Overdue

Been a while since i've really had chance to sit down with an internet connection and update this blog. So here I go, only about a weeks worth of stuff to remember. Anyway, last entry was Minneapolis. It turned out to be a cool town, at first i was freaked out by the business district with its huge faceless buildings that are scarily all interconnected by walkways at first floor level, apparently because it gets so cold in winter but it seems rather elitist to me, ie keeping people seperated. After exploring further i walked along the river, took a bunch of photos, which i still need to put up and then went to a kung fu class. The guys trained Southern Praying Mantis style and were great people. I was actively encouraged by the teacher, Casey, to do my best to kick my training partner, a fifteen year old called Jeremiah as hard as i could, in the balls, "he really likes it" said Casey. It turns out, rather disturbingly, that Jeremiah did like it, he laughed out loud when my foot connected with his nuts. Strange kid. Anyway, it was a good class, we trained kung fu and did some hard core exercises.
Went back to my hosts Renee and Jacobs place after that, had some dinner and then they took me out. Jacob was playing at a warehouse rave that night, he was looking forward to it as it was his first time playing this particular party and he played a great techno set, opening up the night at 2am, in a disused warehouse up on the fourth floor. It was a cool location, you had to go up the external fire escape stairs at the back of the building to get in and in the morning there were great views out of the 4th floor windows of the sun rising. Met some great people in there including a rather muddled guy called Bob, Mike who talked alot and many others. In fact it was a very muddled crowd in general, alot of glowstick waving, B boy dance offs and even some roller skaters. Brilliant night out.
The next day we went to an open day in an artists community, Jacob was djing again, this time a hip hop set. At 1030 i set off again on the Empire Builder to Minot, a really random little town i n North Dakota. Stopped off there for the day. It had been snowing, was really cold and rained all day. I pretty much just stayed in my bed and breakfast and enjoyed the luxury of a double bed and cable TV, first time i've slept like that in months. An early start the next day, fuelled by an excellent breakfast was the longest stretch so far travelling, 27 hours to Seattle. As it started at 9am it wasn't so bad, i read "The Tao of Kung Fu" by Bruce Lee (who's final resting place I would later visit in Seattle), drank cups of tea, watched some amazing scenery go by and chatted with fellow passengers. Met some really interesting people, including a gold prospector returning from a fruitless week in the Rockies (who carried an AK 47 for protection in the mountains, from bears and humans), a hunter who had just snared pheasants and an elk (his favoured weapon being the crossbow) and a full voting memeber of the Cherokee tribe (who invited me to stay should I visit Portland!). There had been pretty heavy snow in Montana, which fortunately didnt affect the trains (slow but steady) progress but did provide some breathtaking scenery, pictures will be posted soon.

Finally made it to Seattle, birthplace of Jimi Hendrix and Curt Cobain and resting place of Bruce Lee. Some pretty big cultural icons of the 20th century, Jimi and Bruce particuarly being heroes of mine so it was cool to be here. Did my usual walking around town, ate some good food (vietnamese soup is awesome), finally found Bruce and Brandon Lee's graves at my second visit to Lake View Cemetery, went to the Science Fiction and Rock and Roll museums (got told off twice for taking photos, its prohibited for some lame reason-thats not exactly rock and roll now is it?). The science fiction bit was OK but the rock n roll bit was lame, it's owned by Paul Allen, the guy who set up Microsoft with Bill Gates (headquartered here in Seattle), so it seemed a bit too much like some billionaires private collection, ie a guy who had probably never been in a mosh pit in his life, maybe even a gig, that had just paid someone to go out and buy a bunch of memorabilia. I wouldn't recommend it.
Managed to attend a wing chun class here last night with a real nice teacher. Only two students were there so he spent alot of time with me which was good.

Anyway, off to Vancouver to see my pal Mike this afternoon so signing off now, hope to have photos up soon.