Home for the Holidays

For Thanksgiving, I visited the folks in Western PA, the land of roadkill, shotgun shells, skunk smell and the Steelers. I swear the first song i heard driving across the PA border was "The Pennsylvania Polka". And it was already snowing. The snow's definitely better when you don't have to drive in it. My roadtrip companion loved it tho.


Guess I'm a total city boy now, because one of things I love most about going home is their frontier spirit, so I try to revert a little...


But maybe that has something to do with having neither cell phone signals or wireless access. The highlight of each day was walking the dogs to the woods with my mom or dad...


...Then warming up, all cozy like, with home cooking and bourbon!


And then getting crazy with my niece and nephew. Emma's a consummate performer, whether at dance class...


...or goofing around at home.


And eventho Bailey's a hockey player, he celebrated his 10th birthday with a high-jump salute, inching a little farther up the wall each year.

Heavenly Hoops

My friend Barbara was in a performance piece today. More on that in a minute. It took place in Chinatown. I lived in Bangkok's Chinatown so any trip to any Chinatown "warms my cockles" as a friend says...


Now, back to Barbara...she's a hooper.


And for the performance she and a dozen other hoopers dotted the rooftops in Lower Manhattan. Spectators, myself included, climbed to the roof of the artist's building to watch, and many folks got really excited running around 360 degrees to spot all the participants.




As usual, I had just as much fun watching the watchers....

All Souls...

I braved the wilds of the west village last night for Halloween.


Believe it or not it's the closest I've ever come to attending the parade. The crowds overwhelm me. But plenty of revelers were on view on the way to SOBs. No costumes really jumped out -- lots of witches, prisoners, sailors -- but most were just slutty: slutty Britney, slutty french maid, slutty cop (and that was just the guys!). Things got a little better inside the club, especially with Nneka by my side.


This band was announced to be "direct from Transylvania" so maybe they weren't really in costume at all.


They were in fact a Balkan duo, eventho this guy is dressed like a character from Yellow Submarine. If you think the squeeze box looks big, you should see his belly.


But the main event of the evening was my friend Amayo who along with his band delivered an afro-funked up version of Thriller...


...and it had the crowd and apparently many of their long-gone pets, on their feet, doing the zombie stomp.


It's All Souls Day, so don't forget to honor your ancestors!

One week Amsterdam. The next, Harlem...

Does a body good to get out and about. Like last night, I headed uptown for some Manhattan magic.


The occasion was The Harlem Bombshell's surprise party.


But all were welcome...


Especially the chilldren...


...eventho there were a few adult moments.


My boy Ric searched the mirror for his reflection...


...but had no trouble spotting the jams to get Shelly movin'.


A superhero or two lurked about...


And Robin da Hood made sure local royalty were on point.


Good people filled the house, some looking sinister...


...and others serene.


But by the end of the night, everyone was just chillin.


Big luv to Carlton & my new Harlem fam. Next stop, Brooklyn.

Back home...

...hit the tarmac running. Been happily employed since the return last week. Hooked up with the DigforFire crew to shoot stills on some CMJ footage on Saturday. Here's head honcho and all-round sweetheart Natalie in our "staging area"...



The entire LES was abuzz with hipsters, music heads, industry folk and the occasional PR monster...



The scene was a bit overwhelming and you could see it on the faces of the Macabees when they arrived. We wisked them off to the relative quiet of Mama's for a bite and a quick interview.





They were on in a few, tho, and the jitters started to set in.



The Macabees clealy have fun together. They played a good show to a rowdy, rockin', appreciative crowd, not at all who you'd expect to attend the CMJ clusterf#*k.

Long journey home...

Here's how I feel about France today...


...well Air France at least. Cancelled flight. Impending transit strike. Blah, blah, blah...The flight staff lived up to all the negative stereotypes about the french -- cowardly, indirect, indecisive, insecure, rendered ineffective by bureaucracy.

Anyway, tried to get re-routed thru Amsterdam but they sent me to Montreal instead. Canadian Mounties ride mountain bikes these days and the Quebecois, seemingly all in hockey jerseys, are a ruggedly handsome lot. (If they'd only cut those ponytails...)

But back to you, France...Here's some things you don't want to hear: we DO eat better in the States. Dress better too. There' s something to be said about our can do spirit and the energy and simplicity it brings. So get over yourself. Tho, you can take your dogs everywhere, so maybe in the end it breaks even.

Friends and family, great trains and subways, and even some new acquaintances, ripe with possibilities, have made this trip a plus. Plus, after a 20-year love/hate relationship with Paris, I'm still happily surprised when someone just pops in to say "salut"...



Paris, je t'aime malgre tous.

A bientot!

Amsterdam...

Up and out early today after a lovely night in a brown cafe with Erica. It was so cozy. Friends and neighbors played cards for pennies by candle light as their dogs slept at their feet. And we ate fried potatoes in a paper cone and drank bock beer. Here's what Erica sees each night at twilight.


But today, I took the ferry today north of the city to track down Blend. It was a great meeting. We talked about media, technology and old magazines from the '80s. Then I spent the afternoon at Deco, a turn of the century a sauna. If felt so good to be out of my travel suit. And everyone was naked. Yipee! I even jumped in the freezing pool -- twice.


Can't tell you how much i love this place. Seems like I have an Amsterdam air about me. Friendly people stop and greet me in Dutch, like this guy who came into the city for the day to skate with his friends.


It's not without it's troubles and culture clashes. Anne Frank wears terrorist garb these days...


And not everyone seems perfectly happy -- Here, even candy cotton girls get the blues.


But people like to have a little fun. Either at the Vondelpark...


Or at the carnival...




And there's colorful moments all around...


And unlike those flower gardens in Paris designed to remind me of my place, these ones made me feel like the life of the party.




What ever happened to that space cake? .....Oh. Here it comes...


More to come from my final day in Paris....