Month: July 2025

An evening at a Van Morrison concert

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That's Van (and my sister)

Van Morrison was featured in this blog back in June 2014 because he is my favorite contemporary musician. Well, it is time to revisit the Lion of Belfast, as I recently had the opportunity to see him at a concert in Madrid. I had not been to a Van Morrison concert since the mid-2000s!

My dear friend Paco notified me, and I immediately bought a ticket, without knowing if I would be in Spain by June 4th. Fortunately, I was. A couple of days before, Paco’s wife pulled out of the concert, so I invited my sister, Rocky. We had a blast.

The concert was held at the university’s botanical garden, which features a large amphitheater-like stage area in the center. Surrounding it, they have placed all sorts of food trucks and bars, making for an awesome, cool (literally) experience on summer nights. They host a variety of concerts (see photos).

Van played a few of his big hits, such as “Days Like This,” “In the Afternoon,” or “Raincheck.” He also played a couple of his new songs, including “Cutting Corners.” He played a few covers, including Ray Charles’ “What Would I Do Without You” and Hank Williams’ “Cold, Cold Heart”.

Van had an amazing 9-piece band with him, which shone at the end of the concert, when they performed “Gloria”. Van then left them to each do their solos, which was mind-blowing and amazing!

Van sang for a very respectable hour and a half in the beautiful Madrid evening and light. This was my fourth time seeing Van the Man, and it was certainly my favorite concert. With his melodies, he takes you on wonderful spiritual journeys, letting you daydream in the beauty of the songs, he is really unique and unparalleled.

This was the playlist (thanks to setlist.fm)

Only a Dream

Cutting Corners

Back on Top

What Would I Do Without You (Ray Charles cover)

Days Like This

Real Real Gone

In the Afternoon / Raincheck / Sittin’ Pretty

Cleaning Windows

Green Rocky Road (traditional cover)

No Other Baby (Dickie Bishop and His Sidekicks cover)

Cold, Cold Heart (Hank Williams With His Drifting Cowboys cover)

Ain’t Gonna Moan No More

Broken Record

Wild Night

Help Me (Sonny Boy Williamson cover)

Gloria

Celebrating 20 years of teaching – some takeaways

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This year marks my 20th year of teaching. It has been a total blessing. I have talked a lot about it here, but there should be at least some celebratory comments.

The first observation is that teaching is a vocational endeavor; if your heart is not in it, you will struggle and not be the best teacher for your students. I have taught almost 50/50 in secondary and university settings with brief stints in Middle school, and even primary school! (Read about it here.) My observation is that most teachers do it because they love it —we don’t do it for money. If you do not know if teaching is for you, try it out!

I have said this ad nauseam: all teaching is relational. We learn from a place of trust, that trust comes from the teacher-student relationship and that relationship comes from the teacher being open, better yet, vulnerable (within boundaries, of course), and honest.

Just because students are not masters of the subject matter does not make them stupid; they can see right through the teacher if you do not know the subject matter, regardless of your teaching style. So know and prepare your material, and if they ask something you do not know, get back to them with an answer. This recently happened to me, no shame in it.

Something that always motivates me is thinking of who I consider to be the best two teachers in history: Socrates and Jesus. They did not have hi-tech classrooms, which makes me always ask myself: Could I teach this with just a stick in the sand? If the answer is no, then I must rethink my lesson plan. Everything else on top of that is glitter and show…

I could probably write a book about this, but for now, I hope you liked this blog post.

So while not every moment of my 20-year teaching career has been easy, I am looking forward to the next 20, let’s go!!

An evening watching Inter Miami

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Hanging out at Inter Miami stadium

When Lukas arrived at Seacrest from Lithuania, he was a skinny 16-year-old with a lightning-quick dribble, a phenomenal shot on goal, and a way above-average soccer IQ for his age, which means he had an outstanding situational awareness and was able to “read” the game at a collegiate level. But he was skinny, so it only took a glance from an opposing defender for him to fall over. So I convinced him to work out with me after school. Within weeks, he was bulking up and able to stand up to defenders’ charges and body checks. Oh, he was also my Spanish student.

That was last decade. Nowadays, we talk about life, work, girls, Naples, old colleagues, and teachers, but we still share a passion for football. So we organized a trip to an Inter Miami game in Fort Lauderdale.

Interestingly, it was against Montreal, which was the only other Inter Miami game I had been to.

Chase Stadium is a bit of a misnomer, as the “Stadium” is a scaffolding structure, a Meccano set, surrounded by a bunch of way overpriced food trucks and bars. But we were there for the friendship, the soccer, and admittedly, to see Leo Messi play.

The game was as expected, not particularly good. Luis Suarez and Messi each scored a couple of goals, but Montreal managed to score a “dignity” goal. Although Lukas and I are both hardcore Cristiano Ronaldo fans, I must admit it was amazing to see Messi play; his skill level, how deceptively easy he made those goals look, was very impressive.

At the end of the day, driving down to Fort Lauderdale and spending a small fortune on tickets, food, and parking was well worth it to hang out with a dear friend.

Budapest

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Budapest had long captivated me, and I have been fascinated by Hungary’s history, geography, culture, food, and people for many years. Well, I finally had the opportunity to go this summer for a few days. I loved every minute of my visit!

Celia and I stayed at the Alice Hotel, an old, restored palazzo on elegant Andrássy Avenue, a couple of blocks from City Park.

Yes, we visited all the obligatory sites: Parliament, Royal Palace, St. Stephen’s (and St. Stephen’s hand), St. Matthias, the Fisherman’s Bastion, the market, the funicular, the Synagogue, the cafés, Margaret Island, the baths, etc., etc. But more importantly, we explored further: the Cemetery, which is amazing, the different neighborhoods, walking and exploring both Buda and Pest, sneaking into university buildings, and having coffee with the locals at neighborhood cafés. This is where you get to know the country, its people, and its culture. And it is beautiful.

We ate with the Budapesti: Goulash, chicken paprikash, sausages, funnel cakes, palinka, all the pickled foods you can think of, including the tiny peppers that look like innocent baby tomatoes and then blow a hole in your skull because it is the spiciest thing you will ever eat, etc., etc.

We returned to the cathedral one evening for an awesome organ concert which featured Mozart, obviously Budapest’s treasured child, Liszt (who also lived in Madrid for a stint), and of course, Bach, including the Toccata and Fugue as the grand finale!!

We became great users of the subway / public transport system which includes the oldest subway in continental Europe (London was first).

Probably one of the most moving moments for me was walking along the Danube and tripping (metaphorically) with the “Shoe Memorial,” bronze sculptures of shoes lined up along the Danube in remmeberance of when the Nazis shot jews into the river —having ordered them to take off their valuables and shoes beforehand.

Overall, it was an amazing experience, and I highly recommend a visit.

A Streetcar Named Desire at the Teatro Español

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I read Streetcar in high school, and there are a lot of tangential references to it in Almodovar’s Todo sobre mi madre, one of my favorite Almodovar films, which incorporates Streetcar as a narrative thread. Then there is, of course, the film: Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh at their best, with an excellent supporting crew like Karl Malden.

When you walk around New Orleans, there are many Tennessee Williams references: he drank a coffee here, he smoked a cigarette here, he tied his shoelaces here, you get the idea. So, I remember being fascinated by this author, having such a presence in New Orleans when I travelled there for work years ago. That presence worked both ways, as you could argue that New Orleans is another main character in the play.

But I had never seen it until last week when I saw a billboard at the Teatro Español, no less. I got tickets for Celia and me —admittedly, I got them late, so they were not the best…

It was fantastic! Nathalie Poza as Blanche drives the play with all the subtleties of her character. Pablo Derqui is not Marlon Brando, but he puts up a solid effort. The set, the direction, the sound, it all works out perfectly. The stage manager even has rain, “real” rain, which, while impressive, ends up being a bit of unnecessary gimmick. And, with this being the Teatro Español, the world’s oldest (mostly) continuously running theatre (since 1583), there is an added aura, added magic.

So if you are in Madrid before July 27, see A Streetcar Named Desire. You are welcome.