violinist & educator

Ahhhh… we are finally back in Boston. This past weekend was the most rewarding and humbling experience WAITIKI has ever had, and it just so happened to be in Lawrence, KS. We had the privilege and honor to perform at the 500th radio show celebration of Kansas Public Radio. Big mahalos to Darrell and Jason for organizing the event and making everything happen so smoothly and happily. Our 4-hour performance of 3 sets of quality exotica music was graciously taken in by the audience at Liberty Hall, one of the coolest venues to perform in.

We played for a large group of exotica fans–close to 500– that filled both the ground level and the balcony. They even drank the bar that served WAITIKI cocktails completely dry. I managed to have a couple sips of the Wai Niu right before I played L’ours chinois, which was a bad idea because I literally could not feel my fingers. But the audience still loved it.

Check out other videos of the new All-Star Septet band on YouTube and pictures on my flickr.

I think the tiki gods were definitely smiling down upon us that night. Highlights to remember: Meeting up with everyone at the airport and experiencing the “spillage” curse, acting out the comic book and conjuring up more ideas for future issues, walking AT LEAST 2 miles to a random house party through the mist, cheering for the All-Star Berklee beer pong team (go Abe and Jim!!), learning how to do birdcalls with Lopaka, sitting with the rest of the lefties on one side of a table and scarfing down gumbo, sneaking a candy rat into Jim’s cymbal bag, and hugging my sweety after L’ours.

Downers but still great anyways: Spillage of orgeat (poor Tim!), broken ass’s jaw, Lopaka’s flight cancellation that transformed into a miracle, early morning flights to and from Kansas …grrr!

I LOVE WAITIKI!!! Can’t wait for our next big gig ;)

Over the past weekend, Randy and I had the honor of being part of my friend’s wedding held in Lockport, NY (near Buffalo). HW and J are two of my favorite people from my Stony Brook days. Actually, HW is a dear friend of mine, a Taiwanese “sister”, and a great harpsichordist who has taught me so much about music in the Baroque world. She is so inspiring that she even got her husband J, a classical guitarist, to expand his interest in playing the theorbo. Pretty cool huh? Anyways, I was happy to be joined by Fritz and Stephanie to play the ceremony music for their wedding. Since I didn’t have a period fiddle anymore (I’m taking a break from HBCO this semester), one of my friends was able to lend me one. At first I was alittle stressed out: the music took a week to arrive, and my playing chops were really rusty, plus I had to revisit the physical challenges of playing a period instrument. Luckily, I didn’t forget much and the things that I had learned over the years came together faster than I had expected. And having to play on a good instrument helps too. Sometimes one needs a break from playing, so that all the things learned has time to mature and blossom both mentally and physically. Here’s a picture of us playing the recessional as our SB friends gathered around us for a group picture:

Of course, this post isn’t just about music. Since we were in Buffalo, we knew we had to find the place with the best…. WINGS! We tried Wagner’s Restaurant in Lockport and the much-reviewed Duff’s in Buffalo. Even though we only went to two places, we were full and practically sick of drums and flats in sour, barely-spicy, bright orange sauce. They weren’t anything to write home about.