Sebastopol Weekend

Friday nite, Saturday, Sunday, I spent at Tenchi Aikido. It was the third anniversary of the new dojo. This dojo is run by Betsy Hill sensei, who in addition to being an old friend, is the first person in aikido that I met. Friday nite was a short training, followed by a ceremony. I chanted both Amatsu Norito and Kami Goto.

Saturday and Sunday were morning and afternoon classes with dan tests included in the afternoon segment. Congratulations to Jim Gauer on his promotion to nidan and to Cathy McFann for her promotion to sandan. They were both strong tests.

Attending the seminar on Saturday was Seth Spitzer, a long-time student of Aikido of San Jose who is now in San Francisco on work. Seth was scheduled to test sometime back but then moved to San Francisco. We used the occasion, with Seth's permission, to test him for shodan. His also was a very good test, and so I have the pleasure to announce his promotion to shodan. I included a photo of him taken a few years back at one of our dojo Halloween parties. Seth was the Thing from Marvel's Fantastic Four and I was a deathdealer from the Underworld movies.

Saturday following exams and training Dennis Kyne and I played music. We usually play Saturday after class in the San Jose dojo. Since I wanted to practice, we set up a playing session that was open to those who went to the seminar. It was well received and portions of it were shot by several of the people there(a good sign). My thanks to Dennis for coming up and supporting me both by training and letting me play. In addition to Dennis I would like to thank Mary, of course Seth, Ken, Andrew, David, Mike, and anyone else from ASJ who went and supported the event. And of course it was wonderful as always to see Dianna and Vlad.

I found the following Chet Baker piece on youtube, entitled "Nightbird":