I Am a Concert-Goer - Festival on the Green

"A loaf of bread, a jug of wine and thou."  Or...."some stuffed figs, a tortellini salad, grilled tuna, bread dipped in Sicilian seasoned olive oil, peach cobbler, a bottle (or two) of wine, portable lawn chairs, a blanket, two good friends, the California Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven and Disney, and thou."  Such was our wonderful evening at the Festival-On-The-Green at the Los Angeles Arboretum.  We have attended pleasant concerts at the Hollywood Bowl and while the music and setting are magical, the logistics of getting there and returning home are similar to a root canal.  So the opportunity to have an outdoor summer evening musical experience in a new setting was very appealing.  I have been to the arboretum once before to attend the Los Angeles Garden show and I loved it.  Last night's setting of a large grassy field with a clam shell amphitheater at one end, the San Bernardino Mountains along the northern border, a reflection pool in the center, Venus brightly visible in the west and a nearly full moon hanging in the eastern sky was a little piece of heaven  The area was packed with people, young and old.  Some were true veterans having a complete set up of small portable table, wine glasses, cloth napkins and even a candle to light once the sun had dipped beyond the horizon. Everyone was fully present to the music and I realized that we are truly in a new society when the orchestra played "We are the Champions" and the audience swayed with their hands holding aloft their open cellphones in place of lit lighters to fill the night air with moving shards of light!  The evening ended with a powerful, "Ode to Joy," from Beethoven's 9th Symphony and we said a resounding, "YES!"

We spend our days as scholars of the world.  We take classes and discuss heavy dilemmas such as peak oil, Afghanistan, global warming, the economic melt-down, unemployment rates, the disillusioning political scene.  It nurtured our spirits to set all that down for the evening and just absorb the beauty and restorative nature of the setting and the sound.  We have so many such opportunities in our little corner of the world and last evening reminded us to take more advantage of them.  Even finding the transition ramp from the 710 freeway to the 105 freeway closed for construction that resulted in a slight detour through "the hood" did not dampen our resolve to do this again sometime! Thank you, Cindy and Dennis!

Jay engaged!

Cindy, Dennis and Patricia