Music Keyword
San Francisco
It is strange to think that San Francisco had a population of only 1,000 people when the gold rush hit. The search for riches caused the number of residents of the bay to swell quickly to 25,000 in just one year. It must have been a crazy time, how ever San Fran’s history stretches as far back as 3000BC when local Cali Indians once called the area home before being displaced in the 1700′s by the Spanish. Now home to around 800,000 in the metro and 8,000,000 in the surrounding ‘burbs San Fran is a buzzing city.
The entire metropolis is quite beautiful and new, mainly due to the great fire of 1906. Over four hundred thousand San Franciscan’s were left homeless after an earthquake levelled buildings and ruptured gas lines causing massive devastation. Today the town is full of life and history. Its famous trams rumble through the city and the streets are teaming with tourists. Along the port restaurants and museums line the piers. Out to the west in the suburbs is Haight Ashbury, a very alternative neighbourhood with a cool scene. Grungy, dirty bars and music stores run up and down the main street and bums and hippies sit on side walks calling for donations towards cannabis research.
On Sunday Chinatown hosted a party, filling the streets with parades, food and music. The Chinatown in San Francisco is one of the oldest in the entire USA and it is huge, but difficult to find nice cheaps eat’s in. A few bars are scattered through the streets of Chinatown, and around the city in general but the best I found was The Utah. It sits on the corner of 4th and Bryant and is a great venue with music almost every night and an awesome vibe. The locals are friendly and the bar staff fun and tough.
In the evenings the fog that during the day contains itself to the bay creeps into the city turning it into a frigid yet beautiful place. It wafts into the streets and blows a cooling breath over the entire metropolis. It is so thick you can feel it dusting your face with a light mist.
I got to catch up with a couple of mates in San Francisco. Jenn, who kindly put me up for a few nights and Emmett who took me around the city on Monday and to Fishermans wharf in the evening. I had a great time here and I’ll be back for one last drink before flying to Hawaii in about a week. But right now I am due to catch a flight to Vegas.
Tam Tam Festival
I’m back in Montreal, and loving it. Over the weekend I checked out the Tam Tam Festival something I missed out on last time I was here.
The Tam Tam Festival happens every Sunday during the summer season and is completely public. Nothing is organised. It is just people rocking up to the Mont Royale Park with Tom Toms, Shakers, Tins, Drums, Bins or what ever they can hit or make noise with to play with the ever expanding group. Grooves are found and lost. They come in waves, fading when they just aren’t working and building to glorious crescendo’s when going well. People from all walks of life play and enjoy, welcomed to the collective.
On the day I went it was mightily hot, so I didn’t stay all that long but taking a picnic lunch and a blanket would be a good idea if you ever want to check out it. Of course it’s all free and open and you can ride a Bixi bike right to the park!
Battaglia dei Fiori
In Ventimiglia, once every two years a pretty amazing festival is held: La Battaglia dei Fiori or in english, the Battle of Flowers. This festival is an celebration of the Spring where the communities that make up Ventimiglia compete to create the best most extravgant float to be judged during a parade. These floats are made almost entirely out of flowers. One person told me there can be as many as 80,000 flowers on a float, but from the looks of them I would guess more.
The floats parade around the town on two days. The first is a night parade, with dancing, music and food. Everything culminates in a fireworks spectacular while the floats are repaired and touched up ready for the following day. The daytime parade is where the meat of the competition happens. Float girls climb aboard their communities entries, bands fire up, dancers and entertainers pour out onto the street. I have never felt such a happy, excited crowd. The parade loops around the town two or three times, at which point everyone in the parade starts showering the crowd in flowers. Hundreds and hundreds of flowers. With this the parade degenerates into a massive flurry of thrown flowers with the audience getting in on the game and having a good time.
The day was a caccophony of music, fragrance and colour and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. I particularly liked the Pink Floyd float. A fairly fitting way to end my last day in this wonderful town.
Enjoy the (rather large) gallery, and there’s even a bit of fan service in there, just for Kym. The day photos were taken from a rather precarious position on a fence, from which my relative who was one of the float girls almost knocked me off with a well pitched flower. The flower battle starts on page three and the day time parade on two.
Club Pure, Shibuya
Saturday night saw my first night out on the town for this visit to Japan. Finally getting a few of my new friends together in the same place at the same time we headed into Shibuya, Tokyo’s ‘younger’ part of town. A couple of the girls had a friend, Greg, who had been living in Japan for 6 years, and we met him at the station. He took us to an awesome japanese style private restaurant which was great fun, but left us to continue on our night unaided.
We were looking for Club Pure, a place that had been recommended to me by a few people, including the manager of the hostel I am staying at. It is a hip hop club, typically american styled. The main benefit of this club was the cover charge, 3500yen (about 55 Australian dollars) which may sound steep, but included all you can drink from 11.30 till 5am. Boy did I get my money’s worth. Shots at the bar were never passed up, beer flowed freely. We danced all night to cheesy R&B and Gansta rap, people watched and had an all round great time.
Catching the first train home we all managed to fall asleep, missing our stop and having to navigate our way back through the labyrinthine collection of train stops and subways till we got back. Not something that is easy to accomplish while trashed. I flopped onto bed at about 7am, head spinning, reeking of cigarette smoke and booze. The new day was calling, but I needed a few hours sleep before I could face its fury.
Anyone looking for a cheap, cheerful and most importantly FUN night in Japan, head over to Shibuya and search out Club Pure. You wont be disappointed.
Birthday Guitars All Round!
Today is my birthday. 27 years young. To celebrate I have burdened myself with a guitar. Just a cheap Ashton with a hardcase. I have missed playing so much, and there are so many people to jam with and learn off I just had to get one. If only the pommie guy in my room would wake up and leave so I could rock out a bit it would be a great day.
Tonight? Probably drinking. I have been drinking way too much, I really need to ease up if I am going to make it through this year with any money and a liver.
Video Blog #1
Right folks: here it is, a quick mash up of the Videos I took from the Big Day Out put to some music. It’s not pretty, but it’ll do. Hit the “See Photo Gallery” link to watch and enjoy!
Rockin’ the BDO
Before I start, I have to say I have a bit of a love hate relationship with festivals. While I pour a lot of my time, money and effort into the festivals I attend they always seem to have some way of fucking me over on one hand, and giving me the time of my life on the other.
Today was the Big Day Out. Adam managed to get me a guest pass which got me into a private bar and toilets, with an awesome view of the venue and getting in was pretty painless. Being in our own bar meant I could avoid the 40degree heat. It wasn’t until I reached for my wallet and realized I had no money that things went pear shaped. Search all I could for an ATM one wouldn’t appear. Resigning myself to a pretty cheap day I did get to enjoy watching Birds rock out to a huge crowd, the caught a bit of the Grates before the thirst set in. For the next two hours, one of which was spent in the line, I search for ATMs. After sustaining a little heat stroke I retired back to the bar and cooled down.
Next I hit up DJ Z*Trip, and danced my little arse off. What an awesome set. There were so many bodies all sweating and breathing that the floor with slick with condensation and the walls had rivulets running down them.
I attempted to go see TV on the Radio, but instead went and cooled down again then watched the Living End. I then swung over to Hot Chip, which started getting packed with people who were getting ready to see the Prodigy. Hot Chip was fantastic to watch, but the crowd was full of meat head dickheads. Leaving the boiler room everyone found the paths blocked to “reroute” the traffic, but the guards weren’t talking to each other and had closed off both ends of the boiler room area, with each end telling the punters to exit via the other. Chaos ensued.
Once we finally got out I got to see what I think was the highlight of the day: Neil Young. He wow’d the crowd and absolutely floored me. I had a great time watching him play, and the show was brilliant.
All in all, a great day. Right now I am sorting out my photos, getting the videos I took ready to be made into a video blog and settling into my new room at the same backpackers. I am looking forward to what the day will bring.