26/4/09

I spent hours today on the blog, getting a lot of it done. I decided to go down to the cafe to work on it for a while, which was nice to just get outside because it was beautiful. I ordered a crossiant and a cafe fredo, which was really good but since it was a cold drink I drank it in like a second. That's a nice thing about coffee/tea.

The wifi there was not very good at all and they gave you 30 minute time cards, so it wasn't really the most inviting place to work, so I didn't stay all that long, but nice to get outside for a while.

I went and took some money out and went to Tesco for some crackers and a Starbar. The Starbar was good, different again, with peanuts and caramel inside. I ate the whole box of cracks for lunch, trying to get rid of the cheese I had left.

Then I made my way down to the O2 arena. This shold not have been difficult but since the Jubilee line was closed, it turned into a headache. I had to go down to Stratford and then take a replacement bus service to North Greenwhich to get down there. I was still there about an hour early.

I made a sign for a ticket but I didn't have to use it. I went to go get in line to buy one and a guy came over offering me a ticket in section 101 for £50. It was a good seat and although I wanted to only spend £40, face on it was about £60, so I was ok with it.

It was an interesting transaction, because he was buying another ticket from a guy and wanted to sell this one first, so it was sort of like a three team deal. When we went over to the guy, he said he just wanted £30 for it, so I got it for about half off. I was pumped.

The seat was good, but I thought I could do better, so I went over to the side of the stage by where I sat for Dylan in Stockholm and went to one of the blocked off seats, probably the best seat in the house because its really close and Dylan looks right at you the whole time while he's hunched over the keyboard. I was happy again.

The show was pretty mediocre. After the Stockholm show where he was moving around and having fun it seemed, he stayed mostly behind his keyboard this time, not even playing guitar once, but he did venture off to the middle of the stage two or three times for harmonica and to sing once. I was shooting video and taking photos and by the second song I was told to stop, so I didn't take nearly as many as last time.

The setlist was good, just the songs weren't. He played mostly the slower ones with non-descript background music that is just sort of there. The standout was "Hollis Brown," but everything else was fairly standard. A big bummer.

Here's the setlist:

1.	Maggie's Farm (Bob on keyboard)
2.	The Times They Are A-Changin' (Bob on keyboard)
3.	Things Have Changed (Bob on keyboard)
4.	Chimes Of Freedom (Bob on keyboard)
5.	Rollin' And Tumblin' (Bob on keyboard)
6.	The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll (Bob on keyboard)
7.	'Til I Fell In Love With You (Bob center stage)
8.	Workingman's Blues #2 (Bob on keyboard)
9.	Highway 61 Revisited (Bob on keyboard)
10.	Ballad Of Hollis Brown (Bob on keyboard)
11.	Po' Boy (Bob on keyboard)
12.	Honest With Me (Bob on keyboard)
13.	When The Deal Goes Down (Bob on keyboard)
14.	Thunder On The Mountain (Bob on keyboard)
15.	Like A Rolling Stone (Bob on keyboard)
	(encore)
16.	All Along The Watchtower (Bob on keyboard)
17.	Spirit On The Water (Bob on keyboard)
18.	Blowin' In The Wind (Bob on keyboard)

I came back and got off at the Tottenham Court stop to walk around a little. I got back and watched some baseball and fell asleep after working on the blog watching the Hawks. Tomorrow I have a lot on my plate, I need to get ready to go and I'm planning on stalking Bob/trying to get into the super small show. Should be interesting.

24/4/09

I spent most of the day working on getting the blog together, and still somehow feel like I have a ton more to do.

I went with Heidi down to Foyles (supposedly the biggest bookstore in Europe) to look at travel books but they didn't have anything for Tangier there either. We then walked down to Primark and I got some socks and a cool button down army green shirt with sleeve roller-up things.

We went into some shoe stores along Oxford Street while she looked for sandals, and I got bored with that so I would just stand outside and read The London Paper.

I came back and did some more work, including stuff for the trip and trying to figure out some more about my next couple days here. I sent in my invoice for the column this week. I also saw that Rasula Strohl, who used to work for RedEye and I met him when I was there, is one of the editors at espnchicago.com. I'm going to try to get in touch with him and see if I can freelance there too. It can't hurt. I wanted to go to a cafe down on Baker Street with wifi, but it was closed. I think I'll go tomorrow, I've been looking for a place like that for a while.

I went and did my laundry for the third time since I've been here which was good. I then tried to go up on the roof to get wifi, but I couldn't connect anywhere for some reason. I don't get why the wifi doesn't work a lot of the places, especially getting the school's wifi, I feel like that should be doable.

I came back to my room and worked some more. I sent a couple emails and put up photos. I wanted to go out and do something just to get out so I ended up going for a walk down to Trafalgar Square. I stopped on my way and redeemed my free sugar doughnut I won on the Monopoly game piece. It was sort of strange, very soft, in a bad way. There were a lot of people out and a nice night, so it was good, although by the end of it I was pretty tired.

Tomorrow Bob Dylan is here, but it's sold out. I'm hoping to go down there early to stalk him/get a scalped ticket. I don't think it should be that hard, I'm hoping to go under face value. I also need to print stuff off and pack up a little. Tomorrow should be busy again, hopefully getting all my blogs up and just about ready to go on the next huge trip.

23/4/09

I got up later than I wanted to and made my way down to the Hannah Montana premiere at 12:30 (a half hour late as Kim would happily remind you). There were people already lining the barriers set up, so we weren't really sure where to go. They were going to set up more barriers around the area and we thought we could just wait until they did that.

We walked down to Piccadilly Circus and went to Boots to print out pictures of Miley Cyrus I grabbed before I left. We also stopped in Starbucks on the way back, and I caused all sorts of problems using my card because they tried to run it as a credit card like four times and eventually I think they just couldn't figure it out so I think I ended up getting it for free.

By the time we got back they had started to put up the other barriers, so we made our way over there and got a good spot against one of them. As we stood around and saw how it was being set up, I decided we would be in a terrible spot because they would drop the people off right there and the car would exit in front of us, missing everyone. So we went over to the pen that was already set up and tried to stand on the gate. A British lady yelled at me for taking her spot, to which I replied that if it was her spot, how was I standing there?

Eventually security said that we had to keep that area cleared so we went in by some young British kids and their moms, figuring we could squeeze in there. It also looked like they were setting up a place for her to give a concert from the balcony right over us, seemed like a good spot, plus it was right by the entrance.

We stayed there for a couple hours and Heidi ended up joining us too. It was nice, we just sorta hung out. Soon a bunch of cameras from around the world came by and got the kids to scream, many of them interviewing the kids in front of us, so we stood awkwardly in the back, trying not to look old and creepy. The kids ended up being really nice, very impressed we were from America, so that was kinda cool.

Soon some guy named Brad from one of the Jonas Brothers movies came out and started signing before MCing the event. Then a bunch of dancers came out and performed the "Hodown Throwdown" Miley Cyrus dance, which was entertaining at least.

Around 5:30 Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus came out and walked the carpet, going right for the paparazzi. Then they made their way around for about an hour, signing autographs for seemingly everyone. Kim, Heidi (she ended up with two somehow and gave one to a kid) and I all got autographs. Billy Ray all skipped us though. I wanted a photo with both of them, but there wasn't any way it would happen with the madness. Oh well.

A couple of other people came out, none that I really knew, and some signed. Soon Miley and Billy Ray went up on the balcony and just thanked the fans for coming, nothing big, no concert. Bummer. It was fun though, the weather was nice and now I have a Miley Cyrus autograph. I'm not going to be a very good grown up.

When we left, I wanted to get a sign, somehow Heidi got one. When I say a sign, I mean a 4x3 or so poster of the Hannah Montana movie on really heavy paper. Ridiculous. As we walked though London to find somewhere to eat, people were staring at me (the best was a London Paper guy who didn't even hide him staring, pretty funny). We went to an Indian place just off Oxford Circus, which was pretty cheap, and really good too.

I had a vegetable and yogurt curry kinda dish and rice. Awesome, I really love Indian food. The waiter took the giant Miley Cyrus poster and put it over by the coats. So funny.

We left and I went back to get some stuff done, getting most of the blog together (with still a ton to do).