JEFF MARDER | Broadway Music, Freemasonry, Martial Arts, & more
Simply put, JEFF MARDER is a world-class talent. He has established himself as an A-list Electronic Music Designer, keyboardist, and Conductor for numerous Broadway shows, tours, Cirque du Soleil, and the Radio City Christmas Show. He’s also the former pianist with the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble and toured the world with them for 6 years. In his spare time he’s a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practicioner, travel blogger and music tech guru.
Jeff is also a legacy Freemason, which is where our friendship began - and which I talk about in detail myself publicly for the first time ever, here or anywhere. This is one of the VERY BEST, most candid and interesting talks I have ever had on the mic, and easily one of the most personal and meaningful shows I’m likely to release, too, so I really hope you check it out.
I’ll do a FULL TRANSCRIPT for this one as soon as possible and publish that also. Please enjoy, share, rate, review, and subscribe wherever YOU get your podcasts, and enjoy!
JEFF MARDER links:
mardermusic, inc:
http://mardermusic.com
BudoBelly (Jeff’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu blog):
https://budobelly.com
Ikimashou Travel (Jeff’s travel blog that he writes with Brian Li):
https://ikimashoutravel.com
441K (Brian Li’s music technology blog):
https://441k.com
“How China Works” - iTunes: https://tinyurl.com/HowChinaWorks-iTunes / Soundcloud: https://tinyurl.com/HowChinaWorks-Soundcloud / Android / Windows / all devices: https://tinyurl.com/HowChinaWorks-LibSyn
Migration Media: https://www.migrationmedia.net
“BFMK" HOST / SHOW:
“Big Fish in the Middle Kingdom” on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BigFishMiddleKingdom/
Brendan Davis on WeChat: BrendanDavis
Brendan Davis on Twitter: @VeritasInLux
Other links to LISTEN: https://www.crazyinagoodway.com/podcast-link
“Big Fish Side Dish”: Punk Rock | JONATHAN GARRISON
#068 - “Big Fish Side Dish”: Punk Rock | JONATHAN GARRISON
In this inaugural episode of “BIG FISH SIDE DISH”*, Jonathan Garrison and I riff on how punk rock and other hardcore music helped shape our childhoods and changed our life trajectories. A 12-pack of Harbin Beer might’ve been involved. In a related note, you get to hear how much I curse when I don’t pay attention and mind my manners. Enjoy.
*”Big Fish Side Dish” is a companion show to “Big Fish in the Middle Kingdom” that invites a previous show guest to sit down for a more casual conversation focused on a specific topic - unedited and uncensored.
Please SUBSCRIBE to “Big Fish in the Middle Kingdom” and rate / leave a nice REVIEW at Apple Podcasts / iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/big-fish-in-the-middle-kingdom/id1237037187?mt=2 or search and subscribe wherever YOU get your podcasts!
SPONSOR:
“The Complete Podcasting Course” - https://www.udemy.com/complete-podcasting-course/learn/v4/overview
GUEST:
Jon Garrison / En Route: http://www.enroute-global.com/
“BFMK" HOST / SHOW:
“Big Fish in the Middle Kingdom” on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BigFishMiddleKingdom/
Brendan Davis on WeChat: BrendanDavis
Brendan Davis on Twitter: @VeritasInLux
Other links to LISTEN: https://www.crazyinagoodway.com/podcast-links
NIGEL MAINVILLE | Comedy Across Cultures
#056 - Comedy Across Cultures | Nigel Mainville
Nigel Mainville grew up in the Massachusetts version of small-town USA. But a curiosity about the greater world led him to an early interest in Japanese manga, a high school study abroad year in Taiwan, and then to mainland China. By day, Nigel uses his fluent Chinese to teach kindergartners, but several nights a week he can be found rocking the mic at one of the many standup comedy gigs around Beijing. He is having success here but his sights are set on a much bigger stage. We talk about all that and more in this week’s show. Enjoy!
Please SUBSCRIBE to “Big Fish in the Middle Kingdom” and leave a REVIEW at Apple Podcasts / iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/big-fish-in-the-middle-kingdom/id1237037187?mt=2 or search and subscribe wherever YOU get your podcasts!
GUEST:
Nigel Mainville: nigelmainvillecomedy@gmail.com
Brendan Davis on the “MIGRATORY PATTERNS” PODCAST: https://anchor.fm/migratory-patterns/episodes/002-Brendan-Davis-e1p3nb/a-a4a8kn
“VOICES OF THE BELT & ROAD" PODCAST: https://beltandroad.ventures/podcasts/
“BFMK" HOST / SHOW:
“Big Fish in the Middle Kingdom” on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BigFishMiddleKingdom/
Brendan Davis on WeChat: BrendanDavis
Brendan Davis on Twitter: @VeritasInLux
Other links to LISTEN: https://www.crazyinagoodway.com/podcast-links/
MARC ISERLIS | Marketing & Branding from a Third Culture Perspective
Marc Iserlis is an American "third culture kid" raised by Russian parents in Singapore. Marc attended British school, learned Russian from his parents at home, studied Mandarin, and has worked and traveled both in mainland China and extensively throughout central as well as southern Asia. He has grown up with a very unique perspective on the world and is working hard to best sort out how to bridge the various gaps that exist between our various cultures.
Please SUBSCRIBE to “Big Fish in the Middle Kingdom” and leave a REVIEW at Apple Podcasts / iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/big-fish-in-the-middle-kingdom/id1237037187?mt=2 or search and subscribe wherever YOU get your podcasts!
GUEST:
Marc Iserlis on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-iserlis-02848a13/
“BFMK" HOST / SHOW:
“Big Fish in the Middle Kingdom” on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BigFishMiddleKingdom/
Brendan Davis on WeChat: BrendanDavis
Brendan Davis on Twitter: @VeritasInLux
Other links to LISTEN: https://www.crazyinagoodway.com/podcast-links/
My Tom Petty Story
Since I work to keep the podcast episodes evergreen and not get into current events in them, my new favorite way of procrastinating when it's time to edit each week's show is to record a short video about my thoughts on the week.
In light of all the awful news from back home and the heightened geopolitical tensions around the world right now, I wanted to share a story that made me smile when I remembered it due to the untimely passing of musical legend Tom Petty...
*Spoiler alert* I didn't meet him in person; it was on a phone call. But still, I thought it was a funny little random story and worth sharing, in a time of such otherwise wretched news. It involves Athens, Georgia, a crappy telemarketing job at a place called DialAmerica, and my (then) young musician's sense of ethics.
Enjoy!
LINDSAY ARTKOP: The Rhythm of Education
#015 - The Rhythm of Education | Lindsay Artkop
Today’s show has a special twist. Usually our guests have anywhere between 5 and 30 years of China experience under their belts, and those conversations yield information and insights that you can only get with a lot of time spent on the ground. But my guest this week is unique in many ways, and only one of them is that she just got home from her very FIRST China trip...
My guest today is Lindsay Artkop. Lindsay is a professional drummer educated at the prestigious Berklee School of Music, where she earned a B.A in Professional Music with concentrations in Drum Set Performance and Music Business. She began playing drums at age 6, and though still a young woman, she has already distinguished herself in the world of performance, recording, and drum education in the US. And thanks to her recent whirlwind tour of Dalian, Zhuhai, Macau and Beijing, she can now add China to the list of places she has taken her Drum Clinic Tour to. In this episode, Lindsay talks about the unique challenges of teaching in such a different culture than what she’s used to, and she shares the lessons she took away from her experience that she feels will last her a lifetime.
In addition to her schedule of recording and performing, she also has drum students who study with her in Los Angeles as well as around the world, by Skype. Lindsay's full bio is available at the link below; check it out to learn more about her professional work, and to learn from and enjoy her insights as a first-time visitor to the Middle Kingdom, I hope you will enjoy the interview.
Okay! Don’t forget that if you’d like to learn more about Lindsay or the show, contact me, or support the podcast in any way, links to all of that are available in the show notes. Now, please enjoy my interview with Lindsay Artkop!
Lindsay Artkop online:
http://www.lindsayartkop.com/bio
Brendan Davis on Twitter:
@VeritasInLux
BFMK website:
https://www.crazyinagoodway.com
BFMK Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/BigFishMiddleKingdom/
SUPPORT BFMK via PayPal or WeChat:
https://www.crazyinagoodway.com/donate/
BFMK PayPal direct link:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=K5W6EANCYSQHU
Other links to LISTEN:
https://www.crazyinagoodway.com/podcast-links/
FOUNDATIONS
How does where we are from and where we live and have traveled influence who we are?
The above photo of me was taken in early December, 2007 at sunrise in Carthage, Tunisia. The story behind it isn't as epic as the history of the place itself (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carthage), but it was a pretty profound experience for me all the same...
I was accompanying my great friend and then producing partner Blue Nelson on one leg of a particular long-term, record-setting-attempt road trip he's been on and off of in one way or another since 1998. This kicked off the North African leg. We'd previously been through Central and Southern Italy as well as the Southern European island nation of Malta together. This was the morning we woke up in Tunisia, having ferried over from Reggio, Italy 22 hours before, and it began a journey around the entirety of pre-Arab Spring Tunisia that took us down into the entrance of the Sahara Desert and back, with stops across the borders into both Algeria and Libya (past the old Star Wars sets, a movie his uncle helped produce...but that's HIS story to tell).
Blue, Brendan and Bigfoot. On location in the Angeles National Forest, CA, 200...3(?)
Scouting in Rome, Italy. 2007
Delivery "van" somewhere in Southern Italy, 2007
On the road outside Bizerte, Tunisia. 2007
Inside Blue's car at the Libyan border. Note Big Brother Leader (deceased) in the background. They wouldn't let us in but at least they let us leave. 2007
I say all this because I've had a lot of opportunity to reflect on the impact of travels and relocations in the slightly over 9 years since this trip. I woke up on January 1, 2017 in Auckland, New Zealand. The next day I travelled to Wellington, where I woke up January 3rd. On that day I meditated for an hour on the nature of my year just past, and was struck by the realization that in just the roughly 6 months previous I'd been in: Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand; Los Angeles, California, Seattle, Washington and Birmingham, Alabama in the US; various tiny towns in Inner Mongolia that I can't type properly in Roman characters; and in Gannan, Xi'An, Anyang, Erenhot, and Beijing, China.
Which of these things is not like the others? Getting to take part in a traditional celebration in Gansu, Gannan, China. July 17, 2016
Newspaper boardroom giving a talk, Xi'An, China. August 25, 2016
At the airport. Erenhot, China. August 30, 2016
Yakking about something at Sundance: Hong Kong. September 24, 2016
With a 2008 Olympic Torch at the SiMuWu company, which made it, in Anyang, China. November 28, 2016
With Steve Barr in Wellington (I think). Jan 2, 2017.
How did I get here - all of those "here"s - from whence I came? That'll take more than one blog post to explore, but the short version is that it was a combination of accident and effort. I'm going to brain-dump the outline below, without a lot of editing, and then will flesh out details in subsequent posts as I get around to it. :)
I was born in Augusta, Georgia in the Southern US. Mostly raised in and around the Atlanta area, and in Anniston, Alabama, where my maternal grandparents lived. They were the closest thing I had to a stabilizing influence in my young life so I adopted Anniston as my hometown of choice. I lived a few "interesting" years in Southwest Georgia, which will also merit it's own post. I spent one year of college in Birmingham, Alabama back before my mom lived there, which she does now, and I commuted an hour back "home" to Anniston most weekends to visit with my Grandmother, which was (in retrospect) probably why I am not dead or in jail as I type this. I had a sweet fake ID so I would go out and see my friend / guitar teacher Will (then "Bill") Owsley's bands playing in area clubs when I could - he gets a blog post too someday - but mostly I'd sit at home with "Ma" and do laundry, read or chat about things with her, and eat her amazing food. But after that one year in Birmingham, then a regrouping year back in Albany, Georgia at the then-junior college resurrecting my grades (I HATED my college in Birmingham, and avoided studying as much as possible in some creative ways, which is also it's own story), I finally moved to Athens, Georgia to attend the University of and get my life back on track. I lived in Athens for 8 years and have loads of stories and experiences involving the art and music scenes there that I will also dig into another time. For now, the key part of this narrative is that Athens and then Atlanta (where I moved next, the last stop before Los Angeles, and where I earned Bachelor's Degree in Film) are the two cities that most shaped me immediately prior to my move West.
As a Southern expat of 15 years now, I'm unqualified to talk about their values and virtues today. But when I was there, in addition to all the good and bad that are topics for still other discussions, there was a sense of fundamental community that I later had in Los Angeles, believe it or not, in the tight-knit concentric circles of the entertainment business, but which seems so far away from my 2017 perspective as an expat yet again, this time halfway around the world in Beijing.
First stop on the Beijing move: Tuanjiehu. June, 2016
Building a brand at Adamas Film HQ, Beijing, China. 2016
The plan is to be mostly here for ~5 years, give or take, with stops back home and at points elsewhere and in between as needed. The things that I'm building with friends and partners here are worth the tradeoffs, but those tradeoffs are real, and they are significant, starting with the ability to communicate fluently with close friends who share a somewhat similar frame of reference to me. It's why I spend any time at all on Facebook these days, even though the sorry state of affairs in our political system back home is hugely depressing. Still, it's the closest thing to a virtual town square I have, so for better or worse there I will be, for now.
Where have your travels taken you, and what are the lessons learned along the way that you think are universal? I'll have more thoughts on mine later. For now, I'd like to know yours. Please comment below, via the Contact form or any social sites I link this too if you want.