Turin

What a night! My long lost friend Tim, who I met on my trip in 2005, was on the same tram stand as me on the way to concert. It was great to see him and we caught up on things since then.

He carries around hundreds of posters and then sells them after the concert. He offered to 'hire' me again and I went back to work.

But 1st the show. It was lightly attended and getting a cheap ticket was pretty easy. Bob and the boys sounded OK but the accoustics were not the best. A beautiful Spanish Boots and My Back Pages were highlights and I can not seem to stop singing Spirit on the Water. Set list is here http://my.execpc.com/~billp61/042607s.html

I met Mick from England who was celebrating a birthday. He is a friend of Tim's and has seen 185 shows and another guy from Holland who is close to 200. So you see I am really not that crazy. Well OK, maybe a bit.

The smells outside the venue in Italy are incredible. They set up mobile kitchens and cook there. It is so good. We had a couple of drinks to celebrate Mick's birthday and then got inside.

I ducked out before the encore and met with Tim outside. He got me positioned and got ready to sell. He gave me 80 posters and said I should try for 5 Euros each. He charges me 2 euros so I was ready to make some money.

People started dribbling out and I got no takers. Then they started buying. Ended up selling 56, almost all at 5. A few got a deal but not many. Tim said to just give him 100 euros and so I made about 160. Not bad for 30 minutes work.

Reminded me of a line from a Dylan song - my pockets are loaded but I'm spending every dime. It is great fun. Immediate gratification. They give you 5 you give them a poster. I have a few ideas on improving our merchandising but that's for another post.

It was so great to see Tim again. We found a place to get a drink, had to get it to go, or as they say here, take-away, and went back to my room and talked until 3AM. I could not sleep past 7:30 and am paying the price. But it's OK. Great seeing him, selling the poster and talking politics.

He is a bit of a socialist so we always have plenty to talk about.

I told him his business sounded like the way they describe poker, a hard way to make an easy living. It is not so bad for him except hauling the posters from city to city. I have ideas on that as well.

Great time, although my sightseeing was limited.

More later.