GSBF Report #5 Friday

Joanie

Today we did a lot of interviews, and when people found out we were doing them they introduced us to other people to interview. Which is how I was able to talk with Dennis Makishima. Thank you, 'Nut, for introducing us! Dennis opened another door.... the door to the early years of bonsai in the Bay Area. When you read the interview tomorrow you will understand why Dennis is a force to be reckoned with. Absolutely amazing.

We also watched the demonstrations from 1 pm to 4:30 pm. Now is the first critical thing I have to say about the convention. There were too many demonstrators up there. Eight total. From left to right we had Pedro Morales and his group working on a juniper; Harry Hirao and his assistant working on a collected Calif. juniper; Cheng Kung Cheng working on San Jose juniper; Ed Nakanishi from Hawaii working on a rock planting; Min Hsuan Lo (Taiwan) working on BOTH a ficus and a quince; Mary Madison working on a collected Bald Cypress; Ted Matson working on a collected boxwood; and John Thompson working on a collected Oak. That was toooooo much. We couldn't do justice to any of them, because it was simply overload. Now, people who have been at many conventions told us that the demo time was usually boring if only one or two people were up on stage, but even they agreed that eight was overdoing it. Toward the end the audience got burned out. (Peter, can you post the picture we had taken?) Wish we had taken time to find Michelle, but things move so quickly.

Some pictures may follow but we couldn't really get good up close pictures of the demos since there were so many people. Tomorrow we will post the trees, that's what you really want to see anyway, right?

Then it was time for cocktails and dinner. We dressed and came down to mill around and socialize, although by then we were hungry and stressed and frankly rather glassy eyed. We had chosen a table where we didn't know anyone, boy did we luck out!! Michelle and I sat between John Thompson (a demonstrator, High Priest of Oak) and Doug Philips (who did a workshop on olive. His specialty is olive and fused Trident.) And ranged in between were other San Jose Club members. They all said HI MATT! We told them you were homesick for the convention and we were giving you the daily report. They were gracious and very welcoming to us. Our mantra was "We are not worthy", and they said that John would have trouble fitting his head through the door now, it was so swollen by our compliments. The food was delicious, although Michelle and I only ate a part of ours, we were so busy talking to them and joking.

Awards were given out, the Circle of Sensei awards. We will post a seperate thread on those awards and the people who won them, with a little bio and pictures if possible. Also three Presidents awards for people who had given collectively 48 years of volunteer work to the GSBF and other bonsai clubs.

Then the raffle started. There were wonderful donated items, too many to mention. More tomorrow, and more on Sunday too. The items are donated by clubs and vendors and generous individuals and were worth thousands of dollars collectively. People cheered and groaned as they won, or their friends won, or lost. The Puerto Rican group made us laugh and cheer more than once when they won, doing this dancy-chanty-cheer thing. Their energy and enthusiasm (they had done both a Round Robin AND a demo today) made us suspect that they had a stash of Puerto Rican rum or something!

It's late and we're tired and need to find at least a few hours of sleep before the morning. It isn't every day you get to interview such luminaries! Better be sharp, now! So good night.

Joanie

__________________

Advertisement

Repotter

Joanie, Absolutely fantastic, what fun it would be to be in your shoes for the last four days or so. Great report, excellent writing, you create a great visual.

Thank you so much for that, .........Hector

Migoto

Here are a few pictures of the morning demos (not the headliners Joanie mentioned above, those were in the afternoon.) Even six masters at work at the same time seemed to me to be too much to take in. The trird picture is the Puerto Rican group working during the "Round Robin" at lunch. Some of the clubs had tables set up and were having a great time. It seems like we're so busy taking pictures and Joanie is interviewing at a mad pace (I can't wait to hear how she writes up Jim Barrett, she said we may need to change the title from "A moment with..." to "Seven pages with..."). When we have a chance to catch our breath we'll fill in all the holes and post all the photos.

Attached Images

	x demos 1.jpg (36.4 KB, 36 views)
	x demos 2.jpg (33.8 KB, 35 views)
	x puerto rican.jpg (39.6 KB, 45 views)

__________________
It is better to have a hen tomorrow than an egg today.