The Crazy African

New album 'Home' released!

2013-02-27T18:35:00.001-08:00

I am so excited to release 'Home' officially as a digital download! Now on iTunes, Amazon, etc.. More details on the new blog HERE, where you can learn how to download two of the songs for free.

You can also stream all the songs online via Bandcamp: http://hiramring.bandcamp.com

New Album, New Blog site!

2013-02-10T17:28:00.001-08:00

My new album 'Home' is almost done! I'm getting ready to release it at the end of the month, but for now you can pre-order the digital release on Bandcamp for $7. I hope you enjoy the 6 songs, which you can stream live on the site. I'm also posting every couple days about the album on my new blog: http://hiramring.com/blog - so if you follow me on Blogger, feel free to switch over to the new website blog!

You Don't Belong to Me

2013-01-25T21:19:00.001-08:00

Here's a short video update and new song I wrote at the end of last year. Happy 2013!

Thung Kba

2012-06-20T23:55:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I went with my friend Ruhi to their rice field ('hali') where they were finishing planting their first crop of rice, now that the rains have arrived. I was interested to learn how to plant rice, and to learn more about the process, as it's one of the many things I've never done before. Rice is a pretty big part of life around here, as it's the main food crop, and knowing the process of rice farming gives me a better understanding of Pnar language and culture.

When we arrived, work had already started. One of the guys showed me how to run the plowing machine that turns the soil to allow the water in and make the paddy field the right kind of mud for planting the rice seedlings ('kba'). After plowing, they showed me how to plant rice ('thung kba'), which refers literally to the process of punching your hand into the mud with a few seedlings so that it sticks. I was pretty slow compared to everyone else, but they humored me and seemed to be glad/surprised that I stayed and worked until all the paddy fields were planted.

It was a lot of fun, and it's been awhile since I've done that kind of work. It's back-breaking, particularly for someone my height, and reminded me of some of my days in construction. There's something about hard, physical labor that I really enjoy, maybe because you can see actual measurable results. And it was lots of fun because everyone was talking and joking and laughing. It made me wish I understood and spoke more Pnar so I could join in.

After planting was done, we hung out by the little house the farmers use during planting time and as they are preparing to plant. It was good to relax and share a meal after a day of hard work and sunburn (at least on my part). Here's a picture with the whole group.

I've got some video, but the video site I use is down at the moment, so I'll upload it when I can and link to it on here.

EDIT: Here's the video below. http://youtu.be/ur4xtnWtwWw

Naming Ceremony

2012-05-15T06:49:00.000-07:00

Last week I was invited by my friend Heibormi Sungoh to observe a traditional Jaintia naming ceremony in Shangpung, a town not too far from Jowai. This was the third and final part of the naming ceremony, and as things went along they explained bits and pieces to me.

The first thing that happened was the family arriving at the home where the event was taking place. The wife's family brought gifts of alcohol and food, and each person bringing items gave a greeting/invocation which the family responded to in kind. After some time, all the men of the family gathered outside the home, drank rice beer, and discussed the event. Once the event had been deliberated over, the gathering moved inside where all the women of the family were sitting and discussing. Then the invocation was given by the priest for 45 minutes or so.

The invocation is a sort of chant that apparently tells the story of the first birth and how the Pnar people got help from the plants and animals, in particular a certain kind of grass who helped them to deal with birth and began the naming process. During the chanting, the priest continued rubbing mustard seed oil on three blades of grass which he held between his fingers. Once the chanting had completed, he put one piece of grass above the door and cast the other two on the ground when recommended names were given. If the grass fell a certain way three times, the name was given to the child.

Following this part of the ceremony, food was served, and the men once again convened after eating to continue their discussion of what had taken place. After some rice beer, the men reached some sort of agreement. The recordings I made still need to be analysed, but according to some of my friends they contain a lot of 'ktein kynnoh', which are idioms that are difficult to translate into English.

In the evening a local dance troupe came to present the traditional plate dance, and following the dance Heibormi and some other friends joined them with traditional music and song. I was able to film the whole thing, and here are a couple pictures of me with the group.

Rongkhla Tiger Festival

2012-04-15T03:22:00.000-07:00

Last month some friends and I visited Nongtalang, a village south of Jowai where they speak the War language. My Pnar friends were going to document and record clips for the news channel, and I went along for the experience. A couple of my Australian friends came as well, since the event was a local festival that happens relatively rarely. This festival is called Rongkhla, and can only occur after a large cat has been killed ("khla" means 'tiger'). You can read more about the festival at my friend Rev. Mohrman's blog here.

We really enjoyed the festivities - the dancers wore very colorful clothes and the music was lively. Most of the dancers wore traditional clothes, and people who liked their dancing would clip money to their shirts. It was quite an exciting experience. After the main event, the cat was carried down to the edge of town where the memorial stones stand, and at the end of the day the meat of the animal was thrown out to the onlookers. We were told that if you can eat a piece of the meat it brings good luck for the rest of the year.

For some video of the event (including where I got to drive on the Indian side of the road), check out this link or watch below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VVfpkjNkDE

Ma Kamai

2012-03-24T22:30:00.000-07:00

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the Jaintia Arts and Culture Museum here in Jowai, which is the brainchild of Ma Kamai War, a local musician and caretaker of all things Pnar and an adherent of the traditional Ñiamtre belief system. He very kindly sat with me and recorded an interview in Pnar, explaining the history of the museum, how it started in 1993 and what its purpose is - to keep alive the knowledge of Pnar culture and arts. He then described each of the artifacts he has collected, from clothing to farming tools, dishes, baskets and instruments, carefully climbing over some things in order to get to others.

Amazingly, he has done this almost completely without external funding, though he could certainly benefit from funding that would help him expand the room he keeps everything in and turn it into a true display that people could wander through. To learn more about Jaintia artifacts, you can view his webpage here, and I'm hoping to edit the video soon, for a more interactive description.

Nohkalikai Falls and Living Root Bridges

2012-03-21T00:14:00.000-07:00

A couple weekends ago I visited Cherrapunji/Sohra with my Australian linguist friends, which is the first place foreigners entered Meghalaya. We had heard there were quite a few sights to see, and were not disappointed. Cherrapunji is a beautiful place if you manage to be there when it's not raining (this area is the rainiest spot on earth, due to the high mountains that drop severely to Bangladesh on the south). And we managed.

We took a nice hike to Nohkalikai falls, which is named after a lady who jumped from the top. The story is that kong Likai fell in love and got married to a young man from her village. They were very happy and had a child. Soon after the child's birth the husband died. Ka Likai was having difficulty providing for the family and remarried. The new couple were still very poor, and the new husband started to dislike his stepchild. One day when Likai was out of the house he killed the child and used it as meat for a meal. When Likai returned home she found dinner prepared, and though she wondered where her child was, her husband assured her that the child was only playing, and as she was hungry he convinced her to eat. As soon as she had eaten a piece of meat, she knew it was her own child that she had eaten, and full of remorse she ran to the waterfall and jumped off.

The waterfall itself is quite beautiful, though the story is rather sad. The next day we trekked down over 2,000 stairs (and back up in the afternoon) to get to a number of living root bridges that local farmers have trained slowly over the last 150 years. Apparently this kind of bridge is quite common in the War-speaking areas in the mountains at the border of Bangladesh. According to this blog, they are not common anywhere else. Here's some video: http://youtu.be/TXml5M2jkQc

Nartiang Monoliths

2012-03-14T23:24:00.000-07:00

Last week my friend Ruhi took me along with some other friends to Nartiang, which was once the summer capital of the Jaintia kings, who ruled most of this area from the 1500's until they were deposed by the British East India Trading Company in the late 1800s. When the power shifted, trade shifted as well, so that the once-prosperous town of Nartiang is a quiet backwater.

However, it still boasts the finest collection of monoliths in the area, on a special site where the king's soldiers gathered and erected large stones and set huge flat slabs on smaller rocks to create stalls where people could display their goods and elders could gather for meetings. It was quite an incredible experience. From pictures I had seen the stones looked rather small, but once there for myself I could see that it was more like a giant's playground. Just to give you an idea of the scale, here I am standing on a huge rock slab next to one of the stones. If you come to northeast India, this is one sight you won't want to miss.

Below is some video from our visit: http://youtu.be/YDk-IwlIwfU

Video from Rynji waterfall

2012-03-11T04:43:00.001-07:00

In case you missed it, I managed to upload some video of the trip to Rynji waterfall. Here it is below.

http://youtu.be/s1vJ4gFU0Yo

Krangsuri Falls

2012-03-05T05:21:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week my friend Peter was in town looking for speakers of a different language. To aid in his search I introduced him to Ma Jowai, an older Pnar gentleman who knows a lot of people and has been helping me learn Pnar. Ma Jowai invited us to go with him to another waterfall, Krangsuri. So on wednesday we hit the road. Along the way we stopped to take pictures at an ancient bridge made by the Jaintia kings in the 1600-1700s. Just to give you an idea of the scale of the blocks they used, here's a picture of me and Ma Jowai on the bridge.

We continued on to the falls - it was a beautiful day for visiting the falls, with warm sun and slight breeze. Peter and I marveled at the stonework for the path on the way down, and another bridge along the way with a really cool arch. We walked around on the top of the falls, where the water escaped through the holes in the sandstone. I scoped out a spot to jump from when there's more water. The drop is only about 30 feet, and the water was so clear you could see where the boulders were.

Down at the bottom the overhang was pretty extreme, thus the word "krang" in Pnar, which describes this kind of cave. I'm told that the word "suri" is a form of "churi", which is the old word for sword, as this is the place where the Jaintia king's soldiers would sharpen their swords. I'm looking forward to coming back in the summer, when the water is more extreme.

Rynji Waterfall

2012-02-28T06:36:00.000-08:00

On Sunday some friends and I visited Rynji waterfall near Larymbai here in the Jaintia Hills. Seven of us borrowed a friend's Gypsy jeep and drove an hour and a half to the area where the waterfall was, carrying drinks and food along with us for a cookout. Once we reached the river where the falls were, our path took a slight detour through the stream and up the other bank before we finally reached a parking spot at the head of the path to the waterfall.

The waterfall was really beautiful, and huge. We started a campfire above the falls next to a small lake, and as lunch cooked (have I told you how good Pnar food is?) we explored the rocks, had some drinks, and generally chilled out. It was awesome to be with friends and try to understand what they were saying in Pnar. I found I could catch most of it, and could even respond - my production skills definitely need work. The bag of styrofoam plates we had brought blew into the lake, so I stripped down and jumped in after it and almost froze to death. Fortunately the sun was shining and the wind dried me off pretty quickly so I could change into warm clothes once I got out.

On the way back after a really fun day, at the ford where we crossed earlier a couple big Tata trucks were blocking the road, getting washed in the river. So we took a breather and hung out on the rocks where some of the locals were making dinner. I took the chance to scale a huge rock and bathe in the sun (from which I took this picture). What a wonderful day!

Jowai

2012-02-23T00:59:00.000-08:00

After a week in Shillong with some friends, I arrived in Jowai. This is a busy town that serves as the gateway from the Jaintia Hills district to the rest of India. There's a lot of coal mined in the area and all the big multicolored Tata trucks ply their slow way along the windy one-lane roads through the town. I spent one night with my friend Henry in Nongbah village, which is where Kiang Nongbah, the famous freedom fighter of the Pnar, hails from. I stayed in Henry's wife's house, which is just up the hill from the house where Kiang Nongbah lived, which is now home to the village headman. Henry told me that all of Kiang's family was hunted by the British, so that to this day no one knows who his descendants are.

The next morning I returned to Jowai where some other friends helped me find a room near the Presbyterian Mission Hospital. I've enjoyed staying there for the past week or so, though the room is rather bare. At a local woodworking shop I ordered a small dresser, and another friend may be able to build me a rack for hanging clothes. My time has been spent working on a phonology paper and building a dictionary for Jowai-Pnar and getting example sentences. I'm hoping to begin recording traditional stories in the next week or two.

NEILS 7, Guwahati

2012-02-07T23:30:00.000-08:00

I arrived in India last weekend in time to attend the NEILS 7 conference. The abbreviation is short for the North-East Indian Linguistics Society, and this year there were quite a few great presentations on the many and diverse languages of the northeast area. I got to meet quite a few local linguists from Guwahati, as well as those from farther afield in India (JNU, Mysore, Kerala), from Switzerland, France, and a few working on Burmese languages, and quite a few from Australia (ANU and Melbourne U). It was great to meet others working in this area, and after the conference ended I got a ride from Guwahati to Shillong with some of the folks from ANU who will be working near Shillong. In the picture below from left to right: Peter Appleby, myself, Paul Sidwell, and Keren Baker, at a lookout point just outside Shillong.

Tioman Island

2012-01-31T07:56:00.001-08:00

Here's some video from a vacation to Tioman Island. I went with a few friends a couple weeks ago - apparently we hit the only weekend with gorgeous weather. It was really amazing. Unfortunately my camera battery died and I didn't get any pictures, but at least the videocamera worked.

http://youtu.be/JWyq8MzGB0E

Desaru Day Trip

2012-01-18T00:35:00.001-08:00

This past Saturday I took a day trip to Desaru in Malaysia. We had an awesome tour guide named Shirley, who guided us through the scenic bits of the journey, via the chocolate shop, then Henry showed us his fruit farm (we filled up on all sorts of fruit including many kinds of durian) and we also visited an ostrich farm (and I fed a cassowary!) and took a river cruise to see the endangered fireflies. Lighting the wishing lantern was the perfect end to a day full of feasting and fellowship. Here's a short vid:

http://youtu.be/rCSUZx4Fm2c

Crazy Christmas Music Give-aways!

2011-12-16T08:22:00.001-08:00

So did I mention that it's nearly Christmas?!

About this time of year there are songs that keep coming around, some that we love and some that we don't. Hopefully you enjoyed Pageant Music's Christmas albums enough to re-visit them, and just so you can share them more easily with your friends, they are HALF OFF!

Yes, you heard/read right! If you use the code 'christmas2011' when you buy anything on the BandCamp sites of Pageant Music or Hiram Ring (where you can also listen before downloading), you'll get 50% off the total price of your order. As an added bonus, if you download a full album from Pageant Music, you'll get two Christmas songs re-worked for 2011.

And now to the OTHER free stuff: head to http://noisetrade.com/amerrymixtape (or enter your email below in the widget) to get 6 free Christmas songs from Kurt Scobie, Maura Jensen, Hiram Ring, Joy Ike, Brooke Annibale, and J.D. Eicher and the Goodnights. All donations to this album will be going to support the work of Operation Christmas Child, which brings the hope of Christmas year-round to children all over the world. Please embed this on your blog and share it around to everyone that you know!

Also, my computer (the one I use for recording, mixing, video editing, and documenting unwritten languages in a remote part of India) died last week. I just got a new one, but it has set me back rather significantly this month, so I have to wait until next month to purchase my air tickets to India (I leave at the end of January for 6 months). If you'd like to donate to the cause, and get some more free music at the same time, you can do so at http://noisetrade.com/hiramring

For even more great sounds, check out the music of my friend Cliff Lewis, whose Christmas EP is free for a limited time here: http://xmasmoviesoundtrack.bandcamp.com

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

PS: for ideas for your services the rest of the year, you might also check out the great collections on Cardiphonia Music's BandCamp site. A couple of the free compilations feature a Pageant Music track by yours truly.

ENCS Music and Real Life

2011-12-15T08:54:00.001-08:00

I was hoping to get a blog post on this earlier, but alas, my macbook died last week, and I've only got to it now. But better late than never...

I've been involved in a few things here in Singapore, and one of the highlights has been getting to know people at church. Every Nation Church Singapore is a relatively new congregation which is connected with Every Nation Ministries worldwide. It's been a blessing to start getting involved in the ENCS music ministry with Sunday morning worship and special events.

In November they released a worship album with some great songs. It's called "All the Way", and you can check it out on iTunes or view the acoustic video version of one of the songs we do on Sundays below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c08ZFMslsbY

This past Sunday I was glad to be part of an event to raise money for the Real Life foundation in the Philippines. We were able to raise scholarship assistance for over 20 disadvantaged kids to go for college degrees, which was really exciting. Performances by myself, Alarice, the Next Movement, and ENCS music, and we ended with a group rendition of "This Christmas" (Donny Hathaway) - you can see me there in the middle. It was a great night.

Men vs. Wild (Malaysia)

2011-11-03T00:05:00.000-07:00

This past weekend my friend Sam and I took an overnight trek through the jungles of Malaysia. While not quite a "Man vs. Wild" equivalent, we did manage to have an adventure. We took some tips from AngryAngmo.com's 2009 blog post about Kota Tinngi forest reserve in southern Malaysia, not too far from Singapore. Our criteria were location (close to Singapore), challenge (packing everything in and out), safety (we didn't want to die), and scenery (waterfalls). Kota Tinngi met all that criteria quite nicely, though the blog post didn't quite prepare us for everything we found.

We met up at Johor Bahru for breakfast at the Oldtown Coffee shop just inside the City Centre mall at the border, and then proceeded to hire a taxi to the Kota Tinngi waterfall park. The taxi price was a bit more than what the blog stated, but inflation is expected, of course. It took about an hour to get to the Kota Tinngi waterfall.

Once we arrived, we almost entered the park, but the lady said there was no camping, so we checked the blog post and realized that it said to follow the river/stream just in front of the park. We weren't clear whether to walk upstream in the river itself, but managed to find a path along the bank that wound through a palm-tree grove, following a group of day-hikers, until finally we had to cross the river in order to stay on the trail, which we discovered to be marked with red and white striped plastic bags.

The trail itself was pretty well marked from then on, and it was a pretty easy hike to the first real waterfall (crossing the stream occasionally), where we left the day-hikers. Here's a group shot of us all together. On our own, Sam and I continued upstream, and this is where the going got quite a bit tougher. At several points we were in the river itself, wet up to the waist, as we followed the markers. Had that been more clear in the blog post, we would have been sure to bring slightly different footgear. A word to the wise who follow - plan to get wet! As it was, we soaked our tennis shoes and clothes through, and simply had to be extremely careful when climbing the rocks and waterfalls, as many of the surfaces were slick from the water.

The climb was very picturesque, and since it was our first time, there were a few places where we had to pause to search for the trail marker. Where none was evident at first, we simply continued along the river until we spotted one. There were also well-placed rope at spots where it would otherwise have been difficult to climb. We weren't prepared for the amount of bouldering/climbing that we had to do, but took it in stride. Fortunately, it didn't rain - had it done so we might have called off the hike.

It took us about 3 hours, with rest stops periodically, to make it to the top, where the river and the terrain pretty much leveled out. We set up camp on a slight hill next to the stream. Someone had strung a clothesline between two trees, which we used to hang our wet clothes on, and then took a rest in the pool next to the camp. It was relaxing after the climb. We did some exploring around the camp, noticed some deer tracks (we saw the deer later that night coming down for a drink at the stream) and saw a buzzard flying around. Dinner we cooked on our SuperCat alcohol stove - quite filling and tasty noodles - then made a fire and sat around talking for the rest of the evening.

After a good night's sleep (it rained a bit, but we stayed relatively dry), we took our time getting up, ate breakfast, and headed back. Going down was faster (though still a bit treacherous from the wet), only about an hour or two, and we stopped several times to swim in the waterfall pools. On returning we found a taxi to take us back to JB, had a late lunch, and headed home to Singapore. All in all, a great weekend!

Flying! for real

2011-09-11T23:59:00.001-07:00

I went flying this past weekend with some friends. It was kind of along the lines as in Douglas Adams' A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - I just fell forward and forgot about landing. Or something of the sort.

In Sentosa Resort World here in Singapore, there's a new facility with a huge wind tunnel. As soon as I saw a video my brother posted on Facebook of a similar wind tunnel, I decided to check it out. And then I saw the video on iFly Singapore's website, and I knew I had to check it out.

So this past weekend some friends and I went down to Sentosa (the first time I've ever been there, even though I've been in Singapore for a year) with the express purpose of trying iFly. It was pretty incredible. Imagine jumping into a room and essentially being weightless, and then being able to control your motion in all directions. It makes parachuting free-fall way more attractive. After a short training, we jumped in - here's a video of our experience.

(as an aside, the frontman for the band whose music I used in the video is from the area in India where I'm doing research - we met while I was there this past summer - check them out on iTunes)

http://youtu.be/bxG3WAKHYUc

Josh Garrels and Context

2011-09-02T22:01:00.000-07:00

It has taken me awhile to write this post, but first let me say that if you haven't heard Josh Garrels' new album "Love, War, and the Sea In Between", you should check it out here: http://www.noisetrade.com/joshgarrels

I was really looking forward to hearing this album, as I've been kept updated by his newsletter and run into him in various times and places in the last couple years - Lancaster, Bushnell, North Carolina. So when he announced it was out and available as a free download, I got it. At the time, I was on fieldwork in India, and internet connection was a bit spotty so I sat in a friend's internet cafe in Shillong for 2 hours in order to get the whole (large) file. It's a testament to the world's increasing globalization that even that was possible, as it probably wouldn't have been even a year or two ago.

So this was the context in which I put my earbuds in, turned on my ipod, and listened to the whole album in one shot. And... it kind of fell flat. I wasn't sure what to think, since I've always liked the music Josh makes, and all the reviews I read beforehand had nothing but good things to say about the album. So I forgot about it and continued to work on documenting Pnar.

About a month later I had been in the US for my sister's wedding, which was pretty awesome, and after two weeks I was on my way to NYC to catch the airplane back to Singapore. On the greyhound bus I had just finished a large portion of the 40+ page paper I was working on, and needed a break. I found Josh's album on my ipod and started to listen. It was really good! I remember we had just got on the NJ turnpike to head into NYC, and I thought - "why is this so much better than when I listened to it in India?!"

It struck me that in India, a lot of the things that Josh writes/sings about, and even the music styles he uses, simply didn't connect with the world I was experiencing. It was as if the issues he deals with have no grounding in a non-western, non-american context. Which totally makes sense - I think how my music doesn't necessarily translate to people outside my own particular contexts. I think that speaks to the role of the artist as both a creator and reflector of culture, and thus how important it is to know the context to which you intend to speak, which Josh seems to have figured out pretty well.

At the same time, we would like to say that art transcends culture, and that this is our goal as artists. But how well does that work? Take your art outside your own culture and I guess you'll find out.

A Package from a friend

2011-08-28T19:37:00.001-07:00

I got home last Thursday to find a package waiting for me! Anyone who has ever received a parcel overseas knows that it just brightens your whole day, and this was no exception. My good friend Joy Ike sent it to me from Pittsburgh, and included some wonderful goodies and music to help me get by "with a little help from my friends". One of my flat-mates recorded video of my opening it to find some savory and not-so-savory treats. Incredible-ness. I was/am astounded.

http://youtu.be/IJQO2P0LK-s

Wedding

2011-07-25T13:31:00.001-07:00

My sister got married this past weekend, and it was a wonderful ceremony and a great time with family and friends. Soon I fly back to Singapore to defend my research proposal paper, which I am still working on writing. But at the moment I'm simply enjoying being with family and friends. Here's a picture of the bride walking up the aisle.

My Favorite Sign

2011-07-04T00:32:00.001-07:00

This is my favorite sign (so far) in Shillong. It's right across from Swish cafe in Laitumkrah. I haven't tried the chicken popsicles yet, but maybe when I get back I will... =) "And Many More Wow Stuff!"

Pnar Church Service

2011-06-29T02:49:00.000-07:00

I went to church with a friend in Jowai on Sunday, the Presbyterian Church there - it was pretty cool. I definitely didn't bring the right clothes to India for going to church - all the men wore suits and ties if they had them, but I didn't mind that too much. Although when you stand up to sing hymns and you're a head taller than the tallest person in the room, it can be a bit uncomfortable. Fortunately I'm used to being stared at from growing up one of the only white people in an all-black country. I think my friend was a bit more nervous to be sitting next to me, since she lives there and knows how little excuse people need to gossip.

The service was all in Khasi, which is the dominant language spoken in this area. The hymns were in Khasi and there was no percussion to keep time so the singing slowed down to an almost inexorable pace. It was neat to be able to pick out some words here and there, and my friend translated some of the verses for me so I could understand what I was singing. The orthography is relatively systematic.

In the evening we went to their cousin's home, which is up on a hill above the river on the outskirts of town (where the picture on the right was taken). We stayed for a home church service led by some of the church elders, which is where the real meat of the Christian culture in Jowai seems to be. Pretty much the whole service, except for a few songs and prayers, were in Pnar, including the sermon. Traditional instruments - a mandolin and tambourine - as well as clapping and harmonies kept the songs upbeat and lively.