Tag Archives: concert

A Night At The Bowl (or It Finally Feels Like Summer To Me)

Posted on September 9, 2021 | Comments Off on A Night At The Bowl (or It Finally Feels Like Summer To Me)

There are a lot of things I do each year in LA that feel like traditions now. And one of those things for a long time has been to go to a show at the Hollywood Bowl. I’ve been going to shows at the Bowl most summers since I moved to LA. Some summers I’ve gone to a bunch of shows and sometimes I only go to one. But I try to go each summer if I can.

Of course, last summer wasn’t normal and there weren’t any Bowl shows. I remember when they announced that they wouldn’t be open for the summer, it felt like a gut punch. Going to the Bowl is such a big part of what makes it feel like summer in LA to me. And to know it was closed made the pandemic hit me even harder. Also, a year ago, I think so many of us were hopeful that things would be normal again by the summer, and knowing the Bowl wouldn’t be open was a sign that we were going to have to wait longer for normal (if only we knew then how long it would be).

So this summer, when the Bowl announced they’d be back, I knew I had to get tickets to something. Before tickets went on sale, my parents were planning their trip to LA but they didn’t have a date set yet. So we were going to see what shows were happening when and they could try to plan their trip around it and we could go to a show together. Things didn’t exactly happen that way, but it worked out perfectly. I found the show I wanted to go to with my parents and called my mom and she said they ended up booking their trip already based on the availability of other things they were planning. And it happened to be over the weekend of the show I wanted to take them to! So things fell into place perfectly.

And the show I picked for us to go to was the John Williams show. This is a show that I have tried to see each year and it’s really so much fun. I knew my parents wouldn’t know all the movies, but I thought they’d like how it all comes together. I tried to get us tickets in the front section with the tables and chairs, but that was all sold out when it was time to buy tickets. So I found some bench seats toward the center that were the front row of the section (which is my favorite because you have the most legroom).

So this past Sunday, my mom, dad, and I headed to the Bowl. And for the first time, we drove there. Normally I take the bus, but we felt it wasn’t the best option for us. I knew the parking around the Bowl was stacked parking, but we figured it would be ok and we didn’t mind if it took some time to get out of there. And we were able to park in one of the close lots to the entrance and headed up to our seats.

I loved where we were sitting. Of course, sitting closer would have been cool, but we were in the center and had the front of our section to put our drinks and stuff. It’s so much nicer being in the first row so you have that extra space.

The first half of the show was with another conductor leading the LA Philharmonic, but it was still having the music that is the score to movies being played live. I love hearing the music live, and they did some fun movies like “The Godfather” this year. And in the first section, it was mainly older movies and my parents knew all of them. So it felt like the perfect way to introduce them to the show.

And in the second half, John Williams came out to conduct. He’s like a rockstar and the entire place went wild when he walked out. And you can tell he loves doing this show and seeing how excited people are to see him. Everyone was waiting for him to play music from “Star Wars”, but I knew it would be toward the end of the evening since that’s one of those things that is just so special and magical. And just like every other year, as soon as those familiar notes started to play, hundreds of people got their lightsabers out and conducted along to the music.

I started to get a bit emotional seeing this in front of me. I think seeing it made me realize how much I missed this last year and how much I needed to do something familiar to me again. My parents and I did talk about what we were going to do to stay safe while we were at the Bowl. We were masked the entire time and at least it’s outdoors. And most people who go to shows are locals and we have a decently high vaccination rate. But it still felt a bit overwhelming to be around so many people. I have multiple panic attacks while I was there, but I tried to focus on the positive and how much I was enjoying the show. And seeing a show that I’ve seen so many times before really helped me focus on things other than my panic attack.

I think my parents really enjoyed the show too. It’s not something they would have picked out for themselves, but they liked seeing something that I love so much. Plus, it was something new and different for them and they like to see different things when they come to visit me. So overall, I consider it a success!

Seeing this show with my parents was one of the highlights of the weekend for me. And it did make me think if I should try to go to another show before the summer is done. I’m not sure about that because there are only a few things I might want to go see and the people I normally go to shows with aren’t living in LA anymore. I don’t think I’d want to go alone, but I have to think about it more. I enjoyed the night so much, that maybe I can overcome the feeling of not wanting to go solo. Or, I’ll just go to shows again next summer.

Either way, I’m just so happy I got to do something I had missed so much and that I got to share the experience with my parents.

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Another Night At The Bowl (or My Parents Got To Rock Out)

Posted on September 18, 2019 | Comments Off on Another Night At The Bowl (or My Parents Got To Rock Out)

The timing for my parents’ trip was determined by a few things. First, they had hotel reservations in Catalina so I knew they’d be coming to LA either before they went to Catalina or after. But my parents and I also wanted to try to find a show at the Bowl that we could go to together. We had a lot of fun when we saw the Beatles celebration there, and we wanted to see another show. We had been trying for a few years to find a show that worked with their schedule that they wanted to see, but nothing was working until this season.

As soon as the Bowl announced their season, I shared it with my parents so they could pick out what looked good and what they would want to see. I had a few things that I suggested could be fun, but I wanted my parents to pick what they wanted and not just go to something that I thought they would enjoy. And when we looked at the season this year, my parents knew exactly what looked good to them: Earth, Wind & Fire.

I had heard of the band before, but since I’m not a big music person I don’t always know what songs are done by which bands. But it looked like it would be a fun show, plus it was going to have fireworks. And I knew that at the show I would recognize songs even if I didn’t know they were their songs before seeing them.

I tried to get us box seats for the Bowl so we could have an extra special evening, but I think because there were fireworks with the show, a lot of people wanted tickets. I was in the virtual line online hours before they went on sale, but I still couldn’t get us a box. But I did get us seats that were closer than I normally sit and we figured we could eat at our seats or try to find a picnic area.

On the day of the show, my dad and I worked out in the morning and then I had work. While I was working, my parents came over for a while because they were going to help me with a few things. My parents got me a Ring doorbell camera for my birthday (I have been wanting one) so my dad and I had to install it. And there were a few other small house projects for us to work on, but nothing too crazy. My parents left before I was done with work and we decided we were going to get food from Tender Greens to bring with us to the show.

We dealt with more rush hour traffic while on the Bowl Bus, but we were at the Bowl with plenty of time to eat before the show started. We didn’t luck out finding a picnic spot, so we went to our seats and ate there. Since we were early enough, the other people in our row weren’t there so we were able to spread out a bit. And since we were just eating salads, it wasn’t too hard to eat at the seats.

After eating, we waited for showtime. We had much better seats than we had when we went for the show before (when they were slightly obstructed seats). This time, we were more centered than before and had a great view of the stage.

The show was sold out so our row started to fill in before the show. Not everyone got there before the show started, and we were seated at the end of the row, so for the first part of the show, we were getting up and down a bit. A lot of the people seated around us were standing for the show, but we stayed seated (I was tired) and we could still see the stage and the large video screens so it was fine.

And as I expected, for a majority of the songs that they played I recognized them once they started playing. I knew them from various movies or random snippits I’ve heard on the radio but I just didn’t know who the band was. That’s how most concerts are for me and it’s always a fun surprise when I learn that a band I’m seeing is behind songs that I’ve randomly known for years.

But my parents knew all of the songs and they seemed very excited every time a new song started. I haven’t been to many concerts with them, so I’ve never seen them really get into a show. But there is no question they were into this show. I had a great time watching them have a great time. That might have been better for me than enjoying the show myself. My parents worked so hard and I love seeing them get to enjoy retirement. And their retirement has been them getting to do so much and discover new things they are into. They have done so many adventures since my dad retired and I am glad I got to be a small part of their adventure this time.

And, as I said, this was a show with fireworks. It’s rare to get to see fireworks at a show, but it is so spectacular.

When the show was done, we headed back to the bus and were able to get on one without having to wait. The drive back was much easier than the drive there, and I was glad we were back sooner because it had been a very full day. I was tired and I had an early morning the next morning. But the show was the end to my parents visiting me so it was a little bit of a downer. I will see them again in a little over 2 months for Thanksgiving, so that’s not too far from now.

Considering my parents were in LA for 2 days, we really packed a lot in. We had 2 shows, 1 workout, some fun meals, work around my house, and a little bit of relaxing time in there. Hopefully, they don’t need a vacation from their vacation now.

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A Night At The Bowl (or Combining Several Of My Favorite Things)

Posted on May 29, 2018 | 2 comments

The Hollywood Bowl doesn’t officially open for the season for a few more weeks, but when it’s not the regular season they do still have lease events. I don’t usually go to the lease events, but when I see something I’m interested in I try to get tickets. So when I heard that they would be doing a screening of “Beauty And The Beast” with live orchestration and singers, I knew that would be a fun event to go to. And of course, I asked my Disney friends if they wanted to come with me and they did! When you mix Disney, musicals, and going to the Bowl you know it’s going to be a great time!

I was in charge of getting our show tickets and found seats in the first row of a section in the very back. I don’t mind sitting in the back but getting seats at the front of a section are the best! You have a concrete barrier in front of you that is perfect to use as a table for the food you bring with you. And we all got lots of random food to have a pretty epic picnic there!

We took the Bowl bus to get there, but because we are used to going on weekdays when there is rush hour traffic we got to the Bowl before it was open! We waited outside the security area for a little while before they started letting people in. This was the first time I got there before we could go in and it was a nice change from feeling rushed to get to our seats. We had to go all the way to the top to get to our section, but they had a few different photo spots and we found one that didn’t have a line so we took advantage of that.

When we got to our section, we were all so surprised about how empty it looked! I’ve never seen it look so empty unless I’m there when they don’t have a show and it was nice not feeling squished as we got to our seats and sat down.

We had over an hour before the show started so we took our time getting out all the food we brought for the picnic and enjoying the food. We had way more than what we needed, but it was all so delicious! We had various types of chips and garlic dip, goat cheese, olives, fruit, veggies, and desserts. We tried to only take out a few things at a time, but we ended up just stacking most things on the barrier in front of us so we could all pick and choose what we wanted. It ended up being perfect and we were all just so happy sitting back, enjoying the food, having good conversation, and getting excited for the show to start.

This show was similar to how “The Little Mermaid” Live was done. The movie played but the orchestra on stage played all the music. And whenever there was a song they had celebrity singers playing the various characters. But what was different and really amazing with this show was how they utilized the venue. There is a border around the stage area and they did projection mapping on that area that matched what was on screen in the movie.

It was so fun to see what they added around the stage and it really did add to the movie. It was just a nice special touch that made this event even more unique that it normally is. This is already one of my favorite Disney movies and getting to watch it in this setting was awesome. And whenever they had the celebrities singing it was even better!

There were a lot of fun and different touches that they did with the songs. You could tell that the cast had a lot of fun and since there are different puns and double entendres they were taking advantage of that. There were a few added jokes that I missed, but all the ones that I caught were funny.

While I’ve seen the movie recently, for some reason I thought there were more songs and the movie was longer. When intermission happened I was pretty surprised that we were already halfway through the movie. And there weren’t as many times that the singers were out and singing live. There were still a lot of times to get to watch the singers and have it be more than just a screening of a movie, but it was much less than I expected. It’s not a bad thing, just something that surprised me (and my friends agreed).

When the show was done, it was the typical madhouse to get down to the area where the buses get us. There is a time limit to how long you can take to get to the buses, but I have yet to miss one. And the worst case is that we miss it and get an Uber or Lyft to take us back to where we parked our cars at the bus pickup. But even with all the crowds and making a stop to go to the bathroom before getting to the bus, we were there with plenty of time.

I don’t have any other tickets for the Bowl yet this summer, but I’m hoping I’ll make it back to at least one or two shows this summer. There are so many times I just get tickets last-minute and I think I need to do that more often. I have lots of evenings free and I could go get a cheap ticket to watch one of the jazz or classical shows. It’s just something different in my routine that makes an evening feel a bit more special.

But I’m glad I made it out for this show because it was a really great night out and helped to get me to feel more like me. I’m slowly busting out of this funk that I’m in (more on that later this week) and I’m glad that I had this show to help out with that!

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Revisiting My Past (or Enjoying An Amazing Concert)

Posted on September 19, 2017 | Comments Off on Revisiting My Past (or Enjoying An Amazing Concert)

I recently did a temp job for my old workplace doing some telesales. This workplace was the theater that I worked at when I started this blog. I hadn’t worked there in a long time, so when they asked me if I could help with a short telesales campaign, I felt flattered that they wanted me to help. It was a bit weird doing that job again since it had been years since I had done it, but things came back to me pretty quickly.

The show that I was campaigning for ended up selling almost all the seats, so that’s good news. I wasn’t able to do the sales that I know I could do, so that wasn’t so great. But I am glad that they sold out and that they were able to get the fundraising done that they needed to.

But even though my sales weren’t what we were hoping for, the theater offered me 2 tickets to go to the concert and I immediately said yes! I hadn’t been back to the theater since I worked there and the concert was a night of Josh Groban. I am a fan of his music and I did a music video for him (although they ended up not using any of the scenes they filmed with any actors in the final music video). And to get to see him perform live and in such a small venue is such a special treat.

Since I hadn’t been back to the theater in years, I wasn’t sure how it would feel to be back. And I’ll admit, it was a bit weird. I did see a few people who I worked with and some of them seemed happy to see me again. Other people didn’t recognize me and I didn’t want to bother them while they were busy working. I felt like I belonged there and I was out-of-place at the same time. Fortunately, I had a friend with me so we were having an awesome time at the pre-show reception and I didn’t stress too much about how odd it felt to be back there.

The pre-show reception was fun and they had some really great food. There was also some free wine, but we both stuck with water. We hung out outside eating and catching up on life. It’s always nice to catch up with a friend and even better when that is distracting me from feeling weird.

When I was told I was getting some free tickets, I assumed they’d be in the back of the balcony. None of the seats in the theater are bad ones, but I figured they’d put us in the back since they were free tickets. But to our surprise we were pretty close to the front and almost in the center!

I was not expecting to have as great of seats as I had so I was even more excited once we were sitting down! And the energy in the theater was so amazing because everyone couldn’t wait to see Josh Groban come out.

The songs were mainly Broadway songs (which I loved!) with a couple of songs from his various albums mixed in. And he was telling stories and jokes in-between each song. He was very entertaining and if anyone in the audience wasn’t a huge fan of him before I know that he won them over by the end of the night. And not only did he sing, but he also played piano and the drums! That seemed to be a surprise to everyone in the audience and he impressed us all!

The show was about an hour and a half without an intermission but I think we all wanted it to last longer. He is so talented and sang some amazing songs. But I know that the event also had a dinner after the show for guests with tickets at a certain level so they couldn’t keep the concert going all night. Even though I think everyone left wanting more, we all left with smiles on our faces.

Even though I felt weird being at an old workplace, I’m so glad that I got to go. I wasn’t deliberately avoiding going there, but I know that I didn’t make an effort to go to any shows there. And it is an amazing venue that isn’t that far from my house. I need to take a look at their schedule for this season (which is their 10th anniversary season) and see if there are any other shows that I can go to. It will be a while before I’m back at the Pantages, so I need to fill my love for theater at other venues. And I have a feeling that I’ll probably be back sometime soon.

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Last Minute Bowl Adventure (or A Very Hot And Humid Night Out)

Posted on September 6, 2017 | Comments Off on Last Minute Bowl Adventure (or A Very Hot And Humid Night Out)

With summer almost over, I realized that there was a good chance I wasn’t going to make it to the Hollywood Bowl this season. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go this season, it’s just that I never got around to planning for it. When the season was announced, I had other things on my mind. And then as the summer went on, I just kind of forgot about it. I was a bit sad to think that I wasn’t going to get out there this summer when my friend Dani texted me.

One of Dani’s friends had extra tickets for the John Williams concert. Dani was taking one and she wanted to see if I wanted one too. This was just a few days before the concert, but somehow my schedule was free the night of the show (which wasn’t the case for so many nights this summer) and I said I wanted the ticket. It worked out so well that I probably couldn’t have planned it better myself!

Dani, her friend, and I met up to take the Bowl bus together. It was such a hot and muggy afternoon that we were happy to get inside the air-conditioned bus. I don’t know what happened, but in that very long drive (it was about an hour and a half) it got hot and humid inside the bus too. We were all starting to feel drowsy and ready to get off the bus. But it seemed to take forever for us to get there.

And once we arrived, it wasn’t much better outside. We were hoping that it would cool down once the sun was down, but it was still over 90 degrees out at almost 8pm. We aren’t used to the humidity either so that made things much worse. But we were just happy to be at the Bowl and get to our seats.

Once we were seated (and drank a ton of water and had some food) we were starting to feel better. I think we were probably all dehydrated from sweating so much and we needed to get something into our bodies to get into a better space to watch the show. It was still close to being unbearably hot, but it was better once I didn’t feel sick anymore.

And as always, the concert was amazing! We had some pretty great seats and the people with the seats next to us didn’t show up so we were able to spread out a bit more. That was nice since we didn’t have to be squished in our seats which would have probably made us feel even worse in that weather.

The first half of the concert was with another conductor, but he was great and the music was wonderful. But I think everyone was waiting for after intermission when John Williams was coming out. And he didn’t disappoint! He conducted the philharmonic in all the scores that we wanted to hear like Harry Potter, Superman, and of course Star Wars when everyone got their light sabers out.

But what we weren’t expecting was to have Kobe Bryant come out to read his poem “Dear Basketball” while John Williams conducted the score he created for it. It was very moving and as someone who isn’t a sports person I was surprised by how it ended up being a highlight of the evening. It was something that was special to get to witness and I love that there are always fun surprises whenever I go see this show.

Of the group I was with, I was the only person who had seen John Williams before. So when the evening was coming to a close, I told everyone else to stay seated because there are almost always 2 encores. And the finale song is always the score from ET. And it was exactly what I thought it would be (although the rainbow lighting that they normally put on the Bowl didn’t happen this year).

After the concert was over, it took some time for us to get back to the bus to head back home. It was still so hot and humid outside but fortunately this time the air conditioning in the bus was working. We were able to relax on the bus right home except when we saw the huge fire that was happening in the hills nearby from the freeway. We all knew the fire was happening, but to see it from the freeway and how bright it glowed at night was a little scary. Fortunately, it wasn’t that close to us and now the fire is getting closer to being totally out.

I’m so glad that I was able to make it to the Bowl this summer. I really didn’t think I’d make it and it really helped to make my summer feel more complete by getting to go. There are still a few more shows this summer, but I don’t know if I’ll make it out to another one. But I know I need to prioritize getting tickets next summer when they go on sale.

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A Night At The Bowl (or Movie Music With Friends)

Posted on September 6, 2016 | 1 comment

I really was hoping to make it to a couple of shows this summer at the Hollywood Bowl, but after going to see “The Little Mermaid” earlier this summer I hadn’t made it back until this past weekend. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go, but time and money were limited this summer and things just didn’t line up.

But the show that I got to see this past weekend was the night of John Williams, which is one of my favorite shows ever! And I really lucked out with my tickets. I knew that several of my friends had already purchased tickets, and once I found out the night they were going and where their seats were I went online to look for tickets. There was only 1 seat left in their section and it happened to be the seat right next to them! So I bought that and we were all able to sit together!

Even though I was going to the show with several of my friends, because we were all coming from different parts of LA I ended up getting there by myself. I took the Bowl bus over (which is probably the easiest and best way for me to get there) and it just happened that we all arrived at about the exact same time! We met up right as we were going up the first set of escalators which could not have been timed better if we planned it!

Our seats were toward the top so we had a bit of a walk to get up there. I don’t mind the high up seats since they are cheaper and you get a great view of some of the fun things that happen at the John Williams show. And once we finally got to our seats, I was excited to see that not only did we have a great view of the stage but we had a great view of the Hollywood Sign as well!

Bowl and Sign

I usually don’t sit on that side of the Bowl, so seeing the sign (and the Griffith Observatory) was a treat for me!

The first half of the show was conducted by David Newman. He had some great stories to share with everyone and there were some fun musical tributes. There was a section that was just clips of Paramount movies to the score from “Forrest Gump”. They also played the first 10 minutes of “Star Trek Into Darkness” and had the orchestra play the score live. I really liked that (it reminded me of seeing “The Little Mermaid” earlier this summer) and that score is just so dramatic and wonderful to hear. I’m glad that was one of the parts for the show.

After intermission, John Williams came out. In the past, he conducted the entire show but I actually enjoyed seeing 2 different conductors playing music from movies I love. Even though the music sounds the same, there is just something different watching it live with a different conductor. And once John Williams came out, there was just one thing everyone was waiting for.

Star Wars

“Star Wars” music live really is the highlight of the show every year. So many people there bring light sabers with them (including several of my friends) and I love seeing all of them glowing while the music is playing. I usually hate glowing things at concerts, but this is different and special. It almost enhances the music when you see so many people enjoying themselves.

Besides hearing music from “Star Wars” we also got to hear the score from “Superman” which was something I remembered hearing at one of the shows a few years ago. It’s another beautiful score and I just sat back and enjoyed the music.

There are always at least a few encores at the show (John Williams really hams it up but it’s so much fun to see everyone screaming for him to come back out). The final encore every time I’ve been to the show has been the score to the closing scene of “ET”. And this year was no different. The score builds up to such a dramatic finish and you can just visualize the movie playing as the music is happening. And the closing of the score also lights up the inside of the Bowl with a rainbow (similar to how the end of the movie has a rainbow). I just love seeing it and it makes me happy every time.

ET

The show was really just as amazing as every other year that I’ve gone to see it and I’m glad that this has become a bit of a summer tradition. Since the season for the Bowl is pretty much done now, I doubt I’ll make it back there until next summer. But getting to go twice in a summer is still awesome and I’m glad that this is something I’m able to do pretty much every year!

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Starting My Bowl Season Early (or The Little Mermaid Live)

Posted on June 8, 2016 | 2 comments

Technically the season for the Hollywood Bowl hasn’t started yet, but they have started with their lease events. A little while back, I saw that they were going to do a screening of “The Little Mermaid” with live orchestration and celebrity singers! I was totally in! But sadly, tickets sold out for the 2 dates before I had a chance to buy them (well, technically some of the seats in the $250 range were left, but those aren’t in my budget). They had also announced an extra Monday show, but by then I just figured I wouldn’t be making it to this show.

Then I got an email about tickets on Goldstar for the event. I told my friend Dani about it and she was in! But when I went to Goldstar to look for tickets, there weren’t any. Again, I guessed I was out of luck. But for some reason, I decided to check Ticketmaster for tickets and by some miracle there were 2 tickets close together (but not next to each other) that weren’t totally out of my budget! I got those seats and Dani and I were so excited that we were going to be able to check out this show!

We met up and took the Bowl Bus together. But on our way there, another bus broke down so our already full bus had to fill up with another full bus load of passengers. At least it made the trip there an adventure.

Bowl Bus

Once we got to the Bowl, there were a bunch of cute photo set ups as you walked up the hill. But those all had crazy long lines, so we skipped those and I got this photo of the posters for the show.

Little Mermaid

Typically when I go to the Bowl, I bring food in with me. But because this was a lease event, there were extra restrictions on what you could bring in with you. So Dani and I decided just to order food there instead of bringing stuff in (we did bring in unopened water bottles because we didn’t want to spend $4 on a bottle of water). We got some burgers and fries and headed up to our seats.

Hollywood Bowl

We were about halfway up and over to the side, but being on the side was fine because the movie was screening on the big screens and we had a great view of those. And the people who had the seats between Dani’s seat and my seat were very nice and moved over so we ended up sitting next to each other.

The open act for the show was Susan Egan (the original Belle on Broadway) and Brad Kane (the singing voice for Aladdin). Brad Kane sounded exactly how he sounded when he recorded “Aladdin”. And Susan Egan was amazing and ended up singing “A Whole New World” with Brad Kane which was pretty awesome!

Susan Egan Brad Kane

For the Monday show, Jodi Benson who did the voice for Ariel in the movie was performing as Ariel. For the other 2 shows, she did appear at the end for a special encore, but someone else performed as Ariel during the movie. It was pretty crazy to hear Jodi’s voice from when the movie was made in the speaking parts and then to have her come on stage to sing the songs. She sounded almost exactly the same as when she made the movie and I was just in awe listening to her.

Jodi Benson

The other main parts had a pretty all-star cast. I got to watch Darren Criss as Prince Eric, Tituss Burgess as Sebastian (he was having so much fun with the part!), Rebel Wilson as Ursula, and John Stamos as Chef Louis.

Darrin Criss Tituss Burgess Rebel Wilson John Stamos

While the orchestra was playing the score when the movie was playing, I forgot about it because they sounded just like the movie sounds. They did such a perfect job and their performance was flawless (and as Dani mentioned, they had awesome stamina because they played for a long time!).

At the end of the show, they had fireworks. I’ve never been at the Bowl during fireworks so this was something pretty special for me to see.

Fireworks

Overall, it was a pretty amazing night! The show was so much fun and it was really a special event to get to see. I really wasn’t thinking I’d get a chance to see this show when it sold out so quickly originally, but I’m glad that not all the tickets were gone when I randomly looked online!

I’m planning on enjoying a couple of shows during the regular summer season of the Bowl too, but I haven’t gotten those tickets yet. But this was a pretty perfect way to kick off my summer show season!

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Another Week Another Hollywood Bowl Adventure (or Trying To Enjoy The View From The Cheap Seats

Posted on September 2, 2014 | 6 comments

I was just at the Hollywood Bowl a week ago but I made another trip up that way this past Saturday. I had tickets with my friend (and neighbor) Amber to see the John Williams show!

I’ve been going to the John Williams show for several summers now. It’s so great and he has done the music to some of my favorite movies.

Amber and I bought our tickets pretty close to the show night, so we actually weren’t able to purchase seats next to each other. We did find 2 seats in the same row that were about 4 seats apart. So we bought those and hoped for the best.

When we got there, fortunately the group that had the 4 seats between us were willing to move over 1 seat so Amber and I could sit together (people at the Bowl tend to be nice like that). Even though we had seats almost all the way in the back, we had a very nice view of the stage.

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Well, it was nice until right when the show started. Then the group that had the bench seats right in front of us came in. And I swear that the guy sitting in front of me must have been 7 feet tall. This photo is of my view of the stage with him sitting in the bench below me and me holding my phone on top of my head to take the photo.

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You can see the glow of the stage but clearly my view was completely blocked. I tried to lean from side to side to see, but that always didn’t work (he moved around a lot too).

Even though I couldn’t really see anything, I was enjoying the music a lot. There were quite a few things different this year compared to last year’s show. There was a choir on stage and later a children’s choir joined them. Also, there was a segment dedicated to the Olympics and that was very cool.

During intermission, Amber offered to switch seats with me so I could see the second half of the show. I was so grateful to her for doing that for me! I switched just in time for the Star Wars segment of the show, which is always a highlight for me.

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I need to get a lightsaber before next year’s show!

There were 4 or 5 encores after the show ended, but the very last thing that was played was the music from “ET”. I was terrified of ET as a child (my brother used to hide the VHS case to the movie under my pillow to scare me), but now it’s one of my favorite movies. And the music is so powerful that hearing it played live brings tears to my eyes!

And as I’ve seen every year (and loved every year), at the very end of the show there is a rainbow on the sides of the Bowl.

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It was such a wonderful show this year! I’m already looking forward to next year! And this show was Amber’s first time at the Bowl, so I’m glad that she got to see something amazing for her first time there!

I might be going to 1 more show this summer (I’m still looking for people to come with me), but even if I don’t, I picked amazing shows to see at the Bowl this summer! I’m never really disappointed with what I see. And every time I’m there, I’m so grateful to have such an amazing venue so close to where I live!

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Saturday Evening With My Parents (or I’m Posting A Little Out Of Order About My Weekend)

Posted on August 26, 2014 | 2 comments

Typically, when I do recaps of things that happen in my life, I put things in order. But to make a bit more sense of what I did with my parents this past weekend, I’m breaking things up a little funny.

On Saturday, I spent the morning/early afternoon with my parents (I’ll talk more about that in tomorrow’s post). Then my parents headed back to their hotel to rest for a bit. And at about 5pm I headed over to their hotel to meet them for our evening plans.

My parents usually stay in Brentwood (there is a dog friendly hotel that they like there), but this time I encouraged them to stay near the Hollywood Bowl. So they found a nice hotel on Highland Ave (although it was quite touristy) and that’s where I headed to meet them.

It was important for them to stay near the Hollywood Bowl because that’s where we were headed on Saturday evening!

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My mom saw the Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl when she was younger. She’s not 100% sure she was at the show 50 years ago or the show 48 years ago. But either way, she saw them at the Bowl.

My dad on the other hand, has never seen a show at the Bowl. We went there during the wintertime so he could check out the venue and we toured the museum, but never for a show.

So when this summer’s season was announced, I knew that this would be an awesome event to go to with my parents.

My mom originally wanted me to get us box seats, but those sold out before I even had a chance. The best seats in my opinion are the first row of any section because there is more leg room and you can use the concrete barrier as a table for your snacks. So I found us some pretty close seats in the first row of a section.

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Technically, they were partially obstructed seats, but we never really had an issue with that (plus everything was shown on the giant screens).

The show was amazing (check out my Instagram for some videos). The first part was 30 minutes long and it was the playlist from the Beatles concert 50 years ago. It was shocking to think that the Beatles only played for 30 minutes when they were in LA!

After intermission, there were maybe 15 more Beatles songs. They had a bunch of different singers. Some were amazing and some I wished hadn’t had as many songs to sing as they did. But overall, it was an amazing concert!

My parents both had a great time and because their hotel was so close to the Bowl, I parked my car there and we were able to walk to and from the concert. That was much more relaxing than me taking the Bowl bus there and trying to meet up with them!

After I got back to my parents’ hotel, I got my car and headed back home.

I’ll be back at the Bowl this weekend for the John Williams show and I’m hoping to go in September for the Simpsons event. Every time I’m there, I’m reminded how lucky I am to have such an amazing venue so close to where I live!

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A Concert, Film Premiere, And A Fire Pit (or The Best Saturday Evening Ever!)

Posted on May 14, 2014 | Comments Off on A Concert, Film Premiere, And A Fire Pit (or The Best Saturday Evening Ever!)

After taking my spin class on Saturday, I rushed home to shower and change so I could head over to my friends Chris and Marie‘s house. They were having a party at their house, and I knew it was one not to be missed.

This party was first of all a birthday party for Darci, who I met through Marie and Chris many years ago (if you ever need a vocal coach, Darci is amazing!!). There was also going to be a concert in the backyard featuring Mark Aaron James. And finally, Chris was going to premiere the show film he shot recently.

When I got to the house, there was a little bit of time before the concert was going to start, so I got to catch up with my friends who were there. Then I took a seat and got ready to hear the show.

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And the show was amazing! Mark was so good and his songs were awesome. The music was very fun to listen to and he has really clever lyrics (if you want to buy one of his CDs, you can do so at this link). Darci got up and sang backup for one of the songs as well, and that was really fun to watch.

After the concert, we all headed inside the house to check out the film that Chris did.

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It was a cute little short and I encouraged Chris to submit it to the film festival I run. Hopefully it will make it in (I have nothing to do with programming so I can’t help him out that way).

And of course, since we were all there to celebrate Darci’s birthday, there was birthday cake.

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After the cake and short film, some of us headed outside to hang out by the fire pit.

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There were some hot dogs that you could cook over the fire as well as marshmallows. I cooked a hot dog, but since there were not graham crackers for the marshmallows, I ate one uncooked (they are just as delicious raw).

Eventually, I had to head out since it’s like a 30-45 minute drive home and I was still pretty tired from that spin class. It was an awesome night getting to hang out with friends and I’m already looking forward to the next Marie and Chris party!

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