the day starts in barcelona.

my internal clock is a fine piece of accurate time keep. it wakes me up without artificial apparatus. eyes pop open at 6:00 and i begin to reassemble myself. i begin to resemble myself too.

the taxi shows up on the street far below. we head to the airport.

the airline makes everyone try their carry on bags in the stupid carry on bag template thing, but not me. i am not the droid they are looking for. i stand there with my guitar strapped on my back and they don’t see it. then up to the gate. then on board the plane. settle in to the 20 euro exit row seat i opted to buy, and comfortable fly to holland.

i like this airline. transvia. kinda vampire ish name though.

ok. they have failed to get me to turn off this lap top, and i am about to land. the weather outside looks confused. stormy. wonderfully perplexed. the weather looks like it has the bends. perfect.

_- —-__ _– _ —

landed. now training. and happy. its raining.

- -_–_—- -

so i take the train to utrecht to meet the woman from the promoter of the show there on june 2, who has set up a live tv thing for me in amsterdam tonight to help promote  the show. she will escort me back into amsterdam to the station for the session.

at the airport its so easy. just jump on the next train to utrecht. then the train stops and says we have to exit and take the next one. that next one is the wrong one and i end up in weesp. its how you spell “the middle of nowhere”. when i finally arrive in utrecht i am in need of sleep. i meet a friend for lunch and try and try to stay awake. so hard. just breathing. with eyes open. then back to the station to find the promoter woman. we train it back to amsterdam.

amsterdam is a great place if you love crowded cities and visual calamity at every turn, which i did, 25 years ago. when we get to the studio, its like an oasis. it’s a fine restaurant with a tv station attached to it. the waitress has got spectacular eyes. i am hypnotized.

then coffee stirs me out of that spell.

we head up to the green room and it’s a fine place to hide away. they bring more food and anything desired. a small army of very helpful people. then we go to rehearse whatever i want to play, but the rule is musicians can only play one minute’s worth of music. the show is the most popular in all of Holland. 1,500,000 viewers. so they figure a minute of mystery music is enough for them. i am up for the challenge. less is more to the max.

when my time comes the actress, carice van houten, who has invited me to do this show in her live performance series on june 2 is there too talking with the host. the show has taken on several guests and topics and then at 8:10 she introduces me. there is an explosion of me all over the studio tv monitors .. me from the giant sandworms in 1980, and from several videos thereafter, and it startles me. but i decided i will wear my big mexican short crowned wide brimmed hat, for the sake of hiding this tired crumbled face from the penetrating lights. i tip it to the lady and then proceed at piano. “chunk of coal” in 1:15 flat. a new speed record. and i was even able to not give in to temptation to muck it up. straight as an arrow delivery. but the metal capo was stuck in my top jean jacket pocket waiting to be tossed into the strings if i couldn’t handle the challenge of just playing a simple song simply.

then done.

they handed me a bottle of wine for good luck and a taxi was waiting to whisk me to my 9:30 flight to copenhagen. before i knew what hit me, i was in line with the rest of the losers at the airport and wondering what just happened in front of 2 million people.

landed in copenhagen at 11:00 at night. wasn’t tuckered anymore. i was the walking dead. slipped into a train and headed downtown. my favorite hotel still had a room available. that was lucky. plunked down my load. popped that cork and drank half the bottle with the desk clerk. ambled up to bed. opened the balcony door and let the well chilled danish winds adore me. or ignore me. either way, i basked in those freshly made seas squalled breezes that permeates the swelter of travel.

the end.