Monthly Archives: September 2008

Maryland

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Next on the itinerary: the great state of Maryland. I had a guy contact me who said he plays the lyricon. I had to google it before I realized it was a MIDI controller for woodwinds, a.k.a. a digital saxophone. Here’s Paul Soroka with his lyricon:

Paul Soroka, lyricon-man. Man, what a great "before & after."

I spent a very pleasant day with Paul recording various things. He’s very witty and friendly, which is always great to work with, and quite the funk saxophonist. He showed me some of his own instrumental funk stuff he had done — with Dennis Chambers on drums. It was awesome. We put down some lyricon of course, but we also put down some tenor sax (he’s really quite good at the “real” saxophone as well as the digital one).

There's a "reed" on there which you can use to control bends, and breath support determines volume. Pretty sweet.

Suddenly he said, “This song doesn’t really need lyricon. It needs organ. I can put down some organ for you if you like.”

I was like, “Okay.”

Paul spreading the organ on the song like butter.

It sounded great, he was right.

All too soon, it was time to be on my way. So, I

said goodbye to Paul,

and then I was down to Baltimore to meet the next dude, a singer/songwriter named Matt Rocks. Yes, that is really his name. Go ahead, make the joke — make two. Here’s a picture while you do it.

Me and Matt Rocks! (that is correct grammar)

Done? Okay. Matt Rocks is a very talented musician full of great production ideas. I encourage you to check out some of his songs. Lots of great, spacey, slightly dirty acoustic sounds. I met Matt at a bar, where we hung out for a bit before making our way to his home, where we spent a great evening listening to music (his, mine, and Shiina Ringo’s).

Next morning, Matt put down a nice rhythm guitar track for me with his acoustic, and then I had to be on my way. Sadly, I left knowing that I had barely tapped his talent. But it was an enriching experience anyway.

Matt and his awesome girlfriend, whose name I totally remember. We took great pains posing these shots because we are artists.

Best of luck in your musical endeavors, Matt. You rock.

NEXT: Columbia, District of!

Bear, DE

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In Delaware I met up with a drummer who contacted me about recording named Arsean Cannon II. He was a great guy, and even offered to put me up when he heard I didn’t have a place to stay yet.

Arsean (pronounced ar-SEEN) had experience drumming for gospel music in churches, and he also drums for a Latin band around the area. His business card is that of a drummer, so with all of those in his favor I was not surprised to see that he also plays a Risen kit.

Something to record and a place to stay -- the ideal scenario.

Perhaps I should get some kind of sponsorship with Risen, since Risen drums are basically the only drums on my project (Matthew Tobias plays Risen drums too). Hmmm. And looking at their website, I realized that while I was in Minneapolis, I played a gig with Steve Goold, who is featured on their website. I never expected to run into so many Risen guys on this tour.

Anyway, I had a great time recording Arsean, he contributed some sounds that were refreshingly different from the more pop/rock sounds I had mostly recorded so far. In particular he was all over one of my songs that has an Afro-Cuban 6/8 rhythm, which he gave more of a 12/8 feel. It worked, and sounded quite tasty.

Arsean, drummer.

You’ll note that now that JH has gone, there will be fewer pictures. I constantly forget; it’s terrible. Anyone want to join up and be my photographer/roadie for a bit?

NEXT: a place that was named after Queen Henrietta Maria!

Philadelphia / Mechanicsburg, PA

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After hanging around Philly a bit, we dropped JH at the airport so he could catch a plane back to Omaha and start his classes at Creighton. It was good times having him on the journey with me.

Bye, Jong Hun! See you back in Omaha.

Pennsylvania’s Facebook friends were much better about checking. I got in touch with several old friends, Micah (Keen) Willams in Mechanicsburg and Steve Falkowski in Philly.

I went to school with Micah — she and I were in the same program and took a lot of the same classes. She is currently working for a really interesting organization called Global Awakening. She is also quite pregnant and expecting a new bundle of joy in her family. I met up with her at her place of employ and saw the facilities. Their auditorium is quite nice, and it was the chosen location to record Chris Ishak.

Chris smiling because he is happy to be a great musician.

So who is this guy? Micah provided the Chris connection, and I was glad of it. Chris is a great guy who is involved in various music goings-on at GA, and was happy to be part of the project. He’s also a great guitarist and put down some great guitar parts for me.

Chris throwing down some guitar goodness.

After recording Chris, it was back to Philadelphia to meet my erstwhile friend, Steve Falkowski. I had known their family a long time back in the day from church, but hadn’t talked to Steve in close to 8 years. His dad is a great saxophone player, as well as the founder of a great ministry to people in nursing homes, and was one of my heroes back when I was learning saxophone. Steve was that witty, quiet kid over in the corner that everyone wished they knew. I have fond memories of playing the “-tion Game” with him for literally hours on a van ride to Chicago once.

Interestingly, Steve studied architecture at Kansas U, studied abroad for a while, and is now working for a firm in Philly doing fun architecture stuff. (Two architects in three days — doing well.) I had a most excellent time with Steve about Philly, reminiscing about old times, catching up with each other, talking about beer and the state of the church and the world. It felt too short, and then Steve deposited me at the door of his friend Adam, who was able to put me up for the night.

His friend was asleep, so I just walked in to a strange house belonging to a strange person and went to sleep on a bed there. Amazing. I did find a note addressed to me on the table telling me some pertinent information though so at least I knew I had the right house.

I had a bed!! After sleeping on so many couches, a bed looks most welcome indeed. Of course, compared to my car, a couch is quite welcome too. My car is wide, but not quite wide enough for a long person like me. It’s a bit cramped.

Adam also had an impressive music collection. I was in awe, raptly staring at his collection. I made some notes of artists to check out. I didn’t start listening to any of it though because a) he wasn’t awake to ask permission from, and 2) if I started listening to great new music I almost certainly would lose a lot of sleep, something I can’t afford to lose on the road.

I left Adam a note telling him to wake me up in the morning before he left so I could at least say hi, which I did, from my groggy morning stupor. I have a vague memory of a friendly smiling dude saying hi.

When I woke up for real, I rendezvoused (check that conjugation action) with fellow Couchsurfer Rachel Cantzler. We walked around the Drexel campus, where she is a student, and chatted quite a lot over coffee. We talked about school, each other, good/evil, books, personal anecdotes, etc. for a good long while. Then it was off to another place for an afternoon beer and more of the same. Good times. That’s exactly what I was talking about before — the proper way to travel. Life is a story, and it becomes richer when interacting with the stories of others.

Finally, in the afternoon, not long before I had to leave, she casually mentioned that she played string bass with orchestras and stuff. WHAT! You say this NOW, when I’m about to leave?? Sigh. I guess it’s her loss. (That’s my rationalization, even though I know that really it’s the world’s loss.)

NEXT: Hey, I’m in Delaware! … (looks around) …

New Jersey

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Kae and JH with the Lovemobile.

One of JH’s friends from Capitol Court had just transferred to a school in New Jersey, so we had promised to meet up with her when we got there. As it happens, that’s all that happened in Jersey. I had no contacts from my ads. I’m behind enough that I don’t remember exactly, but maybe there were no ads, or maybe they were really short notice. This may be the point at which I recruited the help of some amazingly awesome people to help me stay on top of that.

These amazing people are:

Melissa Gayley, my favorite sister.
And: Stephanie Bardon, my other favorite sister.

They deserve mad public props (that’s “serious public appreciation” for those of you without linguiztic skilz) for their efforts. Thank you, my most excellent sisters!

Back to our story. We met up with Kae Miller, a cheerful and friendly girl from Japan, whom I had only met for a short time once before in Omaha. We had a good time hanging out with her, once we eventually found a place that was open that we could go to (thank goodness for 24-hour American diners).

Me, appearing shorter than I really am in order to fit in the frame.

That night, we headed toward Philadelphia, which was to be our next stop, and JH’s last.

NEXT: The departure of Jong Hun.

New York, NY

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Spread the news — these vagabond shoes went to New York City! Rather than foolishly driving my car into the city and trying to find parking, I intelligently parked my car a good distance away and took the train in to the city. As it turns out, I could have still found parking a lot closer, but that’s as good as it got for my unresearched trip.

I had originally planned on three days in the city. But we couldn’t line up a host (for some reason my friends in NYC were all not checking their facebooks, and NYC Couchsurfers are booked year-round if they want to be), all the hostels were booked, and without a car as an emergency backup bed, I wasn’t going to venture into the city. I’m risky, but not hobo risky. (T-shirt idea. FRONT: I’m Not Risky; BACK: I’m Hobo Risky)

So the modified plan was just to take a train into the city, stay late seeing all the sights, then head back and sleep in the car. I was not happy with New York. It was not playing nice like all the other towns. It was separating me from my car and equipment. It is known for people being hasty and brusque. What’s to like?

So I arrived, bitterly, at the WTC.

Former site of the twin towers of the WTC, known in newscasting circles (and therefore everywhere) as as Ground Zero.

Well, so much for a pick-me-up once I’m in the city. In our efforts to get downtown, we inadvertently arrived the site of a great tragedy.

But I was determined to make the best of it. No host? No problem! Friends not reading their facebooks? No problem! Witnessing the site of a tragedy? No problem! Bitter? No problem! (If you don’t already know, ask me sometime about a superhero I invented — “No Problem Guy.”) So we set out to see some great NYC landmarks. First, the Statue of Liberty.

It's not 24 hours? But this is New York!!

Yep, that picture is as close as we got. So much for that. With unsinkable optimism, I decided to give the Empire State building a shot. We set out from Battery Park on foot for a while and saw some fun sights.

NYC doesn't take bull from anyone -- they already have one. Mankind really got to work in this place. Like little ants, or beavers. These buildings were so cool. Also, so much bigger than this lens. Now I know how Gimli feels.

Things were starting to look up. Especially me, apparantly. (WARNING: I intend to use that bad pun repeatedly in this post.)

Finally we found a map and realized we would be walking a long time if we intended to walk to the ESB. So we hopped on the subway (that’s how you get on and off, by hopping) and made a shorter trip of it.

There it is in all its splendour.

I had been informed by the interweb that we should wait until late to go in the tower, since the lines would be much shorter and the view by night was just as good as the view by day. So we got some pizza.

Movie Preview Man: THE DAY WAS PERFECTLY ORDINARY…
JH: Good pizza.
Me: Yes.
MPM: BUT ALL THAT WAS ABOUT TO CHANGE…
Phone: buzz. buzz. Bleedeep!

Suddenly I got a text message from a Couchsurfer who figured there was no way we would still need a host, but was offering just in case. Elated, I promptly called her to confirm. We were finishing up —

Me: Okay, awesome. Thank you so much.
Angie: Of course, I’m awesome so it’s only natural that I do awesome things.
Me: Cool. Bye.

— when suddenly —

Phone: buzz. buzz. buzz. Da da da dumm dummm da da du–
Me: Hello?
Dude on the phone: Hi, this is Josh Homer.

Josh Homer! One of my non-facebook-checking friends finally checked his facebook. So now I had a place to stay and an old friend to meet. Yes, things were definitely looking up.

And heading up. While Josh was en route to rendezvous avec us, we thought we’d better quick hop up to the Empire State Building before he arrove. Unfortunately,

If this is a short line, I don't want to see the long one.

.
That’s right, I used a picture in a sentence. But I didn’t forget the period.

The line was about like this, except in four separate places. Buying tickets, taking souvenir photos, waiting for the elevator, and waiting for the second elevator. We kept thinking we were free, only to discover another line. But we had fun on the way.

TRUE FACT: The line was so crammed that I went through a turnstile with another person! I started walking through and there was some unusual resistance from the turnstile. I discovered that the cute Latina girl behind me was so close on my heels she got gathered in by the rotating arm of the turnstile. It was the perfect premise for a romantic drama — awkward situational closeness. Until her boyfriend walked up to her and put his arm around her. Make it a romantic comedy.

Peace amid exciting changes!

When we finally got to the top, it was one of those rare moments when everything was looking down and things were still looking up. (Note: for those of you who think I am overusing this pun, I will use it at least one more time in this post.)

No lightning in this one. It was a beautiful night. The lights, the lights! Back to looking up for a bit. Sweet.

And my personal favorite:

When the moon hits New York, like a big piece of pork, that's... terrible.

Here are some pictures of us so you know we were actually there.

Jong Hun: really there. Me: really there too.

Besides us, there were also other people up there.

A view of people viewing a view. Ooh, meta!

We were quick up there because Josh was waiting to hang out with us. I hadn’t expected four long lines to wait through. But I did see this on the way out:

It's made from LEGOS!

Then we met up with Josh. He was a bandmate and fellow architecture major when I was back at Wash U. He is now doing architect stuff in NYC. It was great catching up with him. He gave me a mini-tour of the immediate area, including some interesting architectural background of several of the recent and not-so-recent buildings.

Tourist zappers. These are a bunch of giant LCD screens that light up the whole block! I caught it right when the world was scrolling past. Like one of those cell phone advertisements. Fiber optic cables! Just kidding, actually water.

And now some important “I was in New York with Josh Homer” pictures.

Josh Homer in Times Square! Me in Times Square!

If I may be serious for a second. Seeing sights is great, and I have enjoyed that tremendously on this trip. But as a friend of mine once said, in her second language, “It doesn’t matter where I’m, what I’m doing. The matter is people whom I’m with.” True that. And that’s what I have loved the most about this project. Through Couchsurfing I have met some of the world’s best people, I have been shown the little treasures of the places I visit, not just the grand touristy sites. The major tourist attractions do have some appeal (and obviously, some intrinsic merit), but I feel like tourism is more about self-gratification than self-enrichment. It’s a difference of focus, but a significant one. By staying with locals and asking them about what they like to do and the places they like to go I experience a place on a personal level, through the eyes of another person, and I am the better for it.

For example, we spent a good bit of time chatting with our awesome host Angie Han and some of her fellow CS friends. I got an inside perspective on some of the NYC goings-on that I could never have gotten from a map or a tour guide. They recommended (and took us to) some great local restaurants. When talking with Josh I got the inside scoop on the construction of a lot of buildings (which I still find highly interesting), as well as a lot of information on his church (Times Square Church — over 100 different nationalities represented in their congregation — an amazing, unusual, and commendable achievement for a church). This, my friends, is the way to travel.

Here is a great picture of our host warily eyeing a hamburger about the same size as her head.

Looks like Angie is experiencing genetic vs. societal tension.

INTERESTING TIDBIT: Angie’s Korean name is one vowel away from JH’s name! Compare:
JH: 종훈
Angie: 정훈

Next, morning, we hopped on the train, then hopped over to our car, hopped in, and then the car itself hopped down to New Jersey.

NEXT: I look up and hop to it!