Damn, you do look like you could be cousins.
Finally back in Canada after 26 and a half hours of traveling and layovers. The NMA meet up happened for real! @Hassknecht was a hell of a guy and getting to meet up was one of the highlights of my trip. He recommended a cellar pub outside the Koln dom (Früh am Dom: https://goo.gl/maps/YeFXUpd5rfVuMy4E8) where we sat down for some food and a few glasses of Kölsch (the local brew). We shot the shit for a couple hours while the waiters kept bringing an endless supply of Kölsch. Eventually the table was reserved and we had to bail, so I convinced/dragged him around the markets of Cologne so I could buy kitschy tourist shit for my mom. We probably walked for a couple hours or so. He shared his hatred for motorized scooters along with a bottomless wealth of information on almost every topic. A really smart dude. Seriously, the camera doesn't lie, this guy is like a 7 foot tall Bavarian quantum physicist. It was a fuckin' rip. On top of that he got me buzzed on several recommendations of feuerzangenbowle and Bavarian beer that needed to be walked off and protected me from a crazy Cologne German that yelled at me. It was an excellent time. 10/10. Would meet strange man from internet again.
Candid photo of us meeting for the first time:
Seriously, it was a ton of fun. Basically, we talked for hours about music, and I learned a lot from that. Approaches to improvisation and all that jazz (pun intended). Also, I'm seriously considering swing dancing now. Not Fallout 76, though.