Travel Vibe

Tactile Cents Transforming Cultural Billings

Hi, my name is Pinky — writer and photographer.

This blog focuses on sensing a place, a people, a moment. Exploration pulls us into the magic of childhood.  It reveals the beauty and luck of being an alien on a living, breathing planet.

As global personas jostle with one another, it is up to us to continue distinguishing the nuances that make us one because our future depends on secure interdependence.

Beyond that cuddly comfort zone, the exploration begins, the aperture widens, and epiphanies connect.  

Cheers!

The city’s independent music scene flaunts raw talent that demands notice on the streets and on stage.  In August 2008, Glasgow was designated UNESCO City of Music – making it the 3rd city in the world to covet the distinction after Seville and Bologna.

Walk into a reputable venue and experience what the buzz is about.

I decide to visit King Tut’s  Wah Wah Hut – where the band Oasis was discovered – on a Saturday night. The stage rests on the pub’s second floor in a cozy, dim-lit, space with a standing-room capacity of a few hundred people.

 In 2006, New York Magazine touted King Tut’s as the 7^th best way to “Follow Your Bliss,” in its Top 50 places to visit worldwide.  And as it is Scotland music mogul Craig McGee’s first progeny, the going-concern continues heralding quality performances.

Talent reps screen and audition bands prior to green-lighting shows, and playing a gig here lends musicians a certain amount of legitimacy. 

 “The whole ethos of this place is that this is how [live music] venues should be run,” says Laura Rooney, the on sight rep.

On Stage, a trio of boys, The Ghosties, play for an audience of 150.  Reminiscent of The Killers, the band coalesces electric and acoustic sounds that set the mood for strong vocals and pithy lyrics rendered by an animated frontman. As the lads close the set and exiting stage left, the crowd chants, “We want more!  We want more…” 

 Not bad for an unsigned band or a pub-side concert.

Bar Fly (barflyclub.com) and 13^th Note (13thnote.co.uk) also book quality talent.  Pick up The List, Glasgow’s weekly entertainment guide, for performance information.

Culture, globalization, and music:  What is the connection?

“We at UNESCO believe that culture not only makes an economic contribution, it provides meaning and a sense of identity and continuity that is integral to the life of all societies,” said the Director-General during the ceremony. “An understanding of culture helps communities grapple with the challenges of globalization, by preserving the values and practices that define their way of life, and by promoting respect for other cultural traditions and ways of life. It represents a way of engaging with cultural differences and building social harmony, of making people of all ages and origins feel involved,” Mr Matsuura added. 

Source:  Unesco Press Release

Street Bound photograph by author

“[A book about] 2nd chances, human connection, and the power of art and music.”  – Steve Lopez, author and columnist, L.A. Times.

From NY’s Juilliard School to L.A.’s Skid Row

The Soloist, by author Steve Lopez, tells the real life story about how a relationship between a newspaper columnist and a Skid Row musician, Nathaniel Ayer, moves a city, a mayor, and this hardnosed journalist to help the homeless and mental health communities.

People responded to the daily columns about Nathaniel in unexpected numbers because Lopez broke the rules of journalism and let it get personal, Lopez told an audience of more than 150 people at Philadelphia’s Free Library last Saturday.

Lopez was candid, animated and well received. The author opted not to read from his book. Instead, he participated in a moderated Q&A before taking questions from the audience.

(The book is being made into a movie scheduled for release in theaters this November. Robert Downey, Jr. plays Lopez and Jamie Foxx plays Nathaniel. They are done filming, Lopez said.)

A main-character synopsis about how this complex and unlikely relationship unfolds and some of the more memorable quotes from the book discussion follow:

Steve Lopez

He used to be the hard-hitting columnist that kept Philadelphia’s city council in check before moving out to L.A, same job, different fodder.

This day’s prospective storyline: Rainwater stopping escalators and, in turn, repelling public commuters. L.A. tops the list for traffic congestion in U.S. cities. Locals are averse to public transportation as it is, so this escalator thing is a big deal.

While digging for the story near an underground station, Lopez hears a violin celebrating its glory. The man playing the instrument is an unlikely figure. The violin, Lopez notices, has two strings missing.

The man, he notes, is playing without a hat or an open violin case. So, why here, Lopez is compelled to ask.

There’s the Beethoven Statue. I play here for inspiration, Lopez recalls Nathaniel’s words.

For the first time in his career, Lopez abandons professional distance and surfaces in the foreign landscape of a schizophrenic savant living on Skid Row.

Nathaniel Ayer

Nathaniel studied with YoYo Ma as a fellow student at Juilliard School because of his innate confidence.

Ignoring his mentor’s advice, Nathaniel travels from Ohio to New York for the audition. Not only is he accepted, he receives a full scholarship.

Then, sometime during his junior year, elusive voices and images start toying with his reasoning. His condition deteriorating, Nathaniel finds himself out of school and in a hospital undergoing shock therapy. He eventually lands on the streets.

Decades later, in his 50’s, Nathaniel plays the violin near an underground station in Los Angeles, when a man approaches him. The musician does not know it, but his second chance just arrived.

(It was just easier, he would later say, to live on L.A’s Skid Row with thousands of homeless – heroin addicts, drug dealers, amputees, veterans – than to lose something again.)

The following are some of the more memorable excerpts (All quotes attributed to a third person are direct phrases by Mr. Lopez during his dialogue with the moderator and the audience.):

“Music is a balancing force in his life. Notes that for 200 years have not moved.”  Music his Medicine – Disney Hall his Hospital – The Orchestra his Doctors.  –Lopez

“Do musicians inspire you Mr. Lopez the way writers inspire me?” –Nathaniel (Addressing Lopez and launching into a well-versed soliloquy from Hamlet.)

“We are brothers. We are brothers in music.” –Yo Yo Mah (Addressing Nathanael backstage at Disney Hall; Nathanael, dressed in suit and tie, nervously wondered what he would say to YoYo Mah, Lopez said.)

“He has made choices in his life, and he is out there because he wants to be out there.” --Nathaniel’s Father (Addressing Lopez, when Lopez tracked him down.)

“This chance encounter, this serendipitous moment on the street, has led to a 3-year relationship.” –Lopez

A look back in anticipation of the new album coming out in 2008 along with some nostalgia from seeing Bono speak at the Liberty Medal Ceremony in Philadelphia last week…

Upon arriving at Aloha Stadium in our ghetto Limo (adorned with duct tape and all), we head to the parking lot and retrieve our general admission wristbands — ensuring our spot in the coveted inner circle. We arrive at 2:00 pm, and several hundred of us swelter under blue skies until the gates opened at about 5:00 pm.

Once inside, the pre-game begins. Fans from Amsterdam, London, Italy, Australia, and yes, Philly too, exchange stories about preceding shows in the tour — playlists, performances, surprise guests.

People share food, alcohol, and contact info. etc. I end up swapping my cell battery with a guy from London. You see, his battery died, and he was waiting on an all-important text from a friend — a message that could take him backstage (and the desperate look on his face seemed genuine). How could I refuse?

The concert: We rocked out in total Elevation (yeah, I know) — U2, Pearl Jam, and a surprise appearance by Green Day’s front man, Billie Joe. I lost my voice for the next two days.

It sounds totally impractical to fly 12 hours for a concert, but it is hands down my best concert experience (and I’ve been to my share). The camaraderie, the excitement…it was pure euphoria! By the way — Jeremy Piven stood next to me during the show…no big thing (actually, it wasn’t because I did not watch Entourage).

photographs by author

Local drum circle on Sunday nights: It’s not in the guidebooks, but, if you are open to spending the evening on a nude beach listening to kettle drum, bongo, and tabla beats, it’s worth checking out. After the sunset, about 100 of us exited in a ritualistic procession led by three men wielding torches and lighting our way down a windy trail of rocks. My friend summarized the evening best:

“I finally understand what this whole peace-love thing is about!”