Living in Asheville, NC

I live in Asheville now.

It’s a wonderful city in the oldest mountains in the world.

I’ve barely written a thing since I go there, but am doing some recording. For the first time ever I like recording, I love it. It’s nothing like performing at all. But I’m in no rush and I don’t have many expectations so…

The biggest change living here is I never drive anymore. I don’t go out that much anyway, but everything is ten minutes away. I’ve realized that all of my talking on the phone took place in the car. So now it is suddenly really hard for me to find the frame of mind to call someone and bullshit for a while. I essentially just don’t think of calling anyone ever. There are some folks who I definitely owe a phone call to, and I will get it soon I promise.

The music in this city is awesome. There isn’t a huge scene, but it’s big enough. And the people I’ve met here that play have been so nice, welcoming, and inspiring. About time. I have a sweet gig tonight opening for my dear friend Pierce Edens. Check him out: www.myspace.com/pierceedens1, his music is amazing, his band is so good.

Every so often I catch wind that someone has stumbled onto this site. It’s strange having a marker available and accessible from anywhere in the world. (Except for China of course.) I’m number one if you search for Pete Lutz in Google, and my mypspace is number three. Some strange Texan Pete Lutz photographer is number two. In the past few months I’ve had two people from my past find me and contact me via my website. One of them wrote me an email, and one of them left a cryptic message and just enough information for me guess that it was them. The latter made it pretty damn easy. I have no way of responding so that’s that; I don’t have to feel bad about not wanting to write back. It’s not that big of a deal really. I’m happier to hear from people than I let on. Well no one I should be too scared of has let it be known that they are stalking me. I’m glad I’m not that important. I don’t know how famous people do it. I try not to think about it, it scares me every time.

Enough of that.

I’m was thinking about summer plans yesterday and went to flip to June on my calendar and realized it wasn’t there. The calendar I have up right now was a gift from my dear friends Aaron and TJ. It’s a pin up calendar with Aaron as the subject/model. It’s amazing. Anyway they gave it to me in June right after I graduated and was in Portland visiting. The twelve months in it are June ‘07 to May ‘08. It’s amazing to think that was ten months ago. It feels equally like yesterday and ten years ago. What a year. I have no idea how to get a new calendar. The year it covers and the calendar itself are the best I’ve had yet. Lucky me.

Une Liste À Dire Au Revoir

So as it turns out I am leaving this island paradise on this Monday Dec. 10 to pursue other things. I will be in Las Vegas from Dec. 10 to Dec. 31. Then I will be in Jersey from Dec. 31 until about Feb. 12. Then I am moving to my favorite city, Asheville, NC.

Here is a little tribute list to the eight weeks I spent in Maui this year.

Days in Maui, 76

Sleeps in Maui, 73

Nights spent in shack, 55

Nights spent on friend's couches/beds, 17

Nights spent in tent, 1

Nights spent without electricity, 11

Friends made, 8

Visitors, 1 – Lara Lustig

Days spent working, 6

Highest gas price paid 3.86

Cars driven, 5

Cars purchased, 1

Times car purchased broke down, 3

Percentage of times car braking down was not just running out of gas but actually broken down, 66%

Car towed, 1 time

Car crashes, 1 (into a tall bushel of bamboo, no major injuries reported)

Hitchhikers picked up, 18

Hitchhiked, 5

Percentage of hitchhikers/drivers who felt the need to tell me how to "make it" in Maui without me asking, 33%

Percent of hitchhikers/drivers I hope to see again in my life 1%

Percent of hitchhikers/drivers who bought me a pizza for the ride 1%

Spoken to harshly/yelled at/cursed at for jaywalking 3

Almost hit by a smartass driver while jaywalking 1

Movies watched, 25 (in rough preferential order)
No Country for Old Men (see this movie it rules it)
Bananas
Schindler's List
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
The Last King of Scotland
Sicko
Crimes and Misdemeanors
The Good the Bad and the Ugly
A Fist Full of Dollars
For a Few Dollars More
Once Upon a Time in the West
Manhattan
The Devil and Daniel Johnston
The Good German
Frida
I'm Not There
Broken Flowers
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
Black Book
The U.S. vs. John Lennon
The Mist
Beowulf
The Dreamers
Knocked Up
Across the Universe (don't see this movie it sucks it)

Books read 4 also in order from favorite to least:
A Trip to the Stars - Nicholas Christopher (read this book it rules)
The Bell Jar – Silvia Plath
Stranger than Fiction – Chuck Paluniuck
Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen (don't read this book it blows)

Weddings attended, 1

Celebrities spotted, 2, Mick Fleetwood, Alanis Morissette

Number of female celebrities spotted that failed to see the connection in my eyes the a sixteen year old version of myself swore was going to be obvious, 1

Times I used composting toilet, 12

Times I used Border's toilet, 15

Longest stretch without shower due to lack of propane to heat the water, or lack of water to be heated, 5 days

Nude beaches visited, 4

Colors of sand at beaches visited, 3, red, black, white

Sizes of sand at beaches visited, infinite, ranging from confectionary-sugar fine to size of small car

Favorite beach, Little Beach

Favorite view, Big Beach from rocks between big beach and little beach

Snorkeled, 7 times

Turtles spotted, 2

Open mics played, 3

Percentage of open mics that couldn't make my guitar sound go through there speaker, 66%

Favorite open mic, none

Local fruit eaten 7, pineapple, breadfruit, papaya, mango, banana, star fruit, strawberry papaya

Local Beer tasted, 3 Coconut Porter, Bikini Blond Lager, Keoki Sunset

Favorite advice received, "There is an abandoned car down the street with new tires on it, you should put those tires on your car"

Least favorite advice received, "You need to get an aloha shirt."

Favorite restaurant, 2 way tie, Penne Pasta in Lahaina and Flat Bread Pizza in Paia

Chain "food" establishments eaten in, 2 – Jamba Juice, Häagen-Dazs

Favorite beverage, 2 way tie, Maui Brewery - Coconut Porter, Jamba Juice - Acai Super-Antioxidant

Favorite public restroom, Penne Pasta

Fell in love, once

Fini


Update Five

Last week my car started driving a little weird. It was pulling to the left and sort of bumping along. I had my suspicions about needing new tires, and had them confirmed by my mechanic a few days later when I went in for an oil change. I asked him about cheap tires and he started in about a promising place to buy some used tires and then suddenly stopped short. "I just saw your car with brand new tires on it down the road with a sticker on it." My heart stopped, I knew exactly what he was talking about.

Abandoned cars are a huge problem here. It's hard to drive a few miles without seeing a car with a big orange sticker on it threatening removal by the state. So it goes it cost $400 to throw away a car in Hawaii. A cheaper alternative seems to be leaving it on the side of the road for someone else to take care of. On the less touristy side of the island often the abandoned cars are lit on fire. So is the problem with large appliances, and frequently a pickup truck left abandoned will have a dryer in the back, after a few days maybe a refrigerator might end up on board as well. If these vehicles didn't already start out this way, left long enough, all end up with broken windows, graffitied paint jobs, flat or stolen tires…you get the idea.

Sure enough as I drove away with my fresh oil change about a block down the road I saw my exact car. I pulled over, went over to it and put my hand on one of the pristine back tires. It still had the little rubber pieces on it from the factory!

Well I wasn't entirely sure about this at first. As my day unfolded I ran into a few people I knew around town, my landlady Tara, my friend Sarah the bartender, I even called a few friends back home. The response was unanimous. The truth of the matter is really simple. The car is going to be junked. Maybe there is someone along the way who gets to check it out for sellable parts, but the person who owns the car and bought the tires days before the car died on them has decided to throw the entire thing in the garbage, tires and all.

So around 9:30 that night Sarah and I…








And in ninety minutes we changed eight tires.


Update Four

The shack is growing on me more and more every day. The other day though I noticed the shack was also growing on my belongings. There is mildew growing on some of my stuff, including my guitars. Well, that's that. Funny, I finally started tolerating the mosquitoes, gotten used to an outdoor toilet, and crummy bed, and living so far from everything including my friends here, and a few other annoying things I'd rather not air out for public consumption. But the ruin of my health, guitar and computer to moisture would burry me here on this island further than an airplane ticket out of here could fix.

So I have been reading the classifieds, checking out craigslist, asking around. Today I went look at a place in Kahalui, a town about thirty minutes south from where I live now…actual civilization. The add in the paper said there were two rooms available, a big one and a little one, one out of my price range and one just in it. The guy knew I was coming at ten sharp. Further more, I had just called him and he helped me find my way. Yet when I knocked he yelled "One moment!" through the door as if caught off guard and opened the door a few minutes later. I think this is partially what they mean by "Maui time." The first thing I saw was a kitchen with three overflowing tubs of empty beer bottles. The floor was pretty gross and the sink was half full of dishes. The next room was the common area or TV room. There was shit all over the place. He apologized and said it doesn't normally look like this. "I'm sure it doesn't." I said. He led me to the back room, the larger more expensive room. Regardless of the shape of this room and its private bathroom and the little fridge, it is out of my price range so it doesn't matter. I was unable to see the smaller, affordable room because they "are waiting for the former tenant to come and clean it." If this dude felt comfortable showing me the rest of the house I can't even imagine what this room looked like. I was completely uninterested the moment he opened the door, but I was dying to see this smaller room. I let it go though, bummed I had wasted the gas driving out there.

"Maui time" is a phrase everyone here likes to throw around. "Everything takes longer here." People say happily. People often drive at a gruelingly slow pace. Mail takes longer to get here. Things are slower, but it doesn't feel like the south, it often feels incompetent. And nobody seems to mind. There is an overwhelming feeling here of people avoiding discomfort in general. I've heard talk of waiting for winter to end in North Carolina (of all places to avoid the winter) before making a trip from one person. Most of the people I have met here don't feel plagued by deadlines or due dates. And the only people that I actually like here do, and they kind of like feeling that way. Really, since I got here I have met one person I have felt I wanted to hang out with again. I met a handful of people I'd like to hang out with a lot on my first two visits; I don't know what is different this time. Perhaps I am. My good friend Sara calls the area north of Kahalui "above the yoga line." She's not wrong. I could generalize and name call and go on about the new age hippies, but that's not really what it is, even though that's sort of exactly what it is.

At the prop house back home we talked about how we didn't want to hire anybody that was too nice. I've tried to explain this to people but I always get stuck when they ask me, why don't you want to hire nice people? We just didn't want to spend our time with someone who is overly amiable or under-opinionated. We call that a lack of personality I guess. But that's us being from jersey too. What I am getting at here is there is hardly a single person above the yoga line who could be tolerated to work at my job back home.

I am finding out faster and faster that in Maui and in Jersey I am still just me. Hooray for another move.


Update Three - Gettinaround

My car broke down four days after I got it. The head gasket went. It costs me a good chunk of money but it's back now and runs pretty good. Luckily I had a truck to borrow, and also I got to hitchhike a bit, which is quite an adventure at times.

Hitchhiking is a pretty common way to get around here and I've picked up a few hitchhikers when I've had the time and was driving far enough down the road to make it worth it. The first one I picked up needed a ride from Paia to Haiku, I wasn't going to Haiku but I could drop her off about a mile away. She was a middle aged woman with a big straw hat and most of her teeth. She got in and giggled. Since she couldn't find her cell phone she decided to empty her bag out onto the floor between her feet. Among her many belongings was a sweaty forty ounce of MGD. It was a pretty big bag. She told me she was on her way to Paia for some work; she was going to "you know, mess around, make some money." She giggled. There was a guy who she said was supposed to have some money by today, she giggled. "You got to make money however you can on this island." She tried to get me to drive her the whole way. I wasn't into it. "I'm just trying to hussle you." She admitted. I don't remember her first name, but she said her last name was Stone, "You'll have no trouble remembering that." She giggled. I guess she was right.

When I heard my car was ready, I was impatient so I hitchhiked to get my car from the mechanic. I needed to go about fifteen miles. It takes about thirty five minutes to drive, and I got there in an hour. After walking almost three miles I got a ride from a car full of surfers, really nice guys. They gave me tips about cool places to go around the island, good job opportunities…They got me about ten miles, up to Paia and dropped me off with a kind goodbye.

I only walked about a hundred feet before the next guy almost hit me as he pulled over, tires squealing. At this moment, I realized it was hard and probably dumb to turn down a ride you supposedly just asked for. I got in and he said, "Hold on." He cranked the music and peeled out into Hana Highway. I buckled my seatbelt and tried to find my own thoughts and opinions buried under blazing guitar riffs and incessant speed drumming. A woman wailed her operatic voice singing about the darkness in her soul. It was awful music. The guy reached eighty-five miles an hour (in a forty-five) before reaching over to shake my hand and introduce himself, I couldn't hear his name. I looked around this new VW Jetta and pondered the safety ratings of new VWs. I remembered the advertisement on TV telling me how safe this car was, well, actually I remembered an advertisement on TV telling me how safe a car was. It was enough for me to relax and enjoy the view faster then I ever had before. The road opened up at a traffic light into five lanes, two left turn lanes, two to go straight and one for a right turn. He lowered the radio so I could tell him I needed make a left. He needed to go straight. He told me if we made the light he'd pull over, but if we didn't I had to get out while we were stopped at the red. We didn't make the green, and he got in the left straight lane, the middle of the road. He reached over and shook my hand again. He looked me dead in the eye and said "Stay out of trouble, and watch out for the druggies. Really, I mean it." I told him I'd try and hopped out as the light turned green. I clutched my laptop case that was hanging across my chest and hurried through the three lanes to the median, then ran the rest of the way to the sidewalk before the oncoming traffic had a chance to cross the intersection.

Laughing about that strange encounter I remembered Ms. Stone, and her missing teeth and her forty ounce and her strung-out laughter. Was I supposed to watch out for her? Watch out for what? She doesn't have a car and I think that makes her way safer than that guy.


Update Two

I bought a car. Looking for a car was hard for me. I just left a really nice, extremely reliable car behind and the thought of owning another shitbox of a car was hard to swallow, but so was the thought of spending a ton of money. I set up two appointments. One was with a white 1989 Mazda 626, for $1,400. The other was a black 1989 Mazda 626 for $300. The same car. The same car. I went and looked at the first one and they had all this paperwork showing all the work that had been put into it. AND it had something like 86,000 miles. My old car was a 1999 and had 200,000. I didn't even go look at the $300 car. I knew I'd spend the money fixing it so why not save time and go the hassle free rout. This blog is getting a lot of attention; maybe I'll start charging to read it. I'll wait until I am destitute though, the material will be worth paying for then.

There is a freakish rabbit the size of a small dog living on the property here; it scared the shit out of me yesterday, and then again tonight. Apparently this thing cohabitates with the two cats that live on the property. Pretty weird if you ask me. If I was a rabbit twice as big as a cat, I guess I'd do what ever I wanted too. I got a decent picture of it.

I got my guitar back today. It was a happy reunion. Somehow after being left alone in its case for two and a half months it was still in tune. It seemed to learn a couple tings while I was gone too. One of things I want to do out here is take guitar lessons. I have a few very specific things I'd like to learn and since I have the time right now and lessons are cheap, I want to get going soon. So I've been looking around. I have met a few people who claim fervently that they can give me lessons, until I tell them what I want and then the sheepishly back away. I know what I want to learn is advanced, but far from impossible. There just aren't many jazz players here. One guy looks promising; though I'm sure he misunderstood what I was asking for. He was in a hurry so I'll catch up with him again and see what happens.

The shack is coming along nicely. I need to do some cleaning around the property and I NEED make the kitchen usable. I have plans in the morning to do so. Tara is coming over around eight to do a sweep of the property with me, should be fun. I had another run in with that cockroach, I picked him up in a shirt and threw him outside. Perhaps now we have an understanding. Time will tell.

Oh right, that reminds me of another thing. I've been going to bed around 9 and getting up around 6 everyday. I have no reason to stay up later so I just go to bed. When the sun goes down around here there isn't much to do outside of the shack unless I drive pretty far away. You might accuse me of being jetlagged, but really, unless I want to get eaten by mosquitoes or drive twenty minutes, there's not much to do but read and play guitar. I love those things, but the mornings here are so nice and quiet. Right now it's my favorite time of day.

The flashlight I thought I didn't pack was wrapped in a towel; I found it after I bought a new one of course. It's amazing how you can lose something in a duffle bag.

I got a P.O. Box yesterday. I think I sent everyone my address. I need someone to send me some Skin So Soft pronto. The mosquitoes are a nightmare.

71 Baldwin Ave, B7316
PO Box 791540
Paia, HI 96779

I saw four rainbows today. Beat that!


Maui Day One

I landed around 12:30. Melody and I drove into Paia and I got some groceries while she ran some errands. I met up with Tara, my new landlady, and talked to her about what I should do with my day to get settled. She recommended that I go get her truck and check out the shack and make sure it's livable and get some sheets and get settled and...

Melody dropped me off at the truck and we said our goodbyes. Seven straight days with the woman and I was sad to see her go.

I did all the things Tara recommended more or less and headed back to her house to use her wifi to find a car. After a quick hit I ran out and test drove an old VW Golf. I loved it so I gave the gal $50 to hold onto it promised a call tomorrow and went back to Tara's for diner. Tara informed me about all the safety checks and what not in Maui and informed me that I was getting taken for a ride with my new Golf. We had diner and got back online. We made some calls, made some appointments for tomorrow and I promised her I'd get my $50 back in the morning.

I got back to my shack around 9pm to find that the electricity didn't work. I knocked on my neighbor's door (by neighbor I mean the guy who used to live in my shack but is now cat sitting in the bungalow across the way and by way I mean bog) and he came out to help. With Miles's help I learned that the power to my shack runs off of three very long extension chords that are linked together across the "way" to the capacitor kind of thing that holds the charge from the solar panels. (yes I have power at night even though it's from solar panels, it's not a calculator it's 2007) The power to my shack was disconnected at three points. Very hard to trouble shoot. The shack is about 200 feet form the solar panels. Along the way, I traveled to and fro racing the dying battery of my cell phone, my only source for light, I lost a flip flop in the mud, muddied my feet hands recovering it in the dark muck, muddied the hell out of the floor of my recently mopped out shack, and emptied my luggage onto the muddied floor in search for the flashlight I apparently forgot to pack. Miles worked it out and I was up and running. Once all this was done I went out to the truck to get my things only to return to a darkened shack. This time though I quickly found where the two extension chords had come apart, ends submerged in mud. But I wiped the ends off on the wet grass and presto... I was back in business. Lucky, we just beat the heavy rains that just hit.

Alas, I now have light, computer power, my cell phone is being charged, and my bed is waiting for me to sleep. As I spread out my blanket just now a long dark thing scurried across the edge of it. I moved in quick for further inspection and saw the second biggest cockroach I've ever scene. The biggest was in Philadelphia. And to think I almost moved to such an uninhabitable place.

Goodnight.