Just got back from a tour of Germany and currently listening to Ry Cooder on BBC 2 Mike Harding show before heading off tomorrow for another gig in Germany...busy busy but I'm happy to be earning and getting by. Wow old Ry is makin some statement and old Mike is right up there with him.. and I love where they're both coming from.
And wow Berlin what a city! Can't begin to describe what it is about this place but I'll try.. Reminds me of Belfast in the 1990's but about ten times the size and developing at ten times the pace. Most people on the street appear to be under 25 and it's how I imagine Paris was in the 1920's pulling in artists, musicians,poets, philosophers, and bohemians into an 'East meets West' fusion that transcends the boundaries of nations and unions, races and creeds. If I was to recommend a city to visit forget Amsterdam or Rome...get your ass over to Berlin, a unique metropolis.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Home and Away
No not the popular soap opera from down under but just more obtuse rambling about my ramblings.. Just done a nice festival in the east of Holland very near to the border of Germany in a little town called Winterswijk. I have played here many times over the years in different bands but each time it has a different vibe. Although the audience numbers were down on previous years (due in the main I think to it being cancelled last year), there was no lack of enthusiasm from the audience. Due to carousing and the like with my mates Andy and Candice in Derby the night before and with a 4:30 start, I was a bit easyjet lagged and lacking in sleep to say the least and yet I ended up playing for over 4 hours without a break as one of the Dutch bands were without a drummer due to sickness. This is always interesting for me as there is usually this mixture of nervousness about how well I'm going to pull off the gig being so tired, juxtaposed with the knowledge that most of the time the lack of sleep means I tend to shut down most of my left brain controlling faculties and fall into a trance like state where the shamanic magic kicks in and the voodoo ceremony begins! This definitely happened in the last set with my band ZydeGoNutZ where we over ran our set by 45 minutes such was the dancing madness and mayhem, It definitely helped not having a break and doing a set with the Dutch band Fai-do-do in between my own sets where I could keep warm and energised.. and yet another notch on my bedpost of bands I have depped with!
It's not just about the music though when you come over to do these gigs. Just as important are the conversations and craic you have. Wandering minstrals such as I were often persecuted and suppressed, not only for their philandering ways but also for their tendency to share information, find out whats going on, and spread the real news. Plenty of that going on this weekend I'm happy to say. I guess minstrals back in the day were the equivalent to the interweb but there is still something special about face to face, heart to heart, real life communication that goes beyond Skype.
So now I am home re-packing and getting ready for a little tour of Germany with the Cajun Roosters one of my other 'core' bands that I go out with. This time I get to go to Berlin for the first time. I'll let you know how I get on when I get back in a weeks time.. Love y'all!
It's not just about the music though when you come over to do these gigs. Just as important are the conversations and craic you have. Wandering minstrals such as I were often persecuted and suppressed, not only for their philandering ways but also for their tendency to share information, find out whats going on, and spread the real news. Plenty of that going on this weekend I'm happy to say. I guess minstrals back in the day were the equivalent to the interweb but there is still something special about face to face, heart to heart, real life communication that goes beyond Skype.
So now I am home re-packing and getting ready for a little tour of Germany with the Cajun Roosters one of my other 'core' bands that I go out with. This time I get to go to Berlin for the first time. I'll let you know how I get on when I get back in a weeks time.. Love y'all!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Widdershins Spirals and Elderberries
Just gearing up to what amounts to 3 weekends away in the Eurozone, the plan is to play some music, have a good time, and make some money, but the last of these three may be in some jeapody due to the baffling economic situation going on in the EU.
Meanwhile I sit on buses and look at the back of peoples heads, if their hair is short enough you can often see a spiral on the back of their heads. So far i've only observed them spiraling 'widdershins' that is spinning anti-clockwise. Interesting is that old Adolf on seeing a spiraling clockwise proto Swastica ordered it to be reversed 'widdershins' and many occultists during that day saw it as a very bad omen that the 3rd Reich would fail, (which according to some it was designed to from the start which is another story).
The swastica (derived from a sanskrit word) is an ancient symbol that is in fact a sun wheel and is found in Indian as well as Native American Indian cultures. It can be represented as clockwise, the way that the sun travels through the sky, or anti clockwise, which in the old lore represents a negative, destructive, energy. The fact that we have such a negative spiral upon our heads may be an accident or maybe we are designed this way by the Archons who manipulated our DNA way back in the day. We are certainly becoming more and more of a negative influence on our earth even though we say we try to love and care for her. I have a couple of questions:'Do you know of anyone who has a spiral on their head that turns clockwise?' and: ' Do people in the southern hemisphere naturally have hair that turns clockwise?'
Meanwhile I went out and collected about 3lb of elderberries today and dug up all the remaining potatoes from the garden. It's really satisfying harvesting and foraging during the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. Means we can have chips, Mash, and wine over the coming months at least.
For the last few weeks I've not had any gigs and only an hour or so teaching a week but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. I've become a bit of an environmental activist trying to save the little wood down the road from being developed into a golf course and 60 bed hotel. The jury's still out but the whole experience has left me feeling very powerless regarding local corporations and politicians, 'spiritual wickedness in high places'as the good book states.
Also the 'Dub Shack' my 'music studio in a shed' has been undergoing some maintanance to prepare it for the winter months to come. Interesting that old Roald Dahl's shed is coming under such media attention, my Sis say's it's not as good as my own 'Man Cave'!
Thought of a bit of a business idea that resonates with my current state of mind, making voodoo shamanic products to sell on e bay and to local new age shops and maybe even have a stall of my own. Stuff I make from local wood, stone, feathers, etc. One example is the concept of the talking stick. This is a native american device that is used in discussions, debates, and disputes. Whoever has hold of the talking stick is allowed to talk for as long as they want without being interupted by anyone else in the group. It's amazing how this works as a negotiation tool, as a person with the power to talk rarely takes much time to say what they want to say when they are not being opposed or interupted. They should try it on Radio 4 and Newsnight sometimes, we might actually get beyond the 'smoke and mirrors' and get some idea about what's really going on.
So I'm not going to be around much online for the next three weekends which I quite like. Though I love the internet it's quite nice to get away from it for extended periods, I guess it's all about balance.
Blessings to you all. Sammy x
Meanwhile I sit on buses and look at the back of peoples heads, if their hair is short enough you can often see a spiral on the back of their heads. So far i've only observed them spiraling 'widdershins' that is spinning anti-clockwise. Interesting is that old Adolf on seeing a spiraling clockwise proto Swastica ordered it to be reversed 'widdershins' and many occultists during that day saw it as a very bad omen that the 3rd Reich would fail, (which according to some it was designed to from the start which is another story).
The swastica (derived from a sanskrit word) is an ancient symbol that is in fact a sun wheel and is found in Indian as well as Native American Indian cultures. It can be represented as clockwise, the way that the sun travels through the sky, or anti clockwise, which in the old lore represents a negative, destructive, energy. The fact that we have such a negative spiral upon our heads may be an accident or maybe we are designed this way by the Archons who manipulated our DNA way back in the day. We are certainly becoming more and more of a negative influence on our earth even though we say we try to love and care for her. I have a couple of questions:'Do you know of anyone who has a spiral on their head that turns clockwise?' and: ' Do people in the southern hemisphere naturally have hair that turns clockwise?'
Meanwhile I went out and collected about 3lb of elderberries today and dug up all the remaining potatoes from the garden. It's really satisfying harvesting and foraging during the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. Means we can have chips, Mash, and wine over the coming months at least.
For the last few weeks I've not had any gigs and only an hour or so teaching a week but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. I've become a bit of an environmental activist trying to save the little wood down the road from being developed into a golf course and 60 bed hotel. The jury's still out but the whole experience has left me feeling very powerless regarding local corporations and politicians, 'spiritual wickedness in high places'as the good book states.
Also the 'Dub Shack' my 'music studio in a shed' has been undergoing some maintanance to prepare it for the winter months to come. Interesting that old Roald Dahl's shed is coming under such media attention, my Sis say's it's not as good as my own 'Man Cave'!
Thought of a bit of a business idea that resonates with my current state of mind, making voodoo shamanic products to sell on e bay and to local new age shops and maybe even have a stall of my own. Stuff I make from local wood, stone, feathers, etc. One example is the concept of the talking stick. This is a native american device that is used in discussions, debates, and disputes. Whoever has hold of the talking stick is allowed to talk for as long as they want without being interupted by anyone else in the group. It's amazing how this works as a negotiation tool, as a person with the power to talk rarely takes much time to say what they want to say when they are not being opposed or interupted. They should try it on Radio 4 and Newsnight sometimes, we might actually get beyond the 'smoke and mirrors' and get some idea about what's really going on.
So I'm not going to be around much online for the next three weekends which I quite like. Though I love the internet it's quite nice to get away from it for extended periods, I guess it's all about balance.
Blessings to you all. Sammy x
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)