sometimes it does not work... like when we drove down for a day to get to this show we were told we could play on the east coast of spain and when we arrived we were more or less ignored and our c.d. was only used to have lines of speed cut on it... which seemed to be the main reason anyone was at the show... three bands played for one hour each and could not squeeze fifteen minutes out of their rock and roll sets or hour long sound checks to let us do what we were told we could come do... we do not care about money, which is shockingly very good at the shows... normally we get paid one hundred dollars to play a show... mainly because it is different here... being cheap does not get confused with being an anarchist as often as i feel it does in america, where punx are accustomed to sneaking into every show and trying to get free merch from the bands... here we put "pay what you want" on all our merch and people give a respectable amount if they can and if they can not, they seem embarrassed and only buy stuff if we hold out our hand and do not look at how much money they give but just put it away in our pocket without counting how much... h@h@
it is so different because you can tour and play in just squats so people want to pay at the door cause it helps the squat... in america it is harder to squat and almost impossible to have squat shows...
the squat scene throughout europe is incredible coming in comparison from the united states...
large warehouses converted to truck garages, entire villages, squats the size of city blocks between one year and fifteen years old... sustained with heat, electricity, and water... and there is another scene of people who travel in converted trucks and vans that they live in and this scene has more often to do with the tekno scene of which i no very little except that the one squat i went past that was run by the teckno scene charged money for people to use it as a space... in fact this was a big topic i discussed alot in barcelona... all over europe the feeling was similar that whenever we asked if we could stay at a squat the people responded that it was ours as much as theirs... they really opened it for everyone but ofcourse had the psychos and dangerous fools who had to get kicked out... but there was a situation in particular in barcelona that i could relate to... it starts with a quote upon their kitchen sink...
After setting off separately from Pittsburgh in the early fall, the collective has been reunited in the chilly (and gloomy) October in Paris. Right off the bat we try to get hooked up with a show and it works beautifully. We play a benefit show for No Pasaran and SCALP/Reflex at a beautiful anarchist social center with Booter (Angers), Cromwello (Tours) and Moho (Madrid) and they are all happy to share equipment and time with us.
We are realizing that our previous experiences with traavelling are out the window because of the cold and the freequency of which Babs experiences debilitating sickness. This is a major adjustment that will take some time to become accustomed to. But the general concensus is to go out and tour "vagabond style" (meaning with no ?nstruments, no set up shows and no clear plan) I came up with this ridiculous solution of buying a cheap, cheap car. Sounds l?ke a total fantasy.
After meeting up with the folks from La Valette at a benefit show for the?r project at the squat we are stayiing at in Paris, we convince Julie to give us a ride back with them to their anarcho-peasant paradise.
La Vallete is a squatted rural village deep in a valley in the south of France. It was started by some squatters from Paris who were looking for an ancient castle to in 1992. What they found was a small stone village that is at least centuries old. They are continuing the project of restoring the stone walls and roofs of the structures in traditional (and ecological) ways. They have many gardens that mostly feed the 30 or so residents and the always present travellers (10-100) passing through. As well they have ?ron, stone and wood-working workshops. The artistry of the buildings combined with the setting deep in thie remote terraced valley is undescribably beautiful. The social relations ?n this very functional intentional community are inspiring as well. Here anarchism is made real. Brush up on you frence and check out the?r website at www.colectif.valette.free.fr
It is a well known fact that Barcelona is the shit. Many a punk has been awed by its enormous squatting scene. For me it is no different. The extent to which they are organized and active is best reflected by Info Usurpa. This is a weekly bulletin posted at most all squats and anarchist social spaces around Barcelona. It lists for the week almost a hundred events happening at 20 to 30 squats. Charlas (discussion groups), kafetas (coffee houses), infoshops, comedors and cenadors (open lunch and dinner eateries, most free or by donat?on), cinemas, free internet labs, dance, yoga and flamenco classes, and of course punk concerts are all done in squatted spaces. There is so much activity you must choose carefully what to partpicipate in. With up to 10 events a day you can find yourself very busy. We did not get to see much of the city. After our 2 week there we had only begun to explore the squatting scene there.
While we were in town we played a punk show at the squat called Makabra, an acoustic performance at the Comedor El Muerte, and we did an interview and played an acousstic song live on our friend K?ke's radio show on Radio Bronka, a 12 year old communty-based pirate radio.
(roughly translated: anarchism is not to make what you want but to want what you make...)
found above the sink filled with dirty dishes at the Makabra Squat in barcelona, spain...
While jamming together in a park in the hip ne?ghborhood of Lavap?es, we were invited to ?ay in "a gathering of 50 musicians" (and get paid as well). Or so we were told. Not knowing what to expect, we arrived at the park to find a group of musicians from Venezuela equally as confused. As more of the many diverse musicians rolled in we realized the plan was for all of us to play together in one big jam session to make a concert for the neighborhood. It sounded crazy, and the calibre of musicianss with such diverse style made my head spin but it actually worked amazingly well. There was a saxaphonist from Sweeden, a salsa band from Venezuela, a tin flutist from Ireland, a local classical string quartet, a five p?ece band that plays a serier of tuned tubes with what looks like ping-png paddles (a spanish invention that is difficult to explain) along with you usual wingnut eccentric fiddlers and the whole scene playing just about every instrument known...
???
After Joy and Babs left us (sniff, sniff) to return to Pittsburgh in preparation of bringing new life, Chris and I immediately went with Swift-dog Lover of Green to get a tin whistle in Venice. The next day we met up with Chris' brother Danny, who plays guitar, and the next day in Pisa we met up with my friend Aaron who was travelling with a toy accordian. Almost instantly we were up to a five piece band and after a gew days practice we were ready to hit the streets...
This is just one concise little example of how different resistance is in the US and in Europe. We meet some squtter punk in the Piazza della Repubblica in the middle of Firenze. Their pissed. They have just been evicted from their newly opened 2 day old squat. There are about 20 of us or so and they are throwing of huge M80 sized firework creating deafening blasts and screaming with rage at anyone in earshot in the plaza. Some listen with sympathy but most try to get through the plaza and around them as soon as possible. After some small conversation the tell us about a concert that is happening the next day in the nearby city of Pisa. It is going to by held in front of the regional prison inside the city of Pisa. As we roll up things are just getting uploaded, but they immediately put up the first table and start selling the first of many beers and mixed drink. Scoping out the scene, we are in a small grassy field directly in front of a tall barbed wire fence, which circles closely around a 20 foot prison wall, with the guard tower looming directly over us. This setting, with all of the punks, tons of band equipment a very well stocked makeshift bar, and ton of music blasting through the sound system is very surreal to me. My paranoias are telling me that the cops are going to show any minute and beat the crap out of all of us, but that doesnt seem to bother too many others except us americans. As the chill sets in, many begin hauling out large amounts of wood from an adjacent construction site, and that is when the siege begins. It starts out with about 3 guy each with a few handfulls of at least M80 size explosives. The come up to the fence and begin littering the ground below the guard tower with them. Blam, blam... some aim for the guard tower, but the fuses are too long. I am fucking shocked, but a few minutes later they break out with the bottle rocket. And they are really good ones too. The kind that blast at the end. The first few shot strike the wall and blow up, after a little practice they are getting them over the wall and into unseen depths of the prison. Now people are getting really riled up. Kids are getting up on the mike screaming, and they chants begin !Tutti libero! while the majority of the crowd is marching toward the fence looking like they are going to tear that shit down. Not much more escalates, but a few people jump up on the fence and shake it with rage. After a while the crowd de-escalates, but the firework never really cease for long. They had some of the best fireworks that I had ever seem. The big shit, keeping the guard on his toes. After a few hours of fun and games, a few local bands rocked the house, followed by Milano thrashers, Nervi. Really good night, and not a single glimpse of any cop, minus the poor guard.
We f?nally meet up w?th our Ital?an fr?end whom we met play?ng on the streets of Los Angeles back on h?m home turf... and he has a band that ?s of great ?nsp?rat?on to our collective. They are an open collective of more than 60 mus?c?ans that plays on the streets and at protests and demonstrat?on around the area of Tuscany. Made of up of flutes, accord?ans, trumbones, trumpets, saxs, tubas, clarenets and drums they play a thunder?ng l?vely style of Eastern European mus?c as well as trad?t?onal ?tal?an anarch?st and labor songs. When we saw them they has just returned from the meet?ngs of the L?bertar?an Soc?al Forum (follow?ng the European Soc?al Forum ?n Par?s) when they play ?n a march of 1000s of anarch?sts, who marched w?th them on the streets of Par?s. At the concert, they were about 40 strong, and they opened up for a tour?ng Turk?sh band. The h?ghl?ght for me was jump?ng on stage at the end of the show (l?ke the poser I am, w?th my mandol?n, wh?ch no one could obv?ously hear next to all of those woodw?nds) along w?th them and the Turk?sh band and play?ng a 20 m?nute repr?sal of "Bella C?ao"
???
We attended a meeting of about 30 anarchists, who were in the very beginning stages of planning a mass demonstration against the upcoming meetings of NATO in June. This will be a very new and large step for the growing anarchist movement here, and sever repression is expected as demonstrations are not well tolerated. The meeting was seen as a success, as the somewhat factionalized scene was able to come together and concense on a common statement to build the movement against NATO. Check out http://haziran2004.cjb.net for more info. Also, some anarchist here are looking at applying some newly learned skills from some of the Food Not Bombs struggles in the US. Kieth McHenry just passed through here giving a talk, and some of the anarchists went out to do food collecting to make a communal meal. (It was delicious) There is serious talk to starting a chapter here, or doing some similar activities, but because the political scenario is so different and repression is greater, they are still strategizing for the best ways to apply lessons from the FNB struggle.
I have fallen in love with Turkish folk music. Right now I am trying to trade in my mandolin for a ba?lama. New sounds to follow.