Monthly Archive for August, 2006

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Shamisen Workshop

Luke and I went to a Shamisen workshop led by Kevin and Takemi Hirohara.

Last year, when Ryo Hagiwara and Pierre Ono came, all the chairs were full and it was a full house. The workshop lasted an well over an hour.

Well, this year, The turnout was much lower. It was pretty much me, Luke, the teachers, and the guys who I played with at the Cabrillo fest.

The last workshop worked like this: The performers play for a while and afterwards, the answer questions and at the end, you get to try out the instrument. Well, this year, since nobody came, they skipped the concert and we all played! (which I perfered ’cause I’d rather play than lisen)

Tomorrows the Karate Tournament.

Tsugaru Jongara Bushi – Shamisen

So, as you know, I played at that Cabrillo Art, Wine and Music Festival. Afterwards, my teacher (Kevin Kmetz) played some tunes. Here he is playing Tsugaru Jongara (or Jonkara depending where you’re from) Bushi.

Peanut Cereal

Uuuugghh. . . I had an interesting dinner.

We had fruit salad and I thought, “boy, Grape Nuts would sure go good with this.” We didn’t have any cereal but we didn’t have any so I thought, “I like really like Peanuts, I’ll just have a bowl of that instead.” So I got a bowl and a jar of roasted, salted peanuts and put ‘em in the bowl with some powdered Ghirardelli cocoa and some corn syrup (so it sticks to the nuts). It tasted good for a while but Aaaaaugggghhh. . . I was soo full!

I recovered and suprisingly, I still like peanuts!

Rokudan Shamisen Ensemble

Here’s us doin’ Rokudan at the Cabrillo music festival.

I think I might’ve been a little too far from the mic.

Investor’s Business Daily

When I got my teeth pulled, I was out of commission for a little bit. At that time, there was a yard sale on our block and Ma got me two videos there (50 cents!) which I might want to watch while I was taking it easy: Cabin Boy and Maximizing Your Success.

Since I had seen Cabin Boy years ago, I passed that one by. I kept ‘Maximizing Your Success’ ’cause that would be good to watch ’cause it’s always good to see those financial things. Even just picking out little tid bits of info is important.

Well, today, I saw that tape sitting there on my desk unwatched for two months. Never opened. I thought, “By golly! It’s time to watch it!”

So, I popped it in the VCR and hit play. When I first turned it on, I was attentive and ready to hear financial lingo. Oddly though, when the guy started talking, my attention just went “ffffewww” *’over the head’ sound effect*. I quickly realized that this video was an infomercial about Investor’s Business Daily which is a publication all about stocks. Nothing terribly important was talked about on the video, they just said why I need to subscribe.

I wish I had the last hour of my life back.

. . . Augh! Can’t think negatively! I will say that the guy had a funny voice which was humorously positive!