From Casablanca to Marrakesh

Its been a long time, I shouldn't have left you, without a dope blog to read through.....Sorry for those who don't get the hip hop quote on this one.....Gotta get your hip hop 101 together. Well since we've last spoken, so much has happened, where do I start....Ok we had our first real show in Casablanca, a double bill with Gawa Fusion, a local band here in Morocco. 

We had a crazy soundcheck with a soundguy who had a hard time adjusting the mics, our voices, and the space. And a crew guy who gave the other band a real hard time about their keyboard player....Ahhh... It felt just like home. Our set was good, we were sounding good, we were a little concern about the language barrier, but we made a good impression. At the end of the set, Mildred sang an old traditional Moroccan song, that the audience went wild for. It was a little rough but they totally appreciated our respect for their culture. Gawa Fusion took the stage after that for two songs and then we came back on and "jammed" with them for another song. 

You know, you have to love these exchanges, the opportunity to connect with people. Lots of hugs, e-mail exchanges and pictures taken. Met a couple of people from France and some Moroccan promoters who want to bring us back.....All I can say is Morocco....this is happening in Morocco.  Next it was off to Marrakesh, a three hour drive to the more "country part" of Morocco.

Now if you know anything about Universes, we love to keep ourselves entertained so falling asleep around us is very dangerous. Those missing pictures may pop sooner or later, depending on who is blackmailing who. Its amazing how busted you can look in pictu

res when you're tired and asleep...... Now Marrakesh has a different flavor than the part of Casablanca where we were staying. There were mountains peeking at you from behind the buildings.

Our next show was in a theater where they have opera , so our sound was a little different then what their staff was used to. We had this guy who worked there who couldn't speak English and didn't know anything about what was going on but was trying to tell everybody what to do....Ahhh just like home.. He wore this cardigan sweater and..had this weird energy around him....I shall call him the Cardigan Man.....This show was another collaboration with the hip hop Moroccan group called "Fnair". 

They were really excited to have this opportunity to perform at this opera house, but they were only able to get on at the end of our set, but they didn't care. We all rocked the spot as if it was a smokey club with messed up microphones at one o'clock in the morning.....you know what I'm saying....We found out later that during the sound checked they were being watched by the Cardigan Man to see if they said anything negative about the government....Weird Energy!!! 

Now after the show,..we went out to the medina...which was jumping with an energy and excitement that you wouldn't believe. 

There were small groups of people performing traditional music.... african and egyptian rhythms....inspiring and moving....Moroccan culture all around you. Now don't get me wrong...it was amazing to see...but you had to keep your head out there. There was also this sense of danger...pick pockets and hustlers all watching each other and the tourist roamimg around. Now we had Mars with us, our jedi driver and bodyguard, who kept his eyes where we didn't keep ours. You always felt safe when he was around,...But we definitely kept our new york attitude with us. Now it was off to the food area, where everything is cooked outside. Kind of like a big giant barbecue. We sat down at area 22, with our Moroccan connections from the state department for this traditional meal. Now, I must say this was one of the best moments of the trip. We had Mutton head, camel hump, coucous (I think this how you spell it but its late, forgive me) It was just cool watching the activity of the medina, sharing good time with the waiters and the cooks, who chased away the young kids who were out there hustling for change with a little too much passion. Almost hurting them, trying to protect business. But it kind of struck me that when you see kids out there, late at night, some as young as 4 (no lie) it breaks your heart,and I've seen it in the USA, Chile, Poland. No matter how exotic, there it is...the other side of the fantasy.

Now there is so more to talk about but we're saving that for the book. But the story of old Nigersaurus versus Mutton Head and his sidekick Camel Hump in the land of the Numb Numb, is coming ....stayed tuned (inside joke)
I guess you just have to be here.