It's a long haul for them to do a broadcast, and of course they'd be brilliant, but I think we should use local talent. I want to do this show in Berlin because I like Germans and feel kinship to them, because they suffer from the stupidest sort of lingering self-righteousness. When I lived in Denmark, my Danes were terribly righteous about Germans, Germans were the people you were allowed to be freely contemptuous of, and though I felt that older Danes who had endured the Occupation were entitled to their anger, the contempt of younger people was morally suspect. Which is absolutely true. Our ace in the hole with this show is the GASS Band.
American music travels very comfortably to foreign cities.
We know this. I remember when I lived in Copenhagen, how people like Flaco Jimenez and the Fugs and Johnny Cash were welcomed by the Danes. A comedian is another story. They have no idea who Johnny Carson or David Letterman are, but they do love Elvis and Lyle Lovett. I head over on Monday night, the 26th, on a late flight to Amsterdam, and then to Berlin, and to a hotel on Unter den Linden in the old East Berlin.