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Recap

Last week was one of the most social (recreationally speaking) weeks I've had in a long while. On Monday, my mate Dom came down from his perch at Macromedia for a geekish lunch, subsequently informing me of his extra ticket to see Ottmar Liebert Thursday night. (Ottmar blogs, btw; more on the concert in a bit.)

Then on Tuesday, Razamataz (who is presently Virtual Tourist's Director of Ad Sales) flew up from L.A. for AdTech in San Francisco. He got me + 1 added to the guest list for Tribal Fusion's afterhours fiesta at Jillian's, where we rendezvous'd and got caught up. I hadn't seen Raz since my intro to surfing back in 11/2002...

Thursday's concert blew my mind. Dom had two free tickets because he used to go to school with from Canton Becker (a friend of a friend), the DJ electronic percussionist currently touring with Liebert. The show was at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, on a mountainside overlooking the entire South Bay area. Unfortunately they didn't allow cameras into the concert, but I snuck in my camera phone and snapped a few. Unfortunately the weather was a tad chilly, so Ottmar didn't go off on any wicked fast flamenco riffs... But what I heard was so amazingly tight and together it was surreal.

Saturday was the long-planned summer solstice reception complimenting Sarah & Joel's winter solstice wedding back in December. Over a hundred friends/relatives/randoms journeyed to our comfortable little nook in the redwoods for an exceptionally fun party. Even present were two copies of Order of the Phoenix, pulling two young relatives in their wake; not long ago that would have been me... ;) And speaking of HP, Sarah and Joel received as a gift a copy of Book 5 (it being released on the very day of their wedding reception and all), which I've already inherited. Egg-cellent!

On the Audible front, last week I finished Reefer Madness AND Orwell's Burmese Days, and I just started Atlas Shrugged on my way to work this morning. With three volumes totaling ~55 hours of listening, I'm in for 6 weeks of Ayn Rand, morning and evening. Let it flow.