Houston/Austin, Texas, US

I don't think many people think of Houston as a modern city, but this place wouldn't exist without the twentieth century inventions of the automobile, the air conditioner and inexpensive energy. Once the oil booms and the highways that came about those arrived this place started growing. And when indoor climate control became ubiquitous this town exploded. Houston historically has had little to no zoning. This is a place built by profiteers and designed by engineers. One could call it ugly, but that misses the point. We get other things out of this city then aesthetics.

Houston is one of the most egalitarian places I can think of. You have anything you want or be anyone you want, just got to have the money. And if you don't have that you can still kick it and have a good time being yourself. Lots of immigrants here. There is an African music store down the street from a good place to get pupusas and my favorite Italian/Argentinean restaurant. No joke, I took an around the world trip and I couldn't wait to get home to get some international food.

And while other cities of 4 million plus get huge hype machines about their art and music scenes, one could have a sparkling personality and be talented and no one will care. No corporate money, no big galleries looking for new talent, no music industry reps looking for the next new old thing. So if you do art and music here and do it well it is just off blood, sweat and love. We have some talented folks here n the underground and those that decide to leave and do it full time somewhere else have a tendency to do well.

So why do people live here? Because it is comfortable. Living cheap and easy amongst unpretentious folk that care is something that can't be done just anywhere. Coming back has been good and I have been getting hugs, eating meals and hanging out with some of my favorite people. And while trying to get home late at night riding dirty switching 6 lanes on 610 to get to i-10, I can't help but getting reflective. I left here because things were so comfortable, which isn't the worst way to live. While I am glad I don't live here any more, this was a great place to live.

London, United Kingdom

This was a great last stop out in the world. I got into Luton which was a pain in the ass to get into London proper from. But I met up with my hosts and then dinner and the Mighty Boosh followed. British humor is quite strange at times, but mostly hilarious. Was exhausted from all the traveling, but did hit up the Tate Modern. What a fantastic museum and I like how they juxtapose pieces together. Had some fish and chips with vinegar and then did some window shopping. My bag at this point required me to sit on it to close, so I didn’t buy much. Dinner and drinks were had at a Belgian pub and then we went out to Ministry of Sound where my host dropped a drum and bass set in the medium sized room for a party the pirate radio station he spins at was throwing. The scene in London was just a silly as the scene in Houston was, just bigger.

An old friend made me waffles the next morning and it was cool to hang out in her neighborhood. London is an amalgamation of little villages and while it is a sprawling cosmopolitan metropolis, it hold some of that little town feel. Of the first tier cities I have visited, this would be the best place to raise some babies. Watched some more Mighty Boosh and then went to the pubs.

My non-DJ host is studying fashion and we had to check out a sample sale. I rock a T-shirt and jeans where ever I go and perhaps that is my lasting legacy to fashion. But I did get a $250 pair jeans for a mere 25 quid. No, these aren’t Bugle Boys… These be Maharishis thank you. I saw an old high school friend of mine who is doing well. He actually is raising babies in London and it made me smile to see him again. Grilled cheese sandwiches and then we went to another drum and bass night at Herbal which had some nice tunes played. Had a full on English breakfast, heart disease be damned, and then off to Heathrow excited to be back into my life again.

Paris, France

I like showing off my neighborhood. If someone visited me in Houston, I’d show the best spot to get a Vietnamese sandwich, a good dive bar to get a Lone Star and the one of the best private collection of modern art in the world which also happens to be right next to my favorite place to throw a Frisbee. My friends in Paris did the same, except their neighborhood has fancy cheese shops, the only spot in the city where there are houses and the Arc de Triumph. And with a proper set of folks a grand time can be had in either place.

People claim Parisians are rude. I disagree. I think they are over polite. Every interaction I had in France had a salutation and a parting. For example if you walk into that fancy cheese shop and just blurt out you want a kilo of gouda without the prerequisite “bon jour”, you might get a little sauce with that cheese. And this is a big city. People hustle to do their thing and if you do not need to be apart of that person’s world, you are not. And the dazed looks on the worker bees’ faces at 8pm when I am just heading out for a drink and they are heading home are the same as the expressions of the drones of New York, Tokyo or Bangkok. What I did find strange was this was the only place where if I asked for help in pronunciation or the right word, I didn’t get cooperation. French is something an outsider has to learn the hard way.

The food here is a way of life. I think a problem with American cuisine is that people just don’t have a strong connection with their food. We don’t even know what our food tastes like. Iceberg lettuce, ketchup and the taste of fried are flavors (or lack of) that I associate with traditional American food. There is history, protocol and custom with the food here. And the tastes and nutrients are balanced and cover the palette. And the wine is tasty and cheap. Ok, I am getting hungry thinking about it.

Brussels, Belgium

When traveling with people, the experience is always colored by the folks I roll with. My host from London came into Brussels for the weekend. They came for the beer. Belgian ales are good drinking. The Delirium cafe (associated with Delirium Tremens) has at least 2004 beers in stock. I like my beer and all, but a few 10% ABV brews… sometimes the color of the experience is hazy. It wasn’t just all about beer. Belgium is also known for chocolate and French fries. Combine them all and you have the trinity of smiles… or was it tummyaches?

I stayed in central Brussels which is mostly a business/tourist area. The Grand Place is pretty grand and at night the light show is a technicolor sight. Brussels is the administrative center of the EU. Did someone say fat cats hemorrhaging tax payer money? Not me. I was busy checking out the Museum of Musical Instruments. There one can look at all these old instruments and in the wireless headphones provided, get to listen to compositions with those instruments when you get close. Did I dork out over the early electronic instruments? Yes. Yes, I did.

In my travels I have seen some pretty ridiculous and large buildings, but the most ludicrous structure I have seen was the Atomium. In the 1950s a group of very powerful Belgian men sat around a table and said, yes, let’s build a 100 meter tall shiny model of an Iron crystal. Now, there is nothing that get’s outdated quicker then something that is supposed to look like it is from the future, but this building still has charm and wow value. If I had the power to do so, I wouldn’t have just renovated the building. I would have put it on a rotating foundation and make it a combination of a megaclub and the biggest disco ball of all time. Dreams… dreams make life worth living.

Maastrict, Netherlands

This is a small town where 13th century town walls and just a stones throw from modern glass and brick constructions. A few bridges, some great, some whack, integrate the town over the river that flows down from Rotterdam. It is probably most famous for the 1992 Maastrict treaty was signed which was instrumental to the little construction known as the European Union. But I didn’t know about all that when I got here. Hey, I just drink here.

My host in Maastrict was a tall female Dutch medical student. So. Perhaps unsurprisingly I spent the couple of days dining, drinking and dancing with tall female Dutch medical students. Yes, I know. It is hard being me.

This is a university town and there are plenty of schools here, enough that one could call it a college town. Summer has cafes and bars open in plazas, but winter is bar hopping and ending up in clubs that are enjoyable only after the prerequisite amount of inebriation. But one cannot be drunk enough to something to cause the cell phones to blow up Saturday afternoon with gossip. It is after all a very fine balance.

I had a couple of Dutch meals, drank Dutch beer and even rode a Dutch bike with a Dutch girl on the rear luggage rack. It was a good experience and if I only had working knowledge of the Dutch language and was born in the Netherlands, I’d be a total Dutchman. Instead, I’ll just settle for being a drunk brown man.