Swell Season, Iron and Wine and husband's birthday

Happily, I haven't had much time to post lately as my days have been filled with happy family times celebrating events such as birthdays and anniversaries.

But, anyone who really knows me would have to know that I must have been doing something important yesterday since it meant missing the protest against Sarah Palin in Costa Mesa.

Well, I was, I was going on a date with Pete. (Today is his actual bday and our anniversary is 10/8, so we took last night as a chance to celebrate both events by hiring a sitter (only $70.00) and have some "grown up time" of our own.

Pete had tickets for us to go up to The Greek Amphitheater in Griffith Park and see (and he, to review) Swell Season (Glen Hansard and pianist-singer Markéta Irglová ) and Iron And Wine.

So, he and I left home, early yesterday to have a nice dinner in Los Feliz before taking in a night of folk rock under the stars.

We had dinner at a very nice Mexican restaurant, Mexico City, which had some of delicious chicken -- I think they cook it with mint? Pete had the Pollo con mole (very velvety and subtle) And, naturally, we had drinks (killer Margaritas) so we had a lovely birthday meal before a beautiful, if, oddly uneven, concert.

Pete's review of this lyrical, lovely and emotional duo emphasized the overall concert, but what he didn't tell you was it was like having a "screamer" merely two (count them. One, two.) seats directly behind us.

However annoying and disrespectful this audience member was, the folks I hold accountable are management at The Greek. They served all that booze as well as observed the yelling from, I kid you not, the ground in the aisle (Orchestra left) with legs stretched out and feet crossed, yes, the "Security" in our area observed a few of the screaming idiots behind us from a place of what can only be described as an usually detached place of passivity.

Even the poor stars were upset by it all and commented nervously about it on several occasions. They were shaken and graciously bewildered as to why the interruptions continued.

In any event. They continued to offer us lovely melodies and heart felt music punctuated with passionate lyrical poetry.

But, I still have to say, the atmosphere was really odd, because all these lovely folk rock enthusiasts were there, to take in these two performers from a cult favorite Indy film, but alot of the audience carried on like they were, frankly, a bit psycho.

I didn't get it. I kept thinking these were people who either simply never get enough attention, or felt so close to the show's performers that they thought they had permission fto carry on a lengthy imaginary conversation with them as if the "fourth wall" never existed. Perhaps this was simply a testament to how strongly the audience identified on a personal level with them?

Oh, I have to add that just when the crowd seemed to start behaving the lead singer, Glen Hansard, called a friend up to sing with him, who he introduced as "the guy who wrote all the Jungle Book songs." (Another close by asshole yelled out "Yeah! Welcome to Hollywood!" Which I still don't understand, but, you know. This was the kind of show it was.

Other than that Iron and Wine (which is actually one person) was moving and lovely as well, even if he did look like he had accidently wandered on stage having escaped a civil war reenactment. I guess some members of the folk scene are bringing back styles not seen since the days of "Hair, The Musical."

In any event, it seems this friend wrote the music to Mary Poppins, too! So, he came up and offered us all a lively, unusual chance to sing along with "Supercalofragolistic...whatever the hell it is" which, was both unexpected, and fun, too..

We had a great night, though, even if it were not as predictable as I expected.

Just like real life.

So, now I have to finish the rosemary chicken and decorate the fudge brownie cake we'll be serving topped with scoops of creamy coconut sorbetto.

And open his presents with the kids.

I haven't read my other fav blogs yet, but I'm sure I've got a lot of political moments to catch up on soon.