Anniversary

My blog is a week old. Thanks to those of you who've stopped by and left comments.

Sold my Opteron 146. I'm thinking of getting a dual-core chip, but haven't made a final decision. In the meantime, I bought my wife a new rice cooker, a Zojirushi which is supposed to be one of the best brands. My wife has been using a cooker she's had for 30 years! She says it has sentimental value. She bought it when she first came to America.

I also ordered more CD's from Japan, including one with music played on the Tsugaru Shamisen (see photo above). It's an old-fashioned instrument that's enjoying a comeback, thanks to people like the Yoshida Brothers. The CD I bought features performances by Kinoshita Shinichi who's one of the modern-day masters of the shamisen. Tsugaru is a region in the northern end of Honshu, Japan's main island. I also got a Futaba Yoriko CD. Futaba is one of the grand dames of Enka music. Some of the younger female Enka singers consider her a mentor. One of her specialties is rokyoku which is a type of narrative singing, usually accompanied by the shamisen. It's a dying artform in Japan. I have a Fuji Ayako CD that has a song in which both she and Futaba sing. The song title is Minato Komori Uta (harbor lullaby) and is based on the Madame Butterfly story. It's a very moving song.