109. MAMA BUZZ & THE ROOFTOP

We went to the art collective Rock Paper Scissors today. That was pretty cool, and we're happy to see volunteer-run collectives that make things go 'round even in this economical climate.


Anna and Alex bought a few small items from their store and then we headed to Mama Buzz to get some vegan food. The food was good and the venue real cosy.


Unfortunately they hadn't promoted the gig in any way and we even had to put up posters last-minute ourselves. So no one was there for the music, and no one even hardly knew there was gonna be any music. But Anna and Harju played beautifully anyhow, and we hope to see a change in attitude.


The art was awesome (although a bit anonymous as well) and we hope to see Mama Buzz focus a bit more on the arts so that all artists get the promotion they deserve.

We really liked the political issues coming forth in the works. "Bay to Taipei" by graffiti artist Optimist.

Oh yeah, we found the rooftop (of the old CANDY store that we're staying in!)!

Some red wine and a movie. Tomorrow Pittsburg!

//t.p.c.

108. BRAIN WASH & HAIGHT-ASHBURY!

Hi folks, friends and fans!

Yesterday we headed for our new home in Oakland! The very generous photographer Scott Kosits is lending us his apartment even though he's out of town most of the week. And what an apartment! It's a studio apartment with living room, bedroom, kitchen, office and photo studio all in one with a high ceiling and gorgeous pictures on the walls.


When we got settled in we headed into the city, and the very cool laundromat, cafe and club Brainwash! We did some laundry in a machine named Yo'Mam (we did the drying in Nacho!), had some coffee and waited for the Open Mic to get started. Which took some time.
The guy who was supposed to host it didn't show up and no one seemed to know if it was gonna happen or not. Finally someone else took out the sound system and tried to get the show going. Unfortunately that was someone who didn't know what he was doing and he was very unprofessional running around moving mics and what not during people's sets. But Anna did her two songs and we also kinda liked a Jeremy who played after her (and borrowed her guitar!).


Today we overslept and rushed into the city again, this time to visit the legendary Hyde Street Studios where Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival and other cool people recorded back in the days! And some cool people are still recording there of course, maybe it will be us someday! We like the Neve 8048 and the atmosphere there, and give our big thanks to studio manager Jeff Cleland for showing us around Studio A and D!

Jeff showing us Studio D.

After the quick visit we took the Muni bus to Haight-Ashbury and our hippie roots. It may be a bit touristy nowadays but the vintage and smoke shops are still giving the neighborhood its hippie feel. And the architecture in Haight is to die for.


We enjoyed some Ben & Jerry's (yep, Alex tried the fantastic "Imagine Whirled Peace") and Harju even bought a personally written poem on the topic "world peace" from Lynn Gentry on the street.

Now we're relaxing in the apartment after a good dinner consisting of organic ground beef, onions, mushrooms, peppers and zucchini all from Whole Foods. Alex wants to share some interesting findings before we put on a good movie on VHS:

If you ever wonder where he's at - maybe this is it!?

San Francisco is a very green city and we see the CHANGE everywhere even though Babylon is constantly present.

Conspiracy theory? Well, some of the people we've been talking to seem to realize that Obama is not in charge of anything, the true leaders are unseen and unknown. Talking politics with Americans can also go wrong, but we've been lucky and we've heard some interesting views on the topic.

Just trying to help out! Love is in the air!

Oh yeah. This is a new contest called GUESS THE DISEASE. Alex is troubled by a sun burn or allergy that has evolved into a kinda disgusting form. She might be turning into a reptile one of these days - so anyone who advices her on the right cure will win a Hey, Hugo single! :)

Interesting facts:

Popcorn seems to rain from the skies.

People here have no cigarettes because they always seem to ask us for them.

The holes are deep.

Tomorrow we're playing Mama Buzz Cafe & Gallery in Oakland, 7pm. See you there or elsewhere!

Love!

107. BERKELEY & NORTH BEACH & SOME POLITICAL & SOCIAL THOUGHTS

So we've been spending time in Berkeley. It is a hippie mecca and we're enjoying ourselves looking through awesome small stores, and watching people of all sorts strolling down Telegraph Avenue.

So this is where we're staying - the Delta Upsilon fraternity of UC Berkeley. (To get a picture of the fraternity, here are its stated principals: the promotion of friendship, the development of character, the diffusion of liberal culture and the advancement of justice.) It's a gorgeous old mansion, although a bit rundown inside. All the guys (Mason, Noah, Alex, Dylan and the rest of you!) are awesomely nice and helpful. We're staying in "the bumming room", a room of tradition, the walls filled with names of all the people graduating (some are nicknames, we hope, like: Pink Simpson, Boom and Dick Blewett!).

(an enormously big slice of pizza from Fat Slice!)

Yesterday we went to the North Beach Festival. North Beach is the Italian district of San Francisco, but it is also the birthplace of the Beat generation. This is where the artists, poets and musicians got together to change the world. We saw A LOT of people that were in the way of all the beautifully cool buildings and stores, but we also found some great clothes (recycled/organic fabric and beautifully painted!)

Today we walked down to the UC Berkeley campus. And the "campus" they're building in Jakobstad ain't nothing compared to this!


See that tower? That's the world's third tallest bell-and-clock tower. And yeah, we went up there to see the entire bay! It has a 61-bell carillon, with the 12 original bells dating back to 1917.

That's the San Francisco skyline and the Bay Bridge, although in a haze and therefor nicely photoshopped! :)

We also met some nice squirrels as we walked through the lush, green campus.

After getting off campus we walked back and forth down Telegraph Avenue, had some lunch at Blake's and shopped both from hippies on the street as well as in different stores. We shopped for records at Rasputin yesterday, so we stayed away from Amoeba today saving it for the one in Haight! Oh, and frozen yogurt from Papamingo! Thanks to the guy there who google:d the closest grocery store for us!


There is no doubt about the fact that we have come to a very liberal part of America. San Francisco, and especially Berkeley, is very liberal, diverse, gay- and drugfriendly. Mason told us that when it comes to marijuana the cops in Berkeley couldn't care less. You are more likely to get caught for jaywalking than for weed. Which is something you easily notice, there is that certain scent in the air at all times as you walk down Telegraph. And the smoke shops are everywhere. Even though there are signs all over the shops stating that all products are sold for tobacco use only, and any suggestion that they are going to be used for something else may mean you can't buy their stuff. But we're talking bongs and pipes of all sizes, as well as the "drugs" Salvia and Spice. This is liberal America at its best. The medical marijuana dispensaries (that aren't yet closed down) are also a sign of this. Evaluations and prescriptions cost like a hundred bucks, and there's a lot of clinics to get them. They seem to know that this is good medicine, and even the "street users" get left alone.

But there are other sides to Berkeley as there is to the whole country. There's a lot of hard drug users on the streets, and the needle exchange station (in a photo below) in Berkeley is necessary and in good use.

Drug free zone? Hardly. This is Berkeley, and that zone can't possibly be more than a few square feet.

We've seen a lot of beggers on the streets here. But also homeless people, that usually are street artists, or just wants to offer you a smile, that seem to have chosen this lifestyle. They value other things in life than work, and owning stuff. Something much more valuable. Many of them seem really happy. Like the girl, and the two guys Alex bought the painting of (last photo). The girl claimed she didn't have any supplies left, and that she even sold a painting for 80 cents earlier. Alex definitely paid more than that to support her art, and got a hug as a bonus along with the beautiful cardboard painting. That is love and happiness and equality. We like!

Saying goodbye to DU and Mason, tomorrow we're off to Oakland, and also an Open Mic at the Brainwash Café! Wohooo!

//the phoenix crew.

106. THE GIGS!

We are sorry that pictures and stories are a bit late, but Alex just didn’t have strength to get it done last night after the gig, but now we are ready to tell you all about the last few days.

On Thursday Ryan, the kind and awesome tourist guide, drove us over the Santa Cruz Mountains to Santa Cruz. We saw some spectacular nature, and had a blast. We’re glad we took the extra time to go a bit off-road (or off-freeway at least) to see the mighty forest, and cool down his boiling car (yep, cars tend to overheat if you push them too hard going over the mountains).


So we arrived in Santa Cruz and found Asana Tea House where the gig was going to take place. We put all our stuff in their storage space and set off to the streets. While Anna and Harju sat on the sidewalk practicing the set list Alex went to talk to an awesome guy who made bracelets a couple feet away.

He made a really strong point by NOT selling or trading the (hemp) bracelets, they were only there for appreciation. A group of young people were totally mind boggled by the fact that they couldn’t buy the bracelets and offered him pretty much anything just to OWN the bracelets (that they hadn’t even really looked at that much, it was just a matter of getting what you can’t have). Alex on the other hand got his point right away and sat with him on the street for a while discussing the world and art. In the end he got Anna’s album, and sure enough he wanted Alex to have a bracelet as well. She didn’t really get his name though, so she doesn’t know who to thank for that experience and the gift, but he said he’s bad with names, so Alex will just give him the Native American name “Bad With Names”. :) Thank you!

Bad With Names

After having something to eat (and trying some small Elixir shots, Alex tried a Crown Chakra shot, Anna tried one for the heart and Harju tried a Solar Chakra shot) at the tea house we met up with Amanda West, a talented Californian singer/songwriter who Alex has been in touch with since long before the trip. She helped us set up the sound system, and then we played the first gig of our California tour. The place was a coffee shop so there were almost no people in the audience, but we played for a few excited faces that really seemed to appreciate the music.


After the gig we headed toward Felton together with Amanda, to stay at her and her fiancé Pete’s house in Felton for two nights. And we’re telling you, their house is the most amazing house EVER! It’s a small and dark tree house up on the mountain side that was originally built to be used as a summer cottage in the 1930’s. The yard is wild and filled with interesting, small objects and plants. And the inside of the house: WOW. The interior is amazing, it’s really colorful with old fashion furniture in warm, earthy colors, and the walls and the fridge are full of pictures and wise words to read and get inspired by. And all around the house you can find a lot of cute hippie paraphernalia. We love this place!

Pete & Amanda

We slept really well our first night despite Anna’s fear of the huge spiders that are said to wander around the house sometimes (she managed by sleeping closest to the edge of the bed, pinning Alex against the wall, which she wanted to do in order to be able to run away if a monster approached her). We woke up to a beautiful Friday and ate a delicious vegetarian breakfast. Later in the day we headed downtown together with Amanda, visiting a big and totally awesome organic grocery store called New Leaf Community Market. We were excited and spent way too much money there, but it was okay since we just don’t see big eco friendly stores like that where we come from.

We bought delicious sandwiches at the market and drove down to New Brighton State Park beach which was on the way to Monterey where we were headed. The beach was really beautiful and we enjoyed the sun and the waves while eating our sandwiches.

Jeijj! (But notice the dead seal behind us :/)

We then drove down to Monterey and found the East Village Coffee Lounge where we were to play later that night. They did a great job promoting the gig, we found ourselves in Monterey County Weekly (thanks for the beautiful words!) and on posters all over the coffee shop.

Who's playing tonight? Oh, Anna Phoenix!

So after checking out the town a little (strangely enough almost all the stores were closed, but we found a really cool Bob Marley-store where we bought all kinds of different Rasta stuff) and having a bite at the Coffee Lounge we set up for our second gig of the tour. This time the small room where we played was almost full to start with, and the gig went really well. We made some good connections with great people who bought the CD’s and really seemed to enjoy the music.

Anna & Harju were on a big screen in the main room of the coffee house while playing in the music venue.

We then headed back to Amanda’s and Pete’s house and almost instantly went to bed. This morning we once again woke up to beautiful weather and ate a fantastically delicious breakfast out on the porch together with Amanda and Pete. We had some great discussions about politics and what not, and then got ready to leave for the frat house in Berkeley.

Amanda played some awesome tunes!

After travelling by bus (Greyhound of course, which Anna thought was really cool; the movies you know) and Bart we met up with a really nice photographer and got the key to his house where we are going to stay later next week. We then took a taxi and finally got to one of the UC Berkeley frat houses, where we’re going to stay until Tuesday. And well what do you know; this place actually looks like a real frat house! We met our fellow Couchsurfer Mason Smith and some of his friends, and had some Thai takeout. We’re now planning on chilling with them for the rest of the night. Alex says: o.O!

Mason enjoys peanut butter & apples.

Other interesting facts we would like to point out:

1. It’s really cold sometimes, though it’s usually warm outside during the day.

2. The toilet paper here is EXTREMELY thin compared to ours!

So until our next blog: peace!

//the phoenix crew.