Greenfield, MA

This morning Sandman and I scrambled to pack up my green Toyoto Tundra, making last minute decisions about what to take and what to ditch.  I left my winter gloves and hat (since we're mostly heading southward for lovely warm weather) and now I'm underdressed in western MA.  Greenfield is beautiful, the evening sky was a cloudy electric blue.

Our show was a lot of fun; we're staying at Chris' friends Dan and Shira's house for the night.  Dan and his band, Daniel hales, and the frost heaves (preceded by a fun harmonizing duo) played before Chris and I; I played two songs and then accompanied Chris on two songs.  In the middle I interviewed a group of teens on my flip video camera who unanimously agreed that the show rocked.  Then I realized we left $500 worth of tour posters sitting on the curb for the whole duration of the show.

Here's Chris playing "Damascus" - it's a new song, not on any album yet.



At the very end I met a young woman named Tisarra, who walked in with her guitar strapped on her back.  She said she'd been playing for a few months and was in the middle of writing her first song and she let me record it:



Our interview got cut off when my video cam died - she's about to say that she's from New Jersey but she moved up to western MA.  Chris noticed that she had a CrimethInc sticker on her guitar - that's the label that his new album is on.

Then tonight Dan and Shira invited me to make a persian meal which we just ate - lamb stew with eggplant, pickles, thick yoghert, shirazi salad and crunchy bottom rice (tah-dig chelo). Wasn't half bad.

February 14th

I took art classes at UMass Boston with Neil Horsky.  He's put together a piece of valentines day animation that I like a lot.



Tonight we sing love songs in Greenfield...I'm debating adding an old French song I used to play by Francis Cabrel to my set list.

Midway Cafe

It's official!  The tour has begun.  Wednesday night Chris and I Sang our hearts out to a crowd of my closest friends at the Midway Cafe in JP.

We spent about four hours beforehand rehearsing together at Amanda's apartment, making set lists, packing gear and trying to figure out what to wear on stage.  In spite of threats of an 8 inch snow storm, a good 30 or so folks came to listen.  Thanks to everyone who came!  It was great for me to play my first show with some of my biggest fans.  Your heckles were all well placed, you seemed to enjoy when I forgot the words and liked when I sang the slide solo on heartbreak blues.  S'good to have friends.  And it's a lot of fun seeing you wear my tour t shirts, thanks for buyin'em.  Now I'm ready to brave the unknown climates of our fair nation, to sing songs to strangers and try to let my creative mind go wild.  Last night Chris and I had a great conversation where we started thinking about how to present our collective act as a Middle Eastern man and a man from the western US.  It feels like being on the cutting edge of something.

Next stop: Greenfield on Sunday with a 2PM show.  Today I need to finish finding a homes for my remaining belongings (it's like having 4 homes!  My crap is everywhere.)  After Greenfiled, Montpellier on Tuesday the 16th, Biddeford ME on Thursday the 18th and then back to Boston for our Dorchester show on the 19th.  Then, southern US here I come.

T Shirts!

I met Mary and Nabil at the "Bizarre Bizarre" - a big hodgepodge of vendors in the South End a few months ago.  I fell immediately in love with Mary's work - she blends images with Arabic words to create a sort of conversation about our world, human beings, Arabic language, cultural exchange and other things.  I saw these three shirts and said to myself: They will be mine.

Says: Kiss Me I'm Irish

Says: "Breakfast"

Says: "Glasses"

This happened right around the time that I was starting to think about silk screening some of my own T shirts.  I came up with a few designs (which most people agreed were awful) and was still trying to work out something good when I met Mary and Nabil.  I had already been thinking about having my name in Persian on my shirts...it was a little too perfect.  So I ran the idea by Mary, she was excited about it - and the rest is history.  I am now the proud owner of 100 shirts with guitars that say Nima Samimi in Persian (read it "backwards" now, don't confuse yourself.)

Here's my big box of shirts

My friend Ania

With her partner Ralf

Mary was kind enough to let me make a short movie of her silk screening operation (if you're like me and you love learning about how people make things, this one's for you.)

You can see the rest of Mary's work on her website,
http://www.mothwritten.com/.

Posters

Man, am i busy!  Chris and I are knee deep in emails, tour posters, bookings and plans.  Our first show is coming up this Wednesday in Boston.  I picked up my T shirts and pins from Mary and Nabil in Maine (I'll post a video and some pics about that soon) and we have 2 tour posters; one from Glen Hutcheson and one from Nikki Mclure (also the album art for Chris' new CD.)  I pick chris up at Logan on monday and then (woah) we have liftoff.  And on monday I start training my good buddy Patrick at work, he's taking over my job while I'm gone.  OK, back to the grind...

Here are our posters:

From Glen:

And from Nikki

Chomsky on Haiti

This is a clip from an interview with Noam Chomsky, talking about Haiti on the Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show.

The Opening

I have been thinking a lot about Haiti and the Haitian people this week, as I'm sure you have.  As the people of Haiti fight for their lives and to rebuild what has been destroyed by this earthquake, I am reminded of one of the incredible and almost universally unrecognized contributions Haitians have made to our world.

In 1791, Haitians rose up in arms against the French colonial occupying power and in about 10 years accomplished something that no group had ever done anywhere: they ended Slavery in Haiti.  This was the first and only successful slave revolution in human history of it's scale.  Haiti was the major sugar producer for the French empire, competing with British Barbados and Jamaica in the Caribbean as well as the indigo, rice, tobacco and cotton crops of the Amerian south - and all of this wealth came from the work of enslaved African people.  So it goes without saying that the threat that a revolution of enslaved people posed to all slave societies was enormous.

As a result, the United States (and other world powers) refused to acknowledge Haitian sovereignty after the revolution - in other words they isolated Haiti from any potential allies or trade partners in an overt attempt prevent the newly free people of Haiti from thriving.  Industrial capitalism, globalization, white supremacy - Haitians took a stand against all of these things and probably a bigger stand than any one people has ever taken.

So when we see footage or hear reports of haitian businesses crumpled into dust on either side of the rock-solid American embassy, or hear stories of the forests of the Dominican Republic that turn to dirt at the Haitian border, it is important to remember how Haiti became the poorest nation in the western hemisphere.  It was no accident.  Let's stand in solidarity with the people of Haiti and insist on a world where all our children, sisters and brothers live in equality.  Major changes are needed, a better world is possible.

Lastly, I'll add that I have always been particularly inspired by Toussaint Louverture, one of the key leaders of Haiti's revolution.  Louverture was a name he chose for himself - French for "the opening".

A statue of Toussaint Louverture

For more information on the Haitian Revolution, see the classic text - CLR James' "The Black Jacobins" or the celebrated contemporary work by Laurent DuBois, "Avengers of the New World".  I'd appreciate any recommendations for articles or books on modern Haiti that you might have, just post it in a comment.

Special Blend Studios

I've been trying to record another song for my myspace page...I'm having a hard time getting the rhythm right.  And the vocals are wobbly.  My friend and deskmate at the Arboretum, Kyle Stephens, has lent me his condenser mike - maybe that'll do the trick.  Behold, Special Blend Studios...

Tour Poster

My good buddy Glen Hutcheson (who I've known since I was 11 and he was, I believe, 8) has agreed to make Sandman and I a tour poster. Glen just opened a show in NYC of the work he did since recieving the Hohenberg Travel Award which allowed him to study art in Europe.  Here's some of his work:

Self Portrait:

Drawing:

You can check out all his work on his website and blog.  Tour poster coming soon!

Live Acoustic

You may have heard I'm going on tour in February with the illustrious Chris Sand AKA Sandman. Chris and I are in the middle of booking shows and planning the details of several months of travel and music. In fact, we will probably play your town or city!

I'm trying to put an album together, so far I've only recorded one song, called Heartbreak Blues. But this weekend I'm in New York City visiting my friend Hanon who works for the Nielsen corperation (the ones who do television ratings etc.) - they also own several magazines, including Billboard magazine. As a result, Hanon and his coworkers shoot and edit videos for some of the musicians they promote in their magazine and on their website. So on Saturday afternoon, with not a soul in the office, Hanon set up three cameras (including one gigantic "glide cam" that he strapped to his chest) and we spend three hours recording my first music video. And then he spent another three hours editing it. Here it is, enjoy. And when you're done, have a look at some more of Hanon's editing work.