And i was there, as i told you before, with the lehendakari, Patxi López, in the Basque House in South San Francisco. And with his wife, Begoña Gil. I´m not a lier, guys. Do you want to see it. I can prove it. Here is the snapshot, yesterday before goin´ to have dinner in San Francisco.
Grandakari and Lehendakari, together in harmony jajajajaj
It was funny. We have a very good time in the Basque House, which is far from Downtown Berkeley (45 minutes) In fact, we took the freeway to get there. And of course, there were the dantzaris too to say agur to the lehendakari. I had no flash so the quality of this photo is nor really good. Here it is.
One journalist from the San Francisco Chronicle interviewed the lehendakari yesterday. The oficial delegation included too the rectors from the Basque University (Iñaki Goirizelaia), Mondragon, viceconsejero of Education, Pedro Luis Arias, and other members of the Basque Government, and other staff too.
The oficial speeh in the basque house. He used a traductor because you know our english, generally speaking, is still really poor. That's the reason why we are trying to improve it in Berkeley this summer (at least me)
They are flying today to Boise, But before that, they are going to stay in Google and in Standfor University too.
It is how they call here, a special fest in the streets (in this case is Telegraph Street), close to Berkeley University. It was awesome, yesterday. They closed the street and instead of cars and pollution, there were people, live music, stores spreaded all over the road, and loads of people everywhere.
We went there, of course, and later on we went to a turkish restaurant (yes i told you yesterday that we want to eat in a japanese restaurant, but the best japanese in the area was close for luch, so we took the other want. And it was okay) I went for dinner with a woman from Saudi Arabia (Shadia), another one from Turkey (Arzu), and two gilrs from Japan and Costa de Marfil (i can´t remember theis names now). Can you dig it, man? That´s Bekeley, that´s enterteiment, that´s San Francisco melting pot. People from all over the world. A girl from Costa de Marfil, incredible.I´ve never been in that country and probably i´ll never go either. But here, is magic.
That is one of the most interesting things here in San Francisco, not only study English, but also meet people from the rest of the world. And when i say the rest of the world i´m not exagerating at all. That´s the way it is here. And it´s very normal, believe me.
Here are some snapshots from yesterday. Enjoy them (U2, Gara, snifffff).
This group above was incredible. A kind of Siniestro Total from California. We were dancing all the time with them, i can assure you. Fantastic. Pure rock and roll. I like this one the most:
LOOK AT THOSE SHOES. What do you think?
I´m lookin in you tube about the Lendakari´s visit. But i can´t find anything. They have just arrived in San Francisco and tomorrow (27th, tuesday) they are comin´to Berkeley. I promise some good photos, jajajaj
PD. Poor Jesus, but in any case Blanquita four days out of Internet seems to be a good news for you jajajaja. Enjoy your holidays.
The last one:
The road was closed, yes; but believe me, our hearts were opened. This is Berkeley-SF, a woman goes up and a man walks down.
It sounds great too, Karmele and Cia, Even Harrods (jjajajajajaj, we went there too, i assure you) Did you find there mantras, as George Harrison used to talk about in a funny way? Well, London is really interesting, i guess. I think they celebrate now the famous Portobello´s carnaval,didn´t they? I´m not sure of the dates, but it used to be in Summer time.
Josu, did you see a lot of grafittis there? There are loads of them all over London (at least, that is what i remember in Candem and areas like that). Today i´m wearing a T-Shirt really london-trendy-cool-cute: The Who, but i decided to post here a song from The Clash, Do you remember London Calling? If not, here it´s for you two, baby. Ladies and genttlemen, the incredible Joe Strummer and his band The Clash.
Yesterday in the end, the fog entered in San Francisco, but it was good too. Not a windy day, so i managed with the fog and the cold weather. I went hiking all around the shore from Point Lobos to China Beach, near the Golden Great Bridge. In the end, the girls from Saudi Arabia didn´t come, so i went alone. Shadia´s cell phone didn´t work yesterday, but today we are goin´ to have lunch to a Japanese restaurant in Downtown Berkeley. So it could be nice. I´ll tell you. Here they are yesterday´s shots:
There are beaches, yeah. And three or four people doing surf even. But as i told you, the water is freezing here.
Jesus is lookin´ for you. Repent now¡ Forget your sins and start a new life. The guy in the photo used to be a sinner, now is Jesus best friend and he is a raper. Incredible? No, real. This is America (USA) guys and Jesus is everywhere.
And don´t believe the hype, please. Who is that girl, Is Madonna coming to town?
No, our lehendakari is comin´ tomorrow to San Francisco and Berkeley. But that will be tomorrow. There is always a story here. And i´ll tell you if i can.
We are goin´to San Francisco today, just to see Cliff Point and later hang around the city. It´s a sunny day and we (i think i´m goin´with some friends form Saudi Arabia) are goin´to enjoy it cause, as you know, nobody knows when the fog is coming back so carpe diem, my friend and be sure you wear some flowers in your hair if you go to SF.
Here are another snapshots. Somebody is thinking in a wedding? No, no just a couple in the Golden Gate Park the other day, near the japaneese garden.
I like this one. A classmate (Leonard, call him Leo), he is from Germany, but now he is living with his family in Tokio.
The last one.Today i´ll take many photos, i guess.
That´s for you, Juanan. They are workin´ really hard, you can see.....
PD. Benetako erregina. Enjoy your holidays, beaches, good friends, and everything you can imagine, just do it. Good luck. The time has come for everybody. Ksss from Berkeley-SF.
June, Welcome again from your retirement tiny place. I can guess you enjoy there too and you have thought about a lot of things, as far as i can see. That sounds great, litttle girl.
Keep on that way, baby, you are doin´ pretty well.
All fridays we have an exam. And i´m doing pretty well, don´t you think so. First one: 68 (really bad, but i missed one class so you can understand it, i hope), The second one: 82, better obviously. But the third one was my best score: 92. ohhhhhhhhhh. You can clap you hands if you want. But in my level most of the students are in that range, so i have to study even harder. And that´s what i´m goin´to do right now.
Later, (8 pm.) i´m gonna go to the cinema, just for 5 bucks (american informal way to say dollar). I´m sure all of you guys know the movie: Forrest Gump. I guess you remember this film, with Tom Hanks (twice oscars) and Robert Zemeckis (director of the movie). Well, if you don´t remember it, you can take a look at this link and see all about the movie.
PD. The pizza party has been (how to say it..) a bit ruin because.... I´ll explain it: the school ordered 20 pizzas, but they (Pizza hut i think) only sent 16, so you can imagine. Some people (poor Guillermo) didn´t get even a slice of pizza. And others even got three slices. "No good, no goo" someone from Taiwan was repeating again and again. Next one it could be better (we hope).
Another photo from the last weekend. And for my people in Zurbaran : HAVE A NICE NOON IN PANERA¡¡¡¡¡ I miss that gatherings jajajajajajajaj, guys
Money makes the world go around, but you can spend 10 dollars in a good movie, don´t you think so?That is what i´m goin´ to do this afternoon in Berkeley. After my classes, i have to do a writing about the documentary we have been watching today: "Lost boys of Sudan". It´s been really interesting. You know, that kind of young boys being displaced of their country because of a war. Behind the curtains of a war (of all wars indeed), there are always stories, families, people, dreams. People waitin´ or fighting for a better future for them and for their families too.
And there is USA, the American dream and all that stuff. Don´t you remember the other day when i show you the guy talkin´about the american dream? It doesnt exist at all, yeah.
These lost boys from Sudan didn´t know it before taking the plane to the States. They thought that everything was gonna be incredible, awesome and above all EASY. But it is not easy at all being a black man from Sudan in Houston, NYC, Texas, Arizona. Who cares about the war in Sudan? Nobody. Who wants to know what is goin´on in those countries outside my private world? Nobody. That is the reality, i told you many times.
But is good to see it (that idea, i mean) in an interesting movie like this, "Lost boys of Sudan." If you can buy it or borrow from somebody or ask someone, Just DO IT. It´s a worth seeing documentary.
You can take a look at this web if you want to know more about the film. And there is Wikipedia too (jajajajaj) I´m not a Wikipedia follower, but sometimes it helps a little bit.
Ande below, you have the Larry Flint Club in San Francisco. The story of that man is really incredible. Don´t you remember the movie about his life and his porn-magazine Hustler? It was a story of freedom speech and civil rights in the USA. Interesting thing even nowadays. Cheers for the great Larry¡¡¡
We were really lucky the othe day. I´m talking about last Saturday when we went to the Golden Gate Bridge in SF. Do you know why we were so lucky?.... because we could see it. That sounds like a nonsense but it´s not. Now you can see why. Please, see the photo below and you yourself can answer the question.
Yeah.... is the FOG. Always the FOG in San Francisco (pronounce it senfransiscouuu). I guess you can see the fog upper the superbrigde, but it was not covering the whole bridge, so we could take some shots there. Another one:
Can you see my new pair of..... Yes. they are cute, beautiful, atonishing... The colourful brights and reflects wherever i go: green, yellow and black (that´s the Jamaica´s Flag, Rastaman Vibration, the color of the Rastafaris worldwide. I love them, i have to say) And they are Reebook (my first Reebook and they only cost me 17 euros. Yes you have read quite well, 23$) Later we went to a concert of Rai music in The Warfield in SF (you know the music that comes from the magreb Khaled, MC Rai and that stuff...) and the guy out-door told me: "I like your shoes, man". "So do i", i told him.
Khaled was suppose to play the other day, but in the end he didn´t come (what a pitty). But the concert was good too.
Here is Khaled with one of his well-known and best tunes.
By the way, the bikes were a big deal: 20$ all day. Incredible, isn´t it? We went to the Golden Gate Park, which is huge and we enjoy there too. I post some photos.
Here are some friends from Saudi Arabia, Italy and Spain
And the whole group
And today the sun continues shining in Berkeley so everything is perfect. A cup to coffee (cafe lattè) and a cookie. Not bad, my friends.
PD. On Sunday i went to SF too to see the SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) and it was free. I stole some shots too. Here they are two of them. Do you recognize the painter?
Of course, yes he is the crazy A.Warhol.
And these two are very famous, by Diego Rivera.
There were more things the other day in SF (music, buildings, restaurants -i´m thinking of you Santi, don´t care... but that is another story) And i´m goin´t to read something in english, my new book. Becoming Almost Famous, by Beng Fong-Torres, from The Rolling Stone Magazine. Very interesting. It´s about music, always music. Hey hoo lets go¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡
It´s been foggy during the last week in Berkeley. But this week again the sun is shining for everybody here. And that´s good, actually. People wearing short-trousers all over the city and it´s nice. The temperature is higger (not as in Madrid or Las Vegas). The other day we could read during our breakfast he temperature that was going on in the capital of Spain. And in Las Vegas too. Too hot, but in Berkeley we were almost freezing (i´m exagerating a little bit, yes). Today and yesterday, perfect. And is gonna be the same for the rest of the week so nex saturday we will have a sunny day for our visit to Golden Gate Park in SF. We are goin´ to rent a bike and probably we´ll go to Sausalito crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.
Yesterday i went to San Francisco for a new concert: Bettye Lavette, one of the greatest voice of soul music nowadays. A good gig. It was in the American Music Hall in SF in O´Farrel Street, in the downtown. Very different from the one in the Fox Theatre with Neil: you can even have dinner inside, not only drink and i was so close to the artist that i could almost touch her. She is an old lady, but her voice is still incredible. And her last album (with a lot of covers from good bands to) is a kind of hit in Europe. I enjoyed it, no doubt of that, baby. Before the concert i went to a pub to take a beer (Anchor beer my friends, it is not Volkdamm, but, in any case, is really good too and even as strong as the one i like the much in Bilbao. Here in Berkeley-SF i should say that indeed it is my cup of tea. I went to Chinatown too, to Union Square, where a . And how could i say this.... i get a bit tipsy in the end because i only had for dinner a tiny cookie in a Bakery near Chinatown. But it was cool, jajajajaja.
If you don´t know who is the soul singer i´m talkin´ about, here is mssss Bettye Lavette.
PD. You can see at the beginning of the show two famous musicians. Can anybody guess who they are? And the tune is very famous. Here is a quiz so try to answer the two questions, please. Thanks for everything.
I tell you something, guys. The concert was incredible. Yesterday in Oakland.
Today i have a T-shirt that says: "They said acoustic, i said solo". And that was Neil in the Fox Theatre yesterday, solo with all his guitars (at least four. No banjo this time, sorry), a pump organ, two pianos (Do you remember Neil playing After the gold rush in the pump organ?) He played the old tunes (Helpless, After the..., Ohio, Cortez, the Killer -What a killer¡¡¡¡¡, Sugarmountain, Hey hey, my my (this was the first song he played in the Fox... ) But new songs too. So... what can i say. People (me too) got into the concert since the very first beginning. He played acoustic, yes, but when he took the electric guitar, he reminded me of the members of Crazy Horse (Molina, Sampedro, Talbot, you know guys, that garage´s band) he electrified the audience yesterday whit a fews notes only, not that kind of endless riffs and stuff he used to play with Crazy Horse.
That was great, of course.
You know, You tube is a kind of miracle. I saw this morning that somebody has uploaded in you tube one of the tunes of the first day. (he is gonna play three days and everything is "sold out"). Do u want to see it.
I post it for you. "Down by the river" and "Helpless" (i think)
Tomorrow more. I´ll go back to study now. See all of you.
Thanks for your writings Karmele, you are really cool (even better i should say) Thanks again, baby. Show these pictures to the guy and enjoy them too, of course. They are all from Oakland.
This is one of my best in Oakland, man¡
But i have more for you. Take a look and learn if you want to.
I have just finished one of my homeworks and i´ll take the bus to leave all this stuff at home and get the ticket for the concert. Today is Neil Young´s night. I am sure i´ll enjoy a lot with the gig. So, lets go to Oakland now.
Spain wins the Football (soccer here in the USA) World Cup today in Southafrica. But we were not scared about the match because Paul, the Octopus, has told us that beforehand. It is increbible, but it did it.
Take a look at this, it was in the news, my friend. In the Chicago Tribune.
Well, in any case, the red´s fury (it wasn´t so but.......) do its best. And i have to tell you, we celebrated it in Berkeley. Here are some photograps for all you.
(It is not a flag, ja ja ja. Just the Red)
It is enough for everybody, ja ja j aj aj aj aj aja
Now it´s time for remembering. And again we have to go to Oakland. I was there the other day, just to see the aftermath. Burnin´ and Lootin´. But i took some good pictures there. There was no people (only a few) but i could take a shape, a touch of what was goin´on there, my friend. Take a look at this too:
Enough too for today. But remember: don´t forget Oscar Grant.
The other day i told of you a story about a place where you can dance with music of the 50´s and there were too a lot of harleys and cadillacs. Do you remember? I only took the place (no motorbikes, no people in the street dancing any more) because i went there on Saturday in the morning. But is a good picture and you all are so smart that i´m sure you can put the rest in the photos and go the extra mile (this was new for me. I learnt it last week and I would like to share it with you)
After the rest (all victories are really hard, my friends) i´m here in one of my best coffes in Berkeley in a loose end (just because is ending now jajajaja don´t care, there is no time to get bored here in BER-Oak-SF) And later on, i will go to Telegraph Road just to hang around a little bit.
Tomorrow is gonna be the day: My first concert here and it must be with ...NEIL YOUNG, it couldn´t be another one. It will run in the Fox Theatre in Oakland so you can imagine how i feel in this moment. Again an apetizer for everybody (that includes me, of course)
PD. Don´t worry Santhi i´m on the road these days for trying a special stuff for you about .....cuisine. Two in one (italian and iranian cuisine; a steak with cheese and much more for only 9,90$....), well that kinda of stuff. Can you dig it, man? But that is another story. Keep calm. They are preparing........ specially for you.
Police arrested 78 people during Thursday night's protests in downtown Oakland over the involuntary manslaughter conviction of former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle for the shooting death of train rider Oscar Grant, authorities said today. He can be sentenced from 4 to 15 years behind bars but everybody here say that is gonna be the less punishment. And that could leave the situation even worst than it´s now.
Here it is the news in The San Francisco Chronicle if you want to take a look at it. By the way, somebody asked me the other day what a BART was. It´s very simple, it´s a king of tube (subway) that connects the SF´s downtown with Oakland, Berkeley and SF Airport. And this guy (the white man) is a Bart´s policeman. You can get more details in the news so keep on reading. And you can see some videos there and some photos too.
But not everything are riots here in the Bay area. In the afternoon we´ve been (a lots of students in LSI) in our-my first BBQ (that is to say barbeque). You can imagine: people from all over the world eating humbergers, hot dogs, lettuce, tomato, potatoes, fried-corn..... and having fun in a park near the school. It´s been nice. As usual, ja ja ja ja.
PD. The ones that are goin´ to Pearl Jam´s concert...... WE SALUTE YOU FROM SF¡
Enjoy with Eddie Vedder and the rest. Here is an appetizer for you cos we are still ALIVE:
Those were the good times, Eddie.
Family: Keep in touch and enjoy wherever you are. For you too, Gabi, the mexican girl in transit to India or perhaps Alaska, who knows.
In the end, the verdict was involuntary manslaughter, which is to say that the cop killed the young black (Oscar Grant) man illegally but he had no intention to kill him. This is what we call in Spain homicidio involuntario con resultado de muerte more or less.
I wasn´t in the streets of Okland yesterday but the big demostration was a pacific one. Of course, there were riots in the streets, but the main demostration in Broadway Street was peaceful. We only know the verdict, we don´t know the sentence for the cop. That probably will be next week.
I leave here San Francisco Cronicle today´s article about what happened yesterday in Oakland. See you later, folks and guys. And be prepared for anything. Today we have a bbq (barbeque) in the afternoon.
If you are interested in what i call the waiting time after police brutality in Oakland last year, take a look at this article in the San Francisco Chronicle. It would helps you to understand what is this issue all about. This photo is spread all over the city. Even in Berkeley University, where i took it the other day.
And here we are, still waiting. We hope (everybody here in Berkeley does) there will be a peaceful reaction to the final verdict from the jury in LA. But who knows my friend??????? Justice, what a lovely word and what difficult to get it.
PD. Perhaps to serious today????? Could be, but it is worst for the family, don´t you think so guys?
Martin Luther King in his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" (1963) rooted the civil rights movement in the black quest for the American dream:
"We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands. . . . when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence."
Just an appetizer (to start something when you are eating, e.g.) And i don´t know a better way than music, do you?
Perhaps the other day you were expecting something about that incredible night. We had fun together in Oakland. There was a special party (more than a party, i have to say) goin´on in Murmur (Oakland): musicians playing in the streets, art galleries open till late at night, clubs, music from the 50´s and girls and boys dancing in the streets surronded with lots of old Cadillacs and Harleys Davidsons. Sorry, i have no photos of that night. I beg your pardon. I only took my cell phone with me and i can´t download them. So, sorry again. It can´t happen twice, i promise.
You know guys, it was a really pleasure to take a hamburger (the first one for me in California these days) there. Look at this: they were playing discs. Yeahhhhhhh¡¡¡¡¡¡ Little DISCS. Incredible. I´m not talkin´ about Lps, no no no. What i´m talkin´about is what we call in the Basque Country (Spain) "sencillos". Difficult to find them in our country, but the dj had loads of them. Do you remember the music of the 50´s. Oh come on¡¡¡, of course you can.
We were there till 3 am and of course we closed all the pubs in the area. Very romantic ja j aj aj aja.
That was too the last night with Michel, a boy from Canada who was improving his english in my school. He works in the Cirque du Soleil. A great guy, very friendly, always prepared to begin an interesting conversation. And this way we did that night too. We -and he, i can assure you- is now a little bit sad because he is not any longer in Berkeley. He had to go back to Montreal to "work hard". A nice person. And i have a little present for you, Michel.
I know you love The Beatles, Michel. Do you -all of you- know one thing?, he was with Macca, Ringo, Yoko Ono, Harrison´s wife and the great George Martin of course when all of them were preparing the show that the Cirque du Soleil has done about the Beatles´ music. AWESOME. You can see in Las Vegas because it is still going on there. Don´t miss it if you can.
That is four you, Michel:
And Oakland will burn in a few days (I hope it wont). I´m talkin´g about police brutality, a black young man murder in the streets a year ago, a judge. They have to move the case to LA (Los Angeles) because of the pressure. Everybody here is waiting for the veredict. Keep in touch with this blog and you will be the first to know. I´ll promise. Now, i have to do my homework. Not too much, but homework.
Keep on writing, i´m very happy with all of you.
PD Tomorrow Spain-Germany. Everything can happen, but yes we really played bad the other day (Saturday). I was in San Francisco watching the macht. And last but not least, another photo from the last weekend. Before the fireworks, a band playing Bob Marley´s music with those strange instruments in the streets. It was cool and we were dancing with the rest of the people there. Even better than the fireworks.
Here we are again. I´ve just come back from San Francisco. Do you know one thing: they (the people from Frisco don´t want even to hear anything like Frisco), well this is what i´ve been told from Ann, you know the elder lady I´m living with. In any case, Miguel, Mabel and Angel have just gone from Berkeley To Yosemite National Park. The Bears are waitin´ there to eat them. I hope, they don´t. But they are very hungry. This three guys have been studying very hard in the University of Berkeley. You don´t believe me. Here is the photo.
Frisco was great with them. But on the 4th of july -you know, the national festivity here- we wen to Sonoma, the wine´s paradise with Napa Valley too. And we tasted wine in the winnerys. You want yo see it too? Here it is:
And in the city of Sonoma we did good friends too. Ohhhh Californian girls.
And we eat hot dogs and we do more things -we have a swim too in a river called Russian River in Sebastopol, wich is an area in the North of Sonoma´s County. Later we went back to San Francisco to see the fireworks. To tell you the thruth it was almost impossible to see them because of the fog. And it was freezing too, so in the end we went to a italian restaurant to eat and taste another bottle of wine, a Chianti for a change. Not bad but it could be better. The one we drank in Sonoma city was pretty good indeed. But in any case, we did it well.
The last picture for all of you.
PD. Thanks Guzmi, the person from Turkey -by the way, who is that guy? Has anybody gone to Turkey this summer?-, and Scott too, my english teacher in Bilbao. I guess one of the comments is yours if i´m not wrong. It´s perfect. And everybody for your writings. Keep on rocking in the free world, Almirant´s wife (we call her Blanquita, me and Amalia). I know AC&DC was awesome and brutal as ever, Guzmi. Enjoy in Bilbao you too. I´m doing my best here in Berkeley. Kssss for everybody.
