MORELIA!!!

We got here, to Morelia, relatively early yesterday and it’s beautiful. It was a great ride (comfortable with very few struggles), so Brock and I were cruising pretty fast… we actually cruised right to the longest way through the town, on accident. It added a few hours to our trip but we got to see a lot of the city while looking for the rest of the group. We usually travels at different speeds, so we always meet up in the center of the city at the plaza by the church… Every city has a plaza and a church with a bell tower, so it’s a good landmark place to regroup. Morelia is a much bigger city than the little towns we’ve been playing since Guadalajara. The center is huge and there are many churches and plazas all over the city. Hence, our search through the city, plaza by plaza, church to church. The city is very old looking and has a lot of beautiful architecture in it. Lots of history equals lot of tourist. The traffic is pretty bad but it’s fun to ride cause you’re treated more like a car… kinda like in New York. You can tell by the way most people here are dressed that the city has a more modern and progressive style than the architecture implies. It’s a pretty hip and happening evironment.

Well, we arrived a few days earlier than we had scheduled gigs, so we have a couple of days to chill and catch up things (email for me). Last night, as I was typing my blog to you all, Kipchoge came into the internet cafe and asked me and Brock if we wanted to play the plaza… renegade style (no permission. no permit). I clicked the send button and we headed to the main plaza by the big cathedral (wow, so pretty all lit up at night). We set up in record time and a nice crowd was formed around us. Toby, known as Tobin here in Mexico, (our opening act and a really fun person to be around) jammed for a while and got the crowd warmed up. Then… Los Ginger Ninjas rocked the plaza of Morelia! It was a great show, especially being so inpromtu. There was a lot of excited energy because this last minute show was going so well and the crowd was so great. We sold out of cds and had to tell people to come back the next evening to get more. Right there, at that moment, we commited to playing another renegade night in the plaza (that’s tonight!). As Eco says, cd money is the best money, because it’s the most rewarding. People donate money to the hat we pass around because they appreciate the message we bring of a new way to travel, live and be (earth friendly), but they won’t buy a cd unless they like the music… why else would they? Donate to the hat if you like the mission. Buy a cd if you like the music. That makes sense to me. Selling out of cds is always good. OH YEAH (side note), the guy with whom were staying, Ulises, (super cool person. took us to his extended family’s house at one in the morning for a party last night), has TWO cd burning towers and each burn 8 discs at a time. The band had sold out of the original printed cd a long time ago, so I brought a bunch from Cali when I joined three weeks ago. All of those sold within the first day in Guadalajara. We’ve been buying blanks and burning 25 or 30 a day on the Mac, one at a time, and making paper cases out of old newspapers and pages that we don’t need from our mapbook of Mexico. They always sell and we never have nearly enough. We just got the original artwork yesterday so we’re going to order more printed copies (1000 of them) from a disc making company here in Mexico. In the meantime, we’re burning 16 discs within a few minutes, and for a lot cheaper. Sweet! He also gave us a couple stacks of really cool paper to wrap the cds with and we’re going to order a rubber stamp (or make one out of carved soap) to label the wrap quicker. That’s the way to do it! Okay, where was I? So… We had an awesome crowd in the square last night and it should be even better tonight. I’m stoked!

It’s fun to be in a bigger city again. However, the small towns were really amazing, interesting and fun to play, and I do miss the cleaner air of the country side. Well, for now, I skipped our entire (5 day) trip from Mazamitla to Morelia because I forgot the order and names of some of the towns where we stayed. After I talk to Kipchoge about it all, I’ll write more about the beautiful country side rides, farm lands, great camp sites, an indigenous town near a volcano, and the cockfight ring on which we nearly camped.

Kipchoge just rode up to the Internet cafe and helped me with all that, so I’ll have you up to date very soon! I gotta get to a band meeting.

Blessings and/of Love,

Jared