Concert/Trips/Life Updates

So, been so busy with work and having fun that I didn't blog about the trips that much.

After the awesome GUADEC in Spain, Sara and I flew to Germany to catch Bob Dylan which happened to be a very good concert in a nice small open-air amphitheater with a river going right behind the stage. After that we headed to Paris, having an awesome two days there and Sara applying for the Canadian visa. I then had to fly the long way back to Barcelona, Amsterdam, and Toronto.

I arrived in Barcelona 2am and decided to go to the train station and spend a few hours there (hoping to get a power plug) and take the first train to the airport to catch my flight at 9. So I got the taxi with the mid-age female driver. All I knew was that I want to go to Sant-Station and she understood that and that was enough. Or I thought so... For the entire length of the ride, 10 minutes or so, she was trying to tell me that the station is closed at night, and I only understood when we got there. At that point I asked her to bring me to the airport and she did. Could have been an episode of Night on Earth.

Two weeks at home, then hit DDC and OLS in Ottawa for another week. I gave up on the Dan Bern performance in Ottawa the week before the conferences but caught the last night of the Blues fest and it was good. Sara arrived in Ottawa too, and so did Chris Ball, the guys from the office, and towards the end of the week my buddies Farhang and Hossein. A totally rocking week all in all. I even bought a gnome from Indigo.

It's September again and lots of concerts and new releases come out just in time for my birthday :-D. The upcoming musical events on my radar:

• Got tickets for Roger Waters on Sep 20 in Toronto.
• It was just announced that Dan Bern's sixth full-length album, Breathe, will be released on September 19, 2006! Download two songs on the news page. Moreover, he's doing a massive North American tour this fall, starting in Toronto! So added Sep 8 to my list.
• The Times They Are A-Changin', a new Broadway musical conceived, directed and choreographed by Tharp and set to the music and lyrics of Dylan. Since I'm planning to attend the Boston Summit, and so visiting the States, just reserved a ticket for that too.

Apparently ticketmaster has two options of ship the ticket: 1) US only, with no country selection box and only USA states listed, and 2) international, with a province box listing Canadian provinces, but no Canada in the country list and requiring to choose a country! Don't know why that doesn't surprise me...

¶ 2:11 PM