The Road to California……

I woke up in the Arizona desert long before the sun and headed down the darken highway. I was on inter- state 10 heading west, hoping to beat the morning rush when I crossed the state line. The sun was just peeking its head up through my rearview mirror with the lights of California twinkling on the hillside, when I had to stop for the California agriculture inspection. Today the booth was empty, perhaps because it was still early long before most of the motorist were even out bed. So I passed through and kept riding with the wind, knowing that soon my pace would be broken and I would have to pull over and wait through rush hour. After I waited out the traffic over breakfast, I found it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. It was just the right kind of weather for me to sit back and enjoy the ride on the way to visit some new friends, well sort a new.
A few years ago some of my high school friends were planning our 30th high school reunion. One of my old classmates set up a web site to try and get the word out and get everyone ready for the” big to do “. Visiting the site I had an idea to start up a link to get everyone to share a few stories and dubbed it “The Cyber Campfire”. The “Camp Fire became a great on line meeting place and back in it’s prime attracted over 1200 stories. Reading those stories brought me closer to many of my old school mates and they made us all realize just how much we had in common.

One of my cyber Camp fire pals turned out to be a woman , who I knew as a cheer leader and friend of the high school band that I was a road-ie for back in school . As it turned out, she was sharing some stories that moved me.
In one of her post right after 9/11 she informed other people on the site , not to join the hysteria that was going on against the Muslim community and said that both she and her husband David were trying to safe guard some of their Muslim friends by accompanying them when they went out in public. Her letter touched my soul and I knew that I had found some new friends. At the reunion I found out that her Husband David was also a cool cat and after sharing a few laughs together, I told them that the next time I was heading out west that it might be fun to do a house concert for their friends.

Those of you who are unaware about the “House concert phenomena, let me fill you in. You see with so many folk venues closing and the crowds getting smaller, many fans decided to take matters into their own hands and just invite their favorite performers to play a show in their living room. It turned out to be such a great way to listen to music that the idea caught on like wild fire and now ” House Concerts” can be found all over the USA and Canada. It’s so easy that any one can do it. Just get a singer to find an open date when they are in your area, invite about 20 to 40 friends. Bake up some cookies or have a pot luck meal to share, move around the furniture and there you have it! You don’t need a sound system unless you want to have one. You don’t need lots of publicity, just invite your friends and you really don’t need a big space, as most houses can hold 20 or so people. The artist sometimes charges a door fee, sometimes it’s just a donation (Hey what’s the BEST Nation in the world? DONATION!” Sometimes they just sell CDS, but however you work it can’t be beat.

Now back to our story… So after many e-mails, David and Karen decided that they would give it a try and host a house concert.

It took most of the day driving and winding over the lush California hills to make it out to Santa Clarita, where Karen and David live. When I first arrived no one was there, so I thought it might be a good time to do some exploration of down town
Los Angles and like Balboa look for the Pacific Ocean. Well it is times like this, that I know that I am a Vermonter, as to navigate the freeways of LA is not for the faint of heart. In fact in Vermont, when we see more than three cars on the road we think that it is a traffic jam! so for me driving in LA is a living nightmare!

Well at first it seemed to me from looking on the map driving to Malibu would be a piece of cake. All I had to do was just drive down one freeway to connect with another then just get off at the exit and see the ocean. Hum. Easy I thought! Of course I did not count on so much traffic and congestion or the fact that the signs don’t really give you a clue where you are or where you want to go. So by a bunch of miscalculations and just dumb luck, I found myself and my camper being whisked right off the highway and headed into downtown Beverly Hills. Ok nothing against “Beverly Hills” but it’s not the place for me or my camper. And the way the traffic was not moving at all, I don’t think that any vehicle of any size, would have fun navigating the jam packed streets. So, after about a half hour of going nowhere, I did what any “hick Vermont” tourist might do, I made an illegal u turn in the middle of the street and got the hell out of there! After avoiding the stressed out drivers who did not really appreciate my “country” lane ” driving skills , I found my way back on to the highway and this time hugged the right lane so I would not miss my exit.

After a few more miles of highway driving I found myself on a narrow road facing the Pacific Ocean. Yep I had made it and now it was time to just relax and drive along the ocean up to Malibu.

On the way, I spotted a road that led up to Topanga Canyon. I remembered from reading some stories from Woody Guthrie about the magical theater up in Topanga, that Actor Will Geer (Grandpa on the Walton’s TV show) had built back in during the days of McCarthy’s Black list. It was a place where black listed actors and musicians could work and was a sanctuary to Woody. He even bought some land and lived on what he called “Pretty Polly Canyon”. The old stories raced through my head as my truck climbed the steep hill. It was quite a few miles till I saw a sign for Will’s old theater. I decided to take “Arnika” for a walk and poke around. When I walked down the drive way I came across many signs advertising up coming shows and even a sign for a “Hootenanny”! I walked over to a tiny wooden booth and found a young woman there talking away on her cell phone. I asked her if this was the same theater that Woody Guthrie used to play at. She smiled and said it was and told me about the up coming show that was a tribute to Woody, that they were calling a “Hootenanny”. She then told me to just follow the path and it will lead you to the old theater. So I followed the rocky path to a splendid open air amphitheater. It was just marvelous with a big grand stage set right in the woods. “Arnika” at once made her self at home on the stage, while I just enjoyed the view. After a few minutes we walked back to the friendly gal and thanked her for letting me take a peek. I told her that I was a musician and she asked if I would be around for their “Hootenanny? No I told her “I got keep moving but maybe someday”.

After a thrilling ride down the canyon I found myself back on the road to Malibu. I then slowly worked my way up the
Road past the ocean and all the mansions set on the hills. After I downed a good cup of java, I looked back at the map and found a back road, a short-cut that looked like it would take me almost back to Santa Clarita. So when I saw the road sign for a tiny road that ran straight up the cliffs, I turned my wheel and made a run for it. I had to down shift. Then went up and up and up and up the snaky little road till Malibu seemed like a bunch of dots against the mighty Pacific. The road itself was about the most treacherous road that I have driven on. It must have been built and designed by workers from Monaco ,for it is only in “James Bond” films that I have seen roads with more steep cliffs and drop offs all the way down to the ocean , then the one that I was now on. . There was hardly enough room for my truck, so when I saw that other cars were also driving at me, in the other direction my heart almost stopped! This road seemed to go on forever with enough curves and bends to get an even well seasoned merchant marine sea sick! Driving or really crawling at about ten miles an hour it took just about forever to finally make it back on to a normal road. But even though this road scarred me half out of my wits, it was a fantastic drive and I am glad I did it.

After battling the cliff hangers and the back roads of paradise, I was now stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on another darn freeway. Come to think of it, I think I made better time traveling at 10 miles an hour then along this freeway.

Cars! Trucks! Everywhere with no end in sight!

Oh I am so spoiled that I don’t have to drive these kinds of roads and in fact can work it out so I don’t have to drive in these kinds of conditions.

Well finally I did make it back up to Santa Clarita and had time to relax again and drink a few glasses of wine with David and Karen. We had a wonderful time talking over old times, and also hearing more about David and his work. Now as I said David is really cool, he is a writer and spends a lot of time kind of, lost up in outer space, writing stories for the Star Trek book series. He is a passionate writer and social activist just the right match for Karen. What a pair they make sort like Nitro and glycerin. Boy when they get together and work on an idea. “BOOM” they can get things happening!

Karen works in the entrainment world and has so many stories to tell that it makes me seem like I have a dull and boring life. Needless to say that with David and Karen you can spend hours just listening to them spin tales.

On the day of the house concert, Karen went all out and made almost a royal banquet for the occasion. With Karen
It has to be just right! So she prepared enough food to feed not only the kings army, but the royal court and any other hungry soul in the whole dang kingdom. And it looked as good as it tasted, just like a photograph in some grommet magazine.

For the concert, she invited a batch of friends from her work place and also some friends from her community.
It was a nice gathering and David made sure that after everyone had something to eat, that the chairs were set up for my part of the afternoon. It was a great show! I was able to sing and tell stories and sell some of my books and CDs then after a break we opened it up so others could join in and sing a song. My old friend Banjo Fred came bye so it was nice to have him take out his guitar a share a few of his songs too. The party went on till late evening then after a few more glasses of wine I went back to my camper to feed and walk Arnika and then get some sleep.

The next morning we shared a bit of breakfast and then I bid my friends farewell.
I never was one for long good byes so I tried to “Get out Of Dodge” with out too much fuss.

“I am just a music man, living gently on the land
and every night’s a one night stand, I hang my hat where ever I am
Cause everyone cries when the circus leaves town
Clowns ain’t funny when no ones around
Stars don’t shine when the tents go down
Yeah, everyone cries when the circus leaves town.”

Coming Up…………….. The Streets of Hollywood,

Rik Palieri
Koza Productions
66 Koza’s Run
Hinesburg, VT 05461
802 482-3185

Posted by Rik in General