i've decided to quit my job and take a trip around the world with my best friend, j3s.

we're starting off by moving to berlin on february 6th. we'll be living there for about six months and traveling around europe a bunch while we're there. then we're coming back to the US for a few weeks before heading off. we're booking a one-way ticket to frankfurt, where the RTW actually begins, but we're going to spend a lot of time in budapest and morroco before we go so that we can wait out monsoon season. the actual RTW has us heading throughout the middle east, southeast asia, oceania and south america.

my estimate is that i will fly 85,000 miles in 2006. it will look something like this:

Chicago » New York City » Chicago » Las Vegas » Chicago » London » Berlin » London » Amsterdam » Berlin » Paris » Bordeaux » Berlin » London » Chicago » Minneapolis » Chicago » New York » Chicago » Las Vegas » Frankfurt » Berlin » Budapest » Frankfurt » Casablanca » Marrakech » Frankfurt » Cairo » Dubai » Mumbai » Dubai » Bangkok » Dhakka » Nepal » Bangkok » Ho Chi Minh » Bangkok » Singapore » Hong Kong » Taipei » Seoul » Tokyo » Auckland » Wellington » Auckland » Los Angeles » Mexico City » Santiago » Bueños Aires » Rio de Janeiro » São Paulo » Lisbon » Frankfurt » ???

current trip status (indicated by bold above)

so that's my current itnerary. this is, of course, subject to expansion or contraction. i'll try to keep this page as up to date as i can when i get new bookings and whatever. if you are in or near any of these cities and want to meet up or if you're a promoter and want to book me for a show, contact me.

i will, of course, keep blogging the whole time and will update my live shows as much as possible while i'm on the road. this trip is more about traveling than touring for music, but i still want to get as many shows in as i can so that i can meet a lot of people and maybe make a few bucks.

to answer the most common questions:

do you have a job lined up?
no, i don't have a job over there and don't plan to get one. i've saved up some money and i'm going to be making music and having fun, not working.

are you coming back to chicago after the trip?
i have no clue where i'm going to end up when it's done. i love chicago and i'll probably end up back here at some point in my life, but who knows when.

how long is the trip?
i have no idea how long we'll actually be gone. the limit on the RTW ticket is twelve months, so theoretically it could last as long as next august. we're booking the tickets out of europe, though, so even the end of the RTW won't put us back in the states for sure.

do you know german?
not really. i started studying it and i'm at the point where i can get by at first and pick up more while i'm there. i also started learning arabic in hopes that i can pick up some more while i'm in morocco/cairo/dubai. i love learning new languages and it seems like this trip will be the perfect chance to actually do it.

why are you doing this?
i'm not doing this for any particular reason other than it's something i've always wanted to do. i guess i realized that if i don't do it now, i'm never going to.