Fun for Me

Guess where I went last night - ok, you'll never guess so I'll show you...


That's right - dead center, lower balcony - that's where my seat was - and the price was right - it was free! Here is the evidence that it truly happened...

This is me taking a picture of myself in the mirrors and here is my program and ticket.

Pretty crazy huh. It was one of those times in your life when stuff just falls into your lap and you get to just let it happen and enjoy. Steven does a news radio show at our local community radio station. He usually interviews folks in the community about events that are happening around our town. We just re-opened our historic Missouri Theatre after a year or so of renovation. It was built in 1928 and had been in disrepair for many years. We still used it (I'm saying we as in our town, not me personally) for showing movies or the occasional symphony, etc. but the seats were sprung and lumpy, it smelled mildewy and the paint was chipping the curtain was stained, well you get the picture. Now its all nice a pretty...

























Well, getting back to Steven's show...he interviewed the executive director of the theatre concerning its grand reopening and all the renovation that has been done to it and the guy thanked Steven for the free press by handing him a ticket to the black tie opening night starring Tony Bennett himself. Steven had one ticket and he gave it to his wife...awww...isn't that sweet. I could mention that he doesn't much care for Tony Bennett anyway, but I won't...ummm...at least I won't dwell on the fact that that might have been a factor. It was very nice of him to give up such an event and let me go in his place.

So anyway, this was a black tie affair, and I don't know about you, but I don't have formal wear hanging in my closet waiting to be worn out for the evening - so I did my best but pretty much felt and looked like a fish out of water. I got to my seat and started chit-chatting with the man seated next to me - he was in his tux - as were the men seated in front of me - all the woman were sparkly (and let me tell you I saw enough old lady cleavage to last me quite awhile!). But the guy was very nice - seemed to me a good ol' boy who was a bit uncomfortable in this crowd as well and I was hoping that he wasn't passing judgment on me as I was trying not to pass judgment on all the people around me that smelled and looked of old money. He was very nice to speak with and then the show started and a lady comes out to start thanking all the people that made this night possible. She was having these different individuals stand up to be recognized and toward the end of her speech she called for one more man to stand for recognition - guess who that man was? Yep, the one sitting next to that under dressed gal...which would be me!

Anyway, the lights dimmed and out came Tony. I really do love this type of music...I will admit that I am not very knowledgeable of it and I don't own tons of CDs and such but I do really enjoy it. And Tony's voice is just total quality - I mean the guy is older than my grandma and his voice is just amazing - it's even that more impressive live and in person. He sang for almost 2 hours and he was really quite entertaining too. He had amazing musicians accompanying him and he allowed them to flair their talents as well. It was just all around a really fun evening.


I guess one of the main things that drew Tony to our humble little theatre was the fact that it is an old historic theatre and that is what Tony prefers to preform in. He mentioned during his show that the acoustics in these old theatres are so much better than anything you will find in theatres built today - he calls today's stages "filing cabinets" - filled with metal and plastic. And to prove his point he had his crew cut all the microphones and sing a song. It was wonderful and I couldn't help but to film it with my measly little camera. I'm sure it might be illegal, but I wanted to share it because it was so neat. So sit back and enjoy a little piece of Tony Bennett.

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