An Evening under the stars.

Picture borrowed from Hollywoodusa.co.uk. More pictures here.

The Hollywood Bowl is definitely an LA institution. It's the summer home of the LA Philharmonic - but oh, it's so much more than that. From late June through late September, it is home to nightly shows that range from classical music to dance to.. well, there's a wide spectrum of stuff it covers. And, it's also known for nightly clogging up the Highland entrance to the Hollywood freeway, making the already-bad LA traffic an even bigger incomprehensible snarl Every Single Night of the week for 3 months.

But it's a great venue for a summer evening. Pack a picnic (and make sure to include a bottle of wine!) and drive on up, and be treated to an outdoor concert. Nestled in the foothills of the Santa Monica mountains, it's a lovely outdoor amphitheatre, with seats way up in the bleacher going for as cheap as $1, to highly coveted box seats that are impossible to score. Me, I aim for the mid-level bench seats, as often it's never sold out and then you can spread out your dinner. Plus, you can talk in the benches, which is good for me because I can never stay quiet for too long, I have this irrepressable need to add vocal commentary to everything.

I love the Hollywood Bowl. Not the classical performances, to be honest - I'm not quite that cultured yet, as I need more excitement than that to keep me focused. But while I was still dating fuckwit, it took an arm and a leg to get him to come along to concerts (and other such cultural affairs, such as visiting museums. Taking him to a museum was like dragging a 5-year-old along. Actually, a 5yo might even be better behaved. He did it because it was "good for him", not because he actually wanted to. Plus, you could only convince fuckwit to participate in such affairs if they were well-reviewed and well-publicised, which I thought was a lousy way to approach matters. "Let's see Avenue Q," I said once, before it became really well-known. "You want to watch a puppet show?" he asked, but after it won its 3 Tonys, his tune totally changed. That was always a problem with him, even eating out. He lived and died by Zagat's, which true, provides a good benchmark but is sometimes unreliable. Experience it for yourself and then draw your own conclusion, I say), and so not many tickets were bought. But now that he's out of the picture, I have all this free time not taken up by seeing him, and so have recruited my friend Katie as my Sunday Hollywood Bowl partner. The Sunday performances are usually more interesting, in my opinion - fewer classical stuff - plus it's a nice relaxing way to end the weekend. And I get to discover all sorts of new music, which is always a plus in my book.

The one show that fuckwit did get dragged to was Brazil Night, which featured Daúde (which we unfortunately missed, but I've heard some of her stuff since and it's good), Margareth Menezes and Jorge Ben Jor. If I had to recommend one, it would hands-down be Margareth Menezes (go here for audio clips). Admittedly, I don't know much about Brasilian music (okay, nothing), but I do know what I like, and she was very catchy and a great performer and had people standing up and dancing in the aisles.

Last night was Global Divas, which featured Tania Libertad, Oumou Sangaré and Tracy Chapman. I'd never heard of Oumou Sangaré before - she's from Mali - but again, another absolutely amazing performance. Like Margareth Menezes, she had people dancing in the aisles. And Tracy Chapman is always enjoyable - what an absolutely lovely voice - even if she lost me somewhat when she did a cover of a Nirvana song, but she re-won me back by following that with "Fast Car."

Coming up? The Joffrey Ballet performing The Nutcracker and Mame. The latter, in case you didn't know, is based on the book, Auntie Mame, by Patrick Dennis. It is an absolutely hysterical book, the story of this loopy free-spirited grande dame who's suddenly guardian for her young nephew. It was also made into a play, musical (both on Broadway and on film) and movie. If you're looking for a summer beach read, I highly recommend this one. Need more to convince you? Here are some quotes:

Auntie Mame: Run along to Ito and tell him to bring me a light breakfast - black coffee and a side car. Oh, oh. And a cold towel for your Auntie Vera.
Patrick Dennis: Is she in the guest room again?
Auntie Mame: Since Sunday, dear. Now run along to Ito and hurry my tray, darling. Your Auntie needs fuel.

Auntie Mame: Oh, Agnes! Here you've been taking my dictations for weeks and you haven't gotten the message of my book: live!
Agnes Gooch: Live?
Auntie Mame: Yes! Live! Life's a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!

And if you are in the LA area this summer, or any summer, grab some food (I like here, as it's nearby and doesn't close 'til 6PM on Sundays) and stop by the Hollywood Bowl (I promise I'm not shilling for them!) and add some culture to your life. It's not a large investment, and it's such an experience not to be missed.