***Weekend Words***

Saturday
Last month The Spouse and I attended the Long Beach festival. Week’s later we received a call: R. had won tickets to see a Men’s Alive concert on Saturday, July 9th. Yeah! Didn’t matter we were deathly ill: we were going to see the performance, walking infection bag or not.

But, alas, chores never wait for anyone. I spent the sunny afternoon running chores: picking up a gift; stopping by the post office; and writing. Yeah, I actually found time (an hour’s worth) to work on my outline. Then I picked up R. and off to UCI.

The concert was nearly packed. Hundreds of tanned (real and otherwise) concert-goers jammed the lobby and the seats inside. While heading to use the restroom I spotted one of my co-workers and his wife. Unfortunately we had arrived close to the start time so I had no time to chat with him.

The concert started. I knew it would be special when the emcee ‘Cecil B. DeMille’ received a call on his cell phone (after admonishing audience members to turn their devices off) about ‘security’ spotting thieves steeling costumes. Uh, huh.

The theme of the concert was Magic at the Movies. The music started off with a medley of famous show tunes. The choir members were dressed (literally, like Olive Oil, etc.) as various movie characters like Cleopatra to Darth Vader to generic sailors.

I won’t bore you with the rest of the music line-up. (That, and the I fact I don’t remember much of them since I left the program at home.) Suffice to say we had an enjoyable afternoon. As R. later commented, the singers were professional-grade. We heard no significant errors from them or the band. This included the guest-star soloist.

Some highlights:

Yes, a man can hit alto and sustain it for more than a minute. (Flashdance-What a Feeling. Beauty and the Beast.)

I was impressed with the singing and dancing during the Steamheat number. I’ve done both in the past and it’s very, very difficult. Remember that the performers of Men’s Alive are all volunteers.

Drag is always interesting especially when the queen looks like ‘she’s’ balancing over a hundred pounds of ‘hair’ on her head.

I counted three Asians and one black person in the choir. That’s okay; this is Orange County. Besides, one of each were major soloists.

Lots of love ballads.

While the singing and musical performances were professional grade, the ‘gag’ about the ‘thieves’ joining the choir group ran thin real fast.


During intermission we looked at the various items donated for the silent auction. While beautiful, nothing really struck us. I did see my co-worker again but didn’t have a chance to say hello.

I was starving after the concert. We crossed the bridge from the university to a pavilion and tried out a new Indian restaurant, Chakra. Service started real slow but the waiter profusely apologizes, even offering free drinks. The food itself was high-priced and served one solo style (i.e., one entrée per person) instead of the standard family style.

We walked over to the local Dietrich’s where R. indulged in dessert. We walked off our food down at the Spectrum. We tried to see a movie but all our choices were either unavailable at a reasonable time or we didn’t want to queue up (e.g., Fantastic Four.)

We ended the evening visiting not one, but two Barnes and Nobles bookstores.

To be continued