Skeddie Sauce and other Delights: 6 - Happy 80th Birthday, Pop !!

When my best friend George, whom I will now call Carlos, found out I was coming to CA again, he said to me, "Ok, Eddie, instead of me coming out to your sister's house for the weekend, I'd like to make it a special visit." He offered, " Do you want to go see Moulin Rouge at the Pantages or do you want to see Duran Duran at the Bowl?"

For those of you who don't know what the Bowl is.

The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheater in the Hollywood Hills.

Notice the Hollywood sign at the top of the photo on the right.

It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in the US.

It opened 100 years ago in July 1922.

If you read my travel blog from my CA visit in February, then you will recall that Carlos took me to see Hamilton at the Pantages. So.... been there, done that. "OK", I said, "Let's do the Bowl", taking him up on his offer. Not because I wanted to see that old, tired music group from the 80's but because it's probably 40+ years ago since I have been to the Bowl. Plus, it was summer and it's outdoors and it would be a nice experience no matter who was on stage.

But before we get to the Bowl, Carlos wants to show me an installation at the Broad, which he also took me to the last time I was in town. The art exhibition was free, but he didn't know you had to have reservation for this one particular installation. So, we went to see something else instead. A work from a Japanese artist.

That's the museum behind Carlos' head.

After the museum, we took the metro to Hollywood to get some dinner for the concert. We stopped at a Lebanese take-away restaurant and then off to Trader Joe's for some wine. Then we dragged it all, along with an entire camping kitchen that Carlos had schlepped around with him all over LA. We were going to make a very special musical pic-nic at the Bowl.

Carlos has a special transportation pass. We just had to make our way to the shuttle van. It was up 100 steps or so behind the Dolby Theater where the Acadamy awards are presented to the Oscars winners. The van takes off and it moves just a little bit faster than walking speed because off all the traffic - one of the reasons I didn't want to do a car in So. Ca. I brought an umbrella with me that my mother let me borrow. The news said that there was a storm over the Pacific on the way towards California. On the train from Oceanside to DTLA, the umbrella was so old and unused that a few plastic parts started to fall off of it just while I was carrying it. I was wondering what it would do once it came time to opening it. I was also hoping that I wouldn't need to open it. It was very close there for a while. There came a few drops as we were about to walk into Trader Joe's supermarket. When we came out, everything was slightly wet, but the drops had stopped.

OK, so now we are slowly, very very slowly approaching the Bowl. Carlos is worried because we should have been there by now and we should be sitting at one of the few tables available, eating dinner before the concert starts. Finally, the van pulls into the lot, stops, opens the door and all 20 passengers stampede to the entrance. I was the last one out. I have no idea where Carlos zoomed off to and I have no idea where to go. Zillions of people are walking in every direction. Finally, I see Carlos waving me down with a look on his face that translated to: get your old man ass over here, PRONTO! "Oh god, Eddie", Carlos worryingly says to me as we start to feel a drop here and a drop there fall upon us. "I hope it doesn't rain." He says this while we are in line to get in. We are next and we have to go thru security. They check his pic-nic trunk. Most people had a pic-nic basket. But not Carlos. He has a pic-nic trunk. It has everything. Silverware, fine porcelain, lead based crystal wine glasses, The finest cotton weave tablecloth with matching napkins. It has everything, even running water. No, wait! that's water from the sky. Now it's starting to pour down, just as it is my turn to be checked thru security. Then the guard says to me, "Sorry, sir. No umbrellas"

What ?!!!

"No umbrellas", he repeats.

I said, "You're kidding me!"

"No sir, You'll have to go over there and check it in."

I look "over there" to where he was pointing. A long line of people doing who knows what.

I said, "I'm not going over there to stand in a long line to check in a crumbling umbrella, just take it", I whined.

"No, sir. I'm sorry. I cannot do that. You'll have to check it in yourself", he sternly said to me.

Loudly, and frustrated I said, "No way am I moving from this line to that line." I took the umbrella, and I just chucked it as far as I could away from the line. While the guard is still rummaging through my backpack, I hear someone say, "Hey! There's an umbrella her! Did someone lose an umbrella? Did someone drop an umbrella?"

I shouted back, "It's yours now!"

"What!?"

I repeated even louder, "It's yours now!"

Again, he said What???

I turned my back. I don't have time for this. We gotta hurry and find a table to sit at so we can eat before the show starts. We have Middel Eastern dolmas to consume. White wine to swim in. I need to wipe my greasy lips on fine linen. Ah anit got no time for no umbrella babysittin'!

Dude is at a concert and he's wasting time trying find a home for a broken umbrella! sheese!

Poor umbrella. Nobody wants it.

OK - so we are thru security and making a mad rush to find a table. We get upstairs and we get a chance to breath because there are a lot of tables to choose from. Why? It's pouring down rain and who wants to eat in the rain? All the tables and chairs are soaking wet. We decided that we are not going to let the rain bum us out. We'll just sit here and proudly and joyfully take it in. It turned out we laughed, we gobbled, we talked to each other, and we talked with other joyful people around us. The food was delish and so was the wine. With all the stuff Carlos brought with him, it was like a 5-star pic-nic.

We got such joy from meeting this guy. 93. Plays tennis.

Came to see Duran Duran.

Amazing.

Eventually I wised up and stated to look around for a trash can. "Hey Carlos, do you see a trashcan anywhere around?" He knew I was up to something no good. His shock and horror grew as he saw that I had spotted a trashcan and started to make my way towards it. His mouth dropped when he saw me digging around in the trashcan like a homeless person. A few other people looked at me like that too - like, omg! that guy is wearing a plastic bag, eating and drinking out of the trash can!

Do I look like a homeless drunken bum?

I just knew that there were fresh clean plastic bags at the bottom of the can so I opened the can and reached into the bottom of it and pulled out a fresh clean roll of plastic bags. Ripped a bag off of the roll and made me a rainsuit. I wore it through the entire concert as it rained the entire evening. Imagine, it was freaking hot my entire time on the east coast and the west coast. The one day I want to sit out in the evening to hear some music, was the one day it rained. All we could do was laugh. And laugh we did. We had such an amazing time.

I had no idea who was going to be the warm up act. Carlos didn't even mention it. I don't think he even knew who it would be. It was a group called Le Chic. The leader of the group is Nile Rodgers whom I don't know. Or so I thought I didn't know. It turns out he is a writer, producer and musician. He's worked with such big stars as Dianna Ross, David Bowie, Madonna, Debby Harry, and Duran Duran for example. It turns out, I knew all the songs. Carlos and I had a blast tuning back time to the 70's and 80´s, dancing in the aisle, under the stars, soaking wet.

All the best shots and video are on his camera, I took a few. Some of these are from Carlos' camera. We had no idea of what the "snow" was in the search light.

All the videos here are low quality, grainy and bouncy.

But it's what I have.

And of course, you can just go to YouTube for the good stuff.

These are just fun memories for me.

Here come Niels and Le Chic

And now for the headliner band, Duran Duran. Here I was thinking they would be no big deal, but they put on a fantastic show, and I couldn't believe that I knew all the songs. It was a blast dancing and singing to the tunes of Duran Duran, with Carlos in the rain, but no Gene Kelly umbrella.