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Last night, Shoji and I got into Eugene, OR to a pleasant surprise. We ended up staying with our long time family friends, Misa Joo and Will Doolittle. They cooked us an awesome chicken dinner with some fresh lettuce from their garden. Fresh food and home-cooked meals are the best when you’re on the road and eating nothing but restaurant food. They also took us to a nice coffee shop with some really great pastries. Eugene is a cool, little town! Of course there is the University of Oregon, but we found out that there are a lot of performing venues! And, we now have another nice place to stay along I-5. Thanks so much Misa and Will for hosting us!

This morning and afternoon, we did two workshops for Eugene Taiko and Waka Taiko. It was a great group of people. The kids from Waka Taiko hung in there for the whole five hours! Big thanks to Lois Yoshishige for helping us organize the workshop.

Tonight, we’re in Mt. Shasta. Unfortunately, my parents have a performance in Grants Pass, OR, but my second parents (Shoji’s parents) made us another awesome home-cooked meal. Tomorrow, we’re off to home!!!

I’ve been doing some research on trailer parks and I’m excited to learn that they’re a viable option. (more…)

Our next performance is Saturday, September 13th at 7:30pm in Oceanside, CA. We’ll be part of the Oceanside Public Library’s World Music Series. We’ll be performing a full concert program at the Sunshine Brooks Theater located 217 North Coast Highway, Oceanside, CA 92054.

Thanks to the sponsorship by the Friends of the Oceanside Public Library, tickets are only $15 each for all ages. Due to limited seating at the theatres, advance ticket purchase is strongly recommended. Tickets can be purchased at the Civic Center Library or Mission Branch Library checkout desks. Free parking is available next door to the Civic Center Library in the Civic Center Parking Garage. Doors open at 7:00 p.m.; open seating (only). Performance time is 7:30 p.m.

Just finished up at the 2008 Western Arts Alliance Conference. This year we had three affiliated showcases and it was probably our most successful conference to date. Thank you to all the presenters and artists who came out to see our showcases! For artists one of the best parts of the conference is the opportunity to connect with other artists. Pioneering Asian American artists, Brenda Wong Aoki, Mark Izu, Janet Koike and Elaine Fong were at the conference showcasing their newest project. Long time On Ensemble collaborator Patrick Graham was also there showcasing with Autorickshaw an Indian influenced Juno nominated Jazz quartet based out of Toronto.

Right after we finished at WAA Maz and I drove up to Vancouver to give a workshop for Sawagi Taiko and Katari Taiko members. We don’t get to interact that much with the Vancouver Taiko scene so it was really great to connect with Sawagi and Katari Taiko. A huge thank you goes out to Linda Uyehara Hoffman for helping to bring us to Vancouver!

Today we’re driving down to Eugene for workshops with Eugene Taiko tomorrow evening. More later!