i miss my friends

i feel like i've been changed
i'm looking at everything around me
from a different perpsective
i guess that's what is good about stepping away
from your life
every now and then
we get caught up in the day to day of things
go blind with the routine
no matter how much better it might be than
the person sitting next to you in cubicle 3
right now it all looks so weird to me
this city
this street
this house
i know in a week or two i'll be back in it all
and where we've just been
will be fading fast in the rearview
but right now
my thoughts are still there
in germany
some of them here

"i want to be a breezy haired guy like basti"
G said it first
basti
or "officially"
sebastian tim
the guy who booked our tour
and took care of our every problem
"basti, we can't find the club!!"
"basti, how do we switch the cell phone from armenian!!"
"basti, how do i play a G chord??"
always there for us
always positive
one of the sweetest
most upbeat
funny guys i've ever met
a smile
that is infectious
and his career as a TV commercial extra
seems to be taking off
no wonder
tall mop of curly hair
almost fro-like
dimples
and austin powers glasses
basti is destined for every billboard in the motherland!!

we stayed with
gunther and his beautiful family
our first night in hamburg
a real music lover
i've never seen anyone with more cds
his collection was threatening to over-run the rest of the household
and the thing that blew me away
is even with all this music
he had clearly listened to my music repeatedly
was a fan
truly got it
and his reaction to me stating i had new rough mixes of my record
touched me
andrea and the children
sweet and beautiful
i never thought i would find people like this
who put out records for love
not greed
i'm a sworn believer in tapete records now

dirk darmstaedter
is just one cool guy
really comfortable in his own skin
without being cocky
hamburg's steve mcqueen
i know he's coming to texas to see us sometime
i just have that feeling
played in aachen with him
i wished we had one or two more dates together
maybe next time?

ibrahim i.
sitting in the window of the waggenmeister
in basil
having his morning coffee
and smoke
waiting to wave goodbye to us
as we drove off to bonn
on that rainy morning
a kindness
and sadness
in his eyes
a picture for my mind to hold on to

siebeth martin and soenche
smiling and singing with me
songs they'd never heard before
but they never missed a note
or dropped a best
we only had two nights
but they were the best part of my concert playing experience
when i go back
i'm making sure we play a bunch of shows together

simon t. in augsburg
my friend from england
spent a great night in augsburg
listening to all his stories
carrying on about music
and the stupidity of war
he'd served 10 years plus in her majesty's finest
all the places he'd been
all the cruelty he'd witnessed
but it only made his heart bigger
and his funny stories were the best
the glastonbury cross!!

like my own version of the sgt. peppers album cover
all these characters standing around staring at me
their faces and personalities in vivid technicolor
vitus from kerosin
heike and jorg muller from rastatte
martin the aussie ex-patriot
frank from das bet
gorg and peti (mausefalle)
frederic and his band, halfcup of superkings
simon and monique (who woke up early AM to get me photos from ONO)
mickey
henrieke
wuschi
the maplewood guys
jeff from downpilot
nina
melanie
felix
rodrigo from spain
lars (the man behind it all - thank you for sharing nourallah music
with dirk!!)

pictures coming in a week or two!
jayme took 1300 photos so it might take some time