“Awaking” this morning after only three hours sleep “last night,” I had the words to the Rolling Stones song going through my head: “You can’t always get what you want….”
In fact, I am writing these words at the airport as I prepare to board a flight to Kuala Lumpur, and a 12 hour or so flight that will have me leaving Paris at noon and arriving in KL just after midnight Paris time…which will be 6:30 in the morning on Wednesday, KL time. IE, the start of the new day, which will culminate in my half-hour slot in an open mic in KL at Laila’s Cafe & Lounge, where I have been booked to play from 10:30 PM to 11:00 PM.
So my idea was that if I only sleep three hours then maybe I will sleep a full “night’s” sleep on the airplane and arrive in KL refreshed and optimistic about life in general…. This was something that happened to me three weeks ago when I went to Melbourne and only slept two hours the night before leaving…thereby sleeping on the airplane all “day” and arriving in really good condition in Melbourne….
So what does all this stuff have to do with the Stones song? Last night as part of my effort to get what I want – ie, sleep on the plane today – I went to my usual haunts of the open mics on Monday in Paris, at the Galway and the Tennessee Bar. It turned out that my musical acquaintance Mathieu Neran also did both the Galway and the Tennessee. And it turned out that the highlight of the evening would be when Mathieu sang the Rolling Stones song, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”
He sang it at the Tennessee, and it moved. He did a great job, and James Iansiti, the MC, got on stage and did drumming and back up vocals and then piano, and they were joined by Chardes Bourdon on tambourine and vocals as well. The audience clapped, the singers sang, the whole thing had a general feeling of the kind of festive atmosphere that is nice, and more rare than you might expect, at an open mic.
So anyway, this all comes together in the thought that I may not have got the sleep I wanted, I may not get the sleep I want, but I will definitely get the sleep I need, since I’ve tried this time…. And I’m really looking forward to playing KL when I wake up!
Now one thing unfortunately that I will not get that I want, is for the video I took of this moment at the Tennessee Bar to upload onto this site in time for my flight. The wi-fi at the airport is not fast enough and I have only 8 minutes left on the counter. and it is only 28 percent uploaded after 20 minutes. So I will have to put the video up sometime later, upon arrival in KL. Just drop back in to check it out again, if you feel like it.