Sade...need I say more?

Natova and I have recently added a date night to our routine, an idea we adopted from some friends of ours.  Things can get pretty monotonous hanging around the house and watching Hulu or Netflix.  And you can only go to the malls so many times.  So we’ve implemented date night, a time for us to formally do something with each other.    So far it’s been pretty good.  We’ve done the Christmas concert and now we got to experience Sade.

When I first saw that Sade was coming to Abu Dhabi, I knew we were going, no question about it.  We ended up buying the general admission tickets, which means you are standing, but you get a decent view of the stage.   Natova brought up a pretty good point that because the music is more mellow and not as fast and exciting as say a Janet Jackson, that we may feel the effects of standing up for a long period of time.  Point taken, a good point actually, but we had to do it.  I don’t know when I would ever get another chance to see Sade so why not check her out in Abu Dhabi. 

The concert was at the Yas Arena, which is right next to Ferrari World (a theme park based around Ferrari cars.  It has roller coasters, rides, the whole nine.  It’s yet another activity we still have to get around to doing).  The turnout ended up being pretty good.  It was doubtful at first as we saw wide open patches of grass where we were standing about thirty minutes before the concert, but that closed up quickly once the lights dimmed and the show began.  The concert was supposed to start at 8 and it did but it there was an opening act, a rock band.  They were okay and it probably would have been nice to hang out at a bar and casually hear them in the background while you’re talking to friends and having a drink.  However we had been standing there for an hour (gates opened at 7) and every song they did we thought was the last song, until they would strike up another. 

Finally, after another thirty minutes of prepping the stage after the rock band, Sade hits the stage.   From where we were we got a pretty good view of everything.  We weren’t close but we weren’t that far either.  The video I recorded actually makes it seem we are farther away than we actually are. Natova and I took bets on what Sade would open with.  Natova thought “Soldier of Love” and I guessed “Smooth Operator”.  She won.    Then Sade did another new song, and then she dug into some of her hits.  She stayed true to them for the most part; she didn’t change too much of the songs just as I hoped she didn’t.  All the saxophone parts were right on point.  And some of the visual elements were really cool.  She did a montage during “Kiss of Life” that I thought was really nice.

 

Standing up for four hours was about as uncomfortable as I thought it would be, and during the transitions and brief down time, my feet would remind me of it.  But during the performances of the older hits I completely forgot about it.  I tried to get pieces of some of the better songs so I hope you enjoy them.  My camera isn’t the best at night, nor is the sound HD quality (they sound best with headphones), but I think you can get a sense what it was like to be there from the clips.

Kiss of Life

One of my favorite songs by her, and I loved the video that she included with it.  It showed how sweet and playful she is. It was great hearing it in person.

By Your Side

Pearls

For all those, like me, that knew this song as “There’s a woman in Somalia,” yeah, it’s that song.  Very somber,  but also powerful.   Song is amazing but if you look closely toward the end of the clip you will an interesting surprise that will serve as ,our “WTH!” episode for the evening.  Won’t spoil it for you but I will include that there was about a two minute break after this song which begs the question what was so urgent that what happened had to happen right then? The more I watch this video, the more ticked off I get.  It interrupted the drama of the song, which incidentally was at its highest point.  I swear to you that is how it is every day in this country, you just find yourself asking “Why?” and you can never come up with an answer.  

No Ordinary Love

Is it a Crime




Smooth Operator


The Sweetest Taboo

Your Love King

Another one of my favorites.  Good performance, but I will need her not to forget how the song goes.  If you watch in the middle, somewhat towards the end of the video you might catch it.  

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

Living abroad is a bit like being in a time vacuum.  What information we get we get from yahoo when we open up our emails.  It keeps us somewhat familiar with the happenings of back home.  But you don’t get the full scoop on the way into work from the radio, or even the rumblings at the job through small talk.  So you are kind of left with digging up what information you can when or if you remember to do it.  We do have American television that can somewhat keep us updated like, CNN, and BBC is pretty good, but I don’t always watch it, and often times they are discussing this region rather than the US.  Movies come out and I have no idea what it is whereas I know if I was back home, I’m sure I would see it on every other commercial.  Just little things like that reminds us that we are 8000 miles away.  Every now and again we hear something about the presidential race, moderated debates, etc.

Now that Christmas is here we really notice it because as you might expect it doesn’t exactly feel like Christmas (though regarding weather it actually is much cooler than I ever expected it to get.  It feels perfect outside at night, nice cool breeze, clear nights, it’s just great).  I usually don’t have time to pay attention to the season because I am distracted with work.  The day before Thanksgiving most of us LT’s forgot that the holiday was the next day.   For Christmas, most things dealing with grades have been finalized so I have a bit more time pull my head up and look around.  

Because of the expat community there is a slight Christmas presence.  I see some Christmas lights lining the balcony of other apartments.  Ironically, these efforts blend in with all the other decorations already up for National Day on buildings and other homes, which is apparently quietly celebrated throughout the entire month.  Surprisingly, Christmas trees are sold at our local Carrefour grocery store (think Walmart).  Some of neighbors have grabbed one and so have we.  We like it overall, it definitely helps us get in the Christmas spirit.  

Something else that we thought would also help us get into the spirit was a Christmas Concert by the UAE symphony orchestra that we attended about a week ago at the Emirates Palace.  Sounds nice right, and for the most part it was.  After arriving at the Emirates Palace, we entered the main hall and there was a huge 40 foot decorated Christmas tree in the center of the room where various people were taking pictures in front of it.  Tragically, I forgot my camera but, Natova and I did manage to snap a camera phone photo of us.  We don't have an iphone or anything, so the picture is a little blurry, but I suppose its better than nothing. 

 The performance, unfortunately, much like our picture in front of the tree, left much to be desired.  I don’t think it was the orchestra’s fault but someone made the decision not to use amplifiers for the performances, so the only time the microphone was used is when the conductor would make small talk and try and be charming before and in between numbers.  So when the choir, there was a choir as well, sang and the instruments played you could hear the music but not really feel it.  It was disappointing.  I think they overestimated the acoustics in the performance hall, which I think was okay but not enough to really engulf us with the spirit of Christmas as Natova and I had been hoping for.  And though the symphony touched on some good songs the whole affair seemed a bit too stuffy or upscale for us to really get into it. 

 The next day I played a bunch of stuff off of YouTube, and that really hit the spot way more than the concert (I guess theoretically we could have saved the money and stayed home, but the experience of being at the Emirates Palace was nice and it was pretty cool going to an event like that.  Beside we met some interesting people while we were there, which I will discuss on another post).  We played all the classics all through the apartment, Mariah, Boyz II Men, Donny Hathaway, Nat King Cole, etc.  But my favorite of all and has been the last couple of years since was Jennifer Hudson. 

I’m not sure if anyone remembers this but Jennifer did a Christmas special in 2009 called “I’ll be home for Christmas.”  It immediately became the best Christmas special I had ever seen.  I was so genuine and her voice is absolutely amazing.  Everyone and their cousin knew that Jennifer could sing but I had no idea she had the versatility that she has.  I was both shocked and impressed.  When it first came on I thought it would be sixty minutes of her shouting out Christmas songs at me, overdoing it as gospel singers tend to do sometimes.  However, the control and quality of her voice was amazing, and she knew when to go for it and when to hold back.  I was truly impressed and I watch this every year as I know you will too once you see it.  The special was filmed about two years after the tragic events that happened to her family (for those that don’t know her brother, mother, and I think another family member were all murdered on the same day), so perhaps that made the special even more….well….special, especially (sorry) when she sings with her family.   I have provided a couple of clips and if you want more you have to You Tube it.  Tova and I are going to wait until Christmas Day to watch the whole thing, or whatever we can piece together on You Tube.   It really is beautiful the way it was filmed and presented when you watch the whole thing, hats off to ABC.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

Celebrations and Silly String

For the past few weeks, Abu Dhabi has undergone a transformation of sorts.  The UAE flag has been increasingly growing more and more visible throughout the city, more so than usual.  The streets have become lined with small flags hanging from every pole.  I begin to see entire homes draped with 40 foot flags on my way to work and just driving around the city in general .  I start noticing the dress of the Emirates: black, red, green, and white accent their khandoras and abayas .

But I really see it in the cars.  The usual fleet of upscale, fancy cars that I see on a daily basis is replaced with a slew of cars deck out in red, green, and black.  I’m talking full paint jobs with these colors. Pictures of Zayed, the “father” of the city, are plastered on hoods and car doors.  UAE stickers are scattered all over the vehicle; little red hearts with a “40” in the middle of it (and for those with the more colorful imaginations let me take a moment to specify that there is not a picture of a bottle of liquor at the center of the heart, but the actual number forty).  

But if I happened to be blind to all of that I would definitely notice something was up by looking at the buildings.  Huge 300ft flags hanging from the sides of skyscrapers, colorful light (just like Christmas lights) are strew over buildings, or better yet the lights are actually built into the building, as is the case with a building directly visible when you step outside my apartment.  It flashes the colors of the flag over it moving upward.  The lights are mesmerizing to look at, reminding me the time late at night I used to stay up and just look at the Christmas tree as the lights flickered on and off in their various patterns and sequences.  Some buildings also have the huge “40” in flashing lights blaring out into the world. 

Well if you haven’t already guessed it (and I don’t know how you would have because if you are like me you probably didn’t even know this existed until now), it is National Day in the UAE.  National Day celebrates the founding of the country and is celebrated not just in Abu Dhabi, but also in Ajman, Dubai, Sharjah, and all the other Emirates as well.  The holiday is comparable to the 4^th of July in the States, but believe it or not they take it even further here.  You would think that the country had gone through five wars and a depression the way the celebrate, but I will get into that shortly.   Obviously the country has an obscene amount of money to spend on festivities and so they do.  There were festivals, ceremonies, and parties all over Abu Dhabi.  We ended up getting a day off from school, which is always a good thing. 

This National Day is particularly a big deal because it is the 40^th anniversary of the UAE.  That’s right, chances are that you the reader are probably just as old or older than this entire country.   This city is ridiculously young when you think about it, and on top of the that, the “modern” city, all the buildings and skyscrapers, malls and shops, apartments and hotels, all of these pictures that you see when you google Abu Dhabi, has only been around for the last 10 years.  

Well the Emiratis definitely got the memo that this should be a great big celebration.  Natova and I got to witness it first hand.  As I mentioned before, the city had been doing different smaller celebrations, I use the word loosely, over the last couple of weeks.  For instance for the last couple of days I here fighter jets flying past in formation going toward the corniche (the coast/ beach near downtown) In fact on National Day itself, December 2, I saw a tight formation of three fighter jets fly past headed downtown.  Then I hear another set of three roar past a few seconds later.  Then another. Then another.  Then another.  Five sets total flew past me and over to the corniche. 

 Anyway, we wanted to make over to the Corniche for the finale fireworks show.  You can imagine what that would look like in a place the goes over the top the way Abu Dhabi does.   So we head down there and our adventure began.

It started with the cab driver that I noticed was very irritable.  I had initially written it off in my mind as he was having a bad night.  However, shorty after we got in his taxi we found out why he was so irritable. While at a stoplight, a car full of young men, the car decorated in the customary red, green, black, and white, rolled down its window and with impressive accuracy managed to silly string the windshield of our taxi.  The silly string wasn’t even good silly string; it was more foamy than stringy, which made getting it off even more difficult.   Our taxi driver, frustrated threw up an exasperated hand at the boys who had sped off when the light turned green.  The taxi driver put on his wipers and had the water spray onto the windshield to clean it, and watched the kids drive off.  After a second or two we saw him make up his mind. 

Once he got his windshield decent, he roared out of the turning lane we were in and exploded down the street looking for the boys.  I saw him slowly reach into the glove compartment, and for a minute I thought to myself “Oh no, our taxi driver is an Indian Gangsta.  Those boys didn’t know who they were messin’ with.”  It turns out that the taxi driver pulled out a black can of silly string of his own.  However, he did have every intention of making those kids pay.  As he sped past the other cars, he peeked inside each on to see if they were the ones that violated his taxi then would blow past them looking into the next car.  When I tell you this man was dead serious about finding those boys, you could see it on his face.  He was ready to do a drive-by.  

Unfortunately he did not find the hoodlums so he wasn’t able to exact his revenge.  He took his frustration out in his driving, which became erratic.  There was a point where someone flashed him and he didn’t like it.  When the car got in the other lane to pass him he sped up not to let the guy pass, so the other car sped up, our taxi sped up, then the other car sped up, etc.  Pretty soon we were involved in a full on drag race for about 10 seconds doing at least 180km/h (112 mph).  It concluded when came around a bend and approached traffic that was stopped at a light.  He hit the brakes and we skidded for what seemed like forever.  It was one of those skids where you aren’t really sure if you vehicle is going to stop before you hit the vehicle in front of you, so all you can do is look at this stationary car grow bigger and bigger in the windshield until you are right on it.  Luckily we did stop short and Natova and I exchanged glances that said “Okay, I am legitimately scared now.”  

So after we got out of the taxi of doom, we made our way down to the corniche.  There were tons of cars on the strip.  It was basically a parking lot.  There was music blaring from cars, people, kids and grown ups alike, trying to silly string each other and run away before the other could retaliate (no one was above a good walk by silly stringing.  We actually got hit a couple of times.  And there is a mechanism in you that says “I don’t know you so you have no right to bother me.”  To be honest your first instinct is to bash his face into the ground.  But no one knew each other out there but they still played.  That just seemed to be part of the celebration.  If you were down here you just have to expect to be silly stringed.  For the most part, its all in fun, though some people did take it too far).  There were guys revving their engines to pop their mufflers.  At times I thought someone’s engine was going to explode.  There were kids standing on top of the cars while it crept down the streets.  There was dancing, laughing, and general chaos.   I tried to capture all of this in the videos I have here the best I could.  

We were downtown for about an hour and a half.  At 9:30 we then decided that the fireworks show, which was scheduled for 8:40, was not going to happen.  We left and knew we would have to walk a ways away to distance ourselves from all the traffic so we could catch a cab.  Taxis were staying away from downtown like the plague because while they are stuck in traffic, they could be earning some money.  After walking the ins and outs of the Abu Dhabi streets for an hour trying to get away from the traffic, which we never did, we finally came upon a taxi stuck in it himself.  He was reluctant at first because he thought we wanted to go toward downtown.  As it turns out he has been on the same street for about an hour and a half going maybe 50 feet.  We hopped in once he saw that we were trying to get away ourselves.  We managed to do a u-turn and a half and hour later were walking into the door of our apartment.   

Crazy night.  We had to go to at least one National Day, but it is unanimous that we won’t be attending those downtown festivities again next year.

(I have a few videos but for some reason I can't upload them to blogger.  I will keep trying so you might want to check periodically to see if they are here.)