'Cause the walls
were shaking
The earth was quaking
My mind was aching
And you were making it
And you, shook me
all night long
— Brian Johnson, Malcolm
& Angus Young, 1980
They say the third time's a charm. Well, they could be right, because my third film role certainly was. You see, I got the chance to do a little shaking, quaking and making up my own character name in an upcoming film called Super Eruption. It's a Syfy produced movie about a volcano disaster in Yellowstone National Park. But before I go into details on just how charming my third time was, let me share a little bit about the weeks that lead up to it —which included some great performances, mall madness, celebrity status magic and a little nettle power.
For most of this month, Sofia has been experiencing severe cold fronts and hell storms. I hear this is very unusual weather for May. To cope with this, Sarah and I found some indoor activities to get into. The first indoor event we attended was an opera concert at the Bulgaria Hall. A venue equivalent or on the same par as New York's Carnegie Hall. It was a charity benefit concert for disabled and orphaned children. My boy Andrew, who's parents organized the event, was the featured lead vocalist of the night. He's an American gent who has lived in Bulgaria since he was 12 years old. And I know I say this pretty often, but he is truly one of the coolest dudes I've met in Sofia so far. He's also a cyclist like me. Only he rolls out much braver, or shall I say crazier than I. Mainly, because this dude actually rides his bike on the insane streets of Sofia. 'Nuff said.
A couple of months ago when I was back in DC waiting for my visa, he wrote me an email the day before Valentine's Day about a legitimate Web site that delivers flowers within Bulgaria. This resulted in Sarah getting a huge surprise on Valentine's Day from yours truly. I was happy that the roses actually arrived on time and intact, but if they hadn't, I would not have lost any sleep, because the mere thought of Andrew thinking of me and Sarah's well being on lover's holiday just warmed my heart. So after his amazing performance, which by the way, surprised the hell out of me since I had no idea he was such a gifted singer, I treated him to dinner.
The second indoor activity we attended was a Roma (Gypsy) Fashion show. And unfortunately I forgot to bring my trusty old camera. A serious mistake that I will live to regret because the show stands as one of my many highlights of living in Sofia. This event is also where my celebrity status began to work some magic for me. And for those of you who might have just stumbled upon my Blog-O-Daria, 'celebrity status' is a phrase I coined from the very beginning that describes my treatment throughout most of Europe. Especially Bulgaria. Basically, I can't go out a day here without being stared at. As a matter of fact, and please don't confused this with being conceited or egotistical, but when someone doesn't stare at me, I look at them like some thing's wrong. It's sort like how I'd imagine a famous celebrity must feel from day to day. It's also something that I've learned to deal with. For one reason, I have no choice in the matter. Two, I now imagine if I had lived in an all Black neighborhood my entire life and never saw a white person in the flesh — the one day out of the blue when a white person walked down my street, I'd most likely stare at them from head to toe as well. Needless to say, I am bit more understanding, now. Although some of my Bulgarian friends have told me that it's not just my culture or skin color that draws the attention to me, but my stylish long hair and extremely handsome features might be the real target. But of course I don't believe that. They're just flattering me, right? Don't answer that.
Anyway, whatever the case, being a Black American in Bulgaria sure can have its advantages at times. Like right when we walked through the doors of the fashion show we were greeted by two huge Roma dudes who introduced themselves to us. The biggest dude gruffly asked Sarah something in Bulgarian. Sarah replied something back to him, shook her head and smiled. Then they promptly escorted us to the front and center stage of the runway in a very important-like manner. Something that is usually reserved for a politician or celebrity. At the time, I didn't make anything of it. We were insanely late to the event, so I was just happy to be sitting so close. If anything, I just figured that Sarah, the Bobby Kennedy of Bulgaria, as I like to call her, was recognized by these Roma gentlemen and then given the star treatment. But after the event, to my surprise, I learned the hard truth. You see the big dude was really asking Sarah if I was from The States. And Sarah replied, "yes." Which got them extremely excited and my celebrity status took an all new height from there. Looking back now, I do remember seeing a bit more folks than usual staring and waving at me as I walked to the front of the stage.
Regardless of my celebrity status, the show was spectacular. The models' outfits ranged from traditional to modern. There were dance routines in between changes and good music playing the whole time. The models were also some of the most beautiful girls I think I'd ever seen in my whole life. It made me wonder why in the heck are these Bulgarian models not gracing the covers of the big time magazines. But then Sarah reminded me that most model agency tend to scout out the more sickly looking types with something unusual or weird about them. My celebrity status also enabled me to meet most of the models after the show. A lot of them just introduced them selves to me, most likely thinking I was someone important. That was pretty cool, but meeting the show's choreographer was even cooler, because he was the first Black man I'd met in Sofia. He was originally from Cuba but had been living here for about 4 years, mainly teaching dance classes at the university level. And you know me, the first question I just had to ask him was, "where are all the other Black folks around here?" He just grinned and replied, "the only two are standing right here in this room, my brother."
Speaking of fashion, Sarah and I finally ventured out to both of them new malls I'd mentioned in Episode 13 and I finally found my Oreo cookies. Carrefour, the store that sold them is my new favorite shopping place in Sofia. It's kind of hard to describe it. I can only say that it's kind of a cheap knock off of Target in the States. It sales just about everything. I even found some chicken nuggets and tasty burgers. The only down side is that you'll never find the place empty. It's always bumper to bumper with customers.
One of the new malls called Serdica Center, is only 5 blocks from our condo. And although I'm hugely disappointed that it does not house a movie theatre, it does have a Chinese food restaurant in the food court. It was pretty yummy, too. But like all Chinese food restaurants hosted in other countries, they seem to cater to the country's tastes. So it had a slight Bulgarian flavor to it. It really didn't bother me much, because I've gotten used to the Bulgarian food here anyway. So I chomped it down in a heartbeat. Oh, and not to come off as a bigot or anything, but when the time came for us to order our food, it was really refreshing to see a Chinese-Bulgarian cook come out to greet us and take our order speaking perfect Bulgarian. And I don't care where I am, the thought of a person of non-Chinese culture cooking my Chinese food scares me a little bit.
Culture also brings something else to mind — St George's Day, a huge European holiday equivalent to Easter, recently took place here. So Sarah and I decided to go celebrate with her host parents, the lovely Slaveka and Alexander, in Samokov. Visiting Sarah's host family is always fun, but I wish there wasn't such a huge language barrier between us. I mean, sometimes, I just want to express something to them without asking Sarah to do it. That can sometimes get a little frustrating. Nevertheless, we somehow I manage to communicate. And usually yummy food will break any language barrier, right? I mean think about it, everyone knows what mmm mmm means after you've taken a bite out of something really delicious. Which is always the case when Slaveka and Alexander cooks up some yummy traditional Roma dishes. And this time around they brought out some extremely delicious veggie burgers for Sarah, my strict vegetarian girlfriend. Oh, and I guess I should confess that for this second stay in Bulgaria, I've decided to give up my vegetarian license and go back to eating meats, again. Plenty of lamb, too — the traditional St George's Day dish that kept me satisfied the whole time. But being the gluten that I am — I also helped myself to one of Sarah's veggie burgers and wow, they were simply off the charts!
After I sucked down half the plate of veggie burgers all by myself, I asked Slaveka what the ingredients were. She told me that they were made from nettles. And not just any plan old ordinary nettle, but stinging nettles. She said she had been picking them for hours. And from the looks of her hand, this was certainly true. Her hand was swollen to the size of a baseball mitt! Nevertheless, these nettle burgers, which I nicknamed them, were so damn scrumptious that it was hard for me to believe that they were really made from a mere wild plant in the forest. I mean, I always thought nettles were a fictional wild plant or flower in a fairy tale that some lost little Princess would munch on to survive. So confusion began to loom about my face. My man Alexander must have noticed my confusion, so he took it upon himself to show me some real life stinging nettles in their back yard. From a first glance, they just looked like a plan old ordinary wild plant. But then he told me to touch one. So I just shrugged an "okay" and then gently tugged at one of its limbs.
"Aaarrrrrgh!" I shouted.
It or something stung the hell out of me! I looked at Alexander in a state of confusion and agony and shouted, "payac!" — which means spider in Bulgarian and one of the very first words I made sure I learned upon arriving here. He just laughed at me and shook his head "ne" which is no in Bulgarian, then showed me a closer look at the plant, revealing the tiny sharp needles protruding from the limbs. It took about a half hour for the excruciating pain in my thumb and index finger to stop pounding. I whined at first, but when Slaveka told me that she'd been in pain like this all day — I sucked in my chest and endured the pain in silence. As I sat there looking like an old man who'd been denied his social security check, Slaveka made me forget the pain even more by telling me that the root had all kinds of healing powers and stuff. I jumped on Wiki when I got home and found that she wasn't jiving me. And since I'd eaten about 25 of them, for the next few weeks I felt like new! Those little nettles were outstanding! I had loads of energy and my skin seemed to glow.
Oh, getting back to the story — as midnight approached, Slaveka and Alexander's son Bobby and his wife stopped by to join the fun and pick up their youngest daughter who had been staying with her grand parents for the day. They didn't stay long because we all had to get up at 6 o'clock in the morning to partake in the St George's Day ritual.
That morning we were not allowed to eat, drink or bath. And being tired, thirsty and smelly, wasn't my idea of celebrating. But seeing that everyone was just so excited to go down to the river for the ritual, really peaked my curiosity. When we arrived at the ritual location, many villagers were already dunking their heads and tossing stotinki (coins) into the river for the less fortunate children in Samokov. It was now my turn. At first I was a bit nervous to do it while so many people were watching me, but knowing that the stotinki was for the children, motivated and inspired me to dunk my head in a couple of times while tossing out all the stotinki I had in my pockets.
On the way back from Samokov, I got a call from a Super Eruption secretary down at the movie studio. They told me that I definitely got the part, and that it was safe to celebrate. They aIso said I needed to show up for costume fitting and a read-through. I was so excited that I wanted to do my happy dance right there on the bus with phone in hand, but I didn't want to embarrass Sarah, so I stayed calm. The next few words the movie studio secretary uttered brought my premature celebration to a halt, "Mr. Davis, you are also required to have you hair cut for this role." After a moment of silence, I pleaded to her, "can you please double check on that, ma'am?" She said there was really no need for her to double check anything, and that what she said was golden.
I later consoled with Sarah on the matter. She gave me some good advice and I took a week to think about it. I was really leaning toward not taking the part, but the everlasting words of Jimy "Jimbo" Oxford, my co-director from the Morlocks movie that I told you about in Episode 12, just kept ringing in my ears: you want to be a star? Well, it's show time. On the eve of the costume fitting date, I'd made up my mind. And in a matter of minutes my Sly Stone/Jimi Hendrix styled 'fro was sadly staring at me from below in a nearby trash bin. But it really wasn't all that bad. Believe it or not, I kind of liked my new short hair doo. It reminded me of how I used to sport my hair in the late 80s and early 90s. Back when I was trying my hardest to look like a member of New Edition, 80s pop sensation and progenitors of the boy band movement.
On the day of the read through, I showed up feeling pretty confident and psyched. Most likely because I'd been through it once already. It went well, too. But besides the film's director Matt Codd,the director of Morlocks, producer Ric Nish, line producer
John Cappilla, and co-director Jimy "Jimbo" Oxford, unfortunately not many of the actors showed that day. For one; it was the St George's Day holiday weekend. And two; these read-throughs aren't really mandatory. Anyway, when I sat down at the round table, a familiar face walked through the door, it was my new friend and fellow ex-pat, Sarah H. Brown, who plays my on-screen girlfriend in the film. Which has a little bit of irony in it being that her name is also Sarah. So for my story, we'll refer to her as Sarah B. We first met at the casting call for Super Eruption. Surprisingly, she didn't recognize me right away with my new short hair doo. I mean, I didn't think short hair made me look that different, but seeing the surprised look on her face, made me a believer. Richard Burgi (Desperate Housewives) who plays Charlie, the lead character in the movie, Juliet Aubrey (Midsummer Murders, The Constant Gardener) who plays the part of Kate, Charlie's love interest and Shelly Varod (Conan, Universal Soldier: Regeneration), whom I'd worked with in Morlocks and Re-Kill also showed up for the reading. So the four of us, with a little help from the director and producers, did our best to read-through our own parts and all the other missing ones.
At the end of the read-through, I couldn't have felt happier when producer John Cappilla approached me and said that my part in the film was pretty important and that he was very excited to shoot it. And he wasn't just blowing smoke where the sun don't shine, because filming my parts were some of the most fun I had since my last scene in Re-Kill when I was surrounded by 200 zombies! But I'll get to the fun stuff in a minute. I promise. But first I want to tell you a little bit more about meeting some of my fellow actors in the film.
When I arrived on set, I was happy to find that I had my own trailer, again. The trailer reminded me of the one I had in Re-Kill. Only I did a lot more waiting around in the Re-Kill trailer. This time, it didn't take very long at all before they called me in for make-up and costume. After they finished up my make-up, I recognized MyAnna Buring from The Descent and Doctor Who. In the film she plays the part of Claire, the daughter of Charlie. I was really excited to see her on the set. For one; The Descent is one of my top 100 greatest horror films of all time. And two; I have a little bit of movie star crush on her. Shh. Oh, and this time my boy Steve Smith would have been real proud of me, because I didn't make a fool of myself like I did on the set of Morlocks when I first met Christina Cole. I was cool, calm and collected. I even walked right past her, making like I didn't see her, prompting her to speak to me first. One of the first things I noticed was that she was even more attractive in person than on film. And she spoke with the loveliest British accent you could imagine. But above all, she was super cool and friendly! This really surprised me some kind of good, because most actors can come off as cold or snooty upon first meeting them. Not MyAnna. I could just tell there was a genuine kindness about her.
She was also interested in learning a little Bulgarian, and when she found out I was living here, we chatted a little about Bulgaria until they gave us all the 10 minute warning to set. When we arrived to set, shooting outdoors made it all feel like Re-Kill again. The set was beautifully made up like a Yellowstone Park camp site, equipped with campers and tourist about. I noticed right away the simulated geyser lake made up especially for my scene. So I went right over to observe it a bit closer. That's went a young and rather good looking gentlemen in a park ranger's outfit tapped me on my shoulder and introduced himself to me. It was Alex Wyndham (Rome) who plays the part of Josh, one of the lead characters in the story, and the main park ranger that my character has a serious conflict with in the movie. But in real life, he and I hit it off really well. Actually, everyone seemed to adore Alex. He just had a really nice personality and was easy to talk to — like someone that you've known all your life. He spoke with a typical red blooded American accent. And out here, it's always nice to meet a fellow American, because there are so few of us. So hearing this, I quickly asked him, "where you from in The States, dude?" A slight smirk crept up on his face as he switched his accent to a proper English dialect and giggled, "I'm from London, mate!" I was so confused, because the entire time on set he had been speaking with a truly authentic Stateside accent! He explained that since he was playing an American park ranger in the movie, he would try a little method acting to make the character as real as possible. Well, he was certainly doing a good job at it, because he fooled the hell out of me.
I also got the opportunity to meet and chat a bit with the director's wife, Suzanna. She was really sweet and friendly and had a great aura about her. She was a singer and former actress. She also shared some of her stories and early working background with us. Particularly growing up in Buffalo New York and working with my late hero Rick James. You know I was loving this — so I picked her brains good. Like everyone else who knew the King Of Funk personally, she said he was just a wonderful and generous soul. After I met a few more of the cast and crew members, It wasn't long before I was called on set to shoot my first scene, the first AD approached me and said, "Geyser Guy," your on! Before I go on with the rest of the story, I guess I should tell you that my initial name for the character that I play, was originally called Geyser Guy. But that all changed rather quickly. Stay with me and you'll find out why.
After the first scene, we all ran to the playback tent to watch it. I could tell director Matt Codd liked me and Sarah B's on screen chemistry, because he decided right then and there that my character needed a real life name instead of Geyser Guy. But not just any name, a common American name. Since I am an African-American dude, Sarah B insisted that my name should be Tyrone, a typical African-American name. But if you know me well enough, then you'll know that I love to defy stereo-types. So I suggested my name be Michael — a name that I've always loved and wished I were named when I was a child. And a subtle tribute on my part to the greatest entertainer of all time. The director liked my choice and said, "Michael you will be!"
Sarah B was a little disappointed about the name choice and joked around by saying that she would call me Tyrone when the cameras started to roll. Ha! Anyway, after a few more takes of the long shots, they needed some close ups. Particularly, close ups of my feet going into the lake. It really didn't hit me until the camera was right up on my feet that I realized I probably should have gotten a pedicure. Badly. So when you see the movie, please don't shout out Hammer time when you see the close up shot of my feet!
Oh and I should tell you that it wasn't all good times on the set, I had a difficult time trying to simulate the action of an earth quake shaking the ground. And now have so much more respect for the cast of Star Trek when they had to act like the Enterprise was actually shaking. Believe me, it's really tough to do. Because, of course the earth wasn't really shaking, so you have to really give it your best shot to make the audience believe that it is. And when you're doing the shaking thing, it seems kind of silly, so the entire cast and crew and onlookers have to try their hardest to keep from laughing. The camera helps out a bit, though. When we finally got the shaking and quaking right, something came over me. It was that feeling, again. I looked around at the cameras, the crew and the onlookers — and whispered the same words to myself for a third time, "Owen, you are actually making a f**king movie!"
When I finally wrapped, they gave me the good old traditional applaud and thank you speech. I honestly think I did a wonderful job on this one, but it's always hard to tell whether or not the work you did was truly good until you see the final results. But even if it doesn't come out well, my third time filming was definitely a charm. Mainly because working with the same producers is always a bit more fun. They already somewhat know what the actor is capable of, which in turn gives the actor a bit more confidence in his or her overall performance. Okay, at this point, I am not going to say anything more about Super Eruption. I don't want to spoil the fun for you when or if you end up seeing it.
But on that note, I do want to tell you about another kind of a simulated earthquake that shook Sofia. The day after I wrapped — me, Sarah and our friend Joe got the treat of seeing Australia's AD/DC's Black Ice World Tour. It was the groups first time performing live in Bulgaria. But before I review the show, it's important that you know just how much love Bulgaria has for this band. The best way I can describe it, is telling you that it is on the same level of the love a Deadhead has for Grateful Dead. On the day of the concert, every 60 seconds I'd see 2 or 3 people wearing a black AC/DC tee-shirt. And this is no exaggeration. You would have thought that AC/DC was a football club playing a tournament that night. This was particularly interesting to us Americans, because of that unwritten law or rule in The States to never wear the shirt of the actual band or artist to the concert. And by no means, am I downing this lovely display of effection for AC/DC by the Bulgarian people. I actually thought it was really cool and supportive. I even went as far as to point at each person I saw with a AC/DC shirt and shouted, "AC/DC!" While giving them the sign of the horns. They loved it! Every single person I did that to just smiled back in excitement while repeating my sentiments right back to me.
But keeping with my usual American roots and living by this ridiculous unwritten rule, I left my AC/DC shirt in the drawer and went with a Black Sabbath tee instead. Nevertheless, I do tend to always wear a tee shirt of the main act's influence to a concert, as a subtle reminder to the fans of the group's roots. A Chuck Berry tee would have been even more appropriate, considering Angus' guitar playing is close to being hodge-podge of the rock and roll inventor's work, but I sadly have not stumbled upon a Chuck tee, yet.
Anyway, the concert was held at Vasil Levski National Stadium. The same venue that hosted my girl Madonna. It's the biggest in Sofia. And like the Madonna concert, it was a sold out affair. Later reports suggested that they didn't quite out sale the Material Girl, but it looked about the same from my vantage point. And this feat was no surprise to me considering AC/DC's 1980 classic Back In Black album is second behind MJ's Thriller for the most record sales ever.
Upon arrival, the three of us noticed right away that the crowd was very different from the Madonna show or any other concert we'd attended in Sofia. There were no boys in penny loafers or skinny jeans. No scantily clad girls with tight silky garments barely walking in 6 inch pumps. Just lots of folks dressed in black leather looking as if they were going to an audition for a remake of The Warriors. I guess you could say we got to see the rough side of Bulgaria all in one night. And as gangster and rough neck as I am (clears throat) I'll have to admit — I was more frightened than a lamb in fox den. As a matter of fact, as we entered the sold out stadium of onlookers — I held Sarah's hand like a kindergarten kid holding his mother's hand on the first day of school.
The tickets were a birthday gift from Sarah to Joe. The two of them met in Bulgaria over 10 years ago in the Peace Corps. And they've been the best of friends since. So Sarah made sure she got him some really nice seats, or spots in this case, that were pretty close to the stage. When we settled into our spot, Sarah took off for a beer run leaving me with no hand to hold. That's when the first knuckle headed looking dude approached me and poked me in the chest. He said something to me in Bulgarian that didn't sound very friendly. I felt like Luke Skywalker in that infamous Mos Eisley Cantina scene where that creepy dude pokes Luke in the chest and mutters you don't belong here. Joe quickly acted as my Ben Kenobi and explained that I was an American simply living in Bulgaria. Thankfully, there was no need for Joe to strike him down with a light saber, because after a second of chatting we learned that he was actually just stating that he liked my Sabbath shirt and thought I was pretty cool. I guess my celebrity status was working its positive magic for me once more. He then introduced Joe and I to his other friends and we chatted about old school rock and roll.
Seconds later, the lights went out and the show began to start. The Bulgarian crowd roared to attention creating an earthquake like effect throughout the stadium as a very energetic Angus Young appeared on stage in his signature school boy outfit ripping through a guitar only instrumental version of "Let There Be Rock." Sarah ran back with no beer in hand and the look of disappointment all over her face. That's when my new friend passed me a free beer. It was truly the first time I really wanted to take a beer and chug it down for myself, because it was one of the sweetest gestures from a stranger that I'd ever encountered in Sofia so far. And probably because it was from a person that I totally thought upon meeting would be trouble. But being that I am not a partaker of alcohol, especially in a setting such as this, I sadly declined his offer and asked him if it were okay if I gave the beer to Sarah and Joe instead. He happily replied yes. And throughout the entire show, offered Sarah more and more beer. None of us were really sure if this act of kindness from our friendly stranger was really due to my celebrity status magic or Sarah's all American girl looks working some magic of its own.
Whatever the case, AC/DC continued to shake the house and I felt safe with my new friends I'd made. Mainly because one big dude in the crew who took a real liking to me. Vladimir was his name. And although he was as huge as Dolph Lundgren and meaner looking than The Hulk, he was really one of the sweetest dudes I'd ever met in Bulgaria. Every time AC/DC would finish a number, he'd give me a hi-five and a big hug. Sometimes rubbing my hair on the sly tip. Which I'm finding a lot of Bulgarians tend to do upon meeting me. It's always okay by me. I guess they are just curious as to what my hair feels like.
Anyway, when AC/DC was at the high point of the show, everyone in the stadium started repeatedly chanting, "AC/DC!" At this point they finally went into the song I'd been waiting to hear all night. One of the signature songs from Back In Black and my all time favorite AC/DC song, "You Shook Me All Night Long." They played the song better than ever! And apparently I wasn't the only one waiting to hear this song, because throngs of young girls instantly began to strip down to their underwear right when the band went into the familiar chorus line of the song. The cameras began to pan throughout the audience capturing each and every naughty girl on the giant teleprompter screen. I was in a rock and roll trance at this point. It felt like I'd taken a time machine back to the 70s when rock was at its very best. I looked around the crowd to see if everyone else was feeling what I was feeling and noticed there was a crazy intoxicated shirtless man directly in back of me yelling and moshing around the crowd. Because of my celebrity status, I just knew he was going spot me and mosh the hell out me.
He did.
He moshed my behind so hard that I fell down making a domino effect into the crowd crashing into Sarah first and then a few strangers in front of her. Vladimir saw what happened. And like the Hulk, he got angry. I was actually afraid for the crazy mosher at this point and told my boy Vladimir, "I'm okay, dude. He was just having fun." But Valdmir just smiled at me and turned to the crazy mosher and lightly pushed him on the chest. You could tell the mosher felt big Vladimir's power in just one little push — because the crazy mosher sobered up quick and started smiling to let Vladimir know that he really didn't want any trouble tonight. Especially from him. Valdimir then put his whole hand around the crazy mosher's head and whispered something into his ear.
The crazy mosher behaved himself for the remainder of the show.
After the incident, everyone continued to enjoy AC/DC rock right on through the night. They played songs from the new Grammy Award winning Black Ice album and most of the classic hits and some surprises in between. Bulgaria truly showed the love for this band the entire time. And I could tell the band appreciated it. At the very end of the concert, they came out and played a much deserved encore of two more big hits from the Bon Scott lead Highway To Hell album, then saluted the Bulgarian crowd with their classic concert closure with cannons and all, the rock anthem "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)." I could tell Bulgaria was truly satisfied. By the end of the night, two things were clear to me. Rock and roll ain't noise pollution and imitation earth quakes can't kill you.
Sadly, in the wake of the concert, there were reports afterwards describing large numbers of ticketless Bulgarians traveling from really long distances just to stand outside the concert hall and listen to the show. Stories like this really touch the very core of my music loving heart. Had I met one of them on the way to the show, I would have easily given that person my ticket.
Be seeing you.
O
