Superhero

Last night Janet was at our intermediate class helping us work on Cranes. Her main focus was on Kata, or the form/stance you take while playing the song. A lot of what she was showing us was that we often just hit the drum, but she was really encouraging us to put our energy and our bodies into it. I think it was a liberating experience for all of us. Susan's style is kind of tight and rigid, and it shows in our playing. Janet was trying to get us to let go of all that, and to really use our bodies and our own energy to carry us through the movements. She said that we should show the music that we are playing with our bodies.

My problem is that I don't use my body enough. I don't get down low enough. But I think that there is more to it than that. Janet was telling me that I needed to let my super-powers out. She was saying that she knew it was in me, but I needed to just let it out. And I agree. It's in me somewhere, so why won't it come out? She even asked me if I had seen the Incredibles and I said yes, and that I was Violet. I don't really know where she was going with that, or if she even knew what I meant when I said I was Violet (she's the one who turns invisible). I think Violet is a good analogy for me because I feel like her and I would really love to have the power to turn invisible sometimes. But at the end of the movie when push came to shove, her superpowers came out and she blossomed. Which means if that shrinking violet of a Violet could do it, then I can too. If I were a superhero.

5 years, baby!

Yesterday morning I woke up, had my coffee, got dressed, went to work and realized two things:

1) Today is Administrative Professionals Day. If you've ever unjammed a Xerox machine, filed reams of paper, or entered useless data into a computer all day--then more power to you. You rock. I rock. We deserve doughnuts or something! Bosses here don't recognize this holiday. It's written on the cheap Office Depot desk calendars we all have. They obviously don't consult these calendars. They use (I know for a fact they do) fancy leather-bound day planners.

2) Today was also the day that I got recognized for being at Mills for FIVE YEARS, BABY! They had a reception (with cake and lemonade) for all of us, the old timers. A bunch of us made it to five years, but there were others who were getting recognized for 10, 15, 25 and 35 years! Now those people have stamina. There were times when I thought I wouldn't make it this far, but hey, it's worth having a little party for. The President was there and she said nice things about me in front of everybody (one of my bosses wrote it down for her though). Then she gave me a handshake, a certificate of appreciation, a rose, and a medallion!


Did you hear me people? I said she gave me a medallion! Look:


And the best part is that it is inscribed on the back!!


Isn't that awesome?!! I'm so tempted to punch a hole through it so I can hang that thing around my neck like an Olympic medal and wear it every day. It's pretty big--about the size of a cookie. And if I make it to ten years and get another medallion, I'm gonna punch a hole in that one too and have a matching set of earrings! But seriously. This whole time they've been giving out little lapel pins to the 5-year people. I'm so thrilled by this medallion concept.

Ahhhhh. It's so nice to get recognized every once in a while.

I'm So Torn

Sarah Vowell, my National Public Radio hero, the one who inspired me to get my minidisc recorder, and voice of "Violet," the incredible pre-teen Incredible, is coming to town on Thursday. I was all set to go see her and listen to her speak and buy her new book and hopefully get her autograph, but then Susan said she wasn't coming to class on Thursday and that Janet would be the substitute teacher and that we should all be there to work on Cranes.

I'm truly torn here. Sarah Vowell is legendary to me. I've spent countless hours listening to her stories and commentary on reruns of my favorite radio show, This American Life. I idolize her. She's got a funny high voice, she's opinionated, smart, quirky and most notably, cranky. I love her. But on the other hand, I love taiko. I've committed myself to taiko, and I know, even though it really pains me, that I have to go to class. I need work on Cranes and I've never missed a Janet class and I've already told myself that I'm going to work really really hard on taiko.

Sigh. What lousy timing.

Cupertino Cherry Blossom Festival

Yesterday we performed at the Cupertino Cherry Blossom Festival. It's a nice event with friendly people and a good-energy kind of crowd. It's really great when the crowd is supportive. We've never been booed before, but I remember once playing for a crowd that was eating dinner and they were completely ignoring us even though we were five feet away from them and playing a really loud and energetic song. Have you ever heard taiko? I mean, you can't ignore it even if you were deaf because when you play loud you feel it. Anyway. These people were great, and we did great, and we even invited everyone up for audience participation. They love it when we do that.

They also had really cool giant koinobori that were dancing in the wind all day:


Cupertino marks the end (for me) of the matsuri season. The cherry blossoms have blossomed and spring has sprung. Now it's time for me to really get down and learn new stuff. Janet has us learning a new song with lots of movement. This poses a new challenge for me because I'm clumsy. Or maybe the right term is "lanky." Or maybe it really is "clumsy." Because I'm tall--for taiko players anyway--I have to get lower than everyone else. That doesn't mean I simply bend over and fold myself in half, it means that I have to use my knees and keep my upper body nice and straight, and lower myself using real muscles. Imagine if you were standing and took one step forward with your left foot and kind of sunk down. Keep your weight centered and do this for a minute and you'll feel the burn. Keep your back straight and don't bend at the waist. Now wave your arms around madly and smile. That's taiko for you. Janet showed us a few of the movements and she told me to get lower. "No, go even lower," she said. "Lower. Can you go any lower?" After class Janet asked me if I had any problems with my knees and I told her no and I could tell by the look on her face that she won't show any mercy with me. And here I thought my whole life that being tall was a good thing. And I'm not even that tall. Also throw in the fact that I have to be graceful while holding this kind of squat. And on top of that, I have to look like I'm having fun. Well, that's the easy part, because I live for this.

She likes it! She really likes it!

I like taiko. I love taiko. Duh. Read my blog for like 2 mircoseconds and it will become painfully obvious. But this week, I'm scheduled to have taiko 6 or 7 days in a row. Monday is performing group. Tuesday and Thursday are the intermediate classes. Wednesday no one volunteered (yet) to assist the beginners, so I have to go because this month I am "IT" which means it's my responsibility to make sure every beginning class has an assistant and if I can't find anyone, then I'm IT. Friday we sometimes have optional Performing group practice. Last Friday, no one opted to come to practice but me, so I had Janet all to myself, and that was wonderful. We'll see if we've got practice again. Saturday is rehearsal for the Cupertino Cherry Blossom Festival. And Sunday is the festival itself, so you see, I really am living out my taiko group's motto, which is Eat, Sleep, Taiko. Not that I'm complaining. I'm just curious to see how I hold up on Sunday.

Eh, I did wha last week?

This past week has been a blur. Sunday was great with the festival and all, but come monday I was feeling awful. My teacher brought back her cold direct from Japan and promptly gave it to me. I was even telling my co-worker: "Oh, I haven't been sick for like 2 or 3 years now! I'm so healthy. I think it would be great to stay home and eat soup and watch court tv . . . blah blah blah." Well I got what I asked for. I fought and fought until Thursday, but by then I had to stay in bed. I think I turned into a snail--moving slow and producing a ton of slime. I'm coughing and my voice lowered two or three octaves--like Marge Simpson. I think I even infected my entire office. Ha! Or maybe not.

Tomorrow I have class again, and I don't have my complete solo. I have 5 bars out of 8. I may be able to fake the last 3 bars. Why not?

Oh, and while I was in my own little sick-world, the Taiko Conference finally posted workshops, and the Summer Taiko Institute finally opened up for applications. I'm in like Flynn. I'll be taking 5 workshops for STI, and I'm trying to figure out how to register for Taiko Conference since their website is still a little funky. It's gonna be a taiko-filled week down in LA.

Morgan Hill Haru Matsuri

It's been a long taiko weekend. On Saturday I was at the dojo early to assist the beginning class, then we had a rehearsal for today's performance in Morgan Hill. You would think that the hardest part about playing taiko is memorizing the songs or playing solos. But really, the hardest part about putting on a performance is getting all those drums from the dojo to wherever you're going. We have a giant van we call the Taikomobile, and believe it or not, we fit almost all of our drums and equipment in there. Everything you see in the picture was in that van, and all of it needs to be moved from the dojo, to the van, to that staging area there in the picture, and then it all goes on stage, and then we have to get it all back in the van and back to the dojo. Drums are pretty heavy--most people can carry them by themselves, but it can be exhausting sometimes. Usually after I move drums, I discover small bruises on my legs, but I never really know how I get them.

The performance itself was good. We were genki (spirited, lively) and we dropped bachi (drumsticks) and had fun. I don't have any pics of myself or the group playing because I was in all the songs, but maybe someone out there has something I can post later.

Oh, and not all the drums could fit in the van, so I decided to help out by giving a couple of shime a ride home. They get to stay with me until Tuesday. My fantasy would be to actually have a shime of my own, and here I am living out my fantasy:



Of course, I can't really play them in the house, but I can look at them. Look how pretty they are. I like the one on the right. That baby came all the way from Japan.