Onsen

I'll take one of these please. And maybe one of those cold-water dunking tubs too. And maybe the excellent company of the Kasa/mix ladies too.

Ouchie

I have a neck/shoulder ache from Hell. These things last several days. It's hard to sleep and even harder to look over my shoulder to change lanes.

I am so glad I have a bye week from taiko classes.

I just wish I could spend these days in the onsen. That would fix everything.

Between You and Me

Here is a video from Fright Night. I'm only showing this to you because you're either a friend, or related to me, or because you took the trouble of coming all the way out here to this corner of the internet universe.  This is not something I'd show to just anyone. No way. This is a side of me you'll never see anywhere else and you are free to laugh you're butt off,  but just don't remind me of this later and don't ask for an encore. Enjoy. I think Crissy and Janet are hilarious!

Handedness

I don't think that my left hand is a part of my body. 

I don't. 

How could a part of my body be so foreign to me? How could a part of my body completely disown me and pretend to not know me altogether? I mean really, my brain is the boss, right? Why then when I ask my right hand to play something it completely agrees with my brain, while my left hand pretends that it hadn't heard the command? Why doesn't it follow orders? Why the adolescent delay? You know how it was when you were a teenager and your parents told you to do something, and you were like, OK, but not because I want to, but then you did it anyway, because you had to. That's my left hand. And it's not like I'm asking it to do anything weird. I'm not asking it to dress up and wear pastel shirts with shoulder pads to their 8th grade picture day or anything (speaking from experience). Mostly I want it to do the same thing the right hand just did, but in rhythmical time. My left hand is such a punk. 

I've been working on sticking drills and I just can't get my left to keep up with my right. The only thing that gives me hope is that Michaelle said she still can't get her left hand to do what she wants--and she practices every day. Ok then. And still I bet that her left hand keeps better time than my right, hands down (get it? get it?).

My newest obsession is trying to get my double bounce roll to sound good. What trips me out is switching from those skinny western sticks to bachi.  Going from western sticks to bachi is like trying to floss with rope, or trying to eat with a ladle instead of a spoon, or wearing clown shoes to a marathon. Do you see where I'm going? But it's good though, because the skills still carry over. Michaelle said it's the technique that shines through, and no matter what you play, if you don't have the skills, then it doesn't matter. 

Which means I need to get busy with my practicing. Every day.

I'm Learning the Conga!

I'm learning the conga and it is so much fun! I think the funnest part is that my brain is being forced to learn rhythm in a completely new way.  Instead of playing with sticks, I'm using my hands, and there is this heel-toe thing that is new to me. I feel like I'm getting two hits for the price of one and it totally throws me off--but in a good way. And we're learning the music in a more methodical, counting fashion. Not that there's anything wrong with kuchi shoga, but I'm actually learning things I already know but from a new perspective. Like tonight I was learning a bell pattern that had been taught to me two different ways before, but now it was this entirely new way, and it made so much more sense. It's refreshing, and I like it. Also when my teacher thinks that I've got a pattern, she likes to push me a little harder, and while the rest of the class is working on a rhythm, she'll reach out and tap me on the arm and motion to her hands, and I'll realize all of a sudden that she is introducing a variation, so I'll have to start playing the same rhythm, but a little more difficult and interesting. I like the way she doesn't have to say anything to teach me new things. I really appreciate that there are people in this world who push me. And Michaelle barely knows me, but she pushes me, and I am thankful for that.

Playing with my hands is a trip. I've been so busy at work shuffling papers, and when you move paper around like that you get hands full of paper cuts. I've got a particularly nasty one that I was afraid was going to pop open tonight, but it didn't, and phew!

I've also been trying to take our notation sheets (So helpful! So un-taiko!) and playing with my new garageband software to get the sounds recorded so I can hear them. I can't read western notation very well, but I'm learning! This class is great! I think I feel my brain growing.