Wednesday – Phoenix
02006-08-12 @ 12:08In the morning I meet Matt in Scottsdale for coffee and a nice chat. Then he gives me a lift to the Celebrity Theater.
A couple of days ago I listened to THIS conversation Stuart Davis had with Helen Titchen Beeth. Stuart mentions that has been trying to teach his daughter a language he invented, but the toddler has figured out that nobody else speaks this language – hence it is not very useful and she gets bored within a few minutes… This is exactly why I have plans to take my son to Germany and Austria next Spring – because I want him to know that the “secret language” he and I speak is useful and is in fact spoken by 100+ million people on this planet. He will be able to translate for the Americans traveling with us and suddenly German won’t be dad’s crazy language…
This leads me to reflect on what we do talk about, in front of children and to the children. It is obvious: the subjects we talk most about must be the most important!! I mean, what is the ratio of our talking about planet earth, the matrix of life, nature, preservation, wilderness and our happiness to be alive – to all the crap that’s really not important in the long run… 
During the performance I hear that Jon plays a new bassline for La Luna. Completely different and equally cool! After the show I get to try out a “fake Segway” in the parking lot. It sucks. I ask Matt whether he noticed the exquisite new “african” bassline Jon is driving the chorus of Santa Fe with, or the new bassline Jon developed for La Luna. Yes, he noticed and tells me that he enjoys discovering the changes from show to show. Everything is a work in progress. Stephen and I have worked on a piece I wrote for the next band-album: up close, and he changed the rhythm guitar to a rumba strum. I already recorded a Tangos version of the song which sounds quite different. Maybe it will become the title track. The Rumba version of the song might open the album and the Tangos will close it.