Tuesday, July 23, 1996
On the plane - P.I.A. to Frankfurt. 1st time leaving the country since Japan with the
circus. No pillow. Bugs bunny on the screen. Alpha waves. Half asleep.
Thursday, July 25, 1996
in Osnabrück, Germany - 11:30am
The club was like a little bar on a small hill. They've got 2 dressing rooms, bedrooms, and a shower upstairs for us. We get our choice of meal from the menu. I get swordfish & red wine. They bring us up to the special banquet room with its huge tall ceiling of wooden beams & a King Arthur table. I take a shower & we do the show.
A German guy in the crowd said he likes Osnabrück better than New York, cuz in Osnabrück, there's only one place to go hang out, where in New York everyone's spread out at 100 places. In his town, he knows where everyone is on any given night. Good point. That's what I liked about high school.
We drove another 5 hours or so up to the Denmark border. I'm on the top deck of the
ferry right now looking at the dark-orange sun in the haze, about to set. It's 9:08 pm.
I'm gonna go find the gang & get somethin to eat.
Friday, July 26, 1996
I'm in this amazing house in Copenhagen. It's a communal house with 7-8 people living here I think. I haven't seen any of them yet. It's 2:15 in the afternoon & we just woke up. Didn't get home 'til 6am.
As soon as we pulled up to the club, (Jazz House), I see we're right next to this long pedestrian walkway street. I hear crowds of people cheering & chanting. It's this amazing strip with tons of beautiful young people hanging out, laughing, watching street performers, and just walking around. The weather is perfect , and it feels like the kind of vibe at a Grateful Dead show - not in hippy-fashion or acid-droppin, but it felt like everybody is your friend. I'm happy. I love this place already. I hadn't seen so many beautiful women in one place since Sevilla, Spain three years ago. Men and women were amazing! They've got some great genes up here.
There's an 'unwritten law' here called Jante-lov (yante-law) that says
(in his words) "You are nothing. Do not think you are anything special. You are not
better than anyone else. Do not think of doing great things." He said someone wrote
it hundreds of years ago & it's almost a national law. It's a way of thinking and
"it's working". He said that if you boast or say you're better than someone,
that no one will talk to you anymore.
Saturday, July 27, 1996
Langeland . It was a big festival, probably half the size of Woodstock (new one) with three big music tents. Santana was playing right before us. Tina Turner was coming soon.
We hit the stage. TONS of people. Well - more than I've played for in a long time. Some beautiful women (not as concentrated as the JazzHouse). Everybody, 30 rows back dancing in this circus tent with a bar in the distance. This one cute brunette was giving me the big sparkly eyes the whole time. A few times I went to the front of the stage & everyone would treat me like a rock star. Reaching out their hands trying to touch me. I was running across the stage, doing a Mick Jagger.
So after the show, Christine & Peter & I go mingle. I'm talking to this blue hair girl who's kinda crazy & some boyfriend gets jealous right away. She tells him "Go away. Do not be jealous. Do what I say!" She wants our autograph.
At 5:30am, we go to check into the hotel, but the lobby is all closed up (I think there
aren't many 24hr lobbies here - at least not where we've been so far.) So we pull out the
little matresses and sleeping bags. Paul & I sleep outside. I fell asleep to seagulls
& lightly crashing waves on the rocks next to my head. I woke up with a misty rain on
me. I loved it & was just pulling the sleeping bag over my head with a smile, when
Paul yells "Come on Derek!" I look up & they've turned on the van &
everybody's leaving. We catch the ferry, eat breakfast, drive back to København where I'm
writing this now.
Monday, July 29, 1996
A great gig at the Mirror Tent - København
A round circus-tent looking building. Everyone was dancing crazy, really really gettin' down. Some guys that have been nicknamed the "Crazy Boys" or something were there, leaping into the air. A balding businessman leaped onto the stage tummy down, and was pounding his fists on the stage like a tantrum baby. Other guys jumped ontop of him, doing the same. I wiped their head with a towel. Once we stopped the music & a shouting guy from the audience counted us back in. So we started again. Big manly woman jumps up & dances with Christine on stage (she comes into this story later!)
After our first encore, we're backstage sweating our ass off, taking off our shirts, and Thing tells Pat (drummer) to "get out there & play something, anything." So we're backstage thinking of what to play, and we hear Pat on the mic saying "Well - they asked me to come out here & say something. So, uh, how's everybody doing?" And we all yell, "Play!! Play something!" In our encore song, I break *4* strings! At the end of the song, I break the last 2 strings on purpose.
After the show I see the big woman that was dancing wild, (Rosanne). She's a 26-yr old
sculptor that just moved her last week from Holland. We talk for a bit & I give her my
phone # here and ask her to call tomorrow, so we can hang out the next night.
A night out with Rosanne & band.
Rosanne calls, and we meet in the middle of København at 5:30. We pass by a tall tower
that has a gilded staircase spiraling up it. Rosanne tells us that the architecht built it
based on some deep theory he had about walking up to the heavens, but when it was done, he
realized or decided that the stairs were wrapped around backwards, so he climbed to the
top & flung himself off.
Then we go into...
Christiana
Christiana is an independent republic inside København. It's really just 20
blocks long, and 3 blocks wide. It used to be a bad drug neighborhood, and the police
realized they couldn't really stop it, so the government decided to make it not a part of
Denmark, and soft drugs were allowed, as long as they stayed out of hard drugs. The police
aren't allowed inside. Neither are cameras. They sell pot & hash at little
storefronts. It's a little hippie community, with people playing guitars & bongos,
smoking, eating, gathering around a campfire. There are real businesses inside: a bike
store, restaurants, and more. I guess Christiana has their own soccer team, their own flag
( - Three orange circles), and obviously their own laws. People live inside. Bob Dylan did
a concert in there just a couple months ago. I guess he lived there for a while in the
60's.
Stoned Eskimo was putting broken boards into a metal garbage can with a fire inside. We all gathered around at picnic tables. Sat there for a while.
Next couple days were wonderfully eventless. Hung around the house. Went to the post
office. Worked on a song. Read.
Göteburg, Sweden. - July 31 '96
The club was called Nefertiti. Went backstage and met Kani K. He's a guy in his late 50's, looks like a bebop Kris Kringle, with a loooong white beard that gets smaller & smaller down to a little point probably at his belly. He wears little jazz shades, and a baseball hat. He talks in this croak saying "yeah maaaan - that shit maaaan. Back in the days and shit maaan when Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie, maaan." Paul tells us he's been here since the early 60's when he met all the greats. His club is the only real club in Göteburg, so any touring heavies play there. We started talking about drums, then cymbals & sound systems, then to digital, then to frequencies & the harmonic series, and I told him about The Third Ear, and the rotation of the planets as a frequency that is already known in Indian tradition.
After the show, not one but two guys came up to me, talking in my face. One lived in Japan doing "research" and told me "I'm gay and I don't care!" Then was bothering me telling me that the Japanese I spoke was too polite.
The 2nd guy came up & was being super in-my-face, too. Karin whispered that he's gay, so I said "Are you gay?" and he said "Yes but I don't want to fuck you. I just want to know if you're going to enjoy the real Western Sweden! What are you doing tonight? Are you going to the baths like the real Western Swedish do?"
I got rid of the guys & went outside with Anna & Karin. Oh I asked everyone if I looked Swedish & they said no, no way. In the morning, we drove to Oslo, Norway. I drove while everyone slept. It was the most scenic part of our whole trip. I caught alot of it on video, so I won't have to describe it. (Whew.)
Oslo, Norway -- August 1,2,3 - Kristiana Club
First day - played a so-so set. Afterwards a beautiful blond, short with delicate features, comes up to me & yells "Will you talk to me? I need to escape this boring guy!"
At the club, all these cute blondes were dressed as schoolgirls. One (Camilla) was amazing gorgeous. Then the drag queens came in... One really good looking guy was interested in me & inviting me to a party afterwards.
Ran up the stairs of the University of Oslo. Sucked a little sweet nectar out of purple
flowers.
On my way back to the hotel, a Japanese girl came running out of a door right in front of
me, panting. I only saw her face for 1 second, but I said "Sienna?" and she
turned around saying "Who is that?" I said "Dedeku Shivazu" (my name
in Japanese) and she didn't seem surprised. (Sienna's a girl I know from Japan - hadn't
seen her in 2 years.)
After 4 days, we leave Norway. We drive down to Göteburg, find out we've just missed the 8pm ferry & the next one's at 1am. I call Anna Wallerius who luckily meets us downtown at the Thai restaurant.
Monday, August 5, 1996
We're in Århus, Denmark. 6-hour ferry & an all-night drive. After the ferry, I took over, and had a real hard time staying awake. Deep fog. I was drinking diet coke to stay awake. We got in, finally, and it's the burbs. It's an apartment building with nothing else around.
Wednesday, August 7, 1996
I left off this story right after driving to Århus. As we were slumped in the couch after a 12-hour trip, I looked at the gang & said "I've got one word for you... OSLO." We really had a lot of friends there.
Funny how we can think that a certain city is great, because we met cool people & had a good time. I'm sure Oslo is totally boring if approached the wrong way. It's all who you meet. People are the joy. Except for exceptionally scenic places, but those aren't usually cities, anyway.
I went running - nice park. A few topless women. The smell of dry dogfood everywhere!! We still don't know what it is!
But the real fun was that Bente has an 11-year old daughter, Nadine, that speaks perfect English (her dad is British) and I asked her to come along with us. We found a playground. That's where the fun started. Hanging upside down on ropes. (Oh we bought her an icecream.) Climbing the jungle gyms, poles, ladders, and lotsa great stuff. My band thought I looked like a monkey - I just like to turn upside down. Nadine was loving it.
Later I gave her a ride on my shoulders, and she used my braids as horse reins, telling me when to turn & when to giddyup.
Next day, we all go to the beach. This was packed, blanket to blanket. About 1/4 of the women were topless, but it definitely wasn't sexy.
As I write this, I've got the laptop propped up on a windowsill, looking at the harbor as we pull into Oslo. I hit my head real bad on this mounted TV above me. Got a gash in my scalp that was bleeding pretty bad.
We go swimming. Jellyfish everywhere. People are throwing them at eachother - Jellyfish fights. Nadine stacks shells on my head. The rest of the gang throw pumice at me to knock them off.
That night, the band goes OUT. We walk downtown - there's not much happening. We go to
some bar & they get their drinks. I get a giant pot of Blackcurrant tea.
3am - Closing time - we're walking home, surprised how dead the town is, when we see these
teens sitting on a doorstep to this movie-theater looking place. It's a club and it's free
and it's hoppin! Loud loud painfully loud music - romantic 80's rock with occasional
punk/thrash. Some green hair & shaved heads & other stuff. Some girls are checkin'
me out. Pete has got some real pent-up agression & he wants to slam dance - saying
that I gotta be there to back him up cuz some guy spit on him & there might be a
rumble. Nothing happens.
Pat can't find Pete & Chris. We go downstairs & Christine's crying. She put her
hand on the floor on some broken glass somewhere & cut her thumb.
Wednesday, August 7, 1996
I'm still on the ferry to Norway. I didn't really think about this actually taking 12
hours total! (Including bus/train/ferry.) That's a long-ass time. I didn't sleep last
night. I've dozed off twice for only 10 minutes or so. I'm sitting on the floor near some
stupid slot machines.
Friday, August 9, 1996
On the train from Frederickshavn to Århus. 8:57am. Had a great time with Elisabeth in
Norway, but I'm not going to give you any details.
Monday, August 12, 1996
It's actually early Monday morning right now - just boarded the ferry from southern
Denmark to Northern Germany. It'll only be an hour. It's 1:40am.
Tuesday, August 13, 1996
Here I am in Raissa's apartment. This is the first city I've ever loved. I can't
remember loving a city even on the first day before. PARIS just amazes me. It's beautiful
& relaxing & feels like home. I could fit in.
I don't like Notre Dame . It did nothing for me. I enjoyed climbing the tree across the
street.
-- Monday, August 12 --
Drove into Place D'Ivry, phoned, Place D'Italie
met w/Jean-Marc & Raissa
ate French & slept
-- Tuesday, August 13 --
Changed our money
took an hour
lunch @ drugstore
Arc de Triomphe
Avenue des Champs Elysées
Raissa's Egyptian visa
Notre Dame
Walked around Quartier Latin
climbed the 45-degree tree across from Notre Dame
went home for a nap, talked & read on the bed w/Raissa
met her friends at the Times Square-like district, had a cherry beer
went into the 2nd one, danced, went home
-- Wednesday, August 14 --
Raissa showed us how to take the Metro to Montparnasse
ate Mexican salad lunch
walked to Musée de L'Armee - saw a movie being filmed
to Parc du Champ de Mars & Tour Eiffel
walked up to the 2nd story & back on the Tour Eiffel
to Palais de Chaillot - skateboard jumpers
ate @ Italian restaurant.
Pat & Christine left - I walked east on the Seine to Grand Palais & Petit Palais
past the real Palais with guards, thru some boring area to the Obelisque
took the Metro from Tuileries to Bastille
called, walked around, waited on the Opera steps
met Raissa, Jean-Marc, Pat & Christine
went to Portugese bar
to Some Girls bar - a Rolling Stones bar
to rowdy bar
to Bastille center - met 2 more friends
standing @ corner bar, then had a nutella & banana crepe & went home
gave Raissa the backrub of a lifetime.
-- Thursday, August 15 --
breakfast - bread & croissants - got Pat & Christine from hotel
I ate most of the breads
bus over Ile St-Louis to colorful fountains
to Centre Pompidou (museum, mime)
through Forum des Halles - market place
everyone's hungry - nothing's open for lunch
to corner restaurant with huge hookers & bad chicken
Metro home - biggest underground walk
packed for Raissa & phoned Pakistan Air
wrote & went to Domino's
ate pizza & drank champagne alone while reading Eno
slept from midnight-3am
drove to Frankfurt in the dark fog
Saturday, August 17, 1996
2:23pm in Rüdesheim, Germany, on the Rhine river, with tons of castles. Got us rooms for $20/night each. It's the wine festival here now, which brings in many people and keeps me away.
We got in last night, it's beautiful, I got a bite to eat & went right to sleep at 8pm. I had already been driving from Paris non-stop since 4am.
So I woke up around 6am. Went out walking in the quiet mist. Through these little Disneyland streets. No one was out. We're in a cloud, so you can barely see across the river.
After a while, I get the car & drive north. Castles come through the mist across the Rhine. I would stop & get out, and sit along the river & look at them while thinking about coincidences, quiet, my childhood interests, my first Beatles record & what I loved about it.
There was no camera. I'll just have to remember the tall castle coming out of the giant rock side. The turrets & castles in the town valley. The sandcastle on the hill. The splashing of the water & grumble of the barges. The mist going left, while the river runs right. Blackberries by the roadside.
By the time I got to Lorelei, all the tourists were out in full force. It was 11am, so I went back to the hotel.
Sunday, August 18, 1996
Oh I'm finally going to be flying home...
Monday, August 19, 1996
I'm on the TWA flight from Frankfurt to NYC. With Katty Fernandez. She was another passenger stranded by PIA. She watched our carts when we went grocery shopping & we gave her a ride to Küblenz - north of Rüdesheim.
So here we are travelling together like husband & wife. She took care of the tickets, which were put together in one envelope for us. I pushed our baggage cart & held onto our passports. It's cute. Like cabin mates on the ferry. "Hello! I'll be sleeping next to you tonight." I put a blanket over her when she fell asleep & gave her my pillow just now.
Katty Fernandez: 27-year-old Dominican Republic native grew up in New York, speaks fluent English, Spanish, and now French. Was a French major at Georgetown Univ. in Washington DC. Is going to Harvard next week to start as an Education major. Just backpacked around Latin America for 4 months. She's lived many places & had adventures in the Amazon & hiked the Grand Canyon. She taught in a Pasadena school - teaching gang-banging teens about mural painting - Diego Rivera & Freda Kahlo.
We land in New York. A few hours ago my toes were in the Rhine river, looking at castles in the mist. Now I'm driving agressive, bouncing thru potholes, eating at Taco Bell, and driving Katty home to the Bronx.
Welcome back.