Sorry for taking so long to write a new newsletter. Please forgive. If you're looking for label news, you've come to the wrong place. Though there's some info. about the label, it's mostly an outlet for me to tell you what I've been up to and such. If you want to get on a real mailing list that will tell you about tours, releases, etc. Please e-mail miya@asianmanrecords.com and ask to be put on the mailing list. OK? OK.. I'm sitting in bed with my new laptop computer. It's very exciting to me. I'm very computer dumb and this is just silly to me that I can do work from anywhere. And the price is so cheap now to buy a computer, it's insane. Anyways, sorry to start out with such a boring topic, but it is pretty cool.(at least to me) Well, I got back from Japan a couple weeks ago. I was on tour with my band the CHINKEES along with MU330, POTSHOT, and SOFTBALL. It was the Japan leg of PLEA FOR PEACE. Quite an amazing experience to be quite honest with y'all. Politics in music is pretty much unheard of in Japan. It was quite a challenge to try and give this foreign land a little insight to the problems that are happening in the US. Along with the support of POTSHOT and their management, we were able to put together a great amount of literature about problems that are both happening in the US and in Japan. We were able to raise $5,000 for various organizations in Japan including earthquake relief, homeless shelters, and more. We passed out over 8,000 cd's that pertained to the goals of PLEA FOR PEACE. Though the language barrier was tough, many people told me that this tour meant a lot to them and that it has opened their eyes to try and help people in their own communities. I was touched and excited to be thousands of miles away from home, yet through the gift of music be able to share my ideas of PEACE AND UNITY. After returning from Japan, I had crazy jet lag! I returned on March 21st at around 2 P.M.. Went to sleep at 11P.M., woke up at 6 A.M., fell asleep at 4 P.M. and woke up at 11 P.M, Fell asleep at 2 P.M., the next day and woke up at 8:30 P.M.-went to sleep at 3 A.M. and woke up at 8 A.M., then I was back to normal. Did you follow that? 2 days later I left for LINCOLN, Nebraska where I met up with POTSHOT(FROM JAPAN) and MU330 on tour. The flight out there was quite shaky! Oh, that reminds me. On our way to Japan, we had to go to LA first and we got hit by lightning. It was frightening.(I didn't try to rhyme that) It was the 2nd time I've been hit by lightning in a plane. It's not fun. Flying scares me. I wish there was an easier way to travel. Went to LINCOLN, met some cool kids at the show. It was such a neat thing to watch POTSHOT play in the US. Even though there were only about 60 kids at the show, everyone was very energetic and supportive. It made me think back to the old days of touring back in the late 80's and early 90's when there would be only a few kids at the shows, but those were the best shows. Kind of sappy, but the truth. Next was Iowa City. What a neat town. A college town with lots of friendly people. Just walking down the street, people would smile. It was very strange. They don't do this in California. It left a good feeling and I will remember Iowa CIty. The show was pretty cool, but it was very late and at this point of time I was very sleepy. Next was Chicago. Long drive because we hit traffic. I've always been fond of Chicago. Some of my best friends are from here, so I was excited. The fireside bowl is a great place to see a show and there's such a strong scene here. The show is great, kids are happy and POTSHOT is glowing after they get off stage. Remember, this is POTSHOTS first time to the US. They're huge in Japan. They can sell out 2,000 seat venues, so it must be quite a change coming to the US and playing in front of 60 kids in Nebraska. Chicago had a great crowd and they were very receptive to POTSHOT. I know both me and Dan from Mu330 were very happy to see POTSHOT get a good response. They're such nice people. I also need to PLUG the PEACOCKS. They were on this tour also. A very, very good band from Switzerland. And very cool people. If you have a chance, look for their CD'S. Anyways, the plan is to leave after the Chicago show and do a night drive to St. Louis and I'm bummed cause I wanted to hang out with friends. Oh well. But the Peacocks offered to take me the next day cause they were staying in town. WOOHOO! So me and Matt from ALK. TRIO head out to see a band called KIM. My friend Mia plays drums for this band and they rock. They play mid tempo rock and punk. It's a 4 piece all girl, all asian band. I hope to put out a 7" by KIM sometime in the future. I go to sleep around 5 a.m. and meet up with the Peacocks at 11 A.M. and we head out to St. Louis. Blah, blah, blah, we're in St. Louis, another great show at a place called the Firehouse. The food is pretty delicious there. I ordered some Nachos and the portion was huge. I've noticed at this point that I'm out of clean clothes and I have to leave in the morning to head home. But whatever. The show finishes and we head over to Chris from MU330's house for a big party for the end of the tour festivities. We fire up the barbeque and start cooking everything in the fridge. We cook hotdogs, chicken wings, veggie burgers, frozen burritos, bagels, fish sticks, tortilla chips. Lots of drunk Japanese makes for fun and excitement. I don't want to get to in depth about the happenings, but it was very fun. It's daylight savings, so I lose an hour. My flight leaves at 9:30 A.M. and I decide it would be best if I took the Metro Link to the Airport. So Dan drops me off at the train station at 5 AM, but it is now 6 AM and I'm off to the airport. Lots of thoughts filled my head as I sat there. So much fun....I get to the airport and I go to check in and hope to get an aisle seat. I notice there's a flight leaving at 7:03 AM and ask if there's any chance to catch that flight. The guy at the counter says you better hurry and hopefully you can catch the flight. So I start running(Actually it was more like fast walking) towards the gate and I make it. I sleep on and off for an hour and arrive in Denver. The same situation here. I check to see if I can get on an earlier flight and bingo! I'm on. I fall asleep right away and wake up about 40 minutes later. The rest of the flight is pretty smooth and we land in San Jose. I take a shuttle to get my car in the long term parking and head over to the YMCA to take a shower. Ya see, I'm off to a wedding. It starts at 2 and it's now 11:30 AM. I shower up and try to take a nap in my car, but I'm too tired and I can't fall asleep. So I head to the grocery store to buy a toothbrush cause I lost mine 2 days earlier and some lotion. By the way, I'm wearing a full suit and the temperature is scorching hot. I start driving to the wedding in Fremont, which is about 30 minutes away. The drummer for 5 Iron Frenzy is the one getting married. I arrive and say hi to all the 5 Iron folks. It was great to see them. They rule. I stay at the wedding for about 3-4 hours. Eat great food, dance with Jeff the girl for a couple seconds, and head off to Berkeley for my friends birthday party. At this point I'm friggin delirious. I figure I've slept about 6 hours in the last 3 days. I stay for a couple hours and then I head back home for the hour drive. I keep opening the window, sticking my head out screaming to stay awake. Thankfully, I'm back home safe. It's now Friday and I have barely left Asian Man. If you have read through this entire story, I commend you for your patience. I hope this wasn't too boring. I'll write again next month. Take care and have a great day. Be nice to each other and smile big

PEACE AND UNITY, Mike Park