Hey Hey In Rockers and Welcome to The Lobby Hope you had a great Golden Week! It’s now full-fledged spring season here in Buffalo,NY and The Cherry Blossoms are in bloom! It was a warm winter and the blossoms are coming out early this year. That’s awesome on one hand, because we get our minds out of the winter blues, but here in Buffalo our Buffalo Cherry Blossom Festival is scheduled for a specific weekend and we ’re afraid the Blossoms will be gone in the time that passes! There is a beautiful Japanese Garden in a large park here in Buffalo that hosts the Hanami Matsuri event over a weekend with musical acts and activities for children as well as tea ceremonies and a Cherry Blossom Parade with all of their kids and their families. The event is small by comparison to anything you would see in Japan, and much smaller than many in the US, Washington DC has a major festival every year, but we are very happy we get to have the feeling of cherry blossoms in the Spring while we live in Buffalo. Miyoko and Hana and I got to spend some time enjoying some Ocha on the lawn under the blossoms and our Spring has begun! Miyoko and I have been home for most of the month readying our personal world for another visit from Osaka’s Shonen Knife for a tour here in the US called The USA Ramen Adventure” which spends 5 weeks making it’s way around the US through late April and May. If you’re not in the know” Shonen Knife is an all girl pop/ punk band from Osaka,which has been making music and touring the world for the past 35 years, check them out if you’ re not familiar.

Setting up an indie tour together is a ton of work for the band and especially for Miyoko who puts the … majority of the tour together along with the help of a booking agent, a publicist and myself. I think they may be the ultimate example of a DIY cross-cultural phenomenon, always being able to survive and grow and adapt to keep delivering their message. As in the case of most successful artists, the band’ s founder and leader Naoko’s drive and dedication makes it all work with the help of other inspired people who believe in her idea as well. So, this is where the story gets interesting . my wife leaves for the tour, and my 5 year old daughter and I are here at home for the next 5 weeks.

Goo Goo Dolls happen to have only one show during this time before we start a 60 show run on our “ Long Way Home” Summer “ US Tour, so I’ m a full time Papa for the next bunch of weeks, that ’s easy, except for one thing, my daughter is

“ in Japanese school here in the US, and now I have to help her with her homework every day before school! So I begin what is a crash course in Hiragana beginning this week! I already know many Japanese words and some simple sentence structure and a bit of useful ( and many not so useful,but still un!) phrases from living with a Japanese person for the past 15 years, but I can’t read at all and here we go . A, I, u, e, o, ka, ki it’s going to be fun ( I think). Stay tuned… Ok, It’s time to keep making all of this happen, Goo Goo Dolls have released a limited edition vinyl box set called Pickpockets, Petty Thieves and Tiny Victories” which is a collection of our first 5 albums, … some on vinyl for the very first time,check that out if you like that kind of stuff, and we’ ll be releasing a new EP You Should be Happy” which will be out in May in time for our US Tour!

Enjoy the springtime, and we’ll see you next week with a head full of Hiragana and much more to tell you here in the pages of In Rock!

Peace Robby