Explanation of absence

I never wrote about China like I said I would. It was too much. The end result was that I felt somehow grafted into a new family. Ambivalence permeated our time there -- China is an utterly fantastic place, full of kind and honorable people, choking in smog, oppression, and corruption.

Ten days after we came home, I left again for a 40-day tour of Europe with Rosetta. I made a conscious choice not to take a camera on that tour, because I wanted to see what it was like just to look and remember, instead of feeling an imperative to record everything visually. It was freeing and I am glad I did it. We played 36 shows in 16 countries and traveled through 47 cities in 41 days. Coming home was a nightmare because of missed flights and lost luggage, which caused 7 cancellations in the US and Canada. That colored the memories in a bad way, but I hope that they will become more "accurate" with time.

I have never been away from home so much in my life. It's October. Since the beginning of the year, I have been gone for 110 days in total. There are tradeoffs involved in that level of mobility, tradeoffs which I increasingly think are not worthwhile.

Anyway, that's why I seemingly never write anything here anymore. It might change, who knows.