hollywood wonders

i've lived in LA for almost five years now. yikes. that's a while and i've formed a love-hate relationship with this city. we all know the bad things about it so i won't go into that. but there are some great places and things to do here that i would really miss if i moved. for five years i've been wanting to go to the hollywood bowl. but it never worked out. weekdays were hard because of work and the few summer weekends we had available just didn't seem to work out. but FINALLY we went to the hollywood bowl last night for a night with john williams and the LA philharmonic. and let me say that it is amazing. i wish i had brought my camera to take a picture of the venue becuase it's amazing. from the street you would never guess that this amazingly huge amphitheater is hiding among the trees. i really can't believe that this place continues to thrive because of two things. one, the seats are still only $14. (granted, the cheap seats but their still awesome). and two, you are allowed to bring in whatever food and drink you want. that's right, you heard me. tons of food, beer bottles, bottles of wine, etc. how does this work? yet it did. there were no drunk fights, no bottles thrown, etc. amazing. next time i'm bringing some serious alcohol.

BUT the best part of the night was a certain aspect of the crowd. john williams really is an amazing composer and all night we're listening to some of my favorite movie themes. at intermission i happen to glance behind me and i see these two people with these long white staffs or something. i whisper to john 'holy shit, i think those are lightsabers.' awesome. so then the concert continues and this song comes on that john and i don't recognize immediately. and that's because it's from the "new" star wars. something from episode one i think. but i KNEW it was star wars because suddenly these bright lights come on behind us. yup, the light sabers. the most professional intense light sabers i had ever seen. i look down into the rest of the darkened crowd and suddenly a few light sabers begin to pop up in the dark crowd of 18,000. just these little lights sticking out. john and i thought it was the funniest thing ever. boy, were hadn't even gotten started though. williams finished the episode one song and went on to indy and e.t. then for the finale, the orchestra goes right into it...the star wars theme. the real one. the rad one. (i'll admit it). but suddenly hundreds of light sabers are on!! way more than i had thought. and these nerds are getting up and running through the aisles with their light sabers a-blazing. it might have been one of the funniest things i've ever seen. damn i wish i had brought my camera. it was so amusing to me. i'm sure i didn't tell the story very well, but damn it was good.

if anyone here wants to go to the bowl one more time before the summer ends, lemme know.