I’ve got gigs on two different foreign continents over the next week or two, where I’ll be bringing the Past Due letters to Africa and Europe:
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA, Jan. 14, at 19:00: Centre for the Book (62 Queen Victoria St.) Free.
LANCASTER, UK, Jan. 18, at 19:00: The Yorkshire House (Parliament St.) w/Jess Lewin (funky flapjack, poet and songwriter) + PJ Shepherd (politically charged acoustic punk straight out of Switzerland) Free.
BIRMINGHAM, UK, Jan 19, at 19.00: Moseley CDT (153 Alcester Rd.) w/singer songwriter Tamsyn Widdon. Free.
BERLIN, GERMANY, Jan 20, at 20.30: Holz & Farbe (Prinzenallee 58) w/Daphne Owers from New Zealand. ?2.50.
This little picture is of the Centre for the Book, easily the most stately place I’ve ever performed at. Click it for a better look!
UPDATE: We’re back! For tour pics of unexpected animals, my BBC interview, seven-seated bicycles, and eminent scientists keep reading…
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| We expected lions and tigers when we were in Africa, but not penguins. Luckily Susan had dressed for the occasion. |
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| The show in Cape Town was terrific. I had plenty of time afterwards to chat with the folks who turned up, among them local culture jammer Justin Nurse who’s had extended legal battles over the parody t-shirts. I found the Laugh It Off Annual he traded me for one of the few things I read that shed any light on the still very troubled South Africa. I also did an interview that turned into a feature in the books section of a national daily, This Day, alongside a review of Rupert Murdoch’s biography. A damned flattering article, even if she did say I had a voice like a South Park character. |
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| During our couple days in Paris we were able to hook up with Antoine Danchin, a scientist who wrote me a few months ago when he came across my book Everyone In Silico on the net. He was interested in it because he was the one who coined the term “in silico”! He used the term in 1988 in a paper as a complement to “in vivo” and “in vitro” to describe computer life simulations, but wasn’t even aware it’d caught on until he was refered to as its creator in a lecture in a conference he attended. We met up with him at his lab at the Pasteur Institut and went for drinks at a cafe nearby. UPDATE: Recently he footnoted my book in an article for La Recherche called Tous In Silico! |
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| Afterwards, I was so excited about science we went to the Pasteur museum and I pretended to be a scientist. |
| We popped by the Louvre. I made a little vid of our contemplative appreciation of the art there, specifically the Mona Lisa. |
| The Lancaster show was above a pub and organized by a bunch of cool students there — here’s 20 seconds of PJ and Jess’s musical act. I checked with the Lancasterites to make sure that they had all the same companies, brands, and ad campaigns that I referenced in the Past Due letters. It’s with mixed feelings that I report that the Americanization of the UK is far enough along that I got big laughs for my jabs. Craig Taylor also happily made it up from London to the gig. |
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| Birmingham’s show was at a community centre, and I did my thing for a crowd of people in their forties and fifties mostly employed in the public sector (the unsung heroes). It was great to meet such politically engaged, warm, and hospitable people. |
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| Berlin was underground (literally) in a downstairs club. I was worried about the language barrier, but the excited response afterwards showed that they appreciated it. I was especially inspired to hear that one Berliner had come as a result of an email sent by her friend who had seen me read the Past Due letters in Oakland California! The next day Malte showed us the street art in his neighbourhood and a few choice spots in my favorite European city. But nowhere were we impressed more by German engineering than by this 7-seated “conference bicycle.” |
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| The tour over, there was just enough time on our London stopover to get to my interview at BBC Bush House. Sajida Perween of the World Services was infectiously enthusiastic about indie publishing and even ordered us a cab afterwards. |
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| It was a stunningly fun and interesting tour, hopefully the first of many abroad. It wouldn’t have been possible without the organizers, namely Brian Hill, Julia MacArthur, Malte Goebel, Carl Taylor and Ashraf Johaardien. It was made far more festive by the inclusion of the musical talent of Jess, PJ, Tamsyn and Daphne. And the reason for the season, Jen and Kev. But most of all, I’d like to thank my wife Susan Bustos, who makes all this touring stuff 1000% more fun than it should be. When I described (in far more detail than I’ll bore you with here) the endless airport purgatory on the way back, my mom quite reasonably asked, “Were you getting a little snappish with each other?” “No,” I said, just realizing it, and I think I was more surprised that she was. Above is a picture of a bug she took. I mean, she took a picture of a bug! I loves ya, Suze.
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