Robby's bathing

　ルームメイトのトモコさんがフェレットのロビーを風呂に入れてます。ロビーは風呂が大好きで、気持ち良さそうにしてました。

My roommate Tomoko is giving Robby the pet ferret a bath. He loves taking a bath and looks really enjoying it.

Standing Yuichi

うちのルームメイトの息子さんの優一君です。もう一人で立つことができるようになりました。

This my roommate's baby boy, Yuichi. He can keep standing up by himself.

Sarina Suno Quartet Concert @ Thailand Cafe

　昨日と同じ場所とメンバーでギグです。バンドメンバーとの２０時間ぶりの再会し、コンサートに望みます。昨日のBGM的な音楽ではなくコンサートなので、音量も大きく、もっと過激な演奏もやります。
　コンサートは成功に終わりました。お客さんもいっぱい来ていただきました。コンサートを観に来ていただいた方々、本当にありがとうございました。この動員数の多さはサリナちゃんとハラが頑張って宣伝した努力のたまものでもあります。２人にも感謝するとともに、私もこういうところは見習わなくては、と一人自らを省みました。今回のコンサートの反省点は、私がアンプを持って来なかったという事です。前回と前々回のコンサートにアンプを使わなかったので、今回も使わないだろうと勝手に思い込んでしまいました。次回からは、たとえ使わない可能性があってもアンプは持ってくることにしましょう。
　この日は私はコンサートの前もセットの合間もずっとベースを弾いてました。と言うのも、気持ちのいいスイング感が出なくなってしまったんです。ドラムのローネンは「ただの気の持ちようだよ」とは言いますが………。あ〜あ、私、またスランプ期に入ってしまったのかもしれません。まあ、人生七転八起と言います。頑張ります。

We had a concert at the same place with the same band members as last night. We were reunited and joined force after 20 hours of absence at Thailand Cafe. Unlike the last night, there were a lot of audience. We all thank to the people who came to the concert for their support and I thank Sarina and Hara for their countless hours of advertising, emailing and calling people. I really should follow their good example for my own projects. The only regret of today's show was the volume of my bass. I didn't bring my bass amp because I didn't use it on the last concert and on the one before. That was my mistake.
I was practicing before the show as well as on the intermission. For some reason, I can't swing as I could before. I hope I'm not going into slump period with low self esteem again. There is a saying in Japanese which goes "even if you fall down seven times, raise eight times." Okay, I'll punch it through.

Godin Montreal

サリナちゃんとハラのバンドでのギグ。今日はお客さんがいつもより少なかったですね。まあ、こういう事もあるでしょう。ヒマなのでハラのギターの写真を撮る。これね、ゴダンのモントリオールっていうギターなんですけど、ゴダンのセミアコは秀逸です。やっぱり私も原点はジャズ屋ですので、特にセミアコやフルアコは好きなんですよ。ハ〜、このギターもため息が出るほど、メチャメチャいい音がします。

I just did a gig with Sarina and Hara at Thailand Cafe. Well, it was a slow night.

The guitar on the pic is Hara's guitar, Godin Montreal. Godin has been one of my favorite guitar makers, and this guitar is outstanding. I'm a jazz bassist and I prefer semi-acoustic guitars than electric guitars in a lot of situations. This guitar is perfect for what we are doing. Oh, I always cry out in admiration for this Godin's great clear tone.

Weird bass @ Union Sq.

ユニオン・スクエアで見かけたヘンなベース。ベースおたくは、写真をクリックしてヘッドが切れてることと、写真では分かりにくいけどテイル・ピースの付け根が10センチぐらい飛び出ている事に注目。（前者はただ持ち運び用に長さの節約のため、後者は弦のテンションを軽減するためと思われます）。音量はそこまで出ていなかったものの、ちゃんとアコベの音はしてました。


A Weird bass at Union Sq.. Its shape is really unique but the sound was actually the sound of an acoustic bass, not the sound of one of those silent bass or baby bass. Hey fellow bass-freaks, click on the pic and take a look at the head and the tail piece. The head is cut off for the portability and the edge of the tail piece is moved five inches forward by putting a piece of wood on the bottom of the bass to soften the string tension. The volume was not as loud but I think it's a better alternative of the full-sized bass.

Sarina Suno Quartet @ Thailand Cafe

サリナちゃんとハラとのギグ。今週からThailand Cafeではドラムを入れてカルテットでやることになりました。ベーシストとしては大変ラクになりました。調子にのって弾き倒してしまいました。

Wedding @ Stony Hill Inn

Me (Bass), Sarina Suno (Violin) and Marek Dykta (Guitar)

今日はニューヨーク近郊のニュージャージー州ハッケンサックでロシアン・ジューイッシュ（ロシアのユダヤ教）の結婚式のギグでした。多分、私にとっては今年一発目のジューイッシュの仕事だったと思います。ジューイッシュの音楽は一般にクレズマーって言うんですけど、これは彼らのダンスミュージックでして、全員で輪になって踊ります。いやー、自分が弾いてる曲で大勢のお客さんが踊ってるのって、本当に気持ちがいい！ジューイッシュのギグは結婚式でもピューリム(Purim)でも、みんな踊ってくれるので好きです。今日も楽しいギグでした。

Magic Eye

Do you guys remember "Magic Eye?" My memory goes back about 15 years or so. I and my college-mates in Australia were trying to figure out what the heck the "magic" was all about. The only things I saw on the book of the rather strange pictures were just a bunch of different pattern of some computer graphics page after page. I thought it's some kind of weird psychological test (like Rorschach test). Then my bass instructor at the college told me that I had to see through the pictures and set the focal point further back of the pictures. After he told me that, I finally got it and was amazed with all those three-dimension stuff on two-dimension flat papers. Not too many people know but there were the videos of Magic Eye and you can see tripy moving 3D Magic Eye stuff. I borrowed the videos from a Blockbuster and was burning my eyes whole day. The Magic Eye totally knocked a country boy in Australia down.

Now, fifteen years later, my band-mates, Takeshi (pianist) and Sanae (calligrapher), found this rather strange pictures on a calender hanged on the wall at the rehearsal. Surprisingly this couple have never seen Magic Eye in their lives before.

Takeshi didn't have a clue.

Still working and reading the instruction.

"Oh yeah, I know this. You have to find a little guy in this messy picture." That's "Where's Waldo?" Sanae. Anyway she got the Magic-Eye concept in a couple of minutes.

After a couple of hours of rehearsing, Takeshi picked up the calender again in the break. Still no clue.

Another couple of hours later and after our rehearsal is done, again, he picked up the calender, stood still without blinking and only organs moving in his body were his heart and the apples of his eye balls trying to set different focal point. When we were almost done packing up, suddenly we all heard a middle-aged man in the next room screaming "AAAARRGGGHH! I got it!!" So he finally got it. Congratulations Takeshi. Good job. By the way, we all were enjoying watching you struggling.... for four hours.

Aruba

Hara(Gt), Nick(Dr), Sarina(Vln) & Me(Bs)

Times Sq.にあるArubaというバーでのコンサート。いやー、楽しかったこと。ジャズ、ラテン、それにファンクを弾き倒してやりました。

Thailand Cafe

サリナちゃんとハラとでイースト・ビレッジにあるThailand Cafe でのギグです。店員さんはいい人ばっかだし、なにしろご飯がウマい！お勧めはダンプリングよ。