I Am The Passenger And I Ride And I Ride I Ride…

Iggy…

Zombies are all the rage these days it seems. There are zombie walks, this new Zombie TV show all my friends are staying home all year to watch the entire seasons of,  and of course the most popular costume of this year Halloween was zombies. But what is it about the brain eating, slow-moving, limbs hanging, bad walking undead that we love so much? Maybe it’s that deep down inside we can relate to zombies. I certainly feel this way sometimes, watching the world we live in, how we relate, how I relate. I feel many times like my brain is fully drained, like there are a million more stimuli to digest, yet I have just zoned out, and cut everything out. I’ve been feeling a bit like a zombie theses days for sure. I may start watching this TV show who knows? I feel it especially this holiday season (happy holidays to everyone btw, and happy new year!!)

The main reason why is because I have been a working stiff lately, I’ve taken on 2 (not one but 2) jobs. One is as part of this 3 man renovation team. We are refurbishing, renovating and upgrading this old hotel in downtown Montreal called “Hotel De Paris” its a 4 floor old building with a copper roof and a rotunda. It looks more like an old castle than a modern building; There is much work to do as it’s falling apart. But the work is difficult and it is really testing me in many ways. One is that I realize that I cannot stand the workaday 8-5pm day every day Monday to Friday. The reason I’m doing this now is to pick up extra cash for the upcoming European tour for which I leave Monday Jan 16th.

I’m also tech-ing at the Montreal Auto show for another 2 weeks, big show! Lots of setup and tear down, luckily, I’m a whizz with the ol’ Allan key. But it’s all worth it because the great news is that my European tour is ready to go! I have a few names for it, one which stands out because It most encapsulates what I’m trying to do here, which is to remove boundaries of what a guy my age is supposed to do or not do. That is I’ve decided to follow my dream, to not compromise for anyone or anything, to just go full speed ahead.But it takes a lot of self-adjusting. It’s not so easy street once you decide, things surely fall into place but you have to really put other facets of your life aside. I saw the “Rush Documentary” called Beyond the Lighted Stage over the summer and I was really struck by one quote that Geddy Lee says in the movie. Hes talking about his parents acceptance of what he was doing, they were staunch eastern European parents for whom a young man could only be a doctor or a lawyer.  Geddy Lee says in the film “..once my Jewish parents realized that I wasn’t a rocker, but more of an “entertainer, that’s when they said ..ahhh, he’s an entertaina”. That was my big realization over the past year. I came to the conclusion that I’m not just a musician, I’m a person playing music, an entertainer. I’m giving a personality to people, I’m giving something unique, something beautiful and positive. I’m passing on a message of hope, of togetherness, because even though life can be harsh sometimes and that this is what the media likes to focus on, when you really look at the facts, there is SO much more good than bad in the world. Good far far outweighs the bad!! We just tend to forget that. Like gravity, we are brought down constantly because of so many factors. We just need to remember that our only job in this life it to BE HAPPPY!!!!!! But being happy doesnt just come by saying, it comes by doing. It requires lots of maintenance too. Its not a given, it can be sometimes, but not always.

Those of you who have followed my blog you know that I went through a lot of frustration over the course of planning this tour. There was hardship in putting this thing together, It tested the limits of all my so called “qualities”.

I was constantly adjusting my perceptions to meet the demands of reality. My limits of patience, of boundaries and of how much I feel my worth in life is.  if you stay stuck in a way of thinking or being, life becomes even harder, because it’s in our nature to constantly be changing, to constantly be adjusting.

All that being said I am so proud, and so excited present to you the fruit of my last 5 months labour, of planning, re-planning, adjusting, maintenance of personality, logistic, detail and finally, self-adjustment.  All, for this desire to wander, to see the world, to connect with different cultures and to cross boundaries, to push them as well! Whereas the last tour across north america on the Greyhound was called the Pilgrim tour. I was searching. Well I’m still searching, I don’t think Ill ever stop, I don’t believe we should ever stop searching, I’m asking, prodding, and pushing, but mostly now, I’m wandering, I’m rambling because there are no real answers, just beautiful questions.  Like the words of the famous song by Iggy pop “The Passenger” ..

I am the passenger and I ride and I ride

I ride through the city’s backsides

I see the stars come out of the sky

Yeah, the bright and hollow sky

You know it looks so good tonight

These words, lift me up. They are the hollow cry that tugs at my heart and says, go out, go go go !!! and so I will answer.  I’ve decided that I too, am a passenger .  Although we think we are drivers of our life, we are only kidding ourselves that we a re in control, sure we have some control but ultimately we are just passengers, along just for the ride,  for the fresh air in our face through an open window. Who is driving is unimportant, the important thing is NOT to miss the scenery!

So without further ado, I present to you “The 2012 Passenger tour”  The third Jon Cohen Experimental tour in less than a year! This one is chuggin’ across all the UK, across all of mainland Europe and Finally across Scandinavia over the winter of 2012! It goes something like this…

The JCEX, “The Passenger tour” Europe 2012

Thurs Jan 19th – UK Blackpool @ The Cedar Tavern
Fri Jan 20th – Dublin Ireland @ The Grand Social
Sat Jan 21st – Liverpool UK @ The Lomax
Mon Jan 23rd- Glasgow Scotland @ Pivo Pivo
Tues Jan 24th – London UK @ The MacBeth
Wed Jan 25th – Brighton UK @ Latest Music Bar
Thurs Jan 26th – Stockton UK @ Stockwell Arms
Sat Jan 28th – Oxford UK @ The Wheatsheaf
Mon Jan 30th – Manchester UK @ The Castle Hotel
Tues Jan 31st – Glasgow Scotland @ The Bloc
Wed Feb 1st – Edinburgh Scotland @ The Wee Red
Thurs Feb 2nd – Bristol UK @ Mother’s Ruin
Fri Feb 3rdh – London UK @ The Bull and Gate
Sat Feb 4th -Nottingham UK @ TBC
Wed Feb 8th – Paris @ Le Pop In
Thur Feb 9th – Paris @ Abracadabar
Fri Feb 10th – Reims France @ L’excalibur
Sun Feb 12th – Madrid, SP @ The Wurlitzer
Wed Feb 15th – Bordeaux France @ El ChiCho
Fri Feb 17th – Prague @ The Red Room
Wed Feb 22nd – Brussels Belgium @ DNA
Thurs Feb 23rd – Hamburg Germany @ Belami
Fri Feb 24th – Hamburg Live pour Balcony TV (journée)
Sat Feb 25th – Chemnitz DE@ Subway To Peter (with Geoff Berner)
Mon Feb 27 – Amsterdam NE @ Dwaze Zaken
Tues Feb 28th – Berlin DE@ Madame Claude
Friday March 2nd – Berlin DE @ Ex’N’Pop
Saturday March 3rd-Gronningen NE @ Wishful Musichouse
Monday March 5th – Trier DE @ Trash Lounge w/ Geoff Berner
Tuesday March 6th- Gottenburg, Sweden @ Mittandrahem
Friday March 9th – Copenhagen Denmark @ KB18
(Finland tour tour with Orkestra & STEEN)
Sat March 10th – Viitasari Finland @ Hotel Pihkuri
Tues-March 13th – Helsinki Finland @ The Liberty
Wed- March 14th – Helsinki Bookstore SHOW @ Arkadia
Thurs- March 15th – Hamellina Finland @ Suisto Club
Friday March 16th – Kyrö Finland @ Ravintola Carina
Sat March 17th – Mänttä Finland @ Morgan Kane
Mon March 19th –Fly Home to Montreal.

2 months on the autobahn, solo as a one-man band! . As things stand, this tour is looking fabulous. But there is still so much work to be done, and I’m leaving so soon! I’m especially looking forward to reconnecting with old friend in Europe, with couch surfers and with fellow musicians. I have a feeling this will be the adventure of my life, I pray everyday that it’s a success, I hope you can pray for me as well. I will be travelling mostly by bus, and train. But may do some short plane and fairy rides to get to and fro. If you are in any of these places, you are beckoned, you are called forth to make your presence! Please, don’t hesitate, if you need to be in on a guestlist and times a rough for the pocket, don’t hesitate to mention it to me, I will do my best to get you in as a guest.

I will also attempt to post on this blog daily as I did for the last tour, your comments on the last North American tour were so helpful land mad me feel connected to home even though I was in the farthest reaches. So please write to me as often as you can, I promise to answer each and every one of you. I think this is going to be intense, but so rewarding when I come out the other side!

I’m so happy to share this with along the way, I plan to take many videos, many pictures and do daily or almost daily blogging like I did on the last one. To note, my friend and fabulous filmmaker Alexis Marshall will be filming a short documentary of the show and me over 4 cities, that’s London, Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin. The doc will be released of the tour in 2012. I’ll keep you posted on that as we progress.  The other thing is that I will be posting all press of the show on here as well as facebook and on the event pages. I’m making one mega event page as well as tiny event pages for the different cities I am hitting. I’ll also be posting little videos on my blog and on Facebook of the fun stuff, the interesting stuff, the contemplative stuff and maybe even the romantic stuff!

My only request, is that you please, be with me on this journey!! be present online, send words of encouragement, send news of home, blog, let me know what u r up to. I need that! It’s so important in order to feel like I have a home, like Im rooted somewhere.

In the meantime, I leave you with some pics of my wonderful winter wonderland walk through the mountain (Mont Royal)  in Montreal. It’s beautiful place just minutes away from the city where you are completely engulfed in forest, rock and snow! Montreal rocks this way!

Happy New Year, everyone, only resolution for me is keep on rocking in the free world!!!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.