Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Fête Champêtre



Champêtre means 'Garden Party' I believe, in an 18th century French sort of way.

a 30 minute drive from Marseille near Aix-En-Provence, this property is for sale as the owners now live in London.

I arrived early, around noon when the party was just starting. There was reggae and heat.  I had slept only a few hours the night before as our friend Missy has been in town visiting.. and oh yeah, there was the Fête de la Musique thing in Berlin at Else.  That's right.  Spent most of the afternoon wandering the property, drinking fruit punch, trying to sleep and attempting broken Canadian French.

After the party there was a pretty crazy taxi ride through Aix.  Algeria had just won against... somebody in the World Cup.  There are plenty of Algerians in Aix and Marseille so the streets were packed with people setting off fire works, doing wheelies on motorcycles and stuff..
Reminded me of just the night before in Berlin where we were picked up by a taxi driver from Ghana who could barely contain his excitement about that night's tie game with Germany.  One of Brena's all time favourite moments in Berlin, he was blasting some dope Malian riddims in the car and singing along the whole ride home.  Quite the opposite of the less-then-impressed disposition of Germans after the game.. or just generally. 

Not a surprise, I was woken early by a phone call from the front desk telling me that I forgot to eat breakfast.  It was nice though, they brought it to the room and then later I met up with some of the other dudes from the party for a very French lunch before heading back.


Saturday, June 21, 2014

Cardiff, Studio 89



Ben Price opening up at the controls of their self-made club.  This was their first time using the car park outside for a day party.  The night jam followed inside in the basement of an old antiques building.  

around 10pm outside

some party pics from friends in Cardiff:







I really thought I'd make it to bed early, but again it didn't happen.
What a delight to be woken at 8am by the sound of cement being sliced with a saw.

Up and at 'em! Cardiff is pretty nice!  I had some coffee and some pasties? (pies).

Then tried to sleep in this park.
What a beautiful day it was.. the sight of perfect families playing soccer and having a picnic near by was too much.  Had to walk it off.  Stumbled upon a party that Rick Wade was to play later on in the garden of a pub, but had to make it back to the airport.

And what a gift!




Thursday, June 12, 2014

Detroit

stayed at the Motor City Casino for the weekend

the jackson 4

Ye Olde Television Saloon 

Stacey Pullen in the alleyway

a piano on the street

ren-cen

Hart Plaza

downtown

the two competing coney islands, side by side




met up with Jeff mid-watermelon

dancers


Scott won tickets to soul skate!

Joel just in from the 'Larry Levan Way' street party in New York showing off his new Paradise Garage membership card

thundering main stage

omega man

Jaime did 20 pushups for a Coney Island hot dog

this band was dope

dj Hyperactive 

Escort was so good!

a pleasure to share some tunes in the morning!


Wednesday, June 11, 2014

USA/CAN MAY Tour






pretty much the only photo I took in SF while trying to sleep in this park.  Jet lag was heavy this time around for some reason and sleep was very difficult.

Sammy's apartment in Portland where I stayed for a few days.  I was still getting only about 2 hours of sleep per night/day.  While I was in Portland there was also an E-Coli outbreak in the water which caused my already delusional brain to panic further.  I basically sat on that couch and listened to my new Jon Hassell record most of the time.

when I did make it out of the house we visited Sammy's friends up in the hills.

dude had a very nice studio.

which included this bit of gear salvaged from the actual Motown studio in Detroit!

great digging with my pal Corry

a painting of the 808 by Egyptian Lover commissioned for the shop 


sharing the wall with more metal 

Detroit deserves a separate post all together.

drove from Detroit to Philly with friends.  Here I am at the Liberty Bell.  I did not however manage to visit where they make the cream cheese.

Philly International!

Downtown Philly

where Will Smith and Jazzy Jeff went to high school

on Love Den radio

tacos with Yoko!

Philadelphia wilderness

a great jam down by the river

around North Philly




a pizza shop in North Philly



Morgan's Pier


last stop Edmonton - Dane, at the Common

long time friends Brendan and Penni from Banff

country living with Dane




Mennonite burgers on the way out

view of Toronto on the way back.  flew right along the lake shore and was even able to see my dad's farm from the air for the first time!