After a somewhat bumpy ride, I landed in Mexico City to a gorgeous day of 80 degrees and sunshine.

Juan and ofia were waiting for me at the airport, so all went !ery smoothly e!en though I had to wait in a ridiculously long line at customs. Mexican efficiency at it"s best. of#a showed me the latest copy of ""$l %uscador"", the maga&ine that Juan wor's for which has a monthly circulation of (0,000 and I"m on the co!er) *ow. oon after arri!ing at their apartment, I was off to my first rehearsal with Antes del +lacier, the band of Juan"s son , also named Juan. I"m going to be playing guitar on a trac' for their next disc, so I attended their rehearsal so I could get an idea of the tune and play throuhg it a few times. -he band is considered .ew Age here and their sound is in the neighborhood of /angelis or 0itaro , but with a 'ind of techno1trance !ibe. -he tune is pretty cool and it will be fun to play on it. After practice I went with Juan 2r., his girlfriend 3anny, and $duardo the percussionist 4he5ll also be playing in my band6. *e went to !iew some ancient ruins in the middle of Mexico City. -here was also a Cathedral from the early con7uistador epoch that was impressi!e. *e then went in see' of food. After trying 8 restaurants that were closed we finally decided on this little hole in the wall 9 literally. -he houses here are right on the street 9 2ust sidewal' then the house"s outer wall. -hey ha!e nothing li'e what we5d call a yard. *ell some people blow out part of the wall of their house to ma'e it open to the street so they can operate a restaurant out of the house. :eople can wal' off the street right thru the hole in the wall and eat in their house. -he food was hea!y with grease but it was tasty and they told me that this is ""muy mexicano"". -he next day I slept in li'e a slug and basically had the day free. ;ater I met with <ueben, a teacher at one of the schools I"m gi!ing a clinic at. =e used to play for a li!ing but now teaches full time because it"s so hard for a musician to earn a li!ing here. 4surprise, surprise6 *e seemed to hit it off and got into se!eral deep philosophical discussions on music. It"s still a little bit of a struggle, but it"s great to be able to ha!e such in depth con!ersions in panish. -he following wee' I found out that <ueben grew up in *ashington >.C. and spea's nati!e perfect $nglish, but he didn5t let on at this meeting. *e went to the cafe on the corner of Juan and ofia"s street to hang out. ;ater Juan showed up and we got into more musical philosophy. Juan and I would continue the lines of thought for se!eral days in continued discussions. *e ha!e to settle on a bassist for the concerts. Apparently there will be the ( festi!al gigs, ( clinics and a club date. ?ne bassist who is supposed to be one of the best in the city is a!ailable for the festi!al dates but not the rest. Another, named Mario, is younger and less experienced but is a!ailable for e!erything. I5m leaning toward using one bassist for e!erything but I"ll ha!e to play with Mario and see how it goes. ?n -uesday Juan and I went to ""$l @ocalo"" to see the -emplo Mayor and -he Cathedral. -he -emplo Mayor is the remains of an A&tec -emple for the worship of the sun. It"s impressi!e. *ith my typical American ignorance, I had no idea that the A&tecs were such warring people and had such a pessimistic !iew of the world. I also didn"t 'now that Mexico City used to sit in the middle of a la'e that the con7uistadors drained to build the city. -he weather here has been incredible 9 80 degrees e!ery day with A00B sun. It5d probably be really blue if not for the smog. I went out for a run my second day here and I completely forgot about the altitude. Mexico City is at something li'e (C00 meters and I found myself suc'in5 wind pretty bad after about 8 minutes. I had to cut the run short lest I 'ill myself and pay the price. -here is a nice par' near Juan and ofia"s house that"s

ideal for running in. -hey li!e in a pretty tran7uil neighborhood and they turned me onto an outrageously good little restaurant on the corner a bloc' from their house. -hey ser!e e!ery Mexican food you"!e e!er heard of plus (00 more. Dou can get stuffed for about E8.C0. -oday $duardo the percussionist and Mario the bassist came o!er for our first rehearsal. $duardo has studied percussion in Africa and has a nice raw feel to his playing although he lac's a lot of experience in a band setting since the bul' of his experience has been in pure percussion ensembles that accompany dancers. =e is eager to learn and he ta'es well to suggestions on what he might do to help the tunes out. Mario is a !ery good young 4maybe (C6 bassist and can read well to boot. =is solos fall easy on the ears and don"t sound at all clichFd. =e too is !ery eager to learn. I don"t see any reason to use the other bassist. =e can"t rehearse and can only ma'e the festi!al gigs whereas Mario can do it all and I en2oy his playing. >ecision made. ?ne thing that I find interesting but not at all surprising is that on the latin fla!ored tunes I don"t ha!e to tell the guys a thing 9 they 2ust hear the groo!e and within a bar ha!e it nailed to the foor. =owe!er the shuffle feel of " tridin" is a problem for both of them. I had to gi!e them a fairly in9depth lesson on how to play a shuffle. -hey"!e pic'ed it up pretty well and I don"t thin' we"ll ha!e any problem with the tune. I 2ust found out that I will ha!e to gi!e an inter!iew at the public radio station. I"m a little ner!ous since the station has a potential audience of (0 million and I ha!e to do the inter!iew in panish. <eally, public radio here has e!en less public support than in the G , so I don"t thin' that many people will be listening. till, I"m a little ner!ous. *e went and chec'ed out the theater where the second day of the festi!al will ta'e place. It"s a !ery cool old building that"s been con!erted into a theater1art gallery. Mexico City is di!ided into H Colonies that ha!e a certain amount of self9rule, especially in cultural and recreation matters. -his theater is the colony of an Angel cultural center and they ha!e plays, concerts and art exhibits going year round. -he acoustics are great and that always gi!es an added boost to one"s confidence before a show. -he first day of the festi!al will be at an auditorium on the north end of the city and they tell me that the space is sort of gymnasium9li'e and the sound lea!es a lot to be desired. -hey also tell me, howe!er, that the sound guy is !ery good and has experience in the room. I hope so. I had my first 2oyous experience with the Mexico City bus system today. I wanted to go to the Museum of Modern Art so Juan and ofia ga!e me instructions on how to ta'e the bus. 3irst I got on a bus going south instead of north. I as'ed a fellow standing next to me if we were coming up to :aseo de la <eforma, the street I needed to get off at. =e told me basically ""dude, you"re going the wrong way 9 it"s way bac' the other way"". >oh. o I got off, crossed the street and hopped a bus going the opposite way. After 7uite a while I as'ed the same 7uestion of a fellow passenger and he said ""you already passed it, it"s bac' there"". =e didn"t seem A00B confident and I 'now that a Mexican is loath to admit he can"t help you, so I as'ed another fellow. =e said the same thing. o I thought ""doh s7uared"" and got off the bus. I saw an upstanding loo'ing businessman and as'ed him 2ust to ma'e sure. =e said ""it5s right ahead"". 9 in the direction I had 2ust been going) o I hopped bac' on another bus and sure enough 9 the businessman was the one with the right answer. I got off at la <eforma and hopped on another bus to go to the museum. -his time the bus dri!er was 'ind enough to tell me I was getting on a bus headed the wrong way. -he other dri!ers were assholes and didn5t tell me a thing. -his guy ga!e me instructions on how to catch the right bus. I did as he said and hopped yet another bus.

-his bus dri!er told me we were definitely headed to the museum so I felt relaxed. -he next thing I 'now we pull into this mar'et area that 'ind of doubles as a bus station and he par's the bus and par's and e!eryone gets off. .ow I"m li'e ""what the fBEI"". A young guy comes up to me who had apparently obser!ed me as'ing the dri!er if we were going by the museum. =e wanted to try out his $nglish and tried to explain to me how to get to the museum from where we were. =e was struggling 7uite a bit and I decided I"d better repeat his instructions bac' to him in panish to ma'e sure I understood what he was telling me. =e affirmed it. I followed his instructions and came to where I was supposed to turn left and there were 8 different streets to turn !arying degrees of left onto. Argh) I as'ed a shoeshine dude where the museum was and he told me it was closed) %y this time my attitude was basically ""whate!er"" and I 2ust pic'ed a street to wal' down. I figured that I was already here I might as well wal' around and see what there was to see. I wal'ed for about a bloc' when a saw a sign for the museum on another street corner. I followed the arrows and sure enough 9 the museum) I wal'ed up to the tic'et booth and the guy in the booth told me that only ( exhibits were open because they were preparing a huge exhibit. It was only a buc' and half admission so I said ?0. -he shoeshine guy was semi9correct after all. 3ortunately, one of the exhibits was of the cubist wor' of >iego <i!era and they had an excellent representation of his paintings from that period. It was worth it after all but *=A- A =A ;$)) -he return trip wasn"t a problem because first I 'new route now and second I as'ed the museum fol's before I left to ma'e sure I was headed the right way. *ell, the festi!al was last wee'end. It was an artistic success but a bit of an economic bust. -he first night we played in an auditorium of a pri!ate school way on the north end of Mexico City, which is a =G+$ city. ?n the way I got to see a sampling of the ab2ect po!erty that exists here as well as passing through some of the finer neighborhoods. -he discrepancy between rich and poor here is terrible and I fear the G is headed toward a similar place. -he sound in the auditorium was less than perfect but the sound guys did a decent 2ob of getting some clarity out of the system. At show time there were probably only J0 people in the hall but the hall wasn"t !ery big so it didn"t seem painfully empty. -he opening act was a bunch of professors of music therapy. -heir leader got up and ga!e an incredibly boring 809minute speech before they played a note e!en though they were only supposed to play (C minutes in total. ome people. I didn"t stay out front for the whole thing because there"s nothing worse than listening to a boring speech in your second language and you ha!e to wor' to follow what is said. -he second act was a soloist operating under the name ""-eyas"". =e played pure .ew Age stuff. It was nice, but !ery static music. After his (C minutes, Mario, $duardo and I too' the stage for our 8C9 minute set. 3rom the first note, it was one of those nights where nothing can go wrong. Mario and $duardo nailed the tunes and I felt li'e I could hear e!ery note ( bars before I played it and my hands deli!ered without me ha!ing to do anything. -he audience, although small, was !ery into it and was with us from the first number. %etween tunes my rap in panish was flowing li'e the music and I felt completely comfortable winging it and ma'ing 2o'es. If only it was always li'e that. -hey audience lo!ed ""<ueben"s -rain"" on the dulcimer and the blues fla!or of our closer, K tridinK, was a big hit as well. I stayed on the stage after we were done because I played on the first tune of Antes del +lacier"s set. -hat went well also. After the show ended we bugged out fairly 7uic'ly because the next day"s show at the Cultural Center started and AAL00 and sound chec' was

at 8L80. After a short night"s sleep we got up and headed to the cultural center. At the conclusion of our sound chec', I wal'ed down the little staircase on the front on the stage and when I stepped off, I found the floor to be split at ( different le!els and too' a nose di!e. I instincti!ely reached out with my right arm to brea' my fall and 2ammed the middle finger of my right hand. At first I thought nothing really happened but after AC minutes I reali&ed that I had a full blown sprained finger. howtime wasn"t far off so I 2ust had to deal with it. :laying with a pic' wasn"t bad but the fingerstyle stuff was a struggle to say the least. I remember seeing ;ed @eppelin in AMHC when Jimmy :age played with a bro'en middle finger on his left hand. I decided that if he could do it, so would I. -eyas as'ed if I would sit in on a number in his set 4which immediately preceded ours6 and I said yes. I was able to play o' 4with a pic'6 but when I returned to the stage with Mario and $duardo for our set the guitar had drifted out of tune. I hate starting a set with tuning but I had no choice. -hen our first number starts with me playing ( minutes of solo flamenco. -here is nothing worse for a right hand with a sprained finger than flamenco because all the rasguedos and golpes in!ol!e the middle finger. It was a bit of a struggle but I got through it. -hat sort of set the tone for the set and nothing really wor'ed 7uite right. It wasn"t terrible or anything but it 2ust ne!er 7uite clic'ed. -he dulcimer was a big hit again and we closed strong with tridin once again so we wal'ed away not feeling too bad. I didn"t tell anyone about my finger before the set because I didn"t want anyone 4but me6 to worry. After the set it was apparent that I had to deal on it. I went with ;aura, of#aNs friend to find ice at a gas station. -he crowd was better at the cultural center but still only filled about half of the (C0 seats. I sold AC cds between the ( shows, which basically will pay for all my touristy acti!ities this wee' since after the clinic this afternoon and club gig tonight I"!e finished my professional obligations. I still might go and do a little sitting in at clubs, but that"s it. %y today the finger is a lot better and the finger style stuff isn"t much of a problem. -he flamenco howe!er is still pretty rough. Gnfortunately, I"m only going to do one flamenco number at each e!ent because I don"t want to fumble through it 9 or worse 9 mess up my finger e!en more. ?n Monday morning I went to a studio with Juan Carlos and his dad to record the tune that I"d played with them on stage. -he studio was small and the engineer was running Cubase ;$ to record. =e had no midi interface on his :C 4OOO6 and that meant that Juan Carlos had to dump his se7uences as audio into the audio input of the computer. I played along and we got a decent ta'e on the second pass. Afterwards we sat around listening to tunes and shooting the bree&e with the owners of the studio who ha!e a band that plays traditional ;atin fol' music. -hey"re not incredible players but fol' music really sounds better to me when it"s not played too cleanly and proficiently. -heir sound was !ery nice all around. -hey were nice guys too and they were frea'ing out on the +odin guitar as are most fol's down here. Apparently +odin has little or no distribution here and that stri'es me as cra&y because their nylon string is great and the nylon string guitar is the axe of ;atin music. -he guitar is a bit rich for most budgets here but still I bet they"d sell a ton. It"s interesting the prices here. ome things are cheap 9 apartments cost EJ00 9 EP00 instead of a grand and up and a flic' in the theatre costs J buc's instead of 8. =owe!er a coffee still costs (98 buc's 4 tarbuc's is e!erywhere6 and a guest admission at a health club costs A0 buc's 2ust li'e in the states. -axis are a little less but still aren"t cheap.

;ast night I did a clinic at the music store /eer'amp, which seems to be the am Ash of Mexico. -he clinic was at their main store and they ha!e a small auditorium for concerts and clinics. -here were only about AC9(0 people there but they were interested in the music and as'ed 7uite a few 7uestions. -he ""Americana"" things I play seem to interest the people here, especially the dulcimer. It"s all a little exotic for them and I thin' that pi7ues their interest. <ueben, a teacher at the school 3ermatta, has a theory about the dulcimer. =e thin's it resonates with the Mexican people because the instrument comes from Appalachia where the people are poor and the Mexican people, who understand po!erty !ery well, hear something in it"s sound that stri'es a chord inside them. I li'e the theory. After the clinic the school 43ermatta6 sent a !an to pic' up the band and ta'e us to a club where we played a show sponsored by the school. -he school got radio airplay for my disc on ( different radio stations and a few people told me that they heard the tunes. -hat ma'es 8 radio stations that ha!e played my tunes in ( wee's. -hat"s as good as in Chicago in AC years. -he club is beautiful 9 it loo's li'e something straight out of .ew Dor' City and seats well o!er A00. -he club was 80B full 9 a large percentage were students from the school 9 but on a -uesday night that"s an excellent crowd anywhere. omeone told me that it was the largest crowd at the club since opening night 9 what an honor. I went to hear $ugenio -oussaint last night at the soulbar where I played the pre!ious night. =e"s a !ery good player but his bag is pretty run of the mill. =is original tunes are a little dry for my taste but he selected some nice co!ers by Jaco :astorious, $gberto +ismonti and <alph -owner. -he bassist and drummer were !ery good players as well and I rather en2oyed the drummer"s playing 9 it was 7uite understated. I went with Juan 2r. and the club treated us !ery nicely. -hey wai!ed the admission and ga!e us the best seats in the house to boot. Claudia, the e!ent director for the school brought the director of 3ermata o!er to our table to introduce us. =e was !ery nice and told me that he heard the concert went well and in!ited me bac' to do something li'e a clinic or wor' with the teachers on something. All in all it was a nice experience. I can see how one might get used to being treated li'e a /I:.