Pan-Asia Fortune Cookie Festival

By Wendy Wang (Age 14), Edward Wang (Age 8), Tom Yang (Age 13)

Nagata Sachu – Drum Performance

Boom! Boom! Boom! The Japanese Taiko drum ensemble, Nagata Sachu, was drumming at the West Jet Stage. We sat amongst the crowded audience and enjoyed the performance. We heard the drummers hitting the drums with wooden sticks as soon as we walked near to the West Jet Stage. It was such a loud sound! Each piece of music was better than the one before.

Most of their songs were imitations of nature, such as horses in the springtime. We could hear the horses' hoof beats as they raced across the meadow. During the song "Echoes of the Heart", we heard a steady heartbeat amidst the melody.

The name Nagata Sachu was taken from its leader, Kiyoshi Nagata, and sachu, an old Japanese term for "group". Nagata has been Taiko drumming for 31 years, ever since he was inspired at 12 years old.

"Our group started in 1998 and has been performing across Canada, United States and Europe for almost 15 years. In fact, we'll be celebrating our 15th anniversary with a concert this coming November," he said.

Taiko drumming may not look that complicated, but it is much harder than it looks. 

"We are constantly practicing and preparing. In the beginning, it was hard to memorize all the beats while listening to each drummer's part in a song. Not only that, there is also physical strain, such as muscle strain and back pain. Our last song imitated fishermen reeling in their catch and there was good reason for it to be the last song we played. We were more or less worn out after that song." Nagata said before adding, “That's why we always stretch before playing!"

He just loves making music. The hard work paid off, as Nagata mentioned, the feeling when he performs is so hard to put into words. It goes somewhere along the lines of exhilarating, satisfying and fun. He wasn't the only person that thought it was fun, Tricia Evelya, an audience member who was sitting beside us was impressed with the drummers' power and strength.  

"What a wonderful performance! I like how the drummers play together in sync and how they explained the meaning of each song."

The drums came in all shapes and sizes, from the size of a plate to the size a flat-screen TV! All their recording, equipment and costumes were made in Japan. They also teach Taiko drumming in Scarborough for all skill levels.

"It would be cool to see a gong next time, but until then and I want to say a big thank you to Nagata Sachu," Evelya said.

Tea Dyeing Workshop

Next, the crew learned about dyeing fabrics using a natural process. Our instructor, Debbie Arruda, who studied textile design, gave us a peek into the world of tea dyeing. 

"The fun thing about tea dyeing is that it is an adventure. You never know how it will turn out and each time it will create something new,” Debbie said.  “Best of all, it's easy, something you can do at home within a few hours."

Here are the basic steps to tea dye: 

1. First, you make tea. Put a couple tea bags into boiling water; wait until the water gets dark, in tea colour. 
   
   
2. Then, you dip your white fabric into it. You can also test out many different methods. For example, bounding the cloth tightly with string before dipping in the dye, dipping some parts longer than others or just dunking it in!
   
   
3. Experiment with it and have fun. 

Shadow Puppet

Soon after, we participated in a form of storytelling that originated in Southeast Asia. 


It was invented by an emperor in Han Dynasty who was trying to remember his lover. The traditional puppets were made of leather. Our puppets were made out of black construction paper and wooden sticks. 

Our instructor, Alexandra Iglesias, is a visual arts teacher. She was the one, who explained all that we need to know about making shadow puppets.

We liked shadow puppets very much.

White Jade

After we finished, we ran to the WestJet stage for our last event for the evening.  But we found out that White Jade, the band we were expecting to watch, wasn't there. There was a notice saying that it has been transferred to the Redpath Stage. We moved fast to the Redpath Stage. We arrived right before the show start. 

White Jade is a unique Chinese band from Shanghai. The band is based in Shanghai and contains 8 members and this was their first trip to Canada and we think they made a great impression. Dressed in unusual yet fashionable black and white outfits, this band pulled off a new trend of music. They combined electronic rhythms with traditional instruments, such as the Pipa (Chinese lute), Guzheng (Chinese zither), Erhu (Chinese violin) and Dizi (Chinese flute). 

The performance lasted half an hour; they managed to play so many songs.  When it was time to interview, we rushed and chased down the band members. We were lucky that we caught them when they were hanging out outside the clubhouse. We got to interview the lead of the band, Tao Ye. 

“When did you start to play the lute?" we asked.

“I've been playing since I was 10," said Tao Ye. "I soon grew in love with the instrument and music. My dad is also a flute player. I saw him play all the time. He inspired me," said Tao Ye.

When we asked him what was his favourite part about performing. He said, “We love interacting with the audience!" 

That is true because they even came down from the stage and danced with the audience! After playing a remix of the popular Chinese song "Mo Li Hua", the band managed to execute a cover of the songs "Move Like Jagger" and "Oppa Gangnam Style".  Lots of people started dancing wildly during these popular songs.  

Tao also mentioned that Sunday at the Harbourfront was the last performance for the band in Canada. They will move on to tour Europe next. He says he hopes to come back to Canada again. If you ever see them perform in Canada again, listen to their performance and they will get your ears very satisfied!


We were really amazed at how they performed. It was great music! If anyone told us to rate them, we would give it a ten out of five! We even got a souvenir from them, which was a cute panda hat.  

From our missing member
By Angela Zhao (Age 12)


Voice K’s summer camp and members gathered enthusiastically at Harbourfront for the Fortune Cookie Festival. I wish I was there, but I couldn’t make it.  Though I was lucky that on Monday, my friends from the camp told me about the trip and showed me pictures of the all the events. 


I was introduced to the shadow puppets. The history of shadow puppets is very romantic. It all started in China by a king, who tried to make a shadow puppet for his lover. The other campers showed me the Shadow puppets that they made. Edward made a dinosaur, Tom made a fish and Wendy made a horse. 


If I was there, I would enjoy all of the events, but mostly the tea dying because it sounded like fun. The idea of dipping a fabric and making a pattern is very interesting.  

Voice K’s trip to TIFF Bell Lightbox

By: Voice K Future Journalist Summer Camp Program
Marshal Wang (Age 8), Matthew Zhang (Age 10), Amelie Zhou (Age 9), Michelle Zhou (Age 9), Davin Ma (Age 10)

The Toronto International Film Festival is one of the Canada’s most famous film festivals.On Friday, July 26th, 2013, a bunch of journalists from Voice K visited TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto, the home of TIFF.

We started our fantastic journey with Marcia Doyle, who was our tour guide for the day. She introduced herself and told us about the history of TIFF. TIFF started in 1976. It was founded by Bill Marshall, Henk Van der Kolk and Dusty Cohl, who dedicated their lives to the film industry. It used to be called The Festival of Festivals. The TIFF center sits in a unique place called TIFF Bell Lightbox, located on the corner of King and John Street in Downtown Toronto. This building was created like its name. There are two main design themes: light and shadow, and boxes within boxes. Everything you see either has light on it or a shadow to cover it. If you look at the wall and framing of the building, there are boxes everywhere.

Doyle pointed to the red box upstairs. She said, “There is one up there. It controls the TIFF Lightbox.” 


Special compliments went to the Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg (KPMB) Architects, who built this building. The architects wanted to create a building full of energy and imagination. We think they reached their goal. 

On our tour, Doyle told us that, “The floor is tiled with black slate and during events, they would place a red carpet on the floor to welcome visitors & celebrities. The escalator is also painted red to match the carpet.” 


We then visited the building’s second floor. While we were walking, Doyle explained that there were five cinemas. We first thought that Cinema 1 is smallest and Cinema 5 is biggest. However, it was the opposite .We visited all of the cinemas except Cinema 4 and 1. 

We also had the chance to go inside the Bell Blue Room, which was a lounge area used primarily by TIFF members. It was a luxurious living area that was facing the CN Tower. There, we had a great time interviewing the staff, who were Jane Schoettle (International Programmer, TIFF) and Magali Simard (Manager, Film Programmes, TIFF). 

“What do you do for your job?” we asked. Then, Schoettle said, “Our job is to select films.” Does that mean they watch movies every day? That sounds like a fun job!


We were informed that there are four major festivals that TIFF runs each year: Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF Kids International Film Festival, Canada’s Top Ten and TIFF Next Wave Film Festival. 

When our journalist Amelie asked, “How much time do you and other staff spend on organizing the Festival?” Schoettle answered, “Different from different people. People like myself spend 6 months, some 10 months, some 1 year. It all depends.”

“How was last year’s Festival different from this one?” we asked. 

“It’s always different each year. We are trying to make it better and broader each year. We are trying to get people like you to come.” Simard said. 

When we asked how many stars have they invited for this year, Simard said they are still working on the numbers, but she also remind us that some really good films don’t have stars and some films have stars that we are not familiar with. We just need to keep an eye on the website for information. 

“How do you get movie stars to come to the Festival?” was our last question. 

“We don’t invite individually,” was the response from Simard. “We show films that are really good. We ask them, ‘Do you want to be here when we show the film you’re in?’ and they either say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.” 

We also learned from them that sometimes it could take people up to three years to make a long movie and it could take 8 months to make a short movie. 

Lastly, we watched a film in cinema 5, the tiny theatre. We watched short films made by TIFF’s “Animation + Awesome” summer camp students. After that, we were lucky to have Theo and Maeve, students from the camp, to interview. 

We were curious about the film making process, so we asked, “How do you make a film?’’ 

One of them said, “We worked with animating clay and took a lot of still pictures for each movement. Then we put them together using the computer editing program.”


Voice K had great time at TIFF Bell Lightbox. If you ever visit, you’re bound to have a lot of fun too!

GAME ON 2.0 Exhibition at Ontario Science Centre

By Edward Wang (Age 8), Grace Zhang (Age 12) , Daniel Zheng (Age 10) 

On June 9th, we (Edward, Daniel and Grace) went to an exhibition called “Game On 2.0.” It was hosted at the Ontario Science Centre. We had an amazing time and learned a lot about the current gaming industry, as well as the history of gaming. Why don’t you take the tour with us?

Virtusphere
By Grace Zhang (Age 12)

Step into the sphere, put on the headset, grab a gun and shoot! The virtusphere allows gamers to step into their own virtual universe, with hardly any limitations at all. Players can move freely within the 10-foot hollow sphere and examine their environments. The game is shown on a screen in front of your eyes through a head-mounted display, behind the headset.

The virtusphere is predicted to have a huge impact on the next generation of gaming, bringing virtual reality/ stimulation games more into focus. My personal experience with this new way of gaming was exhilarating. As I slipped the headset over my eyes and took hold of the gun, I could feel myself being whisked away to another dimension; the dimension where games came alive. I gripped the gun tightly, and took my first step forward. The sphere rotated and I saw myself become one with my character. When an enemy appeared, I shot at nothing in reality, but killed monsters in this other dimension.

When my turn was over after eight minutes, I returned to reality, where monsters didn't exist, where you couldn't grab a gun and shoot randomly. It was truly an amazing experience. Perhaps there will be something else superior to the virtusphere in the near future, but for now, gamers will be thrilled with this technology. All in all, I would rate this platform 8.5 out of 10, as the program does tend to lag and is slow to respond. This is due to the fact that it is a prototype and has ample amount of opportunities to be refine.

Johann Sebastian Joust

By Daniel Zheng (Age 10 )

Later, we tried out another activity called Joust. You might have thought that we were riding on horses and holding huge lances, but we didn't. It was a game that requires you to move with the music and try to get other people out of the game by knocking over their motion controllers. We all tried to win, but it was really hard, because if you moved faster than the music rhythm  or tilt your controller, you lost a life. Every player gets three lives in the game. Then we interviewed two hosts working at the exhibition, Kira and Mariam. 

"Jousting was actually originally played with knights, horses and a lance. The rules were that two knights rode on a horse on either side of a fence and you had to knock the other knight off their horse on your side of the fence! Of course, we can't play the original Jousting!" said Mariam with a chuckle. 

“Jousting is interesting because it doesn't require a TV or a PlayStation to play,” said Kira. “I think interactive games are gaining more popularity among people and it is a great way to get adults moving and having fun too!” 

Then it was free time, and we all played the games that we wanted to play all morning. 

***
Our Summary 
by Grace Zhang (age 12)

Perhaps older folk still remember some of the very earliest games in history, like Pong, PAC-Man and Donkey Kong. These games, despite being simple and repetitive, were the starting points for the gaming industry. 

But where would they be without the consoles? Game On 2.0 featured some of the oldest computers and consoles, including Capcom, Apple, Sony, Sega and much more. We asked the crowd what they liked best about this exhibition and what improvements needed to be made. “It’s nice how people who love games and just technology in general can come together like this,” said Steve Waters, a parent at the exhibition. “But some of the older games are prone to breaking.”

The Waters loved the PAC-man, Pinball and Street Fighters. 

This exhibition also provided some information about upcoming platforms, like the new Xbox One and the PlayStation4. The rumour says that the new PlayStation will support used games and run more smoothly than before. The Xbox One has returned to the form of the first generation; a huge, bulky rectangle. It is quite literally a monster of a platform, very heavy and big in size. As for Nintendo, nothing new has been going on with them, except for the WiiU. They have some catching up to do!    

The day was a very eventful and exciting experience for the three of us. We hope to be able to visit another exhibition like this one soon!

By: Selena Zhou

No wonder kids cannot wait to go to the Harbourfront Kids’ Toronto International Circus Festival! It’s absolutely entertaining with the Zero Gravity Circus, individual street performers, a face painting booth and much more! These activities provided kids with the opportunity to engage their critical thinking and creativity skills. The wonderful snacks gave kids like me the energy to do activities at the circus.

Even the adults were having fun! Let’s see what Ralia and Ilkka, two grandparents at the Zero Gravity Circus had to say.

“I love when the acrobats danced on two ribbons,” Ralia said. However, Ilkka seemed to like the hoops better. “My favourite is when the acrobats dangle from the hula hoops,” said Ilkka.

We also had a chance to interview Svava Stefanson, the general manager of Zero Gravity Circus. She oversees and manages everything in the circus. One of Stefanson’s main goals is to travel around the world to help others.

“My husband was a juggler in the circus. He inspired me to work at the circus,” said Stefanson. “My favorite part of the circus is when I see new skills being developed.”

Later, we had the opportunity to talk to Katherine Sanders, the artistic associate of the Harbourfront Festival.

 “This festival was started by the Zero Gravity Circus 11 years ago,” said Sanders. “About six years ago, we started to work collaboratively at the Harbourfront.” 

Sanders introduced us to three performers from the Zero Gravity Circus. They were Ginger, Alice and Mad Hatter. When we asked how long they have been performing:

“I have been performing for about 10 years,” said Ginger. 

“I’ve been dancing since I was three and I started performing at the circus since I was 12,” said Alice. 

“I’ve been performing longer than most of you have been alive!” joked the Mad Hatter. “But, this is my first year performing with the circus.”  

“We are not nervous during the shows since we practice a lot, but we are nervous around young journalists!” the Mad Hatter said with a laugh. It seemed to me that they enjoy what they do a lot. 

Adults and kids enjoyed all the fun at the circus! Trained performers worked hard to entertain visitors and provide opportunities to showcase many different forms of art. It’s an honour to join the fun at the Toronto International Circus Festival - it’s a wonderful and entertaining place to go!