MARCH 1, 2009
In the morning, we went back to the Wang Center, where we had our show, to load out our equipment. Bryan, Jen, Tomomi, and I drove from Stony Brook, NY to Philadelphia, PA. Maz, Jason, and Courtney stayed one extra day in Stony Brook to give a workshop.
When we got to Philadelphia, we met Gayle, the Executive Director of the Asian Arts Initiative. She is also Bryan's long time friend. :) Gayle is an awesome woman, for not only doing what she does with the AAI, but for letting the 4 of us homestay at her place.
We had an Omiyage workshop scheduled right when we got in, so we QUICKLY went out to get take-out pho and ate it while we waited for Kyo Daiko members to arrive.
Tomomi, Jen, and Bryan eating Pho~!
Maz came out here a while ago to workshop parts of Omiyage before, so we just started where he left off.
That night, we went to Gayle's place. She asked us if we were hungry, and of course, we said yes. She suggested this Ethiopian restaurant down the street from her place. I've never had Ethiopian food, so I was very curious. Bryan and Gayle went to get the food and brought it back... since we were pretty tired from traveling and workshopping.
This is Gayle explaining how to eat Ethiopian food. It was deeeeeelicious!
That night, Maz, Jason, and Courtney arrived in Philly. They stayed with Kathy and went straight there, so I didn't get to see them... but it was nice to know that they made it to PA safely.
MARCH 2, 2009
We woke up and were amazed at all the snow that had piled up! It was SO COLD!!!! I know, I know... we Los Angeles people say that it's SO COLD when it's like 60 degrees... but really, it was SNOWING and it was freezing!!!!
This was the windshield AFTER we scraped it off with a wrench... which is all we could find to scrape ice off.
We made our way to the Asian Arts Initiative for a quick TV media performance.
Then, we ate with some of the Kyo Daiko folks. The wonton noodle soup was so good! We were stuffed... and when we're stuffed, we get sleepy. So, we took naps.
After our nap, the girls (Tomomi, Courtney, Jen and I) decided to walk to the Liberty Bell.
This is a mural that's basically across the street from AAI. The portrait on the very right is supposed to be Gayle!
We walked in the freezing cold and finally made it to the Liberty Bell.... only to find out that it was CLOSED for the rest of the day because of the weather!!!!!! But... we were able to see it through the glass window they have on the side of the building...
So, we stared at the Liberty Bell through a window...
We heard that, out here in the East Coast... Dunkin' Donuts coffees were pretty good, so we went in to get some! We decided to get their "Dunkachinos" which was part coffee and part hot chocolate! YUMM!
Tomomi, Courtney, and Jen with their Dunkachinos!
It was perfect on this cold cold day.
We made it back just in time to workshop with Kyo Daiko again. They worked really hard to learn Omiyage for their upcoming performance in April.
We all went back to Gayle's place, talked through the school show for the next day, and called it a night.
MARCH 3, 2009
Jen, Courtney, Tomomi, Jason, and I had a school show to do at Holy Redeemer School.
Afterwards, we had lunch with the Asian Arts Initiative staff and got ready for a beginners workshop. The workshop was really fun and the people who came out were great. 95% of the people who came out have never played before, but left being able to play a mini-song with the first line of Renshu and Oroshi with Kiai's!
This is a group shot with some of the participants.
Afterwards, we decided we HAD to get a Philly cheesesteak in Philly...
MMM!!!!!!!
Tomomi enjoying her first bite...
TP eating Philly cheesesteaks!
March 4, 2009
I'll have to blog about this later... this is "Walking Around NY #2"
March 5, 2009
We had our final workshop with Kyo Daiko to put everything together for their version of Omiyage that they will play in April. They did awesome and learned a lot this week. It's so crazy to know that Omiyage will be played by a group in Philly... I think it's amazing that Shoji decided to write a piece that all groups can play and spread it across the taiko community. I can't wait to see Kyo Daiko's performance of it on YouTube!!!
March 6, 2009
Show day!! We went to the Annenberg Center for the Arts - Zellerbach Theater in the morning to tech and prep for the show.
Here's another set of pictures of us before the show!
Courtney and Jen... hair and makeup time!
Tomomi and me... ready to go!
The show went great and we QUICKLY loaded out, since we had to drive to Connecticut the very next day for another show.
And that's the end of our time in Philadelphia.
We had a great time... we experienced East Coast coldness... and ate lots and lots of food!
Here's a picture of Kyo Daiko and TAIKOPROJECT.
Thanks for reading!
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