Buddy Holly was Buried Here

In addition to visiting the temple in Lubbock, we did some sight-seeing.

First, we went to the Buddy Holly Museum.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside. The exhibit area was small, but, of course, Buddy Holly died when he was 22(!) In fact, his professional career lasted only 18 months.

Across the street, and in the scorching 108-degree weather, is a statue of Buddy Holly.

Then we drove across town to find Buddy Holly's grave:

It's surprisingly modest and just on the side of the cemetery road.

But a hundred or so feet away is this huge angel. We thought at first that his grave might be near there (but it wasn't).

Something you may not know is that Buddy Holly's last name is actually spelled "Holley," but was written incorrectly on his recording contract and he was too scared to correct it. Therefore, he became Buddy "Holly."

We didn't get to spend very much time in Lubbock (less than 24 hours) because the next morning we hit the road headed for Dallas and our dear friend Caroline's wedding.

Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band

My brother-in-law Kaly bought tickets for us to see Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band, and since Kaly is awesome, he got us seats in the second row. Yeah, seriously. It was at the Cuthbert Amphitheater in Eugene, which is actually a nice venue (even though I grew up in Eugene, I had never been to a show there, and now I wish I had). In addition to my b-i-l Kaly and my sister Laura, my parents also came with us (it was supposed to be a birthday present, I think, though no one told my dad about it, so when he asked, "What is everyone doing tonight?" at dinner he got a big surprise to find out that we had made plans for him).

Ringo Starr is hilarious. When he started the show he read out loud the signs that people were holding up. Someone had a "Beatles" sign, and he said, "The Beatles, like I've forgotten about that."

We also saw:

Edgar Winter who sang "Free Ride" (not to be confused with "Slow Ride") and "Frankenstein

My parents were super excited about him. They practically fell over when they jumped to their feet and cheered when he started singing. It's possibly the most excited I have ever seen them. It looked like this:

And then we also saw:

Rick Derringer from The McCoys, who sang "Hang On Sloopy." Fun fact: "Hang On Sloopy" is the official song of Ohio.

Wally Palmar from The Romantics, who sang "Talking in your Sleep" and "What I Like About You" (I felt like I was at prom in 1980, but in a good way). 

Gary Wright, who sang "Dream Weaver." He took himself very seriously.

and, last but not least, Richard Page from Mr. Mister, who sang "Kyrie" (which my sister Laura hates) and "Broken Wings"

I totally recommend going to their Wikipedia pages and checking out what they looked like in their hey-day. Interesting. 

This was the best concert I've been to in a long time. Here we are with my sister and brother-in-law:

I am giving my fake smile/grimace, so don't judge too harshly

And here we are ShepAldering it up from the second row:

The night ended with "With a Little Help From My Friends" (naturally), which segued into "Give Peace a Chance."

I like my Ladies Bare, I like them Naked.

I have an admission to make: I love the Barenaked Ladies. I have loved them ever since 1998 when I visited my sister Tasha in SLC and she let me listen to "Stunt" and "Gordon" in her 4-Runner. Then in 2000 when "Maroon" came out, I kept dating a guy because he had tickets for their concert. Best. Concert. Ever. (Or, at least, definitely in my top 5).

So when BNL was in Portland, we had to go. Josh had never seen them in concert, and he loves concerts, so it wasn't really a choice.

Us before the band took the stage

BNL takes the stage

During their encore

Josh wanted me to include this little gem, a picture from the first concert we ever attended together, Counting Crows at Clark County Amphitheater (Worst. Venue. Ever.):

June 21st 2006, before the Awesomeness of ShepAlder,

there was just the awesomeness of Shepard and Alder

It's MY Turn!

This past week, I introduced Josh to the glory that is "My Turn on Earth," the wildly popular LDS musical. He had never seen it, though I periodically break into songs from the show, so I made him watch it. We have a long-standing argument in our house about whether "My Turn on Earth" or "Saturday's Warrior" is better, and I think I finally may have tipped him to my side.

However, Josh is still adamant that the production value on the "Saturday's Warrior" film is much better, but I don't think it's fair when "My Turn on Earth" was filmed as a stage play in 1986.

Watching the movie again, I was reminded of how many times I've seen it before. It's been years since I've listened to the music, but I still remember nearly every word of every song (and a lot of the choreography too. . . did I mention I used to re-enact it?)

What do YOU think? "My Turn on Earth" or "Saturday's Warrior"?

Date Night in NYC

Josh was excited about our whole trip, but the thing he talked about the most, and the thing he bragged the most about to other people was taking me to a Broadway show starring my favorite actress:

My favorite story about my love for Angela Lansbury, and the story Josh kept referring to whenever he told people about why we were going to see her on Broadway, is something that took place when I was a senior in high school. My friends (affectionately known as "The Girls") and I were hanging out with what I guess might have been the male equivalent of our group. These guys were in several of our classes (a couple of them sat in front of us during AP Bio, and next to me during Calculus). One of the guys worked at Berg's Ski Shop and was the lone guy from our high school on the ski team, so we had a little bit in common. We must have had the same free period, because he invited me over to his house for some reason I can't remember now. It absolutely never occurred to me that it was because he liked me, because after a few minutes of hanging out I realized that I was missing "Murder, She Wrote," which was replayed on A&E at the time, made an excuse, and went home to watch it. A week or so later the same guy called me and asked me to prom. So now I get to tell people that I once walked out on what was apparently a date-type situation in order to watch "Murder, She Wrote." It was totally worth it, too. (Not that the guy wasn't nice and not that we didn't continue to date throughout the summer, but I was so clueless about the whole situation it wasn't until we broke up that I realized I was his girlfriend in the first place).

Anyway. . . this brings us to present day. Before going to NYC, Josh and I talked a lot about which Broadway show to see. One day, after coming home from school, Josh said, "We absolutely have to see 'A Little Night Music.'" I was a little wishy-washy about it since I absolutely hate the song "Send in the Clowns." But then he told me that Angela Lansbury was starring in it. So we had to go.

It also starred Catherine Zeta-Jones, who was magnificent.

This is a billboard in Times Square

I think that, as time went on, Josh was more excited about it than even I was (though when Angela Lansbury came over the loudspeaker before the performance to remind us to turn off our cellphones and unwrap our candies, I got a little teary-eyed). The whole experience was excellent (but you kind of expect that of a Broadway show), and Josh wants to buy the soundtrack (afterward he said he had Catherine Zeta-Jones' version of "Send in the Clowns" stuck in his head). We bought a poster and then carefully transported it back to Boston, then back to NYC (by plane) then all the way back to Portland. 

The show was at the Walter Kerr Theater (we came back later for more pictures):

One more picture:

It's nice to have a husband who indulges my eccentricities. And now I have seen Angela Lansbury in person! 

"So good, so good, so good!!"

One of the perks of my job is that I get to decide where our advertising budget goes as far as print, radio and television. Most of the representatives for these companies earn a commission by bringing in business, so they pull out all the stops to convince various advertisers to go with them. This week, I got an email from a radio station we work with in Bend. The rep said she had two extra tickets to the Neil Diamond concert here in Portland on Thursday, and wondered if I might like to go. I said, "Certainly!" So, she sent the tickets via FedEx and Emily and I went.

We rode the MAX into downtown Portland from Beaverton, which takes about 35 minutes. When we got to the Rose Garden, we had decent seats to the right rear of stage. The woman next to us was a bit tipsy even before the concert started, and started talking to me. She was from Bend and this was her first Neil Diamond concert. She realized that Emily and I were clearly younger than the mostly middle-age crowd (and, I'm guessing there were a good 15,000 people there), she asked if we *actually* liked Neil Diamond. We told her that, yes, we did like him, she said, "That's great! Have you seen "The Jazz Singer?"

Now, I studied film in college... so I immediately thought of the 1927 Al Jolson film, which is renowned for being the first feature film with synchronized dialogue (aka a "talkie"). Jolson shocked audiences in 1927 by breaking out in song during a conversation with his mother, in a scene from the otherwise silent film.



"The Al Jolson film... yeah, I've seen that," I said. She looked at me weird and said, "No... I was talking about the Neil Diamond movie. How do you know about Al Jolson?" I told her about my insane love of movies and the film studies courses in college and she proceeded to tell me that her dad's gravestone has an inscription about how he is now "singing in heaven with Al Jolson." Weird! (For the record, I haven't seen the 1980 Neil Diamond remake, but I was aware of its existence. The film buff in me just immediately thought of the original Jolson film).

The concert was a lot of fun... Neil Diamond, I'm happy to report, can still put on a good show at age 67. I didn't know every song, as his catalog spans four decades, but he sang plenty of hits, including "I'm a Believer," "Sweet Caroline," "Cherry, Cherry," "Coming to America," "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show," "He's Not Heavy, He's My Brother," "Cracklin' Rosie," "Forever in Blue Jeans," and more.

Neil Diamond likes to rock the party!

When he sang "Red, Red Wine," Emily, realizing that Niel Diamond wrote it, said, "Man, UB40 wouldn't even exist without covering other people's songs!" So true!

I'm gonna guess that the average age of a Neil Diamond concertgoer is about 52. Or more judging from the extremely excited ladies of somewhat advanced age in the front row.


Few people realize that Neil got his last name from his tendency to shine under bright lights.

It was one of those concerts that we wouldn't have normally attended... nothing against Neil Diamond... but tickets for shows of that nature tend to be in the $50-$200 range, which is a lot more than these two indie rock kids are used to paying (we love live music, but most of the band we like charge around $15-40 person). All in all, we had a great time... even if we didn't brawl with the security guards in the front row as they forcibly removed us from the arena (but, we had a fun time watching that happen to someone else...).

A reversed image of Neil on the big screen gave us a much better look at the venerable singer/songwriter, as we were seated behind the stage. I can't complain, though... the tickets were free.

Here are some videos from our seats at the concert:

If I Could Be a Book of Mormon Hero

The first time I remember noticing Josh was during an FHE roadshow-- the different FHE groups in the two singles wards at the Eugene Oregon Institute were in charge of putting together five minutes skits or songs to perform-- and he was singing this song at the edge of the stage while members of his FHE group acted out the lyrics in period garb behind him.

At the time I was really annoyed because it was such a clever song and my FHE group hadn't even shown up to the activity! Josh says he came up with the idea after his group decided to do the oh-so-not-original idea of a "dating game" parody sans any type of script or real plan (Josh has issues with many Mormon clichés, but that's fodder for a different blog posting...). When his group got together for the next FHE before the roadshow, he had come up with this song as a decidedly more innovative group number.

Two years later, Josh and I started dating and I got to be excited about his cleverness rather than annoyed. Two (and a half) years after that, I made him record himself so that I could share this song with everyone.

So, without further ado, I give you "If I Could Be a Book of Mormon Hero," lyrics by Josh Alder (adapted from the song "Superhero" by Stephen Lynch):