No visual art this past weekend, but I played taiko two days in a row at the the lovely Tết Festival in Mekong Plaza in Mesa. It's the Vietnamese Lunar New Year celebration. Here is a link to a poster in PDf format. There was a large Hoa mai New Year Tree (photo below is a similar tree from Wiki) near the stage. One of my taiko buddies was absolutely fascinated with the tree since it was mostly artificial: a real tree trunk with fake flowers on it. It looked very real though. The festival also opened with one of my favorite Asian traditions: the Lion Dance. The Sunday opening performance was by the White Crane Kung Fu & Sport Association and they were excellent. One of our taiko people took photos of the dancers and other festivities and when I have access, I will post them.
There is another fabulous festival coming soon to Phoenix: Matsuri, a Festival of Japan. It's definitely one of my favorite events in Phoenix. It's the last weekend of February and of course there will be tons of taiko there along with lots of other fun things like martial arts, dance, bonsai displays, Akita dogs, a kimono fashion show, food, cool stuff for sale, and more. I'll be there both days: playing taiko Saturday and wearing kimono on Sunday!
But wait, there's more! Since I had a day off from art this past weekend, I'm making up for it this week so I can play taiko again!! This coming Saturday is Tucson's own Carnaval!
This is a newer festival held at Armory Park and presented by the ever fabulous Batucaxé! It's really fun to show up in costume and dance to afternoon away.
I'm working very hard since the show at Platform Gallery is only a month away...between taiko and art, it will be a busy next couple of months.
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