Belfast and the bell of it all

Got to Dublin on Wednesday afternoon and took a bus from the airport up to Belfast, as usual it was one of my no idea what I am doing adventures but like past jaunts I end up in the right place. There is a fantastic story about the two days that lead up to getting here but I am going to save that one to tell you over tea, coffee or a cold beer (your choice). Yesterday I took a ride out towards the country and went to a folk museum and learned about life in the early 2oth century in Ireland. Set on 173 acres of beautiful rolling hills the museum consisted of about 50 buildings that they had either moved there or reconstructed to original specs. There was a small town center and then on roads out there were farms and country houses. Points of great interest to me were in particular the print shop that a printer was operating for the day we had a very long discussion about the freedom of the press. He showed me the meanings of the symbols worked into the metal of the press that the inventor specifically insisted be part of every press bearing his name. Each press is adorned with a bald eagle, the medical staff, cornucopia, wisdom and knowledge (represented as dragons?). The explanation was that without freedom (the eagle) there would be no medicine, abundance or the distribution of knowledge which aides in wisdom very profound given the state of affairs in the world and how media seems to withhold more than give out. We then moved on to a lighter topic of how the legendary printer Hatch in The States came about having the style of print that he did and how it was influenced greatly by the N. Irish printer of the early 2oth century. (again I will save this for over drinks)
All for now; tonight is Irish drinking night!

Toulouse Lautrec

A trip to the museum is never complete without nudes and who better to be our guide into "sans vêtements" then a diminutive man with a gigantic imagination and a penchant for "being in the right place at the right time" even to risk some nasty viruses. We of course must ease into this journey with the seemingly mundane visions of his poster work which I believe most of you have seen somewhere in your life even if it was just on a dorm wall in a the room of some hip art student burning incense and listening to the Grateful Dead. (not that I was ever that person...) Immortalized in some degree to a more modern audience in the film Moulin Rouge the musical with Nicole Kidman in which he was depicted as a cripple scooting around on the floor. Point is he spent many hours in and around brothels and burlesque establishments they offered a few explanations of this, one was that when using a live subject in a particular state it is best that they be most comfortable in the setting you wish to sketch them so for Lautrec women in repose and sans vêtements why not use prostitutes. Also they believe that he felt a connection with the women on the night based on his own feelings of being an outsider due to his physical limitations and size. All in all it was wonderful to get a full scope of his work and the time and place in history that Paris' social scene was doing at that time. I don't have a favorite work of his but rather a great appreciation for how he has shaped the art-advertising world that we now are immersed and sometimes drowning in, at the least making an art form of the everyday whether it's strippers of a glass of Pernod.

☆Welcome to the Hotel Gabriella!

It was the last night of a 2 month gig for Celebration the Bulgarian dance band so that meant a party in their honor complete with toasts and a low key acoustic jam started by James and his harmonicas. At the end of their show at 2am they packed their gear and as the house lights came up we (myself the dancers and crew) got ready for a party which entailed; getting ice in plastic shopping bags, finding all the random half empty bottles of vodka, wine and warm cans of beer and bringing them all back to the "fun club." Once collected it was a festival of language most of which I just sat back and listened to without understanding a whole lot of what was being said and every once in a while someone would have the heart to translate but as the night went on most tongues turned to English. I eventually went and got my guitar and Chris the drummer got a very small I mean very small snare drum that was only about 8 inches across (they are norm. about 14+) and played with his hands and James and I played some blues. After a time James dropped out and Chris and I made up lyrics to Hotel Cali. about the boat and crew everyone was in stitches and we all went to bed a 6am.
ps. got those new songs up at myspace.com/4strangecourage
I am looking for critique so be critical.
davey t

Wonderland of Finnland

Woke up this morning and I couldn't see out the window, ice my friends...ice and what the ice was obscuring was snow! and tons of it falling in great sheets swirling in the winds around the boat. Now that I have walked into the city Helsinki and have found my usual haunch at a counter in Cafe Java with enough time to take an accurate survey there is a good 15 cm of snow on the ground. I am so very glad that I purchased my new boots before I left (Thanks to Bob at EMS) because I would be boat bound and bored cut off from the world via the wide web. So now I can accomplish the task for the day which is post cards I didn't forget you my friends to the west they will be on their respective ways by the time you read this.
I am posting a couple of new songs that are very rough at mypace.com/4strangecourage take a listen and let me know what you think I would love some feed back. They may not be up until friday so bear with me. Practicing scales has really improved my sense of timing as well as clarified my ability to play lead lines and riffs in between chords and lyrics. I know that I have touched on this a number of times already but it really excites me that there are things that I never could wrap my mind around just a few short months ago in terms of melody and phrasings and speed. Then there is the fact that I have gotten this far (12 years) without any sort of regular practice routine and what that means in terms of possibility. Empire! (to quote Tom Appert)
So as I sit here in the middle of Helsinki, Finnland and think about Philadelphia, Bend, Red Bank, Berkeley Heights, Sea Bright and everywhere in between I am watching dogs frolic in a huge pile of snow 10 ft high and wondering where my next "pile" of fun will come from to frolic in.
Peace out Cub Scouts

The Blue Reindeer Episode

As crazy as the Swedes and especially the Finn's are some are able to actually go the extra mile and notch it up to the point of just nuts I mean raving and I am one. Yesterday brought many new crew members one of which was the cruise director from the Amorella (the last boat I was on if just tuning in), Ulla. She is a studying comedienne that is trying to get back to New York to continue her pursuit of laughter induction. So it's hard to imagine nothing happening when the two of us find some hats in the DJ booth that in and of themselves are comical. The first one is a large nylon bright orange number that is kind of a cartoon knock-off of a "church hat" complete with large gaudy flower in middle the second was a blue reindeer with a huge honking nose and antlers all very floppy in a stuffed animal kind of way. Enter the ham factor, suddenly I am the reindeer pulling the "sleigh" of orange hat lady around the disco at full speed making even the nuttiest and not the most sober patrons look on in horror as if they had been shot and stripped of their "crazy Scandinavian" titles haha great fun!

Beet Salad

There is definitely something odd about a beet salad it's very tasty but with the way that they make it over here it's pink! Funny eating pink it makes your plate a kind of Easter egg experiment with the other colors collected for the meal.
Been dancing more often as exercise is limited and I cannot do push-ups and the like for fear of inflaming my right arm's tendon's like I did last year so for now there is dancing and walking and practicing scales for 2 hours a day. My grade school music teacher always liked to call practicing of music "Empire, building empire!!!" It's fun to remember the lessons that I learn then about practice and such and apply them now as I am still learning how to express myself in the musical realm. I have also been working more on some new music it's more spacious and sparse then some of my older songs, going for a "word picturesque" effect than flat out lyrics. One week left and then it's over the the great green isle for a few days and then home to Jersey.

Financial Panther

Have you ever had the desire to off your land lord when you didn't have rent. if so you can for a nominal fee purchase a panther to kill your intended victim in a very natural and bloody way.
call 555-987-4444 for more details
all billing is discreet.