Hi there, folks! TAIKOPROJECT is just finishing up a whirlwind week of taiko, which culminated in our Rhythmic Relations 2011 concert on the JACCC Plaza. But...that is neither here, nor there. I'm here to tell you about our trip to Folsom to perform at the brand new performing arts center,
Three Stages at Folsom Lake College. It's an absolutely gorgeous venue in which it was a pleasure to perform. And...it was my first (re)generation show! Oh, thank you, thank you -- your applause is too kind.
On the evening before the show, Andrew, Emily, and I assisted Bryan in offering a workshop to some of the concert attendees in the Black Box, an intimate space that was perfect for teaching. They learned about basic playing technique, some of the patterns that we frequently use, and even learned a drill with multiple parts that they could play together as an ensemble. Afterward, the four of us performed a shortened version of Tsunami, which had everyone smiling, nodding...and covering their ears.
The next day, after the rest of the group had arrived, we did our tech rehearsal and run-through for the show. Feeling prepared, we took a break to eat, get changed, and allow everyone to indulge in preconcert rituals. For this show, my preconcert ritual involved pulling a shime with Kevin. If I might accommodate my ego just a bit, I have to say we did an amazing job. The show that night was a great success, with our workshop friends in the audience along with the renowned Tiffany Tamaribuchi, sensei of
Sacramento Taiko Dan. Thanks to everyone who came to the show!
I would be remiss in not relating the details of our trip up to Folsom, because what started off as an ordinary (albeit long) drive up north turned into an ordeal of statistically improbable and comical proportions. It's quite lengthy, but if you're curious, keep reading.
It began one temperate Thursday morning. To avoid taking up parking spaces at Higashi, Andrew drove to my house and Bryan and Emily picked us up from there. We drove to Higashi to load equipment into the trailer and then set out on the trip north.
All was going swimmingly until we noticed signs mentioning a fire somewhere near Valencia. At that point, we hit remarkable traffic because several lanes of the highway had to be closed. But...this is Los Angeles, so that's not particularly out of the ordinary. I've occasionally been caught in traffic here at 2 am.
Once we managed to get past the bottleneck, we stopped off for some lunch at...CHICK-FIL-A! I could barely contain my excitement. For those of you who aren't familiar, I recommend you to do some research with your taste buds. We enjoyed a delicious lunch before getting some gas and setting out again.
Several hours later driving north on I-5, the car started lurching forward before intermittently losing power. Eventually, the car simply wouldn't respond any more, so Bryan pulled over to the shoulder of the highway. He and I (carefully) got out and took a look under the hood to see if we could diagnose the problem. We checked the oil, which happened to be low, but Bryan had a stash in his car, so we added some. Everything else seemed to be normal, and after checking under the chassis, we tried to start the car again.
No dice. It wouldn't even turn on! Now, those of you who are in the know may be thinking at this moment, "But David, didn't you study Mechanical Engineering?" And it is at this point that I would like to let you know that I'm not that kind of ME, so I wasn't particularly helpful. Bryan called AAA and after about an hour of figuring out where we were, what rental options were available (that could pull a trailer full of equipment), and how to get a tow truck out to us, we had come up with a plan.
Bryan and Andrew would take a taxi to the nearest U-Haul to get a truck that could pull the trailer. Emily and I would go with the tow truck to take Bryan's car to the nearest repair shop, which happened to be about an hour north in downtown Stockton. After waiting another 30-40 minutes and beginning to wonder if either taxi or tow truck would actually come, they both showed up at the same time and we said our temporary farewells to each other and to our poor trailer.
Bryan and Andrew acquire vehicles
After the taxi stopped about 125 meters down past us on the highway, Bryan and Andrew carefully traversed the shoulder of the I-5 (at night, mind you) to head to the U-Haul. Once they got in, the taxi driver, in his best rendition of
Crazy Taxi proceeded to pull a U-turn at one of the areas normally designated for Highway Patrol officers. They made it to the rental office, where the proprietors had stayed open just for us (thank you!) and managed to get a truck that could pull the trailer.
After contacting Maz's uncle Jerry, who allowed us to borrow his car, they were able to return to the trailer and get it hitched up, while Andrew drove the car up north to extract Emily and I from Stockton. Bryan drove solo with the trailer and experienced an uncanny amount of exit closures, blockages, and other obstacles to getting to our final destination. I can only imagine the frustration...
Emily and David are not in Kansas anymore...
Once Bryan's 4Runner was saddled up on top of the tow truck, we set out on the long ride north to Stockton. Driving a tow truck always seemed like a solitary life to me, and now I know that that's only half true. It does seem like a lot of alone time in the truck, but the radio chatter that we heard was really funny. I guess these guys have to entertain themselves somehow.
By the time we got to the repair shop, it was already closed for the night. We had the keys to the car, but couldn't take them with us since the shop would need them in the morning. Searching around the perimeter of the shop for a place to hide the keys, we didn't find anywhere useful, but did notice suspicious holes in the windows and doors of the shop. Hopefully they were made by rocks...
Finally, I spied a small empty box of fuses on the top of a trash can, so I grabbed that and put in the keys. We then tossed it inside a gate into a bush and took some notes so we could tell the shop people where to find it. We wanted to wait at a Starbucks for Andrew, so we used Emily's phone to locate one. We followed the map to the location marked and ended up walking through a park that, at night at least, seemed like something out of a Tim Burton film filled with questionable characters. After skirting a couple of large, ornery dogs and shadowy figures standing on corners, we finally found ourselves...in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
We happened to have chosen a Starbucks with an incorrect map address, so, choosing another one, we set out again to try to find a reasonably safe place to wait. When we arrived, we saw that it had already closed, so we went next door to the Cold Stone to use the restroom and have some ice cream. After another brief run in with a woman who seemed, well...not all there, we decided to find a bench outside in the atrium to sit and wait. Only a few minutes had passed before I heard from the top of a nearby parking structure, "I'm going to jump!" at which point I began to wonder if we were in some kind of dark comedy of errors. Shortly thereafter, we got a call that the cavalry had come directly: Andrew was there to pick us up!
To the Hotel!
Andrew, Emily, and I headed north mostly without event until we finally reached Folsom. Once we got into town, though, we were kind of lost -- and driving like it: stopping, driving slowly, changing lanes abruptly, etc. We finally thought we'd figured out where to go when, after making a turn, we were greeted with an eruption of blue and red light in our rear-view mirror.
What else could go wrong? we thought. The officer stepped up to my side of the car and asked us if we'd had anything to drink. We told him that we were just lost and trying to find our way, after which he asked to see Andrew's license and the registration for the car. After explaining that the reason the registration had a different name was because we were from out of town and borrowing the car (which he thankfully didn't question), he gave us directions the rest of the way to the hotel. Over fourteen hours after the start of our trip, we had arrived!
The Los Banos 4 Reunited
We met Bryan after he arrived at the hotel with the trailer. By that time, it was 12:30 am or so, so there wasn't much open. We drove around for about 10 minutes before finding
T2 Yan, a late-night Chinese food restaurant. It was quite lively inside, with loud club music splitting time with locals belting out their favorite karaoke hits. But it was open and the food was good, so we couldn't complain. We were just happy to have made it through the day.
So, that's it! If you've made it this far, I salute you. And for those of you in the tl;dr crowd: The Folsom show was a success, but we sure had a crazy time getting up there!
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