berlin, germany – december 8
i wake up from a fine dream of hanging out with 2 young women in a car, their car, and tooling around a town that does not exist except almost everywhere. not a bad way to sleep. was good talking to my wife last night. her thick lip infiltrates me from outside the illusion of whatever i think i am and settles the urges that spin and vex.
where am i now … a paved road to berlin … we are pulling into town like we were shot into the main artery of the city like a drug from a needle.
we are a capsule swallowed whole.
the grey dim morning light offers up its usual lure of coffee and this mothership allows the cold wet grim fatherland tinge of yesteryear to only get so close to us.
berlin is pleasant place. as the day begins to unravel, i am eventually by an old artist friend. she has me for lunch with her boyfriend. we speak of many things. the end. it’s a quiet day in a big city. i remember berlin when it was divided, and how we ventured to the other side for a look see. that was 1986. here we are 22 years later. its all softer and more advertised, not at all like the solemn painting it used to be by an artist who couldn’t draw humans very well so tended not to include them in his work. nope. its packing with humans now.
then i am fetched by a fellow from the new agency and taken to radio land. radio is live and fun enough. i am feeling younger today. this is often the opposite feeling.
then he takes me out shopping for the missus. while randomly parking, i spy an old piano shop. i head in to inquire about a proper tuning wrench and spare parts for a sustain pedal assembly the piano is missing.
then at some point he realizes i am in giant sand and it seems to matter. but the funny thing is when he askes if i know a girl in arizona named alison. she is my neighbor. the end. so this piano man ends up giving me the tool as a present, and then coming down to the venue and intriguingly constructing a custom sustain pedal after the show. wow. done and done.
the show. the show was sensational. the crowd was so great it freaked me out. there were 400 presales, which never happens for us. folks tend to think the way i do, and not plan ahead. but the place packed out by the time we commenced. i cannot explain how great the crowd was. it delivered a fine feeling of satisfaction to know berlin is so into the band still, or seemingly, better then ever. we delivered a solid show, but with magic included too. we played the new song that might be called “cold mountain”. even though we didn’t quite nail it yet, the way we did upon its birth at the hamburg sound check, the crowd reacted to our attempt in a very sweet and loud way. brought a proverbial tear to the eye.
and then in the middle of it we brought out sarah to sing “cracklin’ water”. for some reason, it seems to be the most requested song usally, and i never play it. so the crowd went wild for it and sarah nailed it like it always should have been nailed. her voice was stunning.
the show eventually came to a close. i wore the “shirt” again for the encore. told em how great berlin flea markets can be and they chuckled happily.
after the show i was determined to mingle no matter how tired i would be. lots of friends and well wishers and folks that think they need autographs. we also finally met the new booking agency woman, and i was happily surprised by how young she was. i liked her kinetic energy and how she seemed to vibrate with it. then we all headed over to a convenient tiny bar just across the street. the owner greeted us and was so happy we came to drink there. loved the show. and so we gathered. i thin sarah might have fallen for the piano guy there, finding him having a piano store very romantic. and peter seemed to fall under the spell of the mysterious woman from st. petersberg. and i took it all in as long as i could until i heard my bunk calling for me. it was a fitting end for a berlin well fit.
as the bus ambled off, and i tucked in, the dance party in the lounge commenced again. there would be dancing at 120 kilometers an hour. again. the end.
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