What an amazing 11 weeks that was! I am resting up and contemplating the joy and wonder of it all.
September 28 8:30 AM Teach art workshop for Fujino Steiner (Waldorf) High School. (Alas, this workshop was cancelled due to flash flood warnings closing the school system for the day.)
October 3 – 4 PM Concert at Studio M
5-5-14 Maehara-cho,
Koganei, Tokyo 184-0013
Tel.042-381-0176
The closest train station is Musashi Koganei on the Chuo line.
The house concert was a great success – standing room only! 77 happy attendees. Here’s how it looked:
October 15 Concert at Nanso Bunka Hall in Tateyama
With tribal stomp and trance band RabiRabi x Piko, and local percussion band Awa Lion.
It was a fabulous and eclectic offering. At one point there was a taiko drum troupe, a belly dancer and an African dancer all performing together. Here’s the finale piece in RabiRabi x Piko’s set, with the belly dancer and the African dancer on stage with them:
October 22 and 23 Concerts at Yukotopia Deadheadsland
Yukotopia is a block from the Umejima train station, which you can reach via the Hibiya line from central Tokyo. Turn right when you exit the station. It’s right across the street from the Star King Pachinko. The address is:
3-2-18 Umejima
Adachi-ku, Tokyo 120-0816
Tel. 033-886-2996
There will be 4 other acts on before me (I go on last). Yukotopia is a cosy room with lots of psychedelic ambiance and welcoming friendliness. It has a full bar and offers some inexpensive entrees and snacks. People bring their kids sometimes. It hosts poetry readings on Saturday afternoons.
Here’s the schedule for Friday, October 22 (5 solo artists):
19:00~19:40 Hiroshi Sawada(Pop music)
19:40~20:20 So Terui (Acoustic)
20:20~20:50 Huga Matsuyama(Acoustic)
20:50~21:30 Roku
21:30~22:30(or longer) Alicia Bay Laurel
Here I am on October 22, 2010, singing Floozy Tune at Yukotopia.
Here’s the schedule for Saturday, October 23:
19:00~19:50 Tsumugine(Improvisational vocal performance)
19:50~20:50 Shinokuni(Pop music)
20:50~21:50 Howdy Moonshine (former members of Electric Building band)
21:50~22:50 (or longer) Alicia Bay Laurel
Roku, the manager of Yukotopia, and I play “Ripple in Still Water” by the Grateful Dead to close my set.
October 29-31 “Happy Flower Seed Party” (spiritual retreat) at Donto-in, Tamagusuku, Okinawa hosted and lead by Sachiho Kojima. Unplugged Concert with RabiRabi x Piko, Lakita Kudomi, Sachiho Kojima and me on 10/29. I teach an art workshop on 10/31. Please contact me if you’d like to join us!
A typhoon postponed the outdoor concert at Hamabe No Chaya from 10/29 to 10/31, so we had an unplugged indoor candle light concert at Donto-in on the 29th in addition to the outdoor show on the 31st. Hamabe No Chaya is a tea house with windows looking out over a calm bay enclosed by a coral reef. The stage was actually erected on the sand below the high water line, at low tide. The first act was a wonderful Okinawan traditional singer, next Sachiho played her lyre and sang spiritual songs, then I played guitar and sang original songs, and last RabiRabi played and everyone else danced.
The workshop included Sachiho’s sacred sites of Tamagusuku tour, this time augmented by the presence of Professor Hiroshi Nago, who has researched and written extensively about the Tamagusuku castle ruins, which appears to have been a temple rather than a castle. He brought a slice of a rare seashell that is found on the outside of the coral reefs in Okinawa, and showed us that the entire structure of the castle is based on the structure of this shell. This shell became a icon for a philosophy of peaceful relations, and bracelets made from it have been found in the tombs of emperors.
I lead the workshop participants in making visualization altars from found objects, including shells we picked at the beach. I was astonished, when each person shared after building his or her altar, how deeply we were all thinking and feeling after visiting the sacred sites of Tamagusuku.
November 3 Concert at Cafe Unizon in Ginowan, Okinawa, on the closing date of a one-month art show of original drawings from Living on the Earth. Alicia Bay Laurel plus all-woman trance band Amana.
Cafe Unizon’s sophisticated and comfortable room has a big view of Ginowan city, with the ocean in the distance. They always have an art show installed, lots of great books for sale and excellent food. Sachiho (on electric bass), Yoko Nema (on harmonium) and I had a great time playing original songs together. Mingo Kazumi did an improvisational modern dance to my autobiographical song 1966. Yoko lead a yoga breathing session between the session in which I talked about my art and the session inwhich she and I and Sachiho performed. Mieda-san, the owner, invited me back for next year!
November 28 3 PM Concert at Alishan Organic Center
Komahongo 185-2 , Hidaka-shi,
Saitama-ken, Japan 350-1251
office phone +81-(0)429-82-4811
Alishan Organic Center is a beautiful building overlooking a river. It houses an organic food wholesale and retail company owned by Jack Bayles and his wife, Fay, and a cafe and event space, where art classes, healing classes, and other community events are held. If you shop for organic foods anywhere in Japan, you are likely to find their products. Alishan is named after a mountainous area in Taiwan, the birthplace of Jack’s wife.
At 11 AM, Liane Wakabayashi will present her fascinating Genesis art workshop at Alishan, and at 3 PM I’ll sing my songs about the natural, organic life that Alishan Organic Center is all about. For my concert, admission is 1500 yen, and includes a beverage. Liane’s workshop also has an admission fee of 1500 yen and includes tea service.
Liane and I had a wonderful day together riding to remote Hidaka village on the train and doing our respective events. I had a standing room only audience, and Mingo Kazumi came all the way from Tokyo to dance for me on the song 1966 again. Jack invited me to come back and perform next year!
December 1 Opening at Gallery Le Deco, in Shibuya, Tokyo, of a new fashion line by Kaorico Ago owner/designer of Little Eagle and Lotus Heart fashion labels, some printed with drawings from Living on the Earth by Alicia Bay Laurel. The garments are manufactured from organically grown cotton and linen and hand sewn in a fair trade factory in India. The show will also feature framed original drawings from Living on the Earth. There will be no music on December 1, but the next three nights there will be plenty!
Gallery Le Deco is on Meijidori, about one minute walk from the new south entrance to the JR Shibuya Station, or a five minute walk from the east entrance. Phone 03 5485 5188.
December 2 show begins at 6:30 PM (18:30) with a hula kahiko halau (group) in performance, followed by a musical performance by Peace-K and Han-chan, and after that, an hour of Hawaiian songs and slack key guitar by Alicia Bay Laurel. Admission is 1200 yen in advance or 1500 yen at the door.
December 3 show begins at 6:30 PM (18:30) with the band Monk Beat, then Peace-K and Han-chan, and then Yammie, the creator of the Yappooo television series for children, will show a video of her latest work. At the end, an hour of songs about the natural organic life by Alicia Bay Laurel. Admission is 1200 yen in advance and 1500 yen at the door.
December 4 show begins at 6:30 PM with a modern dance by Shizuno, a dancer based in New York and Hawaii. Next, the wonderful singer/songwriter Yoshie Ebihara will perform. After Yoshie, Alicia will perform 45 minutes of original music, and finally, the great traditional Japanese vocalist Ikue Asazaki will thrill us with her songs. Admission is 1500 yen in advance and 1800 yen at the door.
Advance tickets may be purchased at Le Deco Gallery.
This had to have been the most astonishing three days of my life. Each night the place was packed, and on the last night there were lines in the street of people waiting to come in, including many of my dearest friends. The staff had to take the potted plants out of the gallery to make room for everyone who wanted to stand. I can’t take credit for this; the line-up on that night was stellar, and three very famous singers, Ua, Ikuko and Sandii Manumele came and performed in addition to those already on the schedule.
The reason so many great performers came to sing on behalf of Kaorico and her clothing is because Kaorico’s clothes are not just fashion. They express a philosophy that reveres Native American spirituality, Hawaiian spirituality, the works of Mother Teresa and Gandhi, and my book, Living on the Earth. All of these are about naturalness and simplicity, loving the earth as our common mother, and seeing all beings as family. Kaorico’s newest line of clothing is called “Loving and Sharing.”
Alicia Bay Laurel 
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