Wednesday, Dec 28th, 2005
I have finally settled into my new Venice digs...Venice California that is...this is a very good place for me right now. Lots of time to write and record music after my worldly excursions. Now is the time to hibernate, to create and to immerge with new perspectives informed by my recent experiences. My most salient impression? That having a flat is important but I am finding home is in Seattle, in Venice, in Cholula Mexico, and in Moscow. It is where my heart is and I seem to have a promiscuous one! THis will be my strenghth and my undoing! It's OK since we are ALL undone in the end...returned to the erternity from which we came.
Friday, Nov 11th, 2005
THe long strange trip... Well... I just arrived in Moscow from London today. We had just arrived from Egypt the night before. London acted as a buffer between Egypt and Moscow both climactically and culturally. Huh? How's that? Relax gentle reader, I will explain. The first point is quite obvious. It was 27 celsius when we left Sharm El-Sheikh, 13 celsius when we left London and 0 celsius we we touched down in Moscow. With my luggage in hand, my body eased into the cold night air as my lips promptly cracked open. Ahhh...this is what Joe Campbell refers to as, "the experience of eternity in the here and now"! What about this business of london as a cultural buffer? Can you explain this? All right, all right. Egypt is fundamentally Middle-Eastern. The people are at once immensely hospitable and quite hot-blooded. THey love you and are quick to anger. THe entire landscape echoes this passion and chaos, it is palpable, you can smell it, even taste it. London is profoundly Western. It is refined and the Londoners take pride in the distance they keep from their passions. It is clean, beautiful and ultimately a cold place. You must not love London, that would be too passionate, you must only be smugly amused by it. Moscovites are Western as well but they retain the Slavic soul which combines passion and sophistication in a massive, terrible and beautiful train wreck. It is not always pretty, but you want to stay and feel it, smell it and taste it, you have no choice. We have come full circle my friends...passion, to coolness...to passion and lived to tell about it. Carpe Diem!
Monday, Oct 31st, 2005
We returned from Newcastle to London last night. I shall never forget the revelry of the "Jordys" and their capacity for drink. Several times we had to dodge the puddles of partially digested food on the street and avoid getting hit by the same! The streets were full of revelers enjoying their break from school and enjoy it they did! Men and women in skimpy clothing drinking and singing the rain and cold all show the unusual Jordy character of equal parts stoicism and hedonism. I love these people!
Sunday, Oct 23rd, 2005
Leaving for Russia, England and Egypt in few hours... Check back in few days for juicy stories... I finally saw London if only for 18 hours! It truly is an amalgam of all cultures much like LA but with the added weight of old world elegance! We sat at a health-food cafe and sipped espresso and watched the Londoners stroll by. It was a clear and sunny day which I gathered to be rare after seeing the enthused Londoners enjoying the sun with an almost lacivious intensity! We had to fly the next morning to Moscow to play for for an important fundraiser. The event was an amazing display of charity and pre-revolutionary opulence. There were some oligarchs at this event and it is clear they enjoy their luxury. THere were several other acts including "Fabrica", a band of questionable talent but considerable beauty....This must be what Artemy Troitsky refers to as an embarrassing invasion of rampant commercialism polluting Russian music! I am now catching up on sleep before the madness of WOMEX begins in Newcastle at the end of October. Until then...