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Spring Sketching
I took my watercolors to the park today and although the output isn’t anything special, it was glorious to be out in the fresh air focussing my attention on the environment for a few minutes. I am reminded how much I enjoy this form of meditation. More drawing…
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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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