I was planning to turn this California trip into a whole series of blog posts. I was out there for a week and a half, first with Freestyle Love Supreme, and then a few solo shows in LA and San Francisco, exploring the West Coast, trying to get a sense of what it's all about.  I thought I'd write a little every day, and post it here, so you could all share the experience with me.  And so I could make some sort of sense of it as it went by.

But there was just too much to see, and too much to do, and too much kicking around in my head to really get down in any meaningful way.  Maybe in a few months, I'll be able to look back and put it all together. But all I have now are little snippets.  Pieces of each day that I can look back at and relive, moment-by-moment.

Here's one from our first day:

We arrived in LA, and drove and drove and drove.  Every time I come here, we leave the airport, and I spend my time on the road wondering when we're going to get there.  I always forget that being on the road IS L.A.  Their subway, their sidewalks, their long walks up 5th Avenue - it's all cruising down the fucking highway.  The shared space is harder to come by, for better or for worse.

But I was with the boys.  Blasting our nerdy hip-hop and enjoying each other's company.  A stop at In and Out burger.  Two-Touch and UTK freestyling over Dr. Octagon beats, doing Cypress Hill over Aphex Twin, taking iPhone videos of the whole crew faking our way through some old-school jam I didn't even know.

Nice hotel, rehearsal, soundcheck.  Mingling with tomorrow's audience in secret, so they don't know what they're in for.  26, 30, 31, 34. We eat, we drink beers, we play video games.  But the conversation deepens.  Single, girlfriend, wife, baby on the way.  We talk about the difference between lonely and alone.  We talk about reinventing yourself, and needing other people to fill the holes in your soul.

It keeps moving, and turning around - we have the same conversation again and again from different perspectives.  Creative directions, personal lives, The Four Arrangements.

The day ends with a quiet nighttime swim.  All in all, we've come to know each other in new ways. Show at 8 AM.  We're ready.