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This is/was our first 'tour' in two years,
the first since Russell's inclusion in the band, and the first
since the recording of "The Sebadoh" almost six months
prior. We practiced in Louisville at the HQ for about 10 days
or so, 8-12 hours a day. This meant that we had spent more time
actually practicing songs for this endeavour than we had for any
other event in the history of the band. We knew that songs for
sure, but were needing to know that we wouldnt choke when it came
down to playing in front of folks. I dont think we choked for
an instant, and its my feeling that the fact that things are going
so solidly with a 'straight' set list, that more of old time feel
of onstage anarchy and jamming will soon invite itself into the
live show. And it wont be in the form of tuning for 20 minutes,
or shitty noize jams...
The trip was an inspiration, and we finally can rest assured that
we can still do it...
Here begins the Roadnotes-
Finally,
after being in Detroit for 4 hours, we are on our way to London. Pretty uneventful
travelling so far on the way to rock city, with the exception of the fact that
all check-ins so far have been with very cool ladies who wanted to know what
we were up to, and told us that we should ductape our guitar cases together
to save money on extra baggage fees, one of them even pretended not to notice
that we were checking in eight bags between the two of us, saving us (domino/cityslang)
more than $300.00 in fees. That lady was something else, the kindest and happiest
person Ive seen in a long time was not in an obvious place to find kind, happy
people. Russell took her photo, and she gave me her card and I promised to send
her a CD. I hope that do what I say with regard to that. I hope I can deal with
not smoking for the next eight hours as well, Im not looking forward to it and
even though I have not been drinking at all lately, I have been fantasizing
about drinking a bunch of beers so that I can sleep through the duration of
the flight.
We have a practice space to use tomorrow for last minute preparations
for playing these shows. Lou played my Rickenbacker when he was
in Louisville a couple of weeks ago practicing, and then on the
last day of the "curriculum for improved musicianship",
he sprung it on us, and maybe himself, that he felt that he wasnt
getting anywhere with the bass, and wanted to play his baritone
guitar instead of the Rickenbacker on the UK tour. I was a bit
surprised by the idea that he would be OK with practicing all
week the Rickenbacker, then decide that he hates playing Rickenbackers,
and that he is going to play a whole new instrument on all of
the songs. (as it turns out he decided to play the Rick.)
The interior of the British Airways 777 plane seemed really
new, and the first class seats were really something great, huge TV screens,
footrests, lots of space, cool control pads and reading lights... The "world
traveller" class that we are in looked similarly new, and had an amazing
"controlpad" for the operation of the TV's in the back of the seats.
The seat rows were very close together, but the flight was quite underbooked
and there was alot of elbow room to be had. It was easy to tell that the high
tech looking device that popped out of the armrest was intended to be a remote
for the TV and radio, videogame control, and on the otherside there was a telephone
and alphabet keypad. It had alot of possibilities in it for being some kind
of grandly intertaining way to spend yr. flight, but as soon as the "in
flight entertainment" began it was clear that the remote controls infinate
possibilities had not been implimented, you couldnt even change the channel.
We got out and through customs very easily,
then met Jackie out in the terminal. Lawrence was due to arrive
two hours later, and Jackie drove us through rush hour traffic
to the hotel in Putney. We got room 28 which was through a very
winding way and many doors, and finally up a very tight spiral
staircase to an oddly shaped set of two small doors and into the
little room. Lou will arrive at 0100 hours and we apparrently
have the jam space from 0900 to 2300 hours. I think we need naps.
Russell and I went out in search of the spirit of Putney, or
at least some lunch. Our fatigue set in after a bit of a 
walk
and a beanburger at burgerking. We went back to the hotel and drank tea and
watched teletubbys, which I found very strange. then we both went to sleep,
waking up at about 6pm and headed to the rehearsal space until 1100pm. Practice
was fun and not difficult to remember the songs. Then lawrence and jackie came
back while we were practicing a dreadful version of nick of time. I asked lou
if he might want to play it on the regular bass guitar instead of the synth.
Then
Lawrence and Jackie took us to a curry house and I took a bath and went to bed...
Got up the next day at 0800 and puttered around,
went to the 'fry-up' then walked back to the hotel for an interview
with Ian from the newly founded "Student radio network".
It was explained to me that the 'SRN' is a new and important thing
because the "indy" chart was getting so boring that
one of them big music mags over here (NME or Mellody maker) just
plain discontinued printing the "indy chart". The Student
Radio Network was going to fill the niche with a new exitement.
(right.)
Futrher questioning of Ian revealed that sadly, 'student radio'
is really alot like regular radio in the states, being that they
will have commercials, and record company sponsorship and syndication
and satellite feeds and all that stuff. Seems like it could quickly
become very controlled by monies from the record companies and
distributors. I dont think that the UK has anything other than
government sponsored radio at the moment, so this is a step forward?
Maybe.
Then we went off to the studio of Steve Gullick, who we have
known for a very long time and like alot, and who I
think is quite talented . He pulled up in his Volvo wagon with the left headlight
ductaped on, and as a sign of Steves infinate fertility, three child seats were
crammed into the back seat. We took photos with his oldest son, (Jessie I believe)
when he was just a tiny little guy, he's 5 years old now. Time flies.
We had some instant coffee and went to the Forest Gate tube
stop to do some shots, and then to a big open field that was some how named
Epping Forest even though there really werent any trees there. There was some
guy performing amazing tricks with a radio controled helicopter, really amazing
feats of flight, loops and dives, flying upside down at low altitudes and spins
and all kinds of crazy stuff. The pilot was so good at what he was doing, and
non-chalantly executing these amazing stunts, I figured that he must have been
bored out of his mind. It was hard to continue to look into Steves lens for
the spectical of flight talking place, but the photography was soon over. We
then returned to Steves studio and stayed there for most of the rest of the
day and were interviewed by Jon Mulvey, ate shitty 'take away' food and went
off at 6:00PM to meet our publicist, a young woman named Jo and a fella named
James, who is very vain and just loves 
to
get his photo taken. By that time we were all really beat, Lou immediately laid
down on the floor of the office, and I felt unable to be social on any level...
We went out to a pub around the corner and everyone had drinks
whilst waiting for ol' Lawrence to show up. We waited and waited
and waited...
We finally got back to the Putney Lodge Hotel, and I went walking
to find a payphone to call kelli without incurring the 'unit charge'
for the hotel phone, downloaded email, and went to bed.
Next morning, we went to the 'fry up' down
the way again for the English breakfast staples of beans on toast
and chips. Then went to meet journalist types at at museum that
was showing a collection of ceramics that were apparrently made,
or at least painted on by Picasso. First we had a photo shoot
in a very wet park across the way from the museum which I think
was called "Green Park." I think it should have been
called "Wet Green Park."
The Picasso stuff was boring and tossed off in my opinion. I had
heard the story (which I cannot validate) that Picasso had been
shacked up with a lady who made these plates and ceramic sculptures
and Pablo just painted all over them. I imagined him, screwing
his way across the countryside and hanging out with this woman,
who would wake up one morning to find ol' Pablo slapping paint
all over her stuff. I thought about that as I looked at the 100's
of 1/2 interesting pieces in the three galleries. There were a
couple of cool ones...a plate that had a ceramic fish and piece
of lemon on it, and a plate of sunny side up eggs and a sausage.
I liked those.
We left the museum and walked around in the wetness looking for
a place to do an interview with Steve. We found a decent pub that
was serving lunch to a bunch of important looking people wearing
expensive suits and looking very uptight and did our interview,
Steve was a young, mostly unassuming and v. cool fellow, I had
some funny moments with him where he thought I was 'taking the
piss out of him', and I probably was, but I wasnt being mean to
him, I liked the guy.
Then we returned to the offices of our publicists 9PR and soon
were quite bored and went to a bookstore with Jo. I looked at
the new Hunter S. Thompson book, some Dutch language cassettes,
and walked out with a Brautigan book that I hadnt seen before
called "Sombrero Fallout."
We went to this 'confused cuisine' restaraunt
where the menu consisted of Itailian, Mexican, Spanish, and British
dishes. I ordered a vegetarian chimichanga figuring that it would
be a safe bet, and it was anything but safe. It was filled with
carrots and eggplant and shit that I dont really dig, or would
ever imagine would ever be put into a mexican dish.
Then Lou and Russell and I walked down the road to the Garage
to see Cat Power at the garage, had to sit through some bored-ass
acustic set of "music". I really dug her voice and the
songs, and was exited at the prospect of buying her records when
I got home. Then I was , spotted by a couple of American Sebadoh
fans from Columbia, MO, who claimed to know Bob N and the infamous
Jack Barry. Then met a very cool Canadian fellow who had been
on the road with the Grifters, who was now living in London. He
told me the story of Miche, who was travelling with 'Those Bastard
Souls' and Sebadoh last year, who quickly became one of my favorite
poeple. He told me that Miche came backstage at a Grifters show
to roll a joint to smoke with the Grifters, and never went home
again.
After the show I went to get everyone rounded up and get the hell out of there, when I found Lou he was standing with one of our most devoted UK fans, known to me only as 'George from Wales.' He and his buddy Richard had followed us all around the UK for many of our early tours, with unadvisably low resources money wise. They hitchhiked and got rides from us and we put them on the guest list as often as possible. I really like those guys and was happy to see George. I talked to him for a couple of minutes and when I turned around, Russell and Lou had disappeared. I only found out later that they had run off to the backstage. I looked around for them for awhile and then decided to take an illegal minicab back to Putney. I talked with the driver the whole way back about the politics of driving a cab late at night in London, and also about his roadtrip from London to India back in the late 70's. Thanked him and paid him an amazingly high price for the ride.
When
I got back to the room, I found the door to our room was wide open. I was fucking
bummed about it, because my computer was sitting right out in plain sight, as
well as several guitars, but nothing was missing. I read some more of the Howard
Marks book "Mr Nice" that I bought a couple of days ago and fell asleep.
The next day we were called at 7:45AM by the front desk to say
that there was a cab downstairs to take us to the 'Musicbank'
where we rent our gear. In addition to the cab, there was Ajay,
who would be tour-managing, driving and doing sound for us. Ajay
had apparrently been like 'George from Wales' with regard to Dinosaur,
following them around the UK and Europe, eventually travelling
with them in the van. I found out that he is also in a band called
'Donkey', and was presently taking up residence in Holland, near
Amsterdam. After a lovely 45 mintes in the cab we got to the Music
bank facility, and picked out the amps, which turned out to be
the same two amps that I own, and that we have been practicing
on, a new model SVT, and a Fender Deville guitar amp.
We, or rather Lou did two acustic radio gigs and I saw Bob
Geldof when we were leaving the Capitol Radio
building. He looked like he was late for a very important date.
Saturday-
Alright! Woke up early and drank coffee downstairs amid a great
many Germans who were getting ready to be bored by something expensive.
Then went downstairs and hooked up with Ajay, loaded the guitars
and dirty socks into the impressive black Mercedes van and hit
the road- we were finally on tour! A little of the reality of
being in a band that plays real music and real gigs, to balance
out the mindnumbing answering of questions about a record that
nobody has even heard yet. We pulled out of the driveway, and
Lou and russ reported from the backseat that there was a TV and
stereo back there amid the two rows of airline seats that were
bolted to the floor. Ajay seems like a fine guy, very polite and
well spoken, with a very musical English accent, kind of like
Paul McCartney. Im looking forward to travelling with him.
Up
the M1 we go toward Manchester, the routeplanner on my Psion says its nearly
five hours drive, so I suppose we'll have plenty of time to get aquainted with
the van and the idea of playing a show tonight.
We stopped at one of them 'great' roadside stops and ate 'Wimpy'
beanburgers, which were pretty tasty- the guys running the place
were totally incompetent and confused, making the Taco Bell on
Broadway back in Louisville look like it was run by brain surgeons.
Sunday-
Last nights show was definately a success. We were pretty fucking
nervous... I get the feeling that with the 'first time' taken
care of, it will be a fun climb to confidence. For all the nerves,
I believe we carried it off pretty well. The Manchesterians were
pretty receptive to the new stuff, and we got our first ever 'football
game style' howling when we went offstage before the encore. The
SVT bass amp is the same one that I have at home and has the same
problems... The fucker craps out when it starts to get real hot
(or at least I think thats why), and the fucking light on the
front panel starts to flash red and green. It didnt start to happen
until the last song of the set. Fuck. The dressingroom quickly
started to fill up with people, and I just wasnt up for it, so
I went up to start packing the stuff. The monitor guy said that
someone had tried to run off with our pedals from the guitar side
but some kind fellow stopped him...
I laid down on the stage after the soundpeople
got their stuff together and split. After we loaded out, everyone
wanted to head to some rave-type event that was happening somewhere
else in the building and I really didnt want to do anything but
call Kelli and chill out at the hotel, so I walked back to Piccadilly
by myself. Manchester seemed like a pretty wasted and anxious
place. 90% of the people I saw were easily drunk enough to make
a really bad choice with regard to the weilding of fists or genitals.
40% of them seemed to be desperately persuing the opportunity
to make a mistake. I made some wrong turns and did alot of walking,
finally getting to the hotel and talkng the woman at the front
desk into giving me a new key for our room without knowing who's
name it was registered under. I went out to use the payphones
on the street to make a call to kelli. She wasnt home. I bought
some chips and went to the room and watched some really interesting
international music program on the TV. Cool stuff played on weird
instruments. The fellas came back about an hour later and we hungout
for awhile. I was asleep after they said goodbye, but before the
door clicked shut.
Monday-
We
have a really decent guy named Mike (Michael?) travelling with us to Edinburgh.
I dont know him very well, but I like him alot, he is a friend of Ajay's. Lou
left me with him this morning to make a call to Kath. Me and Mike drank coffee
and watched cartoons, I liked the guy right away, hes a postman. Hopefully we'll
be hitting a 'Roadchef' or a 'Happy Eater' pretty soon. Im real hungry, and
I imagine that these guys are too.
Ahh...Roadchef. We did indeed find some decent eats. Then we indulged
the strange by having novelty photos taken in a booth that had
computer inposed backgrounds with famous people and monkeys. I
made some buisness cards for the website and then we got some
diesel and hit the road.
We are definately in Edinburgh now. The Jaffa Cake is right underneath
a big castle and the club itself is either new, or newly renovated
because everything here is really clean. The dressing room is
actually really nice and actually leads right to the stage and
everything. Even the people are cool, and they helped us carry
everything in! Terrific. Now lets play and get the fuck out of
here, we've been here since fucking 3:00pm and its 6:00pm and
we havent even done our check yet. Ive got this idea, how about
lets get up later, and arive later...like around the time that
the people at the club are really going to be ready?
Tuesday-
Edinburgh
gig was really good, Russell even played his song on guitar, Russell is one
talented bastard, and has 
guts
and class and a huge heart to go along with it. The crowd was insanely quiet
and the guitar was insanely loud. It was a good time as it always is in Scotland.
The next day was a day off, Mike left us to head back to Manchester, and we
were supposed to go back to London which was:
A) a strange route to take.
B) no fun.
We stayed in Edinburgh and walked up to Edinburgh castle and stayed there for
a couple of hours, soaking up the idea that the buildings up there were standing
in medeval times. Scotland is a cool country with a colorful and sprited history.
I love how is feels to be there. We decended the 'mountain' via the 'Royal Mile'
which was a cobblestone street full of 
shops
selling wool clothing and stuff, Lou was going to buy a pair of gloves until
he realised that they cost 40 pounds! Then we headed to Princess St. where Lou
and Ajay went into a pub called 'Mathers' and Russ and I looked for some new
sneakers for him. All of the shops close at 'half five' (5:30) so we didnt find
any. Mathers seemed to be a true scotch pub, with its oldman quotient and feel.
It too was a very old establishment, probably had been there since before America
was 'discovered'. Ajay called a friend of his named Melanie and she joined us
at the pub. We stayed for awhile at Mathers and then went on to find some food
and ended up at some pretty decent Italian place. The food came really fast
and Lou finally got the corn pizza he has been desiring for the whole time we
have been in the UK. A couple of bottles of wine went by and we decided to split.
There was some debate about the 'gratuity' charge of 5 pounds that was added
to our bill, as there isnt any 'tipping' for the most part in the UK. Lou stole
a poster off the wall in the tiny foyer of the restaraunt. It was an advertisement
for a kids musical group..."The Happy Gang, in the Castle of Adventure".
We went back to the hotel from the night before and Russ, Lou,
and I went straight for the rooms, and Ajay and Melanie went back
downtown in a cab to have more drinks. Aj' didnt come back to
the hotel until 10:30AM cause he had left his bag in the pub and
had to wait until it opened up again to get it back...So we left
on our 7 1/2 hour drive to Gloucester at 11:00-the doors open
at the club at 7:30. I dont know if anyone give a shit if we are
late or not, we had such a good time in Edinburgh.
Ajay says that Gloucester is a 'fooked up town' and that people
are 'deatched from the real world' 'its actually called glue-sta'.
We arrived a couple of hours late, and drove around town asking
for diretions and driving around the pedestrian mall at highspeed
looking for the Guildhall. but still the people at the venue are
not quite ready for us. I wonder what the fuck those load in and
soundcheck times are actually for?
Wednesday-
By some stroke of competence or luck, we had another good show
last night at the GuIldhall, the crowd stayed pinned to the walls
in the room while the opening band played, like a bunch of elementary
school kids at their first school dance, but when they came forth
when we hit the stage the room was pretty populated. The audience
was pretty nice to us, and Linda and Anton from Nottingham showed
up, they have hosted our shows in Nottingham several times andare
some really big hearted folks who really love music. It was really
good to see them, and asured me that some of the best things about
being in a band havent changed.
We stayed at a hotel that was part of a country club with a golf course and
a very narrow 'ski-slope' which didnt 
have
any snow on it, but was covered with a strange mesh that allowed a person to
ski down it. We split and ate pizza in town and then went shopping for drumsticks,
shaving cream and hot sauce. We were looking for a short cut to the parking
lot where the van was waiting, and were confronted with the Gloucester Cathedral.
We went inside and it was really something beautiful to behold. Ancient stone
and woodwork and stained glass and a huge pipe organ that rumbled the concrete
under our feet and echoed through the 100ft? tall 'hallways' and rooms. What
a place. I would go to church services just to be able to hang out in there.
It was inspiring. Ajay talked about the cathedral in York, and the one built
by Gaudi in Barcelona. I'd like to see those as well. This one blew my mind.
Its been sitting there for like 1000years! Jesus Christ indeed! Russ and I were
walking around and all of a sudden the organ started playing and we went to
it like zombies and sat in front of it for about 20minutes. I have never heard
anything like it in my life. The bass was shaking the floor and echoing through
the huge stone walls. This instrument, played properly, would put the fear of
god into anyone.
I bought Kelli a beautiful paperweight that had a represntation
of a small piece of the stained-glass work in the cathedral, and
asked the shopkeeper to show me a CD of organ music recorded in
the cathedral. I got a good one, we are listening to it right
now in he van on the way to Cardiff, riding off down the M5 into
an amazing sunset listening to the amazing drone and drama of
the Gloucester Cathedral organ blasting on the radio. This has
been a great trip indeed. The sunset is unbelieveable tonight.
Beautiful.
Thursday-
The Coal Exchange was a fucking barn! Huge and horrible sounding
from the stage-very displacing and un-tight feeling gig. It was
never intended to be a venue, it was built to be a place for the
Welsh coalmine types to come sell their trainloads of coal to
the highest bidder, in an environment much like the stock exchange.
It was an amazingly beautiful place built with the money from
a thriving coal industry that has since dried up in favor of cheaper
coal from other continents. I really think we did our best with
the accomodations and had alot of fun, but it was nearly impossible
to figure out whether we were sounding like shite or not.
'The Rev. Naughty Pencil' showed up with a
couple of his friends, I was so happy to see him. He has been
married and had a daughter since the last time I saw him. The
look he gets in his eye when he talks about his family is the
warmest kind of love I have ever seen in a mans eye. He is one
remarkable human. I had to fight off some of the drunks that got
into the dressingroom back to keep on talking to him, but I think
I managed to do it with class. This was the first night that I
had to be told 'We've got to go' by Ajay, I was in Rev. land and
forgot about all responsibility. When I went to pack up, I wasnt
the only one who had that abnesia. We did a quick and orderly
loadup and went to the Jury's hotel for the night. The TV had
some cool offerings in the form of a British program from the
70's called 'Carry on Camping' where everyone on the show was
obsessed with getting laid, or preventing people from getting
laid. Then we saw a neat documentary about chilhood development,
that made its distinctions by looking at the drawings of children.
Very small children seem to draw figures that look alot like tadpoles
to represent themselves when asked, then when they get older the
figures have heads and bodies. Very strange...
Today we head to Oxford which is about 100 short miles away, we
stopped at 'the services' and ate veggie whoppers at Burger King
after having a look at the 'resaraunt' upstairs. I ate a magnum
ice cream bar and thought about Kelli the whole time. She said
that all she ate when she was in Portugal were magnum bars. I
miss her dearly.
The Zodiac is a real down and dirty place. Its freezing cold and
sounds like a shrill cowpie in the room we are playing in. The
dressing room (as desribd by its inhabitants) is "dank, toilet
losenge, danker than dank, uneasy, frigidly humid, cronically
nuclear, peculiarly crap. " Its not very happening. I wish
that they had at least put a bowl of fresh razorblades in here
for when we all get depressed enough to kill ourselves by sitting
in here, which wont take too long I recon. Oxford is around here
somewhere and there seems to be plenty of students in the supermarket
and elsewhere, along with locals who seem to be jealous and bothered
by it all. The music store down the street has alot more modern
stuff in it than any othe we have seen on this trip, there must
be plenty of money around here with Oxford and all.
Friday-
Best
'hard rock show' of the tour last night, with a great opening band called 'Nought'.
It was loud as hell and totally sold out. I didnt think a whole lot of my set
of songs on guitar, my fingers just werent cooperating with my brain, but the
gig overall was really pretty great. Long hangout afterwards talking with Lawrence
about his take on the selling points of 'flame'. Lawrence told me a story about
pitching the song to the distributors, and one of the distributor types saying,
"Yeah, OK but where is the chorus?"
Lawrence had already thought about this one apparrently.
"The whole song is the chorus!"
I also talked with James, the guitarist from 'Nought' about music
and the like. We talked about what it is like to know what you
want to do with your life from an early age, and what it is like
for people who are forever searching for their niche. He is one
hell of a guy. We drove back to the Putney Lodge and went to bed.
When I went to take a shower, the bathroom smelled like and old,
sausage eating man's bowels had recently been emptied into the
trashcan and the water pressure was like standing under a leaky
gutter in a light rain. Russell and Lous room had been devoid
of heat, and everyone seemed keen to complain about such matters
to the front desk types at the Putney Lodge, which had a full
staff of incompetent and combative persons of different rank denying
knowlege of any and all happenings in the hotel. I felt bad after
my discourse with the foolish people, and resolved to learn not
to get upset about anything like that again. I think a lack of
emotion would help in the attainment in satysfaction in these
matters.
We had to get up early to go to the 'Doc Martins superstore' where
we have the possibility of geting some free shoes thanks to the
charisma of James Hopkins from '9PR'. On the way across town I
confront 15 CD's and 50 or so postcards and photos to be signed
for various reasons. I think I will make a rubber stamp.
saturday-
The show at the Garage in London went pretty well. Lou gave the crowd a ration
of shit midway through the set 
about
the crowd being 'the worst one so far.' and chastised them all for worrying
about being cool. It added some good tension to the preceedings and we raged
through the rest of the set. Someone yelled "You'll never be Eric Gaffney"
to Russell and his playing reflected a kind of tension that set the rest of
the night on fire. He was amazing.
Of course it was hangout central afterward, I wanted to go back
to the hotel and sleep out of respect for Amsterdam, and the airplane
that will bring us there at like 9:00am. We ended up being at
the Garage until 2:00am and then at Lawrence's until 3:30am. I
spoke with a cool Swedish girl who was working with Lawrence about
the fact that almost 1/2 of the people that were there that night
were in the guest list, and what that meant for the attitude that
Lou was feeling from the audience. Lou said that stuff after I
had played my new songs to an unreceptive people. Whether it is
true or not I am going to believe that he was being protective,
which makes me feel good. I like thinking that my friends/bandmates
'have my back.'
We are at the airport now, after a cabride and a beanburger, and
now we wait to board. We have to play the Paradiso in Amsterdam
tonight, so things might get a bit hectic but tomorrow is a day
off, and then the next day we go home. Im down with that plan
bigtime.
Sunday-
Yesterdays show at the Paridiso was OK but not one of the better
gigs we have played on this trip unfortunately. The audience was
very good, and people seemed to enjoy it. We did the best we could.
Remco, who I have met through Bob Nastanovich and Pavement, came
by earlier in the day and hung out for awhile. He had his arm
in a sling from a car accident that left him with a broken collarbone.
We talked about some of the crazy stuff that has happened to him
in regard to his collaboration with American rappers. Seems that
they all have either flaked out, or flaked out and ripped off
money. Bummer. He is another one of the 'good ones.' I really
dig him. We talked tech about making music with midi equpimentand
sequencers, and he asked me to scratch his arm because it was
too painful for him to do it himself.
I helped him unlock his bike and he split.
Ab and Aldo from our distributor came to the
show as well as Hedwig from Gronigen. It is good to see those
people, makes me feel quite special for them to come and say hello.
Holland has calmed and soothed me considerably. I love it here.
Its really cold though.
Monday-
The day off in Amsterdam was just that. I slept in and had a leisurely
shower and stroll to town for cappuccino and shopping for stuff
for kelli. I got her a pair of shoe/boots, black of course, and
made of canvas or nylon microfiber I think. They're cool. Somewhere
in between what I know her style to be and what I like... closer
to her style I think. Then I just walked for awhile and went to
a boekstore, where I bought a Picasso CD ROM, then I found that
the cold was just too fucking much for me and went back to the
hotel. I straightened up my stuff, eliminated waste, and repacked
my bags. Then I went and met Ajay, Lou, and russ for dinner at
this neat Indian restaraunt where we waited for 1 1/2 hours for
our main course. It was good though.
Then we had drinks and said a sad goodbye to Ajay and returned
to the Omega hotel for TV zoning and I had a look at the Picasso
CD.
I rolled out of bed and into a cab to the airport at 7:00am. We
got to Heathrow and said goodbye to Lou and Russell bought a Psion
and a modem at the duty free dixons store! Geek-brother!
Then we wandered around, drank coffee, ate a vegi-burger @ McDonalds
and boarded the plane for Detroit. Russell is busy on the other
side of the aisle playing with his new geektool I took my Psion
out and we infared-beamed funny drawings about the people on the
plane across to the aisle and cracked eachother up..
I slept for a long time after playing with the sequencer for awhile
and eating my first vegetarian airplane meal, which was pretty
good. There is a woman on the other side of the plane that is
using some oxygen from the overhead hoses. There is pretty constant
attention being paid to the spot where she sits by the staff of
the plane, and there was just a call over the intercom for 'A
doctor of medcine to please come to the rear of the plane.' Some
fucking scrawny english looking kid has been standing in his seat
behind her, peering over the seats for the last 30 minutes and
had finally sat back down. Russell and I were having fantasies
about giving the young fellow a really hard time.
The oxygen hose has dissappeared finally.
We had to wait for like four hours in Detroit for our connection
to Louisville.We ate pizza and I had a cinnabon, then I felt like
I was going to die. Russell fell asleep on the benches by our
gate, and I went to a phone and downloaded email to my Psion and
wrote back to folks for awhile. When we got back to the motherland,
I found that the case to the Telecaster had been split down the
side and decided to report it to the retarded and combative people
in the baggage office. The guy started raising his voice to me
and I told him that I wouldn't tolerate it.
"I just talk loud." He said.
The trip was a trip. A good trip.
