NYE Painting From Costa Rica & "Alive With You," My Definitive Live Album

"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware."

- Martin Buber

"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered."

- Nelson Mandela

In April 2010, I embarked on an eight-month, 30,000 mile tour across the United States...and recorded everything, knowing that one day I would boil it down to the most potent hour of heart-rending pleasure I could possibly produce.

While I'm locked away brewing my full-length studio opus of acoustic adventure and eschatological angel jazz, I offer you these definitive live recordings of my work as a songwriter, instrumental composer, and gypsy philosopher...a virtual concert experience for those who were there in body and in spirit.

You can listen to it for free here:

Michael Garfield - Alive With You (2011)

Free downloads are available for reviewers, remixers, and self-motivated publicists. Contact me if you'd like a promotional copy! And of course, feedback is welcome on my facebook music page.

...The year ended with me in Costa Rica, kicking off my late-blooming international vagabonding with live art and acoustic guitar at the Geoparadise Gathering. It was an intense experience – what the festival lacked in organization, it made up for with natural beauty and rare collaborative opportunities with DJs, throat singers, and ancient, possibly-extraterrestrial technology. Here are the pictures! I'll be sharing music and video footage soon, but in the meantime here is the latest of my New Year's Eve paintings (and here are the paintings from 2008, 2009, and 2010, for you time travelers):

The Living Mind Of Time

2010 12 31, 2011 1 1 Geoparadise Festival

(Sinai, Costa Rica)

24"x30" - paint markers on masonite

check availability & leave your comments on facebook

11"x17" prints available - email me

(click on the picture for a bigger view)

While I'm putting the next newsletter together and you're grooving on Alive With You, here are some news items I'm happy to share:

• I'm now a musical and visual artist on the impressive roster at Detroit's Deepblip Records;

• Peruvian retreat-slash-spiritual-warrior-training center Shimbre featured my instrumental album Glass Chrysanthemum on their website;

• Badass community news site Reality Sandwich published my video lectures from last fall's Light & Shadow Tour, in which I discuss the role of "the shadow" (the stories and identities we repress) in personal and cultural transformation;

• ...and Guitar International Magazine had me write the introduction to their interview with inventor and musical pioneer Emmett Chapman.

Enjoy, and thanks for your time...drop me a line any time, and have a beautiful day!