It all begins again! Shots, patches and pills — oh, my!

NOTE: Please pardon the mess in the background. It’s our multi-purpose computer/fitness/project room.

A video shoot was penciled in on my work calendar for today to obtain more B-roll footage for our video project. Despite yesterday’s storm that barreled through the state, we decided to take a chance and hit the road anyway, despite the drizzles and the dark clouds. We headed for the north shore, hitting variable weather, with hopeful spots of sun at times, only to be greeted by a sudden change in weather bringing light rain off-and-on. Not terrible, but not so good for the camera equipment. I would probably want to do another day of shooting, just so we can actually get some nice beach scenes where the water doesn’t look so gray. If you look closely, you can even see raindrops falling on the tourists eating shave ice.

Since it’s been so long since my last video log, I decided to create a vlog entry with some of the footage obtained during today’s short 3-hour jaunt to Haleiwa. Enjoy!

Okay, not really. I just thought it was ironic with all this talk about my rock star aspirations that I got a chance to jam with my very own virtual Rock Band at Mahealani’s place.

I’m terrible at games like Dance Dance Revolution, which is based on a similar concept, with the descending colors that indicate what/where to step/fret/strum/hit. My first couple of tries on the drum set were absolutely atrocious, but once I got the timing and let myself relax, it was much better and I actually had a lot of fun with it. The guitar was a little easier, but I found the drumming more entertaining — and a little truer to playing the actual instrument. Only one gripe, I wish they had cymbals positioned like a real drum set. The cymbal was positioned on the same level as the other drums, which was a little weird.

If I had this game at home, I could see myself playing it for hours on end, playing and replaying a song until I scored 100%. I’m obsessive-compulsive like that. That’s how I used to practice my guitar, literally for hours, going over a problematic section or riff in the song — over and over and over until I could play it proficiently. Luckily, we don’t own any game consoles, else I’d be at Wal-mart at this very moment picking up the Rock Band game package.

Kamu is scary-good at playing the guitar on both Rock Band and Guitar Hero III. Just before we left, he was dueling with the devil on Guitar Hero III on the Wii. And, I think he was winning!

Thanks for making me a rock star for the night, folks! (Check out the video below.) Good fun!

Day 24 of 30

Better late than never, I say.

Here’s the (very tardy) videolog from the Mililani Hongwanji bon dance held on August 17-18, 2007. It features highlights from the Ukwanshin Kabudan and introducing the faces behind the “Dancing Fools.” Unfortunately, some camera shy members are obviously absent from the roll call.

This was the first time that I was part of the jikata (musicians) rather than one of the dance leaders, so I also posted a behind-the-scenes look at a pre-bon dance practice session that I had with Norman. Sorely out of practice, but the only second string drummer on short notice, I wielded my sticks and hit the taiko to the best of my ability. It was fun seeing the bon dance from a different view — from high atop the yagura — and observing the crowd of dancers below. But, my heart is in the dance and I will always love the kinetic aspect of the art.

The video ends with a quick roll call of the “Dancing Fools” — well, the less camera shy ones in the bunch, that is — and introduces you to the faces that I’ve grown accustomed to seeing every weekend for the past three months. Now we’ll need to find another reason to get together on a regular basis.

I hope you enjoy the video as much as I enjoyed being a part of it.

The last bon dance of 2007 came so quickly! It seems like only last week that we were at the Waipahu Plantation Village excitedly looking forward to a summer full of bon dances. “Time flies when you’re having fun” certainly applies here.

The video features scenes from the Autumn Matsuri, the last bon dance in Hawaii, held at the Hawaii Okinawa Center in Waipio on September 15, 2007. It is the largest (and only) indoor bon dance in Hawaii — and perhaps, the world. Special thanks to TheStuffGuy for manning the video camera as well as snapping stills of the bon dance posse to capture this event for the archives.

The “Dancing Fools” are already making plans for next year! Won’t you join us?

I was so busy enjoying myself at the concert, that I didn’t take much footage for the video. Besides that, we were in the front row, so our view was somewhat obscured by sharp angle of the stage. We had great views of the drummers/singers in the front, but couldn’t see the Rinken Band’s newest drummer (a very talented 10-year-old!) and barely caught glimpses of Rinken Teruya and Tomoko Uehara — until they stepped closer to the edge of the stage. I also found that I was running very low on memory on my 2 GB card by that time! (Mental note: Buy another 2 GB SD card for next year!)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this short glimpse of the Rinken Band concert!

My first video of the Okinawan Festival was a sweeping overview of the scenes that I took in while spending two blazing hot days at the Kapiolani Park. However, I had enough footage to make “extended” versions of my favorite acts, which I’ll be sharing with you. No sense letting good footage go to waste, right?

Ryusei Daiko was definitely one of my favorite performance groups featured at this year’s festival. Their skill level and eisa expertise was unmatched. Not to mention, their shisa performance was one of the best I’ve seen. Check it out and let me know what you think!