i just wanted to say how much i relished the little piano paul-henri provided for us at the rotonde... it was as sweet as sugar, and the demure, elegant entrance it made, sliding quietly in on slim ramps, was one of the happy moments of my life. thanks, paul-henri, father of two, for thinking of us even as you raced off to arhus that morning.
and thanks to all our friends in europe, such great hosts. xxoo

I'm sitting on the plane, headed back for New York as I write this. As so often happens, my chances at going online on the road
are rare. My heart always aches leaving Paris. Like leaving a lover behind. This mini-tour was a lovely experience.

Grenoble- we did Radio Campus show when we arrived. Interviewed by Stephan and Paul, who were very kind. It is always a pleasure to come to Grenoble and play at le Ciel. It is one of my favorite places to play in the world; great sound, great room, great staff. If only there were a Le Ciel in every town. Everyone there is so good to us, Laurent, Audrey, Michel, Olivier...they took us to a superb dinner, amazing fish, artichoke souffle, creme brulee de lavander et chartreuse. WOW. Gorgeous flowers in the dressing room. merci.
The concert was magical for us, a very intimate and special energy in the room, and the audience of Grenoble so warm. It's such a pleasure for me to sing there. Oren was great on the piano. Alot of people were asking me after the show what instrument I was playing, so for the record , it's an omnichord.

The next day it was off to Strasbourg. A lovely train ride. Fields overflowing with wild red poppies, gentle streams, beautiful mountains, rivers, majestic trees, old farm houses and bombed out castles sped by. The land in France is so beautiful. Strasbourg- played La Laiterie. The crew was good, especially Phillipe, Laurent, and Flor. The show went well, and we met some nice fans afterwards, some of whom had come to see us the last time we played in Strasbourg which was about eight years ago. Got online in production office. Strasbourg is a lovely town with the Rhine going through, also got back to the mind blowing cathedral. I love the giant clock.

Brussels- spent most of the day-off on trains enroute to Brussels, zoning out the window with cows napping under trees and shiny horses and beautiful birds flying by. Paul-Henri of the Botanique was there to pick us up and take us to the hotel. After sitting for so long it was good to use the gym and sauna. Walked around downtown, good Indian food, blanche with lemon, saw kooky light/sound show at the Grand Plaz. The 4th- after a great sound check, Chris "the eagle of the road" took us to the National radio to do a live show on Pure FM. Good to see many of the Bang folks there. We played four songs, and it was cool. Yves the engineer was terrific. The radio was also a chance to bring up some political issues and to share our disgust at what is going down with the Bush/Cheney regime. Ribot had put me in touch with a Belgian peace group called Mother Earth, I had written them and invited them to come speak before our concert at the Botanique, but I never heard back from them. Anyway, the show at the Botanique went wonderfully. I like playing the Rotonde, nice crowd, played two encores. Bernardo and Xavier did a nice job on sound, and I adore Jawad, the gentle and gifted lighting man who always does a great job for us. After gig, sold and signed merch. Sweet people. Shared some wine with Mark from Venus. The last time I saw him was in the fall when we were in Nuits Botanique together along with Hugo Race, when Mark invited me to sit in on the Jaques Brel song "Amsterdam" with him. He's very sweet, and it was nice that he came.

It was great to get to play stripped down like we did for these three shows. All the concerts felt very personal and intimate. Jean-Marc's loops are very cool and worked out very nicely.
The last day of the tour was spent back in Paris. Pere Lachaise. Yes we saw Jim Morrison's grave, as well as Colette. What a beautiful cemetary. Bush was in town tying up traffic and there were protests all over the city. Boo Bush! Un imbecile.
The evening was spent with our friends Jean-Marc, Nicolas and Emmanuelle. A lttle extravagant wine party at Nic and E's place with fabulous wine, food, and company, keeping us busy almost til dawn. This morning it was the flea market, oh if only there were more time... bises immortellement, Jennifer

So, Oren and I are here in Europe doing a few duo shows.
Here's what's been happening.
The trip started out ideally enough. Painless airport
experience. Pleasant flight on Air India, flipping between
classical ghazals and bollywood soundtracks on the headset,
vegetarian curry and uninterrupted ambian-aided sleep. Good
hotel in Paris (used to be a church), nice room with wooden
beams to hang on. A lovely day wandering through the ancient
streets of the Marais, returning to one of my favored thrift
stores, and scores for both of us, then leisurely sipping
kirs at Petit Fer A Cheval (a place I frequented this past
winter while making the forthcoming Jean-Louis record). One
of those moments where one of us say (this time it was me), "this is the best fucking job in the world". yeah. And youfeel so lucky to be doing what you're doing, the taste of anticipation in your mouth of when you get to go on stage and play your songs for people. Later on we had an interview witha small film crew who are shooting a documentary about Jim (Thirlwell). Both O and I felt spacey unfocused jet laggy, but hopefully it was OK. Cous Cous for dinner then early to bed after both finishing our books, then a fine night of adventurous dreams. One I particularly remember was filling in last minute as the host of the tonight show, improvising, and ofcourse being outrageously funny. The King of Comedy. Anyway, the next morning didn't prove as care-free. It started with my curling iron exploding and sparking flames. Then breakfast- only one piece of fruit in the hotel breakfast room and it was a lemon. Next- checking out and ordering a cab. But there are no cabs to order. The hotel can't get through. And we are quickly losing time. It becomes questionable whether we will make our train to Grenoble. Fethiye, the sweet hotel manager, insists on helping us get to the nearest cab stand (which isn't really near at all), and the three of us slog through the streets in the rain at break-neck speed with suitcases and instruments.The cab stand isn't a cab stand at all. There are no taxis in Paris when it rains she tells us. We say goodbye to her and decide to take our chances with the metro. The lind for metro tix is the length of a family of tape worms, and Oren starts to lose his cool. Somehow it's finally our turn, we run through the the metro, tearing down the tunnels, hop on a train, in minutes we sprint again, our bags flying through the air as we transfer trains, the clock is ticking, beads of sweat fly off of us like mercury, finally we are in Gare de Lyon, Oren's running through the station with two large suitcases like a mad terrorist looking for voie 19, and me his accomplice not far behind with my omnichord, satchel, and guitar. Wrong platform! Wrong platform! "Excuse-moi! excuse moi!" And then, forgive me God, but I knocked a blind woman with the guitar. seconds later - the whole thing is a lsd mirage, voie 19, the beautiful train is still there. we made it with two minutes to spare. a bittersweetness, sitting in my train seat in my cool french vintage blouse with lions on it, sticking to my skin with sweat, my hands aching, still out of breath as the train starts moving and soon paris is out of sight.
more soon.