Cool Moon

This is the lunar eclipse as my camera saw it:

But with my naked eye, it was pretty cool. My mom and I bundled ourselves up in fleece and blankets (she wore her hat!) and sat out on the deck watching last night's lunar eclipse. We warmed ourselves with mugs of hot chocolate and were out there quite awhile, til the clouds closed in. I kept saying "cool" mom was kidding me that the moon was cool in more ways than one (brrrr!!!, lol).

Only happens every 400 years or so that there is a lunar eclipse on the solstice, so it was a good thing those clouds had taken a break when they did, there was no rain, and I had set an alarm so I didn't forget. I was awake doodling when the alarm went about 11pm here, oh! And up we got.

After we were back inside, warming ourselves with more hot chocolate, I went onto Twitter to look at some pics. Mom was really intrigued to see pics from other places in the world, such as the one from someone in Argentina, as their pic had the lower right corner lit up (rather than the upper right hand corner).

Here is the best pic I saw on Twitter last night, by Jay Rodriguez (click to enlarge it):

Dove into the sea today

Limited wifi so no pics... will post later... but was wading in the Mediterranean Sea with my sister today when I had an urge to dive in... and I did it!!! Clothes and all. Awesome experience.

Dec 26 Update: here are some pics...

This is how glorious I felt afterwards... in the background to the left you can see part of the old medieval city walls of Rhodes, Greece and the pier.
The swimming event took place in the commercial harbour, where such activities are verboten (if you are German!)... We were just outside on of the gates to the old town and, we can imagine, were quite the sight... my sis tells me I was practically stopping traffic at one point... hee hee!

Goddess basking.....

My sister's toes (on the left) and mine (on the right)...

... and here is my sis, dancing in the waves....

Still an awesome experience a week later... we both feel it was an iconic experience of both our trips...

U2 in Berlin: experience my experience - part 2

I was lucky enough to attend U2's historic free concert at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on November 5th. Click here to view my first post, which contained videos. Now I will post some pics.... just a few from the hundreds I took!

Here I am drinking glühwein (spiked with rum!), waiting for the concert to begin...
Arriving early provided a special treat, getting a preview of the light show as they did the final technical checks:

The Brandenburg Gate being used as a computer screen... look, see the drop down menu that the tech must be mousing over? heh.

This was the perimeter security wall, limiting the audience to 10,000 attendees. There was a lot of controversy about this wall (the irony of building a wall to celebrate a wall coming down), with criticism of MTV (who sponsored the event) as protecting their investment. Click here and here for more.

Folks outside Starbucks without tickets trying to get a glimpse. I didn't feel smug to be inside (though very glad!), just felt a bit sorry for them. Oh, well.... off to get some more Glühwein...

This TV crew was from Spain, had a nice time chatting with them after they'd finished this spot. Two of them live in Berlin, and the other had come up just for the anniversary week. They were unanimous about the fact that Germany was cold!! lol. And, no, they did not ask to interview me. (Also look at the office building behind... funny how they are all working late this evening, lol...)

The perspective from portapottieland....

I took a few random shots of spectators while waiting for the concert to begin, and I thought this guy personified what I thought Berliners would look like before I got here.

It started to rain a bit, prompting this guy to use this brightly coloured bag as a hat. I am sure the beer consumed so far that evening had nothing to do with this seemingly rational decision ;-)

Saw this guy a few times, wrapped up in his flag from a country I have yet to take the time to identify...

OK, here we are, the concert has begun!!!! This was from the first song, "One Love" and this is what the lighting changed to later in the piece. Awesome!!!

Here's the set list:

• One (I always thought it was One Love?)
• Magnificent
• Sunday Bloody Sunday (including special guest Jay-Z who I'd honestly never heard of before, apparently I was the only one!)
• Beautiful Day
• Vertigo
• Moment of Surrender

I would like someone who knows about photography and composition to tell me why I love this picture so much? There is just something about it...

More clapping.... BTW, someone asked me how close to the front I was, well, you can see I am quite a ways back, probably half way... When I arrived I actually could have stood practically in the front row (about 3 people back), but that would have required standing in one spot for 3 hours... naw, not my style...This kid had the best seat in the house, on the shoulders of the tallest dad in the crowd! She definitely had a good time. Oh, I discovered the Germans are a tall lot, I wasn't towering above people as much as I was used to...

One of the rocker guys by me... loved the spirit and energy of the crowd, everyone was so happy!!! This was a hard core U2 crowd, all knew the songs and were singing along...

My new friends that I was closest to during the final lead up to the band, and all during it. The couple (on the left) and the girl on her own were all in Berlin for the evening, living in smaller communities about an hour away. The couple drove in and the girl took the train. They found a Canadian's perspective on the whole experience rather interesting!

After the concert.... Once again, I'm looking for a photographer to tell me why I like the composition of this random pic....

... and this one... I think it has something to do with the clarity of a single part of the picture and the blurriness of everything else... But if I could learn what it was, then maybe I could learn to take this kind of shot intentionally - and better! - than them just appearing every 100 pics or so in my e-stack!

All in all, it was an amazing evening and a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

In closing, a shout out and hello to all those folks back home in Vancouver who I understand were rooting for me to get a ticket, crushed for me when I didn't, and excited for me when I finallly did! Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into what it was like...

U2 in Berlin: experience my experience

The U2 concert at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin was amazing.... and, yes, I was really there!!!

Here first are some videos (pics will follow separately)... The first four are by yours truly (way back in the crowd).... aand the last ones are from the pros (with the band visible)...

How exciting when the band launched into the opening song, "One Love":



A bit of Sunday Bloody Sunday:


Beautiful Day clip with references to "this Beautiful City of Berlin":


Bono talks about Brandenburg Gate in this one:



The following videos were taken by U2gigs.com - all of which have amazing high def quality - and you can actually see Bono and the band!:

*** Their videos are wider than my blog template... to see the un-cut-off version, right click the play button and select Watch on YouTube"

Beautiful Day


U2 performing Sunday Bloody Sunday - with Jay Z (with a little "stand up for your rights" energy)


Last song: Moment of Surrender

For pictures, see part 2 of this post - click here.