Lehendakari-Grandakari together in Berkeley and San Francisco

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.

So good luck¡¡

Last Sunday Fest, in Berkeley

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.

London calling to the underground¡¡¡¡

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.

No Fog, San Francisco is waiting¡¡¡

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.

Today´s cinema cheaper: 5$. Tomorrow.... a new exam (Pizza party)

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.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109830/

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

Cinema is open: 10$. Darfur (Sudan) is waiting

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.

http://www.lostboysfilm.com/

And another photo from the last weekend

That is the SFMOMA

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¡¡¡ 

KSSSSSSSSS

September 11th Aftermath. War againts terrorism cost ....$$$$?

This is an interesting news from the Post. Take a look and we can talk about it later if you want. Thanks for everything, guys


http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/a-hidden-world-growing-beyond-control/

For those about to die.......... we salute you¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

Where is Osama Bin Laden?

Is Obama doin´ his best againts Al Qaeda?

What was first the egg or the chicken? jajajajaja.

Biking in the Golden Gate Bridge..... is nice (SFMOMA)

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¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

Summer in Berkeley

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.



And enjoy as much as possible.

Neil Young: Awesome. Better than the World Cup

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.