davethegrinch.net

Dave Says:
I’ve always fancied myself a bit of a Jack Kerouac. Every since I first read On The Road at the impressionable age of fifteen I figured a nomad’s life of jazz, booze and beat-up old Underwood typewriters would be just the ticket for a suburban lad like myself. Jack is one the finest American writers but not exclusively for his quality or quantity and certainly not for his sales or his insight but because he embodied the confusion, contradiction and addiction of being on the move. 1950’s America was on the road and so was Jack, and, so am I. Some would say, my poor embattled mother for one, that I have always been on the move: crawling, walking, touring, emigrating, travelling; constant movement to Lord Knows Where. Jack did it better. I’ve always felt a bit of a fraud. Even when I was sleeping on the floors of the people who came to see our shows I hid behind suburban comfort, afraid of that uncertainty of undefined beds and redefined grime. However sometimes, not often, whenever he feels I need it the most, Jack looks over my shoulder. Today, as we pulled into Lord Knows Where, Morocco, Jack alighted from the bus with us, scratched his head from under his cap, squinted into the midday sun and suggested we get ourselves a drink before doing anything else. (more…)

Dave Says:
Stray dogs. We’ve seen ‘em, smelt ‘em, been woken up by ‘em and on a rare occasion petted them. They are the blight of the under developed countries. It’s a well known fact that the Muslims are not too crazy about dogs so our expectation of a surplus of unloved and unwanted mutts was surprisingly met by a surplus of much loved, but filthy stray moggies. There’s hardly a dog to be seen, stray or otherwise here in Essouira but there are cats, and thousands of them. Cats everywhere you look and everywhere you walk. It is a good thing they’re neat-freaks with their poo or we’ll be tripping over that too.
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Dave Says
Morocco is somewhat famed for its mint tea so whilst enjoying a cup of this super sweet and highly addictive local brew I got to thinking about tea and coffee in general. I’ve given up on beer and wine. I know this sounds highly irregular but, to be quite frank with you, if I may, the world’s beer all tastes the same. It’s all lager based – Heineken but with a different label. Wine is wonderful but only the civilized countries vint it and we can’t afford the good stuff so we’re “forced” to drink the cheap table wine and, to be frank with you, if I may one more time, it can be both wine and paint stripper in the same bottle. So I turned my attentions to the staples: tea and coffee.

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Dave Says:
Don’t visit Marakech if you’re deaf. It would be a waste of your money, go somewhere like London or New York where it would actually benefit you to not be able to hear anything. However, if you’re a little hard of hearing or if you wish to be, Marakech is the place for you.
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