Handbill Handout

Hot day. “Like Vietnam out there” my ex boss used to say and he should know since he served in Vietnam, early on too years before it became fashionable for the white middle class kids to take over dean’s offices and block up traffic and smoke a lot of dope and listen to self-indulgent jam bands in the name of levitating the Pentagon and bringing peace to the world and even more years before many of those white middle class kids became cocaine-addled white collar workers steering the American economy into oblivion while listening to lite-rock radio in their German cars. So it was hot, we have established that fact. I was sitting on the ferry in standard late-week pose: book in one hand, rapidly-warming beer in the other. I felt a touch on my wrist, the gentle touch of someone who knows you or thinks they do. Instantly annoyed but trying to hide it in case the face my eyes are about to meet belongs to someone near and dear, I look up. It isn’t anyone I know. The face is attached t...

Taken before he zapped our camera battery . 

A few more pictures from the music festival I attended two weeks ago today.  First, the view down to the beach from the festival site atop a cliff and yeah, we had to climb a flight of stairs from the beach to get there. Tic Tac was a sponsor, so of course Tic Tac girls were giving out samples.  I still have a few sample-sized packs of Tic Tacs left. The view from the bar area toward the food area and the lighthouse.  The picture doesn't do justice to how beautiful it really was. Jeff Tweedy giant head, Jeff Tweedy, and Jeff Tweedy other giant head (left to right). 

Don't be cheeky to a prankster.  Went to Salvador Dali's house in Figueres today.  Decided to be a wise guy and knock on his tomb to see if anyone knocked back.  Well, right before the room that has the famous ceiling painting of Dali and his wife ascending to heaven our camera battery went dead.  It was fully charged that morning.  Coincidence? 

Yesterday we visited Sagrada Familia, arguably the most famous church in Spain.   Today we visited Camp Nou, home of FC Barcelona.  Two different takes on religion and the latter was clearly more popular.  What that says about 21st century Europe (the pilgrims at Camp Nou were from various parts of the continent; I heard French and Russian and Irish-inflected English and Scottish-inflected English and British English but interestingly did not hear any of my fellow Americans) is either a positive statement or a negative one depending on your position about what is worth worshiping.  Make no mistake folks, this was about worship right down to the Catholic chapel they have right outside the dressing rooms in the corridor leading up to the pitch, a chapel blessed by John Paul II some years back. I had the pleasure of meeting with some marketing folks from the English Premier League at work right before leaving for this trip and they along with a Scottish-born...

Ham and squid for breakfast, then a great solo performance by Jeff Tweedy at the Faraday festival in Vilanova i la Geltru which is a nice little seaside town from what I can gather.  So yeah, I flew 3800 miles or so to go down the shore and hear Wilco songs.  You had more fun?  I doubt it.  Besides, I have a week to go here.