Zebra Trucks: [Zebra_Trucks] Today's news from Sao Paulo...

Not really today's... nothing's happened here yet, even thought it's 9:15, everybody is making up for sleep deprivation accrued during the week.

Anne and I are at a new hotel, because it's Grand Pre week in Sao Paulo, and we booked so late, we couldn't spend the entire time in the same hotel. This is a ritzier, more expensive place, but it's only 8 blocks from Luciana and Leo's apartment building (she was very upset when they moved in and she learned she was on the 5th floor, but his place is on the coveted 13th floor).

Anyway, last night Anne and I decided we would walk to the Café Elétrico, about 2 miles. Not much of a walk, and the weather has been agreeable to those used to the chilly northern climate... but if you get lost on the way, it gets more complicated. I was worried about being late, so rather than retrace our steps, we decided to take a cab the rest of the way. It took several cab drivers to consult together to identify our destination... they all use map books, nobody can possibly know the entire city, there are 130,000 streets in Sao Paulo. So even though we were within a mile of our destination, most of them had never heard of it.

No worries about being late - the show was scheduled to start at 8:00, I wanted to get there by 7:00... we actually got there 7:50, but only Six and Du were already there... Six's new band Homiepie opened the show not too badly late for a change... I think we came on before 9:30.

Being Halloween, and us being the Waiters, I changed into costume - a waiter's uniform I bought at an institutional clothing outfitting store we saw trotting between museums when sight-seeing. It went over very well.

The "tour" has taken on decidedly Spinal Tap qualities. The show last night was much like playing the Air Force social hall - the place was small, divided into 3 rooms, and we were in a tiny little place which worked well for the 3 piece Homiepie, but not the 8 piece Waiters. I kept having to shift my position so the real waiters could get past me from the kitchen to the customers....

Homiepie was great, and a tough act to follow, and it seemed to me that we were losing momentum with the audience before about 6 songs into it, when we fried the vocal PA amplifier, reminiscent of Nigel Tuftnel's wireless problems. However, unlike Nigel, we cheerfully continued on, cutting a couple songs, and all joining in for a unison singalong to make the vocals heard over the now-turned-down instruments on the songs we did perform. We finished with "Ugly American" which I "sang" in my best strangled roar.

Today, we play in the park. Do you suppose we'll get top billing over the puppet show? Will we go on a jazz oddessey? We'll find out.

The rest of the tour, including Boston, has been cancelled.

But I'm still having a hell of a great time.

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