woot!

We’re live again!  Many thanks to the TechDonkey!!!

I’ve also just received news that all my posts have been recovered, but I dunno whether to throw’em back up or not.

I’m in Moab, UT.  We’re somewhere in the midst of the third leg of the first (2006) Shidara U.S. Tour.

The sold-out show in Tucson was a blast and we left the morning after, headed to give everyone a quick glimpse of the Grand Canyon.  We stopped for a quick bite to eat at *The Place* in Flagstaff, and it was decent, hearty fare (stay away from the salads, tho). 

We got into the park and started off at Mather…and it’s the funniest thing you know, to watch people see the Grand Canyon for the first time.  People get out of their cars and they start to get really quiet as they look up and take in the vast enormity of it all…and no one can really talk.  Everyone whispers at the Mather lookout.  A  few more stops and then folks are almost back to normal, laughing and taking more pictures, but at some point, too, I think becomes so overwhelmingly vast the casual tourist almost can’t see the canyon any more.  There’s a kind of a dazed expression they wander around the rim with.

I’m still trying to figure out a way to raft the Colorado through the GC next year.  I figure I’ll be pretty gobsmacked the whole time if I do manage to pull that one off.

Anyway, after a couple of hours we took off again, northward.  That was likely when the truck and the other van in our caravan were just getting to the park, but there was no way to reach each other (no reception), so they stayed and saw the sunset and we hit the road.

We reached the Anasazi Inn in Kayenta some time around 9:30, and we stopped there for dinner.  The frybread there is phenomenal!  I had the *Navajo Taco* and the frybread underneath was just thick enough, light enough and just dense enough and not greasy…and and and…I could wax poetic about it for a good long while.

The funny thing was the other van and the truck must have passed us while we were eating because we managed to catch up to them in Monticello.

A word to the weary traveler…the way HWY 191 runs, there are sections where suddenly it basically goes from open highway right into and through a town, and the speed limit also goes from 65 to 30.  Folks in those small towns are very quick to point that fact out with no small degree of fanfare.

Nope.  I didn’t get a ticket.  It’s just something folks should be aware of when driving through the desert on their way to Moab…and really…folks should make a trip here if they can.

We rolled in under the cover of darkness at about 12:30am, but by the time everyone was settled in their respective lodgings and we were hitting the sack it was probably about 3:30am, so it was basically a quick nap before loading in to do two school assemblies at 7:00am.

I had hoped to see the looks on everyone’s faces in the early morning to suddenly wake up in the midst of all the slickrock…but I’m not sure anyone could see much of anything, sleep deprived as we all were.

The assemblies went well and the numbness for me really didn’t set in ’til after the second show was finished and we were trying to figure out the logistics for the afternoon and evening meals, the workshop for Moab Taiko and a radio interview.  Fortunately for me I had the better part of the afternoon off as my brain was a complete pile of mush at that point.

Looking back over the past few days…

The driving, all in all, is going well.  There have been a few bumps along the way, including a flat tire and me losing my cel phone in Little Tokyo.  Whoever picked up the phone only made about 17 minutes worth of calls, few more than 3 minutes in duration.  Unfortunately, Mexico is not in my calling plan and they did call Oaxaca, but I’m kind of tickled by the fact, mostly because of the many places a person might’ve called with my phone, Oaxaca is one of the most conceivably fun to say.

One other thing that’s driving me absolutely nuts is the fact that I still don’t have my own laptop back from the repair shop (I bought an extended warranty and it’s now been a couple months with probably another 3-4 weeks to go).  Hopping onto other folks’ machines is not so bad except for the fact that my main mail account has been on AOL for just about forever (so it’s on all my cards and letterhead and whatnot) and I am having the darnedest time trying to access my mail through my friends’ browsers…and every time I do, my account fills up with spam, and that makes it even more impossible to try and access my mail…so even if I manage to log in I’m sitting and trying to find real mail amongst pages and pages of poorly organized spam emails (say 200-300 or so), and each log in guarantees me at least another 60-80.  It’s a big headache. 

I’m glad to have my blog back up. 

What else…oh yeah.  I forgot to thank Grace. 

I get to MC the concerts and at each venue I am working in the names of local folks and companies who are making this tour possible.  Grace Kurushima is one of those people who helped provide invaluable assistance to us during our stay in the Los Angeles area.  A big thanks to you & the Centenary United Methodist Church!

While I’m at it, I would like to thank the folks at the Cingular store in Korea Town (and to be honest I had no idea I was in Korea Town).  They were friendly and helpful and polite and professional and they helped me to get a new (to me) phone with a minimum of fuss and expense.

Whereas the guys at the Cingular kiosk in downtown LA (the mall there at 7th and Flower  -ish ) were probably the rudest, least helpful sales associates I have ever had the displeasure of meeting in my entire life.

Not wanting to leave this on a sour note, the concert here in Moab is sold out and I am looking forward to drumming with Shidara again tomorrow night.  It feels good to be on tour again and it’s an incredibly wonderful opportunity to play with a group that is so compellingly precise and ecstatically powerful.

It’s an incredibly wonderful concert.  The bummer is that ticket sales in Santa Rosa and Sacramento are slow, so if you know anyone who loves Taiko, please please please tell them about the show…

YOU REALLY DON’T WANT TO MISS THIS SHOW!  First tours only happen once and this really is one hell of a show.  It’s a fantastic concert.  It’s some of the best Taiko I have seen in a great long while.

Please help get the word out.  If you love Taiko, you simply gotta see it.