So, I have been
MAJORLY slacking on my blog lately. Between work, volunteering, and just in general chaos, the blog took a back seat to my adult responsibilities. I really haven't done much to blog about lately anyways. I doubt that my five readers want to hear about how I chase down engineers for budget info all day long. A few weeks ago I stumbled upon an article in the
Los Angeles Times about things to do in the city over the course of the summer. That article led me to the
Hollywood Bowl website. Much to my excitement, every year John Williams conducts a concert of his music with the LA Philharmonic. Furthermore, the tickets are cheap (we paid $15) and you can bring your own food and alcohol. The bowl is set in the Hollywood Hills, surrounded by mountains, and shadowed by the infamous sign! After what seemed like an eternity at work on Friday, we hopped in the car, hit Highway 101, and made it to the bowl with plenty of time to picnic and party before the concert.
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| The bowl! |
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| Fellow blogger and USAF wife, Laura! |
So for those of you that do not know who
John Williams is, I ask you to turn on Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, E.T., Schindler's List, Jaws, or Saving Private Ryan (just to name a few) and listen to the music. You are listening to John Williams. He also composed the Olympic fanfare. This man is a living legend! The concert also featured several movie montages and musical montages that included films Williams did not compose music for. Williams took a scene from the third Indiana Jones movie, played the scene without music and told the audience about how he developed the score based on the actions of the characters, and then afterwards he replayed the scene with the orchestra following his direction. It was like you got to peek into his musical mind.
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| Married couples' night out! |
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| With the sun setting behind the mountains, the view itself was worth the ticket price! |
For all of the Star Wars fans in the audience, Williams conducted several pieces from the films and the audience lit up with light sabers. The man behind us wore a Darth Vader mask to the concert!
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| Star Wars time! |
The best part of the concert though? James Taylor sang! James Taylor served as the guest narrator for a Williams piece. I thought it was just going to be a voice over of Taylor during the piece. But, JT actually came out on stage and read the narration live. Afterwards, Williams informed JT that he had a spare guitar, and JT performed an impromptu acoustic version of"Sweet Baby James." Seriously, the best $15 ever spent.
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| James Taylor performs while John Williams watches. |
The Hollywood Bowl opens in May and stays open through September. The ticket prices are the same no matter what the event and big acts perform there every summer. I seriously cannot wait to go back!
3 comments:
The bowl looks beautiful!!! Almost as breathtaking as the Red Rocks in Colorado..........looks like way back is the place to be since you can see the show and the mountains. I'm jealous about you guys hearing James Taylor sing!
That looks so fun! And it's awesome that it's byob!
It was definitely an awesome experience. I just wish we knew about it the bowl earlier in the summer... would have gone to more!
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