Elton John is in Sao Paulo this evening. Looks like the US$500 tickets are gone. – there were only 5,000 of them. We could
get the $250 tickets or the $125 tickets, I suppose. The linked web site (a translation) calls the $125 tickets “half-entry” tickets. Oh my, are they expecting you to leave at the intermission so someone else can sit in your still-warm seat? If there’s an encore, won’t the guys with the early tickets feel cheated? There’s an Elton John song on the radio right now (imagine that!). **update – my beautiful Brasiliera esposa says that the literal translation is incorrect. The $125 seats are half-price tickets – for students, etc… ** The song is called “Skyline Pigeon“. Evidently, this Elton John song is very popular in Brasil, although it never took off in the US as a single. The song is from Sir Elton’s 1969 debut album, Empty Sky.
I remember 1969. I also remember Elton John, who provided much of the soundtrack to my high school years. He’s one hell of a musician, and very successful. However, he has lived too much in the public eye for too long. We know way too much about Sir Elton – tabloid journalists have told us way more than we really needed to know about his weirdness (heck, everyone’s at least a little weird). Sir Elton hasn’t helped matters, as he has no problem spreading his uninformed opinions around. Should we believe the musician´s opinion or that of Nelson Mandela? As a contrast, David Bowie is probably close to Elton John on the weirdness scale, but I have much more respect for Mr. Bowie. For this reason, I’ve given up on Elton. I wouldn’t go to the Philadelphia Spectrum to see him, much less a 350 km drive to Sao Paulo. I do like his older music, though.
Stuff from this afternoon…
I took a walk this afternoon – I do that a lot. There’s a little white dog that likes to bark at people (no surprise there) near here. The dog is small enough to slip between the railings on a patio above a garage. He ends up on the little tiled roof over the garage entrance, barking his fool head off. I’ve seen him do this before, I just thought I would share the short video here. [googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6791954387742687990]
Volta Redonda has done a great job with their new walking area along the river. Beira Rio has a separate little road for bikes, lots of shade and a nice walk next to the Rio Paraíba do Sul.
The sign at the bus stop describes Beira Rio as a place where ypu can practice sports and health. I did see a few people walking seriously this afternoon, wearing Spandex and clutching their water bottles. I had Billy, which makes me a non-serious walker, I suppose. You can see the bike road to the left of the bus stop sign. It’s a good idea. In order to get an idea of what the place looks like, I did a 180 degree video pan of the area, showing the river as well as the walk and the traffic going by on the road. There’s a dog barking in the background. Dogs are everywhere – seems like everyone has one (or two). [googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4740798060879186901]
The river is just there. It’s not really clean enough for recreational use, I think. Except for the walk along the river and the various bridges over it, the river is pretty much ignored. The first time that I walked along it, I thought it would be great for rafting, or perhaps canoe sightseeing. The water moves fast enough that you wouldn’t have to paddle – just steer. The water itself is a brownish-red color – the earth here is much redder here than in Delaware. More iron in the dirt perhaps??
Coffee’s ready, gotta go.
Greg
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