Jam Session at the Scooter Shop!

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.

The Wind -Original Tune (8 minute version)

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.

Random Taichung City

Here are some photos of Taichung city parks, sculpture, streets, temples, people etc...

New Musician Friends!

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...

Ghost Festival and New City life

We arrived just in time for 'Ghost Month.' Fascinating culturally, but a bit frustrating because the air is clogged with the smoke from the burning of 金紙; jīnzhǐ (Ghost money). 

Here are some photos of the city we're living in 'Fongyuan' and a few of the bins where the 'ghost money is burned.

From Wikipedia: The Ghost Festival, also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival, is a traditional Chinese festival and holiday celebrated by Chinese in many countries. In the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh lunar month (14th in southern China).

In Chinese tradition, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm. Distinct from both the Qingming Festival(in Spring) and Chung Yeung Festival (in Autumn) in which living descendants pay homage to their deceased ancestors, on Ghost Day, the deceased are believed to visit the living.

Rock in Taichung -Rock Festival!

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 Market

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.

Arriving in Taiwan

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.