i'll tell you a secret.

There exists a place in northern New Mexico that has somehow gone under the popular radar despite its uncanny combination of amazing scenery, great weather, dazzling sunsets, and a population consting largely of genuinely good people. I expected to spend a day or maybe even a weekend in Santa Fe, but the days turned to weeks.

I called my contact, Paul aka Federicci, and got directions into town. There was plenty to do that evening; a trend that persisted through the duration of my stay. To make things easy I decided to roll to the Wal, get online, plug in the GPS, and attempt to get my bearings. As it turned out, Santa Fe is pretty small and it looked like I could easily bike around town. I mapped out the addresses that Paul had given me for the night's goings on and headed out to meet his neighbor, friend, and bandmate, Ben Wright. I discovered that despite the relatively small size of the city, there are few proper places to ride a bike and far too many drunk idiots abound.

More importantly, I started meeting the people that would make me fall in love with the place. I spent the next couple nights at the Wal and was afforded the opportunity to shower and do laundry at the houses of my new acquaintances. There was also an invitation awaiting me, I still am not quite sure how, from three girls with a large, fenced in yard and a driveway 30-40 feet from their house to come and park.

My solar panels weren't working and the battery bank was acting funny. It wouldn't hold a charge and I was running the generator for a couple hours everyday to keep juiced up whereas previously I could go four days with the whole studio running and all the lights on with no problem. Unbeknownst to me, I happened to be three miles from what might be the biggest solar supply company in the states and a bandmate from one of Paul's many musical projects just so happened to work there. I went and diagnosed the problem, free of charge (thank you!!). The charge controller, which is the bridge between the solar panels and the battery bank, had shorted out on installation and had to be replaced. Since I had to wait a week or two for this to be resolved, it seemed like a good time to take up the girls on their offer despite the fact that I'd met only one of them.

Elena, Bridgette, and Lacy turned out to be the sweetest, warmest group of people I could've possibly had the good fortune to be staying with / near. For the remainder of September, I was their high-tech hobo they barely knew who conducted odd sonic experiments and would occasionally slip into the house for a shower, toothbrushing, or pit stop. I tried to stay out of sight and be a good guest and over the course of my stay I had the pleasure of having many nights out or conversations on the porch with them. I felt like some amalgm of Jack Tripper (Three's Company) and Laslo (Real Genius). Their landlord came by once and I wanted to pretend I was gay in hopes of a sequence of misunderstandings that would spiral into a comedic goldmine.

My final two weeks were spent in hermit mode as I'd been neglecting preparations for a live set that I was to begin touring with. The concept was to use the forthcoming album (Nevertheless; Background Records, Germany; release date Nov 21) as source material for the live set. The idea was to chop the music into iddy bitty pieces, process the bits, and remix the sounds into short loops that would be layered together, mixed, and otherwise arranged in a live setting. Needless to say, there was much to be done and time was short.

I could go on and on regailing tales of the goings on and the great times that were had, but I'll hope instead to give a general impression and encourage the curious to put Santa Fe on the short list of places to visit and hope they have the opportunity to experience the place for themselves. I'm seriously considering taking up residence there, so contact me if you'd like a tour guide.

been a while..

It's been a while and I can't claim to have been too busy to update the journal. I haven't been lazy, either. The simple truth is that I've been neglegent. Maybe a little bit lazy. Oh well. Time to crack the knuckles and summarize the past few months.

After leaving Colorado, I opted to travel south towards New Mexico. The scenic mountain drive proved as kind to the eye as unkind to the engine of my beloved Casper. She handled the inclines and meandering curves with a slow, steady grace. A notable exhaustion was a constant reminder of the burden my ride, obliged, must carry so it's no bother forgiving her for a 10mph pace on the steepest grades. And I couldn't be bothered by the impatient motorists who lined up behind me. I could practically feel the heat of the steam screaming out of their ears and I couldn't help but think that I was unintentionally giving them a gift. The world moves a bit too fast and there are times when it's best to slow down, take it all in, let the mind slip into auto-pilot, and appreciate the finer things on the periphery that all too often become nothing more than a backdrop to the self-absorbed mellow-drama that embodies the human experience. Yes, I'm talking about nature.

This is where God lives. This is God's home. This is the wild west, gutted by a slinky highway suture; a stitch in the hills. I spent a week in the mountain valley just taking in the splendor and hiding out in my womb. I thought I'd be Dan Boone and explore every day, but I ended up spending little of the time traversing the great outdoors. After all, there were microphones to be set up, guitars to be played, and computers to aid my whims and frustrate me to no end in return for the favor. There were dvds to be watched for the hundreth time with the commentary audio on, agave tequillas to be iced, and over-the-top barbeques to be prepared. After a week in the picturesque mountain valley, the urge to move combined with the awareness that I'd run out of fresh food. No more barbeques. Time to roll.

I had a contact in Santa Fe to get in touch with. This person's name and telephone number were given to me by Sarah and Roy during my visit to Colorado. The promise of a hospitable native with a firm grip on the surroundings was as good as cold cash or a hot bowl of soup at that point. I rolled southward on down to Santa Fe where I'd hoped to find an engaging evening to break the monotony.