:: Life on Planet Dan-E ::

:: Sunday, August 31, 2003 ::

:: The Hollywood Bowl ::

Last night was my first trip to the Hollywood Bowl. I've heard a lot of things about it from friends who are more cultured than I but never had the opportunity until now. The performance was John William's "greatest hits". While I'm not the biggest fan of classical music I do have tremendous respect for it, and I consider a composer's ability to write a good film score almost as remarkable as a musician's ability to write a timeless rock album.

I wasn't sure what to expect other than that our seats were all the way up in the back. For some reason I though that we'd be situated in a grassy section of the bowl so we'd be watching while sitting on the ground. Apparently, all sections have benches, which for me, made the picnicking part of the evening a little awkward since we had to pass around all the food and drinks. At least the stuff being passed around was good. We had pigs in a blanket, hot wings (that were truly hot), sausage and crackers, and other typical picnic food. Wine was various pinots (people in this group seem to be fixated on pinots for some reason) and I sampled a little bit each bottle. I think they brought at least four different types. I don't know what any of them were called since I had trouble reading the labels due to the lack of lighting so I simply held out my glass whenever I was offered some wine.

The performance from the LA Philharmonic was excellent. The first half started off with a medley of William's best-known stuff, followed by songs from his latest works. Scores he composed for the movie "Catch me if you Can" and the upcoming "Harry Potter" film. He spoke between sets and was always very gracious and occasionally humorous, pointing out that our chance to listen to his music without "the film getting in the way."

After intermission, we moved up a few sections to an unoccupied section of the Bowl. We were still a good distance from the stage but the sound seemed a little crisper without all the extra bodies around to absorb the sound. That was good thing since the second half started of with songs from what’s probably his most famous score, "Star Wars." And the real treat was special guest narrator James Earl Jones, who received a standing ovation when his name was announced. That was cool, let me tell you. He narrated various parts of the story and the orchestra would play the music appropriate to that respective scene. It’s times like this when it's good to have an active imagination since every time a song played I could close my eyes and see the scene from the movie playing through in my head. That should tell you how something about how many times I've seen the films.

That went on for almost an hour and it was worthy of yet another standing ovation once it was finished. He stayed for a few encores and played the scores from "Superman" and "Indiana Jones" to cap off the evening. It was great. I'm gonna have to see about going back to the Hollywood Bowl again, maybe for a blues festival or something.

:: Miscellaneous Ramblings by Dan-E at 1:06 AM [+] :: | 0 comments
.....