* * spring * *

With the onset of spring I found myself in Texas and New Orleans. My less than 24-hour stop in Houston was for a benefit for the Society of Iranian American Women for Education. I was playing there with my friend and great persian singer Hamed Nikpay www.hamednikpay.com. They took great care of us and at 8am after flying all night it was truly wonderful to crawl into bed with luxurious cotton sheets, down comforter and a feather bed. I'm not picky but nice hotels are, well, nice.

The next morning I took an early flight to New Orleans to teach two workshops that were hosted by N.O.Madic Tribal www.nomadictribal.com. I was told that I had brought spring with me and for the next week enjoyed many a nightclub, afternoon bike rides, and sleeping in late.

Upon returning home I found that spring had arrived here too, with the symbolic blooming of the cherry tree in our front yard. Next to it, the wisteria was showing its first clusters of fragrant purple flowers.

I'm basically off until the last weekend of April, when I'll be going down south to see my family and friends and teach workshops in San Louis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ojai. After that, home for a couple days and on to the Serpent Rouge tour for the first half of May. With my month off we will be preparing for that tour and, with my fancy new audio interface, working on some recording projects -- one with Faisal Zedan, and one with Dan Cantrell of the Toids www.bellowhead.com.

dvd sales have been going well. People have been saying tons of nice things about it. This inspires me to work on more projects and, hopefully soon, start another video project. With such large projects the only way to make it through them is to just focus on the piece at hand, doing the best possible work while remaining unattached to the outcome. This is especially true when a technical issue comes up and you realize that you really aren't going to make that self imposed deadline. After all that hard work the dvd is being used and appreciated. That makes me happy. The surprising thing is how many have been going international -- to the Netherlands, Italy, Taiwan. . .all over the place. How did these people find out about it? the power of the internet. . .

Spoils of Tartine

The spoils from Cafe Tartine included a fresh baked loaf of walnut bread, still warm from the oven, a box full of cookies, and a chocolate walnut brownie. There were also two Scharffen Berger chocolate puddings: one for myself, and the other for Mardi Love.

I tried to get Mardi's favorite chocolate éclairs for her, but they were out. Actually, this fine assortment of desserts is about half the usual take from the typical Cafe Tartine gigs, not to mention all the delectable treats and coffee we consume on the job.

Sure, the gig doesn't pay a lot -- fifty bucks for two hours. But it's really more like a paid rehearsal -- and we spend about a third of the time eating! And if you add up the food we consume on the job and take home, that would be another fifty bucks each, too. Often my bag of goodies to go is heavier than my drum.

Mmm. . .chocolate pudding is good.

Chile was fun and exciting and I know I said I'd post more about it. But I was really having too much fun to spend time in front of the computer. I don't know how, but the belly dancers managed to find me there, too: www.youtube.com/watch

Since I've been back it's been very busy. In February alone I played 13 shows, including a major two-weekend circus production. I played as a guest artist with Tabla Rasa tablarasa.creationation.com/about/ which was fantastic because these guys are kick ass musicians. I got to work on some of the South Indian repertoire that I had studied a year and a half ago in India and don't otherwise get a chance to play. The gig went pretty good -- our tempo got a little fast at the end, and Tim and I had to bail out for one section and let Jim take over. More exciting than just doing this one show with them is that they want to play more with me (honestly it feels like they're giving me free drum lessons).

Finger Cymbals DVD is done!

I can't believe it, I'm sure it will be more real when I arrive home from chile with boxes full of them around my room. For those of you who haven't talked to me recently this the project I've disappeared into for months. It's got Faisal playing on about 2/3 of the video and Rachel and Mardi dancing to the zil compositions. Oh yeah and it's 10 min shy of 3 hours long.

For more info and to order a copy go to www.riqq.com

more about this south american trip in a bit. let's just say that it's 6:30pm and the sun is far from setting on the most beautiful beach in chile.

i love my floor to be

last week i forked over for bamboo flooring for my whole studio. I justified the expense by saying that i need it for the video shoot but I realy should have done this long ago. when i was building my studio i bailed out of construction after I got the plywood subfloor down saying that i would finish up 3 months later. Well now it's been 3 years...

I faked layed the floor (cool snap together pieces, so easy) just for the video but I can't wait to take everything out of my room and put it down for real in July. I'm goona fix the last few sections of drywall, maybe paint one of the walls a bright color and put in a loft bed all at that time. Spruce it all up. I have a feeling with the floor down that there will be alot more dance rehearsals at my house.

Other than that I've been working on a tajikistan frame drum solo for my friend Aliah, assist director of Ballet Afsaneh, dancesilkroad.org/ she kicks butt!

T

Sunday at Church

Sunday was all day in the studio err cathedral with Kitka (kitka.org) Too tired to write much but let's just say i can't wait to hear the results. I'm thankful for the many opportunities and unique circumstances I find myself in. Feeling in a bit of a rut lately, kinda spinning my wheels and not being too productive. It will pass, I feel a new stage of life coming and it's the lull before the storm. India awaits.
Tobias

coffee take 2

hmm, well sometimes coffee has some not so nice side effects like the fact that is 4:38am and i'm awake. Tomorrow is gonna suck. On the positive side I gave up trying to sleep around 2 and I practiced without break for 2 hours and 37 minutes. It felt like no time at all. The difference in speed after doing drills for 1.5 hours is substantial, I hope that it won't go away tomorrow but it always does. Music is a weird art cause as you do your work it disappears unless some effort to record it is taken (which is infrequent) verse painting or other arts that you can see the 3 hours of work you put in the day before. Anyways, back to my practice, the most exciting thing is that my split hand turkish technique is getting fast enough that i can do rolls with just the left. For you drummers it would be:

D D kkkkT D kkkkT kkkk

It's pretty much up to full speed, lacks a little bit of power but it's almost good to go.

shit, my stomach is growling, it wants breakfast, bummer.

the picture is of my magic box from india (aka fancy metronome) that plays melodies to keep me on tempo and in time

mmm coffee

Seattle takes the cake for best coffee by far. We don't do so bad in the bay Area but still everywhere you go in the NW not only does the cafe roast their own but fancy late art abounds. I was up to 3-4 cups a day and for those of you that know what normally happens it quickly stopped affecting me (standard response is scraping paint off the wall with my fingernails and quivering like a 9.0 quake) It's good to be back home. The grass that was 6 inches tall when I left grew to about 2.5 feet so i was out doing weeding earlier. Tribal fest is this weekend and we have a big toids show in Berkeley on Friday so there's no time to sit around. I'm going to order the camera for shooting instructional videos today. If the camera wasn't expensive enough then there's the tripod and lavalier microphone. I'm excited to get started on those projects. Talked to Joshkun, the director of Mid East Music and Dance Camp, for a bit today. I'm going to head up there for a few days of the camp and maybe for the whole thing. I love camp. Every day should be like camp. I'm getting closer to that reality. For those of you that haven't been to a camp in Mendocino (Balkan, Lark or Mid East) I highly recommend it as a potentially life changing experience. It really is a week of bliss. Don't do the work trade thing though, camp shouldn't be about work. Also planning on returning to India for 3 months or so in October. I need to get my practice routine going again.

Have you se the new iBooks? looking good! my comp is still running strong, probably for another year of so, then they will have a the bugs worked out and the software switched over to the intel chips.

T

Florida to Washington

It's hard to go to sleep right after a show. I was in FL for ten days and then flew here to seattle to meetup with the toids for a couple of shows. Spirit of the Tribes was OK. Thank god that all my friends were there. The hotel was a ghetto and I awoke the first night covered in bed bugs and the room we got the next day had a non working toilet. Other than the ghetto living the event was fine but exhausting. My roomate was Victor from Puerto Rico. He was awesome and we had much fun excersising our broken english and spanish. On top of that, he's a kick ass dancer. Puerto Rico is now on the travel list. Coleena was there just having returned from India. I was great to see her and she's gonna come stay at my house before and after tribal fest next week.

Sometimes (like now) I look at my life and say it's so freakin crazy, what am I doing? It makes me want to either put my stuff in storage or quite traveling alltogether. After next week I'll be home for 6 weeks with not a ton going on (just local gigs and some recording work). Looking forward to it for sure. I have been able to practice some this tour and so that feels alot better. I'm staying with my friend will dowd up here and we've been having atleast one jam session a day. I think i'm gonna get a kit lesson from him on friday.

Well, sorry I haven't writen more since returning from cairo but that's me. Here today, gone tomorrow but don't worry i always come back.

T

ringing ears

8am, trying to wind down from 6 bands in 5 hours at a giza night club. it rains money in those places. earlier in the evening (10pm) met with said el artist again. this time we played a bunch, back and forth, showing each other different rhythms. he said to call him everyday to see if he was free. also getting a kick ass drum from him for ridiculously cheap. he wants me to come back with susu (got to bring faisal too) and he'll produce a show at the cairo opera house. can i save enough money by july? then it's 110 here during the days... ick... tomorrow err later today is another adventure waiting to happen... tried to shop today but i've been spoiled by the indian prices. my fingers have been rusty from not practicing darbuka while in india but finally they are coming back. been doing some great towel in the drum late night practice sessions. the dates are so good here. you can buy fresh ones too, they are exquisite. when i lived in the tenderloin in sf there was a market in civic center and i think it was saturdays that the date man would be there. he's got really good organic stuff. by the way there's lots of organic produce to be had here. it's spreading! good! whoo i'm rambling... looking forward to the toids with rachel, mardi and liz tour in march. toids are also doing a southern tour in april and northwest in may. i've got a couple of other weekend things but it looks like i'll be home a little more than last spring. that's a good thing!

can i move here?

It's 4:30pm and I just finished breakfast. Where do I start? The grippo family and I went to the sinai desert for a few days on the beach. That was great and a whole story in and of itself. We've been back two days and I'm getting a fast track introduction to the heart of the cairo music scene. The first night we went to meet said el artist, one of the most famous drummers here in egypt, and then to see his show with mohammed abdu from saudi arabia. Great concert, the singer brought 5-6 drummers with him and they were doing this crazy poly rhythm framedrum stuff. there were two guys who's job was to just run back and forth bringing the framedrummers freshly heated drums. Another guy who just setup shop behind the stage making tea and getting cigarettes. Then there were 2 hefty bouncer type guys, 2 at either end of the stage. That was in addition to the around 45 person band. Actually they aren't really bands here, they are more like teams. This concert was special because it was such high class ($500 a seat) but normally the "teams" go from hotel to hotel performing 4-7 times a night. They all wear their cute matching suit uniforms too. Last night we went to Said El Artist's studio and to a sha'bi (sp?) performance at a wedding. Said showed us a bunch of pictures and drums and then we went down to the practice room. There it was put tobias on the rack, him naming rhythms and me playing them, then i had to sit there and play a drum solo for him. Embarrassing, jim loved watching me squirm, where was faisal when i needed him most! He wants me to come back so i think i passed the test. Before the evening concert (2am) we met with Sayyed who is hector's mizmar teacher. They were rehearsing for an upcoming recording. Fantastic, super nice guys and kick ass musicians. Music as it's supposed to be played. Then it was time for the show (of course it was five of us plus the driver piled into a taxi) Wasn't really a show but a party on the stage. I quickly became a member of the 15 person framedrum drill team and I'm sure the wedding couple will be wondering for years who the crazy american all over their wedding video is. The singer offered me a job afterwards. On a side note, most of the sha'bi bands are financed by competing hashish rackets. Then there was the drive home but this post is long enough!
T