Monday, 22 June 2009
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TAIKO JAM '09
What have I been up to? It's been a while since I wrote something here.
I've been busy with putting together this year's TAIKO JAM concert.
It's part of the North American Taiko Conference, which will be held in Little Tokyo in August.
The conference is mainly for those of us that already play taiko, but the Taiko Jam '09 concert is for anyone that wants to come enjoy an awesome taiko concert.
Here's a little snipit about it!
"Hold on to your seats! The strong, thunderous sounds of taiko might blow you away! No one has been presenting taiko longer than the JACCC and the Aratani/Japan America Theater. JACCC's taiko curators have put together a taiko show that will stimulate, inspire, and educate! Hailing from Nevada is the dynamic Las Vegas Kaminari Taiko, from Oregon comes the visually stunning Portland Taiko, and representing Los Angeles are the intense Kishin Daiko and the rhythmically creative On Ensemble. Catch them as they unite and come together on the stage for just one weekend and witness the power, rhythm, energy, and spirit of Taiko Jam!"
Taiko Jam '09
Saturday, August 8, 2009 8:00pm
Sunday, August 9, 2009 3:00pm
Aratani/Japan America Theater
Tickets are going super fast, so make sure to check out the concert webpage and get your tickets ASAP!
We have a facebook page, too, with photos and updates!!
Please share this with anyone that might be interested.
I hope to sit down some time this week and catch up on your xanga blogs! hopefully!! :)
Saturday, 09 May 2009
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I recently helped shoot a wedding with Steven! Long day, but I had so much fun!
Thanks for asking me to shoot with you, Steven! :)
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Last week
Santa Barbara.... I can't believe we were there right before the fire happened. I watch the news and it all just seems unreal... the fire is just raging and I can't believe that people's homes are in flames. I hope everyone's ok and I hope the firefighters stay safe.
Last week, we had our [re]generation show in Santa Barbara. Some of us went on Thursday to tech in the theater and to do a school show on Friday morning. The rest me up with us on Friday in time for lunch and cue-to-cue rehearsal. Hiro, Mika, Chiemi, Rona, and many others came up too!
Then, it was show time!
This is how some of us get ready before a show...
Hair and makeup time!!
Ready!!
Show Time~! Yumi, Courtney, Jen, and me
Then, we did our show!! Sorry, no pics from the actual show...
The theater after the show.
Load out...
The next day, we woke up... and went wine tasting! We hired Captain Jack's Wine Tours to take us around to 4 places (Summerland Winery, Santa Barbara Winery, Live Culture, and Kalyra).
Wine tasting with 14 people!
Hiro and me
And then, we went home! :) What a fun weekend!
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
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TP at Bar Sinister 4/11/09
If you've been following my blog for a few years, this post should be familiar...
TP was invited back to Hollywood's goth club, Bar Sinister, to bring back the "Drums of Darkness".
This would be our third time there since 2006.
We always have a lot of fun when we go.
We get to dress up and wear costumes that we normally wouldn't wear and take on a new goth persona.
The best part is the Bar Sinister crowd. Since it's a club atmosphere instead of a theater-ish set up, people are all standing and dancing.
Check this out to get a sample of what we played. :)
:)
Saturday, 18 April 2009
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Lone Pine/Bishop Tour - 4/1/09 to 4/4/09
So, within a week of being back from the month long East Coast tour, we were off to another one!
This time, it was to Lone Pine/Bishop for 4 days with Maz, Jason, Jen, Courtney, and me.... and it was ONLY a 4 hour drive! Compared to the 14 hour drives we were doing, this was nothing!
We got to Lone Pine on Wednesday night and had 3 shows to do on Thursday. The first 2 were school shows... one for elementary school kids and one for high school. The one at night was more like a concert, but with some more talking.
It was a really nice day... so Jen and I decided to sit in the sun for a bit between the shows.
Such a pretty day!
Lone Pine is on the way to Mammoth (from LA) and the town has just a little over 2000 people. This is the view that they get to have every day!
After our evening show in Lone Pine, we drove to Bishop, which is about an hour drive to the north. We quickly went to bed... since we had 3 more shows to do the very next day.
I must admit. Doing 6 shows with 5 people in 48 hours is quite tiring. Still, knowing that the Inyo Arts Council brought us out to perform and show what we do to the people in Lone Pine and Bishop kept us going.
Before we left Bishop, we had to stop by Schatz Bakery for some yummy bread and lunch!
The people in Bishop kept telling us that we must go to Great Basin Bakery, too. So, we went!
It's much smaller, but we could tell it must be a great place... because almost everything was sold out by the time we got there! I got a loaf of DELICIOUS pumpkin walnut bread. Mmm!
On our way back, we stopped at Manzanar and visited the Interpretive Center. The center is actually in the restored Manzanar High School Auditorium and has various exhibits and tells the story about the internment camp there.
You know what's really sad? I didn't know about the internment camps until my 2nd year of college. Why? My family didn't come here until 1985 and no one in my family or relatives were here... I basically lived where there were very very little Asian Americans, so you could imagine what history classes were like. My family talked more about how the war affected them in Japan, since that's where they all were.... and even then, we didn't talk about it much. MAYBE it WAS in our textbooks... but we never covered it. It wasn't until I joined Tomo in college and went to Manzanar for the first time that I learned about this particular part of history. I felt ashamed that I didn't know.
At the school shows, Jason asked the students if they knew what Manzanar was and what the significance it has in our history. Basically everyone raised their hands. At the evening show, during one of the talks, he shared that the fact that all the students knew about Manzanar represents all the work that the people in Lone Pine and Bishop were doing to educate their people about what took place in American history. Manzanar is very close to both towns and knowing that the residents are teaching their kids about what happened lets me know that that part of history won't be forgotten.
And then, we went home. :)
Thanks for reading!
Friday, 17 April 2009
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TP East Coast - 3/21 to 3/26 - Last Leg
Oookay! Here's the last bit of our East Coast Tour~! woohoo!
March 21, 2009
We had to drop Maz off at airport so he could be back in LA to rehearse with On Ensemble for their Cerritos show.
Then, we drove through Arkansas and arrived in Plano, Texas to stay there for the night. Ate at Zenna Thai/Japanese food restaurant. Yummy Pad Thai! mmm...
We saw this amazing sunset while we were driving this day...
March 22, 2009
We dropped off Bryan at the airport in Dallas. We would meet up with him again in New Mexico!
Now, it was me, Jason, Jen, Tomomi, and Courtney... and we drove to Austin, TX. On our way, we stopped in West, TX to try Czech Stop to eat some legendary Kolaches!! Czech Stop was highly recommended by Angie, who brought us out to Austin. I looked online for some reviews and alll the reviews were so good that we HAD to stop by!
It was PACKED!
They had a huge selection of fillings!
I got the Sausage/Jalapeno/Chesse one... and...
the Blueberry Cream one! YUMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!
We kept driving to Austin and met Angie at Clare's apartment, where we all stayed for the next 2 nights. :)
We tried finding a place to eat... and wanted to try Chuy's, but it was like an hour wait (we ended up eating here the next day for lunch).
We decided to go to Green Mesquite instead for some Texas BBQ!
March 23, 2009
We drove back to Chuy's to eat lunch and then headed to U of Texas for some workshops we were leading. The first one was a beginners workshop. Lots of people showed up and it was really fun!
Right after the beginners workshop, we did an Omiyage workshop for Austin Taiko and U of Texaas Gin Daiko.
Here we are with Austin Taiko and Gin Daiko!
We had pizza for dinner and had to go to Amy's for ice cream. They all recommended it, and of course... if the locals recommend it, it must be good!
The guy on the left did all these cool tricks with the ice cream. It's kind of like a Coldstone's. Yum!
March 24, 2009
We left Clare's apartment at 6am and had QUITE an interesting time putting the trailer back onto the van. We actually pushed the fully loaded trailer! crazy...
We made a quick stop at a gas station.... and pulled out Courtney's splinter. ouch!
This was a LONG LONG drive. Jason drove for 5 hours and Courtney and I each drove for 4.5 hours. 14 hour drive! ACK!!!!!! AND there was like NOTHING on the way. :/
On our way, we stopped to gas up and eat lunch... then realized that the van wouldn't start cuz the battery was dead.... good thing there was a Walmart right there and we were able to get some help jumping the van.
Here I am driving. :) THANK YOU cruise control.
We were all super tired by the time we got to New Mexico. We made it to Smokin' Bachi Taiko's rehearsal space and reunited with Bryan. He was in the middle of a workshop and afterwards, we all went out to eat.
While I was in the restroom, they took my camera and did the classic bryan/tounge pose... and well, if you're gonna do that, be prepared to have your picture posted onto my blog. :P
The girls stayed at Fox's place that night... and I passed out.
March 25, 2009
Fox made breakfast for us!!
MmmMm
This is his house... and that's the driveway.... and the van and the trailer were parked behind that black car...
Well... we realized this was going to be a challenge to get the van out. Little did we know, it would take close to an hour to get out.
The wheel broke... :(
and so we had to use creative ways to get out of Fox's driveway. Luckily, we were able to.... unlucky for Jason, his toes got hurt.
We drove from New Mexico to Arizona and ended up at our destination 1.5 hours late.... 1.5 hours AFTER our workshop with Kyo Rei Taiko was supposed to start. Oh no!! oops... We were still able to do the workshop and everyone seemed to understand.
We stayed at the Tang's residence. :)
March 26, 2009
GOING HOME!!! WE DROVE HOME!!!! I've never been so happy to be back in Los Angeles. We literally cheered when we saw downtown LA and all the smog.
It was a long month of touring and traveling. I think for me, since I was only home for a few days after coming back from Greece (mostly spent rehearsing) before we left for this tour, it was more like being gone away from home since mid-December to March 26... 3.5 months.
I DO wish I used my slr more often. Almost all the pictures taken were with my trusty p&s.
We unloaded all the equipment and Hiro picked me up.... and we went to eat at Kotohira.... and I had yummy Udon.
It's good to be home.
:)
Thanks for reading~!!
Saturday, 11 April 2009
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Oreo in a small basket
I was getting ready for bed just now... and noticed Oreo was already asleep in a small basket!
I pulled out my camera... shook the dust off... and took some pictures of her.
She's getting so big, so fast... She's getting Kuro to move around more, too. :p
:)
Enjoy
Good night!!!
Thursday, 09 April 2009
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TP East Coast - 3/19 - 3/20 - Memphis
While we were in Memphis, we decided to go to Graceland! Actually, Maz really wanted to go... but I think secretly, we all wanted to go. :)
Here's us getting our tickets... I thought it was kind of expensive actually... but nonetheless, we bought tickets to go to the King's mansion.
We decided to go with just the mansion and the tour audio equipment... but as you can see, there were more options (although I don't remember what they were...).
We took a bus ride to go across the street... destination.... GRACELAND!
My first impression when I walked in...
The piano he played on!!!
The dining area.
This crazy game room with fabric EVERYWHERE!
Check out this cool arm on this couch! hehe
And then, we walked through other buildings that had memorabilia, his records, awards, etc...
He had a bunch of these...
This room was crazy. It was FILLED with records and awards and outfits!
And then, we bought some gifts... and that was Graceland. :)
The next day, we had our show. Last show of the tour!
There was a fashion show taking place in the theater... so we had to wait here...
But, we got to eat some Memphis BBQ~ mmm...
The show was packed!
We were pooped afterwards... so we went across the street from the hotel to unwind a bit.
Here's Maz... unwinding. :p
Thanks for reading! I'm almost done blogging about this tour. yay!
:)
Wednesday, 01 April 2009
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East Coast Tour 3/7/09 to 3/18/09
Okay, moving on with our tour.
3/7/09
We drove to Stamford, Connecticut. We had a show that night at the Rich Forum. This would be our last 7-person show for awhile.
Jason and me before the show.
After another successful show, we went out to dinner with a whole bunch of people that came to our show. We ate at a Japanese restaurant that they kept open late just for us.
Priya came to the show and ate dinner with all of us. Priya was my roommate in college and I only get to see her once every few years. Every time I see her, though, it's like nothing changed.
We home-stayed at Sandra's beautiful house. We stay here for a few days!
3/8/09
I went running this morning for a good 45 minutes and then stretched and did some pushups and stuff for another 30 minutes. It felt good to finally do something for myself, by myself.
That day, Maz facilitated a Basics Workshop for Otatsu Tiko, UConn Taiko, and Bowdan Taiko. It was good to learn some naname basics myself, even though we were there to help out.
Sandra and her husband had a BBQ for us!
We helped out a little bit...
Dinner time!
We watched our NEW RHYTHMIC RELATIONS 2008 DVD that night. You can order yours now, too!!
But, before we watched the dvd, Bryan had to iron his fundoshi...
3/9/09
We went shopping for some things we needed..
We watched Coraline.
Bryan cooked some deeelicious lasagna for us that night! MMM~
Before we move on to the next day. I have to show you the shower that we used during our stay in Connecticut.
There were all these shower heads! I loved their shower!
3/10/09
We drove to Pomona, New Jersey.
DARREN, BYRON, JOHN, and SCOTT ARRIVE!!!!!! Now, we're ready to do our (re)generation show!!!
I was so so so happy to see them.
Byron and Darren
3/11/09
(re)generation show at Stockton College
3/12/09
We drove to Ohio. Maz, Courtney, Byron, Darren, and I stayed in Cleveland to do an Omiyage workshop with Icho Daiko. The rest of the cast drove to Oberlin to facilitate workshops with Oberlin Taiko.
Byron and I taught the shime/okedo part for Omiyage to Steve and Kai from Icho Daiko. We taught them so much and they learned really fast.
That night, we stayed with Nozomi in Cleveland.
3/13/09
We drove to Terre Haute, Indiana. We loaded our equipment into the theater and while others worked in the theater to get ready for the show, Jen, Courtney, Tomomi, Jason and I did a lecture/demo show at Booker T. Washington Community Center. Great crowd! Thanks for having us!
That night, we ate at Cracker Barrel. I've heard of this place... but never been there.
I had their chicken and dumplings, fried okra, ham, meatloaf, mac n cheese, greens, and cornbread.
YUMMMM!!!!!!!!!
3/14/09
(re)generation show!
Prep
The big blur in this picture on the right side is Scott. I showed him the picture and told him that he's a big blur! He said, "I'm always a blur".... but in reality, Scott and John are crucial to the show. Scott was our Technical Director who did our lighting design. John was our stage manager for the show, but he's also our Theatrical Director. The audience doesn't get to see them, but they really make the show happen.
Make up time!
The crew at the theater was amazing!
After the show, we ate and celebrated at Buffalo Wild Wings.
Byron, Darren, Bryan
Cheers!!!
me and John
Irish car bombs anyone?
Good times
3/15/09
The groups splits off into 2 again. Jen, Bryan, Jason, and Tomomi drove to St. Louis, Missouri for workshops. The rest of us drove to Bowling Green, Kentucky.
We ate at Steak & Shake for lunch.
And drove...
I'm not quite sure what happened here... I think Byron had a headache and Darren was giving him a massage... but they both fell asleep.
I dunno why this is sideways. That's Scott in the front and John with his iPod.
3/16/09
Maz, Courtney, Tomomi, Jason, and I did a lecture/demo at Western Kentucky University. John and Scott came with us!
Afterwards, we met up with everyone else at the theater to load in.
3/17/09
(re)generation show!
I must say, the people in Kentucky were very warm and nice. Everywhere we went, the service was excellent and the people just seemed happy overall here.
3/18/09
We left Kentucky and drove to Nashville, Tennessee to drop off Darren, Byron, John and Scott at the airport. I was sad to see them go, but they were only committed to doing the (re)generation shows. Our van was much quieter without them. We actually have about 10 more days after this.
We ate at the Pancake Pantry.
We waited in a long line. It actually went really fast, though.
mmm
It was actually my first time ever trying grits. I have mixed feelings. I think I need to try it again with other things mixed in.
Jen felt like eating some ice cream.... without using her hands!
Then, we drove to Memphis.
Memphis had a different feel compared to Kentucky....
Beale Street
PHEW, ok. That's it for today!
Thanks for visiting~!
Saturday, 21 March 2009
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Walking Around NY #2
During our stay in Philadelphia, we had a free day where we drove back to NYC to hang out.
3/4/2009
So, the 7 of us drove to NYC from Philadelphia and the first place we went to was a restaurant called Ippudo Ramen.
It's a ramen restaurant from Japan and when they opened up their first store in the US, all these other ramen stores donated their ramen bowls to congratulate them!
And then, we ordered some delicious ramen...
I got mine as a set and ate this tororoimo gohan, too~ YUM!!!!
and here's our ramen!!!
After stuffing ourselves with ramen, we took the subway to visit Ground Zero.
... but it was under construction so we couldn't get close at all. There were cranes and people working all over inside the fenced off area. I've wanted to come here for so long... and when I finally got there, I was overwhelmed with emotion. I also got this eerie feeling... the unimaginable happened here. And now, people were trying to rebuild... to move forward... and to never forget.
We walked to go see the Statue of Liberty... but again, we couldn't get too close since we decided not to get on the ferry.
This is as close as my little p&s camera would zoom.
Jason, pondering something?
Then, we walked through Central Park.
We were so tired and exhausted after we walked ... and walked... and walked... (it felt like hours). So, we rested at Grand Central Station...
That night, we went to see Bryan's brother, Wynn Yamami, perform with his group, Happy Fun Smile.
They were SO much fun! They really made the place lively and we had a really good time.
Happy Fun Smile
Wynn
Bryan and Wynn
brothers....
After the show, we headed back to Philly.
What a fun day it was!!!!
:)
Thanks for reading!
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Pulse
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what a busy, exhausting week... I have no new entries or photos... but I'll check everyone else's blogs and photos this weekend. :)
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the suspense is killing me!!!!!!! AAAAHHH~~~~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Ack~ earthquake! It was pretty big and lasted a long time. Did you feel it, too?
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