Off to the Circus

August 1 2004

  Amigos,

  I am on my way to the airport in half an hour, on my way to the legendary Edinburgh Fringe Festival, nowhere near ready. Last time I wrote I was mid-way through the Toronto Fringe, which wrapped up to be my most successful yet. My final night in Toronto was my best crowd so far on the Fringe circuit, forty-five souls. I flew home from Toronto on July 11th having performed thirty-one shows in just over two months. Some were losers and some were winners money-wise, but they were all real challenges to be faced, heart beating fast as I listen to the murmur of expectation from behind the curtains, waiting for my cue from the sound tech.

  The past few weeks have been a beautiful reminder of the support I have here in B.C., a chance to visit family and friends and connect with the people who got me to this place. I visited a treeplanting camp, put in a few trees and performed at the end of season party. The sight of dozens of rowdy and slightly grubby planters stomping the dirt floor to the harmonica and thumping bass of "El Plantador" was a sheer joy. Likewise, when I went to the Kootenays the feeling that people were behind me and rooting for me was overwhelming. I got to perform at the opening of "The RezAvoir", a new lounge in Nelson co-owned by close friends on their own entrepreneurial path, making things happen in the community.

  I also got to perform at a house party in the very house I was born in in Riondel, built by my dad in the seventies. To my surprise, the younger generation coming out of the East Shore community where I went to high school had all been rallying around my party tunes while I was on tour. I put the mic out into the crowd and could hear a chorus of teenaged voices chanting the hook to Pagan Party as the beat shook the rafters "WE-GOAN-PARTY-LIKE-WE-JUST-CAME-HOME-FROM-WAR..." This has renewed my enthusiasm and sense of purpose in writing and making hiphop music. The feeling of touching people and having them relate to and sing along with your words is a privilege that it's hard to describe.

  For the past few days I have been preparing for Edinburgh, designing my flyers and posters and making arrangements to do promotional stunts and shows while I am there. Jonny Quality, the band I met in Prague, will be performing in Edinburgh for a full weekend while I am there, and we are going to perform our joint track "John Deere Greene" on stage in front of a crowd of rowdy Scots in a couple weeks. Sean (lead guitarist and mastermind) wrote me to say that he played the track for Norman "Fatboy Slim" Cook, who loved it, so the wick is lit on that powder keg.

  I also managed to get some composing done in the past week, and completed what I consider to be my most challenging and representative rap poem to date. It is called "The Rhyme Renaissance" and is basically a synthesis of my entire thesis concept into about eighty lines of verse. It tells the story of rhyme in human communication from it's genesis with the evolution of language through the many transformations that led it to be all but banished from poetry in the Twentieth century and finally into today's era, when rhyme is being resurrected and given a vitality never before seen, thanks to hiphop. If you are interested in engaging with this concept or telling me what you think, please feel free to read it.

  I also just want to say thanks to everyone who has shown me love and support during this obstacle course that is the Fringe tour. Those who have come to my shows or written to give me encouragement. I feel as if I have been neglecting a lot of friendships and relationships that mean a great deal to me, all in the name of pursuing this path to the ends of the earth, but I am a long way from turning back. So for those who have given me the space to take this leap and who are still with me, thank you.

  I return in exactly one month to begin the Victoria and San Francisco Fringes, and will be back in Vancouver as of September 20th to take a deep breath, sleep for forty-eight hours, and then return to performing in schools and hopefully recording more. Stay tuned for the adventures of the Brinkman Brothers in Edinburgh. Okay, with that I'm off to Edinburgh. Lots of love to you all.

 

baba