The Home Depot Art and Hobby Store

I stopped by Home Depot the other day to check on the price of different wood options for some art I'm working on. I'm not exactly the handiest guy in the world, but I love Home Depot. As soon as I start wandering the aisles, I get ideas. Wild, fun and totally bizarre ones...that copper piping would make a great frame with some wire. Or a collage of these vents could be really cool. Maybe that gate would look good on a wall with one of those signs. Or a collage of those signs....It's endless.

So I'm roaming the lumber section and contractors are looking at me funny. They're there for work supplies and I'm in my city boy boots with nice jeans all clean and proper. Inevitably one of the guys that works there comes up, "can I help you, boss?" And I ask about the properties of caulking and whether it could spiral into a cone to make a volcano. Or how to use it to make an igloo. He looks at me, laughs and then tries to answer my question. I bet they get a lot of crazy questions working there...from those contractors, to the clueless "do it yourselfer", to the artists like me. Some of the people that work there really do know a lot. And I'm grateful.

Next time you're bored or in the mood for an adventure, I suggest a visit. Recommended visiting hours are after 10pm if your local store is open that late or weekday afternoons if you're fortunate enough to have the time to go during that window. Try the lumber section. Electrical. Plumbing and lighting.

Open your mind and have fun. A tin man made from foil and metal piping might be just what you need for your garden. Or a giant ball of multicolored tape could work beautifully in that entry way. What says, "I love you. C'mon in and relax" more than that?

Happy Tuesday

I can't believe it's been this long since my last post. Amazing...I find myself in the now familiar position of experiencing so much in the span of such a short time, it's impossible to keep up with my writing. The more I open myself up to my new life, the more it's opening itself to me.

Returning to Los Angeles has been difficult. I'm traveling still which helps (recent adventures include a 10 day Buddhist meditation course and a songwriter event in Colorado), but it's distracting for me here...and I miss Europe...the people, the way of life....the beauty. Not that LA isn't beautiful. It is. But it's not what my soul is calling for right now. I want quiet. I want nature. I want new experiences. I want to create more. So I've decided not to stay. I'm not sure where I'm going yet, but that's not a new concept for me. It'll reveal itself. I'll go on a couple pilgrimages and check it out.

Having had the experiences of the past 5 months has left me altered. I'm still me, but different. I'm not comfortable in my old clothes. I'm not comfortable in my old car. I'm not comfortable in my old city. It's weird, but I've learned to listen to these feelings and roll with them. Trust them. Let the old skin fall away. It's been fun shopping for new clothes. I go into these stores with absolutely no idea what I want. Literally. I wait for something to appeal to me and then I try it on. The sales person always asks "can I help you find something?"

"I don't know what I like anymore. Any suggestions?"

When I do find something, some of it works, and some is ridiculous. The boots I like. The new hat, yes. That scarfy thing at the Levi's store?....not so much. And that electric blue button down shirt was hilarious. It looked good in my mind...what can I say? At least I had the sense not to purchase it. Wish I could say that about that leather vest I bought in the 90's. It sat in my closet abandoned for years. I never took the tag off, but couldn't bring myself to donate it to the Indian Guides.

To say that I'm living in a new headspace is an understatement of apocolyptic proportions, but I can say this. As challenging as what I'm doing is for me, I've never felt so free, both emotionally and physically, calm, creative and content with my life.

Happy Tuesday

The Magic Hat

I lost my hat.
The magic hat.
It's been in almost every picture I've taken of myself on this European trip, as well as in all my videos.
I loved that hat.
I'm thinking of writing a eulogy for it. I either left it or dropped it somewhere around the train station in Marseilles while looking for the bus depot to take me to Aix-en-Provence. I had it. Walked 3 blocks to find the bus and when I there, it was gone. Vanished. And I was too tired to walk back up the hill. I had gone too far and would've had too many places to look. I had to let it go.

That hat could take any ensemble I came up with and make it look good, no matter how silly or questionable my hygeine i was. It was perfect for bad hair days...or when I just didn't want to deal with it. And being that I'm currently on a 10 day trip with only a tiny backpack (didn't want to bring the orange dufflebeast), it was the last shred of vanity I was clinging to. All bets are off now. I'm in hotels, so my skin is clean, but that's about all I can vouch for at this point.

I had to make some tough choices packing this bag. The razor didn't make it. Too heavy. And after 6 threatening emails from Ryanair about the weight limit for my carry on, I wasn't going to risk it. Couldn't I have made a different sacrifice? Perhaps. But 2 pair of pants wasn't going to cut it, and I had to bring all my work stuff.

I'm in Aix-en-Provence right now. Not exactly the fashion capitol of the world, but definitely a shoppers' delight. Unfortunately the only hats I've seen so far would either require me to also purchase a skateboard to have it look right, or I'd have to change my name to Pierre. "The Magic Hat" I loved so much was from Old Navy. Four dollars on the clearance rack, so you never know. I might get lucky. I have a small head though and hats aren't easy for me to find.

It's so hot and dry here, that my dried straw afro hair is right out there for us all to enjoy now. Me and anyone who happens to walk by and look in my general direction.

So the pros and cons of this moment?
Cons
I'm hatless and have bozo the clown hair.
I'm exhausted from not being able to sleep last night. The brain couldn't unplug. I got up at 5:30 for the obligatory urination and never made it back to the promiseland.
Pros
It's Saturday.
It's beautiful here.
It was time for a new look for me anyway.

Marseilles vs. San Pedro

I'm on the train to Cagnes sur mer right now to visit the Renoir house and begin my impressionist tour of southern France. I spent last night in Marseilles. My friend called it the "San Pedro of France", which in a sense is true, accept for the castles, museums, incredible food, and fresh fish markets every morning.

The people in Marseilles are also the nicest people I've met in France so far. Even the night clerk at my hotel after telling me my room wasn't in fact mine....
"Room 30 sil vous plez"
"That's not your room"
"Huh? I was in there earlier. My bag is on the floor and my name is in your book."

They make you check your keys before leaving most hotels in Europe, just so us tourists don't get drunk and throw our keys in the harbor or get mugged. It's understandable. They don't use disposable key cards like so many places in the US. These places were built 300 years ago some of them, and they hand you these skeleton keys that look like they could open a dungeon gate in a Hobbit movie.

So the clerk looks on his list...
"That is your room."
He cracks this great smile and starts laughing. He wasn't even mean denying me my key. Just matter of fact. So I laugh with him. I'm starving, so I decide to ask my new friend whether or not he has any food in the kitchen of the hotel. The town shut down early and I couldn't find anything on the way back.

He says "pain?" (bread)
I'll take anything..."oui."

He goes into the kitchen and cuts me off half this fresh french roll and puts it in the toaster. When it's finished, he comes out with the 2 pieces cut open on a plate, butter and jam. Doesn't charge me anything. I go out on the patio over the water (I put a couple of pics of the view from earlier that day) and ate my bread.

Outside of "The Ant Farm", we'll call it, that I stayed on my 2nd trip to Barcelona, this is the LEAST expensive place I've stayed in Europe. Right on the water. Incredible. ("The Ant Farm" by the way literally was infested with ants. In the hotel's defense, the night guy did offer me a can of Raid when he saw the were sold out and couldn't switch my room. Unfortunately the hotel also had paper thin walls, drunk people throwing parties, and a highly active sexual clientele. I'll check the guide book more carefully next time.)

Let's just say I'm happy to be at this hotel in Marseilles tonight. And really grateful to my new friend at the desk for helping me out.

Juanito

I went down to the palace tonight to have dinner. It's become a pretty regular routine for me. I work late and then get my meal "para llevar" (to go for you gringos out there) and sit down there soaking up one of my favorite sites in Europe.

It's Friday, so it was crowded and I had to wander around for a few minutes before I could find a spot to sit down. I got a good one. Front row just to the right of center. I'm enjoying my falafel salad with the fried cauliflower when this little girl sticks her head around the corner of the stone i'm leaning against. Her head pops out from the left side. Then the right. Then the left again. She has this beautiful white dress on and shiny shoes.

She asks me my name in Spanish and I'm excited to be able to not only understand her question, but offer a response. "Me llamo Rob". She tells me it's a pretty name. I'm flattered. Like the true local I've become, I toss out a couple of Spanish nuggets for her "y tú?" She says it's Juanito. I want to tell her it's a nice name too, but I can't remember the right expression, so I just smile.

She goes on to tell me she loves Madrid, asks me if I like her hair, and that the couple she is with isn't her parents. It's her aunt and uncle. She also says a couple things I don't understand and I either nod or ask her to clarify, but I'm pretty pleased with myself that we have carried on this long.

So I ask her "cuantos años?" and she says "seis". Juanito is 6 years old. She then says something else in spanish that I don't understand, so I say "yo soy de los estados unidos, y my español es muy malo". She then says, "I'm from Washington DC. I speak english too. Are we speaking English now?"

I guess we are.

Juanito is a bilingual 6 year old who lives in Washington DC. She's been here 20 days and goes home next week. Evidently she goes to spanish school so she can learn the language. I've been here 2 months, taken 6 years of spanish in middle school and started my rosetta stone course online. When the pressure is on, I can't remember how to tell her she has a pretty name.

She eventually tells me I'm handsome with my hat on, thanks me for talking to her and says goodbye. They're going to dinner now. So I finish my falafel and take the long way back to my flat.

I love my life. Another great night.

EXPRESS

I went and visited this painting the other day. It's called "Express" and is by a guy named Robert Rauschenberg if you've never seen it. It's at the Thyssen museum here in Madrid. It's what I was standing in front of when I got my "big idea" and also inspired me to dive more deeply into my visual art in addition to music.

It's one of those paintings that stands out. It's the last thing you see at this museum before they send you through the exit and into the shop. Three floors of priceless paintings by almost every important name in art for the past 700 years, and THIS is what they leave you with. That's saying a lot. I forgot how impressive it is to actually stand in front of it. I bought a little postcard of the image to take with me last time as inspiration. But I was blown away when I walked back into the room.

It's been really freeing to open up the restrictions I'd put on myself as a musician for so long. I was like a caveman.... "I....AM...MUSICIAN....I.....SING...SONG...FOR....YOU", while I scratched myself, jumping up and down, passionately grunting.

My life feels more natural now. I feel more honest with myself and you. I worked a lot this week. When I go to that place, it can be difficult. It's like the world ceases to spin on its axis. Sleeping is wrestless at best and even a stroll about the neighborhood doesn't really register. I'm exhausted. I think it's time for another mini road trip. Granada. I've been told it's a "must see" for me. I'm in.

I Just Found This

I'm organizing all my photos and just found this. i believe it was taken in Sun Valley, ID last year. Horrible quality taken with my crappy phone at night...but one of the greatest signs of all time!