It's been a while since my last post, let's see where we were.

After the show of Agua de Annique, we waited for the next one: Opeth played by the end of March. Shows were perfect. Faridee and me went to Monterrey to see them too. We got the chance to meet the band at the signing session and at the airport 




Mike is very funny (and I love his voice). During the gig in Mexico City, the band was impressed by the strong feeling of their fans, singing most of the songs till the end. "Closure" was the song I will remember because of the final chorus of the audience while guitars were playing that melody.

On April, The Gathering finally release their new album, The West Pole, so, of course we were like maniacs listening to the first tracks on myspace over and over. Silje was introduce to the band, and we were so happy she had this amazing feeling on each note she was singing. What a gorgeous album! We couldn't wait to see the band playing live again, so, indeed, we didn't wait. When they announced the tryout shows before the festival in Belgium, we knew we had to be there so, we started to make some arrangements to plan this trip on June.

Also on April I celebrated my birthday having two parties We had a great time.





Anathema played in Mexico City by the end of May. They brought a show so intense that all of us were moved by the energy and feeling the band shared with the audience. Really beautiful show. And well, finally June was starting, and our plan was almost done: I was going to be in Holland for 10 days, having the chance to see Stream of Passion on stage too.

Mike, Eric, Aaron and me, were going to take the same plan. When we started to think of every detail on activities day by day, Aaron suggested that we should go to Berlin at least for a couple of days, so, we found a very nice flight fares and we added to the schedule, hehe. It was a beautiful trip, lots and lots of fun. The Gathering's tryout gigs were on June 19 and 20th, so we arrived a week early. We were on Haarlem, were we saw Dennis for the first Stream of Passion gig. The next one was at Dordrecht. It was really cool to see the band again, now with the new members. They rock big time! I was in Tilburg after that gig, having nice time with one of the girls I love the most, and then I went to Nijmegen to see my other loving girl. Looking at the dates and gigs when we were planing everything, we saw Dredg was playing in Amsterdam, so we went! Really nice concert.

The same day I was invited to a very special rehearsal, the first one on stage just before the tryout gigs! I was sooooo excited!! Last time I saw the band was in Finland, two years ago, and under very different circumstances. I was tremendously happy to see them, and meeting Silje for the first time. It was amazing because I heard almost the whole set they were playing on the weekend, so you can imagine how I felt.

The next days, I was going to meet Aaron, Mike and Eric at Nijmegen to go to Berlin. We had a lot of fun there. Berlin is a beautiful city. I loved it! We met Holger there, and Fernando was arriving those days to join the international TG forum at the tryouts on Heerlen and Purmerend. We were meeting almost everybody at Heerlen, so it was really nice to see them again, and meeting the rest, like Mariska! The show was filled with emotions and everyone was so happy to see the band with this new energy. This trip was very very special. The next day we met the other "gatherers" and after the show I came back home.



Before we went to Holland, we discovered our new trip on August: Tori Amos at Philadelphia, so, of course I had to go, hehe. Mike joined me and we were at two shows. Tori is an AMAZING woman. I have admired her since Little Earthquakes was release, so, I waited for a long time to see her playing live.

I have tons of pics on flickr about these crazy trips
This year has been terrific, and, what is left of it, would be even better.

Some months ago, Faridee, Mike and me decided to go to Denver, to see Opeth's gig and have some weekend fun, as traveling-lovers we are :D

Denver is a very nice city. We didn't have enough time to see everything we wanted, but we had the chance to spend some hours walking the streets, visiting the beautiful halls from the Art Museum, and of course, enjoying a hell of a concert.

Those days, the city was completely cloudy and rainy... but we almost enjoyed that too :P

I added a bunch of pics (including some silly ones from my faithful fluff friends) on my flickr, and a couple of videos from the gig on youtube.

OPETH ROOOOOOCKS BIG TIME!!!

The legend says that each year, my birthday party becomes funnier and funnier every time, taking us to unreasonable silly levels.

Here are the links to see the pics and videos from last weekend:

Pics | Waltz | Crazy singers

We had a greeeat time!! Thanks to everyone for the nice messages, comments, gifts and, of course, your company no matter the distance :)

Here's how to play


Once you've been tagged write a blog of 10 weird, random, unknown facts, habits about yourself. At the end choose 10 people to be tagged, listing their names and why you chose them. Don't forget to leave them a comment- "you're it"- and for them to read your blog. You CAN'T tag the person who tagged you. Since you can't tag back, let me know when you've posted your blog so I can see your answers.

Well, I was tagged by Manfred, so here it is.

Ten things you probably didn't know about me:

1. I became a vegetarian 5 years ago, so I no longer eat any kind of meat or fruit of the sea, and I really don't miss it! I feel great since then.

2. When I was about 9 years old, I lived in Chicago for six months. When to school there, played with the autumn leafs and snow, and used to walk laaaaarge avenues with my brothers while going to school, so I got to knew the city pretty well back then.

3. I joined my first band as a drummer. After a year in that band, I decided to leave the drums and take the microphone and guitar, and now I'm attached to them, but sometimes I do miss being behind my drum kit!

4. When I was a kid, I used to fight a lot with the boy nextdoor, but fights were so bad -we used our nails-, that we still have scars on our faces.

5. I fear the sea, like the song. I can spend hours just looking at it, feeling the breeze, listening to the waves, traveling in time... but since I got trapped by waves once some years ago, I just can't get in again :(

6. I graduated from high school with honors, hoho, and I received a special prize called "The Golden Wildcat" (that was the school's symbol) for being the student with the perfect score that year *nerdy mood. In addition, I received a schoolarship for my university studies. My pic was on an important national newspaper, along with the guys that also got high scores, but not as high as mine xD

7. I was part of the University's basketball team for four years. I had a lot of fun, but also ended up with several injuries: I broke my right wrist (I had to learn to write and do everything with my left hand, which was pretty cool), my right ankle was also damaged badly more than once, wounded my knees, hurt my back and neck :S  and those injuries are still bothering me from time to time.

8. When my friend bought his car some years ago, we did a small weekend trip. I was supporting him for a Figure Skating Competition, but he almost broke his ankle during the first part of the program, because the skate's blade was stuck in the ice while he was spinning, and wasn't able to walk... or drive. I didn't know how to drive a standard car, so I had to learn in a single day, so I drove back to Mexico City for 6 hours on the highway. That was exciting! The little car was faaaaaaaast, hehe.

9. I have allergic rhinitis, so, in drastic tempeature changes, or too much dust, smoke or some other environments, my nose hurts like hell, and even more when it bleeds inside.

10. I love dogs. I have had since I was little: a beautiful doberman called Barry, then a gorgeous old english shepherd called William, and then, the friendly rottweilers called George and Camilla.


People I tag:

1. Faridee - Because she is a very mysterious girl :P
2. Heidi - She loves to write on her blog, and I love to read :)
3. Xavy - Because I haven't meet her yet!
4. Marcela - Because she's back home :)
5. Thomas - I'm gonna challenge him to write the whole blog entry both in English and Spanish.
6. Mike - I actually didn't had the chance to talk more to him that beautiful day, far far away from here.
7. Maly - I'm sure she'll have interesting adventures to tell
8. Toño - Because he is starting a slow week, hehe.
9. Emily - I miss talking to her and I wonder what facts she will choose to tell.
10. Eutanasia - I know she loves these games! And I haven't seen how she's doing lately.

I have been out of the net for a while, but I'm trying to update everything as soon as I can.

I have been in great concerts this second half of the year, and also I have been on the stage again! But first, the concerts.

Katatonia. I added the pics I took at Monterrey right here, and the videos are on youtube.com/zizter Mexico City's gig was very special. It was on a small lobby, and we were around 800 ppl, everyone longing to see Katatonia for so long. As usually were on first row, hehe. Seeing the band so so close was amazing! We (Faridee and me) were hipnotized by Jonas voice. He sings with so much passion that we were drooling during the whole concert, haha.

The band has a lot of energy. Since I started to listen to them, I have love those guitars combinations... I love the way Fred and Anders (now of course I know the names, haha) make those melodies. Very emotional moment when they played "Cold Ways". It became one of my favorite songs since that day. It was a huge surprise to hear "Whithout God" and "Murder" at the end of the gig. Woooooooow!! We decided at that moment that we HAD to fly to Monterrey for the next gig, so we did.

Monterrey audience has been always quite different from the Mexico City's one. People were also very excited but the feeling was not the same. This time we stayed in the middle of the hall, to watch the show from a different angle. Lights were really cool: red, purple, green... but mostly red. I was very happy to read a few days later that the band was really grateful for that warm welcome the mexican fans gave them. Great gig.

A week later another long expected concert: Porcupine Tree. I heard that they played perfectly every song live, so we also got tickets for the first rows. This venue have a very good acoustic, and it's quite nice, a theater. The place was crowded. We were very excited to finally see the band, specially Mr. Wilson, of course, haha. The band indeed, played perfect! They had a special multimedia show that was really really cool. Some songs were in perfect sync with the images, so that was very impressive. Not a single mistake. The band was really happy to finally play in Mexico. They had a magical atmosphere while playing songs like "Half Light" (beauuutiful song I never heard before), "Open Car", most of the songs from the new album (which is amazing), "Trains"... it was cool to hear people singing along with the band. Being on the front also gave us the chance to catch a few guitar picks at the end :D

Now that they are touring with Anathema, I'm dying of envy!! But I've heard the Cavanagh brothers are coming to Mexico next year, so let's pray for that.

I went also to another nice concerts, Explosions in the Sky, with so beautiful instrumental post rock songs, and Kronos Quartet, the masters of the strings. I was always curious to heard them live, after listening to the soundtrack from "Requiem for a Dream". It was a very interesting concert, in one of the greatest music halls from the city. The audience couldn't stop applauding at the end after an overwhelming performance, specially the last song, a cover from Sigur Ros, "Flugufrelsarinn".

Soon I will add some pics, and continue talking about more music :D

Here are the links for the Porcupine Tree's bootleg.
CD 1 | CD 2
Thanks to Toño for the cd!! :D

As we go upstairs, to Faridee's room, I ask her where Mashelly could be, because nobody saw her while we were at the bar. Faridee says she will be
sleeping for sure. We open the door of the room, and there's no one there. We are a bit scared because we don't see right away her backpack and the stuff she was carring at the concert. We start to say that she did come back with us from the gig, she was with us at the trainstation, but shs didn't come back with us while coming to the hotel... We didn't see her come back since we were at the bar... Well, her stuff is here, so she did come back then, but where the heck is she? There was nobody left downstairs. Faridee is so tired and relaxed that she says it will be ok, that she'll come back later, but Toño is worried, but he says we will
figure out later then.

Hoping for the best, Toño goes to his room and Faridee is getting ready to sleep. I'm gonna take a shower and just wait until 5am. Five minutes later someone is knocking. It's Toño again, and he says: "Look who I found on the hall". It's Mashelly. The girl spend hours on the computer's area. Well, I start to get my things ready and I tell Faridee to go on and sleep, that I will be noiseless, and I won't wake her before I leave, but she tells me she will kill me if I don't do it. I go into the elegant bathroom and finally, holly water! I try not keep quiet while getting everything ready, so I just lay down on the carpet to rest my back. I carefully fold my t-shirt and I check my passport, visa, plane tickets, Finnair itinerary, Heidi's chocolates, Thomas gave me Han's drumstick as a prize for being the craziest fan, my camera... awww! I have Faridee's Ankkarock ticket for tomorrow here! I leave it on the table. I think of everything that I have lived for the last 40 hours. I'm not sleepy, but I feel really tired. My eyes are so red that I remember that South Park episode when zombies are in town and the doctor says they have pink eye xD These minutes are very slowly, but I don't even think about time right  there. When there is almost 5am, I get up and wake Faridee up, to tell her I'm leaving. We hug so tight that we don't say much, jut to take care and that we love each other. I get out of the room, the hotel, and I take a last look to Helsinki.



I just have to go around the corner to catch the bus. It's really cold now! There is not even 5am and it looks like it's 7am. I get to the bus stop anda I see two ladies waiting for the bus too. It's 5.05 sharp and the bus is here.



The bus is almost empty. Streets are empty too. We get to the airport in about 25 minutes. On our way, I have the camera in my hands and I try to make some shots from the window, but there are strips along it and I can't, so I better check the clips I recorded from the show, because I didn't do it before... I just see the first seconds from every song, because I'm getting sad again, so I'd better keep the camara inside my backpack. We are now at the airport. It looks quite small, but I cannot find the gates, so I ask and they tell me I have to go to the other section. Not too much people. I go to a girl to do the check in, and it's the first time someone at the airport treats me nice! She checks my passport and plane tickets, so she realizes I was in Finland for just one day. She ask me: "Did you like your short staying here?" I just smile and say yes. She also tells me: "Well, now you're going back home" Back home... I think in a second of everything I lived yesterday. She finally tells me that she will do my check in for Austria, because she knows I have to run to catch the other plante. Isn't she sweet? It's really early, and I have like two hours before boarding, so I go for something to eat. I like this self service coffee shop. Once inside the plane, I try to sleep a little, is not hard to do it, hehe. I sleep like two hours and we are about to get to Viena.



People in security check points are so damn rude! This fucker is asking me questions like if a was in USA border already. While he is asking for my passport and reads "Mexico" on it, he looks at me upside down and he sends me to do the check in again... yeah, that's exactly what I'm thinking. The other guy at the gate is sending me to a looooong line to change my boarding pass. There must be like 50 ppl there, and only two persons in charge. I have 30 mins left before the flight starts, so I worry a little because I can't believe this situation. I know I'm  not the only one fliyin to Chicago, so it's just a matter of time for those fuckers to do something for us... and they do it. They ask the personal to change our boarding pass first, and the rest of the persons there start to complain, because they have been waiting for several minutes also, but they have more time before their flight starts.I am finally inside the plane. I feel so tired. I ask one of the flight attendant not to be bothered because I really preffer to skip meal and sleep some more. This girl is very kind and she tells me not to worry. I sleep like a couple of hours. When I wake up, I look inside my backpack for those delicious chocolates Heidi gave me. The flight attendant immediatly ask me if I want something to drink. Wouldn't be all of the airport's personal like that? I finally see what is going on around me: A whole family is seated in front of me, and the kids are playing a bunnies' game on the seat scream. I check if there's something interesting on the movies they have on program, but nope... I look for the games section, I just play something called "Elephant memory", but I get bored. Most of the time I realize I'm looking nowhere... my mind is not there. Tears scape from my eyes from time to time, and the guy next to me looks curious. It has been a long time since I didn't feel this way... so nostalgic...

During this flight I am like this: not knowing much about time, so hours are lost. We are getting close to Chicago again. I step off the plane very quiclky, and I run again. I forgot to fill out the migration form, but the guy there is cool and he shows me the way to find my gate. This gate is really small. Really small. There are troubles with the flight and it's gonna be a bit delayed, so I just get my seat number and I wait sitting on the floor to see what happens. I'm hungry but the food area is quite far, because this is a monster airport, and I preffer to stay there, with the saviour finnish chocolates :D I'm bored and I took a few pics from my view:





The flight was delayed for one hour, and those 4 hours to get to Mexico are lost in my memory. When I recover the sense of time, we are getting to Mexico city. It's almost 8pm, and we are stucked in the plane for 30 minutes. Migration is terrible here. Finally I'm out of the airport. My sister and parents are there, but I don't wanna talk much, so we just go home. When I'm there, I just take everything form my back pack and prepare my stuff for the office. I have to sleep.

During that week I felt like a zombie: couldn't work right, my muscles hurt, my nose hurt (I have alergic rinitis) and it was bleeding a little for days, because of temperature changes, and my throat felt the same way... but I really didn't care about all this... Now that I'm finishing writting all this, everything seems to be so so far, like if I had to catch frames in my memory, but these frames were away from me if I try to reach them, in a strange dimension, all dark... it's weird, but that's the way it feels. I just have to close my eyes to touch them, and remember how beautiful all was, besides it hurts a little, but I guess this are just cycles that nobody wants to see over.

Everyone is so weird now, at least that's what I can see... some of us are like trying to get everything right... I see Thomas and I hug him... some others are crying, others are extremely happy and excited, many pictures, many hugs... I take out of my backpack everything I'm carring for the band: cds and t-shirts... oh, hell, I forgot the booklets for the tribute party we will have on Mexico on November... We wanted to give a few during that gig. I go to Marjolein to say hello. She is as kind and cool as usually, I gave her the cd and the t-shirt explaining the whole thing about that special album we put together so fast, from bands so far away! Spain, Argentina and Mexico. She is taking a look on the  artwork and tells me: "Hey! That's you on the cover, right?" I tell her I'm not,  hehe. And she goes again: "Hmmm... sure it's not you? You look a lot like her". I took a picture of her and now I go with Hans and Frank. They say they knew about that tribute album already, I ask Frank where is Rene, and I just catch him before he left. I really don't talk to them that much. I'm feeling kind of sad. Then I go to Anneke. It's so nice that she is so happy to see us comming from Mexico. I took a pic of her beside Faridee. She notices the t-shirt I'm wearing, because Gerardo already asked for a few signatures on it, so she does that, and I go back to the rest of the band to complete it, but Rene is already gone.





There are more pics we take: with Hervé, with Mashelly, with Heidi, Gerardo, Faridee... Heidi is also sad because she was really touched by watching us during the gig, she told me that she start crying too after the concert, because she knew some of us were crying too. That was sweet. The doll I gave her took a lot of attention the whole day, and we start to make jokes about that, because we named Anneke, but with a spanish pronunciation. Everything there is so cool: so many different people, different flags, but we are all hugging, because everyone is feeling the same.



It's time to go now. Hugs are also endless. We are now outside the venue, waiting for the others and deciding the way we're going back to the hotel. First, we wanna take a taxi because all of us are really tired, but then we start walking to the trainstation.



We have to wait for the train that has a special sign, because we need to buy the tickets (we no tickes,hehe). It takes like 30 minutes to get to Helsinki. It's a nice city, at least what I can see of it. All of us are hungry, but not everyone wants to go to McDonald's, so some of us just walk to the hotel and wait for the rest to meet us there. I see a finnish bunny on our way, hehe. Now it's about 1am, and the bar is closing pretty soon. Beers are invading the table



Eric is so tired that he's falling asleep. Sebassie is tired too, well... all of us are tired! I'm talking to Holger remembering the way we met, and talking about Elfonia, Toño don't know anything about the band, but he likes a lot Stream of Passion, so I let them do that talk, hehe. I take a few pictures of almost everyone there, because the rest of the forum is arriving. Holger is taking pictures too. After a while, some of the guys have to go already, so goodbyes start. That's kind of sad, because suddendly the day is over, and we are promising to see each other soon. I hug everyone feeling these guys are so close to me, like we were friends for so long, but with not enough time.

The rest of us stayed for a while at the bar when we realize it is closing too, so we step outside the hotel. Now it's cold, and finally I'm talking to Aaron. Heidi tells us there that she has two daughters. We were supposed to know before, but she says that she forgot to tell us, haha. She shows us the pic. Lovely girls: Isla and Aura. One is so finnish and the other is so chilean :D We keep on talking and everyone starts to go, because it's getting early: 3am

I decide to stay awake to take the bus at 5am, so there is no point for me to sleep a couple of hours, I will feel worse if I do that, so I say goodbye to everyone and go with Faridee and Toño to the room...

I start to make some shots with my camera, because I have to record all this perfect! I just record like two minutes from the soundcheck. Hans, Rene and Frank look pretty serious, but calm. Marjo is as smiling and relaxed as usually. Sadly, I stop recording when she starts to prove her voice at the microphone. Lovely voice!!  People start to come together a bit more, and there's a sense of anxiety and excitement. Finally, the guy who is presenting every band shows up. He speaks in finnish, so I don't understand a thing, hehe. The band starts to walk on the stage to take places, and Hans marks the beat for Shortest Day. We all start to scream :D After some seconds, Anneke appears on stage. Screams are louder now.

Everyone is singing, jumping. Feeling on this concert is so different from any other. It's hard to deal with all emotions at the time... we know this is the last show, but nobody wants to think about that now.





Alone is the next song. Lights are so beautiful... magical. The day is also perfect, because at this time there is light on the sky, but the sun is starting to hide very slowly, as if it was syncronized with music, and were waiting to hear the last notes to go. Sound is also great. We couldn't choose another place instead of first row. Spirits starts to sound amongst this mistical atmosphere that Hand, Frank and Marjo are creating. Now, Probably Built in the 50's is on the stage.

Band is looking pretty emotional, because this feeling is covering us all, and I can say that Anneke is about to cry for some moments, specially at the end of this songs and during Saturnine. I keep my camara with my arms on the fence, playing a lot with the zoom, trying to catch every one up there, along with the cool visual show of lights.





The strenght of these songs seems to take over everything: The band itself, the crowd, every sound, every colour... time is gone... but came back too soon. Monsters is now on, with that great post rocker bridge, and now everybody is preparing to rock out with Eléanor



On this song we start singing the way Argentina does on some bridges, they sing along with the guitar melody, and we are doing that too, hehe. In Motion 1 is next. Energy of all of us dells like exploding with lights. Guitar solo sounds incredible powerful. We know the set is almost over. The notes of Travel begins.



At this time, I can't take it anymore. I keep on recording, but from time to time I stop looking the stage because I feel I have no more strenght. I keep one arm up with the camara, and with the other I grab the fence and put my head on it, looking down, letting out some tears. Through my mind a lot of stuff is going on, every story of the latest years are coming alive. I remember the first concert, so special, so different than this one, where I felt completly out of my mind while looking at the band for the first time, in a place I never dream to be, about to listen new versions of the songs I just heard like a year ago, so close of that small stage, listening to Anneke's voice and every sound like if there was no other sound at all... all silent. I remember also the gigs in Mexico, along the country, I remember Buenos Aires... Santiago... but this is the last time.

I feel somebody is holding my head behind me, but I don't know who is it. I can't stop feeling that way, stop thinking on all that. I try to capture every detail on my mind at this moment, what I'm feeling, what I'm watching, what I'm listening. I wish you knew your music was to stay forever... I can tell that everyone there is pointing at the stage and saying that so loud while Anneke is singing that phrase. Travel is over. Lights are gone. And endless applause, the band hug and thank all the audience.



We ask for one more song. Anneke appears on the stage to thank again everyone there, and thank The Gathering for the beautiful years. There will be one more song: Liberty Bell. Nobody wants that music stops... this time, applause is there for more that 20 minnutes. That is amazing. All the band crew is already gone, the stage is empty, and everyone is still clapping.. the night has come now. After this beautiful minutes, we start to move from there because the security guys have asked that. We star to walk leaving aside that stage, now with a few lights only. 



I look at it for the last time. We continue walking to the exit, but the band has come out to chat with everyone, so we walk towards them...

Pics from Creeping Death and Heidi

Amazing shots right here

The whole show on wmv, right here, finally