ok so Australian jet lag officially sucks! like a big fat hoover.
On Tuesday night, I got so overcome with TNS ("Tired N' Silly-ness") that over dinner I told Gareth he should try to get a job as an oversized, ornate statue of a Chinese dragon except he'd have to grow his moustache out long.
At this point everyone agreed that I really needed to go to bed.
But waking up every hour and feeling like you need to eat a big meal at 4am is not really the way forward for sleepfulness.
So between dinner (which was in the most awesomest vegetarian restaurant right on a wee penninsula overlooking the whole of St Kilda bay) and the first gig, I went back to the hotel for a snooze. What happens next just goes to prove the "you snooze you lose" rule. Gareth went for a wander and ended up on a boat tour to go see PENGUINS! Real life itty bitty Southern Hemisphere-dwelling cute little penguins. He said they were very cool. But much smaller than he expected.
Once again I rued that snoring-arm-rest-wrestling aeroplane man.
But inside I was pleased for Gareth. Honest.
After much talk of penguins, it was time to go onstage at the Prince of Wales. Considering it was the first gig with the new reduced line-up it went spectacularly well! The crowd were the quietest lovingest clappiest crowd yet. And Gareth and I got to play a song each which went down a wonder too. It was such a privilidge.
Wandering home past the peachy sunset we all felt like little sunbeams.
Yesterday brought Sydney, where we sleep-walked off the plane into a radio show. The man told us live on air we looked like a "Picture Perfect Folk Family" at which we guffawed for slightly tooooo long. In a disdainful fashion. As we left Gareth piped up "Will you buy me a milkshake now Mum?".
yet more giggling.
Sadly, there was very little time to see any of Sydney except backstage at the venue (which is the Basement, a jazz venue where very many incredible jazz babies have graced the stage) BUT we took a very short stroll between soundcheck and stage time, and lo and behold, right around the corner was: The Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House and none other that the QE2! Whatt a gobsmack.
My miniscule words can't describe that picture.
not a usual pre-play experience... but then, neither is a penguin cruise (grrrrrrr)
I can also confirm that the moon is backwards here. very odd. oddy odd odd.
So... I have now slept a whole 7 hours right through, which is a small miracle, and that shall speed me through to Brisbane which is today's stop.
Jo
Thursday, 22 February 2007
Monday, 19 February 2007
Mean-ness and jellyfish
It's hot. There's no two ways about it. It is also bright. Thus my dislike of wearing sunglasses "because they make me look mean" simply must be overcome.
I thought about actually being mean yesterday, to match my new image, and said something particularly insulting to Gareth. Vashti overheard and exclaimed "JO! That's not like you!" and immediately I cracked, ran to my bedroom and didn't come out until I was ready to be good. That didn't take long to be honest and, when I emerged, Gareth said he hadn't even noticed anything insulting. Typical!
So…mean is off the checklist. Plus, most of these Australian folks who all wear sunglasses seem pretty lovely. I can't imagine Mrs Mangle ever having actually existed.
So yes – I am in Australia!! It's incredible. The 22 hour, horrible, stuck-in-a-small-seat-next-to-
nightmare-has-no-concept-of-
arm-rest-etiquette-snores-
all-the-time-man was all worth it!
First gig tonight in Melbourne. Yesterday was mostly spent rehearsing and working out new arrangements for songs because it's just the three of us now (Vashti, Gareth and myself).We also did a radio show and found a wee bit of time for exploring (which we mainly spent getting on and off the wrong trams. Such TOURISTS!)
We did get to St Kilda beach for a jaunt too. It's just beautiful there. Hazy and blue and yellow and the air full of kites and birds.
I spent some time there musing on jellyfish. We passed a big one which seemed stricken on the edge of the water. Stricken or dead. I had a very strong urge to poke it with a stick. But then I realised it might still be alive and I could hurt it. And I am a good vegetarian so this was out of the question. But then I wondered – could it just be sleeping? Do jellyfish sleep?!? And if they do sleep, where in their weird body does that sleeping occur? In those squiggly blue bits? And what would a squiggly blue jellyfish thought be like? Does a jellyfish even have nerves? Thus would it even matter if I poked it with a stick?
Do jellyfish contain gelatine?
On and on.
What am I LIKE?!?! Wasting valuable Australia experience time thinking about jellfish psychology!
But seriously… if anyone knows the answer to any of these questions do let me know. Please!
So… that was yesterday. Today is gig day. But there was time in the morning for eating pumpkin, wandering around St Kilda and along the beach again. I'm currently sitting under a palm tree watching some people have a "Barbie". I'm trying not to pretend this is Home and Away!
Well… I'm writing this blog in a wee book under the palm tree, but later I will be typing it in an under-air-conditioned internet café on a keyboard so spongy it feels like typing on the moon.
One tries not to think about how much dirt it takes to create a zero gravity feel to a keyboard.
Not so much other news to report except… kangaroos are actually real… they're not a joke. And that whilst pondering if the sign at the end of the bath that said "Non-slip bath-mat available on request from reception" meant that the bath was slippy, I did indeed slip – spectacularly – and now have some pretty fine bruises and a 1/2 a lung full of water.
This is the only nasty piece of news. And not enough to even begin to dampen my spirits at being here. All else is sunshine and wonderment.
More soon. G'Day!
Jo xxx
(P.S. I didn't, in the end, poke the jellyfish with a stick. Just in case you were concerned.)
I thought about actually being mean yesterday, to match my new image, and said something particularly insulting to Gareth. Vashti overheard and exclaimed "JO! That's not like you!" and immediately I cracked, ran to my bedroom and didn't come out until I was ready to be good. That didn't take long to be honest and, when I emerged, Gareth said he hadn't even noticed anything insulting. Typical!
So…mean is off the checklist. Plus, most of these Australian folks who all wear sunglasses seem pretty lovely. I can't imagine Mrs Mangle ever having actually existed.
So yes – I am in Australia!! It's incredible. The 22 hour, horrible, stuck-in-a-small-seat-next-to-
nightmare-has-no-concept-of-
arm-rest-etiquette-snores-
all-the-time-man was all worth it!
First gig tonight in Melbourne. Yesterday was mostly spent rehearsing and working out new arrangements for songs because it's just the three of us now (Vashti, Gareth and myself).We also did a radio show and found a wee bit of time for exploring (which we mainly spent getting on and off the wrong trams. Such TOURISTS!)
We did get to St Kilda beach for a jaunt too. It's just beautiful there. Hazy and blue and yellow and the air full of kites and birds.
I spent some time there musing on jellyfish. We passed a big one which seemed stricken on the edge of the water. Stricken or dead. I had a very strong urge to poke it with a stick. But then I realised it might still be alive and I could hurt it. And I am a good vegetarian so this was out of the question. But then I wondered – could it just be sleeping? Do jellyfish sleep?!? And if they do sleep, where in their weird body does that sleeping occur? In those squiggly blue bits? And what would a squiggly blue jellyfish thought be like? Does a jellyfish even have nerves? Thus would it even matter if I poked it with a stick?
Do jellyfish contain gelatine?
On and on.
What am I LIKE?!?! Wasting valuable Australia experience time thinking about jellfish psychology!
But seriously… if anyone knows the answer to any of these questions do let me know. Please!
So… that was yesterday. Today is gig day. But there was time in the morning for eating pumpkin, wandering around St Kilda and along the beach again. I'm currently sitting under a palm tree watching some people have a "Barbie". I'm trying not to pretend this is Home and Away!
Well… I'm writing this blog in a wee book under the palm tree, but later I will be typing it in an under-air-conditioned internet café on a keyboard so spongy it feels like typing on the moon.
One tries not to think about how much dirt it takes to create a zero gravity feel to a keyboard.
Not so much other news to report except… kangaroos are actually real… they're not a joke. And that whilst pondering if the sign at the end of the bath that said "Non-slip bath-mat available on request from reception" meant that the bath was slippy, I did indeed slip – spectacularly – and now have some pretty fine bruises and a 1/2 a lung full of water.
This is the only nasty piece of news. And not enough to even begin to dampen my spirits at being here. All else is sunshine and wonderment.
More soon. G'Day!
Jo xxx
(P.S. I didn't, in the end, poke the jellyfish with a stick. Just in case you were concerned.)
Thursday, 8 February 2007
Kalimba lessons
well... its been an exceptional few days it really has.
north carolina came and went... with no piles of crazy coloured objects. which is a wee bit sad. but we did have a large papermache cow with a wide mouth backstage. so that was nice. plus gareth and kevin found big bits of wood lying around and batted eachother with them.
the cow looked on with disdain.
yesterday was a bit of a gruelling drive it has to be said. seven hours in the van through south carolina to georgia. south carolina has not a lot in it as far as i can see. except a very large plastic peach on a stick which i saw out of the window. (and i mean VERY LARGE!) all we had in the van was a bunch of windows to drool upon and the sum total of 6 grateful dead cds. we did get through 5 of them. oh yes, 5!!!!! an odd atmosphere ensued, fuelled only by subway salald sandwiches and cheerwine (the South's version of cherry coke. weird as!)
but the gig last night made EVERYTHING worth it! We played at the 40 watt club in Athens. It's a really cool place. And we played a kickass set with some awesone sound (thanks to Brendon our Bostonian wizard man). It's just as well really, because... get this.. afterwards i was standing backstage holding my kalimba ready to put it away when in walked who but MICHAEL STIPE! he almost whacked me with the door. and then he said he really enjoyed the show. and asked me to show him how to play the kalimba!!!! Once i had managed to gather up my faculties like wayward toddlers and wiped the lipless goldfish expression from my face, an entirely surreal jo mango kalimba mastercalss ensued.
waaaaaah!
also in the audience it turns out were many other band members. whooo! i'm glad i didn't know all that before we played. shucks. Athens Georgia is the place to go if you wanna meet fellow band members.
there was indeed a lot of dancing and shouting and whooping and generally childish behaviour from most of us once the aformentioned REM man exited through the back door.
bizarreness continued apace today when we arrived in nashville. i felt like i was dreaming from the moment we stopped at a gas station - which was filled with fireworks ceiling to floor - to find the proprieter nonchalantly smoking a cigarette amongst the highly flammable explosive devices surrounded by gasoline.
we made a sharp sharp exit and huddled under the giant peach for refuge. then a giant centipede arrived shouting "WATCH OUT SHE'S GONNA BLOW" but we escaped without injury when he hooked a bunch of passing seagulls to us and we flew on the breeze all the way to tennessee.
welll... that's not entirely true... but that's what i did in my head anyway.
yup.
The promoter here is married to none other that cerys matthews from that nineties band catatonia. so we all just returned from their house where she made us all curry. honestly. seriously. the giant centipede thing was a lie. but the curry thing is true true.
yummmy yummmy curry it was too. plus her daughter has the same sparkly shoes as me. so talent and taste run in the family.
well... i gotta go now and play an encore with the fantabulous vetiver. they rock my world. i'll write soon after our day off in nashville. woooo!
north carolina came and went... with no piles of crazy coloured objects. which is a wee bit sad. but we did have a large papermache cow with a wide mouth backstage. so that was nice. plus gareth and kevin found big bits of wood lying around and batted eachother with them.
the cow looked on with disdain.
yesterday was a bit of a gruelling drive it has to be said. seven hours in the van through south carolina to georgia. south carolina has not a lot in it as far as i can see. except a very large plastic peach on a stick which i saw out of the window. (and i mean VERY LARGE!) all we had in the van was a bunch of windows to drool upon and the sum total of 6 grateful dead cds. we did get through 5 of them. oh yes, 5!!!!! an odd atmosphere ensued, fuelled only by subway salald sandwiches and cheerwine (the South's version of cherry coke. weird as!)
but the gig last night made EVERYTHING worth it! We played at the 40 watt club in Athens. It's a really cool place. And we played a kickass set with some awesone sound (thanks to Brendon our Bostonian wizard man). It's just as well really, because... get this.. afterwards i was standing backstage holding my kalimba ready to put it away when in walked who but MICHAEL STIPE! he almost whacked me with the door. and then he said he really enjoyed the show. and asked me to show him how to play the kalimba!!!! Once i had managed to gather up my faculties like wayward toddlers and wiped the lipless goldfish expression from my face, an entirely surreal jo mango kalimba mastercalss ensued.
waaaaaah!
also in the audience it turns out were many other band members. whooo! i'm glad i didn't know all that before we played. shucks. Athens Georgia is the place to go if you wanna meet fellow band members.
there was indeed a lot of dancing and shouting and whooping and generally childish behaviour from most of us once the aformentioned REM man exited through the back door.
bizarreness continued apace today when we arrived in nashville. i felt like i was dreaming from the moment we stopped at a gas station - which was filled with fireworks ceiling to floor - to find the proprieter nonchalantly smoking a cigarette amongst the highly flammable explosive devices surrounded by gasoline.
we made a sharp sharp exit and huddled under the giant peach for refuge. then a giant centipede arrived shouting "WATCH OUT SHE'S GONNA BLOW" but we escaped without injury when he hooked a bunch of passing seagulls to us and we flew on the breeze all the way to tennessee.
welll... that's not entirely true... but that's what i did in my head anyway.
yup.
The promoter here is married to none other that cerys matthews from that nineties band catatonia. so we all just returned from their house where she made us all curry. honestly. seriously. the giant centipede thing was a lie. but the curry thing is true true.
yummmy yummmy curry it was too. plus her daughter has the same sparkly shoes as me. so talent and taste run in the family.
well... i gotta go now and play an encore with the fantabulous vetiver. they rock my world. i'll write soon after our day off in nashville. woooo!
Saturday, 3 February 2007
fruit flies like a banana
well... time has flown like an arrow!
the zero degrees tour is over. alack and alas. that was possibly the best time i've ever had on tour. the music was so fantastic and the vibe was continually positive and so creative.
the glasgow gig i was going to tell you about was triumphant! the only hair raising and ultimately interesting moment to read about came when Vashti began to play "Here Before" and I realised I had the wrong kalimba on the stage - one that would have been hideously out of tune if I played my solo line on it. band members in my immediate vicinity remained impassive in the face of my flailing as i tried to decide what the grown up and professional thing to do would be! in the end I strolled as quickly as i could off stage, looking nonchalant, RAN to the dressing room shouting "Ohmygoodness!!!" all the way, hurled bags and instrument cases in the air in a frenzy until I found the right kalimba and hurled myself back to the stage, where it just so happened i was perfectly in time for my second entry. only a few hairs out of place, the band were only slightly bemused and the audience none the wiser. phew!!! needless to say this only goes to prove that my professionalism is only accidental...
after a brief break, which felt more like a just whirl of tax return and pillows, we were off to America-ca-ca. Thanks to the wonderful union people at British Airways we got to arrive two days early in New York to avoid strike action on the airways. Woo! So there was much wandering aimlessly and bagel-eating and gawking at Times Square. I'm not ashamed to say that I do really LOVE New York. It's madness on a stick... with lots of shouting in the background.
The main big news is that... CARNEGIE HALL WAS LAST NIGHT. How could I possibly describe the majesty of that to you?!?!? The line up was CocoRosie, Adem, Cibelle, Vetiver, us, Devendra Banhart and David Byrne curating/compering. Once again it was a mammoth collborative effort, a seamless show with no breaks between acts. And with only 9 hours of rehearsal together to prepare it was truly a miracle!!!
Arriving at that place, I felt so surreal. Like my hands were slightly too heavy and my head was a giant pom pom. Not sure that's the best explanation but it'll have to do. Now, I know this is what the Carnegie Hall is famous for... but the acoustic is actualy quite aStOUNDing! When I finally got my breath back after stepping out on stage for a peek, I played a single note on my flute and I've never heard anything like it. It soared through the air right to the back of the hall like it was a hot frisbee flying through a tunnel of butter!!!! Jeepers.
The show sold out, the hall was majestic, the sound was eagle-like and the camaraderie backstage was unrivalled in any gig i've ever known. I felt like the sense of priviledge might just burst me in two (especially when I spied my Dad's face in the crowd, beaming like a headlight, in his bow tie).
Absolutely awesome!
(And my flute didn't turn into an unmusical carrot mid-show you'll be pleased to hear!)
So here we are, the day after, in Philadelphia, our hair crackling with the static from the freezing cold, feeling like musical and emptional zombies. But i'm still energetic enough to be excited about the rest of this tour. We're soon to go to North Carolina where half of Vetiver hail from. They've told me about this place they're going to try and take us when we get there. There used to be an old lady who ran a kind of second hand/ vintage treasure trove of clothes and household items. Except when you went in to buy something and took it up to the counter, she would say "Oh that old thing? You don't want that?!?!? Oh no, I COULDN'T sell you that. SOrry"... She was so attached to everything that she could never bear to sell anything. SO it was really just a glorified crazy hoard open to the public and there was just more and more stuff collecting there. In the end the lady died and some artists took over the space. They kept all the things but divided them into objects of the same colour. So now the space, which is partially derelict, is just small corridoors running between huge piles and piles of crazy old objects of all colours of the spectrum blending into eachother, Apparently the white room is one of the most incredible things you've ever seen.
I can't wait....
And of course there's the music. And the people. And big old America.
Not sure many more words will come out of my head. It's really tired. But I'll try and blog later in the week with more interesting news of shennanigins. Hopefully I can embarass some fellow band members too!
the zero degrees tour is over. alack and alas. that was possibly the best time i've ever had on tour. the music was so fantastic and the vibe was continually positive and so creative.
the glasgow gig i was going to tell you about was triumphant! the only hair raising and ultimately interesting moment to read about came when Vashti began to play "Here Before" and I realised I had the wrong kalimba on the stage - one that would have been hideously out of tune if I played my solo line on it. band members in my immediate vicinity remained impassive in the face of my flailing as i tried to decide what the grown up and professional thing to do would be! in the end I strolled as quickly as i could off stage, looking nonchalant, RAN to the dressing room shouting "Ohmygoodness!!!" all the way, hurled bags and instrument cases in the air in a frenzy until I found the right kalimba and hurled myself back to the stage, where it just so happened i was perfectly in time for my second entry. only a few hairs out of place, the band were only slightly bemused and the audience none the wiser. phew!!! needless to say this only goes to prove that my professionalism is only accidental...
after a brief break, which felt more like a just whirl of tax return and pillows, we were off to America-ca-ca. Thanks to the wonderful union people at British Airways we got to arrive two days early in New York to avoid strike action on the airways. Woo! So there was much wandering aimlessly and bagel-eating and gawking at Times Square. I'm not ashamed to say that I do really LOVE New York. It's madness on a stick... with lots of shouting in the background.
The main big news is that... CARNEGIE HALL WAS LAST NIGHT. How could I possibly describe the majesty of that to you?!?!? The line up was CocoRosie, Adem, Cibelle, Vetiver, us, Devendra Banhart and David Byrne curating/compering. Once again it was a mammoth collborative effort, a seamless show with no breaks between acts. And with only 9 hours of rehearsal together to prepare it was truly a miracle!!!
Arriving at that place, I felt so surreal. Like my hands were slightly too heavy and my head was a giant pom pom. Not sure that's the best explanation but it'll have to do. Now, I know this is what the Carnegie Hall is famous for... but the acoustic is actualy quite aStOUNDing! When I finally got my breath back after stepping out on stage for a peek, I played a single note on my flute and I've never heard anything like it. It soared through the air right to the back of the hall like it was a hot frisbee flying through a tunnel of butter!!!! Jeepers.
The show sold out, the hall was majestic, the sound was eagle-like and the camaraderie backstage was unrivalled in any gig i've ever known. I felt like the sense of priviledge might just burst me in two (especially when I spied my Dad's face in the crowd, beaming like a headlight, in his bow tie).
Absolutely awesome!
(And my flute didn't turn into an unmusical carrot mid-show you'll be pleased to hear!)
So here we are, the day after, in Philadelphia, our hair crackling with the static from the freezing cold, feeling like musical and emptional zombies. But i'm still energetic enough to be excited about the rest of this tour. We're soon to go to North Carolina where half of Vetiver hail from. They've told me about this place they're going to try and take us when we get there. There used to be an old lady who ran a kind of second hand/ vintage treasure trove of clothes and household items. Except when you went in to buy something and took it up to the counter, she would say "Oh that old thing? You don't want that?!?!? Oh no, I COULDN'T sell you that. SOrry"... She was so attached to everything that she could never bear to sell anything. SO it was really just a glorified crazy hoard open to the public and there was just more and more stuff collecting there. In the end the lady died and some artists took over the space. They kept all the things but divided them into objects of the same colour. So now the space, which is partially derelict, is just small corridoors running between huge piles and piles of crazy old objects of all colours of the spectrum blending into eachother, Apparently the white room is one of the most incredible things you've ever seen.
I can't wait....
And of course there's the music. And the people. And big old America.
Not sure many more words will come out of my head. It's really tired. But I'll try and blog later in the week with more interesting news of shennanigins. Hopefully I can embarass some fellow band members too!
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