Mirror Reflections – Cuba and Russia

Life in Cuba

Living the Dream: The Stones in Cuba

“I am about to see the Rolling Stones. In my hometown. In my lifetime.”

Proclaimed with equal parts conviction and awe by a Cuban I hold in certain esteem, we headed off on foot to Ciudad Deportiva. The Day had arrived. There was a spring in our step, a jaunt in our spirit and the sense that all the sacrifice and struggle, resignation and indignation living in Cuba engenders was about to pay off. For those of us who stick it out here (Cubans and aplatanadas alike) our reward was about to be reaped. It was a chosen and blessed feeling – and still is 24 hours on as I write this; the perma-grin still affixed, the experience embedded somewhere deep and personal, patching a broken heart perhaps, or planting a seed of revelation to be harvested at a later date…………….see more here.

The Unbreakable Tie Between Two Countries

Life in Russia

The Largest Concert Ever

The largest concert ever was Jean Michel Jarre‘s in Moscow with 3.5 million in attendance. Apparently it took place at the State University of Moscow for the city’s 850th anniversay, and included a surprise “direct link with the Russian space station, Mir, live from Space during the concert,” and a laser controlled synthesizer.

Think back to the largest concert you’ve ever attended. It’s pretty likely it was either in an arena or possibly in music festival. To give a little perspective: Madison Square Garden in New York holds 20,000 fans when it’s set up for a concert, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival (which is going on right now) broke its own attendence records with about 82,500 attendees for each of its three days in 2012.

This means that Jean Michel Jarre’s show was attended by enough people to fill Madison Square Garden 175 times and the entire Coachella Festival 42 times over. Check out part one of the Jean Michel Jarre concert below.

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