Red and white: traditional New Year's TV (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

Oh my :) I wish I'd an empty VHS tape with me, because I sure as heck would love to tape tonight's traditional Red & White New Year's TV show. It's so totally awesome ^_^

We'll watch the show for a few hours, with our roomies and then we'll head out to Shitennoji temple for the New Year's bells (and alcohol and food and friends, etc).

Yoshu! Welcomu too-sowsand-aato!

Happy new year everyone!

Posted in: japan , new year , red and white , show , tv

A second visit to Afrika Afrika (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

Exactly a month after the last time that we went, we paid another visit to the Afrika Afrika show. We really loved the show the first time and since we still owed the in-laws a trip to the theater, we went again and took them with us.

This time around, Marli had ordered tickets right in front of the stage, though a bit higher up in the stands. Last time we had ringside seats, at the back of the stage. The difference is quite astounding! At the ringside you are so immersed in the show that you nearly forget about the rest of the crowd. Up in the stands I couldn't help but notice the rest of the audience and the huge rows of empty seats. It breaks down the magic just a little bit.

The front view of the show was great though, as it provided a completely new perspective. And let me reiterate that, yes, the 80 bucks a pop for the seats are well worth it.

Apparently the in-laws loved the evening as well, with Marli's mom wondering how some of the stuff was even possible. "At times I see this stuff happen and my head just goes, this isn't possible!" ^_^

Yep... A great evening it was! :)

Posted in: acrobats , afrika-afrika , in-laws , music , show

Dinner and a show: Afrika-Afrika (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

Wow, last night was quite amazing! :)

It's Snow's tenth birthday this year and management thought it'd be nice to take everyone out for dinner and a show. So off we went with over 170 people, to watch Afrika-Afrika in Amsterdam. Snow being the cool employer that they are got ring-side seats for everyone. And wow, were they worth it!

From the first minute onwards, the show comes at you relentlessly with music, dance and acrobatics. At times the pace may ease a little, only to come back with more vigour. The musical score is uber-versatile, mixing traditional African music with hiphop and jazz.

It's impossible to list all of the acts in the show in a short blog post, so I'll just list my favourites ^_^
* The sword jugglers from Egypt
* The contortionist from Angola, with a great sense of humor
* The strap acrobat from Martinique, whose shadow was even prettier to behold than the guy himself.
* The unicyclist basketball players

Seriously, that would be one bad-ass sport to watch and play! Basketball on unicycles :D Fscking awesome!

I cannot be more enthused about this show than I am now. Ring-side seats ring in at eighty euros a piece (that's about a hundred bucks for you USAdians), but I have to say that they're worth it. Seating in the stands will probably be a lot cheaper, but you'll be farther away from the action.

The Afrika-Afrika website has a bunch of pictures and trailers, if you're interested.

Posted in: acrobats , afrika-afrika , dance , music , show