Stanley Jordan

I'm at scullers jazz club to watch Stanley Jordan. The setting is nice given this is a small club. I'm looking toward to the concert. I always wanted to come to one of his concerts.

Talked to Bill Frisell

For the first time I managed to talk to Bill Frisell. It was yesterday after the concert. He was nice and very shy. He signed my CD. His manager spoke perfect Portuguese and that helped. To talk to him I went to her first but I didn't know she spoke Portuguese. The concert was good as it always is.

Bill Frisell tonight

I'll go to Bill Frisell's concert. Today he is playing in a quartet with violin, viola, cello and obviously guitar. The band is called 858.

Long time, no write...

It's been quite long since I wrote here. I went to Brazil for 5 days to attend my brother's 50th birthday. It was an amazing gathering of people able to consume alcool like no other group I've met. :). But most importantly, my brother was very happy and enjoyed the 2-day celebration. All his friends and family were there.

But I haven't been writing because I don't have much to say. I'm returning home soon and I've been concentrating even more on work. Also I'm kinda sick of being far from everyone and haven't enjoyed being here in the last few weeks. Sure Boston is an amazing city but amazing doesn't replace the people you really love. I'd go back today if it wasn't too much irresponsability. I've made a commitment to be here so now I have to go through with it. It's hard but it's the correct thing to do! :(

Homeless but with a Macbook

I just passed by this homeless man hare in Boston (or at least that is what I think he is) asking for us to "spare some change". I was surprised when I saw in his bag a MacBook. What?! Is he asking for "change" so that he can buy the latest MacBook pro? Amazing! Maybe being a homeless here in Boston is not so bad. The "tech" oriented people may not have change but they can give them their old Macs.

Arrived in Boston

In relieved that nome of my bags were lost. I have very short connections and I was worried the bags weren't making it. They are here. The issue now is to find a way to include clothes for me because everything I have is for other people. :)

Flying to Cincinnati

The flight from Atlanta left on time from the gate but due to the trafic on the runway it took us 30 minutes to get off the ground. The prospect of getting to Boston in time is not promising as now I'll have something like a 30 minutes connection. What I'm worried the most are the bags. I hope they make it.

Happy mother's day Sarah

I wish I was there to say this in person. I miss you. Happy mother's day! I'll be back soon. Love you!

Returning to Boston

I'm on the plane back to Boston (with stops in Atlanta and Cincinnati). I already miss my family :(. It was nice there. Soon I'll be home back for good!

At Logan Airport

I'm almost at Logan to catch my flight to Orlando. There is a connection in NY I guess to get some swine flu. lol

Good research week

The last few weeks were not so good in terms if research but the last three days compensated for the lost time. We finally converged on the transactions paper and decided on possibly three projects one of which I'm really excited about. I'll work on getting some results next week in Florida. Unfortunately I can't mention it here but if it works it will be amazing. :)

Home tomorrow!!!

I'm very happy I'll be going home tomorrow. I miss Sarah and kids. It will be nice to see Kalil play some soccer, Adele try to be cute, and Sarah... ;). Sunday we have a party for Aurélia so I'll have a chance to see our friends. I miss them all and miss being close by.

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.