Stephan Moccio at Blue Note

I asked Conrad this a short time ago this evening:  why did we never go to see live music when we lived in Chicago.  It happened, but oh so rarely.  If I think hard, I can come up with maybe ten shows that weren't music in Grant Park.  Not great.

But since moving to LA and especially since having Van in our lives, we go out and see and hear so much more.  We were talking on the drive home tonight about how it was the Hollywood Bowl two months ago, and I know that there are two or three local shows to come later this year.  Hardly a lot, but it sure feels great!

The three of us took ourselves over to Hollywood this evening for a show (and dinner and drinks!) at the Blue Note. 

Conrad and I had been there earlier this year, enjoying Samara Joy in performance, a show that Van had to miss.  That informed us on what to do this evening:  arrive early to get good seats.  And so we did. 

We had a nice dinner (shared a salad

and olives, a hamburger for me, Last Words all around) and a terrific waitress (Pie, she said, just like the dessert), and good seats.  By show time the venue was far from full, but that's ok.  Stephan came on shortly after 7, taking the stage alone at his piano, and we settled in to enjoy the show.

Not familiar with Stephan Moccio?  Ever heard Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball?  That's one of his co-writes. He is the co-writer of a big Celine Dion song.  And there is more.  That songwriting success has enabled him to put out music that is jazzier, lounge-ier.  I've enjoyed his stuff for at least a few years now.  It's kind of background, but I like it just the same.  On stage, though, he tells great stories, and there is oomph to his playing, real vigour.  Not at all background.  He was a great time.

Oh, and bonus:  Allison went to school with him!  She remembers him, perhaps not well.

What a fine night, though.  And not a late one either, happily.  I have to wrap this up and get upstairs to bed.  Conrad is off to Chicago in the morning, and I am his ride to LAX.  5:00 will come soon! 

February/March

Sunday after lunch here.  Let's get some blogging underway at long last.  Shall we?

Yes, I know that posting the rest of the Vancouver trip is still to come.  Lots of photos for those, and I don't quite feel like tackling them yet.  So I shan't.  Let me go back a week or so and instead report on the goings-on of the weekend that bridged February and March.

Van's sister, Cathy, and his brother-in-law, Bob, came to town for a visit.  Always good to see them again.  Funnily enough, I don't have any photos of them from the weekend.  We were mostly just enjoying the company instead.  But I did get a bunch of photos from our Friday evening.  That's when Conrad and I got all dolled up,

and we all went to Vibrato, Herb Alpert's jazz dinner club. 

It's not an inexpensive meal, but it is a good one, and the entertainment is great.  We were there for the earlier set, the doors opening at 5:30.  A cocktail, a good meal that for a few of us was a nice steak each,

and then settling in to enjoy Brenna Whitaker. 

Great voice, great stage presence and patter.  She recognized some folks in the crowd, and that included singer Claude McKnight, whom she persuaded to come on stage and do a song. 

Near the end of the set, we all shared a couple of desserts, and then it was out into the mild evening to head home.  A really terrific time, and Cathy and Bob enjoyed it immensely.

Saturday morning was the usual walk.  The tabebuias around Old Pasadena have been dropping flowers about, making for colourful "snowfall". 

We ended up at Amara, of course,

and then it was home to work on dinner.  I made us a nice little meal of a salad with burrata, halibut on pea puree, and a chocolate layer cake.  Not my best ever, but a nice enough dinner, I think.  We sat outside because it was a warm enough weekend,

and had a lovely evening of it.

On Sunday we came over to Van's to hold down the fort.  Bob had flown home earlier that day, and Van had taken Cathy to Ojai for a couple of days.  That meant we were on Olive duty through Tuesday, and it was a pleasure to take her out on walkies. 

All in all, a quiet end to the weekend and then an easy Monday working remotely.

I can't quite believe we're a week or more into March.  Time to get planning some things for April! 

Kylie!

There are at least a few more Sonoma trip posts to come (sorry, but true!), but I think it a little nice to break them up with other things.  Because other than recovering from COVID (hey!  I walked to Starbucks this morning!), there were a few things going on since the Sonoma trip.

Like, for example, the first concert of the year for us:  Kylie!

Some years are great for concerts, some are not.  And also, let's acknowledge this:  concerts are getting pricey.  Add in parking or transport, perhaps refreshments, perhaps tshirts or other swag, and it really adds up.  And hey, you know that we can afford to enjoy ourselves.  I say that not as a flex but owning that among us, we have the means to do things.  And yet sometimes we balk at buying tickets.  But yes, some years are better for concerts - I have Oasis and Pulp yet to come this year, which thrills me.  Add Kylie to that, and what we're lacking in quantity of concerts we're making up for in (I hope) quality.

Let me also admit that I am not an ardent Kylie fan.  I am a very casual fan, knowing and liking a handful of the hits.  But come on, how fun would this be?  Why not go?  So it was that three homos set off down the 110,

perhaps the only gay men who would be at what would surely be a very very very hetero evening.

Right.

I joked to Conrad and Van that there must not have been any gays in WeHo last Friday night when Kylie played at the crypto.com Arena. 

Wow, I really don't like typing that name!  There were plenty of family in evidence, and all of them dressed so much more sparkly and prettily than we were. 

It's weird feeling like I'm the drabbest gay in the room, but I was just back from over a week away - that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.  We played Spot the Concertgoer while having a pre-show meal at Fleming's nearby, then made our way to the arena and our seats.

Opening act Rita Ora was fine. 

Allison saw the tour in Toronto a month ago, and she got to have Romy as the opener.  I would have loved that.  But even though I didn't know Rita's music at all, I have to say, she did a tight little 30-minute set that set the right mood for Kylie to come.

And then it was Kylie's turn.  2-hours with multiple costumes, part of the set in the middle of the arena floor (and a little closer to us, though we hardly had bad seats), and all the hits that I knew.  The crowd LOVED her, and she loved us.

So, here you go:  some photos from the concert. 

I've found that video clips don't load to this platform like I would want them to, at least not from an iPhone, so I shan't do so.  Alas.  A great night, though.  I hope the images clearly show that!

I am still set to see Moby with Van tomorrow, though I may yet send Conrad in my place.  I really hate the timing of being sick like this!

Timber Cove

Have I mentioned that Van has a real talent for finding such lovely, delightful hotels for our vacations?  Really, he does.  Oh, yes, he, I, we pay more for the stay than we would at many other places.  That's fine.  As I get older, I so greatly appreciate how comfortable the stays are.

Midway through our trip to Sonoma County, we left the town and headed for the coast.  Past vineyards and rolling, green, pastoral settings and then it felt like the coast suddenly opened up before us. 

We were heading to the northernmost part of the county, almost to Mendocino County.  Timber Cove is a place I'd heard of from Van before (and, if I remember correctly, he and Conrad visited there together).  I don't know what I had in my mind exactly - something built into or clinging to sea cliffs, perhaps - but this wasn't it.  Timber Cove turned out to be sort of hipster luxury rustic, if that makes sense.  Likely not, I know.  But I loved what I saw when we arrived!

The great room was a terrific early impression once we got inside,

and then we got to our room.  A broad balcony with an amazing view of the ocean! 

We did spend some time that afternoon sipping the sparkling wine they had left for us, enjoying that view, especially as the sun got lower. 

But the room was cool. 

Again, kind of rustic, kind of hipster (a record player - there was a record library downstairs to borrow from)

(the Shaun Cassidy record was already in the room - my first little gay boy crush!),

and definitely spacious and comfortable.

Van and I had an easy dinner at the bar of the hotel that evening. 

They had a great bar, and even though the coast population is sparse and spread out, it seemed there were locals there to enjoy the live music. 

We did, that's for sure.  I am sorry I don't have her name, but she performed well.  The destination was gold at the end of a lovely drive north.

I've posted photos of the lovely flowers that were blooming on the hotel grounds, but here are some more shots from that morning walk. 

Benjamin Bufano's Peace Obelisk,

which sits within its own circle of state park just above the hotel, commands the setting,

but the whole area was glorious to have all to myself that morning.

Ah, and then there was breakfast. 

Our first meal that day at the hotel.  I'll save the dinner for a later post.

Thank you to Van for such a treat.  I love seeing the hotels he chooses for us.  More Sonoma to come!