Stormy Weather

Found it! (Gotta love YouTube.)

Martha Wainwright singing "Stormy Weather" at the concert last night. The video doesn't do her half the justice hearing her in person belting it out did.

Rufus Does Judy

Ron Rifkin (aka Arvin Sloane) loves Rufus Wainwright!

Dita Von Teese loves Rufus Wainwright!!

Bruce Vilanch loves Rufus Wainwright!!!

Santino loves Rufus Wainwright!!!!

How do I know this? Because they were all within spitting distance of me and Sean at Rufus’ Hollywood Bowl show last night. The first three were either two people in front of us (RR and DvT) or two people behind us (BV). Santino – I ran into him just outside my seat. Freaking Santino!!

Last night’s concert was more than just a Rufus Wainwright concert. It was “Rufus Wainwright Sings Judy Garland: Live at the Hollywood Bowl.” He recreated her 1961 concert at the Hollywood Bowl and it was amazing. He didn’t do ‘Rufus does an imitation of Judy’ – that you could have gotten at any of a dozen drag shows. No – he did something better: he did Rufus’ rendition of Judy songs. And it was amazing, energetic, beautiful and one of the best concert experiences I’ve ever had. It’s definitely up there in my top 2 concerts. And it didn’t hurt that we had AMAZING seats. Garden seats, with all the celebrities. (Word of advice: check out Ticketmaster the two days before a show and you’ll notice that a lot of the good/close seats that were previously “sold out” are now are available.)

The big highlight: Rufus coming out in the classic Judy Garland outfit: black nylons, black heels, black hat and black blazer.

Other highlights incude:

Martha Wainwright singing "Stormy Weather" - it was one of my favorite moments of the concert. If I find it on YouTube, I'll post it.

Lorna Luft coming on stage (in a neon pink flowy dress) to belt out a few numbers. She sounds exactly like her mother when she sings. I was hoping against hope that Liza would surprise everyone - but as a faithful Page Six obsessive, I knew that Liza wasn't exactly thrilled with his "Rufus Sings Judy at Carnegie Hall" concert, so I knew that she'd never come out for this one. But I still had my fingers crossed.

All in all - fantastic night filled with Rufus, Judy and celebrity encounters.

Race for the Cure 5K

Thanks to everyone who donated money to our Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure team! While the team got together a little late we were still able to raise close to $600! Sunday's weather was perfect for a run/walk and the crowd was incredibly large. S. and T. got their run on, while me, M. and the 'pugs' walked it.

Next year we'll get a larger team together to run and walk. Maybe a catchy team name will be enough to convince people to join our team? Something like "Operation: Save Boobies" or "Team Ta Ta" maybe?

LCD Soundsystem & Arcade Fire

LCD Soundsystem + Arcade Fire + 4 bottles of wine + great friends = fabulous night

Thursday night, Sean, me and two friends went to the LCD Soundsystem & Arcade Fire concert at the Hollywood Bowl. It was a great concert. And I will forever love the Hollywood Bowl for allowing concert goers to bring in their own picnic dinners and wine.

LCD Soundsystem

• Love them. Love them. Love them.
• Personally, I thought they should have been the headliner. But that feeling was clouded by my infinite love for the band.
• The venue (Hollywood Bowl) was a bit too large for them. They’re better seen in a small club or a tent under the stars in Indio, where the entire crowd is dancing and sweating together.
• I heart James Murphy (just a little bit)

Arcade Fire

• They, like Wilco, are a band that is meant to be seen live. Their albums do not do them enough justice.
• Closest thing this heathen will ever have to an evangelical experience.
• Seeing the band incorporate French horns, trumpets and violins into all of their songs, the band geek in me wished they had been around when I was in high school.

Last night marked the start of our power-concert weekend – 3 concerts in 4 days. That’s a mighty task given that all of the concerts have us trapsing up to LA and braving crazy LA traffic. Don’t believe me? Thursday night it took us 2 hours to drive 46 miles.

Last night: Cat Power (more on that show later)

And after that: Sunday we see Rufus Wainwright sing Judy Garland Live at the Hollywood Bowl.

Our Weekend in Mammoth

For Memorial Day weekend, Sean and I decided to beat the oppressive heatwave that attacked Southern California and escape to Mammoth. We really wanted a quiet, relaxing weekend because this was the first weekend we had to ourselves in a month (where we weren't running around for some reason or had guests visiting). On one hand we talked about staying at home, laying by the pool all weekend, reading and watching DVDs. And on the other hand, we talked about going up to Mammoth, laying by the pool all weekend, reading and watching DVDs. We chose to go to Mammoth because we could stay at his Grandma's condo (thank you!!) and we only get up there once a year. So... here are our photos from the trip.

On the gondola heading to the tippy top of Mammoth Mountain. I think those are the Sierra Nevadas behind me.

I forgot how thin the air was up in Mammoth. On Saturday morning, on the walk from the condo to the car - I got breathless. It took the morning to get acclimated to the thinness in the air. At the top of the mountain I saw a guy light up a cigarette - which lead to the stories of when Dad and Jimmy went up to Pike's Peak and all the adults kept insisting they could smoke.
At the (almost) top of the mountain. My Gap shorts look suspiciously familiar... I'm getting flashbacks to summer camp staff uniforms.
Apparently Sean has aspirations to be a mountaineer.
Obligatory "take our own picture" picture. I can't tell you how windy it was up at the top of the mountain. During a couple of these poses I thought I was going to blow over.
After walking around the top of Mammoth, we weren't quite ready to go home, so we headed to the Earthquake Fault in the Inyo National Forest. Yes - that's my shadow.

This was his second choice for poses. The first was to have been called "A Crack and a crack."
Hollow tree + me = this photo.

Sunday we decided to go kayaking. This was met with trepidation given that the last time we kayaked in Mammoth (on Lake Mary) we rented a double kayak and spent the entire afternoon spinning in circles across the lake. Needless to say, lots of yelling, lots of cursing, lots of eye-rolling, and a little bit of resentment was shared that day.

So this year we decided to rent two single kayaks and sign up for a tour, as opposed to kayaking on our own. Thank god.

My first real look at Mono Lake. It's a big freaking lake. Our tour guide was Stuart (his company is called Caldera Kayaks) and he was fantastic. He's a geologist that works for the USGS, so he gave us really informative background information on how Mono Lake was formed, how the surrounding mountain ranges were formed, as well as interesting information on water rights and how Mono Lake was used as a water source for other parts of California. Fascinating stuff. Mono Lake. Those white specs are the biggest birds I've ever seen. They were larger than chickens and were all over the lake.
These are tufa towers. They form under the lake and rise upwards. Something about the alkaline level in the lake and a chemical reaction. It made more sense when Stuart was explaining it.

Our tour guide and me.
More tufa towers. If you look closely, you'll see a nest at the top of one of the towers. Oh! Best news of the day: when Stuart told me there are no fish in Mono Lake. Again, having to do with the alkaline leve. Awesome. That meant I didn't have to pretend that there were no fish in the lake.
During the winter these birds fly to South America in three days to spend their winters.
Every time I'm in one of these, I get the urge to buy one. I must say though, kayaking in Mono Lake was 100% easier than kayaking in the Pacific Ocean. But just as much fun.
This is how the rest of our weekend was spent: napping and catching up on DVDs. We finally finished season three of Homicide: Life on the Street. This is tiding us over until we catch up on Season 4 (and then 5) of The Wire - the best TV show not enough people are watching.

Engagement Party

For those of you unable to make it to our engagement party a few weekends ago, I've put together a photo re-telling of the event.

And for those of you who were there, enjoy reminiscing about the booze, the heat and the hurling china.

Place: Sean's mom's house in La Verne, CA
Time: Afternoon to late, late evening
Weather: I think the Serengeti was cooler that weekend
We arrived a few hours before the party to help set up. 100 degree heat, no shade, 15 tables, 3 tarps, 60+ chairs. See that look on my face? That's the moment it hit me: "Wait a minute - I pay people to do this." The next thought: "the next time we get engaged, the party will be in Alaska, in mid-December."

After we finished setting up, we tapped the keg, opened up some bottles of wine and the guests started arriving.
FYI - see if you can spot the future Cagefighting Champion of the World in the next photo.
Then the fun started. Courtesy of a well-known and well-loved German, we were informed that it's a German tradition to hurl china at the engaged couple while they cower behind a tarp. I kid, I kid. About the hurling - it's more of a throw. Everything else is true, though. Behold the photos.
Annie was the first to go. Which seems fair given that it's her house. And her only son. You think she enjoyed throwing the dish given the force with which it hit the ground...
And then Babe Ruth here decided the best way to celebrate the engagement of her first born was to also throw a dish. (Get it... Babe Ruth... because she's pointing where she's aiming..)

This one's for those of you who thought I was kidding about cowering behind a tarp...
Despite this look on my face - Sean and I had a great time being the target of our friends and family. It was an ice-breaker (ha! another pun!) that got the party off to a fun, relaxed, loud, laugh-filled start. Which is exactly the kind of party we wanted.
We were thrilled to spend it with our closest friends and family...
... and to eat some really good chocolate-raspberry cake!
The new family: Pat, Steve, Sean, me, Annie, Jim.