{"article":{"id":147387,"heading":"Jim Berenholtz, renaissance man","author":"small WORLD Podcast","created":"2006-02-16 09:52:21","modified":"2013-11-11 00:38:18","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 07:38:18","article":"<p>Interview with Jim Berenholtz. We discuss what events in his childhood led to all his adventures; the impact of growing up in New York City; what inspired him to be creative in so many different artforms; his fascination with creating mandalas and how they come into play in other areas of his art; mandalas as a form of therapy; the challenges of weaving classical and contemporary music styles of the Western world with ancient and native cultures together as a composer; the tuning system in gamelan orchestras and Indian classical music; microtonality; his opera Buffalo Nation; his current project, The First Light; addressing the dark history of America in his art; artist in Japan that address their nation&rsquo;s dark history; bhuto; why he wrote Buffalo Nation and the research involved; becoming friends with the grand niece of Sitting Bull; the Ghost Dance of 1890; how Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were depicted by the media much like Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden; tribes and cultures he identifies with; when he knew Buffalo Nation was complete; his musical, Songs of Forgotten Relatives; what distinguishes operas from musicals; George Gershwin&rsquo;s Porgy and Bess; rejecting labels; the inspiration for his ballet, Luna; scoring the music for the movie Lords of the Deep; composing the music for his double CD, The Psalms of Ra; what led him to work with the ancient traditions of Egypt; his book, Journey to the Four Directions, Eye of the Dragonfly and Shedding Skins, the Snake Odyssey; the Harmonic Convergence; burying 36 snake skins around the world at sacred sites; what it means to be a ceremonial artist; the role of the shaman; snake dancing; the dance of Shiva; how people respond to his snake dancing who are not familiar with the culture and traditions he is drawing upon; his relationship with his snakes; Kundalini; how he became a snake dancer. <br><br> Featured song is \"Song of Marawa\". <br><br> small WORLD Podcast web site <br>  <br> <a href=\"http:\/\/smallworldpodcast.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/smallworldpodcast.com<\/a> <br><br> small WORLD Podcast subscription - FREE <br>  <br> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/smallworld\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/smallworld<\/a><\/p>\n","contact":"smallworldpodcast@gmail.com","link":"http:\/\/www.smallworldpodcast.com","address":"","phone":"1-619-377-0538","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"image\/gif","summary":"Interview with Jim Berenholtz, peformance artist, composer, writer, ethnomusicologist, ceremonial artist, photographer, and world traveler.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2006\/02\/photo-jimberenholtz.gif","filesize":"4.9 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2006\/02\/147387.php","image":{"original":"\/uploads\/2006\/02\/photo-jimberenholtz.gif"}},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}