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New building at the CDSC
Manuel Kutscher
The Christian German School Chiang Mai (CDSC) has done it
again! Just a few years after the new kindergarten building was built,
another new building has been opened.
 The
new building, ready for the students
The official opening ceremony was held on December 13, 2004. The new
construction consists of three classrooms. One will be used as a special
room reserved for Thai language and cultural studies. The second is going to
be the new computer laboratory. The third will be a multipurpose room for
all kinds of teaching activities.
It
was a proud moment for teachers, students and parents. Even the little one
who had the honor to hold the ribbon-cutting scissors was excited!
Video ‘sculpture’ comes to CMU
A rather different approach to ‘art’
Sandy Clark
CMU art museum, in cooperation with the Goethe Institute
Bangkok, came up with a unique exhibition of what the curator called
‘video sculptures’. This title was specially selected to intimate that
what was presented was truly ‘art’. Curator Wulf Herzogenrath issued an
invitation to 17 artists, male and female, living, teaching or working in
Germany, to contribute.
 To
some it might be just a ladder, but artist Wolfgang Staehle called this
‘piece of art’ ‘Vers la Victoire’.
Many VIP visitors came on the opening day after Ajarn
Somporn Rodboon, a member of the ‘new team’ at CMU from the faculty of
Fine Arts had introduced the concept of the exhibition.
It is an exhibition where you have to ask yourself what
is the meaning behind it all, where a first impression may be altered on a
closer look. You might see reflections which remind you of normal human
problems, the society and even the Vietnam War.
It can be visited at the art museum from Tuesday – Sunday from 9 a.m.
– 5 p.m. (closed on national holidays) until January 26, 2005.
Bali
Gina 12 years
“Get ready to paddle, paddle, paddle!” my dad said as
he stood in the water, while I was on the surfboard, with his face bright
pink. “What the hell! What do you mean?” I turned round and saw a
beautiful wave forming towards us, with white foam appearing on the blue
tips of the wave. Then a light push, I gained speed by paddling on the
surfboard. I heard my dad scream his head off.
“Stand up!” I grasped the surfboard and quickly stood
up, leaning forward making myself go at least 10 kph, damn! I could feel the
wax on my feet and could taste the salty water, let alone the rashes from
the board. I could feel the breeze touching my skin leaving goose bumps.
“Whooohhoooo” I heard my dad, again screaming his
head off, giving me a piece of his mind! I felt the sand touch my feet as I
stood up, doing my victory dance, making the busy Kuta Beach in Bali stare
at me!
“Watchal looking at?” I said in my mind as people
still looked at me. When I got out of the brownish blue sea, my feet started
to fry up in the sand. “Wonderful. Now I can film you,” my dad said as
he walked behind me, carrying the board up the white-sanded beach. Hopefully
I would be good enough, I mean I get nearly all the waves, but I’m too
slow.”
“Practice, my daughter, practice … Besides we have a
whole week left, maybe you would be as good as your brother, Louis,” my
dad said in full confidence. “Lets just get dried off and changed so we
could go to the ketchut dance.” “What Ketchut dance?” I asked. “You
will see, we are going to go with our friend Sadam!”
I could hear music in the distance as I sat on the rug,
on the sandy beach sipping coke. Suddenly, I heard slamming breaking, disco
music and a halt of an engine. Indian music came out of Sadam’s mouth and
made the birds fly out of their nest.
“What’s up lobster? How are you? Are you ready to go
to the ketchut dance?” Sadam said to my dad. “Yeah, can’t wait.” We
all said. “Lets get to it, it’s going to get dark soon.”
He walked back to his car, wearing his orange pineapple
shorts, bare footed, long hair dangling at his waste. He had five piercing,
one that made him look like a buffalo, and two on each of his ears. It
looked like we were taking a massive risk going to the dance with this man.
Doors slammed, disco music yanked on full blast and the
neon light turned on. We were off to the legendary dance. As Sadam put on
his straw hat, with a massive whole in the middle, his hair got more
control, battling in the wind.
Once we arrived on the top of the cliff, and in the
parking lot, my bum became numb and felt like a flat tire. When my mum on
the other hand walked out, she had her camera out on the ready to take the
usual family photos behind the temples, monkeys, flowers and the turquoise
sea, bashing against the cliff. When we arrived at the front desk, these men
put sarongs on us to show respect to the temple. As we got nearer we saw all
these monkeys eating berries and flies on the temple’s brick walls. We
handed our tickets to the man and walked to the amphitheater.
“Boooobbaaaddaaabbaa, shhhoobbaaddaabaa!” These men
were sitting in a circle, and in the middle were a lot of offerings and a
blazing fire. There was also a woman dancing. We got our seat along with a
sheet that included a guide on what the play was about. Suddenly a woman
with long hair that dragged off the floor came, giving us a fierce look.
Suddenly all these characters came in with b-e-a-utful masks with a lot of
different colors that blended in the background. All these characters
wearing these masks and costumes. Along with wind rushing into my face.
The preceding was a winning entry in the Chiangmai Mail “What did you
do on your holiday” contest.
Chiangmai Choral Society Christmas Concert
Variations on several themes
Santa’s
Little Helper
The Choral Society’s annual concert had to be moved to
the CMU auditorium due to insufficient space during the last couple of
years. However, even though the auditorium seats 400, there were still
people sitting in the aisles.
A Chiang
Mai Christmas, international song with local words by soloist Antoine Garth
and Scott Jones on the piano while the Choral Society and the audience join
in the refrains
The concert started very contemporary with slower numbers
such as ‘Every gift is Love’ and ‘Lo, Tiny Child’, but when Scott
Jones and Antoine Garth came on stage for the first time it became clear
that this was definitely not one of those concerts which you were dragged to
unwillingly in your childhood. The clear tenor of Antoine, combined with the
expertise of Scott on the piano, performing an 18th century English
traditional ‘God rest ye merry gentlemen’ made the audience want more.
The
babes in Toyland from the Aree School of Dance Arts.
Jinger Ben, sorry, ‘Jingle Bells’, ‘Christmas is’
and ‘Pine Cones and Holly Berries’ warmed the audience for the new
wording of ‘The 12 days of Christmas’, with lyrics created by Choral
Society President Becky Lomax and Frank Weicks.
Director
Rainy Riding had her ‘singing part’ as well during the Twelve Days of
Christmas, which was re-worded ‘Chiang Mai style’, including Panda
bears, tuk-tuks, buffaloes, soi dogs and the politician up a palm tree…
The ‘arranged confusion’ by Scott Jones and Richard
Dixon was perfectly confusing, and kept the crowd chuckling throughout the
song. Keeping to the variety, the next performance came from the Aree School
of Dance Arts, with the children trained beautifully by their teacher
Panyasiri Romyanontha.
Of course, there is no Christmas without Santa, and Santa
straight from a fairytale, ‘rolled’ in, and kept the audience chuckling
and clapping during the second half of the concert. It was also great to see
Cheri back in full force, looking sensational in any outfit, be it as a
singer, a grandma, or a reindeer.
Another amusing duet was presented by Scott and Antoine
with a parody on ‘Santa Claus is coming town’, with the words,
“You’d better watch out,
You’d better not cry,
You’d better not shout,
There’s no mai pen rai,
The minister is coming to town.” All very politically
incorrect, but very clever satire.
As part of the finale, president Becky Lomax gave a short
speech, saying, “What brings us together in the choral society is the love
of music, and our love of sharing that music. We have learned to listen to
each other sing, and to sing with one voice. If the nations of the world,
which are also many and of many faiths could learn this lesson, then surely
we could have ‘peace on earth, good will to men’.”
And with the real spirit of Christmas being very evident, Khun Waranan,
the past president of the choral society, who wished for peace on earth and
more understanding amongst each other, announced that the entire proceeds of
the concert were to be donated to the blind children of Baan Chulasai.
Asimo stomps into Chiang Mai
Coming for national Children’s Week
Autsadaporn
Kamthai
To celebrate national Children’s Day, Honda Thailand
plans to bring Asimo to entertain northern children during the ‘Asimo
Thailand Tour’ from January 7-9 at the Lanna Hall, Central Airport Plaza.
Honda plans to take the Asimo show to children in all
regions and Chiang Mai is set as the first leg for the show.
Pimporn
Siriwan from Honda Thailand hands an Asimo doll to Chuchoke Tongtaluang,
head of Chiang Mai Provincial Public Relations Office.
Honda engineering spent 14 years designing Asimo, the
most human-like robot. Asimo (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility) was the
final result and was first introduced in Japan in 2000. What differentiates
Asimo from walking toys is that Asimo can get up from lying down.
Asimo first came to Thailand in 2002 and received warm
welcome from Thai children, and both Asimo and the children are looking
forward to his return.
The show will demonstrate Asimo’s human-like walking
and movement; his interaction with people, such as remembering human faces
and imitating human actions. The show will take 45 minutes and up to 2,000
people can watch each show. It is hoped that the show will inspire
children’s interest in technology.
Honda, in conjunction with Education Mall is arranging an
essay and public speaking competition called “Welcome ASIMO to Chiang
Mai”. The winner will give the welcome speech to Asimo at the first show
on January 7, 2005.
The show starts on January 7 with show times 11 a.m., 1
p.m., 2.30 p.m., 4 p.m., 5.30 p.m. and 7 p.m. The Asimo show is free of
charge for children and tickets can be reserved at 0-5322-5559 from December
18.
New stringed instruments a hit at Prem
David
Michaels
The stringed instrument program at the Prem Tinsulanonda
International School (Prem) is popular this year, with the purchase of new
violins and cellos for the Grade Four class, so that each student now has
his own instrument.
Pai
uses his bow carefully.
While all the students are accustomed to reading and
following musical notation after their study of the recorder in Grade 3,
only two students in the class have played a stringed instrument before.
The Grade Four class meets for two group sessions each
week. Ajarn Gillian takes them through warm-ups and practice. With a piano
accompaniment by Ajarn Nikki, the students learn new songs and refine old
ones. Ajarn Gillian said that the stringed instrument practice gives every
student the opportunity to be an active participant in music class on a
serious instrument, play in ensemble, and know what it is like to practice
and read notation. It makes them more confident about participation and
helps them appreciate what goes into music.
James is
totally focused as he learns a new score in his stringed instrument class at
Prem.
Prem can look forward to a stringed instrument performance from the young
musicians next term.
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