♪♪
-Hi, and welcome to the show. I'm Nancy Guppy,
coming to you from a marvelous exhibit
at the Wing Luke Museum titled,
"Side by Side, Nihonmachi Scenes"
by Tokita, Nomura, and Fujii.
♪♪
In the decade before World War Two,
three Issei artists flourished
in Seattle's thriving Nihonmachi, or Japantown.
♪♪
Kenjiro Nomura,
Takuochi Fujii,
and Kamekichi Tokita
received widespread recognition and praise for their paintings,
which provide an intimate view of what the streets,
alleys, storefronts, and houses of their community
look like before the war
and before the mass incarceration
of Japanese American citizens
that changed the face of the neighborhood forever.
♪♪
In America's post-war years,
as the Japanese community struggled
to rebuild their lives,
Tokita, Nomura and Fujii fell into obscurity.
♪♪
But recently, their life stories
and artistic achievements
have been brought back to light.
"Side by Side", the largest exhibition ever
of their paintings from the 1930s,
is a beautiful acknowledgment of the immense skill and talent
of these three important artists.
♪♪
"Side by Side, Nihonmachi Scenes"
by Tokita, Nomura and Fujii
runs now through May 11th, 2025.
Hours and location are at wingluke.org.
♪♪
We've got a great lineup for you, including...
-So when I was ten years old,
my mom bought me a drum set for Christmas.
-Drummer Ehssan Karimi.
♪♪
New work from Cornish Dance Theater students.
♪♪
And music from K Van Petten.
-♪ I need a minute ♪
♪ Or a million ♪
-And we'll begin with Joe Nix,
a wonderful artist whose paintings and murals
reflect his deep respect for the blue collar history
of the Pacific Northwest.
[ Pinball machine clatters ]
-Pinball went from a therapeutic thing
to now I still play, but like, I can't escape pinball.
It's like always there for me.
It's like one of my favorite things.
Not to mention, every pinball game is a work of art.
They're made by artists.
Pinball rules over video games any day.
You know, I'm also a painter and an artist that plays pinball
And likes to ride mopeds to where the pinball is...
after I've been painting all day.
How's that?
♪♪
I grew up around a lot of industrial Seattle areas --
like, my father was a engineer at Boeing
and was also a Foss tugboat owner in his spare time,
like working on giant motors,
which kind of made me gravitate towards a love of machinery
and how things work.
♪♪
It's crazy. You look at a carburetor or a car motor
or any type of motor and you're like,
"How does all this work?"
When I started getting into moped motors,
I'm taking apart these motors myself,
and I'm learning how combustion and ignition
and electricity and fuel
and all this stuff comes together to work.
There's also just the aspect of like,
hard objects and like how the light hits them.
♪♪
I like to photograph a lot with my phone or with my camera.
If I'm inspired, I'll photograph like what's around me,
which is mostly hard, shiny surfaces
or different types of machine parts.
So I'll just make a collage
and then I'll paint in the collage.
I'll add different elements of painting
and abstract and graphic design.
♪♪
Sketch it out on the paper, slowly and confidently,
and then I just leave sketching very minimal,
just to put the shapes up,
then I just stare at my design while I paint.
It's 2024. I'm not trying to like,
you know, hide my art secrets.
I think that like any technology that's out
should be utilized.
The murals are something I've been doing for a long time,
like 20 years at least now,
and it's almost the same exact process as my canvases.
You know, obviously murals are huge.
[ Lift whirring ]
So you have to deal with, like a lift and permits.
You're gonna get hit with weather.
[ Spraying sounds ]
[ Can rattling ]
I plan out the colors strategically.
So, you know, when I go to pick paint,
it's kind of all in front of me.
And I know the process so well of like
how to get colors on the wall to complement each other
and give the artwork depth.
Whether you're getting paid a lot or a little,
like, you want your mural to last throughout time, you know?
You bless the wall with your art.
You want it to last as long as possible.
♪♪
Jupiter has like a little bit of everything.
There's tons of awesome people, fun games to play.
There's over 50 games.
The idea behind it in the beginning was like,
it's definitely an art bar first and foremost.
Like the arcade itself has eight murals.
Every mural in this place is amazing,
because it's done by people that are passionate,
that are professional artists, that we've all known each other forever.
♪♪
Belltown's super important to my growth as an artist.
I didn't know I was an artist until I got to Belltown
and was around that.
And so I-I owe like a lot to that neighborhood.
It's tragic what's happened down in Belltown,
because they've allowed all of our institutions
to just be leveled.
All the community that's left just gravitated
towards new spots.
And that's what's kind of crazy about me owning Jupiter
is like...
it's the continuation of that part of Belltown,
which is artwork and music and community.
And so that's why Jupiter is so important.
♪♪
Painting art definitely helps me to stay grounded,
keeps me going, it makes me happy.
I'm not doing this to be cool or somebody.
It's more like I just do it because I have to.
♪♪
I think it's important to have art
because it gives you a choice to have a feeling about something.
You look at a blank wall or an ad or something,
you don't have a choice.
Art is beautiful because it gives you a choice
to feel something and have an opinion about it.
♪♪
-Keep up with Joe at joenix.net
and learn more about his establishment,
Jupiter Bar at jupiterbarseattle.com.
Cornish College of the Arts has been graduating
accomplished dancers
since its founding in 1914.
Well, here is a behind-the-scenes peek
at an upcoming student performance,
led by two excellent Cornish choreographers,
Tanya Lockyer and Heather Kravis.
-We are in the Ninth Avenue Gallery
of Cornish College for the Arts,
where we're gonna be doing something
a little different this year.
Instead of doing a performance
on a proscenium stage,
we're inviting the audience into
a gallery situation
to look at dance in some new ways.
♪♪
Cornish Dance Theater is really an opportunity
for Cornish students to get to practise performance,
and I can't think of a kind of more rigorous,
challenging opportunity to explore performance
than being in an intimate setting
when your audience might just be like a few inches from you.
They can actually take in each dancer.
They can take in their movement, they can look closely,
they can linger as long as they want.
So, we get to play with time really differently.
We get to play with space really differently.
We get to play with our relationship with the audience
really differently.
♪♪
We're not gonna pretend that the audience isn't there.
If we're about to move and barrel into an audience member,
we're gonna look at them, one human being to another
and just have an interaction.
♪♪
Doesn't exaggerated look kind of great?
So everyone on this piece are Cornish dance students.
Some of them are first year,
some of them are in their senior year.
So they're at really different parts of their journey.
Part of what I just find so beautiful working with dancers
is each person is their own life force.
They have their own history.
There are different things that make them
just beautiful or captivating.
Good, awesome.
They have solos that they do against the wall
that they've each really made and -- and choreographed,
and I've helped them shape it.
Other sections are improvised in real time,
and there's other things that are super set.
So, there are many different approaches.
But absolutely,
these young dance makers are a significant part of creating it.
And the audience is going to be a significant part
of what unfolds.
♪♪
Again. Remember how we said
everyone loves counting -- we're doing the count,
and now you'll come over here.
-Tanya Lockyer is running first,
so there's a little bit of like a kind of pause,
but there's a pause with dancing still happening in it,
where we can think of it as like a crossfade.
Like my performance kind of comes in towards
the very end of hers.
♪♪
And I believe that the audience
will be more instructed, like,
"Will you please sit over in this area and watch from here?"
So a little less free range and a little more bossy.
[ Chuckles ]
I think that looks great.
For me, it's been an education
to work with these students.
They're teaching me every day,
and they're teaching me about what
this particular dance wants to be.
♪♪
A lot of the material is very orchestrated with
steps that I'm creating,
and they are doing beautifully.
And the other part, I'm giving them more scenarios,
and they are filling out those scenarios with their own bodies
and their own ideas.
But in both cases,
it is a collaboration
and I'm really excited to see what they're
able to do with the material with a public.
Yeah, there you go.
♪♪
-"Cornish Dance Theater,
An Exploration of Movement and Energy",
plays at the Cornish 9th Avenue Gallery,
November 22nd, 23rd and 24th.
For more information, including how to get tickets,
go to cornish.edu.
♪♪
Drummers are exciting.
Think John Bonham,
Elvin Jones and Stewart Copeland,
to name just a few.
Well, Seattle is no slouch in the drumming department
and one of our in-demand greats is a Ehssan Karimi.
-Do it again, but just look at --
you can look straight at the camera lens
and just say something like,
"This is -- this is punk rock."
-Okay, sure. -Or something like that.
Just announce it. -Another click?
-Uh, no, I got it. We're just gonna keep rolling
till we're synced up. And go ahead.
-This is punk rock.
♪♪
I grew up in Lynnwood and Edmonds,
like 20 minutes north of Seattle in the suburbs.
There was a lot of music, um...
I remember being obsessed with Raffi when I was a little kid.
You know, like the sing-alongs and nursery rhymes
and, uh, pretending to play guitar
and singing and stuff like that.
-♪ Beluga, is your mama home with you? ♪
♪ So happy ♪
-So I believe the medical term for what I was born with
is bilateral equinovarus talipes,
or otherwise known as clubfeet.
But basically the skeletal structure
and the muscular structure and the tendons,
ligaments and all that from the knees down are twisted.
And I had a bunch of surgeries before I was even one.
I was in casts.
And I managed to escape from those casts,
and the doctors called me Houdini Karimi,
which is kind of funny.
A lot of things came later in life for me,
you know, riding a bike or swimming
'cause I had another round of surgeries
when I was six years old,
so that's like first grade.
So I was missing a ton of school.
I was in the hospital
and, uh, in a wheelchair,
and I had to go through the process of relearning
how to walk.
I was held back in the physical world,
but I was -- I was developing up here in my mind,
and I have a big imagination
when I was a kid, and I was very creative.
So when I was ten years old,
my mom bought me a drum set for Christmas,
and it was probably still the coolest thing
that anyone's ever done for me.
♪♪
My mom and my jazz band teacher both
encouraged me to audition for Berklee College of Music
when I was a senior,
and I kind of begrudgingly did.
I was like, "Fine, I'll do it for you guys", you know?
So it was the only college I applied to,
and I got a full ride, a full tuition scholarship,
which was pretty amazing.
And it just kind of reinforced my, like,
drive that this was what I was supposed to do.
♪♪
So, you know, with drumming,
you're using all your limbs,
and lots of different things are happening at different times,
and you got to keep it all. in time.
For instance...
we'll start with the kick drum,
and then we'll add to it, so...
♪♪
When I got back home after Berklee,
I came back to Seattle and heard that
the Sea Monster was the place to go check out live music.
♪♪
I was hooked, and I was like, "I want to get into this scene.
I want to get to know these people."
One thing leads to another, and then eventually
there's an opportunity to do a tour.
♪♪
A friend of mine showed me a YouTube video.
And I'd never seen anything like this before.
This guy playing, like, this metal-looking,
UFO-looking thing that just sounded amazing.
♪♪
The Hang drum is a steel drum, essentially,
that you play with your hands rather than
with sticks or mallets.
The first one that I got the scale would be D, A,
B flat, C, D, E, F, A.
So, two octaves -- I think only six different notes.
With the Hang pan, it's like a less-is-more kind of thing,
and a lot of creativity can come from that.
♪♪
So the thing about this career
is that there are no guarantees ever.
And a lot of unexpected stuff tends to come up.
So, for example, this past summer
I had my whole summer planned, had it all booked,
you know, I manage myself, so I, you know, did all this booking,
and, um, had all my gigs lined up.
And then a really good friend of mine, Thaddeus Turner,
who I met at Sea Monster Lounge,
he's the musical director for Digable Planets.
He called me up and was just like, "Hey, do you want the gig?"
And...[laughs]...
And I was just like, "Um, yeah, that sounds awesome."
I didn't start playing drums to get rich and famous, you know?
The most important thing is to be happy no matter what.
♪♪
-Follow Ehssan on Instagram
and catch him live with his band, McTuff,
at the Fiddlers Inn on Thursday, November 21st.
♪♪
K Van Petten is a lovely performer
with a calm and reassuring presence.
Here is K performing their original song,
"Little Millions",
from the stage of Conor Byrne.
♪♪
-♪ I need a minute ♪
♪ Or a million ♪
♪ Just to sit here ♪
♪ A civilian to win things that I know ♪
♪ Aren't good for me ♪
♪♪
♪ Just to see if it changes anything ♪
♪♪
♪ Everyone here is somewhere else ♪
♪ They're pulling on the threads ♪
♪ Trying to love themselves ♪
♪ Countdown youth for a working girl ♪
♪ Singing to herself in a quiet world ♪
♪ Hey ♪
♪ Ah, ah, ahhhh ♪
♪ Ah, ah, ahhhhh ♪
♪ I need a minute ♪
♪ Or tomorrow ♪
♪ Just to sit here in my sorrow ♪
♪ I have this dream where I try and know you ♪
♪ Which resurrected ♪
♪ Like the lightning ♪
♪ Everyone here is somewhere else ♪
♪ They're banking on a frame to sell themselves ♪
♪ An angle or phrase or a point of view ♪
♪ A comic of a life that belongs to who? ♪
♪ Ah ah, ahhhh ♪
♪ Ah, ah, ahhhh ♪
♪ Hear it calling out against the wind ♪
♪ Corner of the light and on your knees ♪
♪ Know that it's the love you're feeling ♪
♪ Coming towards the end of what I'm saying ♪
♪ I need a minute ♪
♪♪
I need a minute.
♪♪
♪ Hey ♪
♪ Everyone here is somewhere else ♪
♪ They're banking on a frame to sell themselves ♪
♪ An angle or a phrase or a point of view ♪
♪ A comic of a life that belongs to who? ♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
Thank you so much.
-Follow K on Instagram and on their website,
kvanpetten.com
And that's a wrap. Thanks so much
to Wing Luke Museum and curator Barbara Johns for hosting us.
And a reminder that "Side by Side,
Nihonmachi Scenes" by Tokita, Nomura and Fujii
runs now through May 2025.
And thanks to you for tuning in.
Until next time, we encourage you to get out there,
try something new and experience the awesome power of art.
We'll see you soon.
-Take one. I'm pretty comfortable
playing most styles of music.
I kind of started with the --
the rock, punk rock.
♪♪
But then I started getting into funk
and like, discovered James Brown, like funk drumming.
And I was like, "Oh, this is like, this is really cool."
♪♪
And then started delving into jazz.
♪♪
And, um, prog rock, like more like metal drumming,
like double bass.
♪♪
And then at Berkeley,
I kind of focused more on, like, Latin styles.
♪♪
And Afro-Cuban.
♪♪
But yeah, pretty comfortable playing most styles of music.
Yeah.
♪♪
-In the decade before World War Two,
three Issei artists flourished in Seattle's
thriving Nihonmachi, or Japantown --
Kenjiro Nomura,
Takuichi Fujii,
and Kamekichi Tokita
received widespread recognition and praise for their paintings,
which provide an intimate view of what the streets,
alleys, storefronts, and houses of their community
look like before the war
and before the mass incarceration
of Japanese-American citizens
that changed the face of the neighborhood forever.
♪♪
In America's post-war years,
as the Japanese community struggled
to rebuild their lives,
Tokita, Nomura, and Fujii fell into obscurity.
But recently, their life stories and artistic achievements
have been brought back to light.
"Side by Side", the largest exhibition ever
of their paintings from the 1930s,
is a beautiful acknowledgment of the immense skill and talent
of these three important artists.
♪♪
"Side by Side, Nihonmochi Scenes"
by Tokita, Nomura and Fujii
runs now through May 11th, 2025.
Hours and location are at wingluke.org.
♪♪
Catch "Artzone" Friday nights at eight and anytime online
at SeattleChannel.org/Artzone.
♪♪