Hey, it's Christmas Day! For many people on the this planet, today is a special day and for many it is not. I find the holidays to be an interesting conflict. I love the happiness that people share and I dislike that people utilize the festivities to propagate their belief systems on to others. My dad was raised as an Orthodox Jew. My mother was raised as a Southern Baptist, two quite extreme and opposing viewpoints. Growing up I was faced with some interesting realities. My parents were two people with conflicting belief systems yet I love and trust them both. Trees with bad apples and big boats with an earth load of critters and seas spreading apart and babies that just come. As time went on I noticed that it was so strange that there seemed to be so many arguments in the world around me based on things that I have never seen nor had any logical indication that I would ever see happen. In fact, a lot of these things seemed a heck of a lot less plausible that the things I saw in movies that people readily would laugh at me if I showed any sign of believing to be true. How come an ocean can spread apart and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang can't really fly? Airplanes do it! Something is fishy. So today I will share a bit of what I think goes on.

**** Dave Rat History of Religion ****

A long long time ago a bunch of humans are all running around and some Abraham guy is cruising around in the desert and he sleeps with this one chick and she ends up being super grandma to this Jesus guy. Eventually a bunch of humans start rocking out and saying this Jesus dude is the best rapper in the world and so damn good that he is part of the rock show of God. Meanwhile there are a bunch of humans that call themselves Jews that are big into the solo God thing and are not buying in to a new dude joining in. The Christians are all about, "Hey, come on Jew people, check him out, he the one" Jews say "Cool guy but, hey, "hello!, he aint the magic man, and we aint rap fans anyhoo, the God guy is a solo artist." This is where it gets interesting. It turns out that this Abraham guy was a bit of a player with some super sperm and he had gone out and partied with this other chick and she got knocked up and her super grand kid is none other than this Mohammed guy that shows up like centuries later. Turns out that he is also a rapper and builds up a huge fan base that call themselves Muslims. All the Christians are like "Hello, just another rapper but not the OG that we rock to." The Muslims are all like "Y'all are crazy, Mohammed is the Man and he supercedes your outdated old school Jesus' beats and rhymes." Meanwhile the Jews are like "What in the heck are are y'all talking about? They is just dude's and neither of them rock with God." So they all beat the crap out of the Jews and then started kicking each other's asses ever since.

**** End Dave Rat History of Religion ****

It seemed I had somehow been born into an unsolvable situation and refusal to take sides with one against the other, I did much pondering. What if they are both right? Does one have to be wrong? Can multiple conflicting perceptions be simultaneously correct? Is there truly anything that is right or wrong? Hmmmm, here is snippet of the confusion that roams my mind from what I've distilled from the ponderings

The people that are the most wrong, get the most angry. What better way to be right than to fight?

Almost all religions believe the same basic life guiding bits and they just argue about the details. I try and live my life by finding the threads common to all religions and skipping the arguments. Arguments are boring anyway.

Religions are like living entities. Like all other forms of life there is an inherent desire to perpetuate and reproduce and populate. Though most religions may be warm and fuzzy on the outside, they still make a lot of poop and will bite you if you mess with them.

Religious pre schools are often cheap or free as it is a good way to increase membership by recruiting small minds.

All books are words, not truths, nothing ever is truly true in the purest sense of the word, there are just things that less or more people agree with. For something to be truly and perfectly true, everyone would universally agree on it. Try and find something that everyone on the planet agrees on. And that brings to mind...

Never under estimate the ability of human beings to believe the most incredibly absurd and zany things, even if everything in life and survival points to the contrary.

Faith is what humans call 'believing the unbelievable,' sometimes it works out and amazing things happen and it can bring people together for celebrations of common happiness and sometimes in the words of Borat "Not so so much" and faith brings wars and death and hatred and a bunch of human critters spend their lives killing each other rather than eating food and making cool things and hanging out with their little people.

When groups of human minds all focus in harmony in a particular direction, it is an incredible, powerful and real sensation. It is such a powerful, real and amazing feeling that humans have decided to sell and market in many forms. Religions sell it in the form of prayer, rock shows sell it in the form of concerts, motivational speakers sell it in the form of inspirational gatherings and sporting events, well we know how exciting they can be by how well they attract humans en masse. Whether you chose to pay for it or join an orginzation like a religion that gathers to share the sensation, it is important to know that the sensation is natural and free and can be created without cost or strings attached.

Finally, no one really knows the answers or what will happen next, be very very suspicious of anyone that claims to know.

So here we are in the season where nearly every religion on the planet is plugging their holiday into the winter solstice and branding the dinner and family gatherings we share with the strings of their own perpetuation. And to me, it is all good and a beautiful, magic and wonderful thing to see all of us humans clustering and drawn together by love and wrapped in celebrations of life. Strings or not I wish Happy Holidays to all, regardless the your belief system that you have chosen to guide your life. To us and all our friends and everyone else whom with we share this planet. Here is a holiday cheers to warm people. To people that do their best to navigate through life in a positive way and even though we screw some things up. Here is to people that care but do not care so much that it ruins their happiness. Here is to people that strive to succeed but do not fall into the predatory weakness of stepping on others to do so. Happy Holidays! And in the words of The Barfly "Drinks for All My Friends!" Whatever drink that it is that you chose to be drinking.

The hoping I am 'not so much' boring,

Dave Rat

Day 200 - Dec 9 - Copenhagen Show

Home of the amazing and magical Christiania a magical paradise being consumed by the greedy and afraid.

**** Super Ponder 2000 ****

When I was young my mom told me that if I ever did drugs I would immediately go crazy and die. I was deathly afraid of drugs. So afraid that when my best friend and I discovered his older sisters smoking pot, I headed up a mission to rescue them from insane deaths by finding their stash and flushing it down the toilet. I discovered that this was not the best plan as I had no idea that they were so skilled at torturing young boys. I also discovered that though they were adept at our misery, they also seemed far from crazy and rather than dying they seemed to be getting attractively healthier than ever. I was faced with a quandary. My mom who loves me and cares about me had adamantly provided information that seemed to be clearly amiss. This was not the first time as I distinctly remember being nine years old at sleep-away camp and when the subject of sex came up, I naively defended, much to everyone's amusement, that my parents did not have sex and some babies just "come," as my mom had precisely explained to me. The unanimous mockery indicated that perhaps some more investigation was needed to gain facts to prove their wrongness. Depressingly though, the more information I gathered, the more I began to realize that it was highly improbable that I was correct and I had been supplied inaccurate information. I clearly realized beyond a doubt that my mom had supplied me false information and I was resentful she had put me in a position of ridicule. This whole smoking pot and instant death thing seemed to fall in the small category.

So when that same best friend handed me some pot to smoke that he had taken from his sisters stash and the quandary rolled through my mind, the doubt created by dishonesty was strong enough for me to discard my mon's credibility. I did not die and though I am a bit crazy I am convinced it was inherited rather than induced. I am neither pro nor anti drugs. I personally have chosen not partake in consuming mind altering substances other than alcohol on occasion and coffee whenever possible. I avoid even aspirin. Had I been informed that drugs, like many things in life, have pit falls and ramifications mixed in with whatever pleasure may be derived, I would have had better set of tools to navigate my choices. Like a skier's knees or a sound engineer's ears, a smoker's lungs, a drinker's liver or sky diver's landing, each life choice has potential ramifications with varying degrees of certainty attached. There were now holes in the fabric layer of the things I had believed to be real and that was the catalyst that started my mission to unravel my mind. I used drugs to try understand the world around me and the most important thing I learned was that I never needed drugs to understand. While I have no regrets and savor my memories and the perspectives realized, I had chosen a precarious path, one of many, but only one I saw at the time. Like reformatting a computer hard-drive, though they did not exist back then, I wanted and start fresh and to be free from the tainted viral concepts that others had injected into my understanding. I eventually adopted the mind strategy that "for any concept to be a component into the structure that forms my beliefs, it must be completely harmonious with the world around me as I personally see and experience, everything else will be relegated to the various levels of doubts and likelihoods that sit off to the side."

**** End Super Ponder 2000 ****

And this morning I share my first smile of the day

Wandering about this beautiful city and who would have guessed I would find a California Highway patrol car

Today was the smallest non promo gig of the tour and here is a good shot of the FOH pirate ship in the open venue sea

It was refreshing to have a small power filled room full of amazing fans and happiness abounds and here is a picture with Chad, Truck driver roadie Neil and I

Tomorrow I have a special adventure planned!

The forever pondering

Dave Rat

Good morning sunshine! Europe likes to rock the free breakfast included with the hotel and I try and get down there in time whenever I remember and face the morning choice between greasy eggy meaty world and fruity crunchy yogurt world. Strange how once I pattern with one, the conversion is tough to the other though I always feel better when I follow the tree-hugger option.

And I ran back up to my room really quick to find

which made me ponder the fluid malleable nature of religious beliefs. So in my analytical sarcastic way, lets take a gander in that direction. First, we few amongst us have not played that game where all the kids get in a circle and you whisper something in the ear of the next person. Then, by the time that something makes it around the circle it has been embellished and altered to the point where it has little if anything to do with the original words. We know this, we can show this, this is not in question and is readily demonstratable indicating that humans in general tend not to be very good carriers of accurate information. Now have a story pass from ear to ear and hand to pen for thousands of years. What are the odds that it bears much resemblance to the original? What are the odds that over time various entities have injected bits of self serving spin? Hmmm. Just a thought to consider and in a reversal, I have heard that the red jolly Santa we have today was an invention of Coco Cola corporation. Being the curious roadie I am, I decided to take a quick look and found that to be at least debatable and Santa may be a bit more authentic in that his current form was most likely created by a greeting card company. I feel much better now.

http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/santa.asp

And check out this cool place that Santa's people built

I wonder what this piratey looking guy has to say

I enjoy the contrasts in life. They seem to illuminate the betwixt and unbeknownst to me, candidly Scotty took this picture of two humans focused on what currently was of importance to them. Each immersed in separate realities yet separated by just a few feet.

Uh oh, it's getting late, better head over to the rock show. When we have really long bus drives, they bring in a 'double driver' for each bus. That way they can tag team and take turns driving to get us to our next city. Well, I would like you to meet bus 2's double driver and temporary pirate

We call him Nasty B'stard. Why do we call him that you may well ask? Well, not really sure, we just do.

The contemplating changing my name to the sound of pirate saying 'Aaargh,'

Dave Rat

Day 194 - Dec 3 - Zurich Show 1

**** eBay Auction Update ****

Check this article out as it is about the auction winner, George

http://www.sootoday.com/content/arts/details.asp?c=16539

We have not forgotten about the our eBay
auction responsibilities and the advertising will happen at some show yet
to be determined on the upcoming Jan/Feb US tour leg. George has opted to send
shirts he had specially printed for us to wear and I heard that they are currently
sitting in my office at Rat Sound.

**** End eBay Auction Update ****

I forgot to mention yesterday that roadie Leif found this place called , 17
Neumarkt Street that is the coolest interior home design setup we have ever
seen. All the floors were metal gratings that hung by chains. The very bottom
floor was a swimmable pool and the skylight flooded sunshine throughout. I will
dub this recommended stop # 63.

**** Ponderamblings ****

I was 20 years old and I worked at Hughes
Aircraft in Culver City where they built the not so flighty Spruce
Goose airplane. I was the youngest guy in an engineering department that
performed environmental testing on TOW
missle systems. It was right at the front end of the Regan era US military
expansion fueling the Second
Cold War and there were rumors of a draft. I was working mandatory overtime
polishing the US war machine and after work, my childhood friend Brian and I
could make between $100 and $200 a night for all of our gear and both of us
working from the tiny PA company we owned. Faced with losing my job at Hughes
for missing work for punk shows or letting the sound company go stagnant, I
did what seemed to be the scariest thing in the world but had to be done and
quite my job. When I arrived home I still remember the moment when I took off
the watch I was wearing and released myself from the clutches of regimented
time. My desire was to let time fly by when excitement came my way and bcome
entrenched in slow motion time if I was miserable. Bye bye job, bye bye time.

Twenty years later while in Berlin on the By The Way Peppers tour, I bought
myself a really nice self winding watch. My aim was not to be attached to time
as I am long free of that. My attraction was toward the precision of the small
and so finely crafted machine that gains its life from motion. Like a friend
or a mechanical pet, dependant yet useful and a weighty arm reminder for me
to follow the goals I set and dreams I have. For the first time in my life I
understood the allure the fine timepiece and for the first time I realized the
diference between being controlled by, or taking control of, time.

So here in the land of the Swiss I decided to reward myself and purchase another
watch while also stumbling upon recommended stop # 64 of the Dave Rat Euro tour,
Zett
Meyer watch shop. Full of very cool people and if you do stop by, look for
Pia, Laura or Sandro and tell them you are a friend of the Peppers and you need
the 'Special Discount' and tell them hello from me!

**** End Ponderamblings ****

Ahhh, the glorious gig

And an honor and a smile and a memory caputered with The Missing Men, Raul
and Tom with me and Mike Watt.

I highly recommend that the curious go check out Mike Watt's web site http://www.hootpage.com/
and if you are super curious then request to get on his cool mailing list.

Here is our piratey picture of the day with honorary roadie Peter joining us.
You may remember him as the Big Cheese.

Very often a certain city or region will have a charictaristic soccer chant
or some sort of odity that is interesting. Here in this area there is this thing
where the crowd raises there arms and go "OooohOooohOooooh" while
wiggling their hands. It is really a strange sensation when 12,000 people all
do it in unison.

Ok, enough for today,

Dave Rat

SIDNCYIWCYS!

At exactly 10:24 AM Zurich time I turned on a television This is the first time I have voluntarily attempted a TV watching adventure. I must admit I was a bit apprehensive and being that it has been many months since I have been in a room one on one with a lit television, I was uncertain as to whether I was up for the task. At exactly 10:32 AM Zurich time I turned off the television as I had completely and utterly failed in my attempt to gather useful information without being bombarded with aggravation in the form of commercials and mind bending watered down garbage that insults the very concept of thought and thinking. I won't be trying that again and will have to stick to acquiring news from the internet. At least that way I can pick through the garbage bin of world info looking for tidbits of curiosity without being force fed entire meals built from whatever ulterior motive controls that particular story.

Another day off makes two in a row and another day of wandering with curious big eyes to seek out the uniqueness and intricacies of this far away city. What became readily apparent as it so often does is that even though I thought I knew her, there is still more to discover. While enjoying this Swiss Miss named Zurich with her huge bank account, sweet chocolaty ways, gorgeous mountainous Alps and flawless timing we must not forget that she is quite skilled with knives. Where better to seek out a cool pocket knife? "Excuse me miss, I am looking for the ultimate roadie pocket knife, do you have any recommendations?"

"Wow, this look really useful. Compact and convenient too! What all does it do?"

"Hmmm, I think I need something a bit more piratey, thank you."

**** Esoteric Knucklehead Babbling ****

It is probably best to look at the cool pictures and ignore the rest and I am just doing a bit of mind spill here that would normally never see any home beyond my journal which lays dormant now that blog world has devoured it's time.

Everywhere I look in life I see the same patterns repeating. Construction is an inverted accelerated opposite to deterioration. Destruction an inverted accelerated opposite to anything assembled or lacking chaos. Life force is the essence that has the power to unpredictably defy gravity. Gravity applies a predictability to all things except those with life force. As humans we savor the past as much as we slough it off for the future. We embrace the dualities of life and find beauty in both. Balance resonates in every life description from all corners of the earth and all belief systems, Yin and yang, heaven and hell, life and death and old and new and within 30 steps of each other

Completely unrelated but perfectly positioned. Perhaps ever molecule of pollution that one creates the other would save if they were both powered by some middle ground propulsion. Both are beautiful to me, both are creations of much labor in a precise direction and purpose and both are too extreme to be much more than novelty in the life I currently have chosen to lead but I love that they both exist. Oh, have I mentioned that I slowly lose my mind while touring?

**** End Esoteric Knucklehead Babbling ****

Hey everyone, say hello to roadie Amir Butt. Yes that is his name and he is cool beyond description. A unique merchandise roadie that has been working Peppers European tours since 1991.

Now he needs to be a roadie card!!

The sometimes forgetting to pretend to be a normal human being,

Dave Rat