Farewell to Stadium Rock - Redux

Tom Waits' current European tour is an indication of where things may have to go.  Tom doesn't do large venues, nor does he tour very often (the last European tour was in 2004, and this year he's only doing a dozen dates.)

His gigs are obvious fodder for ticket scalpers. So his management came up with a complex scheme where only two (expensive) tickets were sold per person, and that person's name appeared on the ticket, for an ID check at the door.  It certainly worked for Tom Waits, but I have doubts about it working for Madonna.

PS: Having got into the gig, one was pleasantly surprised to see that there were few, if any, restrictions on photography.

Omaha Beach Blues

Spent the weekend at Bernard the Watchmaker's (and Ornithologist's), in the Contentin, a few miles back from the Normandy Beaches, in the thick of the bocage.

A splendid time was had by all.

Web 2.0 Lexicology

Almost as long as there have been  leaders there have been followers.

The advent of espionnage gave rise to disinformation.

In the Web 2.0 era, what is the converse of stalking?

No prizes.

From Lima to Machu Pichu

One cannot say that Lima is one's favourite city, but it does serve at least one purpose -- it makes the Valley of the Gods even more appealing. By the same token, Agua Calientes, a few thousand feet below Machu Pichu, makes rising at 4 AM very easy: one had so much rather be up at Machu Pichu at daybreak, than try to sleep in hot water ;-)

Farewell to Stadium Rock (for now at least)

The two concerts we attended on the last weekend of June made future concert decisions relatively easy.

  

The first gig, at le Parc des Princes (total capacity circa 45 000),  was the Spring Bosstime. Even in so-called Gold seats, the view was far from intimate and, to add insult to injury, the sound was, to put it gently, muddy. The real shame was that the band did, for all intents and purposes, put on a stupendous 3-hour show. 

The next time we attend a Bruce concert we'll buy the cheap general admission tickets, and then queue up at dawn in hopes of getting into the stagefront pit.

The following night we saw Lou Reed perform Berlin at la Salle Pleyel, the Paris equivalent of Carnegie Hall.  We sat ten rows back from the stage, the sound was HiFi impeccable (the cameraphone recording one made during the encore doesn't do it justice) and the tickets were about the same price as for the E Street Band.  

Late July we're seeing Tom Waits at le Grand Rex (total capacity approximately 1 000) for a touch of glitter and doom.  Tickets were almost impossible to acquire, but hope springs eternal.