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Roller Coaster Weather
Almost every day last week, I discussed the weather forecast with Heather. It was making unpleasant predictions for her hanami party on Sunday. It declared High: 11 – too chilly for infants to enjoy a picnic – and each day brought new doomsaying of rain with varying percentages of chance. At one point it told her it…
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Hanami 2014
Rob & I get together for a hanami lunch in the Ayoama Bochi every year. Today was the day. It was beautifully mild and our hilltop picnic spot was eye-level with the blossoms. We were showered with petal snow as the winds blew clouds in. The rains begin tonight, so I think Tokyo’s hanami season…
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The Frolicaholics Play Hoop Lounge
Memorable birthday! Instead of going out to dinner or pigging out on cake, Tod & I played a show at Hoop Lounge. We were in a terrific line-up of acts that included a diablo player, a performance artist, and a Cirque du Soleil dancer/clown. Backstage was warm and chatty as we got to know one…
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My friends, Nina and Zio
This is Zio, who I helped welcome to the world in December. He is growing big and healthy. I just got to feed him a bottle for the first time yesterday. Hard to believe he is already three months old. He smiles when he sees me; I wonder if he remembers my voice from the…
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Happy Equinox
We celebrated the equinox with a party featuring way too much food, just enough drink, so many friends, and a musical theme. After creating our own handmade musical instruments from odds and ends, Huw conducted us in an improvised concert. Paul made an amazing tuned instrument from rubber bands and a tea tin. Shinji’s beer…
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Butterfly: Country Roads
Here’s the video that Swinky, Jesse, and the Frolicaholics made earlier this week in our living room for The Butterfly Project. Swinky will be appearing on a popular Japanese tv show later this month and John Denver’s “Country Roads,” which is probably the most famous English language song in Japan, is her way of saying…
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Butterfly Project Session
Last night, Tod & I were inducted into the Butterfly Project, Swinky’s collection of casual music videos. Jesse brought a ton of equipment from their studio and while I made us some dinner, Jesse set up a six-mic-four-camera studio in our living room, including my special double mic stand kludged together with chopsticks and hoop…
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Frolicaholics: Radioactivity
A couple of weeks back on the ukulele subReddit, there was a challenge to cover a Kraftwerk song. Electronic music on the ukulele, really? I was intrigued and Tod was interested, too, so we decided to make it a Frolciaholics project. We spent two weeks selecting a song, breaking it down into bits, learning to…
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Sardine & Tomato Risotto
This is one of Tod’s inspired creations the fuses Japanese stock with a classically Italian dish. It fits into the veg-aquarian mode of eating and is so full of umami that all you will need to accompany it is a salad. Sardine & Tomato Risotto serves 2 20 g dried konbu 1 cup katsuobushi flakes…
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Acrobalance
Miki and I got together this afternoon to do some acrobalance. Although I lead an acro segment in the Circus Fitness workshops, I’m not an expert. Miki’s got lots of experience and I was happy to get some new ideas from her today, especially for training. I need more flexible hips and a stronger core…
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