lyon

lyon is the home our friend alexia who used to live in olympia and toured with june madrona through california last spring. we came into town in the middle of bad traffic andgot a nice long look at one of lyon's two rivers while crossing a bridge. when onyx told me stories of lyon I always pictured a river lined with cottages and sunny cobblestone streets. in reality, lyon is one of the largest cities in all of france. two rivers flow through it, criss crossed by numerous bridges, and bordered by a steep cliff where catholics still climb to go to mass. (well actualy I'm sure most of them drive) we played a squat called grrrnd zero. It's an old toothbrush company that downsized leaving thishuge empty office building. before the show we sit on a balcony filled with planter boxes of veggies and flowers. Its really inspiring to see such a commercial space reclaimed forcommunnity use. the old offices are now bedrooms and guestrooms. afterwards we had a relay race, us vs france, with the loser singing the winning team's national anthem at the farmer's market the next day. an here we are singing the national anthem in our very best frenglish.