I cannot believe the amazing taiko opportunities that 2009 has brought me. I was lucky enough to have played in at least 33 shows. Each one taught me something about taiko, performance or myself. I decided to write down a thought about each one as way to summarize my year.
My snow driving [...]

Author’s note: I wrote the following shortly after our 15th anniversary concert (reVISION on May 30 and 31), but found myself feeling shy about sharing this with the world, so I didn’t publish it right away.
Just over a week has passed since ONE’s 15th anniversary concert, reVISION. Everyday life is flowing by so fast [...]

For Juni:
She will paint you a musical story,
Of troops in all of their glory.
But tales of daring
Are not all she’s sharing.
She’ll throw in some goofiness, too.
On Yui, she’s totally groovin’
She’s got the whole audience movin’.
With a flip of a stick,
And her grin that’s so quick,
She inspires the whole taiko crew.
I’m sure that you’ve figured out [...]

Shin-En Revisioned
Doing fast triplets is hard
Most of us couldn’t
Colorful obi
We debated at great length
Finally, yellow
I wait nervously
When do I come in again?
I think I missed it
Cello, take, gong
Hira, vocals, Thunder God
It’s Kaminari
Senryu stands waiting
Sheilarae and Greg spaced out
All’s well that ends well

reVISION concert
a powerful performance
Mark and Juni proud
–Dave Buerger
Lying on sofa
Strong coffee, good book and cat.
Nothing else to do.
–Sheilarae Lau
Counting my bruises
Bags and circles under eyes
When is my massage?
–Kate Jurow
Carry Odaiko
on Saturday and Sunday
Muscle pain Monday
–Dave Buerger
Full throttle weekend
Ends with flowers and hugs
Then cozy napping
–Jasmine Hall

Our 15th Anniversary Concert, reVISION, is one week from today, yet all the many hours of rehearsal together haven’t quelled my joy for my taiko buddies! It had been 39 hours since we last saw each other, so we got together for Star Trek and Chili’s.
See, we DO watch other things besides the many [...]