Nate Linkon: Gettin around: Christmas/Hannukah, gig pictures from Xmas Eve, etc.

What's up everyone? Nothing too crazy going on here, just thought I'd post some pictures and stuff.

Aaron, my friend Lindsay's boyfriend, is here in Bangalore staying with me for a while. He's traveling around India for 180 days exploring the subcontinent. It's really quite amazing that he's making this trip by himself! At least when I got here I had other Americans around to help me through, he's really just learned everything on the fly. Goes to show that it's possible for an American to survive around here. In the last week I've heard of 2 MORE friends from home that will happen to be in my area. Man, I never thought I'd see any friends while in India, but it would seem that there are too many coming through Bangalore to possibly spend time with each of them, especially with my travel schedule in the next few weeks. (Goa 19th-3rd; Bombay 5th - 9th).

Christmas was great, just a little different than I'm used to. I played a gig with a jazz band on Christmas Eve, which was a lot of fun. The crowd was really into it even though the music wasn't THAT great, but what can you expect from a bunch of guys playing for free who haven't rehearsed. We just played covers everyone in the band knew. My picture finally made it to Page 3, the social scene feature in the Bangalore Times. I'll scan the article and put it up if I can.

This trumpet player was really awesome! Even though he belonged in a mariachi band...

Carlton, the singer, would start singing a different song without warning

I thought this was a very "introspective musician" picture

Christmas day was pretty relaxed. We spent the majority of the day chilling around and then made potatoe latkes and apple sauce for dinner. Mom would've been proud.

I leave for Goa on Thursday to spend New Years there, and MAN am I pumped! Work has been so freaking stressful over the last week or so that I just need to lay on the beach during the day and party more than is healthy at night. Can't wait to post the pictures for everyone.

In other news, the beloved Matt Newcomb has moved back to the United States for good. No longer will he and I be able to revel in our weekend escapades. It's pretty sad, but we were able to throw him a pretty kickin goodbye party. Laura's parents had reserved two rooms in the Leela Palace but their flight from London was cancelled, so we took over the rooms and spent the night downstairs in the nightclub, Athena. here are some pictures:

Matt disappearing from our lives, the look on Scott's face tells the whole story