The big picture:

In addition to his guitar wang-fanglings, Henry is also a research diver in Antarctica. He took some of his incredible diving footage and merged it with one of our tracks:

October 30, 2011 -- Iceland

I was just in Sweden for a week with the IB Expo 2011. IB stands for Isidur’s Bane, the name of a music group based in Halmstad, Sweden. (Not International Bride, as some youtube clips would lure you into believing.) The IB Expo’s have been going for several years and I am now a complete convert. The basic idea is that IB brings in a group of very different musicians to work with them, and each other, for a full week of intensive rehearsing/arranging/writing followed by a concert on the Saturday night. My buddies Pat Mastelotto, Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Jerry Marotta, Markus Reuter and Marco Minnemann have all participated in the past. So, now I am in the club.

 I am coming to this entry much later than I thought. However, Life has pulled me forward more diligently than my typing fingers could keep up. So I am now taking this moment to return to June 27^th, when my son and I left San Francisco after spending several days at the San Francisco Aikido Project.

April 25-30, 2011 Texas

Another wonderful trip with family, guns and music. What could be better?

First out to West-ish Texas to blow cans, buckets and pumpkins to smithereens with large amount of firepower. Yes, it is possible to vote progressive AND shoot things. Just as it is possible to vote conservative and support Planned Parenthood.  Both of these happen more often than you would suspect, even here in the Wild West of the Tejas Territories.

Artistes with Guns (myself and Phillip Schalekamp)

I don't usually share insights from particular meetings with my coaching clients but, following on from the Ira Glass quote above, I did see something the other day worth sharing.

We basically set up camp in Varberg in this fantastic hotel and traveled out to different cities each day. The hotel was probably the nicest place I have ever stayed. Not because it was a fancy place – it wasn’t. But it was just right. Small nice rooms, open buffet for breakfast 6-10am and for dinner 6-10pm. It had a wonderful open dining area around the entire main floor. There was a whiskey bar and smoking room. And the ‘special sauce’ on the place was a bathhouse on the first floor that was a remake of Lenin’s favorites bathhouse in St. Petersburg. More than a wee bit strange to have busts and photos of Lenin all over the place, but it was very, very nice being down there. See the photos:

Our first gig was in Vladivostok, which is basically right next to Japan and practically touching North Korea. Seven (that's right, SEVEN) time zones east of Moscow. So, being right next to Japan you would think I could just fly straight there from Seattle. But, no Mr. Wizard. Nyet, nyet. I left Seattle on Monday morning and flew overnight to Amsterdam. Then to Moscow, arriving on Tuesday. After about five hours in Moscow with my pal Pat, and our promoters <the Two Dmitry's>, we got on another plane and flew overnight to Validovostok. Arriving on Wednesday afternoon.

VLADIVOSTOK

So when Quodia was invited to come to this “Poesía en Voz Alta” (Poetry Out Loud) festival in Mexico, I took the position of:

I have been putting the Quodia performance “The Arrow” back together these last two weeks. We have been offered a show in Mexico City at an international poetry festival called “Poetry Out Loud”.

Not having performed this piece for a few years means I have my work cut out for me. My shortlist: