|
| Holy sh-t, I'm finally in AvignonLast night we were in Nice, trying to buy a train ticket to Avignon. We then found out that a sudden railway (SNCF) strike was keeping us from getting a ticket. We scrambled to find alternate transport, but apparently the bus service doesn't go to Avignon (Oddly enough it goes to Portugal, though). We ended up renting a car and braving the French motorways. The only automatic they had was a Passat, and it cost us about 300 euro ($450). I'm still reeling from that one.
Anyway, we made it out of Nice just fine, had a nice drive across Provence, saw lots of nice mountains and valleys. We came across a little frustration just finding the Budget rent-a-car station but it's all good now.
Had a great Provencal meal, toured the medieval papal palace, and I'm tired as hell. Tomorrow we get crunk on a wine tour.
à bientôt
| | |
| Holy sh-t, I'm in Paris!Mood: exhausted
Music: French techno in background in this cybercafe
We landed in Paris around 11:15am, though the flight was scheduled to get in at 10:00am. Charles de Gaulle Airport, by the way, is a miserable little place. Anyway, we got our bags safely, took the RER (commuter train) to Paris' version of 42nd St. Port Authority Terminal and took a taxi to our airport from there.
So far, everyone we've talked to has been really pleasant. The cabbie understood my French, we had good couscous and lamb at this local bar, passed out for about 15 min in the hotel while a thunderstorm passed. So far so good.
Right now we're just checking email and train schedules before adventuring farther out. Hopefully tonight we'll get to ascend the Eiffel Tower while it's lit up.
A bientot.
| | |
| I'm Still AliveMood: inspired
Music: Gnarls Barkley - She Knows
Yes, I'm still alive. Yeah, I pretty much lost all interest in blogging. I almost wanted to see what would happen after 1 complete year of blog neglect. But I realized I should at least update the sketch log since I was photographing drawings and paintings tonight.
But while I'm here... Life is good. I love Austin. Work is crazy, to say the least. The month of May is going to be absurd. I'm going to France and Florence, Italy with my best high school friend in about 3 weeks (so freaking excited!). The Ceremony will be back in Austin this July. And it goes on...
See you next year.
| | |
| Austin City Limits -- Day 3I got to Zilker Park too late for Sound Tribe Sector 9 (STS9). But I was right in time to catch Ben Kweller, who I'd never heard of before but he's great with folk/rock for such a young guy.
After that, Common put on such a fresh show. I really liked how he would dim down the instrumentals and really make the crowd feel and experience the lyrics. He sure as hell knows how to relate to the crowd. Immediately after Common was Bloc Party. They weren't half bad, but didn't really move me. After Bloc Party finished, we checked out a lesser known but damn good group Rose Hill Drive, and then a little bit of My Morning Jacket. We tried to catch Ziggy Marley but his sound check was running on forever
We missed Ziggy but we got to the stage for The Decemberists at a good time. I never heard of them before (except for Colbert's guitar challenge), but they can really perform. It's not my usual favorite kind of rock, but they're really entertaining and engage the audience pretty well. I especially liked the finale of him trying to play his bandmate's acoustic bass with the neck of his guitar. Speaking of the crowd, it looked like half the festival (actually ~5% of Austin's population) was at that show, and the crowd stretched all the way to the crowd for Ghostland Observatory.
The headliner of that night, and the whole festival was Bob Dylan. We stuck around for 10 minutes, and then we just felt too disappointed with his voice that we left early. Over all, this weekend was the shit.
| | |
| Austin City Limits -- Day 2Today we got to the park around 2:30pm. I didn't realize how much more oppressive the sun would be than yesterday (getting in around 5pm). Nonetheless, it was a great day. Stephen Marley was great. Unfortunately he did a few of his dad's songs, which took away from hearing more from his own album. And he played an alternative version of Traffic Jam which was ok, but not as good as the recording. We checked out the last few songs of Zap Mama, who's not half bad, and can do 'the worm' kinda well. We floated between Damien Rice and Arctic Monkeys, both of which were good shows with enormous crowds. Then came Muse.
I've been waiting for Muse ever since the lineup was first released, way back when I had just started work. And tonight's performance was well worth the wait. The opener was 'Knights of Cydonia', and that definitely got the crowded pumped from the beginning. Then going into "Map of the Problematique" and "Supermassive Black Hole". Personally, I'm a fan of their older work, so when "Sunburn", "Time is Running Out", and "Plug-in Baby" came on, I was ecstatic. And their grande finale of "Stockholm Syndrome" was phenomenal.
Tomorrow: Common  , Bloc Party, Ziggy Marley, Sound Tribe Sector 9, My Morning Jacket, and Bob Dylan
| | |
|
