2007 in Review
2007 was a good year. After 6 years of silence--playing music only to myself--I finally decided it was time to reconnect with the world again. At first I tried going out and playing at Open Mikes around the area... then I started doing Coffeehouse gigs... these were fun--but somehow not fully satisfying. I guess I've got this need to feel I'm doing something unique, and Open Mikes and small gigs just weren't doing it for me.
Then, early one Sunday morning I had this inspiration... why not combine my love for music with my love for travel--and throw in a little flair of the unexpected?... Let's go Parkbenching again! So I got in my car with my guitar, a map and a digital camera and headed north to Small Town Upstate Pennsylvania... and haven't turned back since!
Now, eight months later, I've got to say, it's been a fun ride... What a wealth of memories--playing for the monks in Vietnam... dancing with a crowd of girls in York, PA... meeting tons of great people in Morocco... singing in the shadow of the majestic castles of Portugal... Four continents, 10 countries, 122 cities and towns--all condensed into 3 music videos...
Now the only question is: can I top that in 2008? I hope so!
So let's get started...
First, I've got a couple of towns I'd like to visit right here in Northeast USA--starting with Hagerstown, Maryland.
Hagerstown brings back a lot of memories--I've actually bicycled down here a couple of times... met a lot of neat people here... I even played cricket with a bunch of Pakistani doctors having a picnic at the park once!
Now I've come to wander around one last time and play a few songs on a park bench somewhere--and take a video clip.
On the north side of town I find a beatiful neighborhood of mansions with the trees all in bloom. I usually don't take my video clip in front of someone's house--but this time I couldn't resist. Then a fellow out walking his dog hollers out "Hey! what kind of guitar is that?"
"Oh, it's just a cheap guitar I picked up for 16 bucks in China"...
Soon he was telling me of his adventures of living in a village in Bolivia back in the Seventies--with no money... I knew I'd met a kindred spirit... We chatted for an hour or two over coffee, swapping tales of our adventures... Then he got a call on his cellphone--apparently he was supposed to be at a business meeting an hour ago...
Another great memory created in Hagerstown...
