Today Gary Lucas gave a masterclass at the Amsterdam Conservatory in Amsterdam.

Lots about his work with Captain Beefheart and Jeff Buckley.

But before that he signed Bibiche's guitar and gave a mini private concert for us on her guitar!

Today we were invited by Co de Kloet to be wittness of the Gary Lucas sessions at the MCO recording studio in Hilversum, The Netherlands.

The studio were it took place was the famous MCO studio of the Metropole Orchestra were Mike Keneally's THE UNIVERSE WILL PROVIDE was recorded!

Gary Lucas is best known for his work with Captain Beefheart in the 80's but after that done so much more. He is a fantastic guitarplayer and I was stunned by his electric soundscapes and solowork on the dobro guitar!

IT WAS BREATHTAKING BEAUTIFUL!

Co and Tom Trapp studying the score

Zappa Plays Zappa hit Amsterdam last thursday and it was a blast!

Joe Travers got us some tickets and backstage passes so that was really cool!

The setlist was breathtaking:

And it was the first time they played Doreen! It was just as if Ray White jumped from the 1984 Zappa tour right on to this ZPZ tour. Same vocal power!

Dweezil's appearance was a world of difference from the 2006 tour. No fancy pants..just all about the Zappa music. His guitarplaying was sometimes out of this world. Unbelievable!

The band as tight as it could be..really awesome! Highpoint G-Spot Tornado! (well in fact the whole show was one big highpoint)

The interaction between the Frank Zappa video's and the band was very emotional to see. (one of them a alternate KCETV 1974 Cosmik Debris!)

After the concert we went backstage for a Zappa adventure (without Dweezil)

With Joe Travers

...Scheila..

..Ray White...

...Pete and Jamie...

Thanks Zappa Plays Zappa.for keeping THE MUSIC alive....till next year!

Ok folks, I am back home again and no asshole this time to harass me at the USA customs.

On my way...

A little sad at the Green Bay Airport

Made some amazing pictures from the plane of probably (in no particulair order) Green Bay, Lake Michigan, Detroit, New Foundland, Ireland, UK, Holland and Amsterdam

Well, the last thing I can say is: "Peace to you all folks!"

Howdie folks,

My visit to the USA last year inspired my good friend and awesome musician/composer Joe Hasiewicz to compose the song "Little Spoon from Peshtigo"

Little Spoon from Peshtigo is a song about the 'surreal' experiences of Mr. Paul Berkholst on his visit to the United States last year. More specifically, the song is mostly about a single day of his visit - September 22, 2007 - the day Paul spent in Peshtigo, Wisconsin at the Peshtigo Fire Festival. On that day I drove up to Menominee, Michigan, about ten miles from Peshtigo, where Paul was staying with his friend Dave. I arrived late in the afternoon just as Paul and Dave had returned from the Peshtigo Fire Festival. Paul's description of the day's festivities, his Peshtigo Blog , his odd mementos, his unique perception of life the US, his bewilderment of water towers, his sense of humor, his love for the music of Frank Zappa (a lot of Zappa references in this one folks) and of course the little spoon with the giant fire on it, all serve as the inspiration for this song.

This song also alludes to the great Peshtigo Fire of 1871 which is mostly forgotten because it occurred on the same day as the great Chicago fire.

Little Spoon from Peshtigo had its world premiere August 18, 2008 on Dutch Public Radio, NPS Radio6, on a show called "Jazz, World and Beyond…" hosted by Vincent van Engelen and Co de Kloet.

Joe Hasiewicz
August 23, 2008

I would like to thank the following people for contributing their wonderful
talents.

    Michael Kent Smith - Guitars
    Sam Orbec - Vocals, Alto Sax and Recorder
    Julie Hasiewicz - Vocals
    Steve Hashimoto - Bass
    The Hasiewicz girls (Maddie, Sam and Ally) as the Peshtigo Crowd
    (This is what my house sounds like.)

This one involves my entire family including myself on piano and vocals.

Check out the song on: www.joehasiewicz.com

Thanks Dave, Allicia & Marcella for taking such good care of me and thank you all for making my stay so wonderful!

...but I have to go now...bye!

Well folks, my visit to the USA has come to an end and boy it was an adventure!

I think I will end these USA blogs by just observing the several different species of americans I met today at the Pesthigo Historical Day celebrating (or remembering?) the big fire that happened there on october 8, 1871 and that killed 800 people. And of course the day ended with a big firework...

I thought I might as well steal a pumpkin from that truck while the marching band played " Louie, Louie" (and I am not kidding!)

That immediately got me in trouble and I was busted by the Sherrif

who told me to bring it back and indeed I did..

And instead bought me a knitted piece of shit fake pumpkin

After which I enjoyed Peshtigo's no.1 rapper

Though I ended up being the only one watching these square dance retards..

The band that was there even played a song I could sing along : " Son of a gun we have big fun on the Bayou"

Remember I was telling you about Louie Louie being played by this marching band? Well here they are folks...aren't they great!

And of course the cheerleaders..aren't they beautiful? Huh? They're not? Hmm..guess you are right about this...

And what the heck is this all about???

This macho guy is stirring up some booyah...but I was told not to try it just before flying back to Holland

This Yooper directed the picture by saying: "I will stand on this side of the tree and you on the other side" ...uh..well ok... (look at those shoes!)

Now really...do I look like a real american or what?

Now whatta you know...even met some real USA soldiers who indeed went to Iraq...aren't they a bit too young for that?

The visit ended perfectly with a hamburger and a hotdog..

After that I met up with Joe Hasiewicz, a great musician, who came all the way from Chicago to meet me. He had his lovely wife and 3 daughters with him.

And he turned out to be a great fisherman too

Well my dear friends I have now to get packing for my trip back to Holland..thanks for reading my blogs and your comments.

The day after the Vai concert.....

Well yesterday was the big VAI day folks. A travel of 3 hours to downtown Milwaukee.

But first a pits stop at ..yeah right folks you guessed right..Sheboygan..for a Fanta and a halloween surpise

And I had my first Hardees natural cut fries which was the most aweful thing I ever tasted overhere. (No. 1 still would be the beef jerky)

You can never tell what happens on the highway but it was damn cool to see a truck drive by full of racecars heading to Daytona

One of my wishes to see overhere in the USA was some architesture of Frank LLoyd Wright, and I did..but to come there we first had to encounter one of the most shocking things I saw..the ghetto of Milwaukee. It seems that this part of Milwaukee was totally ignored by everyone. Only black people live there and as soon as you leave this part you drive into a neighbourhood full of big villa's and bungalows. Weird!

But they still managed to put some really nice advertisemts there for the poorest of the poorest

But whatta you know...I had to get out of the car to really feel it..

After running back to the car and securely closed the windows finally there it was, the most amazing building I have ever seen in my life! It really blew my mind!

The Greek Orthodox Church designed by Frank LLoyd Wright in 1956 in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin

Enjoy.

Of course we had to act like real tourists so we had to be on it folks...sorry for that

Now look closely at the weird shadow on that stairs..is that art or what!

Breathtaking isn't it folks?

After that we had to hurry like hell to find the Pabst Theatre in downtown Milwaukee...

and finally found it!

But first..let's eat...we  only had a freaking 15 minutes to eat and this guy that runs the rerstaurant and really looked like a chinese had no idea what I was talking about when I ordered some chinese food I always eat in Amsterdam (Fu Hong Hai, Tsjai Sieuw) so I had him throw in some meat in the noodles. His name was probably One Hung Low.

He also thought I had a picture of Richard Nixon on my back but that was really Mike Keneally..weird guys those chinese.

Well what can I say about the concert of Steve Vai..it was really AWESOME! The theatre, the sound , the lighting..PERFECT!

The only thing different to a concert in Holland was that some ladies would come and serve you drinks during the concert which made the audience more drunk and a little noisy..the whoohoo's and YEAH's were floating around.

On the street we met Bryan Beller and Kira Small who were looking for us. Bryan had some aftershow passes for us. These are amongst the nicest (musicians) people we ever met. They took care of us like we were kings, introduced us to Steve Vai which was kinda hilarious because Co de Kloet gave me a secret code to say to Steve so he knew fer sure I was friends with him.

Dave had a t-shirt that made Steve laughed out really loud..well see for yourselves...I will never forget this adventure my whole life!

Many thanks to Kira Small and Bryan Beller for making the pictures below!

With Bryan Beller

With Kira Small

With Steve Vai!

The funny t-shirt, reffering to Co de Kloet

This band's really gonna make it..Yooper and the Mokummer...we have to fly to Australia to make the pictures for the cd booklet

"Always check a guys pants before you get aquanted"

Do you know that expression?..You do?..Well I just made it up.

Some of the Menominee architecture..from "Art Deco" to cheezy and highly exhaulted and really cute

On my way to the store in Menominee on a 1950's Schwinn child bike to buy me some cool cd's!

AARRGGHH!!! Only Country & Western cd's!

Well at least I found a real Yooper car

And a fine example of a real Yooper. Ladies and Gentlemen meet Marky St. Peter! ("You're are from over the big pond?")

Had my first "Sloppy Joe"at Dave's parents house...YUMEEH!

...and homemade rice crispy bars

"Duby Park" used to be a hippy party place in the 70's famous for their marihuana consumption or better known as doobies. Since then it was known as Doobie park and indeed the city decided to name it that way but kinda censored it.

So if you wanna party folks...

Phew, it was really hot today folks..so we needed a lot of water to cool us down, both in Marinette and Oconto

We went to Oneida to meet some indians, the 2nd picture is the Oneida motel

And indeed met the charming indian Scott Ochatsjakkawokpatai, behind us the painting of Sky Woman (??)

This one's for Mike Gaito

Big, bigger biggest..the Green Bay Packers Stadium in Green Bay

This is Curly Lambeau with shoesize 14 DDD

And Vince Lombardo with even bigger shoes..17 DDD!

An Italian GO PACKERS meal

And again the dutch connection

By the way, Frank Zappa performed in the Brown County Arena on 11-20 1980 which you can see behind me

And after a hot day like this a man has to cool down in Lake Michigan...

..and Marcella is learning me how to whistle the USA national anthem

And after eating my way through a hamburger and a rainbow sherbet...

I finally became a real American, flag and all!