another happy landing

it is a hard feeling to describe being thrown in this after a day of travel like that one, your backpacking through san fran. after a little sleep, to get on a train to take you to the airport, where you wait and then you are tightly placed on a plane for 13 hours, to land with your sinuses and ears in a complete wreck, cant here or speak, get on another short train, meet a friend you have not seen for some time, hop in a cab heading into downtown beijing and lo and behold.....the nights just getting started.....the exhaustion is overcome by the thrill of being here, it is as crazy as you would imagine, very energetic, we were just taking it all in and learning new things every second, we wandered the old neighborhoods of beijing, intertwining with bikes and motorcycles and people everywhere, with city sounds and the constant music of 1000s of tonal chinese voices that don't make any sense at all, we went to a 4 story restaurant that looked like you would expect, very ornate chinese decour with all the neon buzzing and the food was really great, we tried lots of different tapas style dishes and had 4 beers apiece (side note...important one....the beers are a standard 220z here and they are about 50 cents.....lord help us) we came back to chris' place and i fell straight to sleep only to wake up for the day at three in the morning, jet lagged as hell, taste of pollution in my mouth, too excited to sleep anyway, we are going to try to see some stuff today if they will ever wake up, may just head back to the 50 cent giant beer eastern paradise in the sky

oh yeah, the car was found

oh to quickly finish the unfinished post, after we took over the bus we got off at the right stop and found the cafe we searched for and it was worth the trip to get there, lots of good pickers and singers from san fran. all types and ages, it was a great night all in all

nothing cranks in GA

We'll year 4 of the festival was a great time as always. The music was fantastic, starting with Allison Krauss and Robert Plant, ending with Emmy Lou last night. I saw only a few of the many acts playing, had to pick and choose, I caught Plant and Emmy Lou, as well as Steve Earl, Jerry Jeff, Iron and Wine, Bonnie Prince Billy, Peggy Young, Elvis Costello, and Odetta (one of the best moments out there, she rolls out in a wheel chair, frail and old upon first glance then she belts out some of the best blues, gospel and folk I've ever heard, accompanied by great piano, truely a great moment),
I was lazy getting to the park, could have seen more but I am happy with my experience,
this city is amazing, this must be my 10th trip here and it is still just as inspiring as always, currently i am listening to italian music in a north beach cafe, sipping on some coffee and watching the melting pot of frisco pass vibrantly out the open windows, a beautiful lady in a black fodora catches my eyes each time i look out to collect my thoughts, love this place....
we stay with john tonight after saying goodbye one by one this morning, glen set out last night to return to portland, (left your belt dude, i'll hang on to it) foxy headed up the coast, greg and kristi are on a plane now, jeremy and christen back towards the mountains, and hop and i bound for china, hard to realize this is just the start of this trip, feels real good now, the fog is clearing just as the sun burns it off the bay, .... you see according to John "nothing cranks down in Ga, you gotta jump start your car to go to the hardware store to get a part for your weedeater that your using since your lawnmower broke..." that was instantly deemed quote of the night, nothing was going to top that one, and it kinda made since at least to me at that moment

blind leading the blind

we took over a san francisco bus last night, led by john williams, (until we elected a new leader and impeached him) everybody knows somebody here, and their somebody knows somebody, so it seemed like 30 of us following john's advice on finding the spot after the festival, we resorted to a bus after an attempt at piling nine people into john's car, it was a great idea and we were all thrilled to avoid dealing with exiting the park with the other 100,00 people, but alas, john's car was lost to a faded memory, a vague recollection of parking it, but nothing jogging his memeory to return to the desparetly sought vehicle,
we rejoined the others after the failed attempt, and waiting on the bus, ......
i'll finish this blog later, people waiting on the computer

Spilling foxy on the sidewalk

we'll this should be interesting, the hotel is smaller than expected, quite comfortable with three, but today our numbers double, all space should be filled with sleeping bodies...
a day of travel yesterday, after the recommended 1 1/2 hours of bad sleep (after staying out too late) before a month long trip, hopper called and woke me, as i had unwittingly turned off my alarm and backup alarm, i scrambled around trying to pull it together, running late of coarse, gobbled down my last typhoid pill, and hit the road...
funny, after preparing every little detail for a month, making sure the trip is packed and everything is squared away, i blow it at the last minute, in the scramble out the door, i can't remeber if i turned the shower off and locked the door..
hm, anyhow we made our flight with the help of my folks, nothing to report there, smooth going
we took the bart into town, met foxy, ate great mexican in the mission,
at that point i slept an hour out of complete exhaustion and just relief that we have begun the trip.
we hit north beach last night, john williams led the group of 7 through chinatown and up kerouac alley where we hit the vesuvio as tourist and hit a smaller dive nearby as the barflies we truly are, went later yet to another dive and heard some local blues, an older crowd, (i looked across the aged faces of the old sixties hippie crowd as the woman singer begged us to think she sounded like janice, some of the old faces still had the edges of thier smiles, others looked sad as if they can't believe san fran and the world around changed on them)
hop, fox, and i took a cab back to the mission,
upon walking to one more spot the sidewalk rose up and threw foxy hard upon the ground with a crashing thud of flesh on concrete followed by the unwavering sound of a hopper laughing fit, that lasted some time, and it sounded good to me,
nice to be on the coast, nice to be here with firends like these

cashing in on a fuck-it

well this is my first blog, and first time blogging, and an intro to whatever words take their shape from here,
first thing i'll say is that i'll try to used this blog as much as i can over the next month, time and internet access permitting, secondly i have the attention span of a retarded one minute old sea monkey, don't expect long well constructed prose,
that being said, the setting of tonights blog is none other than my office here in athens, 2am, inebriated on some level, coherent on another, tired from preparations, happy and anxious, literate and illiterate, filled with the toxic need to travel, hosting romantically the drive that always makes it come to be, fucking excited
hence the title of blog one...cashing in a fuck-it
hopper and i decided some years ago that each individual was allowed a limited number of major fuck its in his/her life, daily life is also provided with some minor fuck-its of coarse such as another beer after the acceptable level, or bad decisions on choosing a mate... you get the idea...
the major fuck it is defined here as ............. a broke ass, seemingly making poor financial and or healthy life decisions according to what the local society defines as being a reasonable individual, ignoring any american standard on what should be done as an inspiring 30 something maniac, who certainly should use any resources possible to set up his tidy, trustable future, (picket fences to keep out the others), (deleted upon review) , community meetings, long lasting relationships, houses, 401Ks, being respected amongst the fellow humanoids, blah blah blah, fuck it (we may actually go to Phuckett Thailand just to celebrate our motto) we'll spend a years salary on a month long, unprepared for ambassador relations journey to as foreign a land a possible with no knowledge or preparation, travel plans, expectations, ...only desires, and inevitably excess and deprivation,

(loses attention span)...

the plan is to leave georgia thursday at 10am, arrive in san francisco at noon, get picked up by foxy, go to the travel lodge in the mission district, meet with jeremy (hiliary boob, ph.d (bullfrog for short), wildman, j and k w, cousin greg, some girlfriends, and hit the town....see robert plant and allison krauss, and proceed into the weekend in the city, the hardly strictly bluegrass festival, among other things, and then on to beijing, but that is what will happen next and will be reported on in later blogggggggs,

(over coffee, weds. morning 11am)
i'll try to keep the blog interesting, as my travels always result in stories i tell over and over through the years that follow, i am certainly travelling amongst some seasoned travellers and mental hospital fugitives as well, we will have some great travel guides, chris anderson in beijing, long term friend, fellow musician, and partner on a 3 month road trip in the states from nashville to the sturgis harley ralley, seattle to san francisco and everywhere in between, chris has lived in china now for three years and is looking forward to his first guest from the states to join him and he can show off his new home and share the character building experiences sure to happen along the way.....

final note for now, the key to living a healthy productive life in athens, georgia is to get out and travel as much as possible, i have ignored that simple truth lately, so now i am making up for it,
please respond with stories of home, or just words that felt like being said, new jokes, tall tales of life in and out the fog, and the beautiful autumn ripping the leaves from the trees.......

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