Monday, June 02, 2008

NO SLEEP TILL DEUTSCHLAND

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to do an art tour in Germany. 48 hours after the AB+L show in Charlotte I was dropped off at the airport, passport in hand, ready for the 8-9 hour flight to Germany, so I thought. Due to slight drizzle (not a torrential down pour) flights were delayed causing hundreds of people to miss connecting flights to destinations around the world. Customer service lines filled with the bewildered to the bellicose and we all stood in awe at the sloth like speed in which the Continental Airline help desk staff moved. After an hour in line, or the full length of a video on my IPOD, the desk staffer gave me the "you are next" hand wave that I so wanted then to only turn it into a hand of halt as she helped someone else, back to watching my video. To make a long story short my 8 hour trip across the pond turned into a 24 hour odyssey with layovers in 2 different countries.... and they lost my bags. One good thing about layovers is the people you get to chat with. I meet 2 black female rocket scientists and when I asked how it feels to always be the smartest person in a room one laughed and said "You get use to it".

Once in Germany we (Fabian the Occasional Superstar and DJ Jamad) hit up 4 shows in 5 cities over the course 7 days while rolling at 100+ mph on the autobahn. The promoters that brought us there took great care of us and before the show in Frankfurt we had a chance to meet up with our family and friends. We met allot of really cool down to earth people who share their take on American politics, culture and the popularity of German gangster rap.

You can learn allot about a man while traveling in a van in a foreign land. For instance DJ Jamad has an insatiable appetite for ice cream and Fabian has little tolerance for DJ Jamad's insatiable appetite for ice cream. "Grown ass men ain't got no bidness lickin' on ice cream and reading GQ magazines. It just ain't right. That's in the bible" proclaimed Fabian in response to Jamad’s lactose lovin’ lifestyle. I even learned that my often radio announcer sounding voice sound completely crazy to people who speak English as a 3rd language.

We showed art, spun dope music, avoided a fight in a Turkish restaurant, blew the fuses in Berlin hotel, c-walked in Frankfurt, all while learning just enough German to make us sound like ignorant Americans….the trip was off the chain.

1 comment:

Goldi gold said...

sound real intresting, you gotta luv it!!!