My Italian Family

After a long summer off, we're finally back on the road and getting into the swing of things. But before I get blogging about current happenings, there are some updates!

This summer marked the departures of both Jason Hurwitz (4 years) and Kiana Weber (1 year). They're both going back to school: Jason just started pursuing a dual MBA/MA in Arts Administration at the University of Cincinnati, and Kiana is back at the University of Michigan finishing up her degrees in Violin Performance and Music Education. It's weird no longer having Jason as it seemed I never really knew Barrage without him (we auditioned together in 2006 and he'd been in it since then), and I learned so much from Kiana in just one year (for anyone who came to my recital, she's the person who taught me how to chop!). They will both be missed--best of luck to each of you, Jason and Kiana!

In happier news, we're welcoming Daniel Pentecost (of Gallatin, TN) into the band! Today was our first real day of training with him (he did all of his initial training in Calgary while we were in China in May), even though he's already had his first full performance. Kiana's replacement has yet to be named, so Alicia is back filling in for this tour of Europe.

Our first show was two nights ago at the Magiaceltica festival in Pergine, Italy (about 12 km from Trento, the nearest big city). This was actually one of my first gigs in Barrage when I joined over 2 years ago, so it was great to be back again. I never posted photos of this location, though, so now I finally can!

It's so great being back in Italy, and being with the most wonderful people I've met in my travels. The "Clan," as I like to affectionately call them, are a specific group of Italians who strongly identify with their Celtic roots (and yes, there are actually Celtic roots in Northern Italy). We first met them playing at Celtica in 2008, and then we headlined the festival last summer. There are not ample words to describe how wonderful they are...they are just the quintessential example of what it means to be a good and kind human beings. I absolutely love being with them. They're like family, really.

While the Magiaceltica festival is not run by the Clan (who runs Celtica), many of the Clan showed up to support us.

This castle is on the hill directly behind the stage, and is lit at night, making it visible to the audience during the performance.

That's the castle from a different angle, where our hotel was located.

The area in front of the stage.

And in the tradition of last year's performance, our friend Iain painted our faces!

Iain painting Daniel's face.

Faces painted and ready to go! (Though not really visible in this picture, each girl had a blue dot on her temple.)

Daniel playing the bagpipes in his first show!

With Iain and Federico after the show.

After the show, Iain and Federico rode back to the hotel with us since the Clan was staying there as well. What happened during the van ride back may be one of the coolest (and most musical) things to ever happen in a van. Both Iain and Federico are ridiculously talented musicians; Iain plays traditional flutes and whistles, and Federico plays the drums and piano. Earlier in the day, I could have sworn I had heard Iain playing "Anach Cuan," an insanely awesome whistle tune that Ben Gunnery, a Barrage alum, used to play in the show. When we asked Iain about it, he didn't instantly recognize the name...so Tim whipped out his laptop to play the recording off of one of Barrage's earlier albums. At which point, Iain remembered it:

How awesome is that?! More than the fact that Iain can play Anach Cuan, I love the fact that he played it for us in a van. Iain, you are too cool for words.

As I wrap up this post in anticipation of tonight's dinner with the Clan, I must note that the only thing better than writing this post has been the setting in which I've been writing it. Here's what I see out my window in St. Pierre (which is open, allowing a gentle breeze to blow through):

It's so good to be back.

The Varied Activities of Van Rides

A few days ago we started tour by flying into Frankfurt, and then driving down to Pergine, a city near Trento, Italy. It was about 700 km or 8 hours.

Sitting in the middle of an 8 person van, I had a unique perspective on the variety of things people do to pass the time...

Back on the Road! (And China: Part I)

So it's 4:30 a.m., German time, but we're not quite yet in Germany. From glancing on the map of my neighbor's "in-flight entertainment center" (which is right now, ironically, less than entertaining), it looks as though we'll be flying over the UK in a little bit...should be arriving in 2.5 hours or so...maybe?

Quite frankly, I expected to be sleeping right now, but can't really manage. The excitement of getting back on the road and starting up this fall's tour has me restless on this transatlantic flight, which is starting to feel just as long as the flight to Beijing, even though it's actually much shorter. I guess that's what excitement will do to you, eh? It's like the grown-up version of not sleeping the night before the first day of school.

I've also got so much swimming around in my head--I've been thinking about all I want to accomplish this year, about all that I did on this extremely long summer break we just finished, and also about how I'm behind on this blog...whoops. It's (unsurprisingly?) hard when you're on a break from the road to think about doing road-related things. With the recital, teaching lessons to wonderful summer students, baking in the Arizona heat, and soaking up as much time with friends and family as I could manage, the blog just slipped through the cracks.

So now, I will endeavor to capture the daunting experience that was our May tour in China.

(Heads up, this will take a few lengthy posts...so I'm plan to alternate China posts with current posts from the road.)

To set the tone for this recollection of China memories, I will begin by excerpting a blog entry I started the morning after I arrived in China, and then failed to continue updating. I just re-read it and had completely forgotten about the ordeal...

-----

Our tour to China began with an incredibly disorienting day and a half of travel, from Chicago to LA, to Tokyo, and finally into Beijing late last night. Since this was the most extensive travel which I've ever experienced, I was in quite a state upon arriving at the hotel.

The meal on the flight from Tokyo to Beijing marked the first of many Asian meals to come, the style of which we in Barrage would facetiously call a "Lunch Adventure." (When in the US, we liberally use this term to refer to meals, usually in the middle of nowhere, where we have absolutely no idea about the quality or type of food we'll be eating upon entering some random mom and pop establishment.) For dinner, I had fried egg on miscellaneous beef patty with some rice next to it. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I ended up having terrible chest pains after landing in Beijing. I can only reason that the pain I was experiencing was from this food, because it's so different from food I'd normally eat, but I don't know for sure.

Either way, I was in so much pain upon arriving at our hotel last night that I was doubled over in tears and cramps. That pain, combined with the ridiculous exhaustion of 7 shows in 7 days followed by 26 hours on planes, lead me to a state of hysterics. I was laughing at hilarious things Hidayat was saying, and then uncontrollably weeping for no reason. Looking back, it must have been pretty hilarious to watch. I could not, for the life of me, pull myself together. But I guess culture shock, meal shock, and travel will do that. As Hidayat said, "If you're going to have a nervous breakdown, China is definitely the place where it will happen."

-----

Though we did not perform in Beijing, we did have some time to see the sights on 2 desperately-needed days off right after our arrival. So we hit the Bell and Drum Towers, as well as the Forbidden City and its accompanying Imperial Gardens.

Walking up the absurdly steep stairs into the Drum Tower.

Looking from the Bell Tower over to the Drum Tower.

From the roof of the Drum Tower, looking out into Beijing.

Enjoying a (warm) yogurt beverage from a road-side stand.
(It was much better than it sounds.)

One of my favorite China stories happened right outside of the entrance to the Drum Tower. This one very much captures the essence of the language barrier, and in some larger way, the essence of what it's like to be a foreigner in China. A man gesticulated wildly at us with a watch in his hand. "Rolex," he said excitedly, "Rolex! One dollar! One dollar! One dollar!" We firmly said "no," hoping he'd leave us alone. But in a moment of frantic desperation, and very much hoping to make the sale, he responded, as so many good salesman do, with a new price...in the wrong direction: "Two dollars! TWO DOLLARS!"

Inside the Imperial Gardens.

The attention to detail in this roofing is mind-numbing.

View from a temple on a hill.

An incredibly tall tree with supports.

In the Forbidden City, I experienced something I had heard about but that seemed too strange to be true: people taking pictures of us...because we're Westerners. Sometimes they try to do it surreptitiously. Sometimes it's obvious. And sometimes they want to be in the picture with you. Another extension of this fascination with Westerners is blatant staring. Charlie and I saw a whole bench of elderly Chinese just watch us as we looked around and took pictures. I even acknowledged their staring by awkwardly making eye contact and uncomfortably laughing, to which they chuckled...and kept watching us.

From the eyes of the Chinese military.

(This last photo was quite the inspiring desktop picture on my computer for the past few months. My desktop is now a photo of the Great Wall...which will be in a later post.)

China: Part I--complete!