An old fashioned Fourth of July
Jul. 4th, 2011 07:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdymonkeyWoke up ridiculously early and couldn't get back to sleep, probably because my subconscious didn't want to oversleep. Biked over to the temple in good time to snag a fresh char siu bao right out of the box (SO much better than donuts!) and get pre-parade instructions as well as snap a couple pictures before things got underway.
Ryan had broken his arm playing football yesterday afternoon but showed up to see us off. He was heavily bandaged and in a sling and looking a bit glassy eyed, but he said it was a clean break to the humerus and he's in his 20s so the prognosis is good. That still left us seven drummers to rotate on and off four drums set up at one end of the truck. Sean-sensei, Shannon-sensei, their wives and the two kids (one a stroller-sized toddler) were going to walk the parade route along with a couple of kids from the temple and pass out fliers. (I did see Sean striding by at one point with his son slung over one shoulder like a bag of rice.) The dancers from the temple were in happi or yukata and I felt distinctly under dressed in a Kajiyama tee shirt and black pants, but what are ya gonna do?
The float rolled out on time to get in position on Lincoln Avenue with some folks riding on top, while some of us walked over the couple of blocks. The parade stepped off more or less on schedule and we were off. Kudos to our truck driver, Carlos, who drove us through town with very few bobbles and got that big flat-bed around turns like it was on rails. I got to lead off our first two renditions of "Jisshin" (simply because I was first to volunteer while folks were still sorta milling about). The basic routine was to alternate the Bon dancers (dancing to recorded music) with taiko. I decided to stick with a flat-drum variant of my old solo so I didn't have to think about it. We were loud, we were enthusiastic, we rotated so those who were willing to solo could do so(pretty much everyone but Julie), shared water, played along to the canned dance music, waved to the crowd. I even played the railing when I wasn't on a drum because I felt like it. The spectators seemed to enjoy us and before we knew it, we'd completed the loop and were cruising back up Lincoln Avenue to the temple.
Spotted Sylvia as we rounded the turn, shouted instructions for her to head down Lincoln and cut over to Pacific at Oak to get to the temple. Got unloaded, grabbed my bike and caught up with her on Lincoln, walked back to my place to lock up the bike as she'd walked over from the Fruitvale BART and most of the way across Alameda to see the parade. Jumped in the truck to drive back downtown to the garage near the theater and find some lunch. We ended up at Burma Superstar on Park, an unknown quantity that turned out to be quite tasty. We both ordered ginger lemonades, I had the sesame beef, she had mango chicken and we split an order of coconut rice. Then with room for dessert, we walked a couple doors down to Tucker's Ice Cream for peach cobbler ice cream (me) and lemon sorbet (her).
Dropped Sylvia at BART after a nice visit, then came home, took some Advil and drank a huge mug of water and went down for the count on the sofa for awhile as I was a bit headachy.Currently uploading my few photos and contemplating dinner possibilities.
Photos are up at http://www.flickr.com/photos/70104978@N00/sets/72157626994106367/with/5903001339/
Ryan had broken his arm playing football yesterday afternoon but showed up to see us off. He was heavily bandaged and in a sling and looking a bit glassy eyed, but he said it was a clean break to the humerus and he's in his 20s so the prognosis is good. That still left us seven drummers to rotate on and off four drums set up at one end of the truck. Sean-sensei, Shannon-sensei, their wives and the two kids (one a stroller-sized toddler) were going to walk the parade route along with a couple of kids from the temple and pass out fliers. (I did see Sean striding by at one point with his son slung over one shoulder like a bag of rice.) The dancers from the temple were in happi or yukata and I felt distinctly under dressed in a Kajiyama tee shirt and black pants, but what are ya gonna do?
The float rolled out on time to get in position on Lincoln Avenue with some folks riding on top, while some of us walked over the couple of blocks. The parade stepped off more or less on schedule and we were off. Kudos to our truck driver, Carlos, who drove us through town with very few bobbles and got that big flat-bed around turns like it was on rails. I got to lead off our first two renditions of "Jisshin" (simply because I was first to volunteer while folks were still sorta milling about). The basic routine was to alternate the Bon dancers (dancing to recorded music) with taiko. I decided to stick with a flat-drum variant of my old solo so I didn't have to think about it. We were loud, we were enthusiastic, we rotated so those who were willing to solo could do so(pretty much everyone but Julie), shared water, played along to the canned dance music, waved to the crowd. I even played the railing when I wasn't on a drum because I felt like it. The spectators seemed to enjoy us and before we knew it, we'd completed the loop and were cruising back up Lincoln Avenue to the temple.
Spotted Sylvia as we rounded the turn, shouted instructions for her to head down Lincoln and cut over to Pacific at Oak to get to the temple. Got unloaded, grabbed my bike and caught up with her on Lincoln, walked back to my place to lock up the bike as she'd walked over from the Fruitvale BART and most of the way across Alameda to see the parade. Jumped in the truck to drive back downtown to the garage near the theater and find some lunch. We ended up at Burma Superstar on Park, an unknown quantity that turned out to be quite tasty. We both ordered ginger lemonades, I had the sesame beef, she had mango chicken and we split an order of coconut rice. Then with room for dessert, we walked a couple doors down to Tucker's Ice Cream for peach cobbler ice cream (me) and lemon sorbet (her).
Dropped Sylvia at BART after a nice visit, then came home, took some Advil and drank a huge mug of water and went down for the count on the sofa for awhile as I was a bit headachy.
Photos are up at http://www.flickr.com/photos/70104978@N00/sets/72157626994106367/with/5903001339/
