Thursday, June 05, 2008

Holy Mothers of invention… what a long ass flight. Man it was Oakland to LA. With a 3-hour layover then 10 hours to Lima Peru and 5 to Buenos Aires. I was spent when Martin & Charlie picked me up from the airport. Hell I have done these long flights before but I think my backside is still sore from Europe (Yeah so is my pride but that’s another long story). Anyway the cool thing (literally) was the weather, it was ice cold. I love it; it’s better than the heat baby. Trust me it can get hot as a pistol down here in the summer. Oh yeah by the way, it’s winter here. So I get to the beautiful hotel in downtown Buenos Aires at around 9 in the morning. I’m right smack dab in the middle of everything from the Casa Rosada (you know what I’m talking about? Yeah that balcony….“Don’t Cry for me Argentina” …Now do you get it?), the European influenced buildings on Diagonal Norte Street, The Cabildo (the Government house used in colonial times), The Obelisk (the main icon of the Capitol city, it’s looks like the Washington monument back in the USA) and tons of other great architecture. Well I crash out at about 11:00 am and wake up the next day at the same exact time…spooky huh? So here I am with 6 hours to kill before heading off to practice with my old amigos “The Road Vultures. So I press…yeah you heard me…lol. I start pressing those wrinkled ass black shirts of mine that have been bouncing around my suitcase for a few days. I watch a movie (the classic shoot ‘em up love story “True Romance”…. Whew, Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette have got some pretty hot chemistry daddy-O ). Hours go by fast and the next thing I know I’m rockin’ out with the boys in the band. They sound amazing. They have got ten times better and I liked the way they sounded before but it means a lot to me that they stepped up and raised the bar in their own musicianship. They must have taken voice lessons because they’ve got those humble pie harmonies down now. To make the night even better Adrian Barilari the great Argentinean rock vocalist from the Heavy Metal band Rata Blanca stopped by to sing a few songs with me. That man has got a lot of soulful singing power. I love his attitude as well, a totally laid back and confident guy. I’m sorry for running those songs over and over again Adrian! But man we sing great together. Back at the hotel now, I can’t sleep. I guess I had too much sleep from when I got here. Oh well I talked to Denise and the boys on the web cam. They look and sound great. Dylan is getting ready for the Marinwood park gig on June 27th. Yeah he’s practicing on his ukulele (he thinks it’s a guitar custom built for him). He runs upstairs and get’s it every time I pick up my guitar to write something or strum out an idea. He always wants to jam, oh man I have created a rock star. Now Jacob… he’s turned into a stop and smell the roses type of character. He’s a total independent. He’s slightly passive and shy but then out of nowhere he’s got this comedic side that will have you belly laughing. The kid has definitely got some talent. Did I mention that they are only three and a half years old? They pick things up from what we say and use our words against us all the time. Like the other day I put Dylan on a time out for pushing his brother and he said to me ”let’s not get a head of ourselves Ok Daddy?”, after I said what the…. He says ”Daddy are we going to have a problem here." 3 frickin’ years old can you believe that???? Who’s running this asylum anyway? Well I’m starting to fade kids. I had better get some rest for another day of rehearsal. Friday is the first gig and I’m looking forward to it in a big way. It’s wonderful to be back here in Argentina. ~E~ Ps. I’ll write soon