I had been waiting for last night for months. David Gilmour came to the Kodak Theater and I picked up a ticket for the show just after it was posted on the net.
I had never been to the Kodak and was interested in seeing the inside. Overall I liked it. A little bland but overall well done.
Before the show I milled around with the rest of the crowd and I have to say Pink Floyd Fans (myself included) are not aging well. Grey skin, uneven hair and t shirts from 1971 are a bad combination whoever you are.
I had a pretty good seat. Front row, third balcony. Gilmour was slightly larger than an ant but I could hear ok. That is except for the parts not covered by the sounds of "WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!" coming from behind me whenever the music went soft.
Three seats down a 50 year old blond was telling a guy next to her she hated when she went to shows and the person in front of her had big hair or was too tall so she couldn't see. However, whenever the music got loud she was up shaking her ass and ruining the view for anyone behind her. Really, lady, No one wants to see that.
I was surprised it took so long but half way into the show, the unmistakeable odor of weed puffed by. Then disipated. Huh....interested. I saw Pink Floyd in the 80's and the whole coliseum was like being in a bong the whole night.
Later it smelled like cheap subway sandwich meat...then pot....then meat.
I had no idea what this was until just now when I checked the Gilmour Blog to find out four drunks in the back row after round after round of air guitar puked.
Lovely.
I was glad I went to the show but didn't really get want I expected. I hoped for loud fast driving music but got a lot of slow psychodelic guitar solos and songs about love and what not. Gilmour has to be in his 60's by now and I guess that's what happens. Shame.
20 April 2006
03 April 2006
whew...
I'm home. A one hour delay in my flight...no apology, no sorry the the inconvience just, "Hey you're going to have to wait..." but I got to LA last night around 10pm, My girlfriend picked me up and I'm glad it's over.
You know last year I was gone for three weeks and I told myself, three weeks is too long. I said that after my trip the year before...and yes, the year before that.
Hopefully next year I will have learned my lesson.
I may post randomly before next year but I can't say for sure.
See you next year.
You know last year I was gone for three weeks and I told myself, three weeks is too long. I said that after my trip the year before...and yes, the year before that.
Hopefully next year I will have learned my lesson.
I may post randomly before next year but I can't say for sure.
See you next year.
02 April 2006
Dallas
The frankfurt airport uses a flight information board with flip panels like the alarm clocks in the 70's. When the information changes it makes the cool "fft ffft ffft ffft" sound. I stood here for a minute just the hear the flights change.,
originally uploaded by utt944.
I spent 16 hours on planes yesterday. Guys in the Cairo airport were hitting me up for money until the last minute of my flight.
I have to say in all honesty, unless you are tremendously motivate to see Egypt or are familiar with the culture, go somewhere else. I was really fatigued by the whole experience to the point it affected my personality and most of the foreigners I met said the same thing.
Hopefully things will change in the future but now...try Mexico. Support my people.
My flight was delay 30 minutes going into Frankfurt. Running through the terminal I heard a sound out of a 70's science fiction movie. It was this old style message board. It thought it was pretty cool.
Ten hours to get to Dallas. I sat in front of two guys from Texas that would not keep quiet. Sleeping was at a minimum. Two bad movies and boom, I'm in Dallas.
It's great to be back in the states.
Billboards for strip clubs, McDonalds every where. Only bums ask you for money. Ah, home.
I've made a lot of good decisions on this trip and Dallas was a good one too. The airport is nice and the city has a lot of stuff going on. Even the Hard Rock Cafe is interesting! Usually the Hard Rocks are basically expensive TGI Fridays, with guitars but the one in Dallas has a room sent over by Pete Townshend from his castle in England. The whole damn room! And they have a bar shaped like Eddie Van Halen's guitar. Nice.
Slept pretty much all of yesterday.
Hit the Dallas Art Museum, Sculpture garden....they have a Whatchamacallitburger I've never seen before so I will partake.
Tomorrow....done!
31 March 2006
rain! what the hell
It's 9 hours till my plane leaves. I've been through the city one more time. Picked up my birthday gift and I'm done.
Had dinner with a cool czech guy that rolled into town yesterday. And all of a suddend it starts to rain. RAIN!
It's the desert and it's raining.
eh, what the hell. I'm leaving. And it's been raining in LA so this will get me in to the swing when I get home.
9 hours is a long time. The guys at the hostel are watching Egypt v Kenya soccer. Which makes my 9 hours longer.
I know where to catch the bus to the airport so all I can do is wait.
One more stop, then home...
Had dinner with a cool czech guy that rolled into town yesterday. And all of a suddend it starts to rain. RAIN!
It's the desert and it's raining.
eh, what the hell. I'm leaving. And it's been raining in LA so this will get me in to the swing when I get home.
9 hours is a long time. The guys at the hostel are watching Egypt v Kenya soccer. Which makes my 9 hours longer.
I know where to catch the bus to the airport so all I can do is wait.
One more stop, then home...
30 March 2006
Under a big black sun
The english couple I met were on their way to Saluum as I was. The husband is has been interested in Eclipses since he was a kid. Both of them were in England when there was a total eclipse but cloud cover made the viewing poor. I really wouldn't know the difference since this was my first.
I have to say every decision we made went perfectly. The hotel was was reasonably comfortable (except for the stunning amount of street noise into the night). Our hotel mother hooked us up with a terrific taxi driver that we hired for the day. Got us to Saluum and to Alexandria in record time and was genuinely a nice person.
Anyway, We paid for tickets to get to a viewing area set up by the goverment. We were told to get to Saluum by 7am because the city would be closed. The president was flying in and for security....blah blah blah.
We got there at about 5:30 AM. We went to the viewing site which might have been good, top of a hill, view of the sea....but dozens of tour buses, crowds of people and the music. Terrible local dance, hip hop and rap music inside, and local bedouin bands outside. The bedouins were ok but the rest had to go.
We made our way down the hill to the town of Saluum. Camped out on the beach and waited....and waited....and waited.
Local kids and townspeople came up to us and welcomed us to the town. Saluum is basically no where. My guidebook says as much. It's your last stop in Egypt before you get to Libya and the people were happy to have some tourists around.
So we wait and wait and wait. Richard, The husband, knew what was going on and tipped me on what to look for. Now to be honest this whole affair is tedious, boring and completely ordinary....until about 45 seconds before totality.
When it started I made observed the surroundings, made notes and basically nothing worth noting was happening.
We all kind of looked at ourselves and said "is this it?"
but about 45 seconds to go, the sunlight started to turn a bit yellow. Richard said to look at the ground and what looked like heat waves were rippling across the sand. I looked through the glasses and there was just a sliver of sun left uncovered, too much to look at with the naked eye. Then BOOM, TOTALITY!
Where I was a kid, and I'm sure every kid is told, "Never look directly at the sun, you'll go blind!" But at this moment, the sun was a deep black circle. I looked at it directly, I couldn't look at anything else. Every logical system in my brain colapsed. THIS WAS UNREAL. The corona was bluish white and streamed around the black sun. It was completely animated which made it more surreal. The sun is supposed to be static, unmovable, like an elephant slowly trodding across the sky but this thing moved, danced almost.
The sky around it was midnight blue, until the horizon. We were on the beach so we could see down the the horizon and the sky was purple and orange, like sunset. but we were in night time.
I can't explain or will try to what it felt like.
Dogs barked, horses bayed. Birds flew then landed and slept. street lights came on....
It went on for 4 minutes. It seemed short or long...I'm not really sure which. The physical rules and measures I know seemed not to apply.
"here comes the diamond ring..." Richard said and about 4 o'clock on the sun the intense light of the sun broke, and it looked like a white diamond ring...and it was over.
The sun started its way back and the birds picked up...for the most part.
And we headed back to Alexandria.
It was one of the most spectacular events I have ever witnessed in my life.
I have to do it again.
I'm back in Cairo. Fly home in two days.
The big stuff on this trip is done.
One more Hard Rock on the way home...then...back to pulling weeds in my yard.
I have to say every decision we made went perfectly. The hotel was was reasonably comfortable (except for the stunning amount of street noise into the night). Our hotel mother hooked us up with a terrific taxi driver that we hired for the day. Got us to Saluum and to Alexandria in record time and was genuinely a nice person.
Anyway, We paid for tickets to get to a viewing area set up by the goverment. We were told to get to Saluum by 7am because the city would be closed. The president was flying in and for security....blah blah blah.
We got there at about 5:30 AM. We went to the viewing site which might have been good, top of a hill, view of the sea....but dozens of tour buses, crowds of people and the music. Terrible local dance, hip hop and rap music inside, and local bedouin bands outside. The bedouins were ok but the rest had to go.
We made our way down the hill to the town of Saluum. Camped out on the beach and waited....and waited....and waited.
Local kids and townspeople came up to us and welcomed us to the town. Saluum is basically no where. My guidebook says as much. It's your last stop in Egypt before you get to Libya and the people were happy to have some tourists around.
So we wait and wait and wait. Richard, The husband, knew what was going on and tipped me on what to look for. Now to be honest this whole affair is tedious, boring and completely ordinary....until about 45 seconds before totality.
When it started I made observed the surroundings, made notes and basically nothing worth noting was happening.
We all kind of looked at ourselves and said "is this it?"
but about 45 seconds to go, the sunlight started to turn a bit yellow. Richard said to look at the ground and what looked like heat waves were rippling across the sand. I looked through the glasses and there was just a sliver of sun left uncovered, too much to look at with the naked eye. Then BOOM, TOTALITY!
Where I was a kid, and I'm sure every kid is told, "Never look directly at the sun, you'll go blind!" But at this moment, the sun was a deep black circle. I looked at it directly, I couldn't look at anything else. Every logical system in my brain colapsed. THIS WAS UNREAL. The corona was bluish white and streamed around the black sun. It was completely animated which made it more surreal. The sun is supposed to be static, unmovable, like an elephant slowly trodding across the sky but this thing moved, danced almost.
The sky around it was midnight blue, until the horizon. We were on the beach so we could see down the the horizon and the sky was purple and orange, like sunset. but we were in night time.
I can't explain or will try to what it felt like.
Dogs barked, horses bayed. Birds flew then landed and slept. street lights came on....
It went on for 4 minutes. It seemed short or long...I'm not really sure which. The physical rules and measures I know seemed not to apply.
"here comes the diamond ring..." Richard said and about 4 o'clock on the sun the intense light of the sun broke, and it looked like a white diamond ring...and it was over.
The sun started its way back and the birds picked up...for the most part.
And we headed back to Alexandria.
It was one of the most spectacular events I have ever witnessed in my life.
I have to do it again.
I'm back in Cairo. Fly home in two days.
The big stuff on this trip is done.
One more Hard Rock on the way home...then...back to pulling weeds in my yard.
28 March 2006
This hair has got to go
I went back to the hotel and nap for a bit. I tried to nap but the noise in the street consisted of every noise imaginable. Really, cars, horns, horses, kids, circular saw, banging on propane tanks, birds....
Anyway, I get up, I decide to get something to eat. I throw on my pants and catch myself in the mirror, and I look like peppermint pattie.
My hair grows fast and I'm lazy. This is a bad combo. It's been a while since I've been to the barber and it was definitly time to go.
I used to go to a lady in Korea all the time. We devoloped an understanding of what was acceptable and what was not. I was close to getting my hair cut in a park in china last year but I chickened out.
This situation needed a resolution. So I went down the street and there was a shop.
The guys were sitting around watching soccer and a kid was getting his haircut. I remember that look, the "Fuck I hate getting my haircut!" look.
Anyway, the kid was getting his cut from a tall thin guy watching the game and moving the scissors with every kick. He gets done with the kid and motions to me. I get up but he motions to the other chair.
For me he was going to the bullpen. This guy that looks like the guard from "Midnight Express" comes in and without a word puts the tissue on my neck and BOOM we're off. He's going, cutting, smoothing. Meticulous. This guy is a surgeon. In about 15 minutes he's done. Not bad.
He reaches for the counter and mmmmmmm....not what I wanted....hair gel....With the big paws, SLOSH...it goes in. I haven't used this stuff since I was in first grade and I still have the picture to show why.
He combs the hair back and I'm done.
Look in the mirror. Hey, I look like Hitler...with glasses.
I slip his a ten spot. He seems ok with it. Not happy but ok.
As I leave I see he has two straight razors soaking in a mug that says "Mom, you've always been there "
I guess if he wasn't happy. I'd know.
Anyway, I get up, I decide to get something to eat. I throw on my pants and catch myself in the mirror, and I look like peppermint pattie.
My hair grows fast and I'm lazy. This is a bad combo. It's been a while since I've been to the barber and it was definitly time to go.
I used to go to a lady in Korea all the time. We devoloped an understanding of what was acceptable and what was not. I was close to getting my hair cut in a park in china last year but I chickened out.
This situation needed a resolution. So I went down the street and there was a shop.
The guys were sitting around watching soccer and a kid was getting his haircut. I remember that look, the "Fuck I hate getting my haircut!" look.
Anyway, the kid was getting his cut from a tall thin guy watching the game and moving the scissors with every kick. He gets done with the kid and motions to me. I get up but he motions to the other chair.
For me he was going to the bullpen. This guy that looks like the guard from "Midnight Express" comes in and without a word puts the tissue on my neck and BOOM we're off. He's going, cutting, smoothing. Meticulous. This guy is a surgeon. In about 15 minutes he's done. Not bad.
He reaches for the counter and mmmmmmm....not what I wanted....hair gel....With the big paws, SLOSH...it goes in. I haven't used this stuff since I was in first grade and I still have the picture to show why.
He combs the hair back and I'm done.
Look in the mirror. Hey, I look like Hitler...with glasses.
I slip his a ten spot. He seems ok with it. Not happy but ok.
As I leave I see he has two straight razors soaking in a mug that says "Mom, you've always been there "
I guess if he wasn't happy. I'd know.
Marsa
Arrived in Marsa this afternoon.
The place is crawling with foreigners going to Saluum tomorrow.
After Saluum, it's a race back to Cairo and the plane home.
It appears conditions will be very good in Saluum.
I went to a burger stand, ordered a burger and ate it so fast the guy behind the counter told me (in arabic) "no money"....I think he thought I was starving, homeless or both.
I met an interesting English couple we shared a taxi and they helped he get into their hotel.
I'm beat.
I may not post tomorrow because of the commute. so more much later.
The place is crawling with foreigners going to Saluum tomorrow.
After Saluum, it's a race back to Cairo and the plane home.
It appears conditions will be very good in Saluum.
I went to a burger stand, ordered a burger and ate it so fast the guy behind the counter told me (in arabic) "no money"....I think he thought I was starving, homeless or both.
I met an interesting English couple we shared a taxi and they helped he get into their hotel.
I'm beat.
I may not post tomorrow because of the commute. so more much later.
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