Day 24

Well, this will be the last update of this tour.  By next Tuesday’s post, I will be back at home in Toronto.

24 Days since our first show,  and we’ve got 3 shows left.

I am Invisible Girl

I’m proud to announce that in San Francisco I received my official superhero name – “Invisible Girl.”  You can read the origin here, in an article by Gordon Elgart for Spinning Platters.com.   Awesome.

read the article here

my tour bike

This bike has a bit of a back story.  A few months ago, Ali bought her mom a new bike.  She then brought the old bike home and left in on our front porch with the intention of giving it to a friend or to Sistering.  We forgot to lock it up and, of course, it was stolen immediately.  But…the thief left us a bike!  So it was more of an exchange than a robbery.

Around this time I had just started reading David Byrne’s Bicycle Diaries, and was seriously inspired by the idea of having a bike on tour.

I realized that the thief’s bike would be the perfect tour bike for 2 reasons:

1. it was small enough to fit in the trailer (and wouldn’t be annoying to lug around)
2. I wouldn’t care if it got stolen (we only put $30 into fixing it up)

The day before I left Toronto, Ali put new grips on the bike (don’t want that dirty thief karma rubbing off on my hands) and fixed the breaks.

I only had time to ride in a few cities during the tour…

• Chicago – one of my favourite cities.  I got to ride around before the show, mostly in the Ukrainian part of town.  In the morning I got up early to ride out to Lincoln Park.  Gorgeous.
• Winnipeg – what can I say about Winnipeg?  Not the best place to ride around, very car-centric.
• San Francisco – by far my favourite stop on the tour.  I kinda fell in love with San Fran this time.  I spent our first true day off riding all over the place, hanging out in the Castro, and enjoying how bike-friendly the city is.  Check out their bike map.  It’s amazing.
• New York – during the day the streets can be pretty stressful, but my post gig, 2am ride back to the hotel was so quiet and easy.  This is my 6th time in New York, but my first with a bicycle.  It’s such a great way to experience the city.

Mamma Yamma – star of TV and radio…and she’s my girlfriend!

OK.  Time to gush about my girlfriend for a bit.  You know Ali is kids television sensation Mamma Yamma, right?

She’s also a bit of radio star on the CBC.  Today she co-hosted the CBC Radio podcast with Grant Lawrence.

listen to the podcast here…

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I’m excited to get back to Toronto. Back to Ali. Back to my bed.  Back to a self-directed routine.  I have a feeling that I may just end up decompressing on the couch for a couple days, which is fine by me.  I don’t have too much work the week I get back – 1 rehearsal, 1 show, 2 students, and I have to finish reviewing the new guitar syllabus for the RCM.  I shouldn’t say “have to”…that makes it sound like a chore.  I’m actually quite honored to have been asked to participate in the review.

Thanks for reading these ramblings.  Writing these posts has been really grounding for me while on tour.

oh wait – here’s the best crepe I ever had.  I heart New York.

speak soon
Christine