Thursday, August 27, 2009

Mr. Lucky

It is still officially Thursday, at least in there here parts. Not that it matters so much, but I was just going to mention that yesterday, Wednesday, was Do Something Fun Day according the the Eclectic Calendar. And yesterday, Wednesday, I definitely did something fun and I wish to share it with you.

Yesterday was my last day of vacation. Or, as it was known here, "Get the Kids Back to School" Staycation. Yesterday was my special day. The kids were officially back in school as of Tuesday. So Wednesday, while I was not specifically on call anywhere I just completely relaxed at home. Had a nice long conversation with a buddy of mine, played around with Facebook stuff (which can be quite the little time suck, no?), and generally just lounged around. Felt great. I picked Handsome Lad up from school and took him to the skate park, visited with Girlie Girl for a bit...then I was off on my adventure.

My ticket :-)

My friend Ceku invited me to go to a Chris Isaak concert with her. I couldn't have been much more excited...I lurve Chris Isaak. I headed out to meet her at her place. It is kind of downtown L.A. in the Crenshaw district. I wasn't sure how traffic would be. As it turned out, it was not bad at all and I made it with no trouble. We had plenty of time, so we went to dinner first at Panini Grill Deli. Just in case you were wondering I had the Penne with Arrabiata Sauce. Soooo good.

We got to the venue in plenty of time to pick up our tickets, which were at Will Call. The opening act was on - Susan Tedeschi, with whom I was not familiar. She was cool though, we caught the end of her set. We had pretty good seats, off to the side, but not too high. Unfortunately, we seemed to have somehow located the very most active row of people...up and down, back and forth...I have no idea what they were doing or where they were going, but they were terribly busy.

Then...Chris Isaak. What a great show. He and his band have been performing together a long time, have a lot of material, and are really good at making the audience feel intimately involved. Isaak did his thing where he walked about in the audience for a couple of numbers, which is fun to see. I think my favorite section of the set was when Chris and his band, Rowley, Kenney, and Herschel all sat up front together harmonizing their way through several songs, from old favorites to his awesome new stuff. I lamely tried to take a photo or two, but my dorky little camera phone doesn't really do it.

This is them, but only if you are able to take my word for it.

I had such a good time...I ♥ Chris Isaak's gorgeous Roy Orbison-y voice, all yearning and sweet. Ceku had to have herself a souvenir tote bag and tank tee. That stuff be expensive! I decided just to be content with my memories :-) As a bonus to the evening it just happened that the Kogi Korean BBQ truck was in her neighborhood between 10:30 and 1. People follow this thing on Twitter and show up where it does for the fun of it. I had a Kogi Dog...hot dog with kimchi. Yum :-)

Finally got to bed around 1, which is not particularly late for me...but today was my first day back at work and I was TIRED. But happy! There is nothing like an evening out with a friend and some awesome music. I hope you all have been able to do something fun this week too. But now...back to the grind....

7 comments:

AlienCG said...

Sounds like it was a great show. I'm envious now. And a BBQ truck that drives around? Damn, we need that in Cleveland.

I always hated when people were constantly moving around. For $32.50 plus the service charge, I would have remained glued to my seat.

Pamela said...

What a great time! yay!

Churlita said...

I'm so jealous. It sounds like a great show. I'd love to see Chris Isaak. He is very attractive. I'm glad you ended your vacation in such a fun way.

laura b. said...

AlienCG: You would have liked it, I'll bet...although not the up and down part.
I think everywhere should have a Kogi truck going on.

Pamela: It was! Made me remember my exclaimation points :-)

Churlita: He is soooo good looking and it is hard to believe he's in his 50's. One of those eternally boyish guys.
It was definitely a good way to close down my down time.

FW said...

Hey, that's such a great way to end the holidays! Nice to have that memory, I like Chris Isaak's stuff: he's one of those seasoned professional performers that you know the music is going to be good. Good for you!

Ananda girl said...

Wonderful! I love that feeling of having had a great time and falling into bed happy and ready to sleep.
Perfect.

laura b. said...

FW: That is exactly right. I'm honestly not sure I've been to a show where the performers at least appeared to enjoy themselves as much.
Thanks :-)

Ananda: Yes, it is an entirely different thing than that more just dead tired fall into bed and sweet oblivion :-)