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Saturday, October 24, 2009

I'm a Fan

When I was young I listened to the radio, waitin for my favorite songs.
When they played I'd sing along, it made me smile.

Karen Carpenter

I learned to sing by listening to Karen Carpenter. We both had low voices and I learned every song. Also in those early days I fell in love with the voice of this man.



I took a quick trip to California to see my favorite singer. My mom was given tickets for her birthday to see him at the Hollywood Bowl. So she invited me to go along. We also took my Aunt Sally (my Dad's sister).

Our first stop was dinner at CPK. Then we walked to the Bowl. I have been to 4 of his concerts in my lifetime. This is the first time he has ever performed at the Hollywood Bowl. This was a one night engagement. He was actually raising money for the Los Angeles Unified School district to go toward purchasing musical instruments. The concert raised over $100,000. Sweet!


Here are my mom and Aunt waiting for the concert to start.




These are the two crummy pictures I got.


Here we are at the end of the night with our glow sticks.



While I was there, I took pictures of the aftermath of the fires that burned the hills by my parents home. This is the second time these hills have burned so badly. While we were moving into our house in 1976 we had to be evacuated. These fires were much worse. The scary thing to note is that in 1979 we had severe mudslides because of the fires. This area will be on alert for the next 3-5 years.


The hill used to be green.


This tree was incredible. It went from black to brown to green. You can see right where the fire stopped.


These sandbags will be a permanent fixture for the next 3-5 years.


These K-rails will hopefully stop the mud when, not if, it comes.


An ugly side effect of the fires. THe rats lost their homes and showed up in ours.

4 comments:

Colleen said...

I remember us listening and singing with Karen playing on the car 8-track player on our way to Tuesday afternoon primary. Who knew we would owe her our singing voices.

In 1976, the day the school was closed due to the fire, was supposed to be my 1st day at Dunsmore. We had just moved in.

I would say Great memories, but I guess the fire wasn't. Hmmm

Michelle said...

Ooohh I love Barry too! Im jealous. And that rat.... the most disgusting thing I have seen all day. Blech.

Gail said...

Wow, Barry Manilow! He's one I've never seen live and I love him too:). I also grew up to Karen and the threat of fire in the foothills near my California home. I even remember being packed and ready to evacuate back in 1976 and waiting for the call which didn't come for us, luckily. I never had to deal with rats, thankfully...ewwww! That's a crummy side effect for sure! Glad you had fun in spite of your furry visitor:). Welcome home!
ps. I got a cute pic of our sons at graduation, which I posted on my blog, in case you want a copy:).

Miller Family said...

Ok, not a fan of the mouse picture and sadly, not a big Barry fan either. But I'm glad you guys were able to go and had a fun night together. You all look great in your glowstick picture!