Concert Review

First, let me be perfectly clear, these bands are old so some of the members are dead. The Four Tops and Stylistics had two original members each, War may have had a couple and we could only count one old Doobie in the Doobie Brothers. Chicago looked like most of them had been around since the beginning.
The Four Tops and the Stylistics were stylish in matching outfits right down to the shoes. They did a great job of all the old classics and The Stylistics "You Make Me Feel Brand New" brought tears to my eyes. (If you were at our wedding you may recall hearing that song.) War was excellent and even had this geriatric crowd up on their feet singing along and swaying to "Why Can't We Be Friends". The Doobie was disappointing. They had so many instrumental solos and were so busy taking bows it was nauseating. Any bar band in Windsor, especially Meadows, could have done as good a job on "China Grove". Chicago sounded just like they did over 30 years ago. If you like Chicago - this was the concert for you. Unfortunately, I never liked them back in the day and found them loud and brassy. Mark, however, thought they were fantastic.
So that's my review. Hopefully I will be reviewing !!Neil Young!! at the end of the month. If you haven't bought his latest CDs, Prairie Wind and Living with War, you really should, as he still sounds good for an old guy.

The Tale of the Ring and other Best Man Stories.

First just let me say that Scott's Best Man, Joey, has a heart of gold and in no way is this story written to make fun of him - well maybe just a little but, hopefully, he'll forgive me. First of all he was over an hour late leaving for the wedding on Friday. This wouldn't have mattered one little bit, except that he was driving to Banff with the bride, groom and the groom's mother (that's me). Did I mention he forgot his wallet and we had to go back and get it? Fortunately we were only a block away from home at the time.
Apparently, and this is in Joey's own words, he only had one job to do and that was look after Tiffany's wedding ring. Upon checking his pockets in the morning he discovered that he was not in possession of "the only object for which he was responsible". Panic set in and he went to the bride and groom's room to announce he didn't have the ring. Once everyone realized he was not joking, they tore the room apart and found the ring box. Upon opening the box Joey discovered the ring was not in it! After more searching they found the ring on the floor by the night stand. It had been placed there the night before after several people in the room had been admiring it's beauty. Why no one returned it to the box will remain a mystery.
All was completely forgiven and forgotten during the photo session at Johnston Lake. Joey was the hero of the day for picking up a large supply of beer and placing it on ice. Let me tell you a beer never tasted so good. You'll notice the Best Man is holding two beers. I'm not sure whether he was doing someone a favour, or he was drinking both to work up the courage to say his speech at the reception. By the way, his speech was terrific and brought a tear to my eye.

Check it Out!

This is for all of you who got my email this morning, and are now reading my blog. For those of you who don't know, Mushu Poo (obviously not her real name) is Richard and Stella's niece and was once a kindergarten student in my class. She got me started on this blogging stuff.
I will try to post some more pictures of the wedding and happenings around California in the future.
We had an earthquake and record high temperatures last week so I'm very glad that we were in beautiful Banff for the weekend. I've wasted an entire morning on this computer so will write more another day. I love that I don't have to bore anyone with my crazy stories unless they want to read them. Wait till you hear the tale of the wedding ring!

First Blog

Okay so my first attempt failed but some how I managed to get the picture of Scott and Tiff on my page?? Now I'll post this and hopefully it will appear like magic.
We arrived safe and sound back in sunny, hot California after a wonderful weekend in Banff. I must say my son and his beautiful bride had the best wedding I've ever seen. Most of my pictures are not that great but this one made me smile. I have a lot of work to do correcting red eye and finding better photos of the ceremony. Marilyn got some good candid shots.
If I get the hang of this blogging I have Mushu Poo to thank. See you don't learn everything you need in Kindergarten.