FREE MUSIC DOWNLOAD - "Party Like P Diddy" by Mac Peelo

If you like rap and hip-hop music, here's a song you can download (or stream) for FREE.  Everyone loves free music, right?  The artist's name is Mac Peelo and the song is called "Party Like P Diddy."  It's on KV Records.

You can download or stream it by clicking on this link.

You can also go to the artist website here and watch a video of the artist making the song.  Feel free to comment below to let them know what you think of the song.

Tactical Vantage - For all your gun needs!

If you love guns, here's a great website to visit, Tactical Vantage!  They carry the following items:

Firearm accessories and parts
Replacement stocks
Gun magazines and clips
Tactical rifle accessories
Tactical shotgun accessories
California legal magazines
and more!

This is THE website to visit for all your gun needs.  Who doesn't love guns?  Here in Texas, even the liberals love guns, so why not buy all this stuff before Obama takes it all away?  Okay, he probably won't take any of it away, but why take chances, right?

Here is the link to their website.

Video - Eric Clapton - Crossroads (3/17/2013)

Eric Clapton performing "Crossroads" at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin on 3/17/2013.

Eric Clapton in Austin!

Eric Clapton came to Austin on Sunday night, and since I had never seen him live in concert before, I decided to check him out.  He's always been on my "concert bucket list" but for some reason, during my prime concert-going years (the 90's), I wasn't that big of a fan enough to see him.  I always thought he was a great guitar player, and the work he's done with The Yardbirds, Cream, Derek and the Dominos, Blind Faith and especially on Roger Waters first solo album (The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking) is very impressive.  For some reason though, I just never really got into his solo stuff.  But...times change, people get older and more mellow, and now I find myself liking a lot of stuff that I would never have listened to 20 years ago.

The 2 hour show Sunday at the Frank Erwin Center was mostly filled with 70's classics (Lay Down Sally, Wonderful Tonight, I Shot the Sheriff, Cocaine) and old Robert Johnson blues numbers (Crossroads, Love in Vain, Stones in My Passway, Little Queen of Spades.)  Clapton does have a brand new album out (Old Sock), but I don't think he did a single song from it, not that anyone would have cared.  This was an audience that just wanted to relive the 70's.  I was too young to have seen Clapton in the 70's, but I've heard many of his live recordings from that time, and I was hoping to see some of that guitar wizardry on display.  Clapton has still got it, and his solos on songs like "Got to Get Better in a Little While" and "I Shot the Sheriff" were incredible.  However, there were many times when he let his other guitarist, Doyle Bramhall, take the lead.  Actually, too many times in my opinion.  It almost seemed like Clapton was just trying to pass the torch to the new guy.  He also let his keyboard player (Paul Carrack) take lead vocals a few too many times as well (is "Tempted" the only hit Paul Carrack ever wrote?)

Still, these were only minor complaints compared to my biggest complaint of the night.  The Clapton signature tune "Layla" was played in the horrendous, unplugged lounge version made famous from his "Unplugged" album.  I hate that version and I was really hoping to hear it in its original, electric form.  No such luck.  However, from what I have seen on YouTube, he played the electric version on the first night of his tour, then when he hit Houston, he didn't play it all (imagine how pissed off those fans must have been.)  For Austin, though, we got "Layla", albeit the tepid version.

Clapton has said that this tour would likely be his last.  Not because he doesn't enjoy playing live, but because he doesn't like airports and going through security.  You'd like after 40 years of playing and touring he'd be used to it by now.  I'm lucky I had the chance to see him.

David's Review of "An American Teacher in Taiwan"

Now that my books have been out for a few months on Amazon, and some of them are selling fairly well, the reviews are starting to come in.  Someone I know told me that I shouldn't respond to them, especially the negative ones, since it looks tacky, so I haven't.  Well...maybe I'll respond here on the blog, but not on Amazon.  I did receive my first bad review a couple of weeks ago for "Interstate 10" where the reviewer said it was the "worse book I have read in ages."  He then goes on to say that it was "too disturbing" and that  he couldn't follow the plot, and he didn't like it because he "lives near Interstate 10."  It's probably the dumbest review I've ever read...but what can you do?

Amazon seems to have this crazy policy where you have to actually buy the product that you are reviewing, or else they won't publish your review, so I'm going to publish my friend David's (the one that lives in Taiwan) review.  He's read the book, but didn't buy it.  It seems to be a positive review, but written in his typical style.  Anyway, here it is, and you can also read it on his own personal blog:

"An American Teacher In Taiwan” by Ken Berglund is based on the famous blog of the same title and author. It is advertised as a guide to teaching English in Taiwan. I feel this part is misleading as much has changed since the author escaped to his homeland. Even if the labyrinth of Chinese bureaucracy was somehow the same today as it was five years ago, or even five months ago, no single person can give anyone a comprehensive view of the horrors that await them should they feel the need to follow in his footsteps. The arbitrary rules and regulations change from person to person and are enforced at whim.

However, this e-book is also advertised as “One writer’s experience about living, working, dating, finding love, and raising kids in a foreign country.” As a personal memoir, I cannot question its veracity. I can only confirm that many of the obstacles in adapting to life in a Chinese culture that the author experienced are universal to any American, or possibly even Canadian, in similar circumstances.

Mr Berglund relates an incident wherein he is induced to enter a “special” KTV by women of liberal morals and is only able to leave the establishment after forfeiting an unacceptably large sum of cash. Any robust red blooded male who has set foot in any Chinese country for more than twelve hours can relate to this situation.

If you want to know what kind of paperwork you must fill out and have stamped in triplicate to live in the Land of Scooter, this book will not help you. If you want to know what the people are like and how different their customs are from your own, this book covers a broad range of expatriate topics.

Some would say its range of topics is too broad. A guide to living in a foreign land or a travel guide should have a more narrow focus. But as a memoir, there is an even balance between personal insights (the part about his erectile dysfunction brought on by too many betel nuts) and general anecdotes (Chinamen be wacky). For this reason among others, I think this should be marketed as a memoir and not any kind of handbook.

While this e-book is probably more interesting to Americans who have lived or are now living in a foreign country, it is written in such a casual narrative that even a xenophobe who has never set foot outside of Itawamba, Mississippi might find it enjoyable.

I give it five muffins.