Saturday, October 28, 2006

From: "Michael Balzary"
To: members@redhotchilipeppers.com

hi world
i love you
you sad and beautiful thing
i am here in new orleans having arrived early this morning from
driving through the night from atlanta
before atlanta we drove from philly
some big drives lately a good time for reading and movie watching
last night john and i watched the movie 'slacker'
we liked it alot and it was great to hear the butthole surfers
i love the butthole surfers
their records 'rembrant pussyhorse' and 'cream corn from the socket
of davis' were never far from my turntable
when they came out.......
they also put on some of the most awesome rock shows i ever saw in my
life
and without doubt the best visuals of any rock show i ever saw
they once had a dancer who danced for the whole show
she came out naked, painted green, and with tin foil over her teeth
and they would reflect all the lights
she was great and the music was true psychedelia and paul leary such
a great guitarist.......
king and theresa on the skins
gibby waling
and jeff was a great bass player
and they had a dog named mark farner
real psychedelic
not some wimpy 60's retro cartoon
not in any way am i dissing the mind boggling power of 60's
psychedelia, but the 60's was the sixties....................it ended
punk rock happened
hip hop happened

anyways

so we got into new orleans early in the morn and i was met by my
loved ones here and my was heart was lifted
it has been a great 24 hours

there are great things afoot in chili pepper land
tomorrow we play at the voodoo fest here and the meters are playing
as well
i love the meters so much
i have learned a lot from them
we are going to jam with them at the end of our set
that is very exciting to me
they are such innovative and important musicians who are one of the
main inventors of this music we call funk
the deepest kind of groove that could have only come from those guys
in this town
art neville! leo noscetelli! george porter!
ziggy modeliste!!!!
whooooooooo hooooooooo yeeeeeeeaaaaaahhh!!!!
so it is an honor to play with them

the other exciting thing that is on the horizon for us
is that we are going to make a video for the song 'hump de bump'
and it is going to be directed by someone we truly admire and respect
the comic genius chris rock
he has been so supportive of us
and it is a kind thing
for him to take the time to direct this piece of film for us
for someone who works as hard as he does
and is as insightful and as on top of their game as he is
and who has an incredible gift of being able to give hysterical joy
to as many people as he does
to associate himself with us in this working enviroment
we are grateful......................
and it gonna be as fonky as fuck.....
yeeeah


it is pretty heavy to be here in new orleans
it has always been such a magical and mysterious place
the home of such great music
and history
louis armstrong
bunk johnson
buddy bolden (read 'coming through slaughter' by michael ondaajte)
it is heavy to realize how much the people here have had to sacrifice
because of hurricane katrina
and how much they continue to sacrifice every day
anything anyone can do to help out with the people here they should do
habitat for humanity is a great charity that helps a lot.....

thanks for reading
i'll try to write more
but i wont make any more promises that i dont keep

Thursday, November 2, 2006

From: "Michael Balzary"
To: members@redhotchilipeppers.com

hi
today i am in grand rapids, michigan
it is the hometown of my very close friend of many years, anthony kiedis
today is his birthday
i love him so much and on this day i feel very grateful for our
friendship
he and i together have created lots of things
we created a way to steal from supermarkets and sneak into movie
theaters and skip out on restaurant checks when we were kids
then as we learned better, and were students of the kharmic lessons
that life gave us
we created ways to try to improve ourselves and be honest giving people
we jumped off many a hollywood apartment building roof top into the
swimming pool below
we went to many a punk rock concert and danced like untethered animals
we slept in toolsheds and bushes on the side of the road
we hitch hiked all around the place
when i was pulling into grand rapids on my big fancy tour bus today
i remembered when i came from los angeles on the greyhound bus to
grand rapids
it took 5 days and nights of sitting up on that damn bus
to visit anthony who was staying at his mother's house for the summer
and we jumped repeatedly of a train track bridge into a river
it was fun
except anthony got to go back to los angeles on an aeroplane
and i had to ride that damn stinky greyhound bus
i am so lucky to have found a friend as great as him when i was a kid
and we got to create so many beautiful things together
and here we are today in grand rapids, michigan
and we are gonna create one more beautiful thing tomorrow night at
the van andel arena