MissYuri's Xanga

It's that time...

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:21:42 GMT

So, I noticed that I write here like once a month, so here I am!

Actually, I started a new blog, so you can visit me there from now on and hopefully I'll be updating that one more often than this one. I'll still update this one from time to time, though.

Something new...

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:17:25 GMT

I'm...

scared
nervous
excited
naive
happy
lost
overwhelmed

I know I'm being vague! lol

I hope I can get through this!

Less than 3 weeks...

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:19:25 GMT

Yup! In less than three weeks, we will be in the middle of the North American Taiko Conference!!

That also means... Taiko Jam 09 (FB page) is in less than three weeks!! aaaaahhH~~~~~~!

If you haven't gotten your tickets yet, you should get them soon!!

Here's a little promo video. The group I play with isn't performing, but 4 other awesome groups are!... and I'm planning it, so come support!!! You won't be disappointed!

TAIKO JAM '09

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:26:50 GMT

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, May 09, 2009

Sat, 09 May 2009 07:54:30 GMT

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! :)

Last week

Sat, 09 May 2009 07:46:47 GMT

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!

TP at Bar Sinister 4/11/09

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:27:20 GMT

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. :)

:)

Lone Pine/Bishop Tour - 4/1/09 to 4/4/09

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 02:13:44 GMT

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!

TP East Coast - 3/21 to 3/26 - Last Leg

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:08:41 GMT

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~!!

Oreo in a small basket

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 07:48:33 GMT

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!!!