Artichokes and Belize by bike

Lots of people ask how I managed to get us the ten shows... for this tour 'myspace' was the best source. I don't even know how many sites I visited, how many singer/songwriters I heard singing on their profile. Somehow the website of Artichoke Music, where you can not only buy musical instruments...they got a sweet little stage, too. When I contacted them in january they told me to call back later cause they don't book that far in advance. The planning of the tour went on and we got another show in Portland, only a few blocks from the Artichoke away, at the Red and Black...so the Artichoke disappeared in my file 'USA locations'.
But because Jan hasn't got enough guitars we had to chek out the Artichoke as well. What a nice surprise! Great instruments, very friendly people and Richard -who's in charge of the bookings - spontaneously offered us a 10 minute-slot that night, right before our show at the Red&Black. It turned out to be a high quality open mike with local folks who really listened...we enjoyed it so much that we dind't even want to leave and plug in to the almost dead sound system of the Red&Black.
Like the two shows before (Tacoma and Seattle)...not exactly a big crowd of people, but a few listeners and a nice atmosphere. A few times the thought popped up in my mind that everybody actually really understands what I'm singing. I mean, dutch or german people understand English as well...but it's different. But nobody laughed or left the room, shaking his head in disbelief :-)

One thing we like about the US is that people start talking to you very easily. And lots of times it's about politics. They want to know how European people think about America. They want to express their fears and their anger about certain things in the country...just to make sure we understand that 'not everybody in the US is closing his eyes'.
So after our show at the Red & Black I started talking to two guys: one who quit his job a couple of years ago cause he didn't believe in capitalism anymore. He didn't want to live for his work anymore. Now he's restyling and renovating his house so he can sell it and then give most of the money away.

The other guy was a buddhist that owns one important thing: his bike. He hasn't got an ID, no job and even though I didn't ask...probably no home either. But he looked so happy and peaceful. In fact, he wanted to give me 1$ as a tip for the show. A guy with no money, but he really wanted to give me this Dollar. He had parked his bike around the corner. When he showed it to me I noticed a blanket, rolled up on the rear rack. 'What if somebody steals it?', I wanted to know. 'Well...then it's THEIR bad karma', he answered. 'But you won't have a blanket anymore and it might get cold.' 'But it will still be their bad karma...and I wear different layers of wool, so...'. He's planning a trip to Belize cause he feels like he has to do that. Freedom.

Tomorrow we'll play at the Brainwash café&laundromat in San Francisco again. We'll get a free burger (veggie or meat) and then play in front of people and dancing washing machines. Sounds like fun, he? Come and listen (and take your dirty laundry...)

video files I wanted to share but can't...suggestions?

Hey, just got to Portland, Oregon yesterday....what a nice, cool city! lots of bikes (compared to other cities in the US), many young people, good coffeehouses with great caffe latte (I will never drink 'koffie verkeerd' in the Netherlands again), nice, unexpensive (!) hotel in a good neighbourhood ('Washington Park Inn')...
I would love to share some videofiles with you, but I got a problem...so if anybody is really into video...help is appreciated. I have a digital camcorder with harddisk which should be compatible with my macbook (imovie)..at least, that's what the guy at 'It's' in Rotterdam said...unfortunately my macbook doesn't like the .mod / .moi -files and I cannot import anything.
Checked lots of forums on the internet but everything sounds pretty complicated or costs money...

So...what's the secret???

My brother rules!!!

Sorry...this has nothing to do with our trip to the US but I really need to tell everybody that my brother Matti just won the silver medal at the European Junior Championships, 10.000m ...I AM SO PROUD!!!!!

Check This out!

Seattle

Wat een leuke stad. Een beetje heuvelachtig, veel groen, water, lage huizen, vriendelijke mensen, knusse wijken, niet té veel touristen (zoals wij)... en op 45 minuten rijden het Mandolin Café in het plaastje Tacoma. Ons eerste optreden vond plaats tussen een verzameling oude mandolines, schilderijen van mandolines en foto's van eh...mandolines. Twee sets met (en klein) luisterpubliek en een paar mensen achterin die -zoals zeer gebruikelijk in de Seattle area - met hun laptop op tafel aan de koffie (of een speciale versie van deze) zitten.
Gisteren dan Mr. Spots Chai House in de wijk Ballard (Seattle)... een alternatieverige, in Chai gespecialiseerde zaak met een gezellig klein podium in de hoek vanuit waar we de menigtes (...) met onze liedjes hebben verblijd.

Nu snel inpakken en naar portland vanuit waar ik eerst op internet de livestream van het EK Athletiek (junioren) zal bekijken (www.hengelo2007.nl) ... mijn ongeloooofelijke stoer broetje Matti (18) is een van de wee hardlopers die bij de 10.000m loop voor Duitsland aan de start gaat...

Later meer!

Finally

Jaaaaaa...das Land von Starbucks, überirdischen Stromleitungen und oversized cars hat uns mit offenen Armen empfangen. Oder mit anderen Worten: wir sind gut angekommen...was ja gar nicht so selbstverständlich ist, angesichts der Tatsache, dass die Gebrüder Wright erst in 1903 ihren ersten erfolgreichen motorisierten Flug vollbrachten.
Morgen spielen wir im Mandolin Café in Tacoma, südlich von Seattle...wenn Ihr in der Nähe seid...


Jaaaaaa...het land van Starbucks, bovenaardse stroomleidingen en oversized cars heeft ons met open armen ontvangen. Of met andere woorden: we zijn goed aangekomen...wt helemaal niet zo vanzelfsprekend is, gezien het feit dat de gebroeders Wright pas in 1903 hun eerste succesvolle gemotoriseerde vluchten hebben volbracht.
Morgen spelen we in het Mandolin Café in Tacoma, ten zuiden van Seattle...mocht je in de buurt zijn...

Nur noch 11 Tage / 11 days to go!

In elf Tagen um diese Zeit sind Jan und ich gerade auf Schiphol eingetrudelt, haben wir wahrscheinlich gerade unser Gepäck abgegeben und stehen wir in der ellenlangen Reihe vor der Passkontrolle. Vorfreude ist die schönste Freude, sagen manche schlauen Leute. So'n Quatsch, sage ich. Keinen Moment leugne ich, dass ich seit Monaten Reiseführer wälze, mich in Gedanken bereits auf einsamen Highways befinde, weit entfernt vom alltäglichen Trubel, selbst auferlegten Pflichten und bislang nur teilweise erfüllten Träumen.
Auf dieser Seite werdet Ihr in den nächsten Wochen ein wenig mitgeniessen können...denn geniessen werden wir. I promise.

We're excited!