Here we go, thanks for coming along on this journey with me, we made it. This far. Things keep getting better and they were never that bad to begin with. Not in perspective. If you have a hard time seeing that, you're looking from an unadvantageous view point.
I left the comforts of home a year ago and set my sites on the world. I want to see it all. It's big though you can't see it all in a day. One year in and I'm down two dogs and find myself Tijuana within spitting distance of the great border wall. The irony is palpable. I went from living ten minutes from the American border crossing on the northern side to living ten minutes from the crossing on the southern side. I would probably be in 'Murica if I could work there. Not that I can work in Mexico, nor do I want to have to really, the wages are not the best here.
Tj is a beast of a different stripe. I came from a trailer park on the rez, my standards are not that high. That's the key to happiness, lower your standards. How low, you ask? Low as you gotta go. In the park you didn't need a building permit, nor pass inspection. Sounds good, this freedom in theory if everyone does it right. But that's a pipe dream isn't. Tijuana is a trailer park on the rez blown up full scale. I felt at home. It's a more honest example of humanity here. A very blatant display of oligarchy at it's best. The money is here no different then in the north but it stays in fewer hands. I'm not gonna change anything so all I can do is observe and report. The gringon's view of Mexico.
The north has somethings it could learn about free enterprise from the south but I think that the truth is our cartels are just more deeply imbedded in our politics. You wouldn't get away with the free market they practice here back home. I had to learn a how to drive all over again coming here, not to mention a new language. I get by with google, both for communication and direction. I got lost trying to find where I was going the first time I came here and wound up in a spot I that I recognized as not the right place for a foreigner with no Spanish language skills. I had gonna swimming with my cellphone and was relying on street maps on my laptop. Fortune favours the fool. I found a payphone and while I was speaking english on it I was overheard by an english speaking taxi driver who gave me directions. It reminded me of the second time I was in this city back in 2002, on my return trip north after hitch hiking to Todos Santos. The driver we were riding with got lost and we wound up in the wrong place and it was obvious.
Six months in and I don't need GPS to get me around everywhere if I don't go off my established routes. Communication is still an area I struggle in. I can buy cigarettes and rolling papers but I dread deflecting the small talk. I'm working on it, its all memory right, if I don't use the words how to I know them? But I didn't come here for the small talk, I came here to get away from it. I'll save my that for a blog.
I found the inspiration I was looking for here though and am excited to say that my first album will be dropping on May 23, 2023. I hate talking about my music as though I'm trying to pitch the days specials. It's a departure from my usual guitar based singer/songwriter kinda tunes, in fact there's only vocals on one track. I'm not a big EDM fan, I enjoy Bonobo and hip hop but it's in me to make it. This album is for me first and foremost. It's my driving sound track, my yoga background, my inner mind trip, it's the result of my labour. I'm releasing it for your benefit not mine. It's costing me money to put this out there and I'm not expecting it to come back to me tomorrow, but I'm working on my legacy. This is just the beginning, come along for the ride.