It's been a pretty good summer.

I went to eleven shows at the Hollywood Bowl.

I went to San Francisco a couple times.

I met many new babies.

I got to see friends in from all over the world and spend plenty of time with them.

I finally tried the Krispy Kreme chicken sandwich. AND IT WAS GOOD.

This weekend was my last Hollywood Bowl visit of the season. It also marked the arrival of fall in LA and I had a friend come visit me from Houston. We spent the entire weekend eating, driving, or sleeping, and we didn't sleep that much. From Friday night through Sunday evening we managed to hit Pink's, Knott's fried chicken, Dino's lasagna pizza, Din Tai Fung, Porto's, and Beard Papa. Monday morning I swore to eat nothing but salad the rest of the week. So of course I went straight to Bob's Big Boy for breakfast after depositing my friend at the airport. I had an hour to kill before work.

But Sunday. We saw Rufus Wainwright at the Hollywood Bowl. Doing his Judy Garland show. The last of his Judy Garland shows. Other than the obnoxious over-demonstrative of their fabulousness scenester asshats who moved in front of us just before the end of the first half, the show was a pure delight.



For the first encore Rufus came back out in Judy's tights, blazer, and fedora from Summer Stock. He spent the second in a beautiful black and white print silk bathrobe. No pictures of that, though, just a very blurry Lorna Luft back at my Flickr page. Sorry about the blurriness.

Have we talked about the amazing height of my concert-going life last Wednesday night when I saw Dave Brubeck at the Hollywood Bowl? It's sad, really. To peak at 28.


"Somewhere Over the Rainbow"


"Take Five"

Watching him play the whole night was beautiful, cause he was really playing. With the piano, with the other musicians, with just the sheer joy he felt. He was like a kid on Christmas morning, a boy with a slingshot. Dave Brubeck had more fun and artistry and talent and speed in those fingers than some pianists I could name in their 20s. Not that I'm rude enough to name names...

It was pretty cool how he worked "Take Five" in, really. He was in the middle of another song, then all of a sudden he started that distinctive piano opening and you shoulda seen that Bowl blow up. Was like he lit a fire under everyone there. Except that little girl in front of me who was hating the whole thing. I get that it's amazing and the clueless woman with her said "You'll remember this when you're older," but no, she won't. She hated it, she was bored the entire time, and kept getting up to complain to her mother. Even the best pieces of the night did not keep her interest or please her, cause she just wasn't into it. I get that it was probably a once in a lifetime chance for her cause let's face it, Mr. Brubeck ain't getting any younger, but really, if your kid's not going to enjoy it, please them and the people sitting near you and just leave them at home.

/soapbox

Very quiet weekend. Hollywood Bowl was fun, post with pics and vid later if I can ever get the media convert site to work again.

Woke up much earlier than I wanted Saturday morning. Tried to roll over and go back to sleep, cause up at 8am on my day to sleep in just not cool, but then I realized hey... I could go to Target... and there wouldn't be a line or crowds... and I need milk, toiletries, and HARRY POTTER... and Target has all three!

So yes. I bought the Harry Potter book. But Liz bought it off me the very next day, so does it really count?

I read the whole thing in one day. I settled into bed with Harry at 10.30 Saturday morning, and despite cooking a big pot of saffron rice with linguica and peas for lunch, chatting with my mom, venturing online, and doing three loads of laundry, I finished the book at half past midnight. It was the only way to stay unspoiled. It was a wonderful send-off to the series. I think now that it's all over I'll start collecting the British editions off ebay or something. I'd like to read those.

Din Tai Fung with playmayt and benhsu Sunday morning, where I ran into my friends Chris and Shannon! LA really is home now, because I also ran into three people I knew at the Hollywood Bowl Friday night: an old regular of mine from the video store in Santa Monica (yes, a man who came into a store where I worked three years ago so often that I recognized him. I became friends with many of my regulars at the big bad evil video store. They kept me as sane as I could be at that time in my life and were probably a big part of how I was able to stay as long as I did,) a friend from MyPC, and a guy who works here in animation who's also an exroommate of a friend of mine. That's it. I'm officially an Angeleno if I'm running into people I know at the Bowl.

Root beer floats party in the park Sunday afternoon seemed to go well and there'll probably be another one soon.

Potter madness continues behind the cut with this week's specially themed mondaysabitch questions and a recipe for butterbeer that I can't wait to try. ( Check it out! )

NO SPOILERS HERE, DESPITE THE PRESENCE OF A CUT. THE CUT IS ONLY FOR LENGTH. NO SPOILERS. NO!

So wonderful that I wish you could have all been there to experience it with me. Since that's not possible, I broke all sorts of rules and used the handy dandy (extremely shaky) video record function on my camera to snag this, this, and this, as well as the piece below. Enjoy! ( Many pictures back here. )

I know next to nothing about opera and even less about contemporary opera stars and performers, so even had I been told that Sumi Jo was appearing as The Queen of the Night, it would not have meant anything to me. But wow, was she good, even though she was ill and almost didn't sing in the second act. There was a family of horrible opera snobs behind us who had the deplorable taste to boo her during her curtain call because apparently her singing was not up to their standards. I loved her rendition of the second act aria, and am impressed that she's still singing it twenty years into her career. I found a more complete performance of the piece by Sumi Jo as well and enjoyed that at work today. All I know is that it was better then I or they could ever do, therefore un-damn well-booable. They were so horrible and insistant that I finally turned around and said "You do remember that they said she's ill and almost didn't sing the second act?" to which the obnoxious teenage son replied "I've heard people who claimed illness do it much better than that. She was awful." Um, no. Judge for yourself: