Swish Cafe

So Swish is pretty much where I live in Shillong. It's a great space to hang out, has excellent coffee (thanks to the hotel-grade coffee maker you can see in the picture and a really nice roast), great food and friendly people. The owner happens to be my main Pnar contact and there are a lot of Pnar speakers that hang out there, so it's a great place to practice Pnar. I've also been coming here for the past couple weeks to work on translation. It can be a bit noisy, but I sit with a friend and we both wear headphones so we can play the sound file back bit-by-bit and translate each word and phrase. Swish is in Laitumkrah as well and can be a bit hard to find if you don't know where to look - but just ask any of the youngsters and they'll know where it is. The owner also happens to own the nightclub Tango, which is on the other side of town in Police Bazaar - a happening place on the weekends.

Vlog Day 54 - Lawrence Tornado

Today was a pretty chill day - I visited the Watkins museum briefly (did you know they made electric cars at the turn of the century? Milburn did, that is) and then spent most of it in Signs of Life Books (google search it, it's a cool place in Lawrence), and half the time they were playing my music. I spent the time editing video, writing a letter, and talking to people. I also wandered around the bookstore, which rose incredibly in my estimation when I discovered a Square Halo book on its shelves!
Square Halo Books is a publishing company that my friend Ned Bustard started (Ned helped design my album cover and does other great stuff through World's End Images) which publishes great books on art and music - look for a new book out soon, on the business of art/music.
After Rachel got off work, we decided to ignore the tornado warning sirens and walk to get something to eat, which was perhaps not the wisest move. As the storm clouds overtook us (with lightning and beginning to swirl ominously) we took shelter in Wheatfields, a local bakery/pastry shop, and ended up waiting out the storm with other customers in their pastry kitchen. I managed to document the event. Fortunately, the tornado didn't touch down in Lawrence, passing northeast through the city before developing into an actual tornado of swirling wind.
I left Lawrence around 9pm to drive to my friend's house in Kansas City, and the last couple shots in the video are me trying to document the incredible lightning show I received on my drive - miles away and safe enough to drive past. I tell ya - weather is no joke out here.

Vlog Day 53 - Signs of Life Books

My friend Rachel lives in Lawrence, Kansas, where she graduated from college, and she is friends with people that work at Signs of Life Books, a bookstore with lots of great books - both Christian and non - that has managed to become a center for the arts and music in Lawrence, combined with a gallery and coffeeshop - just a really cool place to hang out. They set me up with a show at the bookstore, so I arrived from Tulsa, rented the PA system at Mass Street Music, and played for Rachel, her friends, and others that stopped by. It was a great night. Afterwards we went to a friend's house and hung out around the campfire.

Vlog Day 46 - World Garden

I drove the 8 hours from Nashville to Bentonville, Arkansas today - stopped in Memphis for lunch, which I discovered was not conducive to a streamlined drive. Did you know that on half the streets in Memphis (maybe more) you can't turn left? This means that turning left involves intense circumlocution and lots of extra time. But all's well that ends well.
In Bentonville I played at World Garden Salads, a new soup and salad place that just started last fall and has a really neat focus. Through their sales they provide funding for orphanages around the world - a seventh of what they make from their soup and salad bar goes to seven different orphanages, so when you eat there (and the food is really good) you are making a direct impact on the health and wellbeing of children who otherwise would not benefit. Their food is great and they roast their own coffee - which is also phenomenal.
Rick and Mark's vision is to provide a fair-trade network for coffee growers and farmers both locally and worldwide that also benefits those who normally go without. They want to extend their food and craft resources to many different countries by purchasing coffee, tea, and spices directly from farmers, and crafts directly from artisans or through other trade resources such as Ten Thousand Villages. It is a really unique idea and one that really is working and making sense. World Garden is now beginning to think of franchising. You can hear directly from Rick in the video below - pardon the excited girls in the background. =)

Vlog Day 23 - Art and Music

I slept in rather late today, partly due to the fact that I had a couple cups of Leopard Forest's excellent coffee and as a result stayed up the rest of last night. So I took my time getting up and ventured out into a cold and rainy day around 2pm to visit the local Andrew Wyeth display at the art museum here in town. Who knew that Greenville has one of the largest collections of AW's work? He really did some amazing paintings. Also on display were paintings from early North and South Carolina painters that were quite stunning.
The rest of the afternoon was spent reading in the library next door to the gallery. I picked up a 200-page book by a favorite author at 4pm and was done by 7.40 or so. I think I'm slipping. The time was when I could finish a book like that in 3 hours or less. I was pretty tired though.
Open mics were next in line - I played at Coffee Underground's Acoustic Seen (where I met up with Jeremy and Julie from college who also happen to know my brother from JBU) and then went with some friends to Smiley's Acoustic Cafe, where the fries are amazing. Good times, great food, good music! Thanks Greenville!

Vlog Day 22 - Greenville and Leopard Forest

Michele took me to Blue Ridge Brewing for lunch because of the ketchup. She was not joking either - the ketchup is AMAzing, as the first video demonstrates. We talked about the recent album review for 'Breathe Deep' (HERE) and how hard it is to strike the balance between being culturally relevant and maintaining excellence without giving in to the culture around you. She then showed me around some of the rest of Greenville, most notably the park that was recently renovated and the Warehouse Theater where she is part of an improv troupe and today was auditioning for a Shakespeare play. Michele said that only recently has competition between the theaters here become less cutthroat and more friendly - it's good to hear that community is being built instead of animosity.

Michele had arranged for me to go to an open mic in the evening at Leopard Forest Coffee in the town of Travelers Rest, so after a nap I headed over there. Jacob Johnson, who runs the open mic, turned out to be a great guy and a gifted musician, and I had a lot of fun listening as well as playing. I played 4 songs, the last of which, 'One Girl for Me' is on the video below, and people were really into the music. Leopard Forest Coffee itself is a really neat place - they get all their coffee from a single farm in Zimbabwe where it is specially grown (relatives of the owner), and have won numerous awards. The coffee is amazing, the atmosphere was welcoming and gracious.