An evening of Music

Part of Suzuki training is that the child will perform at recitals for his or her friends. Kiran's mother had expressed interest in getting her to learn from Noah's teacher since she is local, and inexpensive.
So we invited her over and Noah was pretty excited to play for her. This event was a motivation to practice.
I had to pick up Noah from after school early because I was teaching Kung fu class that day and wouldn't be able to pick him up right before the performance. His teacher came over and he practiced and rehearsed. In fact I heard the tail end of it, mistakenly thinking that he had just performed for his friend.
Then Kiran came over and Noah freaked out and bolted. No matter what I said or threatened or bribed I couldn't get him to do what he had just done a second before.
"I don't understand, he performs with you in front of the whole Chinatown..." Mommy said.
"I didn't WANT you to invite friends over I don't WANT to perform in front of friends it's too scary!!!" Noah cried and sobbed, and tantrummed. Kiran quietly read a book.
I took Jonah outside thinking that maybe Noah was acting like this because I was there. Also Jonah was starting to riot because Nah was getting too much attention.
I thought coming back in that he had performed. Apparently they had just gone directly to eating the snacks we had prepared. We had also prepared flowers which remained useless in the fridge. Instead they became Mommy's flowers.
Noah grabbed a bunch of crackers and ate them under the table sneakily like a dog. Apparently Kiran just sort of looked on like, "What's going on." I don't know, I wasn't really there.
The evening ended in failure. Actually it was mentioned that I played violin so I started playing stuff. I think I was going to relate my first time playing twinkle twinkle little star and how nervous I was. Of course now if I didn't play I would be as bad as Noah.
Noah came out of his hiding place as I continued to play more songs. Mostly simple children's tunes.
He came all the way into the living room but he still wouldn't play.
He had played at the Suzuki fest, but other children had also been playing. I think if there were other children playing violin he would have done it too.

Everyone left and then Mommy had to go out to dinner and took Dai Dai with her. She didn't want to talk to Shao. She was very upset of course. As was I.

But I realized that I hadn't really had the chance to play my music in a long time. Usually Mommy stops me actually. So i brought out the dulcimer. Suddenly Noah wanted to play this. But you know what? He had his turn to play. I shooed him away. He sat near me and listened and then fell asleep on this box that you can sit on and put your shoes on. It also serves to hold said shoes. My point is it was not a bed. In fact his legs hung off the side. But the Chinese songs I played do have a way of putting one to sleep. In fact the dulcimer is very trance inducing in general. Who was it that wrote Xanadu? Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I didn't know that I googled it. But my Latin teacher would read it to us and always liked to point at me because I actually played the Chinese Dulcimer, which originates from Turkey or I guess Persia.

As I played through all these songs memories of practicing them over and over at home in Castle Square or in a darkened room with Zhang Lao Shi in Kwong Kow, now BCNC where Moh Goon is, all of these memories flowed back to me like a drug induced dream I suppose.

The thing about the dulcimer is a lot of the music is learned (at least how I learned it) more by patterns that you hit on the instrument. When I play violin, I don't play like that, I just feel where the note is. I suppose if you get good enough at dulcimer it would be the same. As I played some old songs I started to fool around with them and played them differently and notice I could half feel them too.

In any case, although Noah did not complete his mission to perform for a friend, I traveled back through my practicing history and suddenly had this strong urge to pass this on to my son. I CARED about dulcimer and Chinese music. In fact, were it not for that, the Chinese songs would just be quaint little things that I had heard on tapes and CDS or commericals on TV instead of living things that I owned with the spirit between two bamboo stick hammers and metal string. I played a song and then tried to recapture the feeling even though the instrument was somehow cracked and dusty, neglected and indeed abused, much the way the state of my artistic side truly is.

If the Suzuki method didn't work, the traditional Chinese method and performance circuit could accomplish the same thing and yes I now wanted him to have these feelings and experiences of belonging to that same group. Not yet. He is still too young. But I can start teaching the children dulcimer this summer. Yes why not? Real lessons. Short lessons but real ones. Not twinkle twinkle.
I reviewed some songs I could teach. There is that Mongolian one. And then perhaps the one about threading Bamboo or whatever. I never learned the names. Ahhh another comes to mind as I think about it. Three. I doubt they will learn that many over the summer. But we will try, and it will help with drumming, and it will prepare them for when they join that group.

Song of Achilles

I really liked this book, and JP reads is sponsoring a Greek Fest this Sunday at the Loring-Greenough house.
I think this book will take off as required reading in high school because  it fits in with reading the Oddysey and the Illiad but also it is Diverse because it's about to boys who become lovers. But as a heterosexual reading it, you don't feel alienated. It's a love story, with a lot of action and fighting. It would be great to have had the conversations about relationships and that sort of thing that such a book would encourage. But at the same time, it's right in line with the classics. It's Achilles and Patrocles we are reading about.

We've been asked to perform at the Festival. It's also Jonah's birthday and it might rain so I wasn't sure at first. But then I realized It's good for Jonah to go to a party on his birthday (and then come home for our own cake) and we can just bring the plastic drum and the cardboard head. Also Noah and I will will just focus on the Kung Fu aspect of the performance since that actually related to the book more than lion dance. But we will still do lion dance because it is a good warm up for the performance he will have to do next week for his Asfter School program.

I'll probably bring some sticks and foam noodles and I plan to do a freestyle staged fight with Noah after he does his other free style forms. I think I'll do forms too just for fun. Why not? It's a good warm up for me too.

Summer is coming

I feel checked out. It's weird that I feel checked out because it's not like I'm in school. But I am already thinking of what we will do in the summer. Mostly Kung Fu.
Noah had been misbehaving at school. Mommy talked to him. Miss Shea started a happy face sad face system. I have started waking him up at 7:00 am to do meditation, stretching and calisthenics and then Mein Lay jum, which even Noah calls Tai Chi. I don't do the whole form and we don't meditate for long. The hard is part, is waking up. But instead of just meditating myself, I take the extra effort to force Noah to do it with the idea that in a month, he will actually be meditating, even if it is for five or ten minutes.
In the summer I plan to start the day like this too. Should I force Jonah too? Maybe I should first make sure that Noah will do it.
Then will come breakfast and play time. And then I will enforce a basics class. This will mostly be me doing basics and the children will follow along. I'm not sure how this will go. Then will come lunch. After lunch there will be free playtime. Perhaps we will do dulcimer. Maybe we will go back out to the playground. Maybe we will go swimming.
Maybe swimming will sometimes happen in the morning.
Before dinner, we will have a Kung Fu Class. Lion Dance. Hand form, stick form, sword form. Free style. The way he does it now.
And then, last but not least, we we will have to go through sup ji. Hopefully We can go through it three times. We will have to do some math, some Chinese, and some other sorts of reading too.
I think Summer will be a busy time for us.

Vacation

It's fun to get away in the mountains. But it's good to be home too. It was nice to breathe that fresh air, travel to Story Land, Go to some waterfalls, and eat out. But everytime I eat an AMerican diet, even if it is really good food, I always end up constipated. Is that because I didn't drink enough water? Or is it that Americans wash it all down with beer? In any case my stomach got used to large portions and now I can't stop eating.
Story land was fun, though I had to take Noah away from it the second day because of his bad behavior. We ended up bonding at the water fall. It was cold but I was hot from adrenaline. It is a scary thing to see your son hop from rock to rock near the edge, even if he was careful. I was glad that I decided to let Jonah go shopping with Mommy. He's definitely not ready for that yet.
On Memorial Day we went back to story land and it ended up being the right choice for a reasn besides Noah's behavior. It was simply less crowded and cloud cover made it easier. But next year I don't think we will go to Story land. We should just go to something Nature-like, or the beach. It's  more in line with what Grace and I like, and it's come to the point where it makes no difference to Noah. Jonah still probably prefers Story Land. But then he is also afraid of the talking trees. Maybe we'll do Clarke's Trading post instead. We'll see.

Rioting

I have been seeing a lot of things on Facebook about rioting and race and how when white people riot they don't call it a riot. The first off the cuff response to that from me may be racist. And here it is. "When white people riot, it's a revolution." But that's not really true. The second thing I would say, which is also racist is, "As a half Chinese Half white person, let me just say that whites are excellent rioters. That's why they have so much power. And Chinese are good too but they tend not to riot in countries where they are the minority."
There is truth in these statements but they aren't the full truth.

I will say that Jonah is a lot better at rioting than Noah. What is a riot? It is causing destruction so that the establishment (which would be me in my household) is too distracted to enforce it's laws or continue along with the program or plan that it is trying to carry out.

For instance Noah will just yell and scream at me and try to hit me. This is not a good strategy. I'm many for times his size.

Jonah knows he is weaker than me. Not only weaker than me, but weaker than Noah. So when he wants to change what is happening. He riots. He will knock over a drink and then move on to a chair and then scatter the blocks and then run upstairs and wreak havoc on that. So I had to escalate my law enforcement. For instance, if I go to clean up the drink, three other things have happened. So the first thing is to catch Jonah.

Let's pretend I was a country and Noah and Jonah were separate communities. Community Noah feels his rights are being infringed upon. So Community Noah stomps his feet and shouts and tries to attack me. I then punish Noah harshly while holding out rewards for good behavior or doing what I want etc. Simple carrot and stick.

Community Jonah (Jonah is a lot more like me.) feels his rights are being infringed upon. He says anything. Instead tomorrow the entire city is on fire and nobody knows why. While I scramble to clean it up, community Jonah charges that I am unfit for rule and proposes a special emergency election (assuming we are a democracy) someone one from Community Jonah gets elected. The fires and chaos stop, which reinforces that idea that the person from Community Jonah is the more fit leader.

I scratch my head wondering what happened to my position.

If we are not a democracy than a full out rebellion has to happen.

Of course Jonah's strategy doesn't really work since he is not even four yet. But I can tell you that I often just leave power because I am tired of dealing with the nonsense. If he can somehow show me that he can raise himself, then fine. So basically when he is a teen he will be able to do whatever he wants. I will only be able to give advice and guidance, not set down rules.

 Noah actually likes rules. He often creates rules for me to enforce on him. I'm serious. Different people like their societies to be structured differently. And that can expand into groups and communities. Noah and Jonah are brothers. But they kind of fit the stereotypes of the races they appear to be. But at the same time they share the same genetic material. So even with two kids you can't generalize too much. But there is truth in some of the generalizations I have made. But it's not the whole truth.

Uncle Sifu

This weekend we went to the birthday party for the child of my childhood friend. While we were leaving her husband expressed interest in putting there kids into Woo Ching White Crane as well interest in revitalizing the school. I was surprised that there were people out there who were thinking about the school so much but I guess I shouldn't be.
I brought this up with my Si Hing's. But basically I think the school is where we want it. Yes we would like an influx of interested students, but not a huge influx to the point of looking like a commercialized enterprise.
 I think the best thing for the system would be a different for of expansion, i.e. more locations.
And the more I thought about it, the group my friend was proposing would be best run by the children's Uncle.

A lot of people always back off when I suggest that they teach martial arts. They will say, "Oh I am not at that level." And yet there are tons of successful schools run by people who know very little about the martial arts when they begin. After practicing by themselves they seem qualified enough as masters. Now you can tell a difference if you are from a traditional school. But can most people? No. This doesn't mean you are "fake." It just means that there is always room for improvement. Even the greatest masters you could ever think of the legends that became Gods, Guan Yu, or legends that became folk heroes, Hung Hei Goon, Wong Fei Hung... I'm telling you if you asked them, they would say that they have things that they are still working on too. I'm sure of it.

Plus when you learn from a relative, or a childhood friend the feeling is different. It's better to learn three moves in this way than to learn a million moves at a commercialized school, or even a traditional school. Because if you have an emotional attachment to your Sifu going in, then the Kung Fu you learn will feel more like an heirloom. It's like an antique chair or vase. If it is bought at auction for 3 million dollars... well that's nice. But if it was passed down through the family generation after generation.. even just one generation, that is more valuable.

Plus I realized that this Sifu I am thinking of could also learn how to make heads and make drums, and together with his friends could form a pretty solid group. And I know that when I was kid, that's what I would have wanted to join. But since my family was small and not in the Boston area, I the school that felt most like my childhood memories of places my father had taken me, and could fill in the spaces I was looking for.. ... a father figure, Traditional Chinese Culture, lots of older male figures, and badass Kung Fu.

Taken by suprise

I was washing dishes when suddenly I feel cold water spraying onto my stomach.
"Shit!" I said as I realized that the cutting board I had just placed behind the spray nozzle feature on the sink, something I have never used, was pushing and activating it.
"Why did you say shit?" asked Jonah as I mopped water off the kitchen floor. Our kitchen floor, is made of wood for some reason, which means that water is not "just water" but a substance that can potentially damage the floor if left alone.
By doing work I had created more work. And explaining that this work had to be done to Jonah, who was asking me for gummy vitamins, was not going well. At some point, he asked for angry birds and you know what? I let him have it. No actually I let him buy it with points. Points that I have been giving away quite liberally recently. I think if earning points are too hard, he won't even try. But by making it easier to earn points, he will be willing to participate in this system.

On a positive note I got my workout in. I have been doing 100 basics 50 walking basics and some kicks almost every day or at least alternating days. It is my new cardio. On the down side I have slacked off on  my training of Noah. Mainly because I see him playing around with sup ji techniques on his own, and there is only so much time in the day.

This morning we were also somewhat late for school. I blame the fact that I ate breakfast. Which I usually don't recently. It gives me more time. In fact, the reason why I was able to practice was because I did not eat lunch. I'm not going to fast, but maybe I only need one meal a day. It's just easier for everyone.

Although my breakfast was just leftovers that the kids did not finish that would have been thrown out.

There was one thing that concerned me about Noah's education today.
He had been asking me what a slave was over the weekend and so I showed him a 10 minute crash course U.S. history segment. But today he was just repeating the excerpt from the diary of a slave about being whipped.. and that can easily be misinterpreted. Actually I was trying to explain this complicated issue to him while he was putting on his shoes and it would stop him from putting on his shoes. That's really why we were late.

So then I thought maybe I could get a children's book on Harriet Tubman, since she is going to be the new face of the 20 dollar bill.

"But how come nobody caught her?" Noah asked. And I realized the children's book would do some good. But maybe I should show some clips of 12 years a slave. Then I realized that would be a very bad idea. But then I remembered the old movie, "Half Slave Half Free." That one is more kid friendly and is the same story only I think it was made more for the African American Community. So there are some other messages in there about not fighting among yourselves. Basically the more I thought about it, THAT movie is great for Noah because there are other take aways that will actually relate to HIS life.

Some Things  "Half Slave Half Free" (an earlier film version of 12 years a slave) can teach a 5  and 4 year old.

A) Don't talk t strangers. They might kidnap you and make you a slave. This can actually still happen today. It's just not legal. Technically, it wasn't even legal in Solomon Northup's case. Which is why he was able to be set free legally.

B) Practice your violin. It might come in handy.

C)There are some good social skills about how to get along with people both above you and on the same level as you.

D) Learn a trade

Plus it shows a more complicated version of slavery. For instance the Northups are actually well to do in the North in that movie. It shows how history is not just linear. Plus the language is simple enough for Noah to get it. Well I guess I better show him this movie tonight instead of Kung Fu. Hopefully it's on You Tube. I used to have a VHS but that was in middle school.

Mommy's stories vs. Mine

Mommy told Shao that she would make him his own lunch and give him three points if he did well in his violin lesson. So during his lesson, (according to Mommy) he would play really well and then suddenly turn to her with a great big open mouthed smile that he does, and which only Grace can copy. It has to do with the cheeks.
Hearing this story and so many others I was wondering, does Noah only do these funny stories with Grace? Or does he do stuff with me too and I just don't notice? I guess a funny story with me is that getting ready for school I noticed him running through his sup ji moves by himself without prompting. I don't usually give him points for this self practice. Should I? I just try to stay out of the way of his learning.
We got to school pretty early on our bikes and he played with his friends. Doesn't sound quite as cute as Mommy's story.
Jonah has better stories with Mommy too. He usually tells her things. His deepest inner more thoughts.
What was my story with Jonah?
Well yesterday at the playground he ran away, across the street. It took two seconds. Like I had suspected he was going to do something, and then found him in the playground... false alarm. And then a second later after I relaxed he did the real thing.
I think I will have to strap him into a stroller again.

In fact. Noah almost got hit by a truck too because although he looked both ways before crossing. A truck pulled passed him and then proceeded to back up. This street usually doesn't have any cars and so it was our practice street for crossing. But this truck backing up was something new and almost got him.

I guess it's back to only crossing with Baba for a while.

I didn't even get scared because there was nothing I could do. Jonah was throwing a tantrum in my arms while I was trying to put him on his bike, which he didn't ride.

Well today me and Jonah are going to Little Panda. Perhaps I will lock him in the stroller for that too. Just as a safety precaution. I honestly thought we were beyond this section of parenting and moving more into reasoning with them and teaching.

I guess not.

Library Book Talk

First of all I was nervous. Not so much about the lion dance section of this little demo. That was Noah's area, and he did a great job. In fact I was so nervous I forgot to bring his stick and sword. But Noah did great. I was nervous about doing my reading. But I sold some books and I learned a lot, thanks to a friend who was sitting in the audience. Also there was a rapid fire of questions from one guy who was like, "What are Chinese people? Do they have Geisha's like Japan? What's the difference? Why do I see a lot of Chinese Take Out but not a lot of Japanese Take Out? Why did China become  Communist in 1949?"

I made a big mistake and backed off the last question with a "They became Communist for a lot of the same reasons other countries did." because I thought that to answer that question required several books and none of this was quite related to my book, "Kung Fu and Love." But it is related. I just should have started my answer with, "Most Chinese Americans especially from he older generation are staunchly anti- Communist. And the relationship to any of the traditional arts and the cultural revolution is a bad one since the aim of that movement, or mess was to wipe all those things out. But the Feudal Society wasn't fair or balanced and Communism promised something better. Of course it ended up delivering 80 million dead. But now as China has become an economic powerhouse who knows what the future will bring? But my book is mostly about Chinese in America. A lot of people coming to the U.S. from China now either to immigrate or just to visit might have a different opinion than say my father's or my Sifu's generation. First of all, a lot of the new visitors might be filthy rich, or at least wealthy." Anyway I could have gone on and one like that. But instead I wanted to move forward.

That instinct may not have been wrong, after all I had answered all his other questions already, but I ended up finishing up way early. Partly because we didn't do the stick and sword form, partly because I didn't do Kung Fu myself, but mostly because I didn't adequately introduce myself or explain why this book "Kung Fu and Love" is so important to me. I didn't really SELL it. And that was what I was there to do.

I will devote my next entry to why this book is like Gospel to me. I mean yeah it's not perfect, but I did put my soul into it.. and I should talk about that and also explain what Kung Fu is and why that's important to me, and even why Kung Fu and Love are both disciplines. I figured the book has all that. But the thing is, nobody read the book yet.  I have to tell them what's in it, how I wrote it, what writing it was like. How it contains my essence as a person even if it is fiction. How BECAUSE it is fiction it contains more of my essence, of my inner being, than it would have if it was completely real. After all, it is the inner workings of my mind, forged sharpened and honed to a blade. Now the quality of the blade may not be the best in the world. But nonetheless it is my work.

Mother's Day Qing Ming picnic

So most people do Qing Ming in March. But we were not the only ones to do it yesterday. I saw some Chinese Candles by the side of the cemetery road, by the water spigot. It was nice. We got our chicken and Fau yuk, Grace made fried rice, the kids made cards for Grace, and while we had our little picnic, Noah got to learn about the fire. I thought I would let him tend to it, but it became a little much and he really only got to to stir it at the end. I brought a lot more paper money this time because it wasn't just for my parents, but for Uncle Francis, Uncle Tommy, Aunt Anne, but then you could say it's all pretend anyway. But what wasn't pretend was that more paper on the fire =stronger fire. a tree that had been small last year actually was big enough to provide shade this year and we sat under that to eat our meal. There were other people around putting Mother's day flowers on the graves.
Somehow all that made us pretty tired.
Mommy created some little fairy gardens to put around the house and Noah had to be punished for among other things, sharpening the stick used to stir the Qing Ming fire into a spear like Odysseus, and attacking Dai Dai.
Da nes were turned into Sup Ji's were turned into meditation, were turned into, "We will forgive your negative points if you just play with Dai Dai very nicely."

Tons of leftovers today.
Tons of leftovers this week actually.

100 Sup Ji's

There is a lamp in Noah's class that can get hot. I touched it myself and I suppose Noah was holding a paper next to it. And then supposedly he told one of his friends that he was doing this because hot things make paper catch fire and fire can burn. Since we are in a school it would burn the school. He came to this in a 5 year old frame of mind not thinking of consequences but just thinking of the science of it. By the way, the paper di not catch fire, and the teacher was not really concerned about that or that Noah was trying to burn the school. But things had to be explained to him and protocol had to be followed.
Which means that I got a call from the Vice Principal describing the situation second hand, which sounded much more grave and serious.
When I tried to explain things to Noah I felt I wasn't getting through to him. So we watched the Arthur episode about fires at school. But that didn't seem to get through to him either. I suddenly realized that he was too young to understand such concepts, and that honestly most adults do not really understand things. I suddenly realized that the true reason for thousands of years of continuous civilization was the Legalist approach. He doesn't even get the correlation between what he was doing and a fire at the school. To him one thing is a serious problem and the other is a science experiment.
So the only answer was you did this and the result is severe punishment.

Suddenly he was crying and begging for mercy. I allowed him to work off his punishments with 100 sup ji's which I counted off on a rosary while doing Hail Mary's and Our Father's (I do a simplified version of the Rosary Fr. Cullen had explained once in class saying of the more complicated version with the Apostle's creed, "You don't really need that.")

I think Noah did more than 80 Sup Ji's because at some point it was getting late and he did try.

When I talked to the teacher I realized the issue was not necessarily as dire. I brought up our concern that we would be doing Qing Ming this weekend (we are late, but we would rather do an enjoyable Qing Ming than be cold. Plus some of the old people say it can be done anytime and often go do this celebration whenever they visit China no matter what season. For us, it's just a tradition. After all, I didn't grow up doing this for either side of my family.)

The teacher said that burning money and real fire should be fine as long as it was explained that we took safety precautions etc.

Festival Weekend.

Saturday was quite the parade. Pictures to follow. Noah did lion dance and we carried our big drum (which would be a small drum for Moh Goon.) in the wagon. "Stay behind the Curley Lion!" I told Noah. We then ducked out to go home and switched to Noah's bike. We caught up with the end of the parade which is what Noah wanted to do, to see his friends. Of course once the parade merged with the Festival it was crazy and we ended up doing our own thing. After several stations of Spontaneous Celebration Fun, we settled on the playground. I realized that the truth is, it's almost like everyday is a festival in JP at a playground. Especially when the weather is nice.
We slowly moved back through the festival, after eating lunch. Watching the Brazilian drummers. I ran into a friend from middle school at a station of foam blocks, and we still spent hours at the cardboard slide. I didn;t have my sun hat so I got a little burned. Noah just got darker.

Then home it was and time to prepare for my midnight lion dance at Logan airport. And it really did start at midnight! I met someone else I knew who happened to be going to Hong Kong, and felt a sudden pull to travel. The possibilities that from an airport you can go anywhere was seeping in. Then I realized I do not even have a passport currently. And the more I thought about it, traveling itself is not that great. It is being somewhere. And that somewhere might as well be home with my kids.

I played the gong, but I was actually more nervous for the group. The kids were well experienced of course and did fantastic. I would like to see the video of this because it probably looked like the mnost awesome party to be at ever... at an airport terminal. The reality... well why ruin the fantasy?

Then on Sunday we went to a Polish Festival in Dorcester. It was much smaller than I thought but this was encouraging. Although I am part Polish I really know nothing about the culture. My Uncle Francis said, "We aren't that Irish, But they were the loudest. So that's what we know about."

But anyway, the Kilbasa sandwiches were fantastic. We will have to come back to those stores another time. Also I realized that bigger isn't necessarily better.

The Japan fest on the Common was huge, but all comercial except for the Showa sections.

The Greek fest, on the same day was kind of sparse even though they must have paid a ton of money for the stage and DJ and booth on the common.

August Moon and Spring Festival are great sure. But is the food better than on the street than the regular restaurants? Is the focus the culture or the money?

For the Polish fest, we were outsiders so we were in an out, just eating lunch. The sandwich that was so amazing was only $2. We didn't watch any performances because well, the kids.

It was basically in the back little parking lot of the Polish American Citizens Association or whatever. An equivalent of Chinatown's CCBA or perhaps Oak Tin or something like that. We felt like we had stumbled into someone's private party, because the only other  non polish people looked like Asian neighbors or people who may not look polish but were polish enough that they spoke it. Everyone was drinking beer and speaking Polish like it was a family reunion.

This was encouraging because as Chinatown continues to shrink, it shows that it will still be possible to have these connections in the Family Associations and little Chinese Fests like this when the restaurants are gone. In fact, these little parties in the future have potential to be better than the big festivals that are put on now.

 The Lion was made by Noah's Class mate's Mom (Riyo Hirota) She studeied sculpting at the MFA. It shows.

Here's to skipping head to Midnight the next day. I hid from this picture. figured there was no space.

 We have stopped drumming and taken a break at this point. In this parade I learned to blend lion dance drumming into Afro Caribbean drumming. I realized that it can be done! And without practice of rehearsal either!

 Noah must be tired. He doesn't look to happy. Amazingly, he lasted for 5 more hours.

And this proves that indeed I was at that airport lion dance. Believe it or not, I actually practiced my gong pushing and warmed up. There are no small roles! Plus it's cool that even our Gong player, can, if necessary jump into the head say, if for some reason TSA could not allow him to perform. A real possibility that night!