— Bunny Rabbit! 30 April 2010 —
We (Cathy, Bo Jacob, and I) are on the road. It’s nice to be out here making music with my friends. Bo hasn’t toured with us for 25 years. He lives in Virginia. He’s about 5’9”. He looks good to me now. He took a government job and for some years was in the CIA. He’s got some great stories.
Here’s what I had for breakfast: (NbC – I’ll edit this.)
….at least, that’s what I told the Finns.
Anyway, we’ve had a show in Helsinki, one in Oslo and tonight we play Bergen. I’d never been in Helsinki before. They had a big bookstore right near the hotel. In Los Angeles, you hardly see a bookstore any more. You also don’t see this many young people with white hair. It’s not true that they look like Eskimos. Though strangely enough, I seem to be a big favorite among the Eskimo population in these countries. I’m playing Santa’s workshop in the fall opening for Joni Mitchell, one of my all time favorite singer-songwriter philosophers. Naturally, given the nature of what I do on stage I have to worry about English proficiency. In Scandinavia everyone speaks English. For the Finns, it’s a necessity, I guess. The only language Finnish is related to is Hungarian. (NbC – I’ve heard him say that 20 times.) We went to a restaurant in Helsinki. Inadvertently, Cathy ate some bear. You are what you eat. Inadvertently, I ate some reindeer. It sickened me to think of what I’d done. Bo ordered Bunny Rabbit and ate every last bit of it. (NbC – Now he’s hopping around like he dropped a big crmjed on his phlaktost! sp?)
I used to perform in Scandinavia years ago. The promoter was a guy who was connected to ABBA in a fortunate way. He never made any money on my shows. He didn’t need to. Finally, after a slow night in Stockholm, even he said, “Vramt! (Enough!)” And we haven’t played there since.
There are no clocks in any of the hotel rooms that we’ve stayed in. Maybe they’re right. Speaking of the hotel room, a funny thing happened. I turned on the television in Bergen some while after we’d checked in. (NbC – like about 20 seconds) I couldn’t change channels with the remote. It said to fill in the room number. At first I thought it was for some paid service but after awhile I put the room number in. Let’s say room number 1. When I entered it, I saw that it was indeed a paid service. Do you think I should call down to reception and cancel the service, which I’m getting for free? Send your answers to the Newman Foundation in Tulsa OK along with 10 Euros.
Bye for now,
Randy
