Day 194 - Dec 3 - Zurich Show 1

**** eBay Auction Update ****

Check this article out as it is about the auction winner, George

http://www.sootoday.com/content/arts/details.asp?c=16539

We have not forgotten about the our eBay
auction responsibilities and the advertising will happen at some show yet
to be determined on the upcoming Jan/Feb US tour leg. George has opted to send
shirts he had specially printed for us to wear and I heard that they are currently
sitting in my office at Rat Sound.

**** End eBay Auction Update ****

I forgot to mention yesterday that roadie Leif found this place called , 17
Neumarkt Street that is the coolest interior home design setup we have ever
seen. All the floors were metal gratings that hung by chains. The very bottom
floor was a swimmable pool and the skylight flooded sunshine throughout. I will
dub this recommended stop # 63.

**** Ponderamblings ****

I was 20 years old and I worked at Hughes
Aircraft in Culver City where they built the not so flighty Spruce
Goose airplane. I was the youngest guy in an engineering department that
performed environmental testing on TOW
missle systems. It was right at the front end of the Regan era US military
expansion fueling the Second
Cold War and there were rumors of a draft. I was working mandatory overtime
polishing the US war machine and after work, my childhood friend Brian and I
could make between $100 and $200 a night for all of our gear and both of us
working from the tiny PA company we owned. Faced with losing my job at Hughes
for missing work for punk shows or letting the sound company go stagnant, I
did what seemed to be the scariest thing in the world but had to be done and
quite my job. When I arrived home I still remember the moment when I took off
the watch I was wearing and released myself from the clutches of regimented
time. My desire was to let time fly by when excitement came my way and bcome
entrenched in slow motion time if I was miserable. Bye bye job, bye bye time.

Twenty years later while in Berlin on the By The Way Peppers tour, I bought
myself a really nice self winding watch. My aim was not to be attached to time
as I am long free of that. My attraction was toward the precision of the small
and so finely crafted machine that gains its life from motion. Like a friend
or a mechanical pet, dependant yet useful and a weighty arm reminder for me
to follow the goals I set and dreams I have. For the first time in my life I
understood the allure the fine timepiece and for the first time I realized the
diference between being controlled by, or taking control of, time.

So here in the land of the Swiss I decided to reward myself and purchase another
watch while also stumbling upon recommended stop # 64 of the Dave Rat Euro tour,
Zett
Meyer watch shop. Full of very cool people and if you do stop by, look for
Pia, Laura or Sandro and tell them you are a friend of the Peppers and you need
the 'Special Discount' and tell them hello from me!

**** End Ponderamblings ****

Ahhh, the glorious gig

And an honor and a smile and a memory caputered with The Missing Men, Raul
and Tom with me and Mike Watt.

I highly recommend that the curious go check out Mike Watt's web site http://www.hootpage.com/
and if you are super curious then request to get on his cool mailing list.

Here is our piratey picture of the day with honorary roadie Peter joining us.
You may remember him as the Big Cheese.

Very often a certain city or region will have a charictaristic soccer chant
or some sort of odity that is interesting. Here in this area there is this thing
where the crowd raises there arms and go "OooohOooohOooooh" while
wiggling their hands. It is really a strange sensation when 12,000 people all
do it in unison.

Ok, enough for today,

Dave Rat

SIDNCYIWCYS!