Do the Alligator

So on saturday night i went to hear flying nun legend bill direen perform, his stories didn't make a whole lot of sense, but he played some great tunes. i think i prefered the last bill direen gig i saw 11 years ago, when he was a whole lot more energetic. back then he was also my ENGL 105 tutor, and his stories didn't make a whole lot of sense then either.

then i went over to aro valley to steve's party, and DJs Malfunction (Mel) and DJ Name (AKA Stevie K) had us all shaking our booties like nobody's business.
nice work.

Sparkling Duets, Bodega 26th May

The Bridge of Sighs 

Folie a deux stumbling on at Sparkling Duets 

EP Phone Home

So yesterday i went to Slow Boat and collected the unsold copies of my orange EP. while i still have some copies left, it is no longer on sale because i've recorded better versions of the songs on the Million Miles Away CD. Didn't sell many copies of the EP, but i got some good feedback from people at radio stations and record labels, which was the main goal for the cd.

anyway, as the slow boat woman was giving me the cd, she said 'nice package', and i'm thinking 'thanks, i try and work out'. turns out she meant the cd packaging...

back in wellytown

so i arrived back on thursday, and i'm still getting used to being home. it is great seeing g again, and slowly making contact with everyone else, but after such a great trip, its hard being back in a cold wet town where i have to go to work and deal with industrial action. oh well. slowly slowly.

saw the new star wars last night, as a kid who loved star wars it was great to see every minute detail explained so all ends were tied up tightly. as an actual movie, it was a tedious porno, except instead of sex there was special effects, linked loosely by bad acting and stilted dialogue. and tem morrison.

some thoughts from singapore airport

why do they sell luggage at airports? isn't it too late to buy suitcases?

so i'm in singapore airport, which kindly provides free internet. they also just announced that singapore's top jazz singer is about to sing too. these singaporese are nice. first 20 hours of my trip over, just 17 to go...

my adventures are over. stink. back to work on friday. time to start planning my next trip.

monday i played at the Spice of Life Bar Antihoot open mic. i had optimistically thought it would be the london equivalent of the new york sidewalk cafe antihhot i went to. 'fraid not. the bar was bright and clean, the host had no personality, and the sign up system was morally wrong. so i was in a bit of a grump soon after arriving, but gradually i relaxed, caught up with friends (who all had to leave before i even played), drank some beer, and tried to ignore a number of boring pretty musicians that were painfully beige. eventually i got onto the stage (number 22), and i made a whole lot more noise than anyone else there, singing rip roaring versions of my brand new song (The Das Ben Drinking Song) and NYC. a number of the punters seemed to enjoy it, and certainly everyone noticed me. i'm never going to be a better guitarist or singer than 90% of the other musicians at open mics, but as long as i'm not boring background music i'm happy. no playing at wedding or bar mitzvahs for me.

quite excited by my new song, and i'm looking forward to trying it out in wellytown with a more awake audience. maybe we'll even get people singing along...

Me and Jeffrey Lewis share a moment 

good old fashioned hero worship

ok, so i'm not big on hero worship. i got over that when i finally beat my alice cooper thang in high school. but tonight i saw antifolk god jeffrey lewis perform at the windmill bar in brixton, and well, i just want to stuff him and stick him on my mantlepiece. yeah, he truly was the god of sad bastards, and all other antifolk musicians should kneel at his alter. highlights of his show included hearing a whole bunch of new songs, an illustrated history of communism, and the chelsea hotel oral sex song. also great was talking to him, and giving him a copy of my cd (i felt bad that i had two of his cds and he had none of mine). oh and i might have accidentally purchased his rare autographed box set for more money than i meant to spend. whoops.

also this weekend i saw another antifolk star, lach, perform at the barfly. lach actually coined the term 'antifolk', so i guess antifolk is whatever he sounds like, and he kind of sounds like a good version of das ben - funny noisy songs on an acoustic guitar. check him out here

i also went to my friend shosh's bollywood party, although for some stupid reason i'd forgotten to bring all my bollywood clothes with me on this trip, so i had to tell everyone i was just dressed as martin henderson (i.e. a kiwi in a bollywood film). one guy asked if i was dressed as rumpelstiltskin, which did scare me seeing as how i didn't dress up for the party.

liar liar pants are engulfed in flames

so, i spoke to my parents today and it turned out that my great great grandmother did see some heroes be hanged, but it wasn't at heroes square, it was somewhere in the country, so i didn't stand at the place she stood. but after talking with dad i discovered all the other places that i'd been that important family history (or minor family history, such as playgrounds dad used to play at). so that's still of something, i think.

just went to see an exhibit of robert crumb cartoons, it was wonderful, and funny, and depressing, and lots of other stuff.

and i just bought tickets to see jeffrey lewis on sunday night. woohoo. jeffrey lewis is the first antifolk artist i heard (ella saw him in london years ago and posted me his cd), so both ella and jeffrey lewis are partly to blame for my antifolk acoustic stonk thang that i do.

and and on monday night i'm playing at an antihoot open mic at Spice of Life Bar, Cambridge Circus. so if you're in london, come along. ok, so its only an open mic, but i can now say that i'm doing a world tour because i've played in multiple countries.

cd of the day is another one that Lach gave me in new york - 'Paranoid Larry and his Imaginary Band', most of the tracks are songs about paranoia and conspiracy, but there is one song called 'breakfast is the most important beer of the day'. the only problem with the cd is that it contains a small microchip so that the CIA can monitor who is listening to it...

b

more buda and more pest

so i'm back in dirty old london after a fantastic weekend in budapest. saturday we checked out more of Buda, we saw a palace and other majestic buildings, about a trillion statues (there are statues for everything in budapest, i reckon you'd be pretty offended if you got to 21 and they hadn't built a statue for you). then in the afternoon we went to one of the famous budapest thermal baths and sweltered in a 60 degree sauna, relaxed in a 38 degree spa, and chilled out in a gentle 34 degree pool. its a tough life sometimes.

saturday night hannah and i met up with mum's first cousin, and his wife and son. it is weird and exciting to meet new whanau, and they were very generous and very patriotic, determined to show us the best of budapest. they took us to the most traditional hungarian restaurant they could find and were mortified when we said we wouldn't eat meat so we couldn't try their hungarian delicacies (he begged us to make an exception and try the liver). but we ate some great food anyway, and the restaurant also had some traditional hungarian and gypsy dancers balancing bottles on their heads and doing strange folk dances that involved slapping the soles of their shoes.

no more success finding a good pub on saturday night either.

sunday we were dazzled by the st. istvan basillica, the most majestic church i've ever seen (ok, admittedly i'm not much of a church goer, but this was more impressive than notre dame or canturbury cathedral), and then the view of the city from the top of the church was equally astounding. its scary when you get to the point where amazing buildings fail to dazzle because they are so common, i almost got to that point, but luckily not quite.

we then walked to the main street to Heroes Square, which features more history and more statues. this history was particularly exciting for me because apparently my great great grandmother's earliest memory was watching people get hanged in this square in 1848 (or something like that). ok watching people get hanged isn't overly cheerful, but standing at a place where i know my great great grandmother was did excite me.

and now i'm back in london, looking online for gigs and arranging to meet friends each evening. i've found that both lach and jeff lewis are playing this weekend, so hopefully i'll be able to get tickets before these gigs sell out (but first i have to phone around and see who wants to come, and its all so complicated not being able to text people).

b

hanging in the 'pest

so, i'm in budapest at the moment. we went out for dinner and then came back to the hostel because there was no nightlife whatsoever, we found a street of pubs (vaci utca) but no people. we felt distinctly underwhelmed.

oh well, the rest of the day has been great. budapest is a beautiful city, filled with old colourful buildings, a majestic river, and some impressive views. today hannah and i joined up with an american tourist, richard, and we walked the city for 7 hours. we started the day with the synagogue and jewish museum, which is huge and very churchlike.



(this and all other photos in today's blog stolen from the net, i haven't yet been able to download any of my own pictures).

the jewish museum has some stuff about the holocaust and the budapest ghetto, but even being here, it is still so hard to imagine what life was like for Dad as a small boy in the hungarian ghetto. In fact, i really feel little connection with this country, its a big beautiful city, but considering all 4 of my grandparents were so proudly hungarian, i feel no affinity at all.

anyhoo, we walked around pest for a while, then crossed the danube into buda, and walked up Gellert Hill to the Citadel, the site of a war muesum and some very majestic statues (such as the one pictured below) and a hotel with photos of children suffering in wars in europe, africa, asia, and middle east - cheerful stuff to see on your holiday.



so that's budapest so far. more soon.

b

london's calling

so i arrived in london late last night after a v long trip via frankfurt and plane delays. london is cold and dirty, but at least people drive on the right (i mean left) side of the road. staying with my sister liz and her 3 kids at present, but tonight i'll move to my other sister hannah's place for some kid-free time.

on the plane i discovered tomato juice (the drink - ok, so it wasn't a secret, but i never normally drink it unless i put vodka in it) and toby goodschank (guitarist from moldy peaches who sings songs that would make the peaches blush).

monday night i went out with three of my siblings and their spouses (spice?). it was fun, even if the restaurant was overpriced and underquality. it would be nice having siblings in the same hemisphere as me.

also on the plane i finally managed to finish a full set of lyrics for the first time in months. not surprisingly the song is about flying, now if i could just find a guitar in this dirty old town...

b

we can't even afford a couch

I'm having a great time in Israel. yesterday i took 5 nephews and nieces to a place called The Land of Children (Mdinat Yeledim), it was a great place to go if you're under 8. hard work keeping up with the kids if you're older. there are bouncy castles, water slides, trikes, little trains and boats, etc - and adults aren't allowed on anything. stink.

meanwhile on the other side of the world, my colleagues are taking industrial action (click here to read about it), and i feel like a meanie not being there to support them. sorry team.

b

babies and more babies

so i've now been in israel for over a week. its been good fun. spent 3 days with my sister miriam and her husband and two kids, then i spent 3 days with my brother david and his wife and 4 kids, and now i'm spending 4 days with my brother michael and his wife and 3 kids. that's a lot of babies. but wait there's more, because for one day i escaped from my siblings to see my friends mikee and paul (and their wives and their babies). so its all been fun, but a whole lot of clucking and not much rocking. here's me and some sibs and some kiddies and some cousins...