August 16, 2006 - 3rd Annual Johor Arts Festival

The day starts with the free workshop for concert ticket holders. Conducted by Roger, the workshop's at 11am and Roger talks to the participants about finger-style techniques, tricks, etc. When JSPA President comes along later and asks Roger how many people attended the workshop at the Diamond Jubilee Hall, Roger replies, "A few guys and a cockroach."

Evidently, a guitar-playing cockroach. A finger-style guitar-roach. It had inadvertently crawled in from ... somewhere in the hall, to check out the workshop. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of roach but here's a picture of the workshop.

This year, Double Take's performing at the Fest and Mia arrives that afternoon. It's Double Take's first concert in Johor and I must say, the response is wonderful. Immediately after the concert, there's already talk about bringing them back to Johor.

I like Johor. Them JSPA (Johor Society for Performing Arts) members are true Asian hosts, they understand that a big part of hosting is about good food and I can so totally relate to that! Plus, it's always inspiring to mee them and see how far they've gone. Roger and I have been here three times already and each time, we see them make more progress with their unending and sometimes thankless task of promoting arts. Basically, arts promotion is hard work anywhere so seeing them progress is always very gratifying for us.