Tag Archives: hollywood bowl

Sound of Music Sing-A-Long vs Me on Jeopardy!

June 18, 2017 Hobie Leave a comment

Larry edited my chat with Alex and we tweeted it over to the flamazing host of the Hollywood Bowl Sound of Music Sing-A-Long, Melissa Peterman….and she responded!

6 days until the Hills Are Alive at the Hollywood Bowl Thanks @HobieBarnes 4 the shout out @HollywoodBowl @Jeopardy https://t.co/3kshiF3LCt

— Melissa Peterman (@Followtheblonde) June 18, 2017

@Followtheblonde My husband @HobieBarnes gave a shout out to the Sing-A-Long on his Jeopardy appearance! https://t.co/Xq4Wtm5uyf

— lglevene (@lglevene) June 18, 2017

So yeah, I’m ready for my second round of fame due to my Jeopardy Experience. It’s gonna happen. My body is ready. Regardless of any of that, still very excited to go again this year.

pictures, pop culture, social culture

Hollywood Bowl Double Header: West Side Story + Diana Ross

July 17, 2016 Hobie Leave a comment

Concert #1 – West Side Story @ the Hollywood Bowl, July 14, 2016

Larry & I were super-ambitious with our Hollywood Bowl ticket selections this year. We had once sworn off weeknight Bowl concerts as they can be kind of exhausting to go to after a day of work. But we went for it anyway, picking a Thursday night concert performance of West Side Story, which my mom also came with us to see. Everything honestly worked out great for the most part, except damn, Thursday night traffic was ludicrously bad. Like, the worst I’ve seen it. It honestly took us almost an hour on the bus to go from the LA Zoo parking lot over to the Bowl, and that’s INSANE. Look at the distance on the map and you’ll realize why that’s insane.

As for the show, none of us were quite sure what to expect. Our experiences with movies at the Bowl have been different, with the Hitchcock experience being various scenes from his film accompanied by their even more-famous scores, E.T. being a straight-up watching of the movie while listening to the orchestra play the soundtrack, to of course John Williams’ music being highlights from the various movies he’s scored. It ended up that West Side Story was that night going to be a performance of the songs, Broadway-style. Although we learned later that only the rights to perform the songs had been acquired, but NOT the choreography, so no dancing.

In the end, it was a fantastic performance, with wildly talented performers in the main roles. Jeremy Jordan, of both SMASH and Supergirl, was Tony, and he was awesome. So were the people who played Maria, Anita, and Riff – and hearing “Dance at the Gym” performed live is always a thrill. Just wish there had been dancing!

Ready for West Side Story to begin

In our seats

Jeremy Jordan was Tony

Picture of Quintet

Concert #2 – Diana Ross @ the Hollywood Bowl, July 15, 2016

The very next day, we were heading BACK to the Bowl for another concert. Diana Ross isn’t someone I would necessarily have said I’d have wanted to see in concert, as I wasn’t even sure she still did tour. This season’s pickings at the bowl were a little sparse, so we ended up just taking a chance on seeing if a true legend still had it. Frankly, I wasn’t expecting much. She’s 72, and I don’t expect people to still bring it like they would have in their 20s, 30s, or even 40s! So how about I shut my damn whore mouth as Miss Diva fucking brought it. She tore that house down, let me tell you, and I am so happy we made it to her show.

Diana Ross performed songs from her various eras, starting us off with some Supremes action, then proceeding into her disco fun, a small journey to Lady Sings the Blues, and then ending with some pure bliss. Does she dance all across the stage? Nope, but does she own every inch of it anyway? YES. Or as Ilana would say, Yas, Queen! It was such a blast, she owned the crowd, and if you get the chance to catch her in concert, just do it and go. It’s worth it.

Diana Ross @ the Hollywood Bowl Set List

Oh, btw, I created a setlist.fm account and created the setlist myself on that site this time as no one had done so yet. So all props to ME.

I’m Coming Out
More Today Than Yesterday
My World is Empty Without You
Baby Love
Stop! In the Name of Love
Come See About Me
You Can’t Hurry Love
Touch Me in the Morning
Love Child
The Boss
Upside Down
Love Hangover
Take Me Higher
Ease on Down the Road
Don’t Explain
Good Morning Heartache
Why Do Fools Fall in Love
Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To)
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
Encore: I Will Survive
Encore 2: Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand)
I Will Survive (Reprise)

The setup for tonight’s concert was a little mysterious

Naturally 7 is the name of the opening acapella act

Me & Larry

These guys were awesome

The sounds they could make were insane

Also wonderful voices

The stage got a little atmospheric waiting for Diana Ross

Tracee Ellis Ross introduced her mother

She was awesome and had just gotten an Emmy nomination for black-ish

And Miss Diana arrived while on a swing

Diva fabulousness

And guess what – she sounded fucking fabulous

And looked fabulous too

Costume change! She entered her disco era here

The crowd was up on its feet for a fun rendition of Upside Down

Fun sparkles in the back as she entered Lady Sings the Blues territory

It was green dress time for the last act

I Will Survive closed us out

pictures, pop culture, social culture

Our Activity-Filled July 4 Weekend

July 4, 2016 Hobie Leave a comment

It’s been one hell of a 4-day weekend – a much needed one, to be sure. Today, the actual holiday of July 4, is probably going to be the most relaxing day of it all, and that’s absolutely perfect for us. Stay a while, look at some pictures, as we’ve had some fun activities this weekend!

Friday, July 1

PwC gave us this day off, and after the one-two punch of Wednesday and Thursday, it was a nice luxury. I made myself exercise in the morning, then I took care of some of the chores that had been backing up, including the sad one of sending off my MacBook Pro for reabsorption back in the Apple ecosystem. I ended up trading it in for credit as I just do NOT use it anymore. Well, it did have one lust hurrah for us as it served as the photo montage delivery system during our wedding reception, so thank you MBP! But alas, your time finally came.

I didn’t do too much exciting stuff though beyond just getting some other shit done at home, as Larry had to work. But we had activities galore planned for the weekend, so Friday didn’t need to be nuts. We did get some Din Tai Fung though, so it was a nice capper to the day.

Saturday, July 2

Mom was going to be coming over in the afternoon today as we had tickets to see Beautiful at the Pantages that night, but in the afternoon, Larry and I had tickets to the Rain Room. So off we went for some culture at LACMA. We ended up going this day as that was when I could get tickets at a decent time – the Rain Room is quite a hot ticket to get, much like the Infinite Stars thing at the Broad. One day we’ll hope to be back there and see that. Anyway, we headed to LACMA and had some fun at our museum stomping grounds, first taking in the Metropolis II exhibit. It’s always fun to see it and we got there right when it started up.

2016 07 02 – Revisiting Metropolis II at the LACMA

Back at Metropolis II

Zoom in to the cars

Lots of fun skyscrapers in the installation

Trains too

The cars are all poised for their adventure

Larry and me

Byways and highways

These ramps are the traffic jam portion

From up above

These cars immediately take off upon cresting the hill

Can’t even see them when trying to capture a pic

Not the same woman from before (4 years before)

Miracle Mile picture

You can just see the Hotel Wilshire in the distance

Hollywood Sign from the LACMA

Can see where the AMPAS museum is getting built

Killing time before our Rain Room appt

It was a beautiful day for the LACMA, that’s for sure. This weekend was happily not one of those insane 100-degree onslaughts!

So, off to the Rain Room, which is a relatively new installation that has you walk into a room with rain falling, with the key twist being that as you walk, the rain clears so you don’t get wet. In theory. You are instructed to walk quite slowly, but even moving slowly, you’re gonna get dripped on. It is a pretty neat thing to do though. I took some pictures and videos, which you can see here. Continue reading Our Activity-Filled July 4 Weekend →

pictures, pop culture

A Front-Row Sound of Music Sing-A-Long!

June 26, 2016 Hobie Leave a comment

People, I was BACK for this year’s Sound of Music Sing-A-Long at the Hollywood Bowl, unlike last year when I got scheduled for training in Dallas. Let it be said that was all actually for the best, as I got to see my Dad and explore a little bit of Dallas. I was totally ready for seeing 11/22/63 and finally understood the geography of that crazy area. But I digress, as this is all about starting off our Hollywood Bowl season!

It’s weird that the SOM Sing-a-Long is on a Friday in June, when for so long it was a Saturday night in September, which made it much easier to get to. It’s kind of a bitch to get to the Hollywood Bowl on a Friday night, justsayin. Happily, we still just take the shuttle from the LA Zoo parking lot and it makes things much simpler.

Mila and Sveta were there this year, as were some of Mila’s friends and coworkers, Sonny, Ellen and Robin. It was kind of jaw-dropping to see that we were headed right to the very front of the auditorium – like literally the front of the crowd. It was awesome. We got to see the costume contest in all its glory, and being that close felt like watching The Sound of Music in IMAX. Loved it.

The costume contest winner ended up being this ridiculously adorable little girl dressed up as the Baroness – I think the cuteness was a good start, but the girl hit us all with a one-two punch with the “two” being when she dropped the line, “Haven’t you ever heard of this wonderful thing called boarding school?” The Baroness’ most villainous line coming from this super cute little moppet won over not only those seek cuteness but also icy gays like myself who worship at the Baroness’ feet.

As for the movie, it was of course wonderful. I had had a pretty stressful week and was in desperate need of something like this, which meant my weekend was not bad. And I even avoided getting completely plastered like I did two years ago. OOF. I can still remember that. Or I can still kinda remember that.

2016 Sound of Music Sing-A-Long @ The Hollywood Bowl – June 24, 2016

I mean, seriously, the front

Melissa Peterson hosts this every year and she’s a national treasure

I mean, seriously, the front

Mila and me

Larry & Sveta

All the peons behind us

The organ player

She brought up a Broadway friend

This hot guy starred in the Broadway version of Once

Up front like we belong

Loved these guys, although the upcoming Baroness just rocked it

There she is – the eventual winner

She was fantastic – but stole the show

when she uttered, “Haven’t you heard of this wonderful thing called boarding school?”

A long line of costume contest participants

First drink of champagne

The movie’s Marta, Debbie Turner

Looks great still

Some of the honorable mentions

It came down to the sweet Maria who has confidence vs the Baroness

I think we know how this one was gonna go

Melissa explained that she just won two tickets to a Viking Cruise

Melissa and the Baroness

Let the movie begin!

Up front!!

Tried to do selfie

Ah, my fave Baroness

Edelweiss is always a stunner

So magical

pictures

ABBA The Concert at the Hollywood Bowl

September 26, 2015 Hobie Leave a comment

Last Night at the Bowl – September 19, 2015

Our last concert of the Hollywood Bowl season!!! So sad an occurrence, but it was a fantastic way to end it. Anyone with a pulse knows ABBA is awesome, and as we discovered in 2013, this tribute band puts on an insanely amazing show. They really are ABBA, at least as close as you can be when recreating ABBA at the height of their songwriting and performing powers.

Since I was in my lazy blogging state in 2013, it seems I never posted about the awesome ABBAFest concert we saw at the Hollywood Bowl back in 2013. Basically, this group from Sweden looks and sounds pretty much exactly like all four members of ABBA and they tour the world putting on ABBA concerts. They really go for it too, having the hair, accents, and costumes down perfectly. They’ve also got charming concert banter and basically you’re just dancing during the entire concert with a great big smile on your face. Unless you hate ABBA, and why would you?

Mom joined us for this concert as I knew back in 2013 that she’d love this show. The group skipped the Hollywood Bowl in 2014 so it was a happy day to see they were back this year – and it seemed they were taking the slot that normally The Sound of Music Sing-a-long occupies.

In 2013, the opening act was 3 different acapella groups from LA universities and hosted by the woman who was a brief internet sensation when she sang “For Good” with Kristin Chenoweth at her HB appearance and even nailed the harmonies. So that was a cool experience. In this year’s opening, we got the gay men’s chorus called Menalive, and they freakin’ nailed a great set of Elton John songs that had the crowd very entertained.

Getting to the Bowl

Menalive

This was a fun group to have warm up for the ABBA show, and they sang the upbeat Elton John songs like “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting”, “I’m Still Standing”, and “The Bitch Is Back.” They did a performance of “Candle in the Wind” that included a Marilyn Monroe lookalike dancing around with them. There were a few cute guys performing their hearts out as you’ll see in the pics here.

ABBA: The Concert!

The setlist for this night was just slightly different than it was in 2013, with a few songs shuffled around and some replaced for others. My heart still was hoping to see them perform “Super Trouper” this year, but alas, they didn’t. They didn’t in 2013 either. The other awesome ABBA songs were though, as you can see: