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Slug Parade, Santa Cruz, October 25 2015
The Slug Parade in downtown Santa Cruz celebrated 50 years of UCSC.
We wanted to acknowledge our strong ties with the University and
be part of the celebration.
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Cabrillo Festival, Santa Cruz, August 8 2015
It was great to be able to play the Cabrillo Festival in downtown Santa Cruz again
after a break of a few years. It's such an amazingly eclectic festival showcasing
the astonishing variety of local music we have here in Santa Cruz.
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UCSC Brain, Mind and Consciousness Symposium, Santa Cruz, May
9 2015
We were invited to play opening music for UCSC's Brain, Mind and Consciousness Symposium,
featuring world-renowned speakers, and held at UCSC's Porter College.
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Ksitigarbha Festival, Land of Medicine Buddha, Soquel,
August 24 2014
We were delighted to be invited to play for the Land of
Medicine Buddha's Ksitigarbha Festival, a smaller, lower-key
event than the main Festival Day. It was a beautiful setting,
in front of the beautiful golden statue of the bodhisattva
Ksitigarbha.
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Land of Medicine Buddha Festival Day, Soquel, June
28 2014
We've been playing the Land of Medicine Buddha's Festival Day every year
since 2006 - it's one of our favorite events of the whole year and we're
so thankful that they invite us back every year. We seem to have become
part of the tradition!
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Land of Medicine Buddha Festival Day, Soquel, June
29 2013
It is a joy and a privilege to be able to play for the
Land of Medicine Buddha's Festival Day each year. Here are
some pictures to give you a flavor of the event.
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Baroque Festival Garden Party, May 26 2013
We were delighted to be invited back to play the Santa
Cruz Baroque Festival's annual garden party, and to help
support this amazing organization. The party was held in
the beautiful tropical garden of the Baroque Festival's
Artistic Director, Professor Linda Burman-Hall. Just a reminder
that we are available to play parties and other events!
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Asian Heritage Street Festival, May 18 2013
We were invited by the Consulate General of the Republic
of Indonesia to represent Indonesia in the procession of
the Asian Heritage Street Festival in San Francisco. We
played beleganjur (processional gamelan), and were
joined by our dancer Ron Ortman, as well as Kadek Carter,
for the procession. We hadn't realized it was a judged competition,
and found out that evening that we had won first place for
best musical group!
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College of San Mateo, April 11 2013
Gede's wife Sarah organized this amazing event at the College
of San Mateo. We invited all the dancers for this one, which
included many dance pieces. Dancers included Ni Made Batelle
(shown here), I Made Suryasa, I Gede Oka Negara, Sarah Artha
Negara, Rhea Gowen and Ron Ortman.
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With Navicula at the Gilman, Berkeley, November 30
2012
The Balinese grunge band Navicula on their US tour invited
us to open for them at their show at the legendary Gilman
club in Berkeley. Many of us had seen shows at the Gilman
over the years, but never expected to be playing there!
This is probably the first gamelan performance ever at the
Gilman.
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Kecak! at the Museum of Art and History, November 17
2012
As an offshoot project from Gamelan Anak Swarasanti, several
of us performed a kecak or Monkey Chant performance
at the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz. It was definitely
an audience participation event, with everyone in the audience
invited to join in the chant, which tells the story of the
rescue of Sita, the wife of Rama, by Hanuman's army of monkeys.
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Land of Medicine Buddha Festival Day, Soquel, June
30 2012
Land of Medicine Buddha Festival Day is always one of our
favorite events of the year. There is such a variety of
amazing music and dance, in addition to it being such an
inspiring setting. Here are some photos from this year's
event.
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Livermore Civic Center Public Library, Livermore, July
6 2011
John Weaver at the Livermore Civic Center Public Library
arranged for us to come and play this special free performance
for the children enrolled in the Summer Reading Program,
where the youngsters learn about culture and music from
all over the world. We got some great questions from the
children, and at the end of the performance we invited them
to come up and try playing the instruments themselves.
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Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, June 11 2011
We were very excited to play again at the Asian Art Museum
in San Francisco as part of their big special exhibition
on Bali. This time we were given the whole afternoon to
give a performance and discussion of several styles of Balinese
gamelan: the shadow-puppet gender wayang, our usual
angklung orchestra, including sitting pieces and
dance pieces, and the processional gamelan beleganjur.
We also invited audience members to try playing for themselves
- it was a wonderful day.
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Baroque Festival Garden Party, Santa Cruz, May 29 2011
We were very happy to play again for the Santa Cruz Baroque
Festival Garden Party, which this year was also a benefit
for another great Santa Cruz institution, the Arboretum.
The theme of the event was "Flowers and Music of the
World", and we played in the stunningly beautiful setting
of the Eucalyptus Grove overlooking the Monterey Bay.
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Land of Medicine Buddha Festival Day, Soquel, May 22
2011
It's always a great honor and pleasure to play at Land
of Medicine Buddha. Again this year we were joined by dancer
Ron Ortman for a set in the lower area of the Land of Medicine
Buddha, before leading the procession carrying the great
Medicine Buddha thangka up the hill, where it is
unfurled between two redwood trees.
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Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, May 8 2011
We were delighted to be asked to be part of the special
exhibition on Bali running at the beautiful Asian Art Museum
in San Francisco, showcasing the music, art and culture
of Bali. We provided the gamelan music for the "Gods,
Goddesses and Gamelan" family festival for Mothers
Day. Lots of families were in attendance, with great interaction
and questions from audience members of all ages.
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Land of Medicine Buddha Festival Day, Soquel, June
5 2010
One of our very favourite events of the year is the Land
of Medicine Buddha Festival Day, where each year we lead
the procession carrying the great thankga. This year
we added a short gamelan performance to the program before
the procession, and we were honored to be joined by dancer
Ron Ortman who performed two traditional Balinese topeng
dances.
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Dharmagates, Santa Clara, March 29 2009
Dharmagates, an annual event held at the Santa Clara Convention
center, showcases art, music and culture from throughout
the Buddhist world. This year singers from Sri Lanka, dancers
from Burma, a 16-string zither orchestra from Vietnam, and
Kung Fu martial arts from the Shaolin Masters of China,
were presented together with Gamelan Anak Swarasanti representing
the Hindu-Buddhist culture of Indonesia.
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Sha Sha Higby - In a Cloud of Glass, San Jose,
August 24 2008
International performance/sculptural artist, Sha Sha Higby
is known for her evocative and haunting performances using
the exquisite and ephemeral body sculpture she meticulously
creates herself and moves within. Elaborate sculptural costume,
dance, and puppetry explore magic and emotion, creating
an atmospheric world within the borders between death and
life.
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Cabrillo Music, Art, Food and Wine Festival, Santa
Cruz, August 2 2008
The annual Cabrillo Music, Art, Food and Wine Festival
held each year in downtown Santa Cruz hosts an eclectic
array of music, art and food that showcases Santa Cruz's
cultural diversity. We are deeply indebted to local photographer
r.r.jones for this beautiful set of photos.
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Last Night, Santa Cruz, December 31 2007
We had played in the annual downtown Santa Cruz New Year
'First Night' processions for several years until the city
discontinued the event for lack of funds. A couple of years
later the tradition was restarted as 'Last Night', put on
entirely by the Santa Cruz community. Now that Last Night
has become established and recognized as a fun and safe
family event for New Year's, we decided it was time for
us to play again.
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New Brighton Beach State Park, Capitola, July 28 2007
New Brighton is becoming a summer tradition for us. We
were invited back to play another summer evening performance
at New Brighton Beach State Park overlooking the beautiful
Pacific Ocean and Monterey Bay. It's a very informal evening
with lots of discussion and interaction with the audience,
and great questions from the many kids there.
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Land of Medicine Buddha Festival Day, Soquel, June
23 2007
We were invited to play a return performance at Land of
Medicine Buddha for their annual Festival Day. This year
we played processional gamelan beleganjur to accompany
the procession carrying the thangka up to the Memorial
Shrine, and also played a set of sitting pieces during the
afternoon. What a beautiful and spiritual setting.
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Land of Medicine Buddha Benefit Concert, Soquel, April
1 2007
We returned to Land of Medicine Buddha to play a benefit
concert for them in their beautiful gompa. We had
played at Land of Medicine Buddha in the summer of 2006
for their Festival Day, which was a wonderful experience,
so we were very happy to play for them again this year.
This set of photos by Cayce Howe are probably some of the
best ever taken of the gamelan.
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Carmen Carnes Dance Ensemble: Myth and Machine, San
Francisco, March 24 & 25 2007
After our collaboration at Yerba Buena in May 2006 we were
excited to work together again with Carmen Carnes, this
time on the world premiere of her new choreography Myth
and Machine, which we performed together with the incredible
performance artist Shasha Higby in two nights at San Francisco's
Fort Mason Center.
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New Brighton Beach State Park, Capitola, August 5 2006
This was a very informal performance and talk on gamelan
for visitors to New Brighton Beach State Park. It was a
beautiful setting overlooking the sandy beach and the Monterey
Bay.
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Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, Carmel, July 29 2006
We returned to the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts this
year for two performances with renowned dancer Ayu Bulantrisna
Djelantik along with the Jangger Dancers. Ayu Bulantrisna
encored the ground-breaking Sitarasmi dance she had
premiered with us the previous year and also premiered a
new dance - Legong Sanggyang - the dream or trance
legong.
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Land of Medicine Buddha Festival, Soquel, June 14 2006
We were honored to be asked to play beleganjur for
the Land of Medicine Buddha Festival, for the procession
carrying their sacred thangka through the beautiful
redwood forests to the memorial shrine. The event combined
the excitement and bustle of a festival with the stillness
and contemplation of a meditation, and the beleganjur
seemed perfect for the occasion.
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Baroque Festival Garden Tour, Santa Cruz, May 28 2006
After our intense rehearsal schedule for the UCSC Gamelan
Spring Concert and the San Francisco performance it was
nice to relax and play this informal benefit for the Santa
Cruz Baroque Festival.
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Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco, May 20 2006
Only a week after the Spring Concert we were up in San
Francisco again, this time performing with the Carmen Carnes
Dance Ensemble and Shasha Higby - remarkably creative contemporary
dancers - as part of ChoreoFest 2006 at Yerba Buena Gardens.
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UCSC Gamelan Spring Concert, Santa Cruz, May 14 2006
Gamelan Anak Swarasanti returned to its roots for a combined
performance with the UCSC student gamelan Gamelan Swarasanti
from which Anak Swarasanti ('Child of Swarasanti') had sprung
nearly ten years earlier.
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Indonesian Day 2005, Union Square, San Francisco, Aug
13 2005
It was very exciting to return to San Francisco to play
in Union Square to perhaps our largest audience ever as
part of Indonesian Day 2005 - a showcase of Indonesian music,
dance, art and culture. We performed traditional gamelan
as well as a new piece from Bulantrisna - Jangger Hip-Hop
- that fuses traditional dance with kecak, martial
arts, and modern Indonesian pop.
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Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, Carmel, May 14 2005
It was a very special privilege to perform with the distinguished
dancers Ayu Bulantrisna Djelantik and I Made Suryasa for
an overflow crowd at the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
in Carmel. The performance was a historic occasion for Balinese
dance - the world premiere of the first ever solo topeng
dance ever specifically created for a female dancer.
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South Asia Tsunami Relief Benefit Concert, Palo Alto,
Feb 12 2005
After the horrifying images of the devastation caused by
the South Asia tsunami in late December 2004 we were delighted
to be able to work together with Mark Shaull and the very
talented Los Altos High School Choir and the Main Street
Singers to put on a benefit concert to raise money to support
the disaster relief efforts.
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Cabrillo Music, Art, Food and Wine Festival, Santa Cruz,
August 7 2004
We played the Cabrillo Music, Art, Food and Wine Festival
again this year in downtown Santa Cruz. This was a transitional
period for the group as most of our players moved away from
Santa Cruz this year. This is the only performance of 2004
as we took much of the year off to teach our repertoire
to our new players.
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UCSC Arboretum, Santa Cruz, September 9 2003
What more beautiful place to play than at the UCSC Arboretum
where we gave an informal performance for their members
and volunteers in a setting of rare and exotic plants from
all over the world. We played for the annual members barbeque
of the Arboretum Associates, held this year in the Australian
Garden.
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Cabrillo Music, Art, Food and Wine Festival, Santa Cruz,
Aug 2003
As part of the internationally acclaimed Cabrillo Music
Festival, the Cabrillo Music, Art, Food and Wine Festival
is held each summer in downtown Santa Cruz. Dubbed 'the
quintessential Santa Cruz festival', the open-air Cabrillo
Festival lasts all weekend, showcasing a wide variety of
artists and musicians.
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Baroque Festival Garden Tour, Santa Cruz, May 25 2003
It was a wonderful change from major performances to play
as part of the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival Garden Tour.
What better way to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon than
playing an informal gamelan performance in a gorgeous garden
setting, complete with delicious food and wine?!
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Loud Music Symposium, San Francisco, April 27 2003
We were invited to play at the beautiful Yerba Buena Theater
in San Francisco as part of the Loud Music Symposium, organized
by the San Francisco Renegades - a drum and bugle corps.
We took the beleganjur to show them what loud Balinese music
sounds like!
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First Night, Santa Cruz, December 31 2002
We decided to end this busy year as we had begun it - leading
the Santa Cruz First Night Procession on New Year's Eve.
It's become quite a tradition for us to play in this great
Santa Cruz event each year.
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Bali Crisis Relief Benefit, Santa Cruz, November 9 2002
We were stunned to hear of the terrorist bombings that
took place in Kuta, Bali on October 12, where nearly 200
people lost their lives and many more were injured. Compelled
to do something positive to help the situation, we quickly
set to work with others in the community to organize a benefit
concert and cultural event to raise money to help the Balinese
affected by this terrible tragedy.
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Chillits, Willits, September 14 2002
Chillits is a festival of ambient "chill" music
held each year at a gorgeous location near Willits in northern
California. The setting amidst oak trees and surrounded
by beautiful organic gardens, together with the spectacularly
good music and the collaborative vibe makes Chillits a very
special event.
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Woodstockhausen, Santa Cruz, August 17 2002
We were invited to perform at Woodstockhausen - an annual
festival of eclectic and experimental music and visuals
- this year held at the UCSC Quarry amphitheater. It was
quite an evening of interesting and unusual music, and incredible
visuals, projected on a huge screen above the stage.
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Central Park Music Series, San Mateo, July 14 2002
The City of San Mateo invited us to be part of their summer
concert series in the beautiful Central Park of San Mateo.
It was a scorchingly hot day, but we had a great time with
a fabulous audience. Another opportunity to play with our
new fuller ensemble, which sounded really good.
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Health and Harmony Festival, Santa Rosa, June 8 2002
World-renowned DJ Lorin invited us to play with him as
part of his Bassnectar live set at the Santa Rosa Health
and Harmony Festival. It was one of the most exciting and
energetic performances we've ever played.
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Center for Conscious Living, Santa Cruz, March 22 2002
In March we were invited to inaugurate a series of concerts
of Music of the World's Peoples at the Center for Conscious
Living in Santa Cruz. With a beautiful setting, a fascinated
and appreciative audience, and - with our new members -
a fuller ensemble than we've ever had before, this was one
of our most memorable performances.
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First Night, Santa Cruz, December 31 2001
After a long break from performing, we debuted our new,
larger group at the Santa Cruz First Night Procession with
the marching gamelan beleganjur. We were surprised
and honored when the First Night Committee asked us to lead
the parade!
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Dance for Tibetans 2000, Aptos, October 14 2000
The Dance for Tibetans 2000 was a benefit for a number
of Tibetan health programs, held at Cabrillo College in
Aptos, near Santa Cruz. We felt very honored to play for
this great cause.
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Hollister Music Festival, Hollister, September 8 2000
We were invited to be the featured artists at the closing
night of the San Benito County Arts Council Summer Music
Program in Hollister. For this performance we were delighted
to have with us our friend Pak Made Surya, an amazing dancer
from Bali.
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Camp Harmony 2000, Butte County, August 19 2000
Camp Harmony 2000 was held at a ranch near Chico. This
was our longest set ever - 3 hours. We started with a marching
gamelan procession which was a real highlight. AndyW joined
us once again on electronics.
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Warmth, San Francisco, March 25 2000
Warmth's "Transitions" was a very special evening
for us. The Warmth organizers had planned the event making
the gamelan an integral part of the evening's proceedings.
We played for a very special meditation ceremony at midnight,
which was a key part of the evening and set the tone for
the rest of the event. The artwork and visuals were breathtaking,
like this projection which hung above our heads as we played,
as a huge backdrop to the gamelan.
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Camp Harmony campout, Sierras, August 14 1999
Camp Harmony was held in the same breathtaking location
as the Harmony 4x4 event two years earlier, in the high
Sierra mountains. We took eight people this time, playing
partly a set of traditional pieces as well as extended versions
with electronics. We got a great reception and some lovely
reviews. This time we played with our friend AndyW, who
accompanied us on Moog, electronic treatments, and tabla.
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Food Bin, Santa Cruz, August 30 1998
The Food Bin/Herb Room - a popular Santa Cruz store - asked
us to do a free concert on a sunny Sunday afternoon in the
little garden adjoining the store. This gig was a really
informal, fun afternoon and a nice opportunity to play with
Pak Wenten and his wife Ibu Nanik in an informal setting
- it all felt very Balinese.
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Harmony 5-Year Anniversary, near San Francisco, July
10 1998
The Harmony 5-Year Anniversary was another beautiful open-air
event held in typical Harmony style, with amazing props
(imagine a 16-foot high Stonehenge circle, and a 12-foot
high flower garden!), and the wonderful Harmony vibe amongst
the rolling hills of golden grass east of San Francisco.
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Unity, Oakland, June 27 1998
Unity was a huge benefit party in Oakland - we played with
Rob Rayle again - a similar set to the one we played at
Expansion2.0 in the ambient room amidst a background of
beautiful psychedelic art. It was a smaller group this time
due to summer vacations, but it turned out beautifully.
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CD Recording Session, Santa Cruz, May 1998
Charles Uzzell-Edwards was really excited about the gamelan
after playing with us at Expansion, and talked about recording
a CD together. We recorded our set at UCSC in May 1998,
but Charles eventually felt that the gamelan stood on its
own and suggested that we put it out as it was. This became
our first CD - Gamelan Anak Swarasanti.
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Expansion2.0, San Francisco, February 28 1998
Anak Swarasanti's second performance was at the Expansion2.0
party in San Francisco. This time we brought a bigger group
of about twelve players, so the sound was very different.
Playing with us was noted Bay Area ambient musician Charles
Uzzell-Edwards (fax records), who added some nice minimal
electronics.
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Harmony 4x4, Sierras, August 16 1997
Gamelan Anak Swarasanti's first performance ever was at
the Harmony 4x4 weekend in the Sierra Mountains. The setting
was magical - an open-air site amidst beautiful mountains
and forests. We played a two hour set, accompanied in part
by Rob Rayle and Randy Cone on electronics. It was one of
our favourite performances ever in an unforgettable setting,
and gave us a glimpse of what we could do in an extended
experimental format.
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