Quick Update

Hey there everyone, just want to touch base if anyone is paying attention.

Thus far I have been in Amsterdam, Berlin and Munich where I am at the time of this writing. After this I will be stopping in Interlaken, Switzerland for a few days before heading to Venice, Florence, La Spezia, Rome and Barcelona.

I think I have time to tell one story

After a failed attempt to catch a concert by a once famous Berlin based Krautrock band, I came back to my hostel and sat at the bar. It just so happened that I was placed in a room with a touring british rock band that also was sitting at the bar. We hung out there for a bit, talking about various things tangentially related to making music before eventually improvising a short duet of guitar and ukulele. As we were playing, a guy came over and befriended us. His name was Rene, and one of the more interesting people I have ever encountered in my life. Rene is black, his father is from the States and his mother is from Ghana but he was born and raised in Berlin. Eventually the topic of conversation drifted towards the concept of freedom, and freedom within a society. Rene said that he has been everywhere and he thinks that Berlin, ironically enough, is the freest city in the world. From what I experienced, I don't think that the statement is innacurate. Since freedom is the rallying cry and central tenant of all things done in America, inevitably we fell into The Amercia Conversation. What he said, his sentiments may have been a central turning point in my life.

I haven't encountered any real anti-american sentiment and I think it is because I think there is a great degree of understanding abroad about complexity of our political situation. What I mean is that from the perspective of a European who encounters travelling Americans, there appears to be a serious disconnect between the public dialoge in the media (with its gross oversimplication, reductionism and sloganing)and the dialoge of real Americans. From what I have heard, the sort of Americans who travel and wish to engage into political conversations during their trips tend to be artliculate, contrite and generally well-informed. John Edwards campainged on the idea of there being two Americas and I tend to agree with him, though not in the sense he was talking about. There seems to be a particular breed of Americans that have escaped. I dont mean that in a literal sense, I mean that there is a horrible churning mass of shallow materialism, ignorance, religious fanaticism and racism that seems to suck in a large part of the population. The ones who are able to swim free from all of this look down upon the whole mess with disgust but gain a kind of sweetness from the struggle. If I may quote my Australian friend Keppie:

"For every truly beautiful, inspired person I meet, I encounter 10 who talk and think in a string of clichés and appear to be living according to television scripts. And the two things are connected. When the culture and government are so shrouded in layers of deception and attempts to stultify and homogenise people’s interests and tastes, the kind of people whose intellectual or creative buoyancy lifts them above it are generally more intense, more angry, more passionate, more subtle, more invested, and have such an acute love for humanity, than I think is produced by most other Western cultures."

And that is the pride that I feel as an American. I feel such an intense bond with these particular brand of people and I wish to express this America as I travel .

Anyway, the thing that Rene said to me was this:

"I know that you're intelligent and you're sorry and Bush probably, no definitely stole the election twice but Bush is still your president. Two times. Two fuckin' times. No matter what, that is what people will think when you say you're an American. Two fuckin times. So you got a decision to make, you're still young. If thats your America then say it loud and clear, 'Two fuckin times!' Two fingers doen't mean peace it means two fuckin times. If that's not who you are then you got some thinkin to do. Now I was raised in Germany, but I'm not a german. That's not my identity, I am a human being. But that's not to say I don't love this place, I feel free as a bird here. I love this place NOW. Things change, idenities change, you don't gotta have pride for something if its hurtin't you. Have pride in being a human being."

I liked that.