July in Janetville - James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt and Neil Diamond

What a way to end this busy month!  On Saturday we went to AT&T Park to see James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt.  We had tickets for the field so we got to go in through a special door and into an uncharted (for us) territory of the ballpark.  We felt pretty special I must say.

Gotta take the concert selfie!

Bonnie Raitt started the night out and then James Taylor came out and did a song with her.

I think my favorites were "Something to Talk About" and "Burning Down the House."

Then James Taylor came on and did most of his hits.  He tells some pretty funny stories in between songs.  

From where we were sitting I had a view of the orange lights on the trees behind the stage. 

The next night we were headed down to SAP Center in San Jose to see Neil Diamond on his 50th anniversary tour.  We left early to stop at our favorite restaurant, Louisiana Bistro, only to find that they were closed because they are relocating!  That instantly put kind of a damper on the evening because now we didn't know where to go to eat and didn't have time to do searching.  We went to the arena and got a hot dog and nachos.  Not what we were looking for.  

Our seats were in the second deck so my pictures didn't come out as nice as I would like, but then again he doesn't change costumes so as long as I got a few good ones of him and his band I will be happy with that.  The stage was waiting for him with this lone guitar.

The lights and speakers blocked my view of the big screen in the middle.  

One more concert selfie.  I love the way my husband indulges me with this.

This guy plays a mean set of bongos!

Camera lights from the phones in the crowd is always neat looking, especially from the upper deck looking down.

I have to say that I liked the show we saw a few years ago better than this one.  He sang more of his hits that I knew at that performance.  He still has a good voice though.

Here is my July selfie.  Looking kind of tired after such a busy weekend!  I see some bags under those eyes.  I'm glad I work from home.  Maybe I'm getting too old for this?  NAHHH

August starts tomorrow and I have a new project I'll be doing, August Break, with Susannah Conway.  It is a picture prompt so that will fit right in with my 365 Picture Project.  Bet you can't wait! 

How was your July?  Ready for August?  Love to hear about it.

April 2017 - #Atozchallenge - Interesting I

I is for "I Am...I Said" by Neil Diamond.

Yes, up until now I have been using the name of the band to make my letter, but I haven't seen bands with a name that starts with an "I" and so I am using my creative license to interpret the parameters of the A to Z and using the name of a song sung by Neil Diamond.  Be forewarned, this is not the only time I'm going to use a song title to meet my category, so if that bothers you, I'm sorry :)

Anyway, we got a chance to see Neil Diamond in 2015 and it was a great show.  We had an unusual experience at this event in that after I bought our tickets my husband hurt his back and was not going to be able to walk any distances or stand in line.  We rented a wheelchair for the evening and when we got to the venue I went and explained the situation to the helpful people at the information counter and they were able to relocate us to the handicapped section, which was on the floor toward the back.  Honestly, the seats we were given might have been better than the ones I had purchased!  It was also interesting to see what it is like to navigate as a handicapped person.  Everyone was very nice and we were taken through some parts of SAP Center we had never seen before, like service elevators under the arena.

Also, we ran into some friends that we hadn't seen in a really long time and got a chance to say hello and chat with them for a bit while we were waiting in line to get in.  Once we were inside, I was able to find them in their seats and my camera had good enough zoom that I could take their picture too!

There was no opening act and Neil Diamond came out and sang 26 of his hits, one after the other, with the whole crowd singing along.  He didn't even take breaks to change his outfit very often.  

I had a lot of pictures of the drummer because I was so impressed with the way his hands were flying on the drum set.  Once again I used one of the templates from Lea France; this time it was the Stained Glass one.  It really makes it easy for me to get all the pictures I want on the page.

Here is the finished page and I think it came out really well.  I added a drum set and the "play a little" tag to even out the spaces.  Look at the way his hands are flying!  Reminds me of hummingbird wings.    

Another thing I used a lot on this layout was this corner punch by Fiskars.  I use it when I don't want to use photo mats behind the pictures.  This one has 3 different corner treatments to use.  I used the one that looks like flower leaves.

Everyone got chills when he sang America and displayed the statue of liberty, eagle and the flag.  I used that page to write out the song list.  The end of the show was Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show and Heartlight.     

We are going to see him again this year.  I'm looking forward to it.  It is a 50th Anniversary tour.  Hard to believe he's been around 50 years!  He still looks and sounds great.  At least he did in 2015.

I have to say I'm having a good time making these scrapbook pages and reliving the concerts, especially these more recent ones when I had a better camera and the pictures came out clearer for the most part.  Some are still blurry because I have a hard time taking pictures without dancing to the music!

"I Am...I Said!"  Ever seen Neil Diamond?  Got a favorite song of his?  Love to hear about it!

You can click over to the main A to Z Challenge page to see what other participants have come up with for this letter, and come back to see what J has for us!

A to Z Challenge - 2016

Today is brought to you by the letter "J."

J is for Jazz...

April happens to be Jazz Appreciation month.  It was started in 2001 with initial funding from the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation to be an annual event that would pay tribute to jazz.  Schools, organizations and even government celebrate JAM with events like free concerts and educational programs.

According to Wikipedia, Jazz is a music genre that originated from African-American communities of New Orleans during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  In addition to Ella Fitzgerald, big names in jazz are Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, George Benson, Herbie Hancock and Count Basie.

In talking about jazz, one of the first things that comes to my mind is the movie, The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson.  It was a significant film in that it signaled the end of the silent movies and the beginning of the "talkies."

The original film was made in 1927 and won an Academy Award for producer Darryl F. Zanuck.  In 1996 the movie was selected for preservation in the U.S. Library of Congress' National Film Registry as a "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant motion picture.  In 1998 it was voted as one of the best American films of all times by the American Film Institute.  

The story is of a young Jewish boy, Jakie Rabinowitz, who wants to sing but his father, a cantor, believes that singing is only to be done in the synagogue.  The usual conflict ensues and the young man and his father have a major argument and Jakie leaves home to follow his dreams.  I won't tell you the end of the story, but it is a classic so if you haven't seen it, you should check it out.  There was a 1980 remake of the film with Neil Diamond playing the title role.  That was a pretty good one too.  

Jazz it is for the letter "J."  Have you seen the Jazz Singer, either version?  Jazz your favorite musical genre?  Love to hear about it. 

As a side note, I want to acknowledge that I get some of my interesting holiday facts from the site called Brownilocks at http://www.brownielocks.com.  There are so many little known and unusual holidays for every month of the year so if you are looking for something different to write about, take a look at her site.