p.s. It sure is cold out here!!
Well, I am in PARIS. Expensive and charming as ever. :) All I can say is that there is little that could be nicer when travelling through the underground than coming upon a 10-piece string ensemble... What a sound as its reverberations follow you through the corridors!! It is amazing!! Busking seems to be well and alive in the Metro here.
I also went to go see a couple of live shows... with a fabulous French singer, playing the accordion. After one of the shows when just about everyone had left and a couple of band members were doing a little jam, I got to sing with them and it was the best! Ca etait la meilleur! I love jazz... and I miss it... and also I love singing when other people are playing the instruments and I can focus on my voice. Much more fun for me that way. :)
Well, the thing about situations like this is that there really is nothing one can do. A passenger is completely at the mercy of the train drivers... and they probably can't do a whole lot either. And so the thing NOT to do is to Panic... which is exactly what I tend to do in these situations. So, in my travels, whenever I discover that I am on a train running late or that I have lost something probably 3 cities ago, I now know that the best thing is to just stay relaxed and to say to myself: C'est la vie. Because at times like those there is nothing I can do and there simply is no point in getting all worked up in a way that is just a waste of my life.
So there you have it.
Paris was great. I will return. I look forward to southern France now.
The second magical experience was when I left a small dinner party... where I met a pair of interesting Street Performers (clown work, sounded neat) and we were in a very old building (12th or 13th century??)... and we had very good food... well, when I opened the door to go down the narrow street and back to the place I am staying, there was snow on the bush directly opposite me and slush in the little cobblestone road. There was no one else out during my little walk home... and all the trees, which were dimly lit, had snow on the top of them. This just as April makes an entrance... and this for an L.A. girl...
I have actually been in a town called Forcalquier. A town of 4000 inhabitants. A very charming place, where one has a clear view of the snow-topped Alps. In the last two days I have had 3 meetings of street performers, all very different... and some times I was able to understand more than at other times, but regardless, I am learning a lot, and my French seems to be improving (thank god!). :)
Well, I must go to sleep now because I am travelling on tomorrow and I seem to be needing so very much sleep these days. Bon nuit!
I have almost been on the road for 9 months now... and I am finding that I am looking forward to returning home, though I still have another 3 months to go.
Tomorrow I am heading off to Spain... to see Barcelona! It will be my first time in Spain. I am looking forward to it, but I also wish that I spoke a little bit more Spanish. :)
Oh, yes, and you can now access this website through: www.brigitteroth.net !! Tell all your friends... :)
Yesterday it was raining and gray and miserable... in Barcelona, where it should be sunny! To escape from the rain I went into a shop... when I came out and opened my umbrella, I realized that it had stopped raining. I was thrilled but not really expecting much... Ten minutes later I was in sunshine: fabulous! Suddenly I found myself approaching this beautiful arch in this little old road. And the next thing I knew I was right by a busker setting up his guitar. I ended up talking to him, getting all kinds of tips. He was very friendly. He asked me to sing a tune on his guitar... and then I harmonized a little with him on another tune. It was great. He then saved the spot for me for when he would finish a couple of hours later. I returned with my guitar... and he had had a very successful two hours. At the end of my shift he returned and we went to this bar where a bunch of buskers hang out. It was a gray day turned productive. :)
Today I went to Parc Guell, which was designed by Gaudi. I was being a bit of a tourist. But to my wonderful surprise there was a busker playing the flute in his area with all these columns and wonderful acoustics. We talked for quite a while. It was most refreshing to me because he is an idealistic, positive, energetic person with all sorts of projects. He has a family and makes it as a musician. He is involved in organizing a festival, in playing at festivals, has several CD's out (through his own record company), composes, directs... plays several instruments... it is amazing! I was so happy to have met this guy!
So things have improved here in Barcelona... I am still tired from all the travelling... and do look forward to returning home in the summer, BUT I am enjoying life and particularly my project.
Another joy of mine has been meeting another Watson Fellow here in Barcelona. That is always neat, because even if our projects are completely unrelated, we have something special in common... this weird experience of the Watson Fellowship. The list of new fellows (for next year) has just come out... it is very interresting... you can take a look at the Watson Foundation website.
Quite on a contrary, it was a pretty intense business, full of adrenalyne. Hop on a car, go to the center..., Ricardo announces our performance, we play a song, Ricardo thanks people for their outbursts and spontaneous applause (or something like that, it was in Spanish), to both ends he takes the cup to collect coins (cling!), we exit by the second stop and rush into the next car over... Three to four times in a row we do this, maybe the length of the train... then catch a train going in the other directions.
It was fun and exhausting. I left Ricardo with the earnings, which were quite good, apparently... We performed: La Bamba (which he sang), Blue Moon (I sang), and Yesterday (I sang and only he played). What a wonderful memory!
April 28, 2000: April in Paris... can I just say gray skies? Ok, so this did feel like a productive few days. Although I did not get the chance to get a permit for playing in the metro, I did manage to finally track down the person organizing this system, and to arrange for an interview (still to be had)... Unfortunately the auditions for the permits only happen twice a year, in March and September. This is not very good for international buskers. Another interesting thing for me has been meeting a musician from the States... just on the street. It was interesting to see how he is finding things, particularly because he speaks no French and has been quite frustrated by that.
I found an example of the rudeness of the Parisians... I was at the Eiffel Tower looking for buskers. Three of the four legs of the tower had long lines for people wanting to ascend it. The other one had an open souvenir shop. I went to the lady there, who was not occupied, and said, in French, "excuse me, I have a question." She nastily replied that the information was over there... that she was selling souvenirs and not there to answer questions. I was in such shock... so I just walked away. But then I stopped, turned around, and went to tell her, pretty clearly, that I wanted her to know that what she had done was simply impolite. It was completely unnecessary... she did not even hear my question and did not know if it was about one of her souvenirs. She was jabbering away so fast I could not understand it and simply walked away after I finished speaking because I knew I had no hope of winning a little argument with her in French, but I think she heard me. And afterwards I felt better because a person like that should not be selling souvenirs at the Eiffel Tower... and maybe I acted on behalf of some other tourists who speak less French than I do... and have had even more problems...?
May 3, 2000: May already! That is just crazy. Time is now officially running out on me. :)
I am in Amsterdam. And there are a few buskers out but not as many as I had expected. I think it has to do with the cold weather. (To me it is very cold.)
Amsterdam, for those who have never been there, seems to be a mixture of quaint buildings, with all the canals, and yet a very littered city. I have been taking photographs of interesting cobblestone and here the photos will almost certainly all have loads of cigarette butts in them. Also, the place is very open-minded, with a very diverse crowd of people as you walk around... and though I like this very much, I don't so much like going to tourist shops in search for good postcards, always to end up confronted with all the near-porn if not porn ones... So... the pro's and con's I suppose.
This morning I am off to Charles De Gaulle Aeroport, to pick up Jim, a friend from back home. It will be really nice to travel with someone else, someone dear and familiar, for a week... I am quite excited, and also a bit exhausted...
As for Amsterdam, I think I may have given it a bit of a bad rap. When it got a little bit warmer, the buskers became more interesting and sophisticated. I managed to make a stop to visit the Van Gogh Museum... and it was just incredible! The paintings were just sooo alive. I don't think that prints tend to capture the truth of what is in the paintings. Every brush stroke seems to have a life of its own... and so the paintings are just incredibly moving (wonder if one could do that with music?). In particular I loved the Irises... WOW.
Also, a funny incident was when I saw the sign internet and went downstairs into a "coffeehouse" that looked much more like a bar... and that hash menus hanging all over the place. That is so far the most interesting place I have checked my e-mail.
Well, I am off... to the airport!!
I have now been traveling for ten months, with less than 2 months to go... I guess right now I am experiencing a bit of burnout... I feel exhausted all the time. I got sick last week. I sometimes wake up in the morning and wonder why I should bother getting up... not that nice of an experience, I must say.
I suppose it is actually a mixture of burnout and homesickness. I am very much looking forward to returning home and moving forward with life.
As I am not really a depressed type of person, and I would hate to leave readers on a negative note, I will add that I still have a bit to look forward to on my itinerary... Tomorrow (most likely) I will head off to Budapest. I still hope to make it to Prague, Switzerland and to see more of Germany. Then in July I will be spending a couple of weeks recording in England.
I know I am just going through a phase right now... And I recognize that it is just as important as all the happy cheery ones... I also look forward to getting more energy soon.
And what I am really doing today (and yesterday) is taking my first weekend in a really long time. I think that many people might think I am just on a big long vacation... but really every day out here is just so incredibly intense and full-on. If I am in Paris and I am sitting somewhere, quietly relaxing, I cannot shake the feeling that there are a million things I am missing out on in that particular moment... and suddenly I feel this pressure that does not allow me to relax anymore...
I hope to write again soon with a more uppy entry... :)
Yes, generally speaking I am just going through a lot, but it is approximately a sin(x) + x curve... for those who are into math (and enjoy my graphical representations of my inner progress...). And for all others, it is just one little hill to climb after another, up and down constantly, but overall things seem to be climbing in a very positive direction.
As always, thank you for reading... and I have really enjoyed the supportive feedback I have gotten recently... It is truly wonderful. :)
So, I have been busy rushing about Budapest... for example, yesterday my cousin translated for me so I could have an interview with a blues player who is playing in the pedestrian subway and is desperate to go make it in America..., and then we quickly rushed off to her belly dancing class! I miss dancing so much! And then tonight my other cousin took me with her to her ceramics class... I want a normal life with all sorts of activities! But, patience...
Budapest is very interesting to me... when I came here in 1998, I could really sense the poverty in the country of Hungary... and it really made me sad. And this time round I really feel the progress and much of the beauty that is here... I find it interesting that I can see one place so differently... of course, back in 1998 it was really good for me to see that there are poor people in the world, it opened my eyes in a very important way... and now it is very good for me to see the beauty and progress here as this country is where my roots are...
So that is Budapest!
One more thing is just that my aunt and I were discussing also the history of street performers... and that before there were set theaters in cities, there used to be traveling theater groups who were somewhat like buskers today... and also like moving circuses... but now that seems to have been largely replaced as a form of entertainment by not only set theaters but even moreso television, movies, radio, etc.
As for Munich, you must be patient for my impressions... I have not gotten a whole lot done today because it took me forever to get into town due to a fire in one of the main S-Bahn stations... :)
But I would like to take the opportunity just to mention (in case I have not yet) that time is definitely running short now as we approach June. yikes!
I need to make a list of what I want to accomplish in the next month... before recording. Calmly I need to be relaxed in going about the rest of my travels. I also want to be preparing in the meantime to come back home... job stuff... etc. I have A LOT on my mind, can you tell? :)
Well... the sun finally came out today in Munich, and it is finally getting warm (which is good cause I have laundry to do). I still don't know where I will go tomorrow... I have been getting lots of writing done and that is very good. Well. I think that is enough for now. I have the feeling that if other people are at all like me, they won't read the very long entries... :)
I was walking from the place I was staying in Munich to the S-Bahn station. And because I had forgotten to leave the key behind I had to backtrack a little bit... It was hot and humid and I was armed with all my stuff... feeling a lot like a snail with a house on its back. :) I was walking down a road and saw a lady by her car. And suddenly I thought: it would be so nice if she were to offer me a lift to the station. I rarely think such things, particularly about specific people. Maybe 8 seconds later she offered me a lift to the station! It was sooo nice. I took her up on it without reservations. Although I would have made it otherwise too... I was really quite grateful because I would have been even sweatier if I had not gotten the lift. I still wonder just how all of that happened. Was my guardian angel listening? :)
Regardless, it is magic moments like these that can make such a big difference.
I also met a couple of really nice buskers... guitar and flute. Their music had such a nice feeling. They have both been just travelling for four years, living mostly from their music. But they were such happy... dare I say hippies. I listened to them for a long time before interviewing them. It was so nice.
The previous day I went busking in St. Gallen. It was gray and rainy, but I was out there. And as I was singing I suddenly got the feeling that it was really right for me to be there. It was really quite good. I guess I have recently been in a pretty relaxed, go with the flow, kind of state. It is very refreshing for me, because those who know me might know that I am sometimes (or even generally) a very intense and somewhat (if not very) anxious person. So this is something new for me... and very fabulous too!
Thursday I went to sing at a party of a girl I met in Munich while busking. It was really nice for me because the people there were all so nice to me, giving me great compliments. But most importantly they really listened to me and there was such a good quiet space... that is what I love most in performing, when this space can be created. Somehow it unfortunately seems so impossible on the street, but maybe I just have not yet figured out the trick. :) All I know is that I look forward to doing more performances where I can have a real audience.
The sun is shining, and it is June. Coolness.
Oh, yeah, just one more thing: on the trian from Nuernberg to Prague I suddenly realized that my pass was not valid in the Czech republic. Fortunately we were stopped at a border station (Cheb) long enough for me to get cash and a ticket. But I was completely shocked when it only cost 180 Kc (less than $6) for the ticket, about 3 hours ride maybe... when it cost over 50 Swiss Francs for a day return ticket from St. Gallen to Zurich (over $30), only about two hours' ride. And the trains were equally nice. Man is this world a strange place sometimes!
A quick note on that, a Professor of mine once taught me this writing system that involved editing in order to get rid of lines worth of words... and now, in order to fit everything in, I am finding myself doing exactly that. But I promise it will be a good read. :)
If you are interested in getting info about the CD, when it is available, you can send me your address (snail or e-mail) and I will create a list for this purpose... I will put up more info on this website, but you can go ahead and do it now too...
Have a good one!
But I am relieved to realize this important fact that I don't rely on compliments so much as a feeling of connectedness and honesty with my audience. Does that make sense? I am not sure I am expressing all this well... :)
I was actually in search of Le Mazet, a cafe that used to be a real hang out for buskers, according to a friend who was busking in Paris in the 70's. I stepped out at Odeon and saw a guy with a guitar sitting down, just like I had met Ricardo. He saw my guitar and asked if I wanted to play. He immediately asked if I wanted to play with him, and I said sure. I asked him if there were ever any problems with busking there and he said no. All you get is a slip of paper saying that you are getting a slip of paper and that unwanted noise in the Metro is no good, or something like that... So anyways, we busked in the Metro and then after a few runs we went to see Le Mazet, but it was closed (and had long since been renovated and changed ownership). So we went to another cafe to have a drink. There he helped me sing some tunes to the people sitting at the terrace, though I performed solo. It was interesting, particularly with the occasional audience coming by.
We parted ways, and I managed a couple runs in the Metro on my own. The lesson for me is slowly becoming absolutely clear... If you want magic then you have to allow it to happen. Simple as that, really. Listen to your instincts that tell you things like: take the guitar. Yeah, I am still learning... :)
In the meantime I am in Norwich, England, doing the recording for my CD project. It is going pretty well so far.
On Tuesday I made it to London to check out Veda Hille's London premier performance. The place was totally packed as she got a "rave review" (according to another friend) in "Time Out", which is THE magazine for London reviews. It was a good show. I also got to check out the Art Nouveau exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Aside from all this I have been going through a little bit of personal turmoil. But I am lucky to find lots of support. I am forever thankful for all that I have in this world. And for the telephone and e-mail.
I thought I would just make one more comment: mobile phones!! I hate them! I spent more money trying to reach everybody on their mobile phones to arrange who I might be able to meet and where I might be able to stay... more money than I spend on the return bus ticket (combined 6 hours). Which in England is already a lot of money anyway. So... if you don't have a mobile phone then you spend loads of money calling everyone else's. And as I have no good contact number I can't even leave messages for other people when they are not picking up their mobile phones... just to say: hey, ring me at my mobile number when YOU get the chance. Do I sound a little bit frustrated? It is really only the problem of being the odd one out. But maybe this is part of the reason that mobile phones took off so amazingly over here... cause the people with the mobiles don't have to pay for all the calls made to them... whereas in the States they do, Ithink. I don't really know though cause I have never had one. :)
Having said that... it does seem sorta convenient, the whole mobile phone thing... if the car breaks down, or if I want to go out but am awaiting a call, etc.
No, let's not get started on the whole cancer issue! :)
I have one day to pack and prepare for the big trip home.
So... what is going to happen with this web site? Have no fear. I am going to continue updates about music and thoughts on life... that I have decided. I will also keep putting up information about the CD, new lyrics, and performance information. So... I hope that this site will continue to change and be an interesting evolving place to go. Come back sometime soon! :) After all, the homecoming is a large part of every trip.
One more comment I would like to make. I recently hear an album that Sara McLaughlin put out. It had demo versions of some of my favorite songs of hers. It was really inspiring to hear it because I could see how much her music developed from demo to final version... so if it doesn't sound quite right then don't give up. AND it is also a reminder that EVERYBODY starts somewhere (not that the demo's were all that bad!). :)