Sweating the little things

Somewhere around Escondido my camera went on a fritz and the screen became a bunch of vibrating lines in 70s colors. And my cell phone reception really sucks, which makes it hard to advance the shows or line up things like times for volunteers to report for work. We've been on the go so consistently since then—never at any site for more than the day of production and performance—that I've had a hard time emailing (or blogging). Plus, my email program doesn't work well remotely, and I have to use the webmail interface, which is annoying and inefficient. Fortunately, most of the big stuff was already in place, so I know we have hotel rooms and transportation.

After Escondido, we played San Luis Obispo, CalPoly's Harman Hall. The group got to sign the wall backstage where KODO's name and drawings peeked out from behind some kind of backing board they had installed along the lower 6 feet of wall. Shidara members climbed a ladder and signed high up on one of the pillars, which probably means their names will be there for a long long time. They. What am I saying?! I got to sign the wall also, along with the other staff.

SLO won the award for the best production room, with lovely fabric-covered couches and chairs, nice lamps, and an integrated theater-wide AV feed. When I was setting up our online banking interface, the customer service rep on the other end of the line overheard the triple fue harmony on Koganenokaze and asked what it was. I had just explained we were a touring performing group, so told her it was the group doing sound check. She was in awe, asked if she could find the music anywhere, said, "it speaks; it tells a story." I gave her the Shidara website address.

At the last few sites, the company is being recognized in public now. The hotel clerk has been hoping to see the show because her brother plays with San Diego Taiko, and ends up volunteering to help at the merchandise table; we'll be shopping at the grocery store, and the clerk and bag boy will say, "oh you're the ones playing tonight, aren't you?"; The man at the Radio Shack where I bought a new cell phone charger for Megan was married to the woman who catered our dinner, etc.

SLO sold out, Wickenburg sold out (the presenter actually had tears in her eyes at the end), and here in Farmington, we have two completely sold out shows in an 800 seat hall, with a third well on its way to selling out. It feels like everyone knows about the concert, and everyone in town is coming....

PHOTOS
Kristy maintains the blog in the background as Sarah contemplates the universe.
Kristy and Megan on the pier
Noel of Las Vegas Kaminari Taiko, visiting his sister in San Diego, helped at the Escondido show.

Oh, and I am embedding a video here from our first site. Understand the group does this with about 6 shime before every single show!



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