Californ-EYE-aay!

So - verily, I am here!

On the plane I drank gin and spilled apple juice onto my lap.

At SFO airport I accidentally picked up someone else's bag from the conveyor belt, and by the time I realised the error and had put it back, noticed that my ACTUAL bag was on its way back into the dark tunnel. I literally dropped everything [onto the feet of the lady to my right] and made a lunge for it but something went wrong and I punched myself in the mouth. So my first views of San Francisco came chaperoned by a swollen, bleeding lip.

In short, I am uncool. But all that may be forgotten in California... because I have an English accent and am therefore, in spite of almost overwhelming evidence to the contrary, VERY VERY COOL!

That night I went for a beer with poet and playwright Mel Clay, who I met in the Beat museum [well, the Beat museum gift shop; I am pacing myself...] He's put on some really cool productions in the past and will hopefully be in the UK again with his next project next year...

Later this morning, I'm heading to Davis, where I'll be chatting to Dr Andy Jones on his poetry & Technology radio show [listen here: www.kdvs.org] and then doing a long set at Bistro 33 in Davis tonight. And tomorrow, I am Reno bound, to gamble my money and o.d. on crystal meth [by which I mean, do a gig and run a youth workshop].

Got lots of cool pics, but no means to upload them, so please insert visual imagination HERE.