I Have Great Words

This article appeared in the Howler Magazine, October 2020 issue. This organization was featured in The Howler 3 years ago, and so we were so impressed, we thought we’d check back in to see what they’ve been up to. After a pleasant conversation with Rocio Echeverri, the Executive Director, and Stephanie Joseph, project manager, I was left with a sense of community and enthusiasm that is, no doubt, a major reason for their success. A True Community Effort Dedicated to Their Love For Costa Rica ProParques Costa Rica is a publicly registered, non-profit, national parks conservation association. Members include academics, environmental activists, entrepreneurs, and tourism professionals committed to projects that assure the long-sustainability of the National Parks of Costa Rica. With them, ProParques strives to meet these 2 core objectives: 1)   Continuous professional development and support of the park rangers by implementing practical solutions for the cherished national parks. 2)...


Grammy Nominated Musical Producer From LA is Building
 a Unique Musical Culture Here on The Gold Coast This article appeared in the May 2020 Issue of Howler Magazine Published in Guancaste, Costa Rica Written by Mike Shannon _____________________ Costa Rica’s most prominent natural resources are the nature and the beaches, both of which feed their #1 industry, tourism. Those are no more prominent than in Guanacaste, the northern most province of the country, and home to what is referred to as The Gold Coast, a magical strip of beach that runs from south of Tamarindo, up past Playas del Coco and points further north. These two beach towns serve as hotspot bookends to an endless variety of beaches and smaller beach towns that dot the region in between. Each of these places offer surfing, hiking, camping, fishing and exploring of this incredible country, to name only a few activities, making this region a bonified tourism hotspot. With that comes the plethora of hotels, clubs and restaur...

  Last night, as I sat in my room, headphones on, watching a YouTube video from the 70’s of a live rendition of Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein” far too loud to be audibly healthy, with Rick Derringer on guitar, wearing quite a smashing little gold lamé jump suit number, I couldn’t help but be a bit disgusted at the overt display of LOOK AT ME in the performance… the likes of which I never seemed to connect with at the time! Now this was one of my favorite tunes of my early teen years growing up… and it’s just now that this occurs to me… why is that? I mean, sure, I get it – that’s what the business… I mean ART FORM was all about then right? Rock like a mother with zany mad-cap chops dressed like a girl. What’s not to like? But the difference between Kiss’ “look at me” and the Edgar Winter’s “look at me” is that Kiss never took themselves so seriously. UPDATE - since this writing, that last statement was proven inaccurate by listening to Gene Simmon's self aggrandizing blabb...