How ‘bout them Packers? I am through and through a Patriots fan, but while they work through this break-regular-season-records-and-dominate-the-league-only-to-completely-fail-in-the-playoffs phase, I’m all for rooting on the Packers. After all, I did just move out of Wisconsin, and that state has its priorities… 1) Football, 2) Football, three way tie for 3rd) Beer/Cheese/Brats. So… congrats to all my Packers fan friends… a win well deserved.

Let’s talk music... in many forms:

How ‘bout that Memphis blues scene? The International Blues Challenge is held in Memphis every year. As a new Memphian, I was feeling the obligation on the music front, and we really hadn’t experience much of the Beale Street scene. So… off we went, to the Blues City Café to hear some of these artists playing the night before the “championship” round at the Orpheum. We sat at the smokey bar (yep, they’re still smoking away in the bars in Tennessee), and listened to some great music by what looked and sounded like a very experienced band. Five minutes later, they called up someone else from the mic, and the guy sitting at the bar next to us goes up, grabs a guitar and rips out two songs. The MC gets back up there, calls out someone else’s name, and wouldn’t you know the guy right down the bar from us gets up and takes over the piano. That’s when we realized that we were two of only a handful of people who were not the actual musicians planning to go up on stage. Good music, good times. The next day, we went to the solo/duo “championships,” and saw some impressive performances… but when it comes down to it… the random artists mixing it up and jamming away on stage in a smoky bar on Beale Street… that’s what it’s all about.

How ‘bout some Indie Rock… from Easta Green Music? The next week, it was time for some of the final sessions for recording in San Diego for Dojo Joe. That’s right… June 2011, Dojo Joe, will be releasing a special edition double album. I know right? Double album? An entire album titled “I Know You Know Where I’m Going”, and then the B-Sides… appropriately titled “A-Sides.” It’s been five years… and the world needs more Dojo Joe.

How about musical theater? How about a musical rendition of Alice in Wonderland performed by an elementary school class? Yeah, that happened… and guess what? It was awesome. Jennifer and I joined Gaurav and Tamara to see their daughters school play. Sonia played one of the “flower girl chorus” (or whatever name it was), and she did quite well. The songs were good, the kids were on cue, and it was straight through, one hour, no intermission, action action action, sing sing sing, go go go, and then we were done. That’s my kind of school play.

Alright… that’s it for the music scene. Now, onto a bit of international travel. How about… Tokyo? Sure, Tokyo. So I was in Tokyo at the end of February… and a week later, it all went to hell. This trip was a great visit though. I went to the business facilities that we have there, and met with the team face to face. Meeting in person is absolutely critical for doing business with Japan. 100% required. Sure, it’s far away, but if you think you’ll have an ounce of success with some conference calls and even a video chat now and again, you’re kidding yourself. Go there, get involved, know the market, know the people, and then you can win. I took a couple of fun shots here... one of Shibuya crossing (left), and the view from my hotel window of the Tokyo Tower... umm, yeah, not bad.

Alright… that was February… and that was a good time.