Monday, July 30, 2007

Photos (finally!)

Finally have gotten my shit together to share some photos of my trip to NYC 2 weekends ago. The view from Cara's apartment on Wall St.(but watch out for those killer moths!)

Doesn't this look like a nice little place?

South Street Seaport. This was right near one of those Body World exhibits, y'know, where they have those preserved bodies on display? I didn't catch it when it was in Chicago at MSI, so I toyed briefly with the idea of visiting this one... But admission was like 30 bucks! Too rich for my blood, especially since I recently blew the wad on LuPone (but she's worth every cent!). So I said screw it and went for a lemon Italian ice and a manicure instead.

More from Downtown

I know y'all think that all I did when I was in NYC two weekends ago was eat, sleep and see Gypsy, but that's a lie! I also saw Grey Gardens, AND I ventured downtown to visit my former college roomie, Cara.

Does anybody know what this building is? I think it's on Water Street.


View from the South Street Seaport. I can't explain my fascination with bridges...

Sunday, July 29, 2007

And of course....

Gypsy! To see some truly fabulous pictures from 2 weeks ago AND from closing night last night, go and visit Sarah B's Adventures, Litwit and Little Voice (go to the links on the side over there. You know where I mean. My link thing is giving me gyp again, and I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. So you're gonna have to work for it. But believe me when I tell you that you just totally need to see this stuff. It's good.)

The Gypsy Cab. I wonder if it's weird for Patti to be around town and see part of her own face on cabs and stuff? I was also getting looks when I was wearing my t-shirt (yes, I know. Such a geek!). But I guess it would be kind of alarming to have Patti glaring at you all "whadddre YOU lookin' at"?? from a t-shirt, huh?

My hotel room. I stayed at the Park 79 on 79th and Columbus. It was cute, quiet, clean and I would definitely stay there again. Just take the stairs because the elevator is tiny and it's extremely slow.
I got into the spirit of the thing and bought some roses from a little store on Amsterdam Av. They really brightened up my little room, and allowed me to wander about singing "Everything's Coming Up Roses" to myself. I had to thieve some extra plastic cups from housekeeping to put them all in (very classy, no?) but I think they looked okay. They mainly lived on top of the AC unit, as you see here. But I also put a bunch by the bed (see above, with lovely strategic placement of comb, pen and flyer).


Also have a pic of me sitting in Patti's chair at our own little after party, but it's horrible, horrible (why do I always take such hideous pictures?) so you don't get to see it.





Fore!

Oye. I shoulda stayed in New York, I'm telling you. Yesterday, I'm in my car, driving along doing errands, minding my own business. I'm driving near a golf course, and all of a sudden, a golf ball comes flying out of nowhere and - I am sure you can guess - hits my car. Thunk. Thank god it didn't hit the windshield, but it did create a big old honking dent right in front. My dad suggested I go to the police station to file some kind of accident report - even if nothing happens, it will at least alert the golf course that there's a problem with their idiot golfers creating havoc on innocently driving people. So, okay, I head to MGPD, who promptly tell me that the side of the street in question is not in their jurisdiction. WHich is completely bizarre, but whatever. They send me to Glenview. The cops there tell me the same thing, and send me to the village of Golf. I go there and nobody is home (it's a really small place). So I called their non emergency number and they direct me to the forest preserve police and say they'll send somebody over.

Which would be fine, except I had volunteered to help out at Joffrey's Summer Intensive Showcase, and had to be downtown by 12 (our police station extravaganza happened at like 10:30. Finally we went to the actual !@#$*%& golf course and they couldn't tell us what to do either. I had to leave, and hauled it downtown. Had no sooner parked the car when the forest preserve guy called my cell and took my report on the phone.

Geez. So that was my Saturday. Last Saturday was much more fun....

Thursday, July 26, 2007

How About a Poem?

My mom's spending her days working summer school and found this poem from "The Song Shoots Out of My Mouth" by Jaime Adoff.
It's called "Diva" and for some reason, mom thought I'd like it. Maybe it reminded her of somebody (actually, a few somebodies) that we know... It's arrayed on the page in a more interesting way than this, but you get the idea, I think....

Diva

She is the
undisputed Queen of everything. Her walk says it all.
She's earned every note, every ounce of gold, and platinum
albums sold.
So many number one songs, not enough fingers, toes, and thumbs
to count them all.
Her grace walks onstage before she does.
We wait, anticipate. Wonder from this side
what it would be like to be her. To be up there looking at us.
What does she think about?
The place goes dark. The storm before the calm.
Then without warning:
THE SONG
flows
out of her mouth.
Like a waterfall in slow motion.
A magic potion
poured slow and easy on the ears.
Then, just when you think it's safe to sit, the riffs come raining down.
On my head, no soul umbrella, instead I let the song soak, deep and long. Filling me
up with everything she has, everything she's lived, everything she is.
Her voice brings me close to tears.
I sing along and move, she is all about the groove.
I watch, as each note shakes hands with every fan.
Thanking
loving
kissing
hugging.
What's hers
is mine, is ours.
Her power
is
her voice
is
her soul
singing
to me
in this seat.

She is the
Diva.

indecision 2007


To go or not to go??? I know I've been racking up the cool points, but still....



Wednesday, July 25, 2007

photographic evidence...


Of Ms. Fleming and her plate... I can tell, you were having serious doubts about me with that story, weren't you? Oh no, I can hear you all saying, no more double tall lattes for HER.... But really, I don't think you can make this stuff up... She really is one in a million and she took this whole plate escapade with extraordinarily good grace. None of that, uh oh, here come those nutters again (at least, if she thinks that, she is VERY good at hiding it!)

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

What is a "Tony Blake Moment"?

So in my Gypsy post, I mentioned that it was a good thing they'd cleared Patti's plate and stuff or else we would have had a "Tony Blake Moment". I thought I'd clarify.

Several years ago, some of my British friends, and members of my Renee Fleming group (the Beautiful Voice, or TBV)were going to tour the Royal Opera House in London. The tour was closed and so they ended up going to the cafeteria for a sit down and a snack. They had a similar Close Encounter with Diva Kind. They became aware that Ms. Fleming was sitting in the cafeteria as well. She was as wonderful as ever, and went over to say hello to them, because she recognized them from seeing them before. After she left, my friends did as we did, and went to the table, sat in Renee's chair, etc. And Tony, well, he asked the server if he might have Renee's plate. The server said sure, but he'd get him a clean one. Tony said no and said he wanted that one, and they let him have it. So he took it home, you know and there you have it.

But stick with me, my story gets better. A year or so later, a number of us met up in New York to see Renee in La Traviata. My friend Jen and I thought it would be very very funny if we got a similar plate and had all of us sign it. She also sent it to Renee, told her the story, and asked if she would sign the plate, too. Imagine our delight when the plate was returned to Jen, with Renee's signature smack in the middle. We presented it to Tony who was, in his words "gobsmacked." We all then signed another plate which we gave to Renee.

To her immense credit, Renee was such a great sport about the whole thing. She seemed to understand that taking plates was not something any of us did on a regular basis.

That remains one of my favorite Renee stories. I wonder if she still has that plate??

by the way...

I did some other stuff this weekend aside from seeing Gypsy (but not much).
Friday, I headed downtown to do a little shopping at the South Street Seaport and see Cara. I was also really tempted to see the Body World exhibit they had at the Seaport, y'know, those bodies that they do some kind of weird procedure with and then pose them around? But it was SO expensive, and I skipped it. Had a manicure instead. Much less graphic and gross. I have some pictures from downtown, it was SUCH a beautiful day, but you will just have to use your imagination for now, till I can get them up here.

It was fun seeing Cara, my roommate in college for 4 years, now a high-powered attorney living on Wall Street. Seriously. Right on Wall Street. Anyway. We went for sushi near her place and spent the whole afternoon catching up. I went back to the hotel to change before I went back to City Center. Did the stage door afterwards and then went to a little place around the corner to have some food, as I'd only bolted a sandwich and some ring-dings at the hotel before the show. For some reason, I had a hard time getting a cab after that, so I walked to Columbus Circle to try and get one there. Was a little tempted by the Harry Potterpalooza that was going on, and it was almost midnight. I was very close to going to check out the festivities, but I was SO exhausted, I went to the hotel and went to sleep instead.

I DID get the book, the next morning in Lincoln Center. I finished it Sunday on the plane. And, can I just say: I was (SO) right about a certain plot development??? HAHAHA. JK Rowling, you are an evil genius (and since I totally called something, does that make ME an evil genius as well?? I think so!).

Okay, okay, moving on.....

New York, New York...

What can I say that has not already been said (with considerable flair and totally fabulous photos)here here and here ??

At first, it seemed as though the elements were conspiring against me: the night before I left for New York, we had crazy electrical storms, and storms on the east coast would almost certainly mean delays at LaGuardia. The morning newsman reassured me, though, that flights were taking off from O'Hare on time, so off I went. Takeoff was delayed about an hour, but we arrived only half an hour later than the original landing time (we apparently "made up time in the air" although I am not even going to pretend I know how we did that). On the ground, I found my bag (always pays to flirt with the curbside check in guy AND give him a good tip!) and took a gypsy cab to my hotel. Oh, wait, that sounds strange - what I mean to say is it was a perfectly legal yellow cab, but it had an ad for Gypsy with Patti glaring out over the traffic on top of it. That was the cab in the queue that showed up for me. I took that as a sign.

My excitement over that night's performance took over - I unpacked my stuff in my cute little hotel room, then had to bust outta there. I started walking, just to be out, just to do something with all the energy. I didn't really intend to do this, but I walked all the way to City Center (from 79th St and Columbus to 55th between 6th and 7th.

I stopped to pick up my ticket. I gave the box office person my card and id and I wish I could have seen my own face when they pushed the ticket over to me. I must have looked like I'd died and gone to heaven or something, because the box office person said how happy I looked to have it in my hot little hand. "Well," sez I, "I came from Chicago to see the show this week." The box office lady and her manager looked at me. Finally, she spoke in an astounded way. "You came from Chicago?? To see Patti LuPone?" Like she was completely unable to fathom that someone would do such a thing.

Uh, yeah. I surely did. Several times, in fact, the first of which was Thursday night. That was the best seat I'd bought, row CC, seat 113 (Sarah's lucky seat number!). Friday it was row A, all the way far right, Saturday it was D111 (behind an Ugly Betty cast member and her boyfriend with an abnormally large head that was a serious obstruction to my view of center stage. They would also cuddle from time to time and she'd put her head on his shoulder, etc, which also obstructed my view considerably.)

I could go on & on & on about what I thought about the performance, but I won't - all I can say is that I knew I was gonna love it, and of course, I did. I will also say what I wrote as a note to myself directly following the performance - if I was stuck on a desert island with only Patti singing Gypsy for company, and those chocolate tarts from Bombon Cafe, I'd....well, I'd be gigantic, but I'd be happy, happy, happy. Patti was tremendous, as I knew she would be - funny, fierce, flirty (and words that begin with other letters, too). I also loved Boyd Gaines as Herbie. I'd been disappointed with the one we'd had at Ravinia last year. Couldn't sing to save his life, bless him. Boyd, though, CAN sing. He was Bobby on the first recording of Company I'd ever heard (tying with Raul Esparza for the Favorite Bobby crown, I think) and I was so used to hearing his voice as Bobby, it took me a little while to realize Herbie was NOT going to suddenly bust out with "Dammit, Rose, IIIIII'mmmmm Reaaaaadyyyy! I'mmmm reeaaaadyy nowwww! Marry me a little..." etc.

Oh, but the best night by far was Saturday night. I think that was the strongest night of the 3 I saw, although they were all pretty amazing. That night, we had a little Ravinia Reunion - Kari, Sarah, Bob, Gator and myself were joined by Zsally. We waited by the stage door to be graced by the Divine Presence (and we did not wait in vain!) and headed off in the direction of a lovely little establishment where our Cruise Director (Sarah) had made a post-show reservation. I think we all would have been happy with the evening if it had closed like this - great show, a little wine, some french fries and conversation....

But we got a little added bonus for our evening. We were seated and pouring over the wine list and menus, trying to decide what to have. Bob suddenly nudged Kari and said something to her, then instructed Gator to turn around. I did too, 'cuz I'm nosy, and who had come sweeping in and was now sitting merely feet away from us?

Go on, guess. Although you probably don't need to. Yup, it was Patti. A certain giddiness descended on our table - and this was before any wine had been served, mind you. We played it cool (kind of) and I think we were (mostly) successful. There was a lot of loud laughter as we drank our wine and ate our foie gras and french fries. Bob bravely snapped a quick flash-less shot on his phone camera. And then, inspiration struck (actually, I think it was Kari) - and the two of them went off and had the waiter bring Patti a drink. See? Playing it cool, expressing our love & gratitude & then leaving the diva to her martini in peace. It doesn't get any better than that, I'm tellin' ya.

Ah, so anyway. She and her friends left before we did, allowing us to sit back there and talk about her (ha!). More wine was drunk, photos freely taken (including a few of us sitting in her chair... it's a good thing they'd cleared her plate and stuff, or else we may have had a Tony Blake moment...) . They closed the little room partition on us, so we were having our very own private party back there. It was fun times. Finally, we sloshed out and spent a little more time outside. Then we all piled into a taxi and split the fare uptown (I've always wanted to say "let's split a cab uptown" like they do on Seinfeld. Don't ask me why. Easily amused, I guess.)

More to come, and pictures, too!!

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

My bags are packed, I've got my act...

I'll be back Sunday night with a FULL report!

* I think I rather frightened the "men in my life" at lunch today, when it came up that I was going to be seeing Gypsy three nights in a row. It seems I have recaptured my title of "Office Fruitcake" - which is staggering, considering I've only been here since April. I was kind of hoping to hold off on reclaiming the crown for a while...

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

(did you really think I could resist?)


So, I COULD talk about the arctic, sub-zero conditions here on 13, that require me to bring two sweaters to work, despite it being in the 80s outside. Or, I could speculate about the "creative differences" that drove Mandy Patinkin to leave Criminal Minds. Or, oooh, I could tell you about my sudden, inexplicable desire to buy tickets to a certain Chicago Fire game in October (okay, not so inexplicable - of course I want to go when they are playing the LA Galaxy, so I can goggle at David Beckham). I could also talk about how much I want to be DONE with the !@#&$*% thesis already, or contemplate the deep and mystical question: Serverus Snape - Friend or Foe surrounding the release of the next Harry Potter book.

I could do any of those things, but I'm NOT GOING TO. HA. I'm going to put up another picture of Ms. Patti and tell you all once again how excited I am about Gypsy. Did you really think I would be able to shut up about it for any length of time?

Not. A. Chance.

Monday, July 16, 2007

wild about harry....

I will shut up about Gypsy for a while (you'll be hearing plenty about it after I actually see it, and you know mere words are not enough to even begin to describe my excitement....) and talk about Harry Potter instead. I saw Order of the Phoenix on Sunday morning (showing you what a complete and total heathen I am... no church for me on Sunday mornings...). The audience was full of kids, of course, so I was a little worried, but as soon as the film started rolling, there was not a peep out of anybody.

The film is a who's who of who is great in the world of British acting: Richard Griffiths, Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman, Gary Oldman, Maggie Smith, Jason Isaacs, Michael Gambon, Robbie Coltrane, and Emma Thompson were all back as recurring characters, along with our teenage trio (Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint). New to the cast, in another bout of truly inspired casting (Rickman as Snape is so perfect it gives me chills every time he opens his mouth, and Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart in an earlier film... Perfect, perfect, perfect) for this film are Imelda Staunton (so, so evil as Delores Umbridge) and Helena Bonham Carter as released Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange.

Let's see.... the books are so wonderful, and have the ability to draw the reader in so vividly, creating a mental picture of all these magical places, it is hard for me to imagine how the filmmakers even got started at bringing these to life. But they do a really good job. The castle and grounds are mostly how I would imagine them to be.

Of course, there just isn't room in a 2 hour movie to cover everything in the book, but the highlights are hit and hit pretty well. There were only a few things in the movie that were changed, and they didn't bother me (too much). As part of the series, I think it was very well done. Roger Ebert reviewed the film in the Sun Times and totally missed the point, I think. He hoped the other films would not be as dark (HAHAHA. Hello??) and wondered where the joy of Harry had gone. If you've been following along at all, the boy doesn't have a whole lot to be joyful about, Roge.... But anyway.

So. As part of the series, yes, 2 thumbs up. I don't know how the movie would stand by itself - if someone was coming new to the series I don't know if they'd quite get it, without seeing the other movies or at least reading the source material. It is very clearly a transitional movie, creating more questions than it answers. But it did its job well, and was a nice way to spend a Sunday morning.

Friday, July 13, 2007

I don't think I can express to you....

How excited I am about Gypsy next week (this is NOT just the caffeine talking, kids!)
Go here and look (just LOOK!) at the pics of the opening night party and curtain calls.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

How will I contain myself??


Just 9 more days... and everything will be coming up roses...

this time for me!!

j*pointe

Really nifty blog action here that goes behind the scenes at Chicago's top ballet company!

arts&crafts

I wish I was as skilled at knitting as Emily, but I am telling you now, it will be a cold day in hell before I ever do anything as nifty as her new lace project. Honestly. I can't even purl yet.

This does not prevent me from having many different projects going, all in various stages of progress:

- the blanket: it's all knit stitch and it looks really cool actually, but there's something about sitting around in no air conditioning (long story, I won't bore you) in 90 degree heat with a whole bunch of wool on your lap). I am hoping to finish it soon though.

- the ribbon yarn scarf: since I started knitting, using the ribbon yarn was my goal, since I am in love with it. I have 3 varieties of ribbon yarn. One black and white, almost done. One rainbow, started, then forgot how to cast off and it totally fell apart. One pink, started, but I don't like how it looks, and am on the fence on what to do about it.

- other: I have a pink kind of raggedy looking yarn that I've been working on since February. It fell off the needles after I took it to NYC so I had to start again, and haven't finished....

Other than that, I haven't done any crafting at all. I've moved away from the scrapbooking - although I did make a really nifty mini album for a friend of mine for her birthday. It's probably because I've been out of here for so long. I'm not spending all my money on crap, I'm spending it on her instead. Oh, and shoes. That's more fun than scrap mania any day....

the reading list...

Two new great reads I finished recently:

The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters with Extraordinary People by Susan Orlean: a bunch of short profiles of interesting people - a female bullfighter in Spain, Silly Billy the Clown (and his clowning empire in NYC), Tonya Harding's fan club (this was right after the Nancy Kerrigan thing), a show dog (boxer), the 80s singer Tiffany, designer Bill Blass ... She makes all of their stories interesting. In one case, I wanted to know what else happened to these people, and was actually googling them to see what else I could find out.

As the Romans Do: An American Family's Italian Odyssey by Allan Epstein. I found this on my shelf when I was cleaning. I'd bought it but apparently never read it (sometimes it's just like Christmas in my room, I swear). It was written right before the Jubilee in 2000, which is when I was there. The author is American, but fell in love with Rome and moved his family there. He talks about Roman culture from an outsider's insider perspective (because he's in the community, but yet outside it, if that makes sense?) I loved Rome when I was there, it was our home base since that is where Loyola's beautiful campus is. I wish I had read this before I'd gone...

Of course, all other reading has been suspended currently as I have devoted all my free moments to re-reading all of the Harry Potter books so I am entirely prepared for the release of #7. I have one pre-ordered here, of course, but I will be in New York on the actual day, so I might just have to get a copy there.... who knows? It would be great (if heavy) plane reading.

I am at the end of book 5, (Order of the Phoenix). I am kind of putting off finishing it, because I know what happens (and I won't say, in case you haven't read it) and I somehow apparently think that if I don't read it, it won't happen. Hmmm. Major avoidance issues. All of the books after Goblet of Fire have made me cry (so maybe I don't want to be in public when I read book 7?)

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Wheee! Wireless!

Yes, ladeez and jellyspoons, it's finally happened! I have wireless highspeed internet! I have now officially joined the 21st century. (About damn time, I hear you all saying. I know, I know).

But let me share a few things with you that I learned today:

1. Those "Geniuses" at the Apple store aren't really Geniuses (one of them gave me really bad advice today)
2. When in doubt, call Tech Support! That is what I had to do. And there was a lovely person on the other end of the phone, who I think was in Canada and she helped me through it all. Hooray!

Friday, July 06, 2007

Just Gimme the Degree, Already!

I visited my thesis advisor yesterday (walked about 10 blocks from here to school, to the post office, then back here... at least I am getting my exercise!) and good news, kids, I'm almost done with this thing!

He made notes on my draft which he said was "very good work" and "you should be very proud of this." Soooo, I have to make the suggested edits (which really are more stylistic than content. Stuff like how to use block quotes and elipses correctly. I admit, I am free and easy with my punctuation. I like using the elipsis and dashes in a way that is not prescribed in the Turabian guide.) Then, I have to send revised copy back to him and my committee members (if I can track them down, that is) have them give their comments, and then.... I schedule an oral presentation with them. Voila! Bob is my uncle. (Well, actually, Bob is not my uncle. I know only 2 people named Bob and neither of them are related to me. I have uncles by the name of Tony, Frank, Paul, Joe, Steve, Bill and Sam. But no Roberts or Bobs. But I digress.)

Personally I think that they should just give me the degree - I have, after all, passed the biggest test there is - getting a job in my chosen field - actually doing the arts management. That has to be a better display of my talents than writing a paper, don't you think?

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Cat Photo!


This is my kitty boy, Start (his sister's name is Finish. Photo of her soon to come)

morton grove daze...

For as long as I can remember I've done the same thing on the 4th of July, with two exceptions (2000, when I was in Germany with Heidi and Cara and last year, when I was in NYC with Sarah): walked to the local parade (and sat in the same spot for, oh, I don't know, like 25 years?), had family bbq (sometimes also a friend's bbq) then carnival and fireworks in Harrer Park.

The collective experience is known in our little village as "Morton Grove Days" and is fairly popular around town. The carnival lasts for 4 or 5 days, and is set up in the American Legion parking lot. When I was growing up, it was the tilt-a-whirl, ferris wheel and other rides that had my attention. Now that I am grown up, I have started to think about the safety rides that get set up in a parking lot by a bunch of long haired scraggly "carnies" who take every chance they get to leer at you - thus the main attraction has become the Beer Garden (and I don't even drink beer).

The fireworks display is fun, but is definitely that of a small town - they shoot the things off one by one and have a really big finish, so that it goes something like this:

Poof.
Crowd: Ooooh
Poof.
Crowd: Ahhhh.
POP!
Crowd: EEK!
Poof!
Crowd: oooh
PoofSizzle!POP!POP!POP!Poof!
Crowd: Ahhh... (etc)

We used to drive to the park for the fireworks, and set up blankets and chairs in the back of the El Camino. Then they closed the parking lot so no one could park there (Morton Grove crowd control) and so we started walking instead.

I didn't go last night to see the fireworks - instead, I stayed at home, stretched out on the floor and watched the Macy's show from NYC, did all the ooohing and ahhing etc. It was almost like being there.

Monday, July 02, 2007

New York State of Mind

In 18 more days, I'll be going to New York to see her do this and I am very much looking forward to it.

Here's the plan:

July 19 Gypsy!
July 20 Gypsy (I KNOW. But I couldn't help myself!)
July 21 Possibly Grey Gardens
AND THEN Gypsy!
July 22 home
July 23 work
July 24 misery
July 25 DTs

Don't have anything else planned until August whenever - then will see Patti & Audra together at Ravinia. Then I will be in a severe state of continued diva withdrawal for a prolonged amount of time (unless you count Angela G in La Boheme at Lyric in October, and I really wasn't). Will see Renee in Traviata in Chicago in January, but other than that...

Did someone say 'Pizza Fest'?

Yes, that's right - I went to 2 street food festivals in one weekend. Although personally, I think calling this thing a 'Fest' was a big of an overstatement. It was a parking lot and half a closed off street in Lincoln Park (at Fullerton and Racine). I went with my friends, not because we had an overwhelming desire to eat a lot of pizza (in fact, one of my friends doesn't even LIKE pizza) but to see Will Hoge's band perform. I first saw Will a few years back when he opened for Edwin McCain (this is when I was still spendnig all my money on SRO shows at the House of Blues, etc) and again on The Rock Boat. He does rock music, mainly, and he endeared himself to me with his song "Hey Mr. President (Anyone But You)" released during the last election. (A catchy little ditty with the refrain of: "Anyone but you would be just fine, anyone but you can have this vote of mine... I don't believe what you say is true, so I'm gonna vote for anyone but you...").

I used to go to concerts all the time and see similar singer songwriters, but as Ive found other
people to spend all my money on, I haven't been to a rock show for a while.

You know how, a few posts ago when I said I wished I was the sort of person who listened to jazz, played Scrabble, read the Wall Street Journal, watched CNN, etc? It occurred to me that I am closer to the 'sitting-at-Ravinia-listening-to-jazz' person than I am the 'standing-in-front-of-the-speaker-at-a-street-festival-concert' person. Watching everyone sloshing beer all over the place, inhaling smoke fumes, standing around, as I say, in front of the speaker, just isn't my idea of a good time any more. (Oh, no. Surely the Wall Street Journal can't be far behind?)

It's too bad, too, because I LOVED listening to the band play. That and catching up with my friends was the best part of the evening (and watching Will walk off into the sunset with a gaggle of giggling groupies was also pretty entertaining. Ah, the rock 'n roll lifestyle)

And maybe it's because we went on the last day of the 'fest' and were near closing time, but the pizza pickings were also pretty slim. I counted only a few food booths (and for a city known for its pizza, to have 2 offerings at this so-called 'pizza fest'?? How pathetic is that??)I had a limp slice of pepperoni pizza and some fried macaroni and cheese (!!) We ended up going back to the burbs for a late dinner that did not involve pizza or fried food of any kind....

I think this also fills my street festival quota for a few years. If anybody needs me, I'll be at Ravinia...