so.

i have kinda not tournaled here much huh ?

will attempt to remedy .. but then you tell me if its a waste of time anymore .. . i’m good with that .. either way .. i’m good

- – - — —- – — – -firstly BERLIN :

so .. there was this festival of water there that decided to celebrate the deserts instead .. and so invited bands from various deserts around the world .. and in doing so .. for some reason .. requested that we come for it and bring 3 guests from our particular desert

ok

will have a think

then

thought .. and decided on these 3 fellows: brian lopez, gabe sullivan and jon villa .. 3 young and very promising players of the new crop of tucson yippity .. and since i had been messing with some local gigs there with them on several occasions .. it seemed a good bet to continue and see what happens in berlin

so

brian then requested that he bring in his friends to play violin .. 2 of em .. and of course that sounded like the way to go

when we got to berlin .. all from different directions, we found out that brian’s string section were also from aarhus, denmark, the hometown of the rest of the band in giant sand for the last 10 years .. that was a fine omen

peter and thøger flew in from australia that same day from their tour with isobel campbell and mark lanegan

and nik and anders came down from denmark

we all gathered then and there .. and with the string section willing to sit in with us too .. and with our 3 guests opening the show and then also sitting in with us ,. we doubled in size at that moment of impact .. we were now 10 instead of 5

giant giant sand

was born

and then for the final song that night we invited our new friend, the stunning dutch actress, carice van houten, to close the evening with a song i wrote for her

11 on stage made sense too

and that was the festival of desert bands for the night in berlin .. sold out capacity crowd .. and a set of songs, that i was pulling out of my hat as we went, that kept getting more and more vibrant and gravity surrendered to the yippity of the situation

quite a full night ..

and i think a new band was born out of it

thanks very much to the insight and creative spark of them wassermusik people of berlin

the end

- – — — —- — –

o man

there i was minding my own business at costco .. (like ikea .. but worse)

was i flirting with the woman behind the counter ordering my first pair of fangled-focal glasses ?

well she did keep asking me to look her in the eyes … even though i had on that contraption

and then the rage came upon the building

when i walked out front … everyone hovering there with giant carts of crap looking really dumb

a crack of lightning landed some hundreds of yards in front of us and made a massive clap like nothing ever heard the likes of before

storm war zone

so decided then to go for a drive … like poker, i didn’t want to be stuck at the table with these big cart people

it was fun to drive in that siege

hard to see fun to drive siege

whoops .. watch out for that fallen tree across the road .. thought it was just a blur

and then the irony of turning down a street called silverlake

the water began getting deep as its apt to do on our roads here since we have little or no sewer system in the desert for these limited engagements

and then the car in front of me looked like it disappeared .. the water was getting higher

but i was sure i was not in what we call a “wash” out here .. they are rivers waiting to happen once a year

and then the water half way up to my window in my big ass volvo xc 90 .. i was amazed it could keep goin in this depth … and surely it would have to get shallower any second

and it was then a big ass pick-up truck came barrelin the other way and caused a threatening enough wake wave headed toward me .. broadsided .. just like last year when drowning in the sound …

and the volvo lifted off the road .. the engine died .. and the car floatd a bit wand turned some

that was a funny feeling

but cool too

and i began to wonder what is my next move ?

do i stay put or climb out the window ?

what would the head shakers say after the fact :

“he woulda been alright if he woulda stayed put ” or ” he woulda been alright if he got out while the gettin was good”

so i sat there dead in the water

and wondered .. really ? how much deper could the water get .. therain howling down all around

it almost felt cozy with a looming tinge of disaster

and then i wished i had proof to show if i did survive

and then

and then

gave the engine several shots … but knew it could not start when so submerged

but it did one time

wow

volvos rock

and so began moving slowly through the stream .. the grey waters … the silver lake

and when the wagon crawled out of there the next intersection was complete chaos

police lights fluttered and cars stuck in another deep resevoir

i angled my car around em all like i knew what i was doing

and headed home .. took a side road to get outa the way of other manic torpedoes that used to be just traffic

and then i came to the final crossing … the white waters of 22nd street

uh oh

like i hadn’t learned my lesson yet … i backed up .. and then gunned her just enough to hope for the best

ker-sploosh into the rapids i went ..them new currents pounding my port bow

yee hah gunner through that last hurdle of impossible crossing

and did

and got home a few blocks more away

and the kids ran up to hug and our power stayed on this time

and the tv showed off the storm like it was the war zone it was

the end

- – - – - – –

ps
at the time of this soggy surge in tucson, the susquehanna river that flooded me out of my original home town in wilkes-barre pennsylvania to here 40 years ago was on the rise and soaking it not like it hasn’t been seen since that 1972 scene