| Atz
|
| Ok Atx3dt
|
| Connect 300
|
| So we’re supposed to play in curitiba in 18 hours, but our bus is being held
|
| hostage by the local promoters. |
| they’ve formed some unholy alliance with the
|
| brazilian counterpart of ascap: the prs.
|
| Rently the prs has the legal power to arrest people, and they want a piece of the national tour promoter’s money. |
| the local security force, «gang mexicana»,
|
| has been bought out for 180
|
| Zados and a carton of marlboros each. |
| the only faction still operating in our
|
| defense is «big john», our personal security man, and he’s hiding in his room
|
| because a local gang is out
|
| Is blood because of a 1982 knifing incident in which he was involved.
|
| our 345-pound road manager, rick only had this to say: «you wanted the life of a rock star!». |
| paul, jim and i real
|
| That this was one situation we were going to have to get out of ourselves.
|
| We convened a hasty conference in the hotel lobby. |
| paul suggested contacting
|
| our national tour promoter in sao paulo, but we remembered that he was in recife with faith no more, who had just arr
|
| For their brazilian tour. |
| we thought about contacting our brazilian record
|
| company in rio, but they weren’t home. |
| our ever-diligent american manager was
|
| arranging help of numerous forms, but he N new york, and just too far away to get anything moving in time.
|
| And there were 6000 kids in curitiba who just wouldn’t understand.
|
| We knew it was time for action. |
| paul went up to the prs guys and invited them
|
| into the bar to discuss it like civilized men over a few brazilian drinks,
|
| offering each of them a cigar on his way.
|
| Amused prs heavies seemed to like the idea of a few free drinks,
|
| even if they knew they would never give us our bus back. |
| when paul winked at jim and i on his way in, we went into action.
|
| I stole off to my room to prepare while jim went into action. |
| creeping
|
| carefully through a service duct, he managed to gain a vantage point some three
|
| meters above the bus, and dropped carefully
|
| The roof. |
| after using his all-purpose swiss army knife (affectionately known as the «skit knife») to jimmy open the roof hatch, he went through the darkened
|
| inside of the bus and remo
|
| He inside engine service panel. |
| using some spare electronic parts he found
|
| while on an island in the amazon, he wired the entire bus for remote control,
|
| not unlike a remote control toy car.
|
| At this point, he asked himself «now how shall i get out of here?!?»
|
| Paul was having difficulties of his own.
|
| «couldn't you see your way clear to letting us fulfill our contractual
|
| obligations in curitiba? |
| think of the kids!»
|
| Through our translator, fabio, the prs man, aldo, said:
|
| «no. |
| you americans think you own the world. |
| hah! |
| we’ll burn down our rain
|
| forest if we damn well please. |
| we need room for cows! |
| we want a mcdonald’s on every… oh, sorry, yes anyway, no.
|
| Ed 40% of your concert receipts to give to david bowie,"he said,
|
| winking to the local promoter, phillipe.
|
| As paul continuted this elaborate distraction, jim effected an escape from the
|
| heavily guarded bus by crawling down into the cargo bay, cutting a hole in the
|
| floor with the swiss army knife’s ar Der, slipping into the manhole cover situated under the bus, and walking up to the hotel’s basement from there. |
| jim called up to me in my room and gave the
|
| signal. |
| we were now to meet at the bac
|
| Rance, with our tech guys. |
| but first, paul would need some help getting away
|
| from his unwelcome guests, as things were getting ugly.
|
| «he says he has lost his patience, and that he can think of other ways of extracting payment from you kurt and jim physically,"our trembling interpreter
|
| said.
|
| The moment had come. |
| jim began operating the bus from his back entrance vantage
|
| point. |
| as the remote-controlled bus lurched towards the parking lot exit,
|
| the superstitious security youths fled i Ror. |
| paul was pulling anxiously on his collar as the prs man began describing
|
| his collection of world war ii nazi ceremonial knives when a sudden crash split
|
| the tableau.
|
| Jim had purchased me the gift of a complete black ninja stealth assassin outfit
|
| in aracaju. |
| i had been gearing up and crawling through the air conditioning
|
| ducts all this time. |
| as i crashed thro
|
| He cheap imitation-styrofoam hung ceiling tiles, skates first, i flashed ninja
|
| stars all about me. |
| in the ensuing panic, paul escaped to the pre-arranged bus
|
| pick-up point. |
| unfortunately, my ska
|
| Ere a poor choice of foot gear for escaping over the broken glass of the table
|
| i had landed on. |
| were it not for the confusion and the
|
| ninja-star-inflicted-wounds delivered to the bad guys, i wou
|
| Ve been set upon while floundering on the glass-strewn carpet. |
| as it happened,
|
| however, i leapt through the open door of the careening bus as it departed the
|
| city of maringa forever.
|
| If only we had managed to get our equipment in the bus, too. |
| ..
|
| Every word of this story is true.
|
| — kurt h No carrier
|
| Ath0
|
| Ok Atz
|
| Ok |