traditional Japanese drum music (said to have inspired some of the music from The Matrix) has always seemed hot to me in pictures of the drummers, but I hadn't gotten to a concert of it before last weekend. It was exciting. Though a little goes a long ways. I wouldn't want to do it undiluted for more than, say, an hour and a half.

Anyway, I grabbed up a CD from the local Taiko group Maverick and I had listened to, and may have a chance to use it as background to a Leather scene for the first time tonight with one of my regular clients.

I'll chime in tomorrow if I do get to, and if I can find the time, but I'm interested in hearing from y'all before I do. What do you think of this music, by itself? As background to Leather?

Am I behind the times in using it? - Which wouldn't be surprising if I hear that from the other two coasts as the middle of the country, while it seems to have caught up some, still seems to be about two years behind NY and CA.

So?

[Bilbo]

OK, the scene didn't go Leather. But I can tell you that this is a hot music style for sex in general. And, most likely, for Leather, too.

[whipped guy]

Shoot! Now you peeked my curiosity enough to find the following web-page with some musical examples... Is this representative?

 

http://www.taiko.org/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=SJTS&Product_Code=CD_KODAMA&Category_Code=MUSIC

 

I'm not sure if my "Western" (as opposed to Oriental) ears can make sense out of it, but it probably would work for a leather scene.

[Bilbo]

Well, I don't know enough to know if this is truely representative of the genre as a whole, but it certainly did seem representative of what I have heard of it. I really liked that last sample, the Sprit of Adventure. It may be representative of a subgenre which was written my Taiko enthusiasts here in the U.S., and so, it might be more approachable for "Western ears", like ours. The local Taiko group is about 60-40 women to men, it seems, but judging from them and from the pix I've seen, the drumming is quite often done by skimpily clad men. So, maybe catching a concert is the best way to break your Taiko cherry. Eye candy to keep you occupied when your ear might start to wander. (And fancy, showy stick choreography is a part of the form.)

[Bilbo]

Well, I don't know enough to know if this is truely representative of the genre as a whole, but it certainly did seem representative of what I have heard of it. I really liked that last sample, the Sprit of Adventure. It may be representative of a subgenre which was written my Taiko enthusiasts here in the U.S., and so, it might be more approachable for "Western ears", like ours. The local Taiko group is about 60-40 women to men, it seems, but judging from them and from the pix I've seen, the drumming is quite often done by skimpily clad men. So, maybe catching a concert is the best way to break your Taiko cherry. Eye candy to keep you occupied when your ear might start to wander. (And fancy, showy stick choreography is a part of the form.)

[whipped guy]

From what I understand there is also a Chinese musical tradition that utilizes drums and it probably influenced and was influenced by the Japanese tradition. The contemporary classical composer Tan Dun has incorporated the Chinese version into his compositions, and very recently so in his opera The First Emperor which was premiered at the MET last season. Listening to the samples of Taiko reminded me of the drum sections of that piece… and listening to the broadcast of that opera was a challenge to my “Western ears” as well… but interesting nonetheless.

[Bilbo]

I just got to try it with a short Asian bottom. He liked the music, but he hadn't heard of it before. I thought he looked Japanese, but his face was rather round, so he may have been Chinese. But he didn't say anything about Tun Dun, either. Soo....

Of course, you can look like you just moved here - like I did once upon a time - and still be a third generation or more Houstonian. So, that doesn't prove anything.

Anyway, the real news from that session is that it does work, very well, under a Leather session. i recommend it.

And I would love to hear that opera sometime soon.

[whipped guy]

RE: And I would love to hear that opera sometime soon. [/font color=blue]

 

Bilbo... I don't think that it has been recorded, but it will be playing for 3 performances at the Metropolitan Opera in NYC on May 10, 14, and 17.

 

Perhaps you should consider visiting... Now this might seem implausible, but there undoubtedly is a need for a "specialist" of your caliber in the Big Apple!

[Bilbo]

What I find somewhat implausible is that there would be enough clients for me in NYC to even break even on such a trip. It wounds to me like carrying coals to Newcastle, even were I not in a very niche position.

Yes, it is possible that there are just not enough good Leather Masters for Hire there who like to specialize in beginners through intermediates. And, yes, there are going to be more men there who will know what I mean when I say that I am a Sacred Intimate than there are here in Houston, the nations's fourth (I think) largest city.

However, have you looked at my picture? I also occupy another niche, one which has had me made fun of on these message boards before. I am a Daddy Bear. While there are a lot of people out there who prefer an older man, or a bear, especially among our Leather brothers, there are not as many of them who are used to the idea of escorting being a life long profession, not yet anyway. Even here at home, I only average about two clients a week and the vast majority of those are men who have been hiring me, some of them every two weeks, for years. Yes, years. And that is true even though I think that I am once again the only Leather Master for Hire headquartered in Houston.

 

Maverick says to suggest to you that you hire me and include airfare into the bargain. But, while clients in other, smaller cities are faced with that kind of a bargain rather often, I don't see it sitting comfortably with a New Yorker.

 

But do let's keep flirting, shall we? I am enjoying it.