Very happy. Fortaleza!!!

My soccer team (Fortaleza) managed to get a draw against Flamengo (from Rio de Janeiro) in their field. This is a nice result because we now decide the game in our field next Wednesday. It was nice to watch it over the internet. Kalil also watched and we kept talking about it throughout the match. Now they have to concentrate on the decision this Sunday against our rivals. We only need a draw to win our third championship in a row.

More Berklee

I went to Berklee to watch a guitar fusion recital but as I got there I noticed that almost everyone was going to this cello recital. I then went with the crowd. I was not disappointed. It was a recital by a senior student called Halley Feaster. It started a bit slow and not quite creative. She started in a trio formation (cello, violin and electric guitar) in a free jam. It was not very impressive but nice. I also did not like when she sang, her voice is okay but you can definitely see that she is a better musician than singer. The best was at the end when they played a more "heavy metal" set ending with the Flash of the Blade by Iron Maiden, what was also surprising was the voice of the invited singer, she was called Leanne Greenman. She impressed me. She resembled a bit Amy Winehouse both visually and her voice. I'll definitely look for something from her after she graduates. I'm sure she will have a successful career. As for Halley Feaster, my opinion is that the band is good but they need to work on more tunes that fit their style, tunes more like the Flash of the Blade. I'm going there tomorrow again. Concerts are always free and you get a nice feeling that you're watching the people that will make the music will hear in the near future.

94F here

94!! That is hot for Florida let alone Boston. Tomorrow it will get better meaning colder. :)

At the Berklee College of Music

I just got back from a jazz composition recital at the Berklee College of Music. For those who don't know. Berklee is for non-classical music what the Julliard School in NY is for classical. The number of jazz musicians that graduated from there is stunning: John Scofield, Mike Stern, Al Di Meola, Abe Laboriel, and many many others. The jazz composition recital is part of the requirements for graduating in jazz composition. The group today was led by pianist Sergio Marte from the Dominican Republic. It was very good. I was very impressed. It also made me happy to see that the Brazilian Music is used a lot. Sergio played 5 pieces, two originals and 3 from Brazilian musicians: Milton Nascimento, Tom Jobim and Cesar Camargo Mariano. I was so happy with the performance that I'll go tomorrow or Wednesday to listen to another student. I may be seeing the future of jazz!! :)

Today it was ever warmer

I thought yesterday was a warm day but I didn't know about today. Today it was around 90F. The problem is that the city is not prepared for this kind of heat. I came to the lab to do some work and even here the air conditioning was not on. I hope they actually have one. I asked a lab mate today and he said las summer it was hot in the lab all summer. If this is true it won't be fun!

I knew it!!! Stinky

One of the first things I thought when I got out today and felt the heat was: there will be a lot of stinky people in this city. You know. Shower is optional to then during winter but they don't realize that with heat it's a different thing. Well it took the whole day but it happened. I'm at a pub and the guy that sat next to he smells very bad. Seriously I don't know how he doesn't smell it himself. Sh$&!! I thought e as moving but he moved to another chair and came back. Stinky is back. I'm leaving soon of this guy stays here. :)

Asgard Pub and Restaurant

I've tried to locate a pub supposedely at the basement of MIT but it is closed. They are re-structuring it. So I was left with few choices since there isn't much around MIT in terms of pub. I walked down Mass ave. and got into this Asgard Irish pub. I'm having a guiness. By I think I'll walk to the Tavern. It's a better bar and it's just 2 blocks from here. It's too fancy here and people are just watchingbthe Red Socks. Honestly I couldn't care less for baseball. I don't get it!!

Pour House

I stopped to have a beer at the pour house. The place seems okay but nothing special. I'm on the Back Bay area here in Boston. I'm going to use a GPS tag from this blogger to see if it works. Click here to see where I am.

The weather is great today. I little warmer than I wished but it is fine. Tomorrow it will be ideal. There are a LOT of people on the streets. Bostonians are enjoying the sun as much as they can.

Johnny A. Wow!!!!!

I just got out of this guy's concert. I'll talk more about it tomorrow but I'm in total shock!!! I not afraid to say that this was one of the best guitar players I have ever seen in my life. This guy is slimply amazing. I'm speechless!!!! Wow!!! :)

Johnny A.

I'm again at the regatta bar to watch this guitar player I have never heard in my life: Johnny A. I had to exchange a ticket I had for another concert and this as the only option. I hope it is good. It's guitar so it is a good start :)

Bartley's Burgers

I'm at Bartley's burgers waiting to eat what is apparently one of the best burgers in the USA. Let's see. Or better, let's eat!! ;)
UPDATE: the burger is really good but quite expensive. It was $14 for a burger that is not that large with a soda. I'll come back only to bring Kalil to try it when he comes in July. But for the money we can eat a lot better in other places.

It's hot here!!

Wow. It's 65F today and it will be 89F tomorrow. Now this is an unexpected change!!

Echoes

Echoes from Pink Floyd must be one of the most builtiful songs ever recorded! The emotion, peace that it passes to the listener is beyond anything you can possibly experience in any other song. If you never sat through the 23 minutes or so of this one you're missing out. :)

Scullers Jazz Club

In at scullers to watch Nicholas Payton. I'm hoping for a good concert. Last time I saw him was in Italy in 1997.

Fortaleza won again!!!

Yesterday I watched my soccer team on the web :) There is this website that broadcast every single possible soccer game you can think of. It's very nice because I can follow my team a bit better. Yesterday we tied with Paraná in their home. Since we won in our house we advance to the last 16 to meet Flamengo. We have a good history against Flamengo so we may do well even though they are in a very good phase. But it doesn't matter, what matters now is that we advanced. The next game is in about 1 week.

New England feels like England

The day today here in Boston feels exactly how I remember the weather being in York, England. I guess I now know why this region is called New England; it may be "new" but it feels like the old. The weather here today is gold, wet, gray, foggy, that is, everything England is known for.

Sleeping burrito

My default meal here in Boston is burrito at Qdoba. Last night not only I had one for dinner but I actually felt like one! The heating in my house was not working so I spent the entire night wrapped like a burrito. LOL. First I've put on some socks, the wrapped myself on a sheet and finally wrapped myself on the duvet cover. It really felt like if I was inside this giant burrito. At least I managed to sleep the entire night. Worse is that I may have to do this again tonight.

Out of Coffee

Today is a holiday here in MA: Patriots Day. The result is that we are working in the lab but because we had no deliveries we run out of coffee. I had to go this afternoon to the coffee place to buy beans to place on the espresso machine. Tomorrow the lab will refund me (so I hope). At least the beans are great not like the secretary normally buys.

Boring Sunday

Yesterday nothing happened here. The highlight of the day was the food at the Thai place (Pho and I). I went home early to watch a movie and choose to see "the unborn". What a terrible movie!!! It's so bad that it took me a lot of effort to finish it. It is a bad story coupled by terrible acting. It is a sort of Exorcist of someone who has not even been born. Go figure. The actress is quite cute and that is about it. There is nothing else I can say about her. Do yourself a favor. Don't watch this one.

Wally's

Sometimes it's hard to explain why this city is good and interesting. I just got out of this place called Wally's Jazz Cafe and it made me think again about the pros and cons of this city. The weather now is pretty good so that is no longer an against. Wally's on the other hand is a pro. It's located about 2 blocks from the university and this was my first time there. The band was made of kids probably from the Berklee school of music and they sounded great. The sense us that you are hearing the future of jazz and I have to confess I liked it a lot. Why don't others like it? This city is pretty good and the longer I stay the more I think this is re kind of place I'd like to live at some point. The pros outweigh the cons by a big margin. Wally's is just an example.

Fortaleza 4-1 Guarany

My soccer team yesterday won the first of the semifinals against Guarany. The game was away but we managed to win with a 4-1 score. The second game is Sunday. We only need to draw.

Another Check Mate

Yesterday I had a couple of checkmates on chess with friends. Jerry made a mistake and could not recover from it and the other buddy I play also lost I also figured out that he is from the west coast. We exchanged a couple of messages.

Nice change in Boston

Yesterday we had the first real Spring day here. The temperature was about 78F and the city transformed itself. At Kenmore square the restaurants had tables outside, at Harvard square the bars also had people outside. The ice rink in front of the Charles hotel gave place to a bar :) The mood was completely different and the city started to show its true culture.

Fly concert

I just left The Fly concert. It's a trio where two of the guys play with Brad Mehldau. The group is a bit avant-garde and quite different from what they play with Mehldau. I bought the CD there and got them all to sign :) awesome.

Dinner with Jesus

Today I went to have dinner with "jesus". This is the running joke between Sarah and I when I refer to Prof. B. We went, me, him and a candidate to a position in the lab to the kenmore area. Nice place. French restaurant. Sarah might remember tyt area because it had the worst traffic due to some construction; where the barnes and noble is. The dinner was very nice and I had re opportunity to understand the human, mortal side of jesus. Lol. He is a very pleasant guy but very serious about his work. He is social but doesn't forget to talk about his work. The area of the restaurant was very busy due to a red socks match. But I think that area seems to be good all the time. I have to convince Sarah to come here for a few days.

Poor Guy

Here at the lab we have a person who couldn't look more like a nerd. Nothing against nerds but this person is the extreme. After all we (computer scientists) are all nerds a little. This person, let's call him A, wears that typical shirt (see example in the picture), with his pens and a small notebook; actually I thought his kind of image was more like for movies. I was wrong.

Last night we were having a beer on the party and he confessed (after a few drinks) that it's been more than 4 years he doesn't have a woman. He said he is not that good with women and he actually gave up trying. Poor guy. The problem is that he was serious and I felt bad for him. I recommended him to save his money and go to Fortaleza, Brazil. But I'm not sure. His case is extreme. I can't see how he'll manage to approach a woman. It's hard to imagine. I'm writing here because I sincerely felt bad for him. He sounded as if he wanted to find a girlfriend but just didn't know how or had the courage to. Poor guy...

Dr. J last day

Last night we went to a Korean bar for Dr J. farwell party. We gas quite a few beers and even some liquor. The liquor was called "100 years" and it is supposed to be medicinal but I don't believe it ;). The drink was okay. Not bad. Dr J. is returning to Korea and the lab will loose a lot after he's gone (today) as he is one of the nicest guy in the lab. We have discussed the possibility of collaborating in the future on doing an analysis of the network of Brazilian music. Hopefully one day we can really do it. It would be quite interesting to know to see the portrait of the Brazilian music.

What a Long Week

I've been here for about 5 days since I came back from Florida but I feels like a month. I don't know why. But this week has been harder to bare than all the other months! I guess I had a good time in Florida and then had to come back to "reality" here. 2 weeks until I go there again.

Chess with Friends

IR continue to enjoy playing chess. In addition to Jerry I now play a guy that I found randomly and happens to be the best hardest opponent this far. This guy beat me handly on the first one with an amazing openning. The second I won but because he made a bad mistake. The third we finished today and I won again! I'm very happy because this time I won't instead of him loosing... if you know what I mean. :)

Ping Pong

After my meeting today I went to buy bread with a friend. When we were returning we found that the university has a few pool tables. My friend asked me if I wanted to play. I thought: why not ;). But no table was available so we played ping-pong. It was nice to remember how I used to play it. I'm not even half as good as I used to be but I can still some demage. ;)

More about the New England Recital Yesterday

I checked the name of the woman that played in the recital yesterday. Her name is Hye-Kyung Ha. I guess Sarah, the adopted name, is easier to remember. :) Today I'm planing to go there again for another recital. This time it will be given by another Piano student, called Sung Ho Yang. I hope this recital is at least as good as the one yesterday.

New England Conservatory

The NEC is about a block from NEU. They offer free concerts every day in fact more than one concert a day: about 600 free concerts a year. Today I decided to go to a piano recital from a senior student at NEC. She played a variaty of pieces including Schumman and Beethoven. I don't remember her name but I think she was from Korea. I do remember her adopted name: it was Sarah (why do I rememer this name?! I don't know it just seem to be a name I like lol). Anyway, the recital was very good and I'm glad I went. I think I'll start attending these free recitals more often.

Mango Fried Rice

There is on Thai restaurant close to NEU that I just love. Today my admiration grow ever more. I asked for a Mango fried rice. Wow!!! This is by far the best fried rice I have ever had in my life. The taste is hard to describe but the mix between the slight sweet taste of the mangos with the Thai spices makes a perfect combination. I must learn how to cook this one.

Brazil in May

I called my family today as they were celebrating Easter (in Brazil, Friday is more important than Sunday) and my brother convinced me to go to Brazil for his 50th birthday. He convinced me by paying my ticket :). So I'll be going there in may for about 5 days only.

Cold is relative

We all know this but here is more apparent. I said in my previous post that Spring is here but it is amazing that although it is still 50F most people are wearing shorts already and t-shirts. I know it is not freezing but it is still very cold!!!

Good weather in Boston

This is my first day back in Boston. Just had a meeting with Dr. B. This morning I was shocked with how good the weather is here. Nice temperature (around 55F) and a beautiful blue skies. I guess Spring is here finally. This means that the weekends may start to be better because I can actually go visit places (outdoors). I haven't yet done much here except for going to Jazz concerts.

Flying back to Boston

I had a great time at home. Unfortunately it is never long enough. But I'll be back home on May 2nd. Just 3 weeks. :)

Flying back home.

I'm on my way back to Melbourne. Going home!

What?!?!

This is weird!!! I'm at the station inn and the feeling is very weird. The reason is that these guys are playing some things I have no idea what it is. But then everyone else here does!! I thought I was pretty aware of what what as going on on the musical scene but then again there us a completely different new world these people live in. They are claping like they know
these songs for years while I don't have a clue about them. :)

Station Inn

I'm at the door of the Station Inn. I want to see what this place is all about. They say on the web is one of the best places for country music. My problem is that "best" and "country music" just don't seem to go together.

Tornado in Nashville

This afternoon I experienced my first tornado. Fortunately it missed the hotel but not for much. It's pretty powerful stuff. From my floor I could not see three yards from out of the window. At some point I had to go to the inside room because it was a bit scary.