Coming back from India the end of this month and planning to spend a few nights
in London.

Any suggestions on places to stay, eat, live music clubs etc will be greatly
appreciated.

I should be there January 27, 28, 29, 30

Thanks,

Bob

--- In garylucas@yahoogroups.com, Gary Lucas <gary@g...> wrote:
> ...It's hard to believe (I know) but today Caroline and I are
celebrating our 20th anniversary here in fabulous London...

>...and also please ut webmistress Tanya's splendid efforts as she has
so graciously put up photos from the recent spate of Fast 'n Bulbous
shows 3 blogs back or so in the entry titled Tight, Also...

Congratulations on the long love affair.  My spouse and I have also
succeeded in this area - 25 years and counting.

Thanks to Tanya for the photo posting.  Nice shots!  You have a new
photographer, Gary?  He does a nice job.

We hope to make it to at least one of your upcoming NYC appearances.

See you next year!

BS

-----Original Message-----
From: Gary Lucas [mailto:gary@...]
Sent: Sunday, December 26, 2004 1:03 PM
To: garylucas@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [garylucas] [Gary Lucas] In Christmas there is no East or West

"Christmas Time is Here Again!" So sang The Beatles on their 1968 Christmas record, a tres psychedelique christmas cookie recorded specifically for and distributed to their wordlwide fan club (a collection of all of these annual Moptop mistletoe missives came out as a boot awhile ago)...this tuneful little ditty has been playing in my head repeatedly as a counter-soundtrack to the blazing big guns of the offical Pop Anthems that bombard one as holiday soundtrack fodder here in jolly old London (even on the Virgin Atlantic flight over, one was soothed or subjected to, depending on how you feel about it, a medley of Xmas tunes by Slade, Band-Aid, the Beach Boys, and my favorite, Roy Wood's Wizzard's Phil Spectorish "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day"). But the Beatles Goon Show-esque recording wins hands down for sheer aural pleasure, at least in the mists of this veteran of the psychic war's recollection, and someone at EMI was remiss indeed in not liberating it from the archives and sharing it with the world at large this holiday season (who, remember, must be Fed)...later on on that '68 fans-only record one was treated to Paul (I believe) doing an acoustic Syd Barretish singalong to the (half-remembered, remember)Learlike lyric "Happy Christmas, Happy Easter, Happy Autumn, Happy Miggle Moose, Happy Christmas to You!" First one to write in and straighten me out as to the exact lyric therein (and whether it was indeed Paul or John singing this bit of whimsy)wins an advance copy of the new Fast 'n Bulbous album.

So in London we are indeed...Caroline and I staying in our favorite hotel, a Victorian mansion gone slightly to seed (the way we like it)in a beautiful non-hectic part of city...the bar filled with chancers, eccentrics, and various raffish characters..went wandering down England's Lane today, Boxing Day, everything shut but a crisp brilliantly sunny made-for-strolling kind of afternoon, popped into the Violette Cafe to be greeted with a "Hey Gary!" and lo and behold it was my old friend Anton Corbijn, ze famousz photographer to the likes of U2, Beefheart (Ice Cream for Crow) and yours truly (the cover of my Gods and Monsters album)...hadn't seen Anton since running into him at Bryan Ferry's afterparty in the Radio City bar during the Roxy Music reunion tour...he was looking well indeed, and we spent a couple of hours or so in his most congenial company...

I Love London! More later, meanwhile

Happy Christmas, Happy Easter, Happy Autumn, Happy Miggle Moose
Happy Christmas to YOU!

XXLove

Gary


--
Posted by Gary Lucas to Gary Lucas at 12/26/2004 01:23:25 PM

done, thank you

(I am a lousy typist, and Jersey City feels like Hoboken to me(

xxG
On Dec 23, 2004, at 11:16 AM, boscosmuffle wrote:

>
>
> I don't read blogs in general but I am enjoying this one.  Loved the
> Fast 'n Bulbous shows, and yes the band was tight!
>
> So sorry to be a nit-picker, but the following corrections could be
> made to a previous post:
>
> --- In garylucas@yahoogroups.com, Gary Lucas <gary@g...> wrote:
>> "...Upsala Universirty Campus in East Orange University..."
>
> This should read: Upsala University Campus in East Orange, NJ...
>
>> "...now it sits in a small office building in Hoboken..."
>
> Actually, the WFMU studios are now located in Jersey City.
>
> Carry on.
>
> -BS
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>

I don't read blogs in general but I am enjoying this one.  Loved the
Fast 'n Bulbous shows, and yes the band was tight!

So sorry to be a nit-picker, but the following corrections could be
made to a previous post:

--- In garylucas@yahoogroups.com, Gary Lucas <gary@g...> wrote:
>"...Upsala Universirty Campus in East Orange University..."

This should read: Upsala University Campus in East Orange, NJ...

>"...now it sits in a small office building in Hoboken..."

Actually, the WFMU studios are now located in Jersey City.

Carry on.

-BS

Fuckin' el those pictures from the 'cuse are cool. glam bam kid shazam. keep it
solid.

craig


Quoting Gary Lucas <gary@...>:

>
>
>
>
> Laid up at home for a couple days now with a spectacular head cold, my second
> this season...home is okay by me as the streets of the West Village where I
> live are a sodden miasma of 30 mph winds and chilly driving rains. The sky is
> crying, Elmore James sang, and in truth the floodgates seem to have opened up
> in tandem with the sad news of my friend Kevin Coyne's passing. And yet
> another death just reported to me, that of a fellow Syracusan, Joe Behnke,
> who did construction jobs in and around my building, killed in Iraq...it
> truly feels like the universe of absence this week...but perserverance in the
> face of tragedy, I am more determined than ever to rage against the dying of
> the light (Lucas derives from Lux, the Latin word for light; and in truth, I
> have always felt I was on a musical quest to throw light into dark corners).
> Improve the shining hour...
>
>
>
> And indeed we were throwing off much light and heat at the Knitting Factory
> last Friday night--my longtime band Gods and Monsters celebrating 15 years in
> action all present and accounted for with the added firepower of our
> brilliant spiky jazzy horn section (Jason Candler on alto sax and Joe Hendel
> on trombone), and guest vocalists Ellis Hooks, Amica, and China Satomi
> augmenting the rhythmic fury of Billy Ficca and Ernie Brooks. We just cut a
> track with Ellis in the studio singing a new version of "Grace", the song I
> co-wrote with former Gods and Monster Jeff Buckley (the original version has
> become an anthem, particularly in France, where they play it every day on the
> national radio)--and Ellis was in rare form live at the Knit, and gave a
> spectacular stomping performance. He is truly a modern soul man. We encored
> with Muddy's Mannish Boy, and rocked the house down...
>
>
>
> Much live activity happening soon, getting ready to play a solo performance
> at a tribute to John Lennon gig at the Bowery Poetry Club this Saturday
> night, a benefit for New Yorker's Against Handguns...and then Fast 'n Bulbous
> celebrate the release of our new Cuneiform CD "Pork Chop Blue Around the
> Rind" next Friday night Dec. 17th there, with special guest Denny Walley
> sitting in. The new CD is out Jan. 20th, but my co-leader/arranger Phillip
> Johnston and I thought we'd ring out a little Beefheartian cheer now in order
> to ring in the New Year properly in NYC...
>
>
>
> Meanwhile enjoy the photos herein (webmistress Tanya has promised to size and
> post them at the top of this blog soon, in exchange for a little
> Stoli--chocolate just won't do anymore!): the exuberant colorful drawing is
> by the visionary Swiss artist Henry Meyer who was inspired to create it
> spontaneously at my recent session in Lausanne with Gerald Zbinden at Artefax
> studio, Henry sat quietly in a corner and sketched and  painted while we we
> threw thunderbolts ...there's also a shot of sweet and patient studio whiz
> Bernard Amaudruz.
>
>
>
>  I hope the other two photos, retrieved by my sister Bonnie recently from the
> Lucas ancestral manse, and cataloguing various stages of my "fine fine
> superfine career" (pace Frank Zappa) make you smile as much as they do me.
>
>
>
> Stay stay stay warm...
>
>
>
> Gary
>
> --
> Posted by Gary Lucas to Gary Lucas at 12/7/2004 07:09:02 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
>
>
>   ADVERTISEMENT
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
> To visit your group on the web, go to:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/garylucas/
>  
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> garylucas-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>  
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

Hi everyone,

I said that the blog posts would be automatically forwarded to the list
from now on, but I goofed up the address -- sorry! I fixed it and it should
happen from now on.

There is a new post up on the blog, read it here: http://garylucas.com/www/blog/


Best, Tanya
panacea@...

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that Gary has started a blog, which you
can read from his website (http://www.garylucas.com/), or you can go
directly to the blog here: http://www.garylucas.com/www/blog/

The first posts is up now, and you can leave comments if you'd like!
Subsequent posts will be emailed to the list automatically.

Best,
Tanya Strano
panacea@...

Those good old major triad constructions counting 1 3 5 from root to 3rd and 5th
intervals. bee the E with 3 singing E's. Gary likes open A too.

Open A : E A E A C# E ( Low Yo to High)

Craig Chalone and Igor the Dog


Quoting fp7058 <fp7058@...>:

> --- In garylucas@yahoogroups.com, "Tanya Strano" <panacea@i...>
> wrote:
> > Hi Jose, welcome to the group! Gary does read the messages, and he
> says
> > that this song is in "open E tuning".
>
> Hi Tanya,
>
> thanks to both you and Gary for the quick response.  Open E, huh?
> Just for everyone else in the group who are interested, that's
> E/B/E/G#/B/E (low-to-high).
>
> Best regards,
> Jose from Toronto.
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>

--- In garylucas@yahoogroups.com, "Tanya Strano" <panacea@i...>
wrote:
> Hi Jose, welcome to the group! Gary does read the messages, and he
says
> that this song is in "open E tuning".

Hi Tanya,

thanks to both you and Gary for the quick response.  Open E, huh?
Just for everyone else in the group who are interested, that's
E/B/E/G#/B/E (low-to-high).

Best regards,
Jose from Toronto.

Hi Jose, welcome to the group! Gary does read the messages, and he says
that this song is in "open E tuning".

Best,
Tanya

>Good People,
>
>I'm a new member here and wanted to post regarding Gary's song on
>Guitar Harvest.
>
>I'm interested in learning how to play it and was wondering if
>anyone (esp. Gary himself) would let me know if it's in a specific
>tuning other than standard.  If so, what is the tuning?
>
>Best regards,
>Jose from Toronto.

Good People,

I'm a new member here and wanted to post regarding Gary's song on
Guitar Harvest.

I'm interested in learning how to play it and was wondering if
anyone (esp. Gary himself) would let me know if it's in a specific
tuning other than standard.  If so, what is the tuning?

Best regards,
Jose from Toronto.

--- begin forwarded text

Subject: NYTimes.com Article: Asian Music, Accompanied by the A Train
Date: Wed,  7 Jul 2004 00:04:30 -0400 (EDT)

The article below from NYTimes.com
has been sent to you by normans@....

Asian Music, Accompanied by the A Train

July 6, 2004
   By YILU ZHAO

Zhisheng Zhang, the 10th-generation descendant of a Chinese
court musician, descended into the Times Square subway
station and unfolded his stool on a platform. He took out a
Chinese mouth organ, called a sheng, wiped it carefully
with a piece of clean cloth and closed his eyes.

As notes from the prelude of "Carmen" pierced the humid
air, Mr. Zhang - whose great-great-grandfathers played for
Manchu emperors, whose father performed for Communist army
generals and who was himself a member of China's best
traditional music orchestra - began another workday,
playing for the subway riders of New York.

There are many like Mr. Zhang, established musicians from
China who perform daily in the city's bowels. Convinced
that the best music, Western or Asian, is truly borderless
and that their own talents are sufficient to make ends meet
anywhere, these artists have converged on New York like the
philosophers and poets who swarmed to Athens in classical
times. They feel not just lured, but pushed; China, in
their view, has turned its back on traditional music in
favor of the pop dazzle of Britney Spears.

"I want to try my luck in New York," Mr. Zhang, 42, said,
speaking in Mandarin. "In China serious artists like us
aren't as respected as pop singers. That's not right. Maybe
Americans can see the true appeal of Chinese music, and I
can make my way to the grand concert halls in New York."

Though many of the underground musicians dream of fortune
and homes in the suburbs, or at the least of bringing their
children to the United States after gaining footholds
themselves, for now most of them live in simple apartments
in Chinatown or Flushing, Queens, and barely eke out a
living. Before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, many of the
musicians said, an eight-hour day of performing at a subway
station fetched an average of $70. Since then their income
has dropped by roughly a third because of the economic
doldrums and, they speculate, increased suspicion of
foreigners.

Besides the subway, they often perform concerts at
universities, community centers, parks and at the Asia
Society in Manhattan.

"We have some very high-caliber Chinese artists here," said
Rachel Cooper, director of performing arts and public
programs at the society. "We have a very discriminating
audience here in New York, and there is a real hunger,
openness and appreciation for fine music, including Chinese
music. There is a real hunger to understand it."

Cultural organizations in Chinatown and Flushing also know
many of the musicians and invite them to play. Occasionally
New Yorkers who have met them at subway stations ask them
to perform at weddings or birthday parties. Some of the
musicians have tried to supplement their incomes by working
in restaurants but have found the work too tedious for the
small wages.

Mr. Zhang lived in Beijing until January, when he was
invited by the Wossing Center for Chinese Arts, Language
and Culture in Chinatown to play in a concert tour at
universities and public libraries in the northeastern
United States. Soon after the tour he decided to stay in
New York and apply for permanent residency. Many other
Chinese musicians of similar rank have become legal
residents and American citizens by proving their
exceptional talents to the federal immigration agency.

Unlike most professional musicians in China who studied in
formal conservatories, Mr. Zhang learned as a child from
his father how to play the sheng, a multipiped instrument
invented at least two millennia ago. Mr. Zhang's family,
originally from a village outside Beijing, has passed the
secret knowledge, possessed only by top performers, from
fathers to sons for 10 generations, he said.

"I love this stuff, playing the sheng," Mr. Zhang said.
"It's in my blood. I don't want to give it up. If
traditional Chinese music gets fashionable in America,
maybe it will become more popular in China, too."

Often, though, the musicians have a dim view of their art
form's future in China, and they blame the flood of Western
and Hong Kong pop music for its dwindling popularity.

"When a young child expresses some interest in studying
music, the parents would say: `You learn to do the pop
stuff. That brings you money and fame,' " said Hao Qian, a
well-known performer on a two-string instrument, the erhu,
who used to travel in the same musicians' circles in
Beijing as Mr. Zhang.

"It's the music from our 5,000-year civilization that's now
worthless," added Mr. Qian, who now also makes his living
at Manhattan subway stations.

The relentless destruction across China of temples,
monasteries and nunneries under Mao Zedong's rule between
1949 and 1976 added to the musicians' woes.

"Most of the old Chinese music is really meant to be played
in temples," Mr. Zhang said. "Without the temples, how can
one perform true Chinese music?"

Since the early 1980's government subsidies to music
troupes have gradually dried up with China's embrace of a
market economy, and private donations have not picked up
the slack. While most pop music groups take in extra income
by playing at clubs and parties, some traditional music
ensembles, particularly those based outside major cities
like Shanghai and Beijing, sit idle for months on end.

Huadong Liu, who played yang qin, a dulcimerlike
instrument, in a prestigious troupe in northeastern China,
said he made just over $100 a month - less than most urban
residents - before coming to the United States three years
ago. Now he races to claim a choice spot in underground New
York.

"Sometimes I spend two to three hours in the morning just
to find the right platform," said Mr. Liu, who calls his
wife and 17-year-old son in China twice a week as he saves
money to send for them. "If you get stuck at a platform
with little foot traffic or lots of hurried people, you
cannot even make $20 a day."

Julie Tay, director and founder of the Wossing Center, said
such musicians can find the adjustment to the United States
hard. "Since their language is muted, their art tends to be
muted, too," she said. "The worst thing is to see them come
here, get frustrated, start driving a limo two or three
years down the road, and the traditional Chinese music goes
down the drain."

Mr. Zhang is divorced and has a 15-year-old son back home.
In China he performed mostly in grand concert halls like
the People's Great Hall in Beijing. He was designated as a
"national first-class performer" on the sheng by the
Chinese government, the highest level available and an
honor won by only 10 other performers.

At first he had a great deal of trepidation about playing
his sheng at subway stops.

"The Chinese have always seen street musicians as beggars,"
he said. "Where would I put my face if somebody from home -
or worse, somebody from the orchestra - finds out?"

He has overcome that anxiety now, he said, after running
into other subway musicians he considers top-notch. "It
looks to me that many musicians from other countries come
here to New York, and everybody starts from the subway
station," he said. "I figured out that it's a New York
tradition." Mr. Zhang says he sends $200 home to his son
and former wife whenever he can.

For many of the transplanted musicians the day starts at
8:30 a.m. They hurry to their favorite subway platforms
lugging their instruments, stools and sometimes amplifiers.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority allows musicians
to perform at subway stations without permits so long as
they do not interfere with traffic. "It's a protection of
their First Amendment rights," said Mercedes Padilla, an
M.T.A. spokeswoman.

There is a pecking order of subway stations understood by
almost everybody in the trade. The Columbus Circle stop and
the station at Lexington Avenue and 59th Street top the
list. The Times Square station and those close to New York
University can also bring brisk business. Stops at
Pennsylvania Station and Grand Central Terminal are all
right on weekends. But whatever the location, the platforms
are humid in summers and frigid in winters.

Many musicians change locations from day to day so as not
to bore commuters, most of whom, the artists say, have
showed them proper respect.

"When I put my heart into the performance," said Xuanpei
Ge, a player of the di, a one-pipe Chinese flute, "I get
really warm, prolonged applauses. I could see the
audience's respect from their eyes, the attentiveness when
they listen and the way they bow after you finish. Some
even give me water and fruit in hot summers. It's just very
moving."

Mr. Zhang speaks little English and is taking night lessons
to catch up. Some subway riders have tried to speak with
him, he said, and he could only speculate whether they have
asked him about his instrument, invited him to perform at
parties or said something else entirely.

"If I want to seize opportunities to advance my career," he
said, "I must learn to speak English."

Like many musicians, he has discovered that Western music
adapted (often by him) for Chinese instruments draws the
warmest response. Although the Chinese scale differs from
the Western scale, lacking some half notes, the musicians
have adapted pieces as different as Mozart's nocturnes and
the soundtrack of "The Godfather."

"The subway riders seem to really like the tunes they are
familiar with, particularly the fast, happy ones," Mr.
Zhang said. "Once I played a slow, sad Chinese song, and it
made one old lady cry. She made a gesture to ask me to
stop."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/06/arts/music/06CHIN.html?ex=1090173070&ei=1&en=a\
e6b296019388075.


Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

--- end forwarded text