Philadelphia, PA – Tuesday, April 29, 2008

HOME SWEET MU*%$#@*KING HOME!

What a pain in the ass this trip was. Aside from several cancelled shows nearly destroying our budget, I never recovered my wallet in France. I’ve concluded that it was obviously stolen on the train from the airport. The French are some slick fockers. And what disturbs me the most is that I’m always aware of my surroundings. I live in South Philly for God’s sake. Am I losing it? Was I just too comfortable with the low crime rate in Europe? I don’t know but whatever the case, having to order a new social security card, ASCAP card, credit cards, Air Miles cards for several airlines, and more this experience certainly grinds my gears.* Having said that, the kind people in Birmingham and Madrid nearly made up for the losses. The folks from www.ukvibe.org took us out for a nice late night dinner after the show in the UK and we managed to get plenty of laughs in about the whole experience before catching out super early flight to Spain.

Once we arrived in Spain Jneiro was greeted by a beautiful woman who called him over as though she wanted to talk to him. He, of course, walked right over to see what was up. And what was up was a full security search of all of his belongings and clothing. WTF. It was too early in the morning for all that. Mind you this “random” search was one of several during the entire tour. We got picked up from the airport and headed straight to the hotel to check in and chill for about an hour or so before soundchecking at the venue which was real dope. It was in the lobby of what looked like a museum but they turned the whole thing into a club like atmosphere. The show was part of their annual electronic music festival so there were a bunch of other acts, also from the States. Overall the show went really well and the crowd, again, didn’t want us to leave the stage. It’s glad to see that Jneiro is picking up so many fans on an independent label. I was more than happy to be finished with the show since it was our last show and it meant we’d be boarding a plane back to America in a few hours. I attempted to stay up so I could sleep on the plane back home but I was exhausted that I fell asleep as soon as I got back into the room. I woke up to a phone call from the front desk telling me that our ride was waiting downstairs. I called the other rooms and it’s apparent that we all overslept and had to scramble to get ready really quick.

The airport in Madrid was a bit confusing and it took a while for us to find where we were supposed to check in. Our British Airways flight to Heathrow ended up turning into an Iberia flight somehow and we scratched our heads trying to figure what was going on. I got in some last minute souvenir shopping for my son and headed to the security check point where a dude in a uniform asked me if I had any liquids, gels, metal objects, drugs, guns, etc. I laughed because I thought he was joking. He quickly assured me that he wasn’t joking and asked me even more questions forcefully. This airport security situation is really getting out of hand. I know I say that every time I return home but I sincerely could do without that aspect of traveling. Some jerk gets to dump all of your belongings out on a table and ask you questions about each item you’re bringing on board. I had one guy ask me about items in my record bag including who the artists were on the vinyl covers. If that doesn’t clarify that certain security checks are more about nosiness than safety, I don’t know what does.

All and all, the trip was okay. Certain moments made the non lucrative situation bearable like catching up with a bunch of my friends from New York & LA in London. Or visiting one of my favorite sandwich spots in Switzerland twice in one day. And drinking myself stupid in Venice with new friends from LA. But over all this tour drove home the point that just because you’re getting to see the world, it doesn’t mean that life in the process is peaches and cream. I now look forward to catching up on some well needed rest and projects that need completing while back in Philadelphia.

SHAPE OF BROAD MINDS PERFORMANCE
AT LA CASA ENCENDIDA IN MADRID, SPAIN

Lyon, France – Thursday, April 24, 2008

Where do I start this blog?

Well let’s see. We had a great day off in Venice. Enjoyed the sights, food, and alcoholic beverages. We met a bunch of cool people. Some of them from America. In fact, it’s a very big tourist place for Americans. Taking water buses to each place was a brand new experience for us. It was cool, but really wet considering it rained the whole time.
I did notice that the Italian hotel workers were in a hurry to get us out of there as soon as possible. It was such a hurry that a couple of items including Jneiro’s passport came up missing in the process of checking out and getting to Lyon for the next date.

Fortunately, he was able to board the plane after filling out a police report, and some other red tape which was a relief but short lived. He then had to pay over $600 to get to the Paris (US Embassy) and back on a speed train for a temporary passport. He nearly missed the show. Once he did get back, it was almost time for the show and we had just received news that the original passport was found in Venice but won’t arrive in the mail until after the tour is finished. I did the show at La Marquise which was cool, then headed back to sleep while everyone else hung out for some after show drinks.

This morning, we left for the airport for our flight to Birmingham just to find out that our tickets aren’t scheduled for today but tomorrow. By the time we went through all the hassle of finding the check in counter on the other side of the building, our ride was long gone. We had to catch a bus and a train with all of our luggage back to the hotel. The trip itself wasn’t too much of a hassle but somewhere along the way, my wallet turned up missing along with Jneiro’s NEW passport. My camera went missing in London but I just wrote it off because it was acting like a bidge anyway. But my wallet has my life in it. Not to mention a bunch of U.S. cash… This situation is not good. Especially if J’s new passport doesn’t turn up… Keep your fingers crossed!

For now enjoy the iPhone Pics…

www.djstatikmusic.blogspot.com

London, England – Saturday, April 19, 2008

2:00pm

The Shape of Broad Minds tour has taught me something new about the art of hustle. We’re done with the first leg of the tour, having played London, Oslo, Zurich, and just arriving back in London about 10 minutes ago, I can’t help but notice the strange pattern of taxi drivers attempting to tack on extra charges at every opportunity. One guy told us that we had to pay him extra pounds because the flight was a little late. What that has to do with us, I still don’t know. Another guy told us that we had to pay extra because we had a bunch of luggage. I asked him how often he carried passengers to the airport without luggage and he mumbled something in broken English before just giving up on his attempt to overcharge us. The best part about taxi drivers that try to take advantage of tourists is that they make it seem like it’s company policy but insist that you pay them off the record and will take U.S. currency, Euros or whatever you have just as long as you can cough it up, in cash. It’s such a pain in the ass when you’ve just finished playing a long show, only sleep for about an hour and a half and then have a flight ahead of you and more business in the next country. I’ll have to quote dude from the NRA and take the stance that these greedy taxi drivers won’t get a single dime, extra. They’ll have to pry it “from my cold dead hands…”

On another note, our show for tonight has been cancelled so we’ll more than likely take it easy, check out Flying Lotus who just got in town and prepare for our early morning flight to Italy where I’m sure another driver will be waiting to play games. Let’s hope not.

At least the shows have been good. The crowd in Zurich last night wanted more than one encore. We did almost a whole extra show’s worth of material before it was all over. We went back to the hotel and even though we called it an early night, I couldn’t sleep because my schedule is completely off.
I would really like to lay down now but my hotel room isn’t ready yet. Gonna crash soon.

In tribute of London

Philadelphia, PA – April 9, 2008

We left Amsterdam and headed to Meinz which is a little town in Germany with a dope scene for soulful music. Everyone manages to pass through there from hip hop acts like Blu and Ta’raach to electronic soul cats like Marc De Clive Lowe and Zed Bias. The shows at the Red Cat venue are always packed and a whole lot of fun. I was in bed most of the evening trying to shake a migraine headache and missed dinner. In fact, I think everyone was drained and in their rooms so no one ate. We expected to eat after the show but since we didn’t get off stage until 2am, nothing in this small town was open. I killed a turkey sandwich backstage and quickly headed back to the hotel to pack for the next trip.

We then headed to Lyon to play the L’Original festival. I had never been to the South of France so I didn’t know what to expect. I like it enough to stay for a little while. Who knows, maybe I’ll have a kid there at some point. Also on the bill was Method Man, Redman, Chamillionaire, and Scratch. We missed Method Man and Redman but I heard their show was bananas as usual. Chamillionaire was actually scheduled to open for me and Hez but he didn’t feel the room was full enough early on so he decided not to rock, last minute. We had a blast on stage that night for the crowd and afterwards, kicked it for a lil backstage with Charlie Ahearn, the director of Wild Style. He told us all what he enjoyed about each persons contributions on stage. Cool cat. We had a little farewell soiree in the band suite at the W hotel that night since we only had one tour date left.

Our last date was at one of my favorite venues in Europe, Royal Arena in Biel, Switzerland. The sold out crowd of folks always goes ape-shit to joints by Gang Starr, The Roots, Black Star, etc. They tend to be pretty open. So open, that Hez was crowd surfing. It was the 2nd or 3rd time playing at that venue so the crowd knew all the singles and some of the album cuts. I don’t think they fully knew who Jag was though because she had to fight with them a little to get their full attention. Once, she got the crowd of about 2500 fully captivated though, it was on. This show, was like a “hit it and quit it” type of situation since we all had to pack and be ready to leave for the States by 6am. Me and Hez rushed back to the hotel first to try to get our things together and get a jump on a couple of hours of sleep before the airport trip. We ended up laughing about a lot of the tour experiences and didn’t sleep a wink that night. Everyone was knocked out on the plane home and was relieved that the tour came to an end after a successful run. Now off to the UK for the Shape of Broad Minds tour with Jneiro Jarel. Whew…

PARIS, FRANCE