Cheap Date

John Williams night at The Hollywood Bowl generally occurs on Labor Day weekend. I hadn't realized it, but it was also this weekend last year. We went on Saturday this year and it was great fun, as usual. The first half of the show was actually comprised of Williams conducting movie music from "The Golden Age of Hollywood," including Now, Voyager and Psycho. He saved his own compositions for after the intermission and did not disappoint. We heard selections from Jurassic Park, Memoirs of a Geisha, Indiana Jones, E.T., Superman, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Hook, more Star Wars. We even got the entire, extended version of the theme from the NBC Nightly News. As was to be expected, there were several light sabers that lit up during any Star Wars piece. I think there was a record number this year as I don't recall seeing so many in years past. During "Vader's Theme," there was even a chase up and down the venue between someone with a blue one and someone with a red one. The cheap seats, way at the top, lend themselves to a great view of all of this frivolity. I wouldn't want it any other way.

Sunday night's show was fantastic too. John Mauceri, sadly in his last couple of weeks as the Director of The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, counted down the Top 25 Greatest Movie Musicals according to the American Film Institute. Clips from each film played on the multiple screens around the Bowl, while the orchestra played accompanying music. I was really hoping that my favorite, The Sound of Music, would be named #1, but I was wrong. I think it was robbed, but at least it placed in the Top 5. There were no light sabers at Movie Night, but we were seated with a much more unruly group of people. Apparently, when some folks bought the least expensive seats in the house, they also received a license to talk loudly and guffaw obnoxiously throughout the show. Funny, I paid my $5 and I only received a bench seat assignment and no other special privileges.

Dream A Little Dream

When I woke up this morning afternoon, I had a text message that Duran Duran was playing at a Trader Joe's, somewhere in the greater L.A. area. Granted, it was hours earlier, but it was a nice gesture. It reminded me that I had a dream with a couple of the band members (Nick and Simon) Friday night. It was a strange dream and lots of weird things happened, most of which I don't remember. One thing I do recall is looking at a black and white photo of Nick Rhodes and me at a funeral. My Mom was in the picture too, but I have no idea who died. When I told E about it, he insisted he must have been the one who had died, but I remember him being in the dream too.

I did wonder why in the world I was dreaming about Duran Duran, but then I remembered I'd read a few pages in the biography I'm reading before going to sleep. Besides, Nick Rhodes is still dreamy after all these years, so why not?

Life Seems To Have PMS Too

This is the first Labor Day 'holiday' weekend in ages I'm not working, and I have a cold. Dammit!

It looks like I will have to work next weekend though, so little Ami may not get to defend his Hamster Ball Derby champion title, which he really doesn't have, and most likely really didn't win.

I've dragged my feet on getting a new car that gets decent mileage. Today, my 'check engine' light came on in the car I'll be selling or trading in. Oh yeah, and the a/c is still broken too.

I didn't buy tickets to see The Killers in October and the shows are sold out. I've wanted to see them live for ages and even had a code for a presale. D'oh!

I think I'll just go eat some dark chocolate.