! Portugal !

First night in Sines, Portugal. A 10 day world festival has begun. Friends and family of the festival lead us to a late night jam where some folks from northern Spain are leading the whole bar in rambunctious accordion fueled sing-alongs, and synchronized dance moves (everybody get low, real low, and...wait...JUMP! Dance crazy now! Kind of like that).
On the first morning we began drinking the first of what seemed like hundreds of cups of espresso. There are more cafes in Sines than you can shakily point your caffeine induced fingers at.
Lots of wandering around.

Self-portrait

Cecil knows geography.

Our friend Tiago and his lady.
Umar Bin Hassan of the Last Poets on the big screen. It was great serendipity to cross paths with our friend and collaborator Umar and his crew, The Last Poets, in Portugal.

When in Portugal, plan on catching up on drinking wine!
Pour

Taste
Reflect.
Si si.






Rehearsing at Escola Des Artes.

Luke and Philly Phil backstage at the castle.

Fire juggler and his dog.

Walking down to the beach.

Sun and sand.

This is our hurling team photo. Thanks to our Irish friends Patrick and Bradley who attempted to teach us the basics of the sport.


Sines at sundown.

Teal checks out the view from stage during soundcheck.
The same stage at night from the audience.
Standing in the same place, looking away from the stage.


Inside the castle walls. Lots of the concerts are held in here.

Driving through Lisbon to the airport.

On the plane in Lisbon. North Carolina bound.

! TK in AK !

Our trip to Alaska begins with a frantic attempt to re-animate our dear old tour van, which broke down at a travel center on the way to the Atlanta airport.

Luckily our van started up and we were able to make it to the Atlanta airport in time for our flight.

Settling in for a 9 hour flight.

We land in Anchorage in good spirits. We spend the evening in town with some locals who give us an excellent tour of Alaskan nightlife. In actuality, most of the night is spent staring at the sun. Hanging out at in full sunlight at 1 am is pretty surreal.

The next morning we drive south to Homer. Every direction yields amazing natural spectacles.

This is my favorite marquee sign I've seen for Toubab Krewe. (These photos were taken around 10 PM)

The Downeast Saloon is in the far corner.
Getting our heads together before the show.

After a great time in Homer and then Anchorage, we head to Talkeetna.

This is Cecil and possibly the tallest man in all of Talkeetna.
Talkeetna was an amazing experience. It was the 4th of July. We performed in an old airplane hangar that has been turned into a community arts center. After the show we had a great time hanging out in the midnight sun with the Talkeetnans, looking towards Mount Denali, and watching the homegrown fireworks show by the river.




Later, around 4 am, we built a fire. Pictured is David, whose enthusiastic fanning of the flames with a garbage can lid saved the wet and fiery logs from receding into smoky coals.

No kidding...4 am.
And then all of the sudden, we're in the airport again. Heading back to the lower 48.


9 hours later, we are back in Atlanta.