I am happy that I seem to be getting over my cold, one week after I chose to spend Shabbat at home. Tonight, I will be at Temple Bat Yahm, as Prof. Paul Liptz will be speaking there. I send Shabbat greetings to all at TBS who are celebrating the annual Sisterhood Shabbat, and hope your weekend with Beth Schafer is a great one!
I had a music and art-filled week, spending a day and a half up in LA. It was fun to spend an extended time up there, as despite living in the LA metro area, I haven’t really indulged in extended time exploring everything in LA. Tuesday, I went to a special concert at the Hollywood Palladium—one of only four where Coldplay are currently playing songs from their newly released album from the fall, Everyday Life. It is a really beautiful album, that I only listened to in full for the first time this past week. It is an eclectic mix of styles, including many songs that are a bit more subtly stated, but also includes some really upbeat styles that the band has become known to produce. The concert featured special guests Femi Kuti, the famed Nigerian musician, and his ensemble on two pieces, as well as the ingenius jazz composer and musician Jacob Collier on two other songs. The band, in its social awareness, is concerned with the environmental effects of large band tours, and is trying to come to a resolution on how they can tour and be environmentally friendly. I hope they come to a solution, as they are indeed incredible performers and bring more than just music in the experience of seeing and hearing them live.
On Wednesday, I headed to Downtown LA, and was headed toward MOCA (who now have free admission, FYI!), but then, in search of parking, drove past the LA Central Library. I thought it would be great to see if they had a tour there, as I knew of others who had toured the building. Whaddya know — there was one in literally an hour, so I headed in that direction. I was a bit hungry, but thought I could put off lunch for another hour. The tour was incredibly interesting, and focused mostly on the library’s history and architecture. I read The Library Book (Susan Orlean) this past year, and it is an incredible book centered on the history surrounding the LA Central Library’s massive fire in the late ‘80’s, but also talks a lot about the sociology of libraries. For anyone who grew up with a penchant for spending a day at the library, this book is for you. (Yes, that was me more than just a couple of times!) I, then, climbed the steep hill from the library back up to MOCA, along Grand Ave., got lunch, and had a nice, but brisk walk around MOCA.
Wednesday night, I saw Sting’s The Last Ship, and it also happened to be the opening night of the LA production. (I didn’t time this out on purpose.) I saw Sting and his wife arrive on the red carpet. There were many other celebrities there that night, however, I was rather cold from hanging out outside waiting for the doors to open (there really are a lack of places to go to around The Music Center!), so I didn’t see the others arrive. Based on pictures I saw a day later, I discovered that amongst the crowd there was Annie Lennox, Dustin Hoffman, Melanie Griffith, Katherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas, among many others. Scroll through the Center Theatre Group’s Facebook post here to peruse the opening night pictures.
On Thursday night, I attended the next concert in my cabaret series subscription at Segerstrom, Lillias White. She shined most when singing her showstopping song “The Oldest Profession” from the Cy Coleman show from which she won her Tony award, The Life.
I am moving into more detailed work now on my new CASA case, which is exciting. Scheduling is a little tricky between my busy schedule over the next month and my youth’s schedule, but hopefully we will be able to make it all happen.
I am also getting prepared to travel to NYC next week to take advantage of everything NYC has to offer alongside my mom. We can’t wait.
Shabbat Shalom, all.
May you find the light in everything that you do this weekend and in the coming week.