Original_To:  ALLM,RACHEL,MIKE,HENDRIK,IN%"moliva@cc.utah.edu",
              IN%"alanb@quality1.att.com",JULIE,STEFANO,DERO
Original_cc:  OLIVOTTO
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Date:         Thu, 21 Jan 1993 13:22:00 N
From:         "Out,
              out - you'll not feel the fall-out..." <OLIVOTTO@ITNCISCA.BITNET>
Subject:      Marco's America in 364 lines (contains ALLMUSIC reunion chronicle)

Sooo...

        Here's a report of my trip to the States. It will be partially musical
(no, not in the sense that it will sing, heh!), but it will mostly contain my
impressions of the States and a sort of chronicle of what we did. I think it
should be listed as "long(ish) and almost no-OMC". Oh well... delete or enjoy,
at your choice!

        Ciao, Marco

***

        I and my fellow musician Fabrizio Daicampi (FDc, at TNR!) left Italy
on Wed, 6 Jan. The plane took off from Milano and after some 10 hours we made
it to New York, landing at JFK. Three hours in the airport and then another
flight did bring us to Salt Lake City, Utah. 5 hours, this second leg.
        Boy the snow. God the cold. Jeez the huge distance. On the road and
in the air for 24 hours, to end up in front of a deserted baggage claim waiting
for the suitcase to come. :)
        We stumbled into a taxi, and asked the driver to deposit us "somewhere
in the center of the town, close to the railway/bus stations, in a not-too-ex-
pensive-but-decent hotel". The man said OK, and he dropped us down at the
Quality Inn. In a snowstorm, of course.
        Now half of the list may be wondering what the hell we were doing in
Utah. Actually, in the last month or so, there had been contacts between TNR
and a label (a one-man biz) in Ogden (yes, Ogden UT, not kidding). The guy
was interested in getting a license for "The Chessboard". We went through
the usual discussion over the proposed deals, and then we decided that it was
worth giving the thing a try. Therefore, the main reason for the whole trip
was delivering the master tapes and films to him. This didn't necessarily
require a trip, of course, but 1) it would be more professional of us; 2) it
would be a chance to finally fly over the ocean and see some long-time cor-
respondents (mainly ALLMUSICers). Therefore, 2 days work, 11 days vacation.
Not a bad perspective :)...
        Aside, I am pleased to let you know the license for our album is now
reality. It will be pressed and distributed throughout the States and Canada
(CD only) by Progressive International. Distributors: Landmark in the USA, Se-
lect in Canada, and -- marginally -- BMG (none else!) in Europe. So... no more
mailorders. I'm confident the CD will be pretty available in stores from
April/May.

        I soon realised that asking the cab driver to drop us near to the city
center had been a conceptual mistake: Salt Lake City has NO center, at least
not a center as we commonly intend in Europe. The capital of Utah is simply a
huge chessboard :) of square crossroads and blocks, and even though it has a
"virtual" center (the Mormon temple, what else?), its square structure is some-
what puzzling for people like me, used as I am to see towns and city develop in
a sort of circular form, out of an historical core of very few houses and on-
ward in the neighbouring land.
        Anyway, the first thing that really hit me was the enormous change of
scale in the distances with respect to Europe. You've got plenty of space over
there, guys... ask Hendrik Jan Veenstra about Holland! :) :)
        So, we checked in, and at 11.30 pm I and FDc realised we were a bit
hungry, so we headed out into the driving snow and spotted a McDonald's on the
other side of the street. In the local timescale, it was a late-night dinner.
For our bodily clock, being 7.30 in Italy, it was a breakfast :).

        Next day, snow. I and FDc called our man in Ogden and said "OK, we're
coming". He apologised he could not come to pick us up in Salt Lake City (30
min or so by car), mostly because of the horrible state of the streets -- no
appropriate tires, he said. No, problem -- we said. Oh my: there WERE problems!
        First, we missed to find the train station. It should have been North
of us -- we went South. Found the right "n-th" street, we were told it was
East -- and of course we screwed it up and headed West. Until a guy took pity
on us and said: "well, if you're going to Ogden I suggest you simply cross
here and reach Greyhound". We looked, and the bus station was just there. No
need to tell us twice!
        We were able to jump on the bus for seconds, and of course it was so
packed that some people had to stand up. We too. 45 minutes of hell (on this
hot bus, crowded like a crowded elevator, and the driver going "like a demon
from station to station"). In the end, we got there somehow.
        Even more snow.
        Ogden, sorry to say this, looked to me like the dullest place in the
world, probably because of the weather too. We were on 25th Street, and we had
to reach 11th. "We may walk", we thought. After 30 minutes in the snow we were
still around 20th, so we resolved to call a cab. It came, but it took 40 minu-
tes, and the driver almost got stuck in the snow driving uphill. Awful. Anyway,
we finally made it. The deal was signed and after 3 hours of chats and coffee
with our new executive producer we headed back towards Greyound again.
        For some reason, we managed to get back to Salt Lake City only at 7pm.
We were as tired as you can imagine, but we indeed met up with an Italian guy,
Maurizio, whom I had known over the net and who is now taking his PhD at Utah
University in Salt Lake City. Fortunately, he had a car, and this solved a lot
of problems. We went to eat in a very nice place, a 24-hours restaurant which
would be a normal place, if it weren't for the firm belief of the people who
run it that the 50s have never ended. Everything is like one imagines the 50s
should be. On every table there is a small old juke-box, and for a quarter one
can hear two songs. My favourite selection for the evening was "That's Amore"
by Dean Martin :).
        We had one more day to spend in Utah, since our plane to San Francisco
would leave on Saturday, 9 Jan.. So, on Friday morning (snow again!) I and
FDc went shopping. We didn't last long in the snow: we decided it was better
to find shelter in the hotel again, and we started our afternoon... watching
the Flintstones on TV :(. Nice idea, on our third day in America...
        But Heaven-sent Maurizio knocked on our door at 2pm, and we were
saved, so to say. He drove us up to Utah University, and we had a nice visit
of the campus. Unfortunately everything was being shut down because of the
weather (so you can imagine how BAD it was!). We finally ended up in a comp
lab, and that was when I sent my note to ALLMUSIC if you remember.
        In the evening, after a beer in the only place apparently available
to sell beer to non-members in the whole city, we had dinner and then ended
up playing pool until 1.00 am: I, FDc, Maurizio, his girlfriend and another
friend of hers. This is worth mentioning because: 1) it was a great evening;
2) it was my first attempt ever at pool and I succeeded in sending the white
ball in a hole twice. The first time they laughed; the second time (the imme-
diately next hit) they laughed to tears; when, on the third hit, I announced
I would attempt to send white in hole after four bounces they fell to the
floor :) :). I didn't, anyway -- missed it by a couple of inches. The whole
hall laughed, more or less. :)

        We left next morning, thanks God. Utah seems to be a wonderful place,
if I'm supposed to believe the pictures in the books, but I've been unable to
see for more than 1 mile, so I can't tell you. Maybe next summer would have
been better?

        The flight to San Francisco was the best of the whole trip. It was
cloudy, but the sky cleared up when we were flying over the Nevada desert,
and the landscape was wonderful. Reaching California from the grey of the
desert is like getting to the promised land, since the ground changes sudden-
ly to green when one enters the Yosemite National Park area. Also, it was sun-
ny in San Francisco, and we hadn't seen any sun for almost a week at that
point.
        Mike McGuire, on ALLMUSIC until last year, was waiting for us at the
gate. Unfortunately, the arrival of our plane had forced him to resell the
tickets for a football match he had already bought, and he was quite anxious
about the results :). "Come over real quick!", he said, and we almost ran up
to a TV in a bar just out of the gate. Mike stared at the screen for some two
minutes and then announced: "OK, we won!". At that point we headed for the
baggage claim...
        San Francisco is just plainly incredible. We were extremely lucky,
since the weather was fine for the next two days. Something that I and FDc
will never forget is when, that very first evening, Mike and his wife Mar-
sha drove us up the hill to a place called Twin Peaks and showed us the whole
city at night. It was incredible, since even the largest cities in Europe are
not that extended at all: every point where we could imagine to look at would
be full of light, in any direction.
        Oh well. Down from the hill, and into the city. Three clubs in one
evening! In the first one, which is called, I believe, Hamburger's Mary, we
met Julie Figueroa, who was on the list last year. She couldn't stay long,
since she had to drive quite a long way to join a band she would audition
with, but it was great to meet her anyway. We sneaked into two more clubs
that evening, and when we got back home we were, well, not drunk but not
even exactly normal :).
        Next day, Sunday, Mike & Marsha drove us to Haight Street, where
the Summer of Love started in 1966. Weird place, with real weirdos, but
also extremely beautiful. Highlight of the visit was the black guy behind
the desk in a *very* psychedelic store, trying to sell an earring shaped
like a coffin to a Japanese girl. He explained that the hole in the coffin
was extremely useful for smoking crack out of it... Mike started to giggle,
and I asked the guy "are you kidding or what?". He wasn't, he said. Mah.
        Next stop was the Golden Gate, amazing and impressive. We hung out
in the area for a while before driving up another hill and take another
long look at the city, and then we went North while the evening was
approaching, and ended up having dinner at Mike's parents' house. Mike's
mother has Italian roots, and her hospitality was nothing less than won-
derful.
        Next day, we went downtown. The morning was spent walking up and
down the steep part of the city, around Lombard, and a good hour ran away
while I and Fabrizo sacked a Tower Records store. Many CDs we bought (we
came back to Italy with some 20-25 CDs each!) are available over here, but
the cost is much higher here, so we literally went hands down :). Around
noon we had a nice walk along the ocean, up to pier 39, a touristic area
with nice shops and entertainments. And sealions barking all around!
        In the afternoon we left the car near Chinatown and walked around
in the very heart of the city, and some shopping was mandatory of course!
But the best part of the day was around 6.00, when David Malbuff, with his
wife and little Aaron safe on his shoulders met us in a pub downtown
before we all ended up in a Mexican restaurant for dinner.
        I had a very good time with David, and we talked a lot about music
and this and that. One of the best meetings of the whole trip, really.
We all ended up walking near the ocean close to the Bay Bridge at night,
and the view of the city at night was once again breathtaking. I and David
finally left with the plan of meeting again before we would leave, but this
didn't happen unfortunately.
        Next day was music-day! In the morning Mike drove us to Pataluma,
where a friend of his, Mark, lives and has a small home studio. After the
usual half-morning coffee, we all packed in the car (and Mark *was* packed,
boy is he big! :)...) and visited a music store called "Zone" not far from
there. Again, we were lured by the low American prices, so I walked out with
a brand new Emu Proteus/2 expander, and FdC almost bought a Marhsall pre-amp.
One more dive in a record store where I picked all I could pick of the impos-
sible-to-find-here Stan Ridgway (ex Wall Of Voodoo), and then home again.
        In the afternoon, people started to phone: I'd given Mike's number to
quite a few net-friends, and being unable to find us in the previous days they
placed their calls all together. Mike was so surprised that after three calls
in 30 minutes, all asking for me, when the phone rang again he lifted the
received and went: "TNR Headquarters... do you have an appointament... OK,
let me check!... Marco, it's for you...". This should give you an idea about
the real atmosphere of our stay at Mike's. It was always like that, and we
really had an exhilarating time.
        That evening was Mike Masuda's evening. You already know from him how
it all went, so I won't go into deep details; but let me say that this guy
is even more amazing and interesting than he is on the net, and this should
say it all. He brought in an enormous arsenal of instruments, half of which
were self-built, and Mike (McGuire) was very perplexed when he saw his tidy
house flooded with tablas, drum heads, modified guitars, a fretless bass,
the drum that Mr. Masuda had built as a gift to me and FDc. But Mike's (Masuda)
sympathy was overwhelming, and pretty soon even Marsha had some weird instru-
ments turning in her hands. Mike's (Masuda) concern that my impression of his
could have been mild is simply ridiculous, if I'm allowed :). He's a great
guy, and his ability at inventing new and extremely interesting instruments
is outstanding. I'd really like to see him join Urban Ambience, or, at least,
jam a bit with The Clueless One... :)
        And here we come to our last day in California. Tuesday morning: even
more shopping and one more Tower Records (but I was strong this time -- no
CDs, whereas FDc dived in again in a Scrooge fashion :) ). Old-time-ALLMUSICer
Jim Grubb joined us for lunch (the largest sandwhiches ever prepared North of
Los Angeles, I assume), and in the afternoon another friend called Peter The-
len came to visit. Peter is the guy who first put me in touch with Progressive
International, the label which we signed the contract with, so I was looking
VERY forward to meet him. We had a nice hour talking about music, and pictures
were taken by all, of course! When Peter left Marsha came back from work (and
I forgot to say that Mike took days off for our stay, and Marsha took Monday,
herself, so we were really treated as kings), and we went to dinner at the
house of Mike's aunt. Italian cuisine, again, and very good, with a 75-years-
old woman who is simply and plainly a lesson in spirit and joy of living.
        The plane would leave next morning for Boston, so we went to bed a
bit earlier than usual. What amazed me is that most of the people who came
to see us drove or traveled in the rain for quite a long time, and they all
were simply great. David came down from work by train, and his family too;
Julie drove in from Vallejo; Mike Masuda drove at least three hours that day;
Peter came from Newark; and Lura, a girl whom I sort of discouraged from coming
in because of the rain, wanted to meet us in town where she would drive from
Santa Cruz. Jim, on his side, took a long lunch stop to stay with us. I was
moved, and FDc too. Thank you, all of you.

        The next day was spent on the airplane. Not much to say, really: Mike
came with us to the airport and only left when we were boarded on the plane.
The flight was easy and calm, so I had plenty of time to read. The only pro-
blem, in a sense, was that we left San Francisco at 8.20 am, and we made it
to Boston about 9 hours later, with a stop in Atalanta. In Boston I seriously
feared that my bags had been lost: nothing appeared at the baggage claim, and
the damned thing stopped. After 30 seconds, as if nothing had happened, it
started again and last came my suitcases. With the Proteus well packed in, so
imagine my real feelings...
        We had seconds to jump on a bus and go to Worcester, where Rachel
Becker (on ALLMUSIC last year) and her husband Walt would be waiting for us.
The bus trip was nice, since it crossed downtown in Boston, and we were able
to take a look at the city, even though it was a very short one.
        When we finally met with Rachel and Walt, we were definitely tired,
but happy of course.
        It took us about 30 minutes by car to reach Southbridge, or, as Rachel
would say, "the middle of nowhere". Their house is in the woods, in a very
beautiful but almost deserted area. It was marvellously calm, and the contrast
with San Francisco was extremely evident. I thought "well, somewhat slower
days here, but that's just what we need now". I wasn't wrong.
        Rachel and Walt would be at work next morning, so I and FDc were left
home alone. We woke up fairly late (for my standards - it was 9am!), took half
an hour or so to find the coffee :), and then started to wade through the ama-
zing record collection of the Beckers. Rachel came back home at 1.30 (she had
called during the morning and had laughed at my statement that "the house is
still standing..."), the we went out for lunch and visited some typical
Yankee shops. They seem to have a passion for candles, in Marlboro... :)
        When we hit home again, we were introduced to the real prince of the
house, little Ian Becker, 18 months or so, who had come back with his baby
sitter. Ian is a wonderful kid, very lively and curious, and extremely funny
most of the times. I'm not used to kids, so that was a nice experience. When
Walt finally came home in the evening, we spent quite a lot of time talking
about a lot of things, and then went to sleep waiting for next day, the day
the grand ALLMUSIC reunion should happen.
        Saturday morning, in fact, I and FDc went out with Walt and Ian to
have breakfast. When we came back, there was just time to take a walk in the
wood (wonderful -- the sun was out and the snow was everywhere, but not like
in Utah, thanks God!) before Rachel would ask us if we wanted to go and pick
Ilia at the bus. Of course we wanted! When we got there, there was a bit of
confusion: we missed the guy when he arrived. I even got close to him, just
a few feet, but he didn't know us and, on the other hand, we didn't know him:
so it took us a while before we actually decided to ask "are you...?". Back
to Southbridge, just to discover that Alan Benjamin and his wife Amy were
there. Alan is a guy from New Jersey whom I'd met on the net about 10 days
before leaving. He drove all the way up from NJ to Boston, where his mother
lives, to meet us (and he wasn't the only one who did!). Alan is in a band
called Advent, and he gave us a tape: I've managed to listen to it yester-
day and I was simply *amazed*. Advent are very Gentle Giant oriented, but
are original at the same time. They have musicianship to sell and their tape
is the proof that one can do miracles with a 4-track. I hope someday they
find the right way to have their own big time, since they truly deserve it.
Also, he's a hell of a friendly guy, and he offered to drive me and FDc down
to JFK in New York on Monday, where we had to catch our plane back to Italy.
That was a relief: otherwise it would have been a long trip back to Boston,
a plane to New York, and finally a plane to Italy -- and even more finally
the TTNRPO (Total TNR Phase-Out :)...). The usual pictures, and then they
had to leave, being awaited in Boston. A pity they couldn't stay for the
afternoon party.
        Here we are, the reunion!
        People started to drop in one by one. Michael Bloom and Sandra, his
wife; woj; Tim; then Alex Gitlin. And Ilia, of course, who was already there.
The afternoon was just wonderful. Michael brought an Urban Ambience video-
tape, very well done and quite professional. The trio is amazing, seen live
(well, almost live -- they were in a studio I believe!). woj handled me a pair
of CDs by The Chameleons which are almost as rare as white flies here in Italy.
It was pure luck, too, since I had managed to buy a couple in San Francisco,
and woj gave me two different ones! It was a most welcome gift.
        The subject of the whole afternoon (which ended late in the evening,
around 10pm) was, of course, music. And pretty wildly variegated it was, too!
If you put together Michael+Sandra, woj, Tim, Ilia, me and Rachel+Walt, it is
rather obvious that the whole thing begins to float without borders of any
kind. Hard-core punk and Stravinsky are both very viable subjects, as it should
be.
        The only different attitude (and a bit out of tune, IMHO) was that of
Alex. This guy has a pretty large music culture, but he's quite narrow-minded
nevertheless. While Michael would rush into talking about Indonesian music,
he would go back to Status Quo, convinced as he is that the bubbling glam rock
and pop of the 70s and, in part, the 80s was what started and ended the whole
thing. It is not true, of course, but unfortunately there are some people who
seem to suffer in mortal pangs as soon as somebody dares whisper "Sub-Pop" or
"Punk". What amazes me most is that Alex, a keyboardist, insists he would like
to work with TNR. I assume he wouldn't like it at all, because I do not reco-
gnise our work in what he loves, musically speaking. The next TNR album would
probably sound disappointing to him... The real thing is that we had a *very*
civlised discussion all through the afternoon, and everybody felt really free,
I think, to talk about what he/she wanted. There was only one "f**k you" headed
to someone, and guess who was the target... :) But you see, if it's lot of
fun to write three-chord songs, it is also true that bands that may live for
25 years ONLY on three-chord songs are usually not innovative. It was nice
when I asked Alex whether he had listened to Tori Amos' album: "never even
considered about buying it". So I told him the mini-album that followed con-
tains a version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Now I am definitely *sure* he
will *never* buy it... :)
        Enough gossip, and excuse me for the diversion.

        In the evening, when Ian was put to rest (I guess he was a bit puz-
zled of all these strange people going around in his house) we all moved into
the nice listening room of Walt and Rachel, and CDs and tapes were played
for a couple of hours. The to-be-famous pictures of the reunion were taken
and then the group finally split. I gained several invitations to New Jersey,
Boston, here, there... good for the next trip to the States :).
        I, FDc and the Beckers stayed up some more, considering how strange
and somewhat magic it was that 10 people could gather together and have a
good time only having been in touch through the network. And, if you think,
it's amazing to say the least.
        Next morning, late, 2 TNR and 3 Beckers headed for Boston. We spent an
hour at the aquarium, and then had lunch at The Black Rose, an Irish restaurant
downtown. Wonderful day, only spoiled by one of the most chilling winds I've
ever experienced. I was told the cold wind in North America comes from Canada,
so I assume that was Carol sending her curses on us :). Whoever it was, the
effect was horrible -- I really had a hard time walking around. The nice sur-
prise was that we met Ilia again, by pure chance! He had come from New York,
so he slept at Michael's house on Saturday, and he was more or less heading
for the bus back to the Big Apple, I think. Amazing -- when it's destiny that
people should meet...
        That evening I was really tired, and a bit concerned of the long trip
home scheduled for the next day.

        On Monday Alan and Amy came to pick us up at 11 on the nose. The drive
to New York was great, through Connecticut and then finally the New York State.
We finally made it to JFK, having only seen Manhattan from far away, and so
I and FDc settled down to wait for the plane. That was a long afternoon, in-
deed! We checked in around 3pm, with the plane supposed to leave around 7pm.
Then... finally on board, and in 6.30 hours the Delta Jet landed in Milano.
From there, 3 hours by car in the Italian traffic (how awful!) and the trip
was really over.

        This is all. No, not true: this is just part of it, of course. But
details are relatively not important after all. The real memory we will carry
in our hearts is that of meeting several incredible people, so kind and so
happy that we were there. Our thanks really go to all of them, no-one excluded.
But a special mention is surely a must... for Mike and Marsha McGuire, the home
on the West Coast, and for Walt and Rachel Becker, the home on the East Coast.
These, most of all, have made our trip enjoyable and unforgettable. We're in-
debted to them and to the others too, and my only hope is that it won't take
long before we are able to meet again.

        ...And thanks for being patient and reading so far...
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