Playing at the Amherst Ma farmers Market last weekend.

My niece, who recently moved to the area did an excellent job of filming me at the Amherst Farmers market last weekend.https://www.facebook.com/614823869/posts/10155820780263870/

Here's a blog posted by fan after seeing me play in the public gardens last week. Thanks Anura!

Still Going Strong!

Wow , has it really been a whole year since I updated this blog? Well, it's summer time again and the Professor World Band is still going strong.  A lot has happened in my life since I last logged in here. I was in Athol all winter fixing up a house. A month ago I moved back to Shelburne Falls in western Massachusetts. I'm setting up my studio and workshop in the basement again and looking forward to doing a lot of practicing and tinkering there during the week. Most weekends I still make it to Boston to play in the public gardens.  It's been going quite well for me. I guess folk really appreciate it because the world really needs lots of peace waves these days. So I figure I'll just keep on keeping on for as long as I'm able. I've been adding lots of songs to my repertoire and lots of crazy new dodads and thingamagigs and drums and sounds to the professor world band. One  fun new innovation has been that I am experimenting with adding blocks under the wheels of the rotating stage so that  the whole contraption now is like a giant rocking chair that rocks back-and-forth to the beat  as I play it. It is effortless  and so much fun and helps me get into the beat and looks really crazy.lI plan on making some new videos very soon to post here .  In the meantime, here's a blast from the past that someone just recently sent to me. It's from an interview done almost 20 years ago for Israeli television  that was made on my trip through the middle east in the year 1999.  I looked a bit younger back then!
.https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21An7MTuCoyZd%5F7uo&cid=3CC77DD5D55440B1&id=3CC77DD5D55440B1%2111903&parId=3CC77DD5D55440B1%212060&o=OneUp

This photo is from about eight years ago in Harvard Square.Add caption

SUMMERTIME IS HERE!!!

And here I am playing in one of my new favorite spots to play on Revere beach last weekend. They have these pavilions there that provide lots of shade. There's almost always a nice breeze and I get a great view of the beach as I go round and round on my rotating stage. I even managed to get in a quick dip in the ocean between sets! I was lucky and showed up there just in time for their annual sand sculpture Festival which brings thousands upon thousands of visitors. I was just getting ready to set up when a policeman approached and asked me for my permit. Luckily I was able to convince him that I was harming nobody and that my show would add a lot to the festivities. And indeed it did. I attracted large enthusiastic audiences and had some of the world's cutest kids come up and join my band.

I've been taking advantage of the warm weather to travel around a bit and explore new places to play. Lately I played in Brattleborough Vt., Lake George, Saratoga Springs NY, Hampton Beach NH and Newburport. It's fun being on the road again. It reminds me of my good old days traveling all over Europe and finding new places to play and beautiful spots to park for the night. After living on the road for 30 years or so I do miss sleeping in my truck sometimes.
Thus far it's been a very successful tour. I've always been able to find a spot to play and several times have managed to convince the authorities to let me proceed when they have been of mind to stop me. I will probably go back to Newburyport this weekend as they are having their annual Yankee Doodle Day festival. Here I am playing in Saratoga Springs. I managed to find a spot to play right by my parking place on the main street. That was convenient. The local TV station even came out to film a song for their intro to the evening news. I may go back there again next month as it's there horse racing season and the town will be packed. I'll keep you posted!

Here is a link to another documentary made a few months ago by another local film student. I've been meaning to post it for a while but haven't gotten around to it till now. I really like this one because Warren took the trouble to search the internet for old clips of the Professor World Band and integrate them into one short film. I hope you enjoy it!

https://vimeo.com/215987686

My sister's book club is soliciting entries in an essay competition about "second chances" so I just wrote this:

As a one man band traveling from country to country and town to town all over Europe for twenty years in a rusty old camper van I had many a second chance. One particular one that comes to mind was back in 2005 when the Swiss police were going to confiscate my old 1978 Mercedes truck from me and compress it into a bale of iron and aluminum for recycling. I would also get to pay several hundred dollars in fines and fees to cover the costs.

I had been living in Big Baby(so named for the double Bs in the license number) for almost 18 years at the time and it was my home, full of all my worldly treasures and possessions. It was a wonderful truck which I bought in Holland from an old man who used it to sell “Ouldie Bouliches” a delicious Dutch pastry much like our beloved donuts. I had outfitted it with a bathroom, kitchen, dining room and bedroom as well as a corner to practice my one man band. It also had a fold up stage for me to perform on the side and an amazing terrace on the roof from which I enjoyed many a scenic view. It was an awesome truck but alas it was old and did not comply with the all the Swiss very strict regulations upon motor vehicles.

The police came knocking one day while I was parked in a beautiful spot one of Switzerlands many clear blue lakes. They had me follow them to an inspection station where my truck was deemed unworthy of Swiss roads.

The police were polite and civil enough. They gave me almost a week to empty my truck out. They had me park it on the parking lot of an unused railroad station in the nearby town of Solothurn. They took my plates and instructed me not to drive but I would be allowed to live in it while I figured out what to do with all my belongings.

I had no idea what to do though. I couldn’t legally buy another vehicle in Switzerland and even if I could rent a vehicle to salvage my one man band and all my possessions I really had no idea where to store them. I was really freaked out by this but luckily I was travelling with my faithful companion Jolly Olly, the always happy and friendly Swiss Appenzeller dog who helped keep me from total break down and despair.

As luck would have it, Olly struck up a friendship with a dog that lived in a house that bordered on the station parking lot. I got to conversing with his owner and of course told him all about my situation.

I had pretty much decided that I had not much other choice but to fill a backpack with a few carefully chosen things and find a friend who might let me and Olly stay for a while until I figured out what my next step would be. What made me saddest was that this could well have been the end of the Professor World Show, the one man band performance of mine that had made millions of people smile in so many countries for the past couple of decades. The crazy contraption that I built had grown into a giant music machine too big to schlepp around without a good sized truck. It would have to stay behind but I wanted to make one last show with it before it got squashed along with Big Baby.

The neighbor that I had been pouring my heart out to about all this was very sympathetic. He suggested that I could make a show right there on the empty parking lot to which I had been confined by the police.  He would bring all his neighbors and there was a home for handicapped children right nearby which could bring all their kids.

            And so it came to pass. What could well have been the very last Professor World Show took place in the empty parking lot of that abandoned railroad station the following Sunday afternoon. It was a wonderful show as well. The weather was warm and sunny . A good crowd of locals showed up as well as a dozen children from the nearby home for the handicapped. Everyone had a great time and when the hat was passed around for me the audience was more generous than I had ever dreamed possible.

            But the next day the police were scheduled to stop by and tow my truck to the wreckers. I was very sad but not for long. Some of the neighbors who were at the show interceded on my behalf and the police changed their minds. The next day they informed me that if I were to fix a couple of things with the steering and weld a few spots on the frame I would have another chance to take it through the inspection!

            I couldn’t believe my luck but it gets even better. I went looking for a mechanic right away and found a nearby garage and explained my situation to the owner. He took an immediate liking to me and Olly and offered his assistance. I would help out with the work and the only thing he would charge me was for the replacement parts. We set to work right away and with his unwavering assistance we soon got it through the inspection.

            Almost miraculously the Professor World Band was back on the road making people smile once again!
Moral of the story; Never lose hope. It ain't over til it's over!

Here's a couple of photos of Olly, my possibly last ever Professor World Show and the mechanic who helped me get Big Baby through inspection.

My first very own self made documentary

Interview with WGBH