Still More 40th Anniversary

A couple of more thoughts on the 40th anniversary celebration. I'd like to thank Sasha Kolbasov for recording the event in photos and video. And I can't forget to thank Maurice Gregoire for the wonderful cake. Unfortunately, being diabetic, I couldn't partake of it. But its sheer beauty was certainly absorbed by me at the soul level.

It has been a very busy period of time. We had a video shoot, followed by the 40th anniversary, which was followed by the Oakland Raiders half-time demo. And of course now we are starting the holiday season. I am planning on doing our now annual New Years Day training 11am to 12:30 pm. We usually take the period from Christmas Eve to New Years Eve off at the dojo. Some times are best spent with family and friends. I assume classes at Aikido of Santa Cruz will on some basis be held and those wanting to train can certainly go there. I'll check in with Nadeau sensei about Aikido of Mt View's holiday schedule. So there will be updates by e-mail. Those wanting to be informed of dojo stuff, please go to the title page of our dojo website(www.aikidosj.com) and sign up for e-mail list.

I remember in New Years of 1975 I was in Shingu. There the dojo was closed for the first 7 days of the New Year. It seemed like an endless orgy of visiting friends(or in my case friends of friends), eating, drinking...... Still can recall it. Fresh raw fish tended to be much less fresh as the week off progressed. And the sake kept coming. I think by the end of the 7 days it was basically served cold. Which in my case was harder to drink. Cold sake is much different then chilled, which is very good in hot weather. But cold sake in cold weather.........

I just posted a video on Youtube of "My Funny Valentine" as performed by me at the dinner after the training. It is Chet Baker's signature song. I want to thank Dennis Kyne for accompanying me on it. If you were there, hope you enjoyed it. We get a fire engine siren right in the middle of it. But on watching it, I don't think it detracted from the song at all. Doing anything live is always risky, and the world will always send you things to blend with......