Nishi Obon

On July 10, we had a joint performance with Kitsune and the Chibis at the Nishi Hongwanji Obon. We met early at Higashi to run through some of the songs together before we headed over to Nishi. The Kitsune and Chibi parents were a huge help in transporting drums and people over to Nishi, so Thank You Kitsune and Chibi parents for all of your help!

Once we arrived at Nishi, we unloaded all of the equipment and got ready for the performance. Like most Obons, it was REALLY hot, but luckily the stage we performed on was covered so we were in the shade. There was also a nice covered seating area for people to sit and watch performances throughout the day.

The performance went well! That was the first time I performed with Kitsune and the Chibis outside of Rhythmic Relations so it was a lot of fun performing with them. They all did a really great job. We had a few slight mishaps with setting drums, which included some of the drums being set too close causing Sean and Kyle from Kitsune to almost hit each other and Jenny playing Expanding with her set backwards, but it all worked out ok. I don't think the audience could tell. Overall, it was a fun and successful performance. Thanks to Nishi for having us!

Adventures in Coeur d'Alene

The first stop on our glorious tour through the American Pacific Northwest was beautiful and green Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. This is where I had the rare chance to really get to know some wonderful ladies during the black of night in a new children’s recreation center. I realize this sounds like an odd experience. So, allow me to explain further…

Bryan, Brian, Yuri and I arrived at North Idaho College, after an afternoon of air and compact car travel, at about 9:30pm on August 5th. We pulled up to the outdoor stage just as David and Maz were sound-checking the last piece in preparation for the show that was to take place the following day. It looked like they were wrapping up, so we left everything in the car and went out to help. At the end of the sound check, we worked together to put all of the equipment into the recreation center, directly behind the stage, for the evening.

Hunger set in midway through clean-up, and we decided to get some dinner as soon as we were through. I remember mentioning during that discussion, probably because I was delirious and not using my brain filter, that I had had the urge to use the ladies room all afternoon, but with no success. Travel woes… Finally, as the last few pieces of equipment were being tucked away into our storage hallway, I thought I felt success coming on.

“David,” I said jokingly as I ran into the ladies room, “I’m going to use the restroom. Don’t leave without me!” As you probably guessed, I had no success. But that’s not all.

As I exited and re-entered the empty storage hallway, I thought I heard voices at the back of the center. I walked back into the dark area only to find the voices of the ladies who would later be my heroes. “They must already be outside,” I thought as walked to the door.

When I got there, the car and Taiko Project van were gone! I thought I saw the taillights of the van exiting the parking lot, but I couldn’t be sure. Of course, my phone was in the car. I ran to the tech guy nearest me and asked if he had Maz or Bryan’s cell phone number. He did not.

This is normally when the adrenaline would build up and one’s fight or flight instincts might kick in. If this happened to me, I didn’t feel it. I felt like a sleepy zombie as I wandered back into the recreation center to escape the bugs and plan my escape. I thought hard, and finally remembered that there was a gig sheet, with the necessary phone numbers, in the merchandise box in the hallway. Unluckily for me, the merchandise box was at the bottom of the equipment pile. “Oh well,” I thought as I began to dig it out.

As I was digging, the ladies I heard before came over and offered their assistance. I said I was fine, and that I was just looking for a document. I didn’t want to tell them I was in a bit of a pickle. I remembered, however, that once I had the phone numbers, I’d need to find a phone. And, they started to ask why I was the only one left. So I gave in and explained what I was doing. All three of them immediately offered their cell phones for me to use, and kept me company with great conversation while I dug. It was then that I felt it appropriate to laugh with them at this rare situation.

I will never forget the surprise and disbelief in the “WHAT!” I heard in Maz’s voice as I told him what had happened. He immediately turned around and was back, along with David and Yuri, within 10 minutes. I also will never forget the hug and apology (it was as if I had almost died!) from David as he jumped out of the van with a scared look on his face.

This was actually not a bad experience, but one that I thought I needed to share. After all, almost immediately after this most interesting part of the trip, a tweet to the world announced the story for all to read. I figured I better explain a bit further. I feel lucky to have met and chatted with these three wonderful ladies and two unique tech guys as I waited for my teammates to return. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to experience the North Idaho College green at night. And, I feel extra lucky to have great teammates who came back for me! They could have very well ignored the call. ☺ Overall, it was a great evening. I suggest everyone try it sometime.

TAIKOPROJECT Ventures Out to the U.K.!

Hi Everyone!

Hope everyone out there is doing well! And for those who had a chance to go out to the North American Taiko Conference, I hope you enjoyed your time there as well! This summer has been pretty busy for TP with Rhythmic Relations, taiko conference, obons, AND our tour out to the United Kingdom!

This summer we had the opportunity to go out and tour in Europe. Bryan, Maz, Jen, Courtney and myself headed out to the U.K. in July shortly after Rhythmic Relations. The tour consisted of LOTS of travel time on the plane and buses, as well as watching other taiko groups perform in the Taiko Festival. Once we landed in Heathrow, we drove to Exeter to meet members of Kagemusha Taiko. We finally met Jonathan Kirby, the founder of Kagemusha Taiko. We also had the opportunity to share the stage with Kagemusha Taiko during our performance which was also part of the Taiko Festival in Exeter.
Although our trip in Exeter was short, we had many great adventures that included trying out all types of beers, enjoying the famous "cream tea," leading two workshops, and meeting people from different sides of the country! Thank you Jonathan, Oliver and the Kagemusha family for making TP feel so welcomed! We hope to see you all again soon!

Nisei Week Closing Ceremonies!

On August 21, we performed for the first time at the Nisei Week Closing Ceremonies in the middle of 1st Street in Little Tokyo. We had a little bit of fun rearranging some of our pieces to perform "in the round" with audience members around us 360 degrees. We did The Stroll circling around our Ohiradaiko, and then a first-time ever arrangement of Expanding dubbed "Circular Expanding" with everyone arranged in a circle facing outwards!

As usual, there were a ton of photographers there. Here are a few photos that were posted recently on Flickr--courtesy of Grant Palmer and Albert Lien:

Weddings Weddings Weddings

It is definitely a summer of love as TAIKOPROJECT has worked to make a few people's special day perfect with our unique energy. TP has recently had the pleasure of performing at two weddings this past month in Garden Grove and most recently, Redondo Beach. It's always interesting to see how each bride and groom envisions taiko as a part of their wedding day, whether it is a performance for the guests at the reception or more recently, as live music during the processional and recessional. Glad we could be a part of such wonderful memories for the newlyweds and their guests - CONGRATULATIONS!

Stand Bags!

We just received a new custom set of stand bags from Toni Yagami for our Miyoshi Odaiko stand. I designed it with Toni so that we can pack it up and load it up for gigs quick and fast, and hopefully keep damage on it to a minimum!

Here is our Miyoshi Odaiko stand put together.



As some of you who have Miyoshi Odaiko stands (made by the inimitable Mark Miyoshi of Mt. Shasta, CA) know, his Odaiko stands break down into two main parts. Like so...



So, obviously, two custom bags were needed. Here's the first one, a small bag for the "cradle" or "heart" piece of the stand



The second bag is for the four legs. Toni and I went back and forth on how to design this one--looking at bags for "EZ Ups" and trying to figure out how to best make it work. Here the legs slide in and fit together snugly.



The issue was the casters. As you can see they swing around in a circle, and stick out a few inches, so the opening to the bag needed to widen out a bit in order to make sure that the bag could still close with the casters.



But the bags work great! Everything fits and now we can transport our Miyoshi Odaiko stand with ease and grace.



Thanks Toni! I still have to post photos of the shime stand bags and okedo stand bags...I'll do that soon, but seriously, I think all stands and taiko drums should come with a Toni-made bag when you first get it!

-Bryan

Helping Mayor Yamauchi Celebrate (x3!)

On Friday, August 5th, Taikoproject was lucky enough to help Mayor of Alhambra, the Honorable Gary Yamauchi, celebrate three momentous occasions: his second term as mayor, his birthday, and the 20th Anniversary of Tri-Star, one of the largest independent vending companies in Southern California that he founded and owns. It was a triple celebration!

The performers of the evening were Andrew, Courtney, Darren, Emily, and me. It would have almost been an ABCDE ordering of performers, but Courtney and I are both "Cs." So Courtney declared I would have to be Bandice for the night to fulfill the alphabetical ordering. (Why not Bourtney?)

We performed Many Sides at the celebration, and the event coordinators (one of whom was the lovely and amazing Ms. June Kuramoto) were kind enough to have provided us with seats at one of the tables so we could have dinner and stay for the event.

We listened to Congresswoman of the 32nd District Judy Chu pay her respects to the Mayor and his accomplishments, and sat down to a very appetizing and yum prime rib dinner. Mayor Yamauchi also made some remarks, and all in all it was a fun night for us. The City of Alhambra has such a great mayor and a great community, and the five of us were so glad to have been a part of it all that night.

Special thanks to June Kuramoto for all of her help and a big congratulations to Mayor Yamauchi!

TP + Vicci Martinez = The Voice Amazingness

TAIKOPROJECT Rocks the Socks Off NBC's "The Voice"

Did you happen to check out NBC's "The Voice" last Tuesday, June 21st? If you did, you may have noticed six war-painted burly bodies rocking out on okedos to Vicci Martinez's killer performance of Florence and the Machine's "The Dog Days Are Over".

Kickin' it on stage with Vicci, The Voice's sultry blues singer from Tacoma, Washington, TAIKOPROJECT put the beat into judges Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton, and Cee Lo Green with the heartbeat of our okedo while Vicci belted out words that brought the audience to their feet. In a spectacle that coach Cee Lo deemed "The most powerful performance of the night," Vicci and the TAIKOPROJECT locked down a rock-and-roll beat while our warrior paint and Vicci's up-do put the soul into the song.

Meeting Vicci was amazingly enjoyable because she was so down to earth and personable! It was extremely refreshing to work with someone who was engaging and excited to have us on stage with her for such a huge event. I personally hope she goes all the way and takes the finals, and I know the rest of the cast feels the same way.

Although being on stage with Vicci in front of huge stars such as Christina Aguilera and Adam Levine left me a bit starstruck, I think I enjoyed the process as much as the actual performance. Getting ready, rehearsing on stage with direction from our choreographer Hi-Hat (the same choreographer we worked with for the Grammy's gig), and watching all the contestants prepare for the show was just as fulfilling for me as actually being on stage performing. We got professional make-up artists to slather war paint all over our arms and faces, we ate some of the best craft services food I've had in a while, and we even had our own air-conditioned green room!

We arrived at Warner Bros Studios on Tuesday and were taken immediately to get painted. We had no idea it was going to take approximately 45min per person... The result was well worth it though. Check out our red carpet Hollywood shots!

And on to the individual shots. Give me some close ups!

Josh	Andrew
Maz	David
Bryan	Kevin

Here's the gang in front of Warner Bros Studios, getting ready to go on.

After five full days of rehearsals, costume fitting, and militaristic marching, we went on stage with Vicci and absolutely blew the house up. Vicci even borrowed two of our smaller okedos which she used to jam out and get that added rocker effect. I think it worked quite well - what do you think? Check out the video below and see if you can spot who's who!

This performance was special for me because I absolutely love movies, TV, and entertainment, so being on the Warner Bros sets was like putting together peanut butter and chocolate - it just felt right. I'm going to remember this one for a long, long time :)

TAIKOPROJECT:(re)generation in Folsom, CA

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!

The Adventure
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!

Qualcomm Uplinq: June 1st, 2011

TAIKOPROJECT and a few friends took a quick trip down to the sunny San Diego Manchester Grant Hyatt Hotel to perform at the 2011 Uplinq Conference hosted by Qualcomm. According to the website, "Uplinq is the only wireless ecosystem conference that brings together developers and publishers, device makes, OS and technology providers, and network operators to build business around high-quality, compelling mobile apps and data services". Here's a cool picture that Andrew took of the incredible projection screen setup!

Bryan, Maz, David, TP friends Jason and Kelvin, and I all drove down early on May 31st to load in and attend the first rehearsal. Once we arrived, we met with our presenter, Anthony, who walked us through our assignments. Anthony is so great. He's very hospitable and welcoming, so it was a pleasure working with him! After the rehearsal, we walked to a nearby outdoor mall for lunch. Seaport Village is home to various eateries that serve Mexican, Greek, and traditional "American" cuisine. I ordered the rolled chicken tacos, smothered in guacamole and cheese. Yum!

We walked back to the hotel and checked into our own comfy rooms, where we rested until later that evening . Soon after, Andrew, Yuri, Doug, and TP friend Joe arrived and joined us for the second rehearsal. Following the rehearsal, we sat down for a wonderful dinner at the hotel. It was at this dinner that we discovered David's fascinating eating habits! Poor David suffered through many of Bryan's attempts at sabotaging his perfectly separated portions. :( Fortunately, the rest of us aren't too concerned about our food touching, so Bryan didn't bother us. This was our dinner: jicama mango salad, tortilla soup, baked mac and cheese, and beef ribs!

After dinner, several of us decided to take a stroll through the famous Gaslamp Quarter. Jason really wanted to go dancing, but sadly he was the only one. The majority of us were already exhausted from the long day of loading in and rehearsals.

The next morning, we woke up bright and early to perform at the opening of the conference. Instead of wearing our signature TP outfits, we wore casual black button-down tops and slacks. We were positioned at several locations throughout the audience, designated by colorful spotlights that illuminated us as we played. Our assignment was to play along to a track that accompanied an inspirational spoken word video. The video was only about 90 seconds long, so the performance was over before we knew it! We returned at the end of the opening to do a short rendition of "Here We Go Now!".

To celebrate, the whole San Diego cast went to Andrew's parents' restaurant, Choice of Mandarin. We stuffed ourselves with spicy tofu, fried rice, sauteed beef, and Maz's favorite, honey walnut shrimp!

Here's Maz in front of the restaurant!

The meal was extremely satisfying, and it was so nice to finally meet Andrew's parents. Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Chen! We hope to see you both again soon!