Rockin our new Tees

In my recent travels to Idaho for a friend’s bachelor party, I managed to be sleeping each time we happened to pass within proximity of my hometown of Ketchum. With 2,000 miles under our belts upon returning to Aspen, its no surprise that my road-weariness cast me into dreamland whenever my hands weren’t gripping the steering wheel. As is, my dad – the only person in Idaho who I would have figured to see during my visit – was also on his own Odyssey to a little backwoods town 80 miles off the paved highway.

Yellowpine, Idaho, in recent years, has played host to a gathering of harmonica enthusiasts, my dad being one of them. His quiver of Hohner harmonicas in tow, my dad makes the trek with his two huskys in a well-travelled Ford Explorer with enough snacks, clothes and car-camping gear to easily carry him months into the surrounding Frank Church Wilderness. A couple of years ago, our dog Lobo was bitten by a rattler (we suppose), with the remote setting proving too long a distance from help and an antivenom, sealing his early demise. As luck would have it for our little family of ski bums, I was arriving for my annual visit just as my dad pulled in from his most emotionally excruciating and physically painful slog home. Lobo, the best dog a boy ever owned, didn’t survive the trip. I hugged his white furred body, wrapping my arms around his bloated midsection – a sign of the venom’s ghastly work – and said my goodbyes to a good friend. We buried him with our other family pets, tucked away under a stand of pine.

As grief should never impede the process of finding joy through journey, my dad has continued his participation in the event, even so far as to design the event t-shirts for this year’s festival. The passing of the original artist made available the opportunity for my dad to place his stamp on a festival that will be forever intertwined with Idaho and our family.

For information on the annual Yellowpine Harmonica Fest, visit:

www.harmonicacontest.com

My dad is giving a little introduction for this film at the Community Library in Ketchum, ID next week. If you are in the Sun Valley/Ketchum area, feel free to stop in for a watch and a listen about a dark period in American history. With themes relevant to current events, including 9/11 and Guantanamo Bay, we can never learn the lesson of freedom too late.

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TOPAZ: A REMEMBRANCE OF DARK DAYS PAST

THURSDAY 9 JUNE @ 6PM

Event Description:
ROD TATSUNO will talk about and share his father, Dave M. Tatsuno’s film about the times spent in the Topaz Japanese Internment Camp located in Utah.

More Info:

Dave M. Tatsuno, a home movie hobbyiest captured images with his smuggled Bell & Howell camera within the confines of a World War II Utah internment camp in the only 8 mm film inducted into the Library Of Congress’ National Film Archives besides the more renowned Abraham Zapruder film of the JFK assassination in Dallas, Texas.

His obituary was registered in the Congressional Record and featured in Variety, as well as numerous major newspapers across the nation, and also on national television programs.