World Tour 2012

oaxaca - mexico city - medellin

2012-03-02T07:04:00.001-08:00

the show at cafe central was a little disappointing to be honest - and i should have known it would be really. i had to play from the stage so had no idea how the piece sounded in the room - low frequencies caused the whole stage to shake so i actually thought i was playing louder than i probably was - lesson learned once again. and half the audience where attentive while the other half chatted away, which i kind of expected but always distracts me... anyway, yadira and the rest of the staff at cafe central were great - really friendly and always ready to get me yet another complementary drink (after performing of course!) and i did get a little bit of cash for my troubles.
after going for more excellent street food with john jairo, gabriela (my hosts), federico and alejandra i headed back to the cafe alone to grab a couple more drinks, made friends with a norwegian guy and two young ladies from tijuana/san diego and we stayed out drinking until 6am! then i got lost trying to find my way back to jj and gabi's place! suddenly, a little drunk and more than a little worried, my spanish actually came back to me and i was able to ask a passer by for help in getting back to the zocalo, where i could navigate from - it turned out i had walked in completely the opposite direction!!
so after getting back around 7am and grabbing 3 hours sleep, my hosts took me for breakfast and then to monte alban, which although is a tourist attraction, is a great way to spend 3 hours walking around!
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/mexico/oaxaca-monte-alban.htm

another day of hanging out in oaxaca and then i headed back to mexico city by bus - the ride is one of the most beautiful i have done. half the 6 hour journey takes you up over the mountain range north of oaxaca.
so after more exploring of mexico city and meeting with marco morales at muac once more for lunch and to collect some cd's and dvd's of mine that my parents sent me and took 5 weeks to arrive, i meet up with dario bernal-villegas, an improvising drummer based in mexico city, for mezcal, beer and food - an honour to meet you dario!

i got to medellin, colombia yesterday after having to get up @ 4am. then amazingly had just enough mexican pesos to pay for the two nights at the hotel i was in and the taxi to the airport! dead jammy.
the flight took me to san jose in costa rica - that country looks amazing from the air - i may have to go an explore if/when my spanish improves...
then breezed baggage collection and immigration, to then sit in arrivals for over an hour waiting for someone to come get me...

ah well, at least i'm here now. internet access will be severely limited as we all (6 of us at the last count) are sharing a mobile internet dongle - the type you plug into your computer using a usb port.
the other artists seem ok - i have made good friends with a spanish painter whose english is only marginally better than my spanish! i think we'll be teaching each other for the month i'm here!

it turns out i'm the old guy here - everyone else is late 20's to early 30's but they're ok... another sound artist and his wife from uk (luke and elizabeth), an artist called bjork from iceland (not THE bjork...), a guy from the states doing ceramics called chris, a french video artist - oralee (probably spelt that wrong!) - who was actually born and adopted in colombia by french parents and the guy who is co-ordinating the residency, andres. hmm, i thought there were more - maybe i'm forgetting someone...

anyway, the house is incredible - there is a link on my facebook page but it doesn't do the place justice! i'm sitting on the verenda, looking out over trees and fields and i can see medellin in the distance - it's around a 30 minute bus ride into town - i went with alejandro, the spanish artist, yesterday to help him shop for the evening meal - that was an experience!! the driver doesn't take into consideration the standing passengers when negotiating a winding mountain road, believe me!

so today i will be recording, and seeing the space we will be presenting work in on the 10th... updates when i can! :-)

Morelia - Guadalajara - Oaxaca

2012-02-24T20:17:00.001-08:00

wow, it's been absolutely ages since i posted!
the last thing i wrote about was being in rainy morelia. well, from there i headed to guadalajara, where i was met at the bus station by Michael Petch, the son of Maggie Royle, an artist in Bristol i have know for years. knowing i hadn't done any laundry for a while, he arrived with a sign saying 'Mr Stinky' - nice.
a camper van ride later and we were in his incredible dwellings in downtown guadalajara, where he and his brother David were gearing up for a film shoot the following week. straight away i was taken to try 'tortas ahogadas', an amazing drowned and spicy port sandwich, and then a short guided tour around downtown, where i was lucky enough to catch some mariachi action!
we then visited the roof of one of the tallest buildings nearby, to check it as a location for filming. from there i had an amazing view of gdl and saw how vast it is!!
i was there a couple of days before the show at Laboratorio Sensorial so spent the time exploring, recording, hanging out checking more locations (mainly bars!) and also spending time with Yair Lopez, one of the organisers of LS, and now a good friend.
i did manage to get some nice recordings which i used in the piece i played at the concert on the 17th feb, alongside Yair and Israel Martinez, an artist i'd met in london back in 2007. it was a great night, well attended - even the film crew came along, as did my next hosts Marie-Fred Dupree and her hubby Cuauhtemoc.
from that night i stayed with them in the very split Santa Ana Tepetitlan, Zapopan. i say split as where they live, if you walk to the left you are in one of the poorest looking villages i have visited in mexico, but if you walk left there is a myriad of new apartment buildings, manicured lawns and fences and gates with guards everywhere!
on the 18th i did head back downtown for an informal chat about my work at LS, alongside Yair and Israel once again, and then we visited a public square where Yair had managed to commandeer the PA system and was playing field recording based work to the public for the whole day!
the rest of the time was spent just hanging out, relaxing, walking, eating more great food and generally relaxing, although my final day in GDL was a little fraught, waiting for a courier delivery that didn't arrive until i had left for downtown once again (to record some sounds for the film using contact mic's for an added dimension) and then being told that UPS are going to charge me 1500 mexican pesos (around £75) to receive a delivery of my own cd's. to top this off, they then didn't deliver as Marie-Fred didn't have that much cash, and now won't be delivered until monday. i flew to Oaxaca today as i had booked the flight, and have my final show in mexico tomorrow night, at the very wonderful Cafe Central...

Mexico City - Valle de Bravo - Morelia

2012-02-11T07:42:00.000-08:00

and it's this morning that i realise i have not updated the journal side of things here for a couple of weeks!!

i arrived in mexico city on the 31st january, and was kindly collected by a representative of MUAC. it was right then that i realised what little spanish has actually managed to remain in my head after listening to michel thomas and his patronising delivery instantly dissipates when faced with either trying to speak to someone, or better yet when they speak to me!! great discovery!

so after trying to communicate with the driver for a while we both decided to admit defeat and we travelled very slowly though the mexico city traffic, delivering me at hotel milan. for anyone visiting mexico city i can highly recommend the hotel. it's reasonably priced and has comfy beds.

on the 1st i travelled by metrobus to the university city of UNAM, which is massive. and through my not being told that there is an extra stop that is spitting distance from MUAC, i got off at the main university terminal. this was a mistake - as i said, the campus is massive... i walked through what i discovered was the engineering department, which has large open areas of park and around ten large buildings, and then decided i was not going to find the museum this way. then i tried to use the global sim card i purchased specifically to use on my journey, to find that outgoing calls were barred!! no way of contacting the museum, or finding out how to get there from where i was!!

walking back to the metrobus stop i noticed a large group of people waiting for the 'pumabus' - it turned out this collection of 10 bus routes service the whole campus, and wouldn't you know it, there was one that could take me to MUAC. thankfully there are a number of mexicans that can speak enough english to take pity on me and my poor spanish and help me out....

as i visited the museum and auditorium, which is amazing by the way - similar in size to the auditorium at the arnolfini in bristol, and with the same collapsible tiered seating arrangement - i decided to come back the next day (2nd feb) to make some recordings to use in the performance. while i was at MUAC i got lunch at one of the restaurants on site, and after selling some dollars as i hadn't brought enough cash, i had an amazing tortilla soup, which i'll come back to....

so the 2nd was spent in the museum recording various aspects of the site, and also hanging out with the sound engineer for MUAC, Gil. he gave me a guided tour around the site, and then we walked around a volcanic park to a crazy crater that is also volcanic, but has been ringed with huge triangular concrete obelisks that make it look very sci-fi... and then it rained.

i had been in touch with a musician in mexico city, Amede Barez, who was possibly going to meet me at MUAC on the 2nd, but hadn't made it, so we arranged to meet on the 3rd. he took me on a short tour around the centre of mexico city, showing me how to use the metro (subway, not bus - confusing though...), market places, the parliament square, the square in which Francisco Lopez had a concert a few years ago, an exhibition of 'el santo' which was so funny - he was a character!
and then we went for tacos - first up was tongue, and then he got me to try brain - and it was really good! i was kind of squeamish, and if you actually think about what you're eating while chowing down, it does turn the stomach slightly, but it was tasty, and at least they use all parts of the animal!!

Amede then took me to a cantina, which after a search up and down the street we were on, turned out to be two doors away of the taco stand - there you buy a beer, and then you get a plate of food - for free! we had pork in a spicy red sauce and goat served with a kind of broth that uses the juices from the cooking process - again all good!

on the day of the concert (4th feb) i got to the auditorium around 12:30 as i wanted to compose my piece in situ using purely the recordings i had gathered through this year's travels. after around 3 hours i had a piece i was happy with, presented in 4 channels. Gil then took me to a square nearby where we got more amazing food - i haven't had bad food since being in mexico i think - apart from the quesadillas in the hotel - avoid!

the concert itself was attended by only a few people, around ten, maybe a couple more, but they were very respectful and appreciative, and the piece sounded amazing (even though i say so myself!).

after the concert i went back to the hotel, dropped off my gear, and then met up with Gil once again to drink mezcal and then was invited to a party at his sister's place which was very close by and full of very nice people...

on the 5th i took a bus to valle de bravo, where i was invited to stay by a sound artist i have been in contact with over the years, Sol Rezza, and her husband Daniel Ivan. i managed to catch the right bus, after managing to find the right terminal, and was there in just over two hours. and there was no-one to meet me. and then i found that i couldn't call anyone once again. after sitting trying to work out what to do for around 30 minutes, Daniel turned up - i was so glad to see him! it turned out Sol was working over the weekend running workshops, so we dropped off my luggage, had even tastier tacos, and walked a little around valle de bravo - and then it rained. again. it seems the british weather is following me around the world!!! apparently it's very unusual to rain so much this time of year.

i spent around 5 days with Daniel and Sol, hanging out, recording, drinking tequila... and they were the perfect hosts. Daniel cooked most nights, which was fantastic, and then Sol made her speciality - tortilla soup! as mentioned earlier, i'd had a great one at MUAC, but Sol's is incredible - and she uses pork rinds (as in pork scratching for you Brits out there) in it which work really well.

on the 9th i took a bus to toluca, in which i nearly lost my luggage, and my head, as the driver began to drive away while i was fishing it out of the hold! from toluca i got a bus to morelia, which i had been told was first class, but wow! the comfiest bus i think i have ever been on - and they give you food and drink for the journey!! i arrived remarkably fresh and was brought straight to the offices of CMMAS where i have the use of the residency room until the 13th, plus food vouchers for 4 days.

most of the 10th was taken up with preparing for the concert in the evening, but i did manage to skype both my parents and my friends kate and rachel - great to chat and catch up. as i mentioned, the british weather is following me, so for the whole day yesterday it was grey and raining - which stopped a number of people coming to the concert, but again the people who did make it seemed to really enjoy it.

and then tacos once again (but believe me i'm not complaining!) with Francisco and Silvana, the co-ordinators at CMMAS, plus some great tequila which you drink with a spicy tomato drink - very good! kind of like a two-part bloddy mary.

today it's still grey but seems to have stopped raining, so i'll catch up with some admin and then go for a long walk - morelia is beautiful and i have only seen a little of it so far...

2012-02-10T15:07:00.001-08:00

Concierto: Simon Whetham (Reino Unido)
10 de febrero del 2012

Fecha: 10 de febrero de 2012
Lugar: Auditorio del CMMAS
Entrada Libre
El compositor Simon Whetham presentará en este concierto dos de sus trabajos mas recientes: "Hydro-Static" y "In a State of Flux...".

01. Hidrostática (Hydro-Static)
La primera será una nueva versión de la obra en 4 canales que presentó como en el Festival de Música de la Estación de Bombeo de la calle McNeill, en Shreveport, Louisiana, Estados Unidos, en octubre de 2011. La obra está compuesta a partir de grabaciones de campo, las transmisiones de radio y acciones performativas capturadas en la estación de bombeo durante una semana de investigaciones sonoras. Una nueva versión de este trabajo será publicada en 2012 por el sello alemán Auf Abwegen.

02. En un estado de flujo ... (In a state of flux.....)
La segunda obra comenzó con las grabaciones captadas con la gira de la exhibición 'Active crossover', a lo largo de 2011, la cual continuará hasta el año 2012 con las grabaciones que se añaden desde lugares nuevos que Whetham visita en sus viajes alrededor del mundo. Las grabaciones incluyen variadas fuentes de sonido originadas por señales de radio y discos de vinilo, a través de grabaciones de campo y micrófonos de contacto, siempre con el objetivo de mostrar las resonancias sonoras de un espacio.

Simon Whetham ha capturado y la compuesto sonido principalmente con grabaciones de campo desde que participó en un viaje de investigación a Islandia en 2005.   Desde entonces ha ido ganando un perfil cada vez mayor: mostrando en Islandia, la grabación en la selva amazónica de Brasil, actuando en gran número de festivales y eventos, tanto nacionales como internacionales. En particular Experimental Intermedia en Nueva York y Madeiradig 2010. Ha publicado su trabajo en los sellos Crónica, Unfathomless, Visión blanco y negro, ojos de dragón, SiRiDisc, Con V-, Oiseaux Trente, 1000fussler, Misterio del Mar, Entreacto, de instalación, Lens y Gruenrekorder. Ha recibido un encargo de Creative Labs para construir una instalación de sonido surround para demostrar su equipo y el software, encargado por el pintor Kathryn Thomas para componer una banda sonora envolvente para su serie de exposiciones llamada "años luz" . Su producción ha sido trasmitida por Resonancia, Overlap.org y Kunst Radio Austria, y participó en dos residencias en el contenedor de arte en Tallinn, Estonia.
Simon tiene su sede en Bristol, Reino Unido, donde ha vivido de manera intermitente durante 14 años.

http://www.simonwhetham.co.uk/

http://www.cmmas.org/cmmas_eventos.php?lan=es&id=580

more updates to follow... s

PROGRAMA INDEXMUAC

2012-02-01T21:17:00.000-08:00

PROGRAMA INDEXMUAC
Proyectos de música contemporánea

Simon Whetham

Sábado 4 de febrero, 18:00 hrs.

Whetham utiliza diferentes micrófonos capturando sonidos que escapan a nuestros oídos; así como transmisiones de radio y de objetos amplificados.

Auditorio

Costo: $100.00 | descuentos en taquilla
Abono: $200.00 (válido para cinco conciertos)

Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo
http://www.muac.unam.mx/ | +52 (55) 5622 6972
Centro Cultural Universitario

Shreveport to Mexico via New Orleans!

2012-01-31T19:04:00.000-08:00

So, the tour continues, with my return to the open arms of Shreveport, LA, where I arrive on 25^th January at 6am after traveling through the night from Austin, TX on the greyhound.

I arrive and am met by David Nelson, who takes me back to his amazing apartment on historic Texas Avenue. After so little sleep you'd have thought I would go to sleep for a couple of hours, but we're straight out and having breakfast!

We go to the venue known as 'The Shop' for around 3pm and the space looks like a challenge. It's a large, high ceilinged room with a stage across one corner and the sound and lighting desk in the other. I decide straight away that I am going to perform from behind the audience – one reason for this is so I am not the focus of the piece, the sounds are, and another is so I can control the sound a lot more from there.

After joining many cables together to allow me to do this I find I am getting no sound from the right speaker – this is following major problems with my soundcard, which lead to my having to buy a firewire cable from Radio Shack for over $40!! After much testing of cables and connections, something tells me to check the actual output of the speakers – and lo and behold, no-one is getting sound from the right hand speaker!! a quick swapping of cables from amplifier to mixer and all is good.... Which leaves no time for me to soundcheck.

I should also mention, The Shop has a tin roof, and all the time we were setting up and solving problems the rain battered down on that roof, which was a great sound, but would have ruined most of the evening's sets.

Thankfully the rain does stop around 30 minutes before the doors open!Opening the evening were Jon Mackey and Brittney Maddox, performing together for the first time ever as Soft Troopers, and they were absolutely spellbinding! Brittney has an amazing voice and Jon accompanies it beautifully. Then the loveable maniac Peter Fetterman steps onto the stage, and plays a noisy yet tuneful set using his new instrument, freshly constructed that week. And I finish up, and the piece sounded great in the space (even though I say so myself). A very good night. Also good to catch up with Carrie, Raiven, Conchita, April and a whole host of others I met in October last year.

Then that evening Andy Ezell drives me out around 30 minutes away to take me to the swamp, which is breathtaking and quite spooky, but the idea was to record sounds, and it was totally dead expect for a constantly barking dog! Ah well.

I spend a couple more days in Shreveport, visiting David's families house in Homer and recording gunshots, oil drilling operations and creeks, as well as visiting Moon's Grocery http://www.zydecocruiser.com/nola/food/foodPages/moons.htm for lunch – I wasn't brave enough to try the pickled pig's lips I'm sorry to say... and thanks to Dillon for a short guided tour of the area around Texas Avenue when we got back.

The following day David and I took his canoe out to another part of the swamp, interrupting filming of a movie called 'The Iceman' which was happening right outside his house – it did mean that we got help lifting the canoe out and onto the top of the jeep! Again, very quiet, but we had fun punting around for two hours or so.

The next morning was another early one, with me catching a bus at 7am to New Orleans, getting in around 3pm where I was met by Mr. James Eck Rippie. We went straight to the French Quarter and had various local delights, the best being deep fried dill pickle slices! We also had alligator sausage, but it was really hard to tell what the meat actually tasted like... A fugitive from Shreveport, Meredith came and joined us and we wandered around the quarter for the rest of the day, taking in the Mississippi, Harrahs Casino, Bourbon Street and Frenchman. We also partook in a local drink known as the 'Hand Grenade'! http://www.tropicalisle.com/shop/oneandonly.html

30^th January: James and I head out to a swamp north of New Orleans, which his satnav doesn't seem to want to take us to, leading us up many roads and then telling us to U-turn when legally able to! This time around there are definitely more sounds to be heard, and we take a couple of trails around Tickfaw State Park, also chatting about possible future collaboration...

We hit a few of the late bars and talk into the night, cutting it short as we have to get up around 7am once again, this time to get me to the airport, where I'm bound for Mexico City...

Return to Shreveport...

2012-01-25T11:20:00.000-08:00

After losing the first draft of this post, i have rewritten it more as a journal...

17^th January – return to downtown LA, to stay with Yann and Robert, and dinner with Mr. Steve Roden

18^th – breakfast with Yann, train overnight to Albuquerque – train full of characters, notably one guy who drinks beer for the whole journey and a 'lady' who continually drags the 'silver fox' (her words) to the observation car...

19^th – arrive in Albuquerque and try to walk to hotel, only to find sidewalks don't exist from halfway there! Quiet evening in with TV and computer.

20^th – wander around Albuquerque visiting Central Avenue, mainly Lindy's Diner for breakfast burrito smothered in red chilli sauce, and Albuquerque Art Museum, then visit City Hall with Andrea Polli, where each floor has art exhibiting, followed by dinner with her hubby Chuck Varga, who sculpts characters and props for the movies and was also The Sexecutioner in the band Gwar!

21^st – head out to Chaco Canyon and visit the mysterious Pueblo Bonito: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pueblo_Bonito

22^nd – after a night in Farmington, NM and heavy overnight snow, we meet with two lovely Navajo artists who Andrea is collaborating with – an hour in their company leaves me reeling with information and inspiration! I then take Andrea's car and head north to explore the sounds of New Mexico, finding the beautiful Jackson Lake.

Head back to Albuquerque where we stay in Andrea and Chuck's very cool new house.

23^rd – a morning stroll around the plazas of Old Town Albuquerque, chatting to native artists, and then a short flight to Austin, TX – the flight takes me to Dallas first, and while boarding I notice another UK passport – I mention this and the bearer turns out to be a gallery owner based in Bristol!! small world...

On arrival in Austin I'm collected by Henna Chou who runs 'Church of the Friendly Ghost' – we head to her place where I play a show in her living room with the very talented Vanessa Rossetto to a small but extremely lovely and appreciative audience. Thanks to Aaron, Henna and George! And of course Vanessa.

24^th – staying at Vanessa's place I get to hang out with her, her cats and her housemates the next day, visiting the Blanton Museum and the Dobie Mall food court – Niki's Pizza! Then I get dropped at the Austin greyhound station for yet another overnight bus ride, this time to Shreveport...

14th Jan continued...

2012-01-16T20:01:00.000-08:00

Machine Shop, as seen from outside the performance space during the concert.

Thanks go to Robert Crouch for taking the photos, to the audience for coming, especially my friends Mark Soden Jr. and Mrs. Soden, and Diane Granahan, all of whom it was great to finally meet in person, and to the Machine Project for hosting us.

And of course to Yann Novak for making such lovely sounds for me to work alongside.

Yann and Robert hosted me during my stay in Downtown LA, and showed me the BEST places to eat - thanks so much guys!

And now I'm up in Santa Monica, staying with a good friend of my brother's - it's very different up here. I went out walking for around 6 hours today, heading south to Venice along the clifftop, through the pedestrianised streets of Santa Monica, unfortunately hitting a huge road that turned into the Santa Monica Freeway, before heading back towards the coast and entering Venice itself.

The promenade on Venice Beach is something to see/hear - so many tents and stalls, all selling very different things - lots of souvenirs, incense, clothes, but also a great one that two guys were running that offered 'very bad advice' for $1! I felt I didn't need that today, but it made me chuckle.

I continued south through this mayhem, hearing about 10 different songs at once, at all times along the way, until I could stand it no more and cut across to the shore.

Looking at a map I must have been about 3 miles away from Billy's place, and walked all the way back along the sea's edge - stopping to record a couple of times of course! I got some great recordings of the sea soaking down through the sand at the water's edge...

EXCERPT OF CONCERT RECORDING

14th Jan 2012 - Untitled (remodel), Machine Project, LA

2012-01-16T19:33:00.000-08:00

On 14th January, after a few days of preparation, Yann Novak and I performed our interpretation of a performance by Carl Stone from 1980. Using the text on the Spirit Resurrection website as guidelines for the source material, we worked on various recordings in order to perform the piece in collaboration.

Thanks go to the audience who attended, who were focused and respectful, and seemed unperturbed by the face the venue is open to the street...

i have just tried to upload another photo, but blogger's not letting me, so i'll add another post.

week one

2012-01-11T23:33:00.000-08:00

after a pretty long and not great flight thanks to icelandair (i even had to pay for a meal on the 8+ hour transatlantic flight - have they been taking lessons from ryanair??) i arrived around 11pm in san francisco, to be collected at the airport by my lovely friend andrea williams. she promptly whisked me off to her place in oakland where i stayed for a few nights - thank you andrea.
and also her roommate jennifer. :-)

after a lazy day and a great brunch, being served by a very funny waiter with a massive hickey on his neck, i went to a show at the luggage store. i caught the last ten minutes of elise baldwin's set, which was very pleasant, and then had to put screwed up tissue in my ears for a loud drone set by john krausbauer - a good immersive sound with loads of overtones, but the singing put me off a little and i still have a problem when an artist plays in front of an audience, but has their back to the audience... i know a lot of electronic musicians can be accused of not engaging but surely that's just rude!
anyway, i'm glad i went... if only because i know the next evening's music was a lot better!

i had the good fortune to play at the lab in the mission area of san francisco on 6th january, with andrea, jorge bachmann (who also put the show together) and jim haynes. no-one played 'onstage' and i think it was my new good friend jim kaiser who said 'it was like cinema without the pictures' for most of the night, with jim projecting beautiful abstract images in his closing performance.

EXCERPT OF RECORDING OF PERFORMANCE AT THE LAB, SF 14TH JAN 2012

i also got to meet matthew swiezynski, who runs the fanstastic invisible birds record label, after a couple of years of communication via email and facebook. on saturday i visited him in the amazing art and architecture bookstore he runs in oakland, after going to see jim k at amoeba, and we chatted over a glass of wine for a couple of hours - thanks for that matthew.

when i got back to andrea's it was announced that i couldn't leave california without getting drunk and getting naked.... being british (or just being me!) the thought of being naked in public sent shivers down my spine - but hten i thought, yeah what the hell!

so on sunday, on a drive up north through marin county to the wine country, we did what any normal person would do - stopped and tasted some wine! some good, some not very good at all (mostly the zinfandels) and some great - like the primitivo i bought. This was followed by a chilly walk through montgomery woods, which was actually lovely and peaceful.

then we hit orr springs, which has a couple of shallow pools fed by the natural hot spring water, plus there's a large cold plunge pool and an odd little bath sized pool next to it that's not so cold, before you get to the sauna and steam room at the furthest point. and yes, almost everyone was naked. and after a while it really didn't seem so strange... plus it was soooo relaxing. i advise anyone visiting california to try it!

the evening was topped off by a delicious meal with andrea and jorge at a place called mua, which is a restaurant in a converted car dealership, still surrounded by loads of car dealerships!

after one more delicious brunch - which was actually a thai lunch - i hit amoeba once again to drop off some cd's and dvd's for jim k to try and sell, then visited joe colley's magazine shop 'issues' but didn't get to meet the man himself, then into san francisco for my final evening where andrea and i had great tapas. and saw how early san francisco goes to sleep! everything was closed around 10pm!! i was amazed!

this chapter of the story ends with an 8 hour greyhound bus trip from san francisco to downtown l.a.during which i saw some lovely scenery, the towns of san jose, gilroy and san fernando, and generally enjoyed the trip, to be met at the greyhound station by mr. yann novak, who then drove me literally 2 minutes to his loft apartment that he shares with his partner robert crouch, and that's where i am now.
i have already visited the venue that yann and i are to play on saturday evening - an interesting space called 'machine project', and have some recordings to work on for the performance. and sorry to mention food again, but also just had another fantastic thai meal!! seems i'm eating as well as playing my way across the states....

first date of the tour...

2011-12-23T13:07:00.000-08:00

6th January I am honoured to be performing in San Francisco alongside Jim Haynes, Jorge Bachmann and Andrea Williams at The Lab, 2948 16th Street, SF, CA

...Tour starts in January 2012 beginning in San Francisco, USA...

2011-10-20T11:53:00.001-07:00