Neko Case's Travelogue

Here I am at the end of the recording, only two days left, but more importantly it's Election Day. It is strange not to be in my own country for the most important election in my lifetime. I voted 3 weeks ago absentee. I am glued to the polls and having a hard time concentrating here at crunch time. Upstairs in the studio the Canadians are doing something I did not expect; they are having a US election party.

They are on fire! Cheering, yelling and jumping up and down. There is no irony in any of their behavior, they know that if Obama wins, North America has the possibility to be a united and prosperous place once again. They care very much; they are rooting for us. They are making me cry when they cheer, I feel so loved and so grateful for our Canadian friends. Especially when the good citizens of America have been so villan-ized in the eyes of the world by the Bush administration's last 8 years of tyranny and imperialism. The Canadians remind me that the rest of the world knows better, they know the overwhelming majority of us want peace and happiness for all people, it is our nature as humans, the beautiful side of that nature anyway.

And it's not just Canada - - friends from all over the world, Europe, Australia, you name it... They've been sending supportive emails all week. "Good luck!", "Vote Obama!", "We're sending all our good thoughts your way..." The world still loves us; they haven't given up on us. Thank you everyone, I can't say it hard enough. Especially you Canada, bless your good heart.

Posted by Neko Case at 06:35 AM | Permalink

PACKING. That's what this life is about. Oh! And don't forget your passport! I just got a new one (the Australian government forced me to. They said since it was stamped on the last page it was now invalid. Which country's stamp is on the illegal last page??? You guessed it! AUSTRALIA!) My new photo makes me look like a proboscis monkey with impetigo around my mouth. Thank you Island Continent. I am on a 13-hour flight to Osaka. I'm enjoying myself. The light in the airplane bathroom accentuates my beard hairs. They are silver and flossy like unicorn hair. Really. they're kind of wizard-y.

WOW! What a great time! Our awesome translator Katsu is having a rough day here in Osaka. He has been hired to do the Japanese translation of the "Tenacious D" album. He keeps gripping his temples and saying " there's no word for 'choad' in Japanese!" I think he's hit a wall. I ate delicious noodle soup and walked around. My mind is officially blown. Yummy food, tiny beds, really deep bathtubs¬¬, I could get used to this, but wait, the second I get here and say "Hello" to the New Pornographers and have drinks with Mitch and Peter, it's off to Australia. Did that really happen? I now own an airplane neck-pillow that looks like a fuzzy bunny so it must have.

Adelaide! YES! This is my favorite Australian city. I love the food (EVERY place in Aus has killer food though) but my favorite part is the art museum. They have some crazy stuff. I love the Australian colonial paintings. They really creep me out. They have a lot of paintings by one of my favorite painters, Sydney Nolan, too. He's famous for the "Ned Kelly" paintings. I love most of his stuff though. It's like scarier Francis Bacon with mind-blowing landscape. Don't even get me started on him... The museum of South Australia is next door to it, too. There is SO MUCH to look at. I watched a movie called "The Shark Callers of Kontu," it was mesmerizing. A guy lures mako sharks up to his tiny canoe by calling them with a rattle, then he strangles them with a lasso while singing. He shares the meat with his village. WOW. I spent the rest of the time driving around with my friend Ross. He is a host! We drank wine, looked at the countryside and walked all over the beach. (WHERE THERE ARE SHARK PATROL HELICOPTERS! YEAH!) We met up with the rest of the band (who just flew in) and then, of course, we pigged out. A 20-hour fight (including a layover in New Zealand) makes a person hungry. So does looking for sharks.

Posted by Neko Case at 06:04 AM | Permalink

GLASGOW

It's so nice to be back in friendly Glasgow! It's a beautiful day and we are playing in another giant, ancient church. I went to the cafe next door for a bowl of soup and I saw a scrawny meth-head b-boy in a red track suit stuff the "Scottish Charities" donation can right down his pants while looking me straight in the eye. Such balls! I told the staff and they didn't give two shits because it wasn't their tip jar. FUCK THE CHILDREN! Oh well. I tried to be a good citizen.

Our dressing room looked like a Masonic rites lodge. There were strange bronze artifacts and pictures of naked ladies. THERE WERE SWORDS! There were overstuffed red leather couches and elk heads. There was a huge bar of 200 year old scotch that we were NOT allowed to touch due to some incident starring Sean Lennon. The scotch had it's own real-live human guard! Maybe Sean Lennon stole the holy grail from under the floor. Who knows, I hate scotch anyway. It's basically "Mold Liquor." Foxy, jolly people were everywhere and we had a nice time. Thank you Glasgow!!

IRELAND

Belfast was lovely and the people were kind. I thought I was gearing up for the greatest time on earth in Ireland, then I got the flu really bad. I spent our entire time in Dublin and Galway wrapped in a comforter freezing my ass off and wishing for a quick death. My flu really gained momentum throughout our final days in Ireland. I THINK the shows were good only based on how nice the folks were. The rest is fever-y and blurry. I do remember watching about an hour of "Sharkey's Machine" starring, my boyfriend, Burt Reynolds. He was a down and out cop, just how I like him. I'm pretty hot for Burt. Could you tell? Sadly, I have come to the end of the tour. Thanks a'plenty to our stellar Euro crew and our kind patrons. On the trillion hour flight home there was a kid screaming it's head off like a little asshole. The 75 year old lady with the tiny dog behind me finally yelled "SHUT UP!" It did. Everyone on the plane bought her a gin and tonic and voted her the new president of the United States of America.

Posted by Neko Case at 10:43 AM | Permalink