FIELD NOTES :: NOW PLAYING ON NIGHTBUS RADIO :: 4 :: NEW ORLEANS DIXIELAND DISASTER
Nightbus Radio is on the move! follow FIELD NOTES and tracks from Soundcloud Fellow Kennedy Karate as he travels, making music with locals across the country… meet Jack, visit with him in Asheville, Chicago…or wherever he’s off to next!
I cleaned up my aunt’s apartment in Lincoln Park, let myself out and slid the keys back under the front door. I walked to the L train and made my way to Union station.
Amtrack has a train running from Chicago to New Orleans in 19 hours and this sounded like a dream compared to a 30+ hour trip on the Greyhound. The train was a little run down but double level and complete with dining car, observation car, café car, and sleeper cars.
The young lady sat next to me was very sweet. She was young and 3 months pregnant. She was heading to Louisiana to spend some time with her relatives before she got too pregnant to travel.
Around midnight I moved downstairs into the Café car to mix some music on my computer. There were 2 guys and 2 girls having wine and talking. They saw my rig and asked me to play them some beats. The 2 guys made hip-hop music.
As I was playing them some music, one of their girlfriends sat down across from me. She was really hammered. Her eye was lazy and she was so trashed she thought I was her ex-husband. Her conversation turned aggressive.
“And another thing, I ain’t watching another white boy come down here and steal my ideas. You always stealing my ideas,” she said.
I started grabbing my things slowly moving away from her when she grabbed my computer. I hung onto it for a moment but I could feel the metal casing flex and I just let her have it. Then another girl tried to get the computer from her and was put into a headlock. The girl in the headlock started to yell and her voice dropped about 3 octaves. She was a guy. I was on Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train. Get me off.
I went upstairs to the observation car and waited for 10 minutes till the trans gender woman came up and gave me the computer. I gave her my number and she said “thank you baby.” She never called.
Fell asleep for a few hours and woke up to a man in a purple pinstriped suit and purple gators pacing up and down the aisle mumbling “Imma gonna stab em.” The train stopped in Memphis and the police came on and arrested him and the woman who took my computer.
Apparently, the drunken woman and the purple gator guy had decided to have sex. He went into the Conductor’s sleeping cabin, took all his clothes off and waited for her, only to be found by the conductor. The rest of the train ride was boring.
I got in to New Orleans, checked in, and met up with David Burl Jr. (aka Profess) and his friend Nate Peek. We spent the evening writing and recording a song called Peace Meal.
Dave and Nate were cool guys and we had a good time. Fell asleep straight upon getting back to the boarding house.
We wrote a song called Wash My Blues Away. Working with Samantha and John was great except when John’s dog bit me in the balls, mid guitar take. After that New Orleans was smooth sailing.
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Exit Strata loves when our people get the attention and respect they deserve! that’s how the currency of mutual support becomes that other kind of currency that’s so elusive (and only part of the picture!)
Check out this new piece on Nightbus Radio from Brenna Erlich on the MTV O Music Awards Blog
and this piece from WIRED… <3
