For you Madeleine L'Engle fans...

...and I mean serious fans, check out this article from the New Yorker.

This will only be interesting to those people who have read her Crosswicks Journals, the Austin books, and the Time series.

Explains why she never wrote about Vicky or Charles Wallace/Rob as adults.

Hm.

In memoriam

Madeleine L'Engle
1918-2007


















One rainy, gloomy day, when I was about 12 years old, I discovered a dusty copy of this in my attic. I read it in one day. Since then, I've read this (and all of her other books) many times over.

This article from the Washington Post says it more eloquently:

L'Engle's 'Wrinkle' Smoothed Our Way

By Monica Hesse

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 10, 2007; Page C08

It was a dark and stormy night, and we fell in love with Meg Murry.

She was a sour social misfit, an underachieving mathlete -- the improbable antihero of Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time" in an era when most kid-lit heroines were wholesome Nan Bobbseys. Though L'Engle, who died on Thursday, wrote more than 50 novels, to those who loved the Murry family her other works seemed interesting side projects, the equivalent of discovering that Beethoven had also enjoyed cooking. "Wrinkle" and its four fantastical sequels were her masterpieces and our revelations.

"A Wrinkle in Time" was not the sort of book you were assigned in school; with its New Testament quotations and witchy supporting characters it was at once too Christian and too blasphemous. It was the sort of book you discovered on your own, shelved as it was in the big kids' section, and that you read ferociously into the night with a mug of Swiss Miss -- a replica of Meg's homemade cocoa. You didn't talk about the book at school. Meg's awkwardness, her anger, her imperfections were too intensely private, too attuned to your own gangly self-loathing. As with "Bridge to Terabithia" or the Ramona Quimby series, you wondered, perhaps, if it had been written for you.

And so you bought a ticket for every sequel, for every time-hopping adventure. You learned about tesseracts -- those convenient shortcuts that made dimension-skipping possible for Meg, her genius little brother Charles Wallace, and her boyfriend, Calvin, who saw behind her dorky specs a pair of "dreamboat eyes." You also learned about Einstein's theory of relativity, a smattering of Latin and a goodly amount of Shakespeare...

...Years after you first read "A Wrinkle in Time," after your braces had been removed and your skin had cleared up and your self-loathing had mostly disappeared, you probably referenced the book, to a college roommate or a fellow trainee at your cruddy after-school job. You unthinkingly threw the word "tesseract" into a sentence, or called a wildly dressed older woman a "Mrs. Whatsit." And when you did that you learned that "A Wrinkle in Time" hadn't been written for an audience of one, because your roommate had read it, too.

All those years ago, with your patchwork quilt and your instant hot chocolate and your despairing belief in your own monstrosity, you hadn't been alone after all.

The Big Move

We move out of Okida Hall, which has been our studio for the past four years.

It's across the street from my apartment. I will miss the convenience.

Sigh.

























Now, we are in a warehouse next to the Gordon Biersch brewery, near Taylor & 9th.



Photos courtesy of Yurika.

Coming soon to a theater near you...

September 18	Alberta Bair Theater Billings, MT www.albertabairtheater.org/
September 22	Hamilton Performing Arts Center Hamilton, MT
September 25	Caldwell Fine Arts Series, Albertson College of Idaho Caldwell, ID www.albertson.edu/campus/community/cfa/index.htm
September 28	Auburn Performing Arts Center Auburn, WA www.auburn.wednet.edu/performarts/APACMain.htm
September 29	Edmonds Center for the Arts Edmonds, WA
October 5	Leach Theatre Rolla, MO www.leachtheatre.org
October 9	Northeastern State University Center for the Performing Arts Tahlequah, OK www.nsuok.edu/si/
October 12	Center for Creative Arts Theater St. Louis, MO www.cocastl.org
October 19	Shadyside Academy Hillman Center for Performing Arts Pittsburgh, PA shadysideacademy.org
October 22	Kids&Company/Wilmington College Hiland Theater, Boyd Cultural Arts Center Wilmington, OH
October 27	Napa Valley Opera House Napa, CA
December 6	California State University at Monterey Bay Monterey, CA

NATC

North American Taiko Conference wrap-up:




U Wash campus:
Pretty, green, and large. Most of the events were held in the student union and in nearby Kane Hall (appropriately named), and there wasn't a lot of food available. Stayed in the dorms, which were dormy. Felt like was at summer camp.

Snacks:
There was a cafeteria in our dorm, which was convenient for breakfast but not much else. The food was not bad, considering.




Adam certainly got enough food.

















On Saturday, we had an all-day tech at Benaroya Hall. Uwajimaya supplied bento for all of us, and Johnny provided us with endless snacks.

And, of course, there was a constant stream of snacks from the Uemuras.



Oedo Sukeroku panel & performance:
Now this was awesome. For the non-taiko folks out there, Oedo Sukeroku is the group that invented the slant stands that most groups now use, and they have been a huge influence on pretty much every taiko group that exists today.

There was also a slideshow of old, old photos...


...and a 15-minute performance, which included Kenny, Chizuko, and Tanaka (who have all studied extensively with Oedo Sukeroku). It rocked, of course, but Chizuko said they hadn't played together in over 20 years, and they didn't get a chance to rehearse.














It was awesome. The crowd went nuts.

They also did some workshops, but they were all on Saturday, during Taiko Jam tech, so we couldn't go.


And we got to see old friends...








...and meet a few new ones.


Thanks, everyone! See you in '09!

Next week...

Am in total schedule denial. Leaving for Seattle next Wednesday, and in the meantime, I have four rather large projects to finish.




So while I have my third cup of coffee...

















and test/edit 20 more recipes before next Tuesday...













and finish a wedding cake...











here are some more interesting sites for you, loyal reader, to look at:

Cute Overload (the best website, ever - and the source of most of my critter pics)

And this one (also cute)

Enjoy!

JANM

Another road trip to LA! This time, we play at the Japanese American Nat'l Museum (JANM).

On the way, we stop for the night in Arroyo Grande. It's a cute little town with lots of adorable restaurants & quaint shops.


Gina's Italian restaurant:



The butternut squash ravioli were pretty awesome.













Firestone, the local beer.

Drink locally!

















Doc Burnstein's Ice Cream Lab:





I got the pineapple sorbet, which was okay.

Britt's coffee ice cream was really good. Nice & bitter.





The sizes here are quite generous.

Adam got the large, which was, I think, a whole pint.

Oy.







Wis had the brownie ice cream sammie, which was dipped in chocolate.








Eventually, we make it to LA. And we play:



I found this photo online, somewhere. Can't remember where...


The band that played before us was a latino band called Cava. Check them out! They were awesome!



Afterwards - ramen @Koraku:

Second Annual Triathlon

For the second year in a row, we tackle the Pleasanton Tri-for-Fun.

It's a sprint tri (400 yd/12 mi?/5K), and most of us were on relay teams, so don't be impressed. There were 70-year olds and little kids doing the whole thing.

Our goal: don't die.


The "before" photo:




The swimmers:




















Our team:




Me in the water, Gina on the bike, and Britt on the run.





Alex & Stew did the whole thing.

Most of us did one leg. Some did two.


The finish:







































The "after" photo:

Is this kosher???

I'm not sure how the NY Times can run a review of this today.




Read the review at your own risk.

I'm not gonna.


Update:
Salon.com has a review, too.
My two favorite papers have sold out.
Jerks.

Coming soon...

- This weekend: SJT's second annual Triathlon

- Next week: another trip down south, this time to JANM

- August: North American Taiko Conference in Seattle
We'll be busy, but if we have time, would love to go here. And of course, we'll try to go here.

Obon 2007

Obon!

The traditional kakigori (shaved ice) breakfast:



And by traditional, I mean it's traditional for us.

Don't go to Japan and ask for the kakigori breakfast.

















Making obon snacks:

















UCI Jodaiko & SJT:













A little bit o' taiko (photos courtesy of Pear):








































































































And a little bit o' odori:





































More than 900 dancers on Saturday!

This photo courtesy of some guy on Flickr.










This one, too.

Pala Casino

We play a gig at Pala Casino, near San Diego.

Our stage:














Trish's sister Pam and her family were there, including her nephew Wally, our biggest fan.





He watches our DVD twice a day, every day.

Sorry, Pam.













After the performance (which was not bad), we went to into the casino to check out the action (such as it was). Since I have absolutely no interest in gambling and even less in playing cards, I have never been to a casino before. So what did I think of Pala?

Eh. I lost $4 on the quarter slot machines.

But the hotel rooms were very nice, and the bathrooms were ridiculously posh. While the others made money playing blackjack and video poker, I spent the rest of the evening swimming laps in the giant tub.



Almost as nice as the Hotel Pattee (which has since closed).









Oh. The food...

The star attraction seemed to be the giant buffet, which was not bad. We were there on shrimp night, which made Adam very, very happy...























and it made the rest of us a little nauseous.