Good Night Cleveland!- February 28th, 2008

Hey guys.

So love-struck aside, here are the plans for the Nick Global Tour 2008. Playing all major venues near you, see us live at the Milwaukee Thunderdome!

We're leaving Melbourne on the 10th, after auctioning off all our stuff, then flying to LA on what may be the longest day of my life, seeing as we arrive three hours before we left. After LA we are catching a flight to Guadalajara so I can visit my pops again in Mexico, and get some dirt-cheap dentistry in before I head south. On the 20th of March we fly to Lima, Peru from Mexico City. Luckily, my amigo Alexandro has given us two Mexico City metro bus tickets, so we really shouldn't worry about anything there.

We're going to take the infamous "Death Road" bus ride from Lima to La Paz, over Lake Titicaca by ferry and into the andes. Anyways, planning on being back in Vancouver at the start of August, Edmonton 2nd week of August, and maybe Toronto for the last few days. Then flying east to London for Semptember, so Jess can take some of her fancy "schooling" and get some sort of degree in Law.

Anyways, that's the gig. Check out the merch tables by the door, CDs are $5, "Nick Made My Baby" Ts are $15.

Rock,

Nick

Well it's about time... - February 25th, 2008

Hey everyone!

Something I forgot to mention, you know...months and months ago...

Jessica and I are madly in love.

Just in case you didn't figure that one out already. Anyways, that's all, news on where and why we're wandering the world together to follow soon.

And in case you're wondering, yes, it is the disgusting kind of love:

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Talk to you tomorrow,
Nick

Protesting the Roses - February 23rd, 2008

Hey hey all.

While it seems the first half of my visit to Australia consisted mainly of toiling happily at work and exercising my travelling urges, my last few months have been nothing if not packed with outings of social justice.

As most may still remember, I'm still working for PO, trying to save the world and myself at the same time, and my job offers me, (if not demands) lots of opportunities to get up and chip away at whatever cause I seem fit. From Sydney and APEC, all the way to climate change and bay dredging, my activist plate has been super full lately. So it seemed fitting after our delightful encounter with full-blown racism in the Northern Territory to head east for the Convergence on Canberra, which happened last week.

The Australian Goverment had finally agreed to apologize for decades of forced removal of Aboriginal children from their parents under a program designed to "breed out" the "Aboriginal Problem". After the tumultuous and wonderful downfall of John Howard during our time here, (coincedence? I think not) Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has already outdone his predecesor by signing Kyoto and delcaring his intent to apologize to the Stolen Generation as his first act of parliament, Wednesday the 13th.

We, as well as thousands of others, hitched, bused and flew into Canberra to camp at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy at the foot of the old Parlaimentary building. Canberra, the "Land of a Thousand Tears", is the most anti-human city you will ever see. Designed totally from scratch, and sprung from the mind of an architect who must have foreseen the eventual overthrow of automobiles over man, the city is composed of endless roads, buffered by indistinguishable squares of well-cut grass, leading indecipherably into another circle of pavement, parking lots, and government buildings. I would not recommend buying property in this town.

The Parliament of Australia. Homey!

Anyways, my lovely and slightly famous tent Bumble Bee Tuna got to camp in front of government buildings, which is nice, and I spent my weekend doing what frankly, has become my normal day-off routine...

Weeeeee!

Anyways, a really intense week, an incredible learning experience, and a whole wonderful group of new people to meet up with across the world.

Only two weeks until Bolivia! Que? You ask?

I know, I know, I'll explain later.

Adios!

Nick

Gone Bush IV - Through the desert on a horse with no name January 20th, 2008

Okay, after forever and a day wrapping this tale up, due namely to the rapid explosion of my life from a single-celled state to some form of galactic chaos.

Here's where we left off:

And here's where we ended up...

How did we get to this point? It's a fairly amazing story, but as you know it starts with a $600 road tyrant named Mustafa, and ends hundreds of kilometers from civilization in a town a called Williams Creek, population 4, deep out on the Oodanatta Track. "Track", in the most colloquial Aussie terms, means "A faintly ountlined strip of dirt amongst a wider background of dirt upon which you must never, ever drive a 1984 station wagon.

And for the doubters out there, you were right, it turns out our temperature guage wasn't perfect, just stuck on perfect. Hmmmm.

So we almost died, as you can guess, when Mustafa blew up in the very heart of the Aussie outback. We got lucky in the sense I didn't have to eat Jess, but not so much in the sense we no longer were in possesion of a working automobile. In fact, Mustafa did a spectacular job of ensuring he would never be taken alive by the authorities, nor really moved from his final resting place. I will say this however, anyone who would like one hell of a car, just swing by William's Creek with a spare head gasket and your set.

So basically we skipped back to Coober Pedy with a very nice Danish family, hung out some more in that wicked town, then bused back to Melbourne via Adelaide over the course of a few days.

The days since have been super super busy, some crazy beautiful people have arrived from Canada to fill out the ranks of work and I've been busy tying up loose ends.

Oh, why loose ends?

Hmmmm, better to save that for tomorrow.

Adios!

P.S. This here, documented naively, is the final ride of Mustafa, the last great caress of the road beneath our death-grip tires, a video of a moment that we only later knew would mean so much.

RIP Mustafa.