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.