sunday august 3, 2009

minneapolis to amsterdam to kuwait

the chip of a moon is hanging between the rusty bed of clouds and the big blue of the sky out of the window of the plane that’s taking us to iraq via amsterdam and kuwait. i have a piece of paper folded, and jammed in to the crack above my tv because it won’t turn off and that always annoys me if i don’t feel like watching. i prefer my paperback edition of eric clapton’s biography and the view out the window of my clouds, moon and sky. i’m writing in a notebook which i haven’t done in a couple of years because at some point i started using a computer. my handwriting is horrendous and it’s compounded by my utter inability to spell. i can’t spell to save my life. never could. i can write but i can’t spell.

before we took off tonight i spoke to a lot of people who wanted to talk to me before we left for iraq. we’re not supposed to be in any danger when we’re there but when you go to a war zone people want to be sure they get to wish you well. it’s nice.

the setting sun lays a blanket of fire across the world below and i crack my paperback again and sip some diet coke.

later:

it’s nighttime as we land in kuwait and it’s 104F. 40C. this is going to be hot. ooops. because were descending the temperature keeps going up so now that we’re on the ground it’s actually 105F. i think the heat on this trip is going to test my descriptive powers. (feel free to insert the word “considerable” before the word “descriptive” in the previous sentence) time to get off the plane.

august 4, 2009, 09:30

i was sitting in my room, a bit groggy from tylenol p.m. when ben “stretch” berger, our tour manager, knocked on my door. i’d been awake a few minutes playing the television white, les paul junior that gibson guitars was nice enough to lend me for the iraq ‘n’ roll tour. (“television white” is a color. it’s called television white because full on white things look weird on tv so it’s a sort of light beige.) breakfast is over but ben was kind enough to bring me a styrofoam to-go container of with a couple of freezing cold bananas and a bagel of sorts with a little round container of philadelphia strawberry cream cheese.

last night we arrived in kuwait. as we got off the plane and entered the terminal there was a white sign with blue writing that said, in arabic and english, “welcome to kuwait. have a safe trip.” we passed some guards dressed in tan fatigues and we saw right before us a .

it was packed too.

the terminal was pretty crowded. men in long white robes with those flowing things on their heads. (i must find out what those are called) and women mostly with their heads covered but many with veils that only showed their eyes. ben told us that if we took pictures of a woman, their husband could legally take your camera. the logic being that his wife’s soul was now in the camera in question. quite sensible, really. i left my camera in the case.

when we got outside, the temperature was 104F and that was about 9pm. it was sort of funny how hot it was. john , (johnny p from up uh-b) who’s playing bass on the iraq ‘n’ roll tour later said that under normal circumstances if you felt a blast of heat like that you would move away because it would mean you were near something dangerous like a car fire or a furnace but the heat was all around you. there’s nowhere to go except back into some air conditioning. the heat is an aggressive force that seems to have a will. it’s on the offensive. it’s supposed to be 113F today.

better drink water, huh?

august 5, 2009, 16:55

my first sight of iraq is out the back hatch of a C-130 aircraft at an airstrip in basra as we let a unit of soldiers off. i can’t tell if it’s cloudy or dusty. the tan earth melts into the ivory sky with out a horizon and in the mid ground are the dark and menacing forms of two blackhawk helicopters.

new word: palletizing: to get your stuff onto a pallet so that it can be loaded onto an aircraft.

last night we could only give out a certain amount of cd’s so some people didn’t get one. today as we waited in a holding area waiting for our flight to bagdad a guy from camp beuhering, where we played last night who didn’t get a cd was there. we dug out a cd and signed it for him and took a picture. we talked and he gave me some chewing gum for the flight because he said, they ascend and descend really quickly and it’s good for your ears to be chewing some gum. (i’m still chewing it and it’s pretty disgusting because it has half of the dessert in it now.) (so do my eyes, nose and throat) like i said, we talked and he asked me maybe if we played in bagdad (i’m not even sure if we’re playing bagdad) if we could ask if there’s anyone from the 472nd and if there was could i tell them that specialist lochrie said hi.

later:

the c_130 pounds along and everybody is pretty much asleep. we all have bullet proof vests and kevlar helmets on. underneath all that my t-shirt is soaked with sweat. i could wring sweat out of it. although, it’s not a hot as the first leg. on the first leg the plane was full and we were all pretty cramped. i curled my fingers around the top of my flack vest, set my chin on my knuckles and actually fell asleep like that not for very long though but, hey. unusual sleeping position.
it’s pretty cool seeing these guys i know, the guys in my band, all in flack jackets and helmets.