TOUR SEASON AND BALANCE

The inevitable question...do I eat or do I have a life?  I made space for a life and it gave me a surprise that I hadn't intended.  It's  a big birthday year for me and I haven't started a family...so while in the stages of making space...someone started a family without me.  Ha.  See how the jokes always on you when you think you planning something that God may or may not have in store for you?  So....while life goes on, I am having these unnerving emotions that I am not accustomed to having.  Jealousy is not my forte and it rather sucks. But it is what it is and I feel what I feel. I get a lot of young fabulous women who want to start in this business and I want to tell them the truth and at the same time encourage them.  Truth is....there's nothing encouraging about being a tour manager.  There's no 401 K, no insurance package...and mainly you give up the fun part of your life to someone else entirely.  Then you wake up old as shit like...whoops! My bad.  Let me get on that family shit.  Then....what the hell do you know about creating a family....all you know how to do is hit and run.  But man my passport is FAT!  ooh weeee. Bonus.

And here we are.....funny, we try so hard to get into male dominated businesses to flip off our middle fingers and let them know they can't get the best of us...and then BOOYOW! Wrong again.

ew. this was not supposed to be such a depressing entry.  Actually my play sister and her WIFE are preggers and I was inspired to write about them and introduce their blog.  tres interressante...one of them claims to be less femme than the other but I don't know how that works for them...ha.  I don't know the difference so I cannot say.  I CAN say, however, that my niece is going to be super fly and I am going to call her Tina even if no one else does.  Check out MORE THAN A RAINBOW  I find the perspective of the "butch" preggo chick new and promising.  Not ever heard from.  Love it.  Love them!  Love my niece.

CONSTANTINOPLE a la Josephine!!

I never dreamed that it was going to be so incredible.  I also didn't know that the promoter I cursed out would end up partying til 7am lobby call with me.  A must return.  No doubt the rest of my artists will be taken care of on trips to Istanbul.  Holla.

But this Bosphorous and this Grand Bazaar I did in 3 hours and truly need a week there. 

The concert site is outdoors on the sea...the European side.  Istanbul is like Kansas City, divided on the Asian continent and the European continent.  The area it's divided by is called The Bosphorus...which is the straight connecting the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea...which leads to the Aegean and then to the Mediteranean.  Blah blah blah...shit was tight.  We took a boat ride and enjoyed views of million dollar homes from old old old Ottoman money.  The dopeness.  If that wasn't dope enough, those damn Turkish rugs will be the death of me!  Had I had another hour a mortgage or two may have suffered  Seriously.

If there's one thing I learned from Josephine and Eartha is that the foreigners truly know how to make a black feel good.  I'm a sucker for someone telling me I'm gorgeous with an accent.  Particularly since the only other black people I saw in Istanbul were Macy Gray and the band.  Seriously....it was live.  And the hairy darkness and swarthiness of it all....why (tears up) reminds me a bit of my other motherland Brazil....and we know how that tour went....the beauty of anonymity...brilliant.  Of course I truly have to sit my ass down before I get pneumonia or something.  I was supposed to be on my way to a hospital Saturday, not back to back all nighters....Who the fuck do I think I am?  Tina Farris circa 99....grow UP already!

WATCHED THE THRONE

The show in Brussels I thought was cool.  I love Ancienne Belgique and I love the Belgian crowd.  In fact Brussels cracks off.  Funny thing is my body has been lethargic since I arrived.  And this time I was ready to go to the hospital.  However it was just my 2nd show and I just don't feel right missing it.  I was pale, the band was telling me to go , the promoter had a car ready for me...and yet...I couldn't peel myself away from the sound board.  So I agreed to sleep on it and go the next morning.

As luck would have it, my girl Rebecca Pietri - owner of hommepourfemme is out on the road with Jay Z as is Renelou Padora with Kanye....so what's a girl to do when she's only 80 minutes by train from Gare de Nord....Paris.....I tell you what, she grabs her artist and gets the fuck on the train (shot out to Thalys my Amtrak away from home).

It was hollywood up in that piece...as I believe all Paris shows are.  So hip hop.  So Adrian Brody, Adam Levine, Stephen Hill, models, producers, ME...I dunno.  Kanye stopped by and kissed Macy on the way to the stage.  The VIP is practically ON the stage.  It was a royal battle.  Just when I thought Kanye crushed Jay , Jay came back with something so classic it shut me the fuck up.  It was wonderful.

Stay cool with heads of security and tour managers.  They always have the most power.

LOUIS JOHNSON

Sitting in this old haunted ass piano bar at Le Metropole Hotel ...mad ghosts floating around...Albert Einstein, Madame Currie and dem....my 3rd Negroni  (somehow I always drink bitters when I speak French)....and I'm making a budget but entertaining myself at the same time by playing Michael McDonald....and I discover that I'm slightly in love with Louis Johnson.  One because I'm a fricken bass groupie whore....can't get enough of a bass lick thanks to the brothers FARRIS - Darryl and Troy - my uncles and subsequently my favorite men in the world....anyway, I have a hankerin for a bass slap.  The reason I'm even in this business is because I was a stone cold groupie for Leonard Hubbard.  It's true.  I'll admit it.  I ain't scared.  But Louis lays it on ya.  I wish there was some footage of him playing this...but alas it was a studio joint and he had is own group The Brothers Johnson to get back to and ...oh yeah...making history and shit on a little album we ALL bought....per history.....THRILLER....so yeah...I got in on repeat....about the 10th time.  I haven't told Macy's bass player yet that I'm such a groupie...but I see you Michael Torres.  I don't want to scare them too soon.

INTRODUCTIONS

Funny....today I met some fans at the hotel.  Fans of Macy Gray.   Fans of Erykah Badu.  Fans of Jill Scott.  Fans of...I assumed, the neosoul movement.  And had NEVER heard of D'Angelo....NEVER.  I played them the music and still....nor the Roots.  I'm in Brussels....Ancienne Belgique...the usual...House of Blues of Europe...and what?  No D'Angelo?  I couldn't believe it.  Shocked and surprised am I.  SHOCKED.  I even showed them a naked picture...hell Kid Rock's girlfriend knew him by the naked picture!  We got work to do!

Hello Beautiful

Awwww....me and Shmeary!  Hello beautiful

D'Angelo GQ article

Miss Amy Wallace did a phenomenal job.  I can't wait to get this summer cracking.  D'Angelo GQ

BRUSSELS - LE METROPOLE

Finally! Safari had this blocked  all up in Poland.  Warsaw was a bit nightmarish....it was dreary and my room reeked of cigarettes.  And everything pretty much operated in some other time zone...I don't know.  And my jet leg this time around has been frighteningly like Japan.  Staying up until 8am.  Sleeping for 3 hours only.  My body is wrecked....truly.  As much as I want to keep going I may need to sit my ass down...ha.  when has that every happened?

I'm out with my good old friend Macy Gray.  I love building shows.  Coming here is like rehearsals for the summer tours.  It's the most creative time of the tour.  We try different set lists....different lighting patterns, make costumes, build sets.  It's the only time I'm NOT on auto pilot which at some point I've discovered ends up driving me bonkers.  I need stimulus.  Some sort of creativity otherwise Brussels and Warsaw end up looking like Buffalo and Cleveland to me.  And then I sound ungrateful and who needs that?

The hotel the promoter put us into was garbage so Talent and I walked door to door ....a la Tina Turner ... in the rain "if you please give us a room...I promise I will pay you back..."  Not that dramatic, but we did find a beautiful hotel that was once a bank and hosted the Solvay Conference where a bunch of smarty art chemists hung out, drank beer and talked chemistry....Albert Einstein, Marie Curie...it was like 1911 Freaknik for smart folks.  In my dreams anyway.  Can you imagine...Madame Curie dolo with all them dudes?  Ballllllling!  Me and this piano bar will probably get it craacking tonight.