Toot! Toot!

Well, tootles everyone! I am on my way to Sado island for Earth Celebration 2007 and will be back on Monday.

If you are attending the celebration, please cheer for us at Kisaki Shrine, Sunday August 19, 1:15 pm.

If you are not, be good!

Achtung!! EARTH CELEBRATION coming up!

We are on the subject of Earth Celebration again.

Just a reminder, our taiko troupe "Waraku Daiko" will perform at EC's fringe stage on Sunday August 19, 2007 at 1:15 pm. The venue is at Kisaki Shrine, a 2 minutes walk from the art market at Ogi port.

We promise a very special performance combining the Japanese flute for our opening. Praise to the ghosts of Sado that the flute quartet can hold it well during the song. Well, I know Sensei will perform flawlessly, but maybe myself, Kaoru and Kagami-san could be in questions. hahaha... Yes, those off pitches noise is the sole proof!! Well, we're novice flautists and we will give it our best!

Second, third and fourth songs will be the signature Waraku Daiko songs (composed and arranged by Miyauchi-Sensei)

As a closing, we will perform the Nidan-uchi stage, where all drummers will drum in unison and must remain so, otherwise one small mistake could injure your partner drummer.

If you are there for the celebration, kindly stop by and cheer for us.

ORIYA!!!

Taiko Tari

Waraku Daiko on EC 2006 Fringe Stage

It's a very hot day...

Yeah, no kidding, it's been like this for a week now, 33-37C (about 93-100F) and 100% humidity, everyday. The air is so thick and you can cut it with a knife!
This makes it really difficult to go about your routines and even try to lead a normal life. You just can't think. And this alone makes the days completely unbearable.

I'm still bummed with this. This weather makes it even worse, the heart that usually forgives finds it really hard these days. My sister will always advice that something is a big deal because we make it one, so I definitely should switch my state of mind to make it a no deal at all.

I have to say it's hard, though. The heat and humidity really isn't helping. So, last night I made a list on what 100-times-better things to do than seething in grudges:

1. Taiko drumming, of course!

Oh I am so looking forward to my taiko practice on Sunday and the Earth Celebration next week!! There is nothing in the world like drumming that never fails to pick up my mood to the 7th heaven. You can give so much to taiko and guaranteed it will give you back the equal amount of energy. It's always funny with musical instruments, you get back as much as you give them.
Not to sound melancholic or cheesy, but there was a time when I had to go through a really terrible unfortunate situation. Details unimportant, but it involved a lot of unhappiness.
The following morning after the most horrible situation took place, I went to my taiko class, thinking that beating on the drums would take my mind off it. It was one of the most intense meditative experience that I have had with the drums, I laughed when the song was joyful, cried when the song was sad, bopped around as the song went funny, cried out with ridicule when everybody made mistakes during the songs. After very intense 4 hours, I left the practice feeling deadly exhausted physically but the heart felt a great deal lighter and I was able to smile again.

Yes, taiko is my other life. Indeed it is, I feel a lot better already now thinking about it.

2. Eat chocolate cake.

I want to eat chocolate cake. I want to eat a LOT of chocolate cake. The fudge one.

3. Bake the chocolate cake so it can be eaten

I am going to cook Nigella Lawson's chocolate cake. It looks really good in her cookbook!

4. Be a couch potato in an air-conditioned room.

Watch a whole bunch of DVDs that my sister sent me on some TV series that I like, ranging from Desperate Housewives, CSI: Las Vegas season 7, Grey's Anatomy, and Ugly Betty. This will be fun

5. Piddle with Antonio Sanchez la guitarra mi corazón!

Yes, teacher M gave me a couple of homeworks that she will test on me on Monday. She said that if I could keep up until level 5 exams songs, she'll have a chat with the school's guitar orchestra and see if I can take an apprenticeship training with them. I'm giddy with joy just to have that prospect. FUN!

6. Thank goodness it's Friday!

The weekend is coming up tomorrow! YEAH! Finally, a full real weekend. I forgot what it's like to have a real weekend. How fun it is to be able to sleep in, go to the gym, or I can also NOT do anything at all whatsoever.

7. Daydream about Earth Celebration 2007

This event is my annual pilgrimage. I go and join the celebration every year and schedule all of my work in August around this event. Ah, days and nights of fun, happiness, drumming, laughing, swimming, outdoors concert, camping, road trips, foods. Words truly can't explain just how fun it is to be there at the celebration. Believe me, I've tried so many times, you just have to go there and experience it yourself!

Ah.... there are indeed many things that are 100-times-better than the thing-I-thought-about when I started this post. Better dedicate energy to those! It's now long forgotten.

Please excuse me, now I need to continue my daydream about Earth Celebration 2007.

The Ultimate Depression

I am so depressed right now. So very depressed, it is beyond believe and recognition. And I take this as a very bitter lesson for putting some things to the very last minute. Yeah, I can be that stupid sometime.

I am talking about the upcoming Earth Celebration. Still 3 weeks away, I suddenly remembered that I haven't booked the three-day-pass for their Shiroyama concerts. I quickly called the ticketing office, and they gave me the unexpected news: The 3-day-passes are all sold out. Gone.

Unwilling to believe them, I called my teacher to see how his luck had been with the tickets. He explained to me that the reason why the tickets are all sold out was because they are selling the first 1,300 seats for the potential indoors concert. As we all know since the venue is outdoors, there is always a potential that it might rain, thus the 1,300 people ceiling for an indoors venue. DAMN! DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN!
Still reluctant to believe the horror of it all, I went online and tried to buy the ticket from the website. Not getting any response from them within 15 minutes, I called another phone number for the ticketing service and spoke to a very pleasant woman who kindly explained to me what Sensei told me merely 15 minutes prior. I finally am able to accept the truth. She then fixed me for the first two-days concert and said that if the day is fine on August 19, she is quite certain that I will be able to get a ticket for that day, considering that will mean an additional 1,700 tickets. Yeah, OK, I agree that there is light at the end of the tunnel. But I am still furious at myself.

On the brighter side: I got accepted to join Miyake Taiko workshop on Sunday at 10 am. The Kodo service has organized a special arrangement so I will be able to make it in time for my taiko troupe's performance at 1:15 pm on Sunday.

But why am I still feeling so sad...

Earth Celebration 2007, Waraku Daiko and summer stuff of sorts!

Today is another monsoon day. The day is raining and spirits are destroyed. And my sad laundry will need to be hauled to the laundromat for a proper drying.

All had been blue until a cheerful phone call from O.Div arrived. Waraku Daiko's performance time had been confirmed for the much anticipated Earth Celebration 2007!

Excerpting from my post last year:
For those who don't know, Earth Celebration is an art/music festival hosted by world's best (my own opinion) taiko drumming group Kodo at their home island, Sado.
Every summer, musicians from all over Japan and the world gather for the three days of musical fun. Please visit the link above for more details. There are way too much fun things in the list. It is simply impossible to sum it up in a short blog entry.

That being said, per usual, my taiko group Waraku Daiko will perform at the fringe show on August 19, 2007 (Sunday). The venue is at Kisaki-shrine. It is by the Ogi port, a very short walk from the information center.
We will be on stage at 1:15 PM.



This year's Eearth Celebration is observing the 20th anniversary of Earth Celebration. Along side Kodo, there will be world-known tabla player Zakir Hussain from India, Puerto Rican percussionist Giovanni Hidalgo, French Guinean tap dancer Tamango (he was also guest performer for EC 2007), and a few more celebrated Japanese musicians.

Well, there's nothing much else to say, except for... SEE YOU THERE!!! (especially on Sunday August 19 at 1:15 pm KISAKI SHRINE).

Taiko-ly yours,
Taiko Tari -071207

Festival weekend

Truth be told, I am extremely exhausted.

The weekend had been quite festive. Lunched with Viscount A at the glorious Le Gaulois. One of the finest meal that I've ever had in Tokyo. Glad we made that trip. And they never stop giving you extra bread. Wonderful meal. It is quickly getting into our Tuesday dinner list of restaurants. (And the good news is, their official day-off is on Mondays).
Saw O.Div. for dinner at one of my favorite neighborhood restaurant Fungo. Been feeling a little guilty for not having been there yet in almost 5 months. They have their Porcini mushroom risotto that is to die for. Exquisite. It was lovely to catch up and just chatted the evening away.

Today, went to drumming per usual. We did the nidan uchi again. Got my knuckles relatively injured today a couple of times by my drumming partner. Hang on, let me find a picture of us doing this particular arrangement. You'd see how drumming can be murderous.

Pardon the quality, but this image was cropped from a practice video

The weekend was closed by visiting the Asakusa Sanja festival, with Ms. Bicky, James and Jess. It was very nice to be in the sun for a long time and ate food from the street vendors (I had takoyaki and yakitori, chatted the afternoon away while watching people in their fundoshi. To be quite honest, from a spectator's point of view, watching people carelessly displaying their butt-cheeks in public could be quite disturbing, but it could be a trauma I am having after (finally) watching Borat. Brrrh....
Nonetheless, the festival was fun, and the dinner with good company at a very cool izakaya in Shimokitazawa was the perfect ending of this seemingly culinary week.

And tomorrow is Monday. All of the sudden I'm not so happy anymore...

I'm just going to roll into bed now.

Another musical week

Much to my enjoyment, this week turned out to be rather musical. One for Carlos' concert, followed with an extensive drumming session the following day, wrapped with a jazz evening in Kichijoji.

The "Melodies from Gedo Senki" concert by Carlos Nunez presented itself to be a very nice event. It is the first one that Carlos had done in his series of promotion for the particular album. The concert was advertised to be including two very distinguished guests, one is Aoi Teshima, a raising young singer who was the voice talent for the Therru/Tehanu caracter in the movie as well as Akiko Yano, a prominent jazz and pop musician who's known for her exquisite piano talent and unusual singing voice.
Along these outstanding collaborators, two that I felt very privileged of getting to know for the first time is Marie Nishiyama, the harpist (amazing harpsicord she plays!) and also Aska Kaneko, leader of the Aska Strings. Meeting them all backstage was a wonderful perk, they are such highly accomplished musicians, wonderfully talented, but they are very down-to-earth and above all... NORMAL.

The concert was held in the beautiful NHK Hall. I was lucky for scoring a very good seat, which is practically in front of the stage (7th row from the front).
Having been to so many of Carlos' performances, I have always told myself that one of these days I will no longer be impressed by it. Boy, was I wrong! One thing that you can always count on Carlos, is his extreme unpredictability. The man is a genius and one of the few people who is always pulling something completely out of the blue and making it work.
The concert started with a beautiful tune from Cinema Do Mar, I can't remember whether it was "Women of Ireland" or "Tristan and Isolde", it was smooth and soothing. And then after a short speech in Japanese (nice try!) and gaining a few loud chuckles from the audience, the concert progressed with songs after songs from the new album. It was equipped with a very nice slide show, snippets from the movie, as well as other images, interesting lightworks and closed with a little interesting entourage by the Tokyo Bagpipe Society. That was the first half of the concert.
The second half, we were lulled into the concert again with songs from different movies and collaborations by other musicians and finally closed with some Irish dancing by some hundred people in the audience.

Ah... good times!

Taiko drumming the following day was good too. Sensei was teaching us how to do what we call the nidan uchi. It is when you're doing a piece of music using two taikos on both sides. Usually two drummers will be playing an identical piece simultaneously, in front of each other, and then swap position. This can be complicated and highly dangerous when we're not used to do it. Oh, dear, I think I got hit by one of the drumming partner like 4 times. Also I hit my thumb several times myself, too... OUCH!

Friday night, my comrades Odaiko Div and Annie Bananie came up with an idea that we should all go out for a bit of music. The choice fell on Tokyo's renown underground jazz spot "Sometime Piano Hall" in Kichijoji. This is a live house with Blue Note quality, but with only a speck of the cover charge. Everyday this place will have different performers, with 2 or 3 stages per day.
The evening that we went, we had a jazz quartet performing. One funky all white-haired-drummer, very cool middle aged gentleman as the bassist (double base) and beanie-headed pianist, and lastly the singer (interesting hair style, she carried the hair of Jon Bon Jovi at his worst; but if you're willing to look beyond her hairstyle...) with a very cool air to add to her husky voice and for always getting completely absorbed in her songs.
The night was fine, the chat was true and the joy was fulfilling.

Ah, life... it can be bizarre and challenging at times, but it is nothing that a little bit of music can't solve.
I thank you, all esteemed musicians, for the music.

Muchas gracias!

A Surprise in The Mail!

Still no time to write yet, but I do want to share a little surprise I got in the mail today.
Per usual, my taiko troupe Waraku Daiko performed in the fringe event at Earth Celebration 2006. During the performance there were some photographers who were taking some shots. One of the photographer came up and asked for my address as he wanted to send some pics.
And they arrived today!!!

I think these are quite cool.

It's WICKED!!!

Just in case anyone is wondering... I'm back!! Just got in about 1 hour ago from a very very wicked trip to Sado island for the Earth Celebration 2006.

Four days of too much fun, amazing experience and the wickedest road trip and camping that I've ever done in such a long time.

Tomorrow is a busy day at work, so I will give a low-down on this wicked trip sometime as soon as I have the chance to write.

For Odaiko Div, Beating Drum, Annie Bananie and Katesman... OTSUKARESAMADESHITA!!!

4 days of non-stop laughters and amazing time... I thank you all so very much and I bid you good night.

--Taiko Tari

Earth Celebration 2006

Earth Celebration is coming up soon!!!
Am very proud of myself for getting things organized 2 weeks ahead of time this year. Purchased my three-day-pass the other day (still haven't managed to go through the forest of Japanese kanjis on the website - thus made the very simple quick call to the ticketing office), the ticket will be ready to be claimed at the information center when I get to the island.

For those who don't know, Earth Celebration is an art/music festival hosted by World's best taiko drumming group Kodo at their home island, Sado.
Every Summer, musicians from all over Japan and the world gather for the three days of musical fun. Please visit the link above for more details. There are way too much fun things in the list. It is simply impossible to sum it up in a short blog entry.

That being said, per usual, my taiko group "Waraku Daiko" will perform at the fringe show on August 18, 2006 (Friday). The venue is at Kisaki-shrine. It is by the Ogi port, a very short walk from the information center.
We will be on stage at 2:30 PM.
This year the troupe is HUGE. We will have 12 drummers performing. Haha...!! This is going to be a blast, I know it already!!!

See you there!!















Kodo performing at the Art market @Ogi Port, EC 2005