Texture,color, line,silhouette...I'm there. Hope your new year is a peaceful and meaningful one.
Mark Lanegan Band - The Gravedigger's Song

The Intangible Cultural Heritage exhibition is a Cross-Straits(of Taiwan) venture with museum quality pieces from both southern Fujian, China and Taiwan. I was really impressed by the beauty and quality of most of the exhibits on display. Many(in fact most) of the exhibits permitted photographs to be taken. The quality of the Taiwanese aboriginal pieces was some of the best I've ever seen and was much different than the typical stuff I have seen. This is the second exhibit I've attended at the Taichung Creative Culture Park (at the former Winery) and am pleasantly optimistic about future events. A docent told me there will be another exhibition coming to the Taichung Cultural Center on YingTsai by the Art Museum on 1/23/10. This will be museum pieces from Fujian. Jolly good Taichung on your pledge to be Taiwan's cultural city!

My heart goes out to the people of Haiti right now I know that God loves them and is moving on the hearts of many to provide help. Please pray or send warm thoughts and if able to please consider helping with a contribution. Here is a link to Doctors Without Borders if you're interested.

Music-Charles Mingus:Haitian Fight Song

A few months back Jean Marais known more commonly as MoShang the Sound Jeweler mentioned to me that he had a new musical project going with guitarist Chris Baily. That got me very excited because I knew and liked Chris' work. Jean had already used one of my images for another EP he did called the Stone Bell. We arranged a schedule and did photo session at various locations around town. The entire CD uses my images except for the front cover on top right. Jean did an excellent job on the graphic layout making it look like a greasy fast food wrapper. Incidentally suncakes are a popular pastry here in Taichung. There are many shops around town that feature them.

It was really a fun shoot because of the good rapport and sharing of creative ideas between Jean, Chris and myself. So you can imagine I was quite pleasantly surprised when Jean told me about a week or more ago on Twitter that they'd be doing a show here in Taichung. That's is where I got Chris to sign this copy for me(above left).

Jean obliged on autograph as well (above right). They did a great set and had some nice musical conversations which was very refreshing. They are both accomplished players but very generous about sharing the musical space with each other,unlike other soloists that like to hog the spotlight and drown out their counter-parts. It was nice to to see them in a smoke-free space as well. Hard to believe they too exist now in Taiwan with progressive non-smoking regulations for public spaces. There is post here about the show with links on purchasing Suncake Lounge Vol.1 too.

Just having so much fun with Div/Share player.  I found out about it from Bold as Love blog hosted by Rob Fields. Rob's a guy that's passionate about music and particularly black rock and punk. Here is another song sample from the new Freeland, my favorite of the cd actually: Best Fish Tacos in Ensenada. The title and the music don't mesh at all for me. I could care less because the music is absolutlely transcendent. It sounds like the soundtrack for Alien vs. Predator vs. Transformers vs.. It has that triumphant epic feel to it. See what you think.

Picked up a copy of Adam Freeland: COPE yesterday. It was recommended by Ooah, one of the members of the Glitch Mob. The record really rocks and the original stuff is great and edgy in a lind of NIN meets the Cars, Devo and the Glitch Mob kind of way. The one song that stuck out and I've included here is the cover of David Essex's :Rock On. Check it out and see what you think:

Well M.,you had me at eclectic... This is one of the most unusual musical works I've heard in quite some time. Not to say it is weird-it is anything but. What makes it so odd is it's free-spiritedness but while being very musical and enjoyable the whole time. It is obvious M. could easily make a go of being a soul/r&b style singer. Those 2 labels contain some great music but also provide some very heavy baggage. M. has a nice voice and I can only describe her work here as sounding like a spring rain shower in the mountains; welcome and refreshing and not the least bit intrusive. M's musical supporting cast is: James P. Nichols(producer) , Meg Montgomery (trumpet), David Beasley (bass) and Quynton Wright (programming). They all compliment her excellently!

In closing, I first listened to this with no expectations and was intrigued from the first listen. Every time I find myself wanting to listen to music and not sure of what I want I think of EclecticIsM because I know I'll go away filled. You can find additional info here and here.

Update: Check out this cool Alice Coltrane Tribute featuring M. Nahadr

Burnt Sugar is an evocative name. I live near a coffee roaster and can tell you with the limited sugar content of the coffee beans it is already quite intoxicating when they're being roasted. The Burnt Sugar in question here is a different kind all together. It is the musical collective organized by Greg Tate-Village Voice journalist(that paper was the musical gold standard for what was cool and worth checking out in NYC when I was a young hipster in training there) and founding member of the Black Rock Coalition, which boasts members like Living Colour and Yohimbe Brothers guitarist-Vernon Reid.

Burnt Sugar's site describes themselves thusly:

 

BURNT SUGAR is a territory band, a neo-tribal thang, a community hang, a society music guild aspiring to the condition of all that is molten, glacial, racial, spacial, oceanic, mythic, antiphonal and telepathic.

Some of us play with Steve Coleman, some of us play in Rolling Stone cover bands, some have stints with Jeff Buckley, Gary Lucas and The The on their resumes, others can list James Blood Ulmer, The Holmes Brothers, Carl Hancock- Rux, Norah Jones, P-Funk, Sheryl Crow and Earthdriver. At least one of us is a graduate of The Actors Studio. Most are amazingly proficient and prolific composers and bandleaders in their own right. Post-Grunge to Post-Philly International to Post-Subotnick the flavors run. All take hats off to Miles Davis, Eddy Hazel, A.R. Kane, Sun Ra, Jimi Hendrix and the like for opening the gates and pushing us through.

If you like your music in eclectic forms where it touches you deeply and challenges you  simultaneously, and can accept rich cross genre styles morphing from jazz to soul to funk and back again then Burnt Sugar's Making Love to the Dark Ages is probably your cup of tea. It is hip, moody and brooding and has many fine musical elements that work well together -not just random bits crammed into the stew for effect. This is my first exposure to their music and they have several other albums which I'll definitely be checking out in the near future.

In photography the higher you move up the food chain the more you'll encounter snobbery and camera/lens nazis... However you also encounter some really cool talented photographers that have a sense of community. Damien Franco of Your Photo Tips is just such an individual. The post where I was mentioned included the work of 69 other photographers (add pun in the background if you must) and I will spend time checking them out too. Damian's work is quite good and he is quite frequently hanging out on Twitter conversing too. Just returning some love to a guy that is trying to do some good things because that's the way I roll!

I found out from  Craig Ferguson today that Patrick Byrne a Taichung based musician and music promoter has a large financial debt due to the birth of his prematurely born son. The baby Fionn Byrne accumulated medical expenses of over US$ 30,000. There will be benefits here to help allay the expenses. If you would like to contribute to the Byrne family's expense fund or buy tribute CD please contact Patrick here directly e-mail to Patrick. Related article is here. Here's a good opportunity to demonstrate love and charity where it can do something big!