New Opportunities

Thought we'd have last Sunday to work on miscelanity, but turns out I got accosted by our Asian/Pacific Islander group here on campus and offered an opportunity for Maze Daiko to perform here at Mills College. I was totally skeptical about the logistic possibility of us doing the show, since it is fast approaching on April 3rd, but lo and behold, the clouds part in strange ways, and turns out we can all make it to the show. The only catch is that we only have one full rehearsal, plus one rehearsal at Janet's where we have to be mindful of the neighbors, and then that's it. But you know what? We're getting good at this, and I think we'll be ok. Last Sunday we were one person short, but still we worked on the school show component and we were OK. A little wonky, a little rusty, but OK. I feel pretty confident, and that's a good thing, isn't it?

In other news, I finally decided to contact Toni about making a case for my Baby and looks like Baby is going to get her first real grown-up outfit, er, I mean, a case. I love that furoshiki that I've been wrapping her up in, but she's outgrowing that. Or rather, that furoshiki was one of the last things my mother gave me, and I'd like to treat it a little better. Everyone means well, but sometimes I see people carry the shime by the furoshiki, rather than just lifting the whole thing. It's kind of like if you saw someone carrying a baby by her bib, rather than holding the whole baby, butt and neck-supporting the whole time. I can't complain, because if someone is lugging your drum for you, you can't really complain. It's best that I get a case made up for it. Especially if little ruffians are going to be grabbing--and dropping it once they realize how heavy and unstealable-on-bicycle that bonger of a shime my baby is. Pics when I get it. I'm excited.

Need to work on taiko in the mean time. Bean made a really good point the other week when she said that she felt like on the one hand you can execute taiko and play a song in front of people, scared out of your mind, and on the other hand, actually perform taiko easily but with your heart and soul and as a performance, rather than a simple execution. I'd like to get there. We drilled a simple backbeat pattern last week, and me and Carolyn were sweating and concentrating away, but when I looked up at Janet who was leading the drill, she was just smiling at us and making it look fun and easy. I'd like to get to that point.