Neven Behind The Shutter, Mayuko Behind The Melodica

My friend Neven showcased his cool photography at the Thin Room tonight. Here are some of my favorites of his:









Besides Neven's cool photography, the other great thing about tonight's event was that Neven asked for upbeat house music to go along with his presentation. Usually I would play donwntempo/lounge music at these Thursday night Virtual Photography Gallery events, but tonight I got to play some of my favorite deep house tracks. Boom ts, boom ts, boom ts, boom ts! Feel it! Feel it!

We later went to Scolari's Office where we met Ryan and Therese and checked out Mayuko's band, Aleph Research. Pretty cool sounding - with lots of keyboards, and even a melodica...rock!

Krassy Can Listen To It: "Riding on a Storm" by Timo Maas

U2 Live, San Diego, March 30, 2005

Two words:

1. Absolutely
2. Amazing

Marie and I just got home from seeing/hearing/experiencing U2 live. US2 likey U2! I am headful of music right now and can't begin to try and write about this show. It is really something to be experienced; writing about it won't do it any justice.

Wow!!!






1. City Of Blinding Lights
2. Vertigo
3. The Cry
4. The Electric Co.
5. Gloria
6. Beautiful Day
7. With Or Without You
8. New Year's Day
9. Miracle Drug
10. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
11. Love And Peace Or Else
12. Sunday Bloody Sunday
13. Bullet The Blue Sky / The Hands That Built America(snippet)
14. Running To Stand Still
15. Zoo Station
16. The Fly
17. Elevation

Encore:
18. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
19. Where The Streets Have No Name
20. One
21. All Because Of You
22. Yahweh
23. 40

Krassy Can Listen To It: "Where The Streets Have No Name" by U2

Snowbeach

Maybe I was subconsciously inspired by Peter Saville's work on New Order's "Republic" album sleeve.

Krassy Can Listen To It: "True Faith" by New Order

The Joshua Tree

The Joshua Tree is my favorite U2 album. Tonight I saw The Joshua Tree U2 tribute band. They were playing in front of Tower Records across from the Sports Arena before the opening night of U2's 2005 Vertigo tour.

The Joshua Tree tribute band are scary good. It's surreal how close to the real thing they sound. The singer's voice is Bono's voice. And he looks like Bono more than Bono looks like himself.

I can't wait for the real thing in 2 days...I am getting pumped up. 91X have been facilitating this by playing just U2 songs all day long today.

Just a random thought - I always thought a good idea would be to have US3 open for U2.

Krassy Can Listen To It: "Staring At The Sun" by U2

Mysterious Ways (Continued)

...After the crazy "coincidence" of last night, I woke up thinking it was all just a dream. I even checked my e-mail account to make sure I have a confirmation for the pair of U2 tickets I purchased.

I was now stuck with an extra single ticket for the opening night of the tour. I already spent way too much money on the 3 tickets, and besides, I still didn't feel right going to the show by myself.

So I decided to sell the ticket.

I posted an ad on Craigslist and in less than 5 minutes got a response from a fan who wrote that they are totally interested and ready to buy the ticket from me. What floored me was the name in the signature of the e-mail. It was an obviously Bulgarian name. No way! What are the odds of a Bulgarian like me selling a ticket on a huge online community like Craigslist and getting contacted by another Bulgarian? Mind you, when I met the fan, she was someone who lives in Seattle and flew to San Diego for tomorrow's concert without having a ticket. Crazy. I love it! The girl was freakin' out at the coincidence of finding a ticket from a Bulgarian in San Diego. When she was talking about it, Marie and I just looked at each other, shaking our heads, and wondering if we should even begin to tell her what had happened the night before and why she was buying the ticket that she wanted so bad from me...and Chara.

This was too much. I mean, after the events of last night, and then now this - I was definitely perplexed. By now, I was ready to see pigs fly and the sky to fall.

And today is Easter. It's time to go to Church.

Krassy Can Listen To It: "Until The End Of The World" by U2

Mysterious Ways

Something very odd happened to me. Something very strange. Something very coincidental. Too coincidental, even - borderline absurd and unbelievable. I get goosebumps just thinking about it and reliving the moment, as I attempt to capture it in writing. I feel almost as touched as I did when this - that I am about to tell you about - occurred.

Let me begin this story with a bit of background info. I have been a longtime U2 fan - not the kind of fan that owns every record and knows all the lyrics; but rather, the kind that has always respected U2's work and fell in love with a select number of songs. Songs such as "New Years Day", "With or Without You", "Where The Streets Have No Name", "Staring At The Sun" truly move me and quiet "do it for me."

I have never seen U2 live. I've dreamed about seeing their concert for a couple of decades now. Tickets for their two concerts in San Diego went on sale a couple of months ago and sold out the 14,000-people capacity Sports Arena in something like 8 minutes. Ridiculous. I was desperately trying to get tickets then, with a constantly rediling phone on each ear and 5 refreshing browsers open on my computer. No luck. I kept trying - nothing. I was getting so discouraged and began to enter random requests for random numbers of tickets - 3, 1, 6. Suddenly I got lucky with a request for one ticket and in the heat of the moment purchased it. Of course, right after that, I realized I had done something silly. I mean, I certainly wanted to see U2's concert with Marie and not by myself.

OK, so two days before the 3/28 show I was sitting in front of the computer working and surfing the web. Nothing planned and certainly not much thinking about the U2 concerts - but all of a sudden for some reason, and I really don't know why and what prompted this, but a voice in my head told me to go to Ticketmaster and see if there are tickets available for the second show on the 30th.

My dear reader, you are probably growing impatient by now and curious to hear about the odd, strange, coincidental moment that I introduced in the beginning of this story. I won't let you down and will make your time worth reading. Bear with me. Ready for it? Drum roll...I searched for 2 tickets and hit the "Look For Tickets" button. The browser window reloaded and came back with the following Word Verification:

I nearly fell off my seat. I got goosebumps all over and screamed out "What????" I think I scared Marie for a second, who was sitting on the couch watching some movie.

What's the big deal about the word to be verified, you ask? Well, first of all, these "words" are either randomly selected, if they are real words such as "youth" or "place" for example, or, they are randomly generated. The word in question is of the latter case. Chara is not a real word in the English language, but this word is very real in my mind and means a whole world to me. Chara was the name of my childhood dog that I left behind in my native country some 15 years ago when I came to America for a 2-month stay, only to return and visit my motherland some 14 years later instead. There's more. Chara was born on the same date that I left Bulgaria. More? Today Chara is probably no longer alive as she must be 119 dog-years old. More? Sure, read on.

After staring at the monitor in disbelief for a few minutes, I finally typed in the word to be verified, and clicked "Continue". The browser window reloaded yet another time, and I was presented with the opportunity to purchase a pair of tickets for pretty much the best seats in the house - Lower Level 24 - at the middle of the arena, a hundred yards from the stage, right above the floor. I was pretty much shaking, the hairs on my neck standing on end. What is this? A coincidence? If so - one hell of a coincidence.

I often think, and sometimes speak of "The Spirit", referring to my belief in a higher power based on events in my life and in the lives of others that I observe to be a little more than coincidental. I almost cried - my eyes were glazed with heavy teardrops that never made their way out and over my cheeks. My throat was choking with this moment that I couldn't swallow.

I purchased the tickets. Happier than happy. I wanted to see if this was really that coincidental and if maybe there are more tickets available. Started over from the search page and queried for a pair of tickets, or for a single one, or for 4, or for 6, and kept getting "no tickets available".

Wow!

Chara - she moves in mysterious ways, and today she brings me closer to God. And U2 are part of it all. In their song, "Mysterious Ways", somewhat "coincidentally" they sing words that have perfect meaning to me and speak beyond language right now:

"...One day you will look...back
And you'll see...where
You were held...how
By this love...while
You could stand...there
You could move on this moment
Follow this feeling

It's alright, it's alright, it's alright
She moves in mysterious ways
It's alright, it's alright, it's alright
She moves in mysterious ways
It's alright, it's alright, it's alright

We move through miracle days
Spirit moves in mysterious ways
She moves with it
She moves with it
Lift my days, light up my nights..."


Believe. I almost have no choice now, but to.

Krassy Can Listen To It: "Mysterious Ways" by U2

Really, Where's Durstan?

I just couldn't resist - I had to have another go at Where's Durstan:

Krassy Can Listen To It: "Lucretia My Reflection" by The Sisters Of Mercy

Lomography and Downtempography

There was a decent turnout at the THiN Room for another installation of the Virtual Photography Exhibit series put together by Eyestorm Visuals.

David Overholt showcased his fine Lomography collection while my DJ set of mostly down tempo music attempted to augment the mood of his work. To my pleasant surprise, my sis, Marto, Al, Neven and Harriet all showed up. Reprazent!...

Krassy Can Listen To It: "Wandering Star" by Portishead

Where's Durstan?

Here's my entry for the game Where's Durstan:

Krassy Can Listen To It: "Heavy Lifting" by Ambulance LTD

Pythagorean Day

Today is Pythagorean Day, 3-4-5. These numbers are the only sequential set of numbers which satisfy the Pythagorean Theorem, namely, that the sum of the squares of the two sides of a right triangle is equal to the square of the Hypotenuse (a2 + b2 = c2 ).

Wizard of Oz fans will recall that this is what the Straw Man recites after the "man behind the curtain" awards him a diploma.

This date confluence occurs once every hundred years. (6-8-10, 5-12-13 and 8-15-17 are also Pythagorean triples which are also calendar dates, but they're not as cool as 3-4-5)

Krassy Can Listen To It: "Here For The World" by I Am Kllot