dear friends,

i know i haven't kept up with the blog past the first four days.  there's a reason for this: the second week of being in europe, one of two things happened.  i either 1) had a show, or 2) i went to france to hang out.  i was also doing some blog writing on the trains, but my notebook was accidentally packed with the bar owner's keyboard in basel, and if i get it back, it probably won't be for a while.  in any event, i have a good memory of everything that happened on those days, and anything i forget can probably be filled in by someone.

here's a rundown:
2/20: travel day.  philly to washington dc to...
2/21: ...zurich.
2/22: played "ms. brandy's open mic" at bazillus.
2/23: played at restaurant rössli, special guest opening for meng tian.
2/24: slept, prepared for 2/26 show, ate schnitzel.
2/25: played musigbistrot in bern.
2/26: played stall 6 in zurich, co-bill with jones and raphael jakob.
2/27: went to adelboden with brandy for her show with phenomden and the scrucialists.
2/28: played villa sträuli in winterthur (on a grand piano).  visited luzern.  was invited to open with a few songs in zug for phenomden and the scruicalists' show (thanks, guys!)
3/1: played hiltl in zurich. played part of two sets doing jazz with brandy on flute.  brandy's husband, roman, made awesome fondue.  dennis (aka phenomden), rene (of chamber soul) and his girlfriend, ally (allie?) also came.
3/2: left for marseille to visit ob (stands for ol bon).  rode tgv for the first time.  saw mediterranean for the first time.
3/3: through the courtesy and generosity of ob, saw the nearby towns of cassis (!), la ciotat, and six-fours.  played many songs at an open mic/open jam at mafana zen cafe in six-fours (ob was able to borrow a keyboard for me).
3/4: left marseille to return to zurich.  rode the tgv for the second time.
3/5: played abx bar in basel.  experienced the greatest hospitality from a bar owner ever: met me at the train, lent me his keyboard, bought me dinner and drinks, drank at the bar with him and his staff until almost 4am, and slept in his room while he went to his girlfriend's.  the next morning, he came back, walked me over to the train station (literally less than one minute from his front door) and bought me coffee.  and on top of this, i was still compensated.   philly, you are hereby on notice.
3/6: left basel for paris to meet up with miki, who came in from belgium to meet me and show me around.  (rode the tgv for the third time--it also hit its cruising speed of 320 kph, which is 200 mph!) she showed me as much of paris as a person can reasonably do in one day.  paris was amazing. rode the metro several times.  walked to the louvre, notre dame, the champs-elysees, the l'arc de triomphe, the eiffel tower (sorry, miki), and the basilica of sacre-coeur in montmartre.  i was expecting to go to zurich on an overnight train.  oops, i'm sorry, there isn't one.  the next train was 8:30am.  miki returned to belgium around 10pm.  so i went to a bar and wrote.  and when that closed, i pondered going to some club pumping out music.  wasn't sure i wanted to do that while carrying a bookbag, so i opted to walk around and see if i could find some othe bar to go to.  walked down an avenue for about a half hour until i decided there would just be nothing but hostels.  thought about getting a room, but figured i could tough it out for six hours.  returned to the station, gare de l'est, but oops, i'm sorry, it's closed from 1am to 5am for no reason.  went to a 24 hour restaurant across from the station and wrote some more over a beer and sandwich, and then a cappuccino.  then i figured i'd go to the toasty train station.  oops, i'm sorry, it's open air, so it's cold.  enjoyed the sanctity of my own thoughts for two hours, then realized there was a heater i could stand next to.  stood next to it for an hour, enjoying the sanctity of my own thoughts.  i boarded the train at 8am and promptly went to sleep.  if this kind of sleep had a taste, it would be desperately sweet and juicy.  rode the tgv for the fourth time, but that was the last thing on my mind.
3/7: even though i was up for about 24 hours straight the day before, that sleep on the train was the only sleep i got as i wanted to do some shopping and stores were only open until 5 and not at all on sunday, the 8th.  so i went shopping, and then found about the possibility of seeing q-tip.  brandy treated me to the show (although i think roman ultimately did).  she had a gig so she couldn't go.  i went wine shopping then had dinner with roman before the show.  we still had to buy tickets.  i'll explain this in a longer entry, but the show was sold out, but we were still able to get tickets just before the show started and we got in during q-tip's first song.  hung out for the post-show dj, drinking with roman and his friend, karma, listening to music, watching people dance.  eventually left and got a ride with some of karma's friends, although they ended up dropping us off somewhere near sihlstrasse, i think, which was a decent walk from home.  saw some clubs letting out and the hopes of after-hours action for the clubgoers fading fast.  it reminded me of old city in philly.  ha.  on the walk back, i mentioned to roman that i regretted not being able to walk around the red light district near langstrasse during the day, taking pictures.  he said this was my chance if i wanted to go now, as we were right at the beginning of langstrasse.  what the hell.  who knows when i'd be back?  he suggested that i might not want to take pictures.  i agreed.  i mostly wanted to get pictures of buildings anyway, and at night, they might not come out so well.  and if i took pictures, who knows, perhaps i wouldn't come out so well either, especially if someone ended up in a photo that really didn't want to be in it.  we said goodbye to karma, and walked down the langstrasse.  it was full of activity, really jumping.  those clubgoers i saw should have come here. philly crew, think 13th street, but not (as) sketchy, with bars and small restaurants open late (read as: after 2am).  on side streets, saw several ladies of the night in windows with, eh, wares on display.  fascinating.  eventually, ended up at his favorite bar, bar rossi.  brandy called and playfully reminded us that she and i had a show at 10am, so roman and i decided to finish our beers and call it a night around 3:30am.  not sure how late things stay open, but it didn't look they were closing anytime soon.

3/8:  played hiltl with brandy again.  did a little shopping.  tried to find a store called co-op and failed.  there are many of them, but only one of them in the area was open on sunday.  then went to play the bar area of the volkshaus restaurant.  

i learned a lot and, of course, not enough while i was here.  there's more that i want to and will share, but i need to finish packing.  i didn't really unpack, but i have to re-pack since i'm bringing back a bunch of stuff, including rivella!  this is some of the best stuff i've ever had.  it's a drink made with 35% milchserum (whey).  you might think it sounds disgusting, and yeah, it sounds disgusting.  rivella, however, is not.  i'm hoping, hoping, hoping that i can find somewhere in the states that sells it.  i'm bringing three liters of it home with me.  it's not enough.

and don't worry about pictures.  i've got close to three gigabytes of pictures and videos to sift through.

more to come...