In November and December, we saw a lot of performances at the Kennedy Center, hosted some holiday dinners and had out of town company.
November 10th - We saw a concert with Lang Lang that was essentially a masters class for 100 local piano students between the ages of 8 and 18. It was fascinating to watch him work with these students. We had also had a first tier seat on the side so we could watch him play.
November 22nd - We hosted Thanksgiving dinner and all ate too much.
November 23rd - We saw Jekyll & Hyde, starring Constantine from American Idol in the lead. This was a very enjoyable show.
November 27th - The Kennedy Center dedicated the new Rubenstein Organ with a free concert. They showed a time lapse video of the installation of the pipe organ that was just amazing and the instrument is beautiful.
December 13th - Merry Tuba Christmas at the Kennedy Center. This was the 39th anniversary of this holiday tradition founded
by Harvey Phillips in which tuba, sousaphone, and euphonium players from
around D.C. play traditional Christmas music. It is always a packed event; the audience fills pretty much the entire Grand Foyer.
December 15th - The National Symphony Orchestra Holiday Pops concert, with New York Voices. They made it snow inside the Concert Hall.
December 22nd - Irving Berlin's White Christmas. They changed some of the songs from the movie (my favorite holiday movie) and rearranged the story a little bit, but did get all the big numbers in there. This time they made it snow in the Opera House.
December 23rd - The Annual Messiah Sing-a-Long. My sister got here just in time for us to go to the Kennedy Center for the sing-a-long. I've been trying to do this since I moved here and have never made it. We had a blast! They have soloists for the arias and restatives, and the audience sings the choruses. The Kennedy Center has been doing the sing-a-long since 1971.
December 24th - We (Jim, Sara and I) went to the Newseum. If you haven't been, this is one of the coolest paid entry museums in D.C. and totally worth the price. Especially since the ticket lets you in on two consecutive days. That evening, we hosted Jim's mom and sister for our traditional spaghetti dinner.
Showing posts with label concert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label concert. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Saturday, October 22, 2011
"Hello, Cleveland!"*
Way back in September, my best friend (wave hi Christine) called me up and said, "If I buy tickets to see Duran Duran four days after your birthday, will you come visit me?" Um, hellz yeah, sign me up! [n.b. We saw them play twice in 1988/89 in Atlanta and I haven't seen them since.]
I flew out to Cleveland on Wednesday afternoon before the show that evening. It was my first time flying Southwest, which is a little interesting. It was my first time at BWI airport, too. I'm not a fan - it's very difficult to find a bathroom there. The flight itself was short and easy, even though we were delayed nearly an hour taking off. Not really a fan of Cleveland's airport either; I swear there is not an arrivals/departures board anywhere in the airport.
For dinner before the show, we went to Bricco, which is directly across the street from the theatre. We had an appetizer of goat cheese in spicy marinara with fried pita and the bartender recommend a great wheat beer (Weihenstephaner) to me. I had the risotto for my entree and my friend had the parmesan crusted tilapia. All of it was great. Then we headed across the street.
The band was playing at Playhouse Square, in the State Theatre. Playhouse Square is the larges
t performing arts complex outside of New York City, with eight stages, 1000+ performances a year and over 1,000,000 visitors. The State Theater was built in the 1920s as a movie house and is the largest of the theatres at Playhouse Square. We got to our seats just in time to catch the end of the opening act, a band I have never heard of and that wasn't really my style. Duran Duran, on the other hand, is just my style and they sounded exactly the same as they did in the 80s. They played a great mix of their older hits and newer songs.
The next day, we went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. after lunch at Great Lakes Brewing Company. There
are a lot of microbreweries in Cleveland and I think I had more beer while I was there than have all year (I tried the Dortmunder Gold, to go with my bratwurst and pierogis. We were in the museum for about four hours and seriously could have spent another two hours. They have thousands and thousand of pieces of memorabilia from the roots of rock and roll in bluegrass, gospel, jazz and blues all the way through a stage costume worn by Lady Gaga last year. You could spend a hour or more just watching the multimedia production that tells about all of the inductees.
For dinner that night, we went to Lolita, which is a Michael Symon (of Iron Chef fame) restaurant. For me, the highlight of the meal was the Big Board, a selection of house cured meats. Holy cow, was it good. There was prosciutto, sopressata, a lamb pate, a chicken liver mousse, a shredded duck packed under duck fat and a cured sirloin. I also had a good beer here, called White Rascal, from Avery Brewing.
Even though it was gray and raining horizontally, I could tell that Cleveland is really a pretty cool place to live. Friday night, there was a great happy hour party at my friends' house, with homemade pumpkin beer. We will have to go back in the summer for baseball and to see the art museum, natural history museum, zoo and the Great Lakes Science Center as well as all the parks that we missed on this trip.
* Bonus if you know where I got the title for this post.
I flew out to Cleveland on Wednesday afternoon before the show that evening. It was my first time flying Southwest, which is a little interesting. It was my first time at BWI airport, too. I'm not a fan - it's very difficult to find a bathroom there. The flight itself was short and easy, even though we were delayed nearly an hour taking off. Not really a fan of Cleveland's airport either; I swear there is not an arrivals/departures board anywhere in the airport.
For dinner before the show, we went to Bricco, which is directly across the street from the theatre. We had an appetizer of goat cheese in spicy marinara with fried pita and the bartender recommend a great wheat beer (Weihenstephaner) to me. I had the risotto for my entree and my friend had the parmesan crusted tilapia. All of it was great. Then we headed across the street.
The band was playing at Playhouse Square, in the State Theatre. Playhouse Square is the larges
t performing arts complex outside of New York City, with eight stages, 1000+ performances a year and over 1,000,000 visitors. The State Theater was built in the 1920s as a movie house and is the largest of the theatres at Playhouse Square. We got to our seats just in time to catch the end of the opening act, a band I have never heard of and that wasn't really my style. Duran Duran, on the other hand, is just my style and they sounded exactly the same as they did in the 80s. They played a great mix of their older hits and newer songs.The next day, we went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. after lunch at Great Lakes Brewing Company. There
are a lot of microbreweries in Cleveland and I think I had more beer while I was there than have all year (I tried the Dortmunder Gold, to go with my bratwurst and pierogis. We were in the museum for about four hours and seriously could have spent another two hours. They have thousands and thousand of pieces of memorabilia from the roots of rock and roll in bluegrass, gospel, jazz and blues all the way through a stage costume worn by Lady Gaga last year. You could spend a hour or more just watching the multimedia production that tells about all of the inductees.For dinner that night, we went to Lolita, which is a Michael Symon (of Iron Chef fame) restaurant. For me, the highlight of the meal was the Big Board, a selection of house cured meats. Holy cow, was it good. There was prosciutto, sopressata, a lamb pate, a chicken liver mousse, a shredded duck packed under duck fat and a cured sirloin. I also had a good beer here, called White Rascal, from Avery Brewing.
Even though it was gray and raining horizontally, I could tell that Cleveland is really a pretty cool place to live. Friday night, there was a great happy hour party at my friends' house, with homemade pumpkin beer. We will have to go back in the summer for baseball and to see the art museum, natural history museum, zoo and the Great Lakes Science Center as well as all the parks that we missed on this trip.
* Bonus if you know where I got the title for this post.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Our Two Freebie Weekend
We went from having nothing to do this weekend, to having two really cool things to do at no cost.Saturday night we got free tickets to the National Symphony Orchestra Pops concert at the Kennedy Center. It was a one-night only performance with Michael Cavanaugh playing the music of Billy Joel. Cavanaugh was the star of the musical Moving Out for it's three year run on Broadway. This concert was one of the most fun things that I have seen at the Kennedy Center in a long time. Cavanaugh was a very entertaining and engaging performer.
In addition, this concert was sign interpreted and I have to tell you that the interpreter was almost as fun to watch as it was to watch Cavanaugh play. He signed with such expression that it was almost like dancing. You could "see" the music in the way he signed.
Then, we were given tickets to the Nationals baseball game against the Brewers on Sunday. Unfortunately, the game did not go so well and 
the Nats were down 10 to 0 in the first (yes, you read that right). However, as the saying goes, a bad day at the ball park is better than a good day anywhere else. We had fun and the Nats made a valiant effort at a come back and pulled to within three. The game ended 11 to 7 and we both got a beer and a little sun on our faces.
Monday, June 2, 2008
A World of Voices
We got to see the coolest thing yet at the Kennedy Center last night, courtesy of Jim's mom. As a part of A Cappella: Singing Solo, we attended the World of Voices concert, hosted by Bobby McFerrin. The show featured several a cappella groups, including a girls group from the Czech
Republic, a group that sang Mexican pieces from the colonial period, Chanticleer, Sweet Honey in the Rock (DC natives), a female group from Bulgaria - the only group I didn't care for - and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. There was even audience participation. It was a late night for a work night, but very much worth it. We had a great time.
Republic, a group that sang Mexican pieces from the colonial period, Chanticleer, Sweet Honey in the Rock (DC natives), a female group from Bulgaria - the only group I didn't care for - and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. There was even audience participation. It was a late night for a work night, but very much worth it. We had a great time.
