Tenacatita Bay ukulele-guitar throw down planned

LA MANZANILLA, Jalisco, Mexico - After several years of being holed up in the mountain town of San Miguel, Mad Mike Gottlieb, a novelist and guitar player extraordinaire says he might come down from his high altitude aerie to sea level at La Manzanilla while the Admiral and I, along with Sanders and Pat Lamont. are visiting the pueblo and staying at Palapa Joe's palapa on the beach.

The reason? Well, he heard that the four of us will be packing - musical instruments that is - and he wants to have a House of the Rising Sun musical throw-down.

I don't know exactly what in the hell that means, but it sounds like fun, especially for me playing a ukulele. When Mad Mike doesn't know - and I've discovered - is that if anything even approximating music escapes from the ukulele, everyone thinks it's a miracle.

And I suppose it is.

Here's a photo of Mad Mike and I last year, talking novels and boats at Victor's Cafe Tacuba in Puerto Vallarta, a quaint little watering hole at which owner Victor comes around and slams shots with patrons, hugging and kissing all the women, usually infuriating his wife.

Es Mexico, si?


Two Mikes conferring at Victor's

It seems to me that the evening last year devolved into many more rounds of tequila before we retired to our respective casas. No throw-downs, though. Fall-downs, mostly.

Of course, if I get worried about a competitive musical situation, I can always call in a ringer to do a ukulele duet with me.

I found the young lady in the photo below who just might be distracting enough that I can take any 'throw down' challenges.

But where is area code 900 anyway?


The perfect ringer to bring to La Manzanilla