Episode 5 // Lunar New Year

This week's episode explores a variety of Lunar New Year festivities, including Tet (in Vietnam), Losar (in Tibet), Spring Festival (in China), Seollal (in Korea), and Tsagaan Sar (in Mongolia) -- featuring Chinese lute music from the acclaimed pipa player Wu Man, a film score by avant-garde/kosmiche German band Popol Vuh, a 5000-year-old circle-dance tradition from Korea, and some Mongolian throat-singing.

This week's episode also makes nods to the Shēngxiào's Year of the Horse. It's been difficult to trace the origins of the Shēngxiào (translated literally as 'birth likeness', sometimes known in English as the Chinese Zodiac), but groups of twelve animals began appearing in the Zhan Guo Period (Warring States Period), and a fixed list of twelve animals emerged by the Han Dynasty. Traditions related to associating birth years with the twelve zodiac signs were popularized during the North Zhou Dynasty (557-581 C.E.). Below is an image of Ai Wei Wei's 'Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads' exhibit -- based on traditional zodiac sculptures from the fountain clock of Yuan Ming Yuan (Old Summer Palace), before they were looted by the French and British in 1860 during the Second Opium War. (Image Source: Ding Musa at LACMA)




0:00:51 - psa: Noam Chomsky on community radio
0:01:37 - station id: Amy Goodman
0:01:52 - promo: Brother Brian's Bluegrass (radio show)
0:02:40 - Beach Fossils - 'The Horse'
0:05:26 - Yao Min & Yao Li - 'Gong Xi, Gong Xi (Congratulations)'
0:08:21 - Popol Vuh - 'Kailash' (film score)
0:0":""' - talking: on Losar (Tibetan Lunar New Year), pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, [1], [2]
0:12:57 - Traditional (Smithsonian Folkways) - 'Dropa (Two Shepherd Songs)'
0:15:01 - Techung - 'Losar'
0:20:03 - promo: CFRC Funding Drive Poetry Event
0:20:34 - promo: CFRC Funding Drive Teaser
0:21:08 - Doan Ca Hue - 'Long Ngam (Dragon Recitation)'
0:23:04 - Dinh Dung, Thu Hang, Doan Ca Kich Hue - 'Ho Gia Gao (Chant of Pounding Rice)'
0:27:54 - Doan Ca Kich Hue, Hien Luong - 'Doan Xuan (Spring Unity)'
0:29:00 - Popol Vuh - 'Kailash' (film score)
0:"":""' - talking: on Tet (Vietnamnese Lunar New Year), pipa player Wu Man
0:31:49 - Wu Man - 'White Snow in a Sunny Spring'
0:35:08 - The Shins - 'Mine's Not a High Horse'
0:38:28 - The Heliocentrics & Mulatu Astatke - 'Chinese New Year'
0:42:15 - St. Vincent - 'Year of the Tiger'
0:45:43 - Popol Vuh - 'Kailash' (film score)
0:"":""' - talking: on Chinese zodiac, Jim Jarmusch's documentary on Neil Young, tweets by @horse_ebooks, [3], [4]
0:48:36 - Sufjan Stevens - 'Year of the Horse'
1:01:50 - ad: reelout queer film festival
1:02:50 - station id: Yo La Tengo
1:03:00 - psa: media co-op
1:03:30 - Okkyung Lee - 'One Hundred Years Old Rain (The Same River Twice)'
1:09:40 - Kuktan Arirang - 'Kang-Kang-Soo-Wol-Nae'
1:12:51 - Popol Vuh - 'Kailash' (film score)
1:"":"" - talking: on Seollal (Korean Lunar New Year), tteokguk tradition, [5]
1:14:59 - MeryMos - '까치까치설날은 (Korean New Year's Day Song)'
1:16:01 - Baterdene & Khongorzul - 'The River Herlen' (Mongolian long song)
1:20:01 - Popol Vuh - 'Kailash' (film score)
1:"":""' - talking: on Tsagaan Sar (Mongolian Lunar New Year), Mongolian long song and throat singing (overtone singing), [6], [7]
1:21:59 - White Moon - 'Altain Magtaal' (Mongolian throat singing)
1:26:05 - Timbre Timbre - 'Beat the Dead Horse'
1:30:58 - Bishop Allen - 'Dimmer'

"We are born at a given moment, in a given place and, like vintage years of wine, we have the qualities of the year and of the season of which we are born. Astrology does not lay claim to anything more." - Carl Jung

Further Info:
[1] 'Wheel of Time' by Werner Herzog (documentary film)
[2] 'Kailash: Pilgrimage to the Throne of Gods' by Florian Fricke (film art)
[3] Jim Jarmusch talking to Neil Young about the Bible (video clip)
[4] The Now Defunct @horse_ebooks (twitter page)
[5] Vegan Tteokguk Recipe (recipe)
[6] Mongolian Long Song (wikipedia article)
[7] Mongolian Throat Singing (Overtone Singing) (wikipedia article)