LOG - 27

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3 July 2006 - a couple days ago, an anime enthusiast friend forwarded to me some youtube links to me showing seiyyu and singer Mari Iijima singing one of her Macross hits back in the day (early 80's):

Do you remember love
Ai Oboete Imasuka

(My friend tells me that Macross was repackaged and edited, into something called Robotech, for broadcast in the U.S.)

I looked at some of the other clips on that list on the youtube page, and found one that showed the Macross segment that used the song...

Meanwhile, it's safe to say that Mari Iijima has aged quite well. She's probably hotter-looking today than she was at the start of her career.
She's also been around the block more than once. It's interesting to run across this clip of her, talking earlier this year, about her thoughts on relationships and sex. (Well, not so much about the latter, but enough to determine that she's not a swinger.)

July 8 - touchingGrace [Jay Kishor (sitar), Vattel Cherry (bass), Ryan Tucker (el. gtr.)] and Vattel Cherry (bass), Lafayette Gilchrist (piano), and toshi Makihara (drums); An die Musik, Baltimore

July 9 - Su-Chong Lim, Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Washington, D.C.

July 15 - Eri Yamamoto Trio, An die Musik, Baltimore

August 3 - Neuromusicologist Daniel Levitin on Diane Rehm show (WAMU 88.5 FM, Wash., D.C. / Guest host - Susan Page): “I could take a kid born in China, raise him in Maryland, and he would like American music.” [on how musical preferences are more influenced by nurture than nature]...
Levitin was promoting his book, This is your brain on music. You can hear the WMF format soundfile or go to the webpage to get the RAM formatted one.

September 7 - Vienna Teng at the 8 X 10 club, Baltimore. Opening was Josh Radin.
  Having seen Teng twice before, I was well aware of her great musicianship. I actually went to this gig to check out Radin's bandmember (girlfriend?), Priscilla Ahn, who I'd never heard before. I knew she was a singer/songwriter, having listed her gigs in the calendar pages of this website.
Unfortunately, she was strictly a backup presence on this tour. She never took the lead in a song, nor was any of her material presented. So I wonder... if that'd happened, might she have overshadowed Radin? I found his stuff rather... (how to put this?)... uh, namby-pamby.

September 18 - Peabody jazz students, An die Musik, Baltimore... Jeff Chang (sax), Devin Arne (guitar), Blake Meister (bass), and Shareef Taher (drums)

October 14 - Trio Tarana (Ravish Momin -perc.; Tanya Kalmanovitch -violin; Brandon Terzic -oud) and saxophonists Evan Parker & Ned Rothenberg, An die Musik, Baltimore

Oct. 21 - Wu Man (pipa), Baltimore Museum of Art

Oct 21 - Raw Materials (Vijay Iyer -piano; Rudresh Mahanthappa -sax), An die Musik, Baltimore

Oct. 22 - Alexis Zhu, An die Musik, Baltimore - she started off by playing some junior pieces by Mozart (Sonata in C Major, K.330) and Bach (Partita No. 1 in Bb Major). Presumably, these would be the type of pieces she would teach to young students in the Peabody preparatory piano program. Or maybe not. I'm not sure what her specific teaching duties are. The bio on the back of the program sheet said she was recently named to the faculty in the Prep. Division.
All I know is the Mozart and Bach sounded off. They didn't sound the way that they ought to have. I was disappointed, because I was familiar with the pieces and was expecting certain styles of playing or interpretations by the pianist. But then, when she played the third work, a suite by Franck, things became clear...

Nov. 18 - Edge (Jason Kao Hwang -violin; Taylor Ho Bynum - coronet/flugelhorn; Ken Filiano -bass; Andrew Drury -drums/perc.), Sangha, Takoma Park, Maryland.
After the performance, Jason tried a sample of Amazon herbal tea that was being promoted and brought a cup to his wife. He seemed to be interested if the drops of love-potion (his words), that the promoter had added to it, would have a salutary or stimulative affect on her. He was certainly acting, uh, somewhat frisky.
It is hard to say if the stuff was actually (chemically? pharmacologically?) stimulating him or just the idea of a love potion was enough to tickle his already performance-adrenalin-enhanced state of excitation.
(No telling what would've happened if he'd taken the potion BEFORE performing... I leave that to your imagination...)
  In any event, the guy seems to get better with age. He's been increasing his musicianship, evident in violin-playing technique and revision of old works.

...Just a brief story on meeting Taylor Ho Bynum, six years ago... He'd brought a turtle with him to the gig. He'd looked after it, while its owner had been away, and was going to return it after the gig. The weird thing about it was that it was one of those pet shop turtles -- the size of a paper plate! I'd never seen one that large, before. I thought they remained in their small state. THB claimed that the growth was due to a diet of dog food. (I think someone had recommended this in a book or booklet.)
  About a year later, this curious story popped into my head while I was interviewing Emm Gryner.

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