posted by jon at 6:53 PM

 
Well it's been an odd few days here in La Paz. My birthday was alright thanks in the main to hanging out with my drinking buds Dan and Corey and no thanks at all to net2phone whose dicking around and failing to verify my visa card meant I could only call home for 2mins! and even less thanks to an unpleasant chick by the name of "Meredith" (v. strange name for a Mexican girl) in Las Varitas who grabbed me to dance, chat me up, fire a barrage of questions at me, and snog me only to turn around and tell me to sod off (in not so many words) when she told me to go buy her TWO Tequilas (at a cost of about $8 or 5quid!) and I turned out to be neither as stupid or as rich as she had assumed from my wearing a white skin. Grrrrrrr. :(

I decided that there are 5 things I'm really missing out here in Mexico: My friends, my family, my girlfriends (Tigger, Becky and Roberta), training in Ninjutsu and ROCK!!!

Decided to try and do something about the last three. Spent a while over the last couple of days chatting up a cute girl called Alejandra who's working in the Christmas market... she seems to think I'm funny, but strange... I've been asking everone around if they know of an Aikido or JuJitsu dojo in town, which at least share style of body moevement and some locks and throws with Ninjutsu... no luck yet but I'll keep trying... and I managed to sort out a gig down at Club Racing - the local rock bar, which wasn't a complete disaster...

I'd turned up in time to talk with the manager, play one of my songs as a demo and grab a support slot (hey, it's not like I wanted paying!) but I don't think the local band "Revolver" esp. their somewhat snotty lead guitarist bloke were too keen on my stealing any of their thunder... and I think I may have been sabotaged when my guitar didn't work with their set up and I had to borrow one of theirs... I say this 'cos he set me up with a blue cable - and as soon as there seemed to be a problem kept saying "oh it's your guitar" but when they were playing later he was using a different black cable... arsey musicians - same the world over! So I was stuck playing an electric Les Paul clone which was totally unfamiliar a) cos I've stuck to acoustic for the last 4 years and b) when I DID play electric in the past it was always Fender clones... hence the guitar sound sucked royal ass. Plus they only gave me 15minutes (actually 12, but hey). So I got no soundcheck and had to bang out 4 songs while the sound guy adjusted all the levels on me and generally buggered me about, not to mention the microfone kept electrocuting my lips! Still I got to play my tunes to a packed house of 150peeps and while most seemed underwhelmed a few were into it - one geezer handed me a cold beer at the end of the set and a few people said they like my stuff... Still I was mightily pissed off at the time, tho' in retrospect I have played much worse gigs e.g. Broken Brow at the Powerhaus in London, and that one to three people at Rising Sun one winter! - an audience of another artist, the soundman plus 1 old lady!
So hey it wasn't that bad and the Manager Mañuel said they'll be having open mic nights...

I don't know what Alejandra thought of my playing 'cos she buggered off home soon after... got my head togther today by chilling on the beach and practising a few mellow tunes....