this week a 9 day Jazz Fest in Taichung. Halloween -the first public gig by the new band at Hawaii 51 in Taichung. The Nov. 8th Mike Mudd solo at the Peace Fest in Hualien on the east coast!
Waste of Time -Sound of Silence by Mike_Mudd
We jammed on one of my tunes 'Waste of Time' It's great to hear this tune with a full band! I'm sure it'll sound a lot better with some rehearsal.
Moon Festival is one of the most important holidays in Taiwan (and other parts of east Asia)
We got lost on our way to a Moon Festival party with our new friends, which was a good thing because we ran into a religious procession in Taichung. Dancing/sparring, puppets, costumes, strange music, lost of fireworks -fascinating stuff. When we finally got to where we were going we had a great time BBQ-ing, hanging out, and jamming... Dang, we really need a new camera.
You can't live in Taiwan without owning a scooter. It's unfortunate after having lived without cars for close to 10 years (except the occasional rental), but it's pretty darned necessary in many places in Taiwan. Anyway I had my guitar with me when we bought one the other day and had a little jam session with the shop owner's daughter and brother! How cool is that? Well, maybe not, but I don't care 'cause it was fun.
They also made us impose on their dinner. It was tasty! People are pretty generous here, but after all they were making money off of us too. Still, they would have forced us to eat something anyway.
An 8 minute experiment with my tune called 'The Wind.' A bit of Eastern European and East Asian sounds, orchestrations, followed by an 'effected' version of my cowboy tune.
Here are some photos of Taichung city parks, sculpture, streets, temples, people etc...
I met an awesome group of musicians/music students at a music-center called The Butterfly Cries in a town called Daya - How-Wei, Boris, Killer, Jeremy, Erin, Bear, Noel (Xiao Yi) and Wei Sun!!! It's interesting that so many people adopt an English name. I guess that's typically one of the first things people do when they start learning English.
This video is from our second jam session.
Noel is a great songwriter! His face will have to remain a mystery for now because the best sound setup for the speakers was the angle of the back of Noel's head. They're all great musicians. I'm going to need to practice my hand-held harmonica skills if I'm going to play backup harp... I've rarely played without the harmonica holder. Hell, this could turn out to be a killer band. We'll see...
Rock in Taichung -Punk Rockin' by Mike_Mudd
What a great time it was at Rock in Taichung! Taichung is the third largest city in Taiwan and next door to the city we're living in. 3 stages, thousands of people, free to all, and it's government funded! Wow! I told Samantha and Willie that I'll be playing at this festival next year...
What a great time it was at Rock in Taichung! Taichung is the third largest city in Taiwan and next door to the city we're living in. 3 stages, thousands of people, free to all, and it's government funded! Wow! I told Samantha and Willie that I'll be playing at this festival next year...
Night markets are big in Taiwan. People here love to shop and they love to eat. Samantha and I are often wondering how people stay so thin on average, when they seem to eat so much. I think maybe they just snack all the time and eat very small meals.
Taiwan has the second densest population in the world, going to the night market puts that statistic in a practical context. It's actually pretty awesome if you're a people person. Especially considering how friendly most people are.
well, the only difficulty in getting to Taiwan was LAX. I can't believe how confusing L.A. airport was. Signs pointing in two directions at the same time, long lines, unfriendly, unhelpful workers. It was lame. Taipei international airport was a breeze comparatively. We had a driver waiting for us, and got to our hotel with no problems at all. (thanks recruiter!)
The next morning we heard an ice-cream truck outside! We were thinking 'wow, Taiwan is a magical land!' Haha! Actually, here the garbage trucks sound like ice-cream trucks -boo.
I performed at my musical alma mater Yavapai College. For a junior college it's got a pretty darned good music department -in fact the 'Master Choir' has performed at Carnegie Hall!
The head of the department Will Fischer was the best teacher I ever had. The love for music that he had was infectious. He's had more influence on me than anyone else. Plus he offered me a full ride to go there even though I had a C average in high-school. I guess he saw some potential! It was a great experience to go back after all this time and perform again in such familiar surroundings!
Great trip to Utah with the family! There are a lot of beautiful places to explore in Utah, but their beer is way too freakin' weak -those dadgum Mormans... seriously 3% beer? what's up with that. It doesn't make any sense when you could just buy wine at 12% anyway or hard alcohol. Of course buying any alcohol at all is a bit more difficult in Utah.
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| From Utah trip |
I appreciate the place where I grew up a lot more after leaving it. The beauty of Arizona can't be compared. This slideshow is of a ghost town called Chloride, my hometown of Kingman and a few pics of Laughlin, Nevada -a casino town across the state line.
I have a lot of memories of Chloride and the Murals up in the hills above the town. My song 'Ghost Town' is about the town and the best friend of a high-school girlfriend who died in a car accident on a dangerous curve on the highway between there and Kingman called 'Coyote Pass.' She was buried in the Chloride Cemetery.
The murals were painted by a guy named Purcell in the 60s hippie era, while he was on a hallucinogenic journey of self-discovery. He goes back every decade or so and re-does the paint job.
David and Vania treated us to one more sightseeing adventure before we left! The Irazu volcano! It's an active one, it last erupted in 1965.
San Jose is a great city, with a lot of culture, beauty, and wonderful people. It can also be dangerous, especially to clueless Gringos. So if you plan to go there, get a clue -You'll have a great time!
Our little piece of heaven on earth in Coronado. The farmers market, neighborhood and amazing gothic cathedral. So much beauty for such a small town... I'm going to miss my Tico (Costa Rican) friends so much! I count them among the kindest, most generous, and friendly people I knows! (tear in eye)
Ah, the beauty of Costa Rica! Our 'foster parents'(the Tico couple who we lived next door to in Coronado) took us to see the Cartago and Orosi area. Another place that puts you in awe of beauty of nature. Costa Rica does that to me just about every day!
Today begins my last mini-tour of Costa Rica before we take off back to the states for a couple months then off to Taiwan... Saying goodbye to my friends in Santa Ana tonight with the Known Associates -those psycho bikers. Then tomorrow night in Coronado.
My original tune from his CD -M-. Performed live at Artichoke's legendary Backgate Stage at the Mudd and Bones Central America send-off party. With Paul Sanchez on piano. I usually get choked up on this one...
We finally took our camera to the feria. Check out all the yummy fruits and veggies.
There are a lot of alternatives to potatoes, here are a couple.. in front of the papaya and pineapples are yucca and camote. People also cook up both yellow and green plantains.
Papaya!
Chayote, kind of like a cross between squash and potato. Especially good in soups and stir fries.
These little green bananas are called gineas. Another potato alternative, they are great sliced and deep fried with cream cheese, the same as green plantains. That dish is called 'patacones' in Costa Rica and Panama, 'tostones' in Nicaragua.
Samantha and I started a group to bring awareness to the fact that wild animals are dangerous -duh! You've got to have a Facebook account though to be a member.
These were the highlights of our last trip to Isla Bastimentos, Panama...
This is Calypso Joe, a friendly musician who played some tunes for us while we were kicking back at the Red Rooster.
I'm trying to get some of the video that we've taken over the last year up. These are some random animal videos.
The Howler monkeys are from our trip to Manual Antonio, Costa Rica. These guys are stinky, very loud, and have GIGANTIC balls. But they are fun to see jumping around in the trees and making some noise. It's hard not to join them in their "howling".
Blue Suede Shoes - Mike Mudd with The Known... by Mike_Mudd
Playing with a Costa Rica blues-rock cover band is a lot of fun. Unfortunately I haven't found Costa Rica to have much of a music scene per-se, but there are some great musicians down here. The Known Associates are a bunch of bikers with a club-house/ venue in the back of a large biker bar. Classic rock and blues tunes- The Doors, ZZ-Top, The Rolling Stones, Elvis, etc... I even got a chance to throw a couple of my originals in there!
Today we went to the local feria (farmers market) as we do every Sunday. One of the coolest things about Costa Rica is that you can buy 90% of your food from local vendors. It's very easy to avoid big chain stores here.
Today was a happy day because there was an abundance of pejibaye. We even found some fresh mushrooms, which are normally hard to find. Yum.
On Saturday I had a gig at a bike show at Motorpsychos bar in SantaAna -a small town outside of the capital San Jose.
The Known Associates, rocked the house.
Slideshow of our Ometepe trip. Not including our night of debauchery with the help of Flor de Caña.
The last day we were on the island we took a tour to see some interesting things. We saw a tree full of cute little monkeys. Here is one of them.
We also saw several petroglyphs. I'm not sure how old they are but they are from the original inhabitants of the island.
We saw the volcano from a few different vantage points.
And some more farm animals...
Then we watched a beautiful sunset at the port...
The next day we headed home. It was another exhausting day of travel. Ferries, taxis, and buses for another 8 hours. Here is a shot of a guy on the ferry pumping water out of the engine room (and onto our feet).
At least the border wasn't as crowded on the way back. Here is a pic of the border town. They all look a lot like this in Central America.
Last weekend we took a trip to Nicaragua. We went to the beautiful island of Ometepe which is a small island with two big volcanoes (one active, one not) in the middle of Lago de Nicaragua (lake Nicaragua). The 8 hours of bus travel and the chaotic border crossing was NO fun but it was worth it. It was an amazing place!
We stayed at Hotel Playa Venecia which was right on the beach next to a nature preserve. It was very relaxing and beautiful. There are all kinds of farm animals running around the island. Here Sam is making friends with a local pig (probably to be someone's breakfast someday).
We went for a walk in the preserve, it was great! There is a big lagoon on the trail and we were checking it out when we noticed hundreds of little things hopping around. At first we thought they were bugs, yuck! But we looked closer and discovered that they were tiny little frogs. The smallest frogs we've ever seen...
There was an agricultural festival in Coronado this weekend. It was interesting. There were a lot of cows and animals along with the usual gigantic farmer's market that they typically have every weekend. There was a band called mascarada that had a bunch of people in costumes and masks. The music was good too.
I was invited to play a set at the festivities. The sound system wasn't perfect but the show went well.
We've moved! Sam got the job teaching Englsh in San Isidro de Coronado. She's teaching at a small English school that works with the a local agricultural co-op. It's a nice job and she really likes the students.
So, we found a nice little house outside of town, it's nice and it has a
big yard. There are lots of birds and our neighbors are really cool. The town that we live in is about a half hour out of San Jose in the mountains. It's dairy and farm country and is fairly laid back. Of course everyone tells us not to walk around at night, but it really doesn't seem any scarier than Portland was (probably less scary really).
There is a small farm on the side of our house and a small (at least in the dry season) river behind our house. Here are some pics of the side and back of our house.
There a bunches of these pretty birds, called bobo's by the locals. I believe they are actually mot-mots though. Either way, cute bird, cute name.
We took a trip back to Bocas del Toro, Panama, with my (Sam's)parents, who are visiting for a few months. Our first stop was Puerto Veijo. When we went last year it was a sunny Caribbean paradise,but this time it was gloomy and rainy the whole time. The funny thing about this town is that instead of the usual ragtag assortment of stray dogs handing around everywhere, there were cats. Whenever we'd be kicking back to eat in a restaurant there would be some cute little kitty under the table and begging for food.
Here is a vulture drying his wings during a brief respite from the rain.
We narrowly missed being able to cross the border into Panama. Turns out that we were about the last people that made it. Because of the heavy rains the border town flooded and the border closed down for a few days. We made it to Isle Bastimentos and settled in at the Hostel Bastimentos. It was rainy and nasty for almost a week and all the roads were closed so we were stuck. It was so wet and muddy that there wasn't much we could do but sit and read.
We did manage to get out one day for a short tour. It was cloudy but we didn't get rained on. We went to dolphin bay and saw some dolphins, then we went snorkeling. We saw some amazing squids that changed color several times as we watched them. I wish I could have gotten some pictures.
Here is a pick of the tiny little frogs on the island. The most popular beach "Red Frog Beach" is named after these little guys.
On the morning that we were finally going to be able to leave, we all got sick. Food poisoning. Luckily we were only down for one day, but the most irritating thing was that it was sunny and beautiful for the first day of the whole trip and we were stuck in bed.
So, we stayed one extra day to recover and did manage a nice sunny trip to the beach before we left. Then it was back to San Jose where I had an interview for a teaching job in Coronado, Costa Rica.
