Phone # of the Moment. . . .

Do you know where I am???
I am right here on the other side of your computer screen...
(786) FIRE4Uok! (well minus the k and !) If I don't answer, you can guess I'm sleeping....or otherwise occupied....^^ (that's the Korean symbol for smile; insinuation of a wink) Leave me a message....if I don't call you back....well just keep calling, I'll be so happy to hear your voice....

7 month 7 night

Tonight is the LUNAR date July 7 which is a special evening in Korean lore. I have to admit, being American (strange as it sounds for me to admit, I usually think of myself as Indian, even some of my best American friends think of me as Indian), I celebrate SOLAR dates....so I already celebrated 7/7 on July 7th....way out in the romantic countryside, beyond the corn fields near a babbling stream under a sky with a million stars and a totally sweet, and very hot, barely English-speaking guy. The legend of 7/7 is that there were once 2 young lovers that were so in love they ignored all of the work they were supposed to do, so God banished them to two opposite sides of the vast sky and allows them to meet only one night a year. On that night, black birds form a bridge from one side of the sky to the other and the two lovers are allowed to reunite. They say usually it rains on 7/7 because the two are so sad that they have to part again. There was no rain this time.... I first heard of this legend when I was leaving Korea to go back to live in NY in 2005. It so happened that because I was flying between time zones on that night, I was able to experience 7/7 twice! Now with my new scheme of celebrating SOLAR and then LUNAR dates....I not only can enjoy 7/7 twice, but it:s also about to be my birthday week again!!! Woo-hoo!!! So, wherever you are, whoever you`re with, enjoy something and send your celebrations through the ethers to me for LUNAR July 12 which falls on August 12!!

NAGOYA Curry

The English version of the air stewardess' announcement before takeoff "In the event of a collission, air masks will drop from above your head" was almost as scary as when flying with Korean Air a few years previous when the pilot himself spoke with his loose understanding of the difference between "l" and "r"..."Radies and Gentremen, this is your Pirate speaking, welcome and enjoy your Fright"!! English as a second language jokes aside, the best announcement was probably when flying from Tucson to Phoenix, Arizona, "In the VERY unlikely event of a water landing...in the desert....your seat cushion can be used as a flotation device...."

So, you'll never guess where I am....I'm sitting just outside of the automatic sliding glass doors which are shaking from the extra bass of Bollywood R&B, of the Sports Bar which belongs to the nephew of my late Indian sarangi teacher, in downtown Nagoya, Japan. It was a rather last minute trip, I had been planning to return to China while my visa is still good, along with my new Scottish jazz guitarist, and wend my way to Yunnan Province in the far southwest and meet musicians in Dali, then head back north to Xinjiang to Kashgar and over the border into the hidden paradise of Hunza where a whole town of musicians is awaiting. But the plan had to change...perhaps for reasons too complex and related to the web of human destiny for me to ever comprehend.

The too cool for their own hairdoo Indian bro`s are very busy entertaining, so I`ve been left to my own and have basically discovered "shopping" as consolation to this. The magic hues of purple that were all the rage in Milano last winter have reached the Orient, and I managed to find some very impressive sales going on.... Trying things on, the store employees make a ceremony out of taking items off the hanger and handing them over to customers in the dressing room. After buying items, the clerk then walks the client to the entrance and on the portal hands over the finely wrapped and sealed bag. Walking into a restaurant, for hot sake and salty chicken wings, guests are "announced" with a frenzy of yelling by every employee ("foreigner has come into our restaurant and sat down in the front left side table, welcome, welcome" repeated 4 times over).

The most perplexing news to report is that my very dear Japanese artist friend whom I met when I was first in Japan in spring 1997 on tour with a small group of shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) players from NY (I played sarangi and sang a song with dulcimer that had a verse in Japanese translated by Hide (the Newburgh poet and artist) that people sang along with, and played Darius and Ron`s crystal bowls).....this is a long run-on sentence to say that Nakae San, perhaps the most interesting person I have ever had the honor of knowing, is now looking on from the stars. It feels surreal to be in Japan without him, it is not Japan to me anymore. He had dubbed me "Comet Angel" which I use as my stagename and website URL, and carved a stone time capsule for me which was cemented into the front portal of his traditional house in Kyoto, it has been 10 of the 20 years til opening Christmas 2018. When he first sent me pictures of the time capsule I thought he was crazy, but I was touched and decided to create a celebration and invite all friends in my life to come to Kyoto for the opening and celebrate friendship.

I believe before returning to dig into the Korean World Music House project in Chungju, I will go to Kyoto to meet Minooka San and visit Nakae San`s resting place and pray at the Shinto forest shrine famous for it`s endless towering orange gates, Fushimi Inari, eat some ice cream, and perhaps climb Mount Fuji very slowly over the course of a couple of days with my Australian friend, Brad, who was my first roommate in Korea when I moved to Seoul to be a "music teacher" in 2002 - he was the "art teacher" but unofficially we were both simply baby-sitters trying to keep the kids from hurting each other as we sat around waiting for our boss to call in friend after friend to borrow enough money to pay our salary.

From Strikers Sports Bar and Grill, Iqbal`s spicy curry bar in Nagoya....sending love....

What Did I Say?

Thought it'd be interesting to list the languages I've found myself speaking along the trip....it's been helpful to learn a few words in local tongue everywhere...not just for communication, but for inciting amazingly deep smiles!

Hindi (Indian national language), Urdu (Pakistan national language), Burushaski (middle Hunza Valley, Pak autonomous region), Ughyur (used by locals such as our taxi driver when we crossed the border on the KKH in
Xinjiang autonomous region, China), Chinese (used in Xinjiang by non-Ughyurs), Arabic (Oman), Malayalam (Kerala, Indian language used in Oman - thanks to Sam in Muscat for teaching me), Turkish (first night in Oman happened to sit next to a man from Konya, go figure...), Sindhi (in the remote village of my 8 year old friend, Erum), Italian (9hours stop in Roma), French (bruxelles), Dutch (I haven't actually spoken in Dutch yet, but it's all around as I'm in the Flemish part of the Brussels outskirts), Malagache (also in Bruxelles, staying in an American/Madagascar household!)

my PHOTOS from the SILK ROAD!!!

My pal Joe has been kind enough to put a bunch of my photos from my 1st 2 weeks (I'm on my 11th week away now) on his flikr site.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicandlight/sets/72157602879867189/

malagasy eucalyptus balm and strong song

Hello from Linkebeek, a 'suburb' of Brussels/Bruxelles, where I'm in the home of the greatest musical stars of Madagascar, N'Java. The sun is straining to peek out of the clouds, the trees are swaying in the cool wind, the house is quiet with the sisters at their boutique, D'Ame D'Amour, singing their hearts out as they arrange the traditional items in the shop for the holiday rush we all hope for.

The ladies, Monika (wife of Daniel, my friend and 'producer') and her sister Lala - both with deliciously wild hair and temperaments, have been asking me to join their accapella ensemble which is about to break into the limelight of the World Music scene. I'm a bit awed that they would even joke about asking me...though I have to admit that their brother Maximin (with even more amazing and wild hair) did recording wonders with a red-wine induced session I sang on a few summers back when I was visiting - the match of the chathartic, open-throat, heel stamping and soulful belting of African voices, and my silky, Indian-inspired rifts weaving in.

The clouds have succumb to the power of the sun and there's a heavenly moment that seems like it will last forever, like it won't actually start to get dark at 3pm ever again, like Belgium is bright and lively with a wonderful and balanced music scene where I could come to live afterall....

Roma through Pakistani eyes for 9 hours

24 hours after leaving down the bamboo ladder at Pilu's house, piling my bag and sarangi into a cycle rickshaw and then into a taxi, waiting in an endless and chaotically unstructured line first for boarding passes then for security (one elderly couple waiting behind me had been at the airport for 8 hours, their flight was running 6 hours late due to the security check line suffering from the airport remodelling effort restrictions), a flight to Milan and then another to Rome....I called to the Pakistani Export shop of a friend I met in Korea about 5 years ago. It happened that this friend, Fayyaz Bhai was actually again in Korea with Qadus Bhai (my very first friend in Korea, aside from my roommate and co-saving grace, Brad), but Fayyaz's brother gave me directions to take a train from the airport and his other brother met me on the platform. They gave me a take-out plate of the best Indian food to be found in all of Rome, and then the younger brother journeyed with me out to the Colloseum and a walk along ancient sites, and then for the best cappacino I have had in many, many years. A half hour more sitting around at the shop as the older brother internet-ed his life away and the younger brother hid in the back, then I was dropped back at the train, and got to the airport for the flight on to Brussels where a tired and somewhat sick Daniel was awaiting.
My Pakistani friends and their random shops around the world really are wonderful in these times of urgent need to both pass some time and eat well. What a blessing!