Dec 31, 06 10:22 AM
München (Munich).
I came back to my hotel room to find they had left these tiny items on my pillow. I took the little bottle and left it in front of my neighbor's door.
But I'm keeping the pig.
Happy New Year, everybody.
Posted by Mike at 10:22 AMDec 26, 06 04:05 PM
Berlin: I Went to Konnopke's Imbiss for a Currywurst, But They Were Closed for Boxing Day.
I just got back from a café where I watched a bunch of German rappers. They weren't bad, actually, and endearing, too; scruffy Prussian lads. The place was pretty chilled out--except there was a pipe hanging over the bar, apparently controlled by the sound guy, which spat a gigantic flame at irregular intervals. Everbody was blasé and Berlin about it but me; I jumped in my chair every time.
More more more fotos after the j-j-jump.
Dec 25, 06 02:57 PM
I Am Like So Totally in Berlin Right Now.
More pixxx after the jump.
Dec 24, 06 04:50 PM
They Left This Chocolate Santa at the Door of My Hotel Room in Berlin.
Merry Christmas, everybody.
Dec 22, 06 11:04 AM
Ich Bin Sehr Glücklich (I'm Very Happy).
So, preparing for my trip to Germany, I'm on this German-language message board that I go to sometimes (when I'm feeling brave enough to make a fool of myself). And I write something to the effect of, I'm flying to Berlin tomorrow, and I'm really excited.
And this very kind netizen of the board types back: "That's great, man! I'm very happy for you! We in Berlin really love it! However, what you just said is: I'm flying to Berlin tomorrow, and I'm really horny."
Dec 16, 06 02:39 PM
The First Night of Hanukkah, Teaneck, NJ: Fotos by Lou Perseghin.
The duct tape on the guitar, while attractive, is not a fashion move. When I opened it up at soundcheck, I found a gigantic crack on the underside, almost splitting it in half. A pretty catastrophic injury.
The case wasn't damaged at all. So apparently Homeland Security opened it up to check it out and fucked it up something awful. That's my best guess, anyway.
Interested in stinging irony? Read the entry below, "I'm Home Again in Brooklyn..."
Anyway, I taped it up and she played great. Scrap and I knew what we were gonna start and end the show with, but the rest of the gig was requests shouted out from the audience. Fun!
Also: I stole dude from Bloc Party's jacket to wear. Oh yes.
Dec 7, 06 10:47 AM
Ich mag den dunklen Kaffee.
I have only a few spare days in New York in December. I've had three days between the end of the BNL tour and flying out to Minneapolis to overdub guitars on the new record for a week (I split tomorrow). Then I'm home for the two Jersey gigs, and a few days after that, and then it's off to Germany.
I managed to get out of my place yesterday and run errands, which is generally hard for me, when I'm drained by a long tour.
I just broke up with my girlfriend, so I'm in that half-tripping extremely sad and grieving but weirdly liberated state. Like you have extremely long hair and you cut it all off and wake up the next morning and you are freaked out suddenly to not feel the weight of your hair, except by "hair" I mean something more like "arm." I was trudging kind of zombie-like in the Herald Square station changing trains, and coming up the stairs I heard these phenomenal loud drums, and I wondered, is that Mecca Bodega?
Mecca Bodega are these brothers, Mackie and Juba, who I met years ago playing in a band called Wisdom Tooth. They're very committed to playing in the subway, almost as a spiritual practice. They did the soundtrack, and were recurring faces in, that Rosie Perez HBO show, Subway Stories.
I see them in the trains every couple of years. There they were, and there was a big circle of people around them. I managed to catch Mackie's eye, and mid-drumming his face lit up at me, like, It's you! And we smiled at each other, and then I caught Juba's eye and we were both like, It's you!
I pointed to an invisible watch on my wrist, and then toward the Q train, like, I have to go, and everybody nodded, smiling. It was a perfect silent reunion in the middle of all the thunderous drumming.
Listened to them echoing up the stairs and through the station as I stood on the Q platform until some guy came and messed up my high by playing "Jingle Bells" on the French horn.
Dec 5, 06 11:49 AM
Photograffffs of the San Francisco Gig by the Inimitable Lisa San Gabriel.
I'm Home Again in Brooklyn and I Woke Up in My Own Bed this Morning and It's Weird and Fabulous.
Disorienting! But ever so nice.
I stuffed the remainder of the expensive coffee beans I bought at Stumptown in Portland in the free spaces in my guitar case, and left a note under the guitar strings: TSA! Please be careful with the COFFEE! Thanks.
Just like me to be sending the essential apparatus of my craft under a plane and leave a note to protect the coffee. Yeah.
Ed from Barenaked Ladies Duets With Me on "Unsingable Name."
Classic backstage Canadian Rock exchange:
Ed, to BNL sound guy Robin: "Robin, who was Rush's best drummer?"
Robin: "Oh, John Rutsey, definately."
Me: "How many drummers has Rush had?!"
Ed: "Two."
Only rock drummer geeks will get this joke. I post nonetheless.
How Many Pics of John Kirby Can I Post on the Daily? Many, Money, I Say Many, Many, Many.
Dec 3, 06 01:42 AM
I'm Psyched to Get Home, But Scared for the Tour to Be Ending.
I look at the MySpace page and it's so weird that the list of upcoming gigs opening for BNL, once 30, is now down to one; the RIMAC center in San Diego.
I'm pretty spent. Weirdly, the cold desert nights in L.A., Arizona, and Las Vegas have gotten into my bones. This didn't happen in the frigid Midwest. I must be worn down.
The band is really cracking, though; it's always a shame to end a tour when the interband multi-mind-multi-hands is so killing.
There's some strange drama awaiting me at home, but that's not why I'm feeling uneasy to return; it's something more nebulous. It always happens to me at the end of a tour, even though I'm overjoyed at the thought of my own bed.
