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7.29.2005

Cork, Galway, Dublin

Man, oh, man, Ireland sure had been fun so far!
The first day we got to Cork we had a day off to relax after the horrible ferry ride, so we went to a great African place for dinner and did some internet. On the way home I ran into Jona and we ended up going to see War of the Worlds, which was a really fun movie with a really questionable ending. The following day I spent leisurely walking around Cork, a really lovely little city.
Well, the show that night was something I'll never forget. First of all, we met Sir Richard Bishop, who is now travelling with us for a bit playing shows. His band is the Sun City Girls, who are quite legendary in some circles. He's a great guitar player, kind of like Fahey but faster and more flamenco, and a really nice guy. As the show was getting underway, Noah told me that DONOVAN was there. I was like, "No..." and sure enough, I look over in the corner and there he is! Noah said he was pretty loaded and he kept walking by me so I figured I should say hello. Well, I did, and he immediately grabbed my hand, gave me a kiss on the cheek, and started his night-long ramble-fest of his philosophies on life. While Devendra was playing he was just loving the band said they were "channeling Charlie Watts" and commenting on their "attitude" and stuff. He was talking a lot about fate and the role of us as musicians as the "elite" in the "center of the universe". He was like, "YOU know, and I know, and Devendra know, and The Beatles know, and The Rolling Stones know..." Man, I really wish I wrote down more of the stuff he was saying, it was really brilliant. He did say he was writing a book! He was definitely loaded and definitely flirting with me, but hey, it's DONOVAN! After the show I packed up the merch as quickly as possible as people were filing out, and went upstairs to the backstage as a full-on jam was underway: Donovan was singing and playing guitar to "Love Potion No. 9" with Sir Richard backing up up on these insane guitar licks! It was unbelievable. Richard actually had a camera set up across the room and was taping all of it, so it's recorded. I also took a bunch of photos and Jona recorded audio onto his computer and took some video. He even emailed his Mom while it was going on, who was so excited. He played some other songs, like "Hit the Road Jack" and kept saying, "Ladies, this is for the ladies!" and was trying to get all 2 of us to sing. Unfortunately I'm a terrible singer and the only other girl there was totally lame and definitely not even going to try. But it was funny. He even dropped Noah's guitar on the floor at one point. He and Noah had this whole episode where Donovan was trying to create some bizarre tuning and Noah was attempting to keep up, and once he was there, he just sort of laughed. He was just doing it for fun and didn't have a song to play or anything! We all cracked up. Then Noah tuned it back and started to play "Season of the Witch". Richard played guitar as well, and Donovan spent the song with his arm around Devendra and singing it with him.
As if that wasn't enough, we had to leave, and Donovan was going to drive home. Now, we wouldn't let any of our friends drive home in the state that he was in! He didn't even know where his car was! So Noah and I walked around trying to find it with him. I finally asked him, "What does your car look like?" and he said "It's a black Benz," and there it was. We went over to it and he was dumping out all the stuff in his bag onto the hood trying to find his keys. I was like, "Let me try," and they were in the first pocket I looked in. I was like, "I'm keeping these!" We managed to convince him to leave his car there and come back to the hotel with us, where we would give him one of our rooms. So Noah went back to the van and I stayed with him at his car. He went off for a "walk" and ended up just taking a piss between a couple of parked cars. He kept thanking me and us for taking care of him! Man, I was like, "Dude, we are honored and would do this for any of our friends, it's no problem." Finally the van came along and he sat up in the front with me and began to nod off. We put him in Noah's room (there were extra beds anyways). I knocked on the door to check on him and he already had his pants off. At least he was wearing a long shirt! And in the morning, he was gone before any of us even got up. What a night!
The next day we were all just in shock that it even happened. Today Dev said he called him and Donovan has some "projects" he wants to involve him in. What a life, huh?
So, onto Galway. Galway was very cool as well, the owner/promoter of the bar we played in was totally sweet and ended up DJing the dance party after the show. The stage was so crowded and the audience was sitting at tables, but the sound was great and the show was a bit more subdued. We ended up drinking way, way too much, especially me, but we had a great time dancing and talking to the locals. The bar put us up in an apartment next door to the venue.
Yesterday we fortunately had the day off to recover and drove to Dublin. It's been raining ever since, the weather is absolutely miserable! Sort of like San Francisco in July! We've mostly stayed in the hotel watching TV and stuff. The show tonight in Dublin is starting soon, so I should go set up merch.
DONOVAN! I still can't believe it! What a guy.

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