Jazz Night at the Bowl

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

As some of my previous entries indicate, I am fan of the Hollywood Bowl. I could see just about any live performance at the Bowl. In this way, the Bowl has broadened my musical horizons. My trips to the Bowl have made me a fan of artists that I would not have otherwise listened to. This is the case with tonight's performance.

image from Hollywood Bowl website

Jordana had asked me several weeks prior if I wanted to go see Jamie Cullum at the Bowl. I heard the Hollywood Bowl part of the question and said, "sure". The name of the headliner was familiar, but off the top of my head I couldn't name any of his songs. She sounded excited so I thought perhaps it would be worth the trip.

Rob got called into work. So, I attended the performance sans husband. Jordana was also sans husband. I took the shuttle from the zoo and met Jordana and some of her friends from college. I arrived a tad bit late and I didn't get a chance to met the whole group or take any pics. From what I could tell, there were about 10 people in the group.

I brought a small array of fruit, cheese, white wine and a unbelievable amount of bread. No Rob means small spread. No one was interested in the Vouvray that I brought. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I ended up drinking almost the entire bottle by myself, which made the opening acts survivable.

Elizabeth Shepard opened. Her performance was solid. Although, I felt as though she was more folksy Sarah MacLachlan-ish than Jazz. We didn't have many people sitting nearby. This allowed our group to ignore the performance and chat incessantly. I guess poor Elizabeth Shepard wasn't compelling enough for our group.

Next up was the Christian McBride Situation. Sadly, this performance made me feel as though I was trapped at a Smooth Jazz show. (I got hoodwinked into seeing Boney James several years ago and it was painful. Talk about horrible performances!) I was seriously beginning to reconsider my treatise that anything sounds good at the Bowl. This set was blissfully short and the wine was really working its magic.

Finally, Jamie Cullum came on stage. He was a lot younger than I expected. Oddly enough, this evening was his 29th birthday. He brought wit and vitality to his performance. It didn't hurt that he was accompanied by the oh-so-wonderful Count Basie Orchestra. He sang Cole Porter standards with the panache of Harry Connick and was more genuine than his contemporary the soulless Michael Bublé. As an added twist, he covered some songs from other genres ala David Byrne. My only complaint is that I ran out of wine and his set was too short.

For your viewing pleasure, here are some of video I captured of the performance. The quality is surprisingly decent considering I used my Casio Point-and-Shoot to capture it.


Jamie Cullum - Hollywood Bowl - Blame It On My Youth from Anne K. on Vimeo.


Jamie Cullum - Hollywood Bowl - Singing in the Rain/Umbrella Medley from Anne K. on Vimeo.


Jamie Cullum - Hollywood Bowl - High and Dry Cover from Anne K. on Vimeo.

Reggae Sunday

I am horribly behind in my blogging. I can't believe I'm a week behind! I've been busy, but the good kind of busy. I've had some time to complete design projects AND socialize with friends. I will try to recap in chronological order.

Sunday, August 3rd - Reggae Night at the Hollywood Bowl
This is one of our favorite shows of the Hollywood Bowl Season. Rob and I have seen this show every year we've been together...except for last year. (The show was the weekend before our wedding.) The line-up for this year's show was a bit odd. The openers were Beres Hammond and Barrington Levy, two reggae greats. The weird part is they opened for UB40?!! I consider UB40 to be Reggae Light. Nonetheless, we coerced some people into going. This year's group was rather large. We had 18 people join us this year.

The show was a lot of fun. Every member of our group was up and dancing at one point or another. Some [cough, Rob, cough] were up dancing the whole time. Overall the performances were excellent. Although, I have to say UB40 mellowed and thinned out the crowd. The upside to their performance is that many people were singing along to their hits. Here's a video tidbit.


UB40 at the Hollywood Bowl from Anne K. on Vimeo.

And here are some photos.

Rob and I at the beginning of the fun.
Almost forgot to have a photo taken of ourselves!


Rob working his mojo with the food.
As you'll see,this a huge contrast to what Kevin and I dragged to the last show.

Here's an overview of our spread. All the snacks temporarily occupied 3 seats!

Marinated Mushrooms, Olives, Spinach Dip, and Eggplant Carbornara

Lu, Dan, Amanda & Jenny

Joellaann, Keren, & John

Stefan, Lisa (both not facing the camera), Matt & Jeannette

Damon, Landon, & Dave

Me jokingly doing my "Kissy Face" pose.
This photo is for Cicely who stalks my blog, but NEVER comments

Birthday at the Bowl - Recap

Sunday June 22nd - A recap

First, I must make a statement. I really am not an attention whore. I know this may seem contrary since I had two birthday celebrations this year. I have some explanations for this. One is that I haven't really celebrated my birthday in years. The last couple of years I haven't done anything exciting except have a nice dinner with Rob. Keep in mind Rob and I have lots of nice dinners. This birthday extravaganza makes up for lost celebrations.

The other reason for the second birthday celebration is that I wanted to include Rob. He was a bit miffed when I told him that I had planned an all-girl birthday party. He knew that all-girl meant he or anyone else's husband/fiance were not welcome. I also wanted to include my newfound friends' significant others and some of our other friends.

The Hollywood Bowl seemed like the perfect choice. Music, picnic, and friends - what more could you ask for? An added bonus, Thievery Corporation was performing.

Here's a description of the group from Wikipedia.

Thievery Corporation is a Washington, D.C.-based recording artist and DJ duo consisting of Rob Garza and Eric Hilton and their supporting artists. Their music style is dub, acid jazz, Indian classical and Brazilian (such as bossa nova) fused together with a lounge aesthetic.

The plan was great in theory. Rob was going to make a delicious spread of appetizers and cheeses. Everyone else was just going to contribute cash to pay for the food. Then, Rob had to go out of town. Our scrumptious picnic delight went out the door. I would have cooked, but no one would have eaten. I pride myself in knowing my strengths and weaknesses. Cooking is most definitely not one of my strengths.

To compensate, I decided to provide liquid refreshment. LOTS and LOTS of liquid refreshment.
I try not to do anything halfway. My friend Kevin and I went bonkers at the grocery store. In my wheeled cooler, I had placed 1 bottle of vodka, 3 bottles of rum, 5 bottles of San Pellegrino Sparkling Mineral Water, 1 bottle of Iced Tea, and 1 bottle of Pink Lemonade. The idea was that our companions could make Italian Sodas or the mixed drink of their choice. All this variety was not without its price. The cooler weighed a ton and poor Kevin got stuck with the duty of having to tow it up the hill to our seats.

Margarita Cookies - photo by Jordana Hazel

There was an abundance of food. Natalie made a delicious orzo salad. Jess brought all kinds of goodies including some very strong jello shots. Aside from the beverages, Kevin bought a sandwich platter from Dave's Chillin' and Grillin' from our 'hood. The highlights for me were Jordana's Margarita Cookies and the cupcakes Carmela generously picked up from Yummy Cupcakes.

The show was fantastic. I had my fair share to drink and danced my butt off. It was fun. Sadly, no too many others drank. So, Kevin, Jess, Eddie, and I ran people over with the my cooler on the way back to our shuttle bus. It was not a pretty sight.

Here are some photos from the festivites.

View from our seats - photo by Jordana Hazel

Yours truly - photo by Jordana Hazel

A quick snapshot of Jordana

John and Keren, who was also celebrating her birthday this past weekend

Natalie & Greg

Kevin hiding behind his beverage, Eddie, & Jess

George & Carmela - photo by Jordana Hazel

Chris, Jordana's huband - photo by Jordana Hazel

Last, but not least Joellaann - photo by Jordana Hazel

I had a blast. The only thing I could have wished for is for Rob to have been there. I'm a so excited because this show marks the beginning of Bowl Season. This is only the first of many shows that I wish to attend. Who wants to join me for more?

Hooray! It's Kanye Day!

According one of my cohorts, Sheri, today is Kanye Day. We (Cicely, Sheri, Sheri's boyfriend Larry, and I) went to the Kanye West concert at the Woodlands Pavilion. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I am a fan of Kanye West, but I most certainly don't drink the Kool-aid. I did, however, drink a large frozen pomegranate margarita. Prior to the concert, we stopped at TGI Friday's to eat and grab a drink. We all felt we needed sustenance and libations to fully prepare us for the show. The food was nothing to write home about, but the drinks were fabulous. I forgot that there's one thing you can count on at Friday's and that's drinks.

Cicely and I modeling the menus for the fine dining establishment.

Sheri & Larry - Young Love

I love pomegranate margaritas!

We arrived at the concert at the very beginning of Rihanna's set. I'm just a teeny bit disappointed because I missed the other two opening acts - Lupe Fiasco and N.E.R.D. I am partial to N.E.R.D. because they are from my hometown. No matter because the rest of the show can be best described as a spectacle.

We had tickets for the lawn which was open seating. According to Cicely and Sheri, I thugged our way to the front of the lawn section. I beg to differ as I merely snaked my way through the crowd until I found an opening for us to sit and/or stand. "Thugged" makes it sound as thought I pushed and shoved, which is near impossible with my height and build. The place was packed with a very diverse crowd. I was surprised to see that some people had even brought their kids.

Our view of the stage

The crowd

Sheri and me

Me and Cicely

After a very long intermission for stage setup, the lights dimmed and Kanye West started his performance. The whole show had a theme that Kanye West was on a spaceship that crash landed in unknown territories. It redefined the phrase "solo artist". There wasn't anyone on the stage except Mr. West. No band, DJ, back-up dancers. No one else. He had all of musicians tucked into the orchestra pit. Either Kanye West was either really ballsy or really in love with himself. It was the latter. His ego was bigger than I had envisioned. The show was complete with a tantrum over non-functioning big screens and multiple affirmations of Kanye West being the biggest star in the universe.

Kanye West in action

Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed the show it was definitely worth the price of admission. As it turns out, that was not the only entertainment. Larry provided additional entertainment. Once the show started he was singing along and dancing.... all 6 feet 2 inches of him. It was like watching a teeny-bopper at a concert. Had we not been there, I am almost certain Larry would have started crying. For additional laughs, we were surrounded by the rhythmically challenged. To our left and our right were kids that had no clue how to dance or how to stay in rhythm. It was so hilariously distracting that I missed part of the show because I was laughing so hard. I had a GREAT TIME.

Post Concert

A break from the norm

I am taking a break from my regularly scheduled activites to visit my best friend Cicely in Houston. Why you ask? First reason, Cicely is my BFF. She is an awesome BFF because she got tickets for us to see Kanye West! I flew in to Houston this morning specifically for this show. The show is in Bush Territory at the Woodlands in North Houston. So, I am very curious to see if he's really going to let loose and say something really glib. I am a huge fan of Kanye, but according to Cicely I am not a true believer. This is based on the fact that I didn't not practice any of the dances from any of his videos. It makes no difference that I own every album and single of his. In my defense, I know what my strengths and weaknesses are. Dancing is certainly NOT one of my strengths. I have choosen not to play myself. No matter. I'm sure I'll have a good time... even if I don't drink the Kool-aid.

Showtunes, anyone?

Despite the fact that my wedding was 3 months ago, I still post on the knot boards. I'm an addict and I'm not sure how to quit. I've met quite a few interesting and wonderful gals.

One of the gals, Ali (AliGoesBridal) mentioned that she was in the Simi Vallery Community Theater production of "Ragtime" and that she wasn't getting too much support from her friends. In typical knottie style, many wanted to support Ali and expressed their interest in attending. So, I organized a GTG (get together). I bombarded the boards with reminders and advertisements. In the end, twelve people decided to attend.

Rob and I trekked out to Simi Valley to see the show. Actually, it wasn't that much of trek. It was 36 miles and Rob loves to drive. This afternoon's show was the closing show. The Simi Valley Cultural Art Center was a cozy, beautifully renovated venue.

I have to say that I was very impressed with the production. The phrase "community theater" conjures up memories of horrible productions with lopsided casts. The was certainly the opposite. There were moments were I forgot that I was watching a community theater production. The performances were solid across the board. The costumes were well-done. It was a long show, but it had my attention the entire time. According to Rob, this caliber of performance is par for the course for Southern California. If that's the case, I guess we'll be seeing more shows.

A group photos with the knotties.

Ali as a Russian immigrant