Caption: "LEFT: Jack Namu's taste for music doesn't stand a chance against the taste of hamburgers. Sarah Adams, left, and Lee Retimana seem oblivious to the free Friday night serenade. The Arizona traveller has been busking his way around the world, earning about $20 a day." -Manners Mall, Wellington, New Zealand, Monday, May 21, 1984

Actually, my taste for music wasn't all that bad. Living on Namu Atoll in the Marshall Islands as a Peace Corps volunteer in the early 80s turned out to be a very isolated experience. Namu had no airport back then, so our only source of supplies was a field trip ship that arrived about every 5 months...and when the boat did manage to arrive, it would only stay beside the island for less than 24 hours. So, with loads of spare time on my hands from 1981-84 on Namu, I learned how to play the guitar from some of my islander pals, so my first 20 or 30 songs were all Marshallese songs. Then a guitar song book arrived, which was a massive Bob Dylan Anthology, so all 60 or so of my songs were either Marshallese songs or Dylan tunes.

As far as the last name I used in the article above, well, Namu was easier to spell than Niedenthal at the time. It was cold and I was young...