The Big E

We had a phenomenal time at The Big E in Massachusetts. B and I had been years ago, but this is the first time we've brought the boys.

It was about an hour drive, I guess. We got there early enough to get a decent parking spot. We checked out the daily schedule they actually make you pay for, so that we could plan our day. Once we had an idea of the times of the shows we wanted to see, we headed off to see how much tickets for rides cost, and how many tickets each ride would need. We gave the boys each $20 to use how they liked for both The Big E and the Durham Fair, so they needed to plan carefully. Luckily Grandma will help out with the Durham Fair, so the boys decided quite a bit of their $20 would be spent here. They decided that the rides were way over priced though. E did not feel $4 was worth it for a ferris wheel ride, so I went on with R. He wanted to have a look at the park and see it from that viewpoint.We did a few more rides. I tried really hard to talk E into going on a cool roller coaster with me. He had gone on one at Quassy during the summer (I can't find that I blogged about that) and so I hoped to convince him to try another. Not this time though.

We went to see the "Live Shark Experience" but it was just a guy in a giant tank with a few little sharks. So we headed off to "The Avenue of the States". From The Big E website: "Walking through the life-size replicas of each state's original capitol you can learn about the people, products and attractions each New England state has to offer." Basically it was stuff to buy from each state. B and I enjoyed the lobster roll sandwiches we got in Maine, and I especially enjoyed the Cherry Garcia ice-cream bar I got from the Ben and Jerry's stand in Vermont.

We also saw an incredible circus while we were there. By itself it was worth the price of admission to the fair. I knew it was going to be a great performance when they announced the Ringmistress. I'm including a photo of The Fusco Brothers (twins!) juggling fire.

The circus also featured the Gagik Hand Balancing Act, wherein a gymnast did flips and stuff on a balance beam which was held on her brothers' shoulders, The Flying Pages, a "family of aerialists", "Mind-boggling gravity defying feats" from the Calusari Teeterboard Troupe, a clown with trained little dogs, and

"Guiness World Record holder Alesya's Hula Hoops." She was excellent!

I can't find anything on the website or in the $3 program we had to buy for the schedule (can you tell that annoyed me?) but there was a young lady who did great balancing stuff too. You can see her above, dislocating her shoulders so that she could flip over. She was cool in an ew sort of way.

B and I enjoyed a 20 minute thing on "Great Cheeses of New England". They talked about the cheeses and what goes well with them, and gave out samples of what they were talking about. That was cool for us.

One of my personal favorite things about this fair was the butter sculpture. We got to see the guy actually working on it.

We watched the "Daily Parade" at 5pm. The Bristol High School marching band was in it, which was fun to see. It was right near the entrance to the theater for the evening's entertainment though, and we were very surprised to see people on line for it already. When we walked past the security guards I asked one if he thought we'd get in if we got on line closer to 7:30 (show started at 8) and he said we probably wouldn't be near the front, but we'd get in just fine. Another security guard jumped in and advised us to go in the other entrance because it seemed people didn't realize both would be open and the line was forming at only one. Good tidbit!

We did a couple more rides, then spent some time watching JUGI! Thunder Drums of China, which was lots of fun. We couldn't watch the whole thing though, because we did need to get into the theater to see the evening's entertainment: Joan Jett!

Yes, the whole reason we went to The Big E this year is so we could see Joan Jett. We had seen her three years ago at the Durham Fair, and in fact it was her guitarist who inspired R to get a mohawk, and the opportunity to see her again was one I couldn't resist. So we used the alternate line and arrived just when the gates opened, and got 12th row seats! Thank you security guard!

This photo actually gives you a decent idea of how close we were. It was really great. We had seats in front of two women with their son, who was a year or so younger than E and we chatted the time away with them (son had gotten the cool Star Wars Pez collection that E already owned, and they were from Connecticut too) until the show started.

Kind of cool that Joan Jett was R's first concert and now E's too (he slept through the whole thing at the Durham Fair). I even bought t-shirts for the boys. She was fantastic. She is one rockin' bitch, gotta say. And her new music sounds as good as her old. I put the new CD on my SwapaCD wish list. I'll actually buy it if I don't get it free soon. It was also cool to have R know many of the words in the songs since I had downloaded some of them for him after we saw her last time. She puts on a really energetic show, it really was great.

We were pretty hungry by the time we left, so we saved a few bucks by stopping at McDonald's on the way home.

We didn't have time to do everything. I was a little bummed to miss the commercial building, but went in knowing we might not have time for it. We also didn't see any animals, which we actually don't really care about since we can see them at the Durham Fair. We missed The Big E's Circus Museum, which is fine since we go to the Barnum Museum occasionally. We missed The New England Center, which looks pretty interesting from the $3 program. We missed Storrowton Village Museum which from the $3 program (okay, I'll stop now) looks very much like Old Sturbridge Village. And my biggest disappointment was arriving at the Cream Puff Bakery too late to use my coupon from my program on a giant eclair, since it was closed. Oh well. Lots to look forward to next year!

The Rockstar Supernova Concert

R and I went to see Rockstar Supernova on Saturday night. We had gotten tickets as soon as they went on sale, soon after the TV show concluded. We had been voting along for who we thought the best singer for the band would be, and when I suggested we see the concert, he was definitely enthusiastic!

R hadn't been feeling well on the day of the show, and we realized he might be starting to get the illness B had earlier in the week. So I gave him some Tylenol, and he took a nap. I wish now that I had brought the Tylenol with me.

We met friends who were seeing the show with us, and had dinner beforehand at a restaurant called Archie Moore's which was fun, and where my food was great. I'm glad we arrived a little early at the Chevrolet Theater. We got a really good parking spot, bought our shirt, used the bathroom, and found our seats in plenty of time. The 3600 capacity theater was about 2/3 to 3/4 full.

Dilana came on exactly at 7:30 and played for 20 minutes. That woman is awesome. She's the one I went to see. I can't wait till she comes out with some amazing music for me to buy. Magni actually showed up playing guitar for her too.

Toby's band, Juke Kartel came on next, after almost no break, and the crowd went wild. People had obviously come to see Toby. R really enjoyed their perfomance a lot. I did too. They are an amazingly energetic band, and remind me of U2 before they got into who they are. They played for about 30 minutes. After Juke Kartel I went back out to the merchandise table and bought their CD, which although it only has four songs on it, is really great. While out in the lobby our we noticed a huge line forming for a "meet and greet" with the performers. So when the next band came on and our friends weren't back, we knew where they were.

The Panic Channel is Dave Navarro's band and they don't get a link. They were awful. When the band leader told the audience we were all his bitches, I had to laugh because I don't think anyone in that whole entire audience was there to see them. Unless of course their mothers were there. They seemed very out of place with all the Rockstar TV performers. Toward the end when the singer proclaimed that he had "one more little nugget" for us, someone behind me said "oh no, please don't". Enough said. The only redeeming part of seeing this band was at the very end when they played AC/DC's Highway to Hell and Dilana came out to sing it. It really made sitting through all their other crap worth it. That chick rocks.

Our friends came back to their seats in time for Supernova, oh excuse me, Rockstar Supernova. They had gotten to meet Dilana, Toby and Magni, and other band members from Toby's band Juke Kartel. Our eight-year-old friend had her shirt signed by all the performers. She was very psyched. And some kind strangers took photos of her schmoozing it up with them all. They all apparently loved her and fawned all over her. What a great first concert for her! We had actually met up with our friends on the line, but R was feeling low by that point and didn't want to get on line with them. So we headed back to our seats, and were happy to see them return and share their adventure with us before Supernova came on.

So how was Rockster Supernova? R had voted for Lukas and was looking forward to seeing the show. He really liked all the lights which looked like stars. The rest of the lighting though, was awful. This is the very first show in the dozens I've gone to, where the lighting actually distracted from the show. They had all this back lighting which was glaring in the audiences faces. Maybe they wanted to see the audience, but we wanted to see them! I sincerely hope the lighting designer gets fired, and they are able to fix that mess before the tour is over. I hope they realize how awful it is.

The whole set design was actually quite poor, and very amateurish. There was a large platform about 10 feet or so back from the edge of the stage, which all the performers were on. So, a stage on a stage. It really separated the performers from the audience, and some of their wires weren't long enough for them to step closer to us. Also, Supernova had a platform above Tommy Lee, and some stairs to his right. So he wasn't centered, and he certainly wasn't up high enough. Like I said, it looked very amateurish.

The music was way TOO loud. Even through the earplugs. And Lukas? Lukas needs to get over himself. He is way too cocky. I don't know why the heck they decided to perfom Boys of Summer. Lukas was singing out of his throat the whole time and he actually couldn't reach some of the notes. If he keeps singing this way, it's just a matter of time before he loses his voice. On another song (I don't remember which one) he was actually off key for the second half of it.

The girls were going bezerk for him though; screaming his name and all. I was pleased that the infamous tittie-cam was not brought out. (Wherein the drummer uses a small video camera to encourage female audience members to lift their shirts and be broadcast over the giant screens above the band.) Special thanks to Tommy Lee for recognizing that some younger fans would be attending this band's concert. And to Lukas for not cursing as much as in his interviews.

I have to admit to being disappointed at how poorly their whole show was produced. I had listened to their album half a dozen times and thought the show should be pretty good, but I was disappointed. R enjoyed what he could, but I could see he was getting sleepy, so I asked him if he wanted to leave. He stayed another couple of songs before asking "are you sure you won't mind if we leave?" I'm guessing we only missed two or three songs. And there were a lot of other people leaving at the same time as us.

My poor R. I feel badly that he wasn't himself for the show. But he says he did enjoy it, and he got a new t-shirt. I'll take a photo soon and post it here. As for myself, I'm glad to have seen Dilana and Juke Kartel. And to have had dinner with some friends. The rest of the night was totally expendable.

Thomas Dolby in concert

Okay, it's 1982 and I'm a senior in high school, and this amazing song comes on the radio called "She Blinded Me With Science". I at once become a huge Thomas Dolby fan, and have been ever since. I saw him perform at Radio City Music Hall in 1984, The Ritz in 1988, Roseland in 1988, and this past Friday at The Canal Room in 2006. He actually left the music industry for a really long time, and only returned because he started reading fan forums about him and realized that there really are people out here who would love to see him return.

The concert was amazing. There was one person between me and the stage, so I had an awesome view. The forum was teeny - probably about a hundred people there - so the show itself was really intimate. It was totally excellent to be surrounded by people my own age, who love the music as much as I do. I have to admit there were others there who knew some of the words better than I did too! I also have to admit to being disappointed that he only played 1.5 hours. His songs are long so they were not as many as I would have liked. Nevertheless, traveling two hours for a 1.5 hour show was still worth it. And it was very cool that this time he was alone. In his previous shows he had a full band, but in this intimate setting it was just him and his synthesizers and computer and "tubes and wires."

Here's another song which made it to the charts and which you'd likely know. And my favorite of his songs, which you wouldn't. That synthesizer music is great stuff; for dancing or head music, you can't go wrong with Thomas Dolby.

The boys slept at a friend's house, so B and I were able to have a real night out in Manhattan. I never think I miss the place until I go back there. (Well I don't actually miss Queens, but I do miss Manhattan.) After the show we parked in the West Village and walked over to the east side to have dinner.

Sixth street between 1st and 2nd Avenues has always been the place to go for Indian food; there has always been at least a dozen restaurants to choose from. They had no liquor licenses, so the food was really cheap and you could bring our own bottles in. Well, it's different now. The addition of liquor has changed everything. The restaurant entrances have become quite ostentatious with neon signs and such, and also have "hosts" out front trying to talk you into their restaurants.

We walked along the street peeping through windows at empty places until we found one which was crowded with NYU students. Taj Cafe at 310 East 6th Street was an excellent choice. They have not updated themselves along with all the other places along the street, and frankly they don't have to. The coconut samosa was a definite highlight, and the rest of the food was excellent and reasonably priced.

We really enjoyed eating Indian food in Manhattan in a crowded restaurant at 11:30 pm on a Friday night. Seemed like old times. There are definitely some things about NY which we miss. On 6th Street, and along 1st Avenue, we also saw restaurants which feature Cajun, Thai, Peruvian, and Ethiopian Vegetarian, among others which I now can't remember. And the streets were crowded. A real haven for a night owl light me...

We arrived home at 3:00 am or so, and were very glad that the boys spent the night someplace else, because it meant sleeping late in the morning. Although in the old days 10:45 am would have seemed early, now it was a real treat.

The boys had a wonderful time where they were too, so it worked well for all of us.

A day at home and an evening of music

We spent the day at home today catching up on some household chores. The boys spent a great portion of the day in the pool. They also watched TV and played some computer games. It was really too hot to be outside.

It did cool off this evening though, enough for us to head out to Elizabeth Park in Hartford and listen to some live music. The band was called "Happening" and played all 60's stuff. They were very good and it was fun listening to all that music from when I was a kid.

The gardens there are beautiful and all four of us enjoyed walking through some of them as we listened to the end of the performance. Okay two of us enjoyed walking through them, and two of us enjoyed playing tag. It was a really nice, easy-going evening.