I've been thinking about the process of learning a lot lately.  Partly because I work at a school, so it's a topic that comes up a lot anyway.  And I'm looking a lot at my own learning, particularly since I'm learning how to play the pandeiro, and also partly because I recently got a chance to sit down with my first drum teacher, Sango Muyiwa, which was exhilarating and humbling at the same time.  It made me realize how far I had come, but also how much farther ahead he was that I ever imagined.&a

Last night I played percussion with several other Bay Area improv musicians for Theatre of Yugen's performance at Matcha. It was quite an intense experience - to be honest, I haven't played regularly for several months, and knew going in that maintaining some of the faster rhythms (esecially at low volume) was going to be a challenge - which it was.

One topic of conversation between the director and I has been the idea of fractals - parts of the whole reflect the whole.  It's something central to the jo-ha-kyu concept from Noh theatre (and subsequent SITI-ization of this form) - in every aspect of the beginning, middle and end contains in itself a beginning, middle and end.