Dave Rat - Roadies in the Midst

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!