Craig Polasko, a slim kid, with piercing blue eyes, and a smart and nice face.

Absolutely in love with classic music and Puccini in particular, and well informed on the subject too. We met in Lucca, talking in fact about Puccini himself and we had a chance to get to know each other a bit better in Modena, in the hotel where the guys were staying, after the show... during one of the funniest, weirdest, twilight-zone conversations I've ever taken part to... and during which I've seen Serious Alan laugh his head off.

Originally from Connecticut (his family name didn't leave much room for alternative, at best I would have said New Jersey or Pennsylvania) he graduated from Tuft University.
He loves music so much that his eyes sparkle even more when he gets on technical convesations about basses, plastic, metal or gut chords... and in Modena he found the perfect partner for this kind of conversation : a friend of mine, professional bass player, that after seeing the gig in Lucca fell in love with the whole band and wanted to see them play live again, so he joined the caravan... Now. Roberto doesn't speak a word of english. My friends and I together with Justin, Alan and Craig had formed a small group detached from the rest of the crowd.. and so they started communicating. The funny thing is that most of the times one spoke italian and the other one magically answered in english... and when they couldn't make it they just turned to yours truly to get help with translation. All this happened at the speed of light, in a hotel lounge packed with people, with me forced to pay attention to their conversation, while I was being heavily distracted by a certain Canadian crooner pulling faces and blowing kisses at me from afar, while he was sitting at a table with a couple girls and other people, making it DAMN hard to concentrate. And in all this, Alan and Justin (and my friends for that matter) were laughing their heads off.

I didn't have any chance to exchange emails with Craig or any other way to keep in touch, but I have something for him by my friend Roberto. A cd and an invitation to come to Florence to play together. So I'm just shouting out this message :

Craig, if you ever happen to see these pages, please contact me. My friend Roberto, the pro bass player you met in Modena wants to invite you over to have a jam session, and let you try that €25.000 bass he told you about!