Though there is less to this week than there is on most weeks, there's still plenty to this week.

First in both chronology and import! Today is Kristen's birthday. In no particular order, Kristen is a patient woman, my wife, our cellist and a cat Lover. She is yet to rise, sleeping happily beneath the aforementioned cat. The cat is vast and so I check on her every once in a while, but they seem happy where they are and shalt not be roused until both good AND ready. The skies celebrate her with grey and gloom and then sun celebrates her completed revolution with storms and flares and there are worse ways to be fêted.

Wednesday we invite the notorious Juels Bland into the Lair. It shall be a day that Lives in infamy and jam. OH. And it will be the very FIRST AIR CONDITIONED LftL!

And then this weekend... this weekend is IMMENSE. Celebrating his 50th birthday and 25 years playing taiko, Mark H Rooney has a massive show prepared. ilyAIMY, Mark H Taiko Connection, Kristen Koyama and Uprooted Dance all collaborating together in an intense, beautiful, loud (earplugs provided), audio / visual experience the likes of which THE WORLD HATH NEVER KNOOOOWN!!!

Our friend Liam sent me a message. It hit me at the right moment. I was sad, despondent and possibly even depressed though sans the diagnosis. I don't know what he was listening to or what really inspired the message. Maybe his depressometer antennae were twitching to the saddest of rob winds.

"Melody, rhythm, and the way you just POUND it all out of the ether... Organic and Ideal. The rumble in your core you feel when a train is coming near. That's you guys, that's how you feel. The feeling you get when you're close enough to the stage to feel the boom of the kickdrum in your chest, that's you guys. Like a warm hug that EXPANDS you instead of tightening around you."

I'm going to steal that for this weekend's shows. The thunder of taiko is absolutely like standing a little too close to a locomotive, with that feeling of power and motion and raw alive ENERGY. The fact that when Mark hears ilyAIMY he wants to put that energy and velocity and percussive impact into our words and playing is magnificent. It makes us EPIC.

We're not webcasting these shows. It doesn't translate. Cameras bounce across the floor, mics overdrive, motion blurs. I remember on Nirvana's BLEACH album there were recommendations on how you should turn up this knob or that on your stereo so you got the intended experience.

Well - that's not an option here. The intended experience is to be in the room. 

Tickets at https://www.markhrooney.com/ma-the-space-between-us/. See you this weekend.

- rob
ilyAIMY
wherever the car's parked
www.ilyaimy.com