burned eggs and dylan

yesterday:

after going to bed at 4am, exhausted (as usual, i don't believe there's any point in attempting to quantify anymore), i was pounced on by a tiggery girlfriend at 10am to make breakfast. the worst part: making the eggs according to moonflake's instructions, and still getting it wrong. i suspect that i may have followed them a bit too literally, though. i've made notes and i'll try things a little differently next time. i'm going to be scientimerrific about it.

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i went to work, because i was already up, and... after much struggling with a really frustrating problem, having sunk many hours into it, my boss informed me that we were going to do without the upgrade that caused it. we had a chat about bad design - or more specifically, about receiving the design requirements only on demonstration of what we considered to be a finished product - and he explained his recent attitude towards me as "a planned lack of management" in which he intended for me to become familiarized with the relevant web technologies.

so, umm, i guess i'm going to need to pretend that i'm my own boss and handle the entire development process, then.

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i thought i'd nap before the concert, but i didn't really get a chance. it was only while getting dressed that it really began to sink in... i was on my way to see bob dylan. i started getting really excited.

the buses were packed, the stadium's entry policy offensive*, but we walked in with more than an hour to spare and all we had to worry about was keeping ourselves occupied until it all began.

* no bottles allowed in, even half-litre plastic water bottles of the kind they sell inside at twice the price. and of all the wonderful things they claimed to stock inside, only water, shitty beer, coke, hotdogs and not-quite pretzels were available. that's just rude. it's not like we hadn't already paid an arm and a leg for the tickets, and we're talking half-a-stadium-away tickets, not front row seats.

the music that played until the warm-up acts began was wonderful: 50s and 60s folk, blues and psychedelic. the sunset was gorgeous. the weather was comfortably cool. it was only when the warm-up acts started that we found we were sitting in the seats with the lame crowd, the section that barely demonstrated any enthusiasm. i couldn't figure out what the vast majority of the crowd around us were doing there in the first place - godsdammit! it's bob dylan! the place was packed with cool people, why weren't any of them around me?!

the obese, religious pre-game drunk was loud and offensive, and twenty minutes into the main act he had to be carried off by his friends. the guy next to us tried to deny the laws of physics in his attempt to convince us that the no-smoking rules are ridiculous in an open space (we could smell him most of the time, and he was downwind), and i overheard his conversation with the cheesy dude in front of him and from that was able to determine that they were both righteous pricks. the guy behind me talked loudly into his cellphone for a while (unnecessarily, it was clear that whoever was on the other side was trying to say goodbye), and after that did a good job of spilling his beer on my back.

in spite of all of them... the warm-up acts were excellent, and i enjoyed them. assaf avidan and rickie lee jones. although i enjoyed the former more than the latter his excessive repetition did cross a line at some point, but on the whole it was all gravy.

and then the stage went dark. and then it slowly brightened, and i noticed the massive chicken-head at the back of the stage. we were too far to really see much, and the video screens weren't much help so i don't even know what side of the stage he was on, but no matter how much wear-and-tear there may be on his voice, you immediately hear it's him in his lyrics and in the music. and those were all just... well, bob dylan.

it took me a while to figure out how to describe what we saw last night: that wasn't just some old geezer reminding us that he used to be bob dylan. that was THE bob dylan. wow. the music was hypnotic, and the songs we were familiar with have all been recycled into new forms. his narrative lyrics had me seeing visions of things that i'm going to have to write about someday, and i was completely sober.

until a few months ago, when i heard that he was coming, it never occurred to me that i'd ever get an opportunity to hear him live. a number of times during the concert i thought about the scene in the '60s where michael and sarah go looking for him... for me, the concert was not only about him and his greatness, it was about being immersed in an experience that in essence connected me with that era of which he played such a big role.

i walked out of that stadium deeply moved.

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we picked up dinner at aronson on the way back. the guy serving us was überweird. their non-dairy pizza is a bit strange, but delicious. we ate it while watching the first couple of episodes of my little pony - friendship is magic. ignoring a couple of super-extra-girly or childish moments, it was by and large pretty good. the style rocks, but i'd have to watch a couple more to see if i really enjoy the plots and characters the way the "bronies" do. i don't think i'd go quite that far.

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today:

*facepalm*
i just realized this morning that we have a bus stop right next to our apartment that serves all of the primary lines i take. not only would this have helped me a couple of days ago... but it would have made my life *so* much easier during the last three years of my service...

*sigh*

bob dylan... dylan thomas... "i choose to die" from dangerous minds... that was a movie heavy with good ideas.

short work, long lunch, then a rush to return to tel aviv in time for training. i was so tired i needed an energy drink just to get there... and arrived as our instructor was explaining that we were jumping to the university for some kind of video shoot. a long bus ride there to discover that there'd been a miscommunication and that the shooting was pretty much over. so we hung around to show the other gym up before returning to tel aviv.

i was given an interesting opportunity to openly tell our instructor *exactly* what i think she needs to do if she wants more students... and *exactly* where i think she's been going wrong the last couple of years. i know she was listening. she seemed to get what i was saying. i'm not holding my breath, but i really hope to see some changes.

i was going to go rollerblading, but we had dinner and a relaxing evening instead. most of it with our backs to each other between studies and work. i'm feeling good. less stressed. one more exam to go, far less of a workload (of actual work) than i'd thought, canadian family's arriving soon, i think the summer's going to be alright.