Five shows in October: 3) Billy Joel!

The second part of my NYC birthday trip surprise was seeing Billy Joel in concert at MSG! I could not believe that Evan arranged for me to see him, and I was so excited that Kathy came along with me. We had a (mediocre) dinner (particularly in comparison to the amazing meal we had the night before!), and then walked over to MSG to take our seats.

Ahhhhh this show! Absolutely amazing. He's 68 years old, yet played for almost 3 hours with such passion that I don't see in some artists half his age. He obviously loves playing there, and the crowd loves him.

 I'd actually never been to a giant arena show before, and what a show to experience that for the first time. Over 21,000 people all singing along together - absolutely incredible. I typically go for smaller venues, and I never really understood the appeal of a big arena show...man, now do I get it (especially if you love the artist).

 

His set list was great - there were only two songs I really didn't know, and a couple of others that I knew but weren't my favorite. He did a really interesting thing where after the first couple of songs, he let the audience choose what he would play - provided two songs, and then by audience response played the one. Of course some of the choices were rigged (popular song v lesser known), but some were deep cut v deep cut, so it was interesting to hear the crowd response.

 He even did 5 songs in the encore!

I have so many videos, as it was hard to choose only certain songs to record! I won't share them all here, as that would make this post massively huge - but in addition to the ones here I also have
She's Always a Woman
Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
We didn't start the fire
It's Still Rock & Roll To Me
Big Shot
And he did little things throughout, like "Monster Mash", some baseball songs (he's a huge Yankees fan, and they were in the playoffs that night), etc - I have those recorded too.

But I have to leave you with his most well known, of course :)

What an amazing show, and a fantastic way to cap off my birthday trip. Thanks Kathy for being there with me!

An afternoon in NYC with friends

After seeing Dear Evan Hanson on our first night in NYC, I had to leave my friends early for a work visit in Staten Island. When done, I returned to meet up with them, and we spent a couple of hours wandering the city. Beth had to head back to DC that afternoon on the train, but luckily I got to see her briefly before she left. That left Kathy, Rachel, and I to do a little sightseeing before Rachel had to leave that evening.

We walked from Union Station (where I met them) across 34th street - we had gorgeous weather for it!

 Then up 5th avenue to check out the kitties.

 And on up to Rockefeller Center. So many people go to check it out this time of year, for Christmas, but I have to say, I loved the fall decorations!

 Rachel used Portrait Mode to get this fantastic photo of Kathy and I!

 Turns out that even though it was pretty warm out, they were already preparing the ice for skaters - I think it opened just a few days after our trip.

 We thought about going to the "top of the rock" to check out the view, but there was no way to get a reservation before about 6pm that night - not gonna work! So, we hiked it all the way back down to the Empire State Building, hoping we could get up to the observation tower, but once again there were too many people. Damn tourists! :)

At that point, Rachel had to get going to her train, so Kathy and I dropped her off and then went back to our hotel to get ready for my third show of the month...

Five shows in October: 2) Dear Evan Hansen

I had planned on getting so many blog posts done this month, but then my life was subsumed by Nutcracker for the vast majority of the month, and I just realized I've fallen behind again! Before everything gets completely crazy with Christmas (we have a ton of family coming in starting tomorrow), I figured I'd get back into it and get something posted.

This post is my second show in October, and it was a super special one....a birthday surprise from Evan, and my besties! That's right, they got together to surprise me with a trip to NYC to see a broadway show - Dear Evan Hanson. There's a little more to it than that (the ladies and Evan had LOTS of discussions over this trip), but this was the end result and I was SO excited.

Kathy, Beth, and I drove up together and met Rachel in NYC before our big night out. We walked around a bit, and then it was time to get ready for our big night out. First up: dinner! Rachel had recommended a place near the theater that was recommended to her, and we all agreed it looked delicious. Reservations made, and so we went. It was super trendy (the entrance was a blue-lit hall you had to walk down and couldn't even see the restaurant area from)

and also SUPER delicious! Just look at these tasty drinks of ours!

The restaurant was an Asian fusion style place with shared plates. Beth and Rachel don't eat seafood, and I don't eat pork/beef, so we had some fun figuring out who would share with who...and we made some excellent choices! Kathy and I LOVED the seafood we picked, particularly the sea bass (seen below), which we both agreed was probably the best sea bass we'd ever had. I'd go back again just for that!

Then it was time to head over to the show! I cannot say enough amazing things about this show. It deserves every award it has won, particularly Ben Platt, who was absolutely amazing. I was so happy that we got to see him in the show just a couple of weeks before he left.

We laughed, we cried (everyone cried; seriously, you could hear sniffing in the silence at certain times)...it was incredible.

We were all jazzed up after the show, so we hit Times Square! Rachel had gotten an iPhone 8 so was able to use portrait mode on us. Look at that pic on the left! Love that portrait effect so much. Since then I've gotten one as well and I have made GOOD use of portrait mode!

 

What's the fun of Times Square without taking a ridiculous selfie, or 8? This one was my favorite, where we all look pretty cute; in some of the others we upped the ridiculous factor a bit so I'll just hang onto those for myself. A fantastic night with my ladies...and the fun wasn't over that night!

Five shows in October: 1) Judah & the Lion

In the span of two weeks (over the end of October, mostly) I was fortunate enough to go to FIVE shows/events! Each was very different, and I had tons of fun at all of them.

The first was a concert at the lovely Jefferson Theater in Charlottesville. I had not been to many events there; I remember seeing Rocky Horror Picture Show with friends there about 20 years ago (when it was still a movie theater), and I'm not sure I'd actually been back since it was converted to a music venue. It's pretty awesome.

Oh, so I was there to see Judah & the Lion, a band I've really grown to enjoy. Plus, tickets were only $20, so why not? The timing worked out well as I was staying with my parents to help my mom after her knee surgery, so I was only an hour away from C'ville.

Going to a concert alone is a little different, it's true, but it was also kind of fun. I got to decide where I wanted to stand - my original thought was up in the balcony (photo above), but I decided that I wanted to be close to the stage. I saw a spot down on the left by the wall and took it.

Not a bad view of the stage, huh?

 This was the opening band - 4 young Irish boys who make up The Academic, on their first US tour! They were pretty good; not necessarily music I would listen to again, but I enjoyed hearing them.

Then was the band - as I expected, they were great! I had a feeling they'd put on a fun, high energy show, and I was right.

I took a few videos to show the kids, as they like a couple of their songs too. Their first hit, "Take it all back" is the one that the kids were most excited to see. However, the video is rather long (I recorded almost the whole thing), whereas this one of their second single ("Suit and Jacket") is shorter so I'm posting it here. 

Enchanted, Deep in the Forest

In my previous post, I talked about all of the things we did to get ready for Enchanted. After all of that, performance weekend was finally here! I may be biased (ok, I'm definitely biased), but I think Natalie really shone in her costume, hair, and makeup.

We arrived both days in curlers, tights, and an over-shirt (she's wearing my button down!) - you'll note that was a pretty typical outfit. The girls had quite a bit of time to get ready, which meant we brought activities to do while we waited. There was much fun on the iPad...

Lots of dancing around in the cafeteria...

and of course, card playing!

But eventually it was time to finish makeup (the last bit was adding the face glitter, which came off so easily and with no mess!) and get into costume. This is my friend Lisa (who was on the makeup committee) putting Natalie's on.

Natalie and the girls had so much fun going through their routines together.

I love capturing candid shots like the ones above, but sometimes it's nice to get posed ones too!

And when they sit so nicely for me like that, I have to let them get a little silly.

Finally, it was time to line up to go backstage - the show was about to start! My friend Cheryl and I did last minute shoe and hair checks, and then the girls went to the stage entrance.

I did manage to grab a group shot of all of the junior apprentices - this was their first ever ballet company show, and they all put so much work into it!

I am particularly proud of Natalie; before the last show on Sunday, she spiked a pretty bad fever. But she didn't want to leave her fellow dancers in the lurch, so she went and performed anyway. My girl has dedication!

I got permission for her to leave after her act was done (and she was in the first act, which worked well). She ended up home from school the following day with the fever; poor thing was just wiped out. It wasn't just her though - Henry came down with it too, and was home from school for two days! Here's hoping that is all of the flu we have to deal with this year.