September has been quiet a month. My sixtieth birthday birthday fell on the 10th, as a gift to myself I was going to spend the day as I wanted and not let friends and family hijack it. Before I could get away from the house my daughter made a cell call from the driveway, she could not get out of her car. She had been to the barn and a horse fell on her. She then checked the horse for injuries, tacked-down, groomed and stabled before driving home. Her foot swelled and she could not take a step. So I spent my birthday at the emergency room and two trips to Walgreens. Jackie had a broken toe and is now recuperating on the couch and enjoying room service.
The 14th was Jo-Ann and my thirty-first anniversary. By now I have learned to not screw this up. I got the day right, I had commissioned an original card on hand made paper from a local artist (no Hallmark for my love), I presented one of those Blue Boxes that she loves containing tasteful gold and pearl earrings. She laughed and said that she like them, she also liked them three years ago when I have her the exact same earrings! See I have had good taste for years. Also she have been giving me the same shirts for thirty-five years and I don't complain! I recovered by shopping Atlanta galleries and picking a piece from an up-and-coming artist now I'm back on track. To finish the anniversary we drive up to Harrah's Cherokee, the best (only) casino within three hundred miles where one of her favorite singers from the eighties was having a concert. The calender said that this was the first fall weekend but our southern trees have not yet turned but it was a beautiful weekend to share with my sweetie.
Dinner was at Harrah's current best restaurant, Paula Deen's (Cracker Barrel without rocking chairs) then the hike to the event center on the opposite end of this sprawling property. Don't planners think that guest may want to have dinner then before a concert? To Harrah's credit the new event center is a first rate room, well designed and built.
Rick Springfield was the star and two thousand Teeny-Boppers Of A Certain Age filled the room with a few husbands and boyfriends dragged in. I had not been to a rock concert in a while and forgot to bring earplugs. I don't know if it would have helped, this was the loudest music I have ever heard. I have seen the Beatles, Who and Stones but never anything like this volume. A seventy year old man in front of me was holding his ears in pain while his fifty-five year old child-bride jumped up and down on her seat. By the third song I swore I would never do this again, call me an old man if you please but never again.
I had never paid much attention to Springfield though I had of course heard him in the car with my wife. He has been touring for forty years and is a master showman. Also at sixty-two he is in better shape then most twenty-five year old athletes, at the end of a tough show he can leap in the air and run through the stands. Most of the dinosaur bands are painful to watch. The last time I saw The Who they had a choir of backup singers carrying the songs while they took turns leaving the stage for breaks. Come to think of it the last time I saw Elvis he was not in top shape
Springfield has loyal fans who have been following him for decades. They know the show, what song is coming next and the words to every song. Surprisingly to me "I've Done Everything Thing For You" was the crowd favorite, the girls were louder then the amps. "Don't Talk To The Strangers" was an audience participation and everyone knew how to play. There is a genuine relationship between Springfield and his fans, he loves them as much as they love him. Like an old boyfriend he knows where their buttons are and loves to push them, by the time "Jesse's Girl" began they were close to orgasm.
After the show the casino seemed quiet and Sunday morning both of us still had hearing loss. Harrah's Cherokee has poor gambling and there is not a deck of cards on the property and I will not sit down to electronic blackjack. My ADT with Total Rewards is permanently ruined anyway so I just slow played poor vp and slots. When it was time to leaved a seat opened at Reel-Em-In and my wife took it so I sat at a nearby $1 Blazing Sevens. Before my wife lost $50 I was up $600 and my weekend was more then paid for. And now I can't complain about Harrah's
It's Monday morning and my hearing has returned. Thirty years from now I am not going to tell the guys at the rest home that my last rock concert was Rick Springfield so I will be going to at least one more and I will make one that I can brag about!
The 14th was Jo-Ann and my thirty-first anniversary. By now I have learned to not screw this up. I got the day right, I had commissioned an original card on hand made paper from a local artist (no Hallmark for my love), I presented one of those Blue Boxes that she loves containing tasteful gold and pearl earrings. She laughed and said that she like them, she also liked them three years ago when I have her the exact same earrings! See I have had good taste for years. Also she have been giving me the same shirts for thirty-five years and I don't complain! I recovered by shopping Atlanta galleries and picking a piece from an up-and-coming artist now I'm back on track. To finish the anniversary we drive up to Harrah's Cherokee, the best (only) casino within three hundred miles where one of her favorite singers from the eighties was having a concert. The calender said that this was the first fall weekend but our southern trees have not yet turned but it was a beautiful weekend to share with my sweetie.
Dinner was at Harrah's current best restaurant, Paula Deen's (Cracker Barrel without rocking chairs) then the hike to the event center on the opposite end of this sprawling property. Don't planners think that guest may want to have dinner then before a concert? To Harrah's credit the new event center is a first rate room, well designed and built.
Rick Springfield was the star and two thousand Teeny-Boppers Of A Certain Age filled the room with a few husbands and boyfriends dragged in. I had not been to a rock concert in a while and forgot to bring earplugs. I don't know if it would have helped, this was the loudest music I have ever heard. I have seen the Beatles, Who and Stones but never anything like this volume. A seventy year old man in front of me was holding his ears in pain while his fifty-five year old child-bride jumped up and down on her seat. By the third song I swore I would never do this again, call me an old man if you please but never again.
I had never paid much attention to Springfield though I had of course heard him in the car with my wife. He has been touring for forty years and is a master showman. Also at sixty-two he is in better shape then most twenty-five year old athletes, at the end of a tough show he can leap in the air and run through the stands. Most of the dinosaur bands are painful to watch. The last time I saw The Who they had a choir of backup singers carrying the songs while they took turns leaving the stage for breaks. Come to think of it the last time I saw Elvis he was not in top shape
Springfield has loyal fans who have been following him for decades. They know the show, what song is coming next and the words to every song. Surprisingly to me "I've Done Everything Thing For You" was the crowd favorite, the girls were louder then the amps. "Don't Talk To The Strangers" was an audience participation and everyone knew how to play. There is a genuine relationship between Springfield and his fans, he loves them as much as they love him. Like an old boyfriend he knows where their buttons are and loves to push them, by the time "Jesse's Girl" began they were close to orgasm.
After the show the casino seemed quiet and Sunday morning both of us still had hearing loss. Harrah's Cherokee has poor gambling and there is not a deck of cards on the property and I will not sit down to electronic blackjack. My ADT with Total Rewards is permanently ruined anyway so I just slow played poor vp and slots. When it was time to leaved a seat opened at Reel-Em-In and my wife took it so I sat at a nearby $1 Blazing Sevens. Before my wife lost $50 I was up $600 and my weekend was more then paid for. And now I can't complain about Harrah's
It's Monday morning and my hearing has returned. Thirty years from now I am not going to tell the guys at the rest home that my last rock concert was Rick Springfield so I will be going to at least one more and I will make one that I can brag about!
