Return of the House of Cheerful Monkeys?

I am Having An Idea.

1. gcmadtown81 is coming to visit next week, so we'd planned to be day-trip West Kingdom's A&S tourney on Saturday.  Actual class schedule is HERE because someone, somewhere obviously didn't think to link it to the event website!
2. bovil and kproche have indicated interest in day-tripping said event, as have trystbat.
3. gcmadtown81 and I will be in Japantown the day before. In close proximity to Nippon-ya, Sakai's and Nijiya.

What does this conjunction of great minds - or at least demented ones - mean?

PICNIC!!!! 


Merry-making under aronia blossoms by Kano Naganobu, early 17th c, Tokyo National Museum Collection.

If you are reading this and will be in attendance, the House Of Cheerful Monkeys would be honored to be your host for lunch. Tea, sake, onigiri (rice bombs with some sort of filling, most likely chicken), and other goodies.

CostumeCon Historical Masquerade photos up!

Enjoy the photographic stylin's of didjiman here:
http://imagecraft.smugmug.com/gallery/4902732_3mA59#P-3-20


I always hated being photographed. My mother has albums full of me darting out of frame, turning my head away, hiding my face with my hands. Things were not improved by my encounter with THIS guy.  "Trust me." I tried. So he insisted on a pose that made me look pissed off and pregnant when I was neither. Thanks for nothing.

Richard, you can photograph me anytime!

Look at these. I'm in white face and I don't look dead. It looks right. The mo (my train) isn't vanishing into the backdrop.  The colors in my kasane are true.

(Unfortunately, you can also see what a piece of crap the Beta test hiogi truly is. Uneven edges, gaps, holes from the first set of laces that never lined up properly. (I really do need to decide what I'm painting on the new one and finish the thing.)  Might stick with the pine tree motif - that, at least, came out well.)

New West Kingdom Website.

(Ganked shamelessly from ppfuf, who suggested it in the first place.)

Love it? Hate it? Don't tell ME. I didn't do it and I can't fix it. (Though Maliki could do better with Frontpage 2000 - and he's permanently grounded because he eats crayons and throws poo.)

Tell the people who might actually be able to do something about it. Because you can't actually GET to the officer's email address links at http://www.westkingdom.org I offer the pertinent email addresses below:

webminister@westkingdom.org
seneschal@westkingdom.org
crown@westkingdom.org

EDIT Actually I found out you can if you mouse over "Kingdom Information" and click on "Officers." See, I moused over "Kingdom Information," then moused over "Officers" and another pulldown menu listing those officers came up - but if you click on the officer in question, I get "The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded."

At least I admit I'm a Luddite.....

The Taiko Report

Just Shannon-sensei tonight. Drills are pretty solid. "Matsuri Daiko" is gelling reasonably well, and we did more work with "Jishin."

I feel like I'm finally starting to absorb new phrases a bit faster because I don't have to think quite so much about my hands unless it's a really complicated bit. So I asked Sensei whether I should sign up for the intermediate session or repeat beginner. Now, I meant just myself, but he told the entire class he'd prefer we repeat.

Not only is this not a slap in the face, it makes sense. Kaji Yama already has a bunch of intermediate/advanced people in the 6:30 slot that need to be able to move on from Point C to Point D, even as we're homing in on Point B behind them. If he's got us repeating, we can move on from where we are. If we do pick up some brand new people, they'll be brought up to speed.

And there is absolutely no reason we can't show up early and watch the preceding class.

Images of Japanese Picnics

( Spring picnic beneath the cherry blossoms.  )

( An autumn picnic - The Maple Viewers )