Orchestral Maneuvres Near the Park

Ladies and Gentleman I report to you high atop the Dress Circle from Seat GG4 in magnificent Carnegie Hall. To be where I am today, you don't have to just practice, you have to be able to climb many, many flights of stairs.

My pal George bequeathed these fab tickets to me that he got in a silent auction raising money very quietly for some really worthy cause. And I reaped the benefits. Ah, the story always ends well here in Gotham when one is in the ARTS.

I took my pal Sean who reminded me that he shares the same birthday with my other pal Sean, my brother. We went to see the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the ASO Chorus perform Sibelius (had his piece been last I would have written "Whatta finnish!" Damn. ), a new piece by an American younger than I, ahem, and a piece by the long dead and much older, Ravel. The orchestra was superb as was the chorus. Ricola has cough drop stations all over this place, I kid you not. One poor woman went into a coughing fit and had to be taken out. The Ricola could not scratch the itch that was bothering her I suppose, poor thing. There was one cell phone ring and a poorly-timed change drop, both so clear thanks to the accoustastics of the place.

After consuming a "post really fab night at Carnegie Hall hot fudge sundae," Sean and I strolled up Broadway where we had an amazing, amazing Angela Lansbury sighting. The star of stage and "Murder She Wrote" was walking ever so smartly and unattended downstream. She is a legend if you think of the 4 Tonys, the mint she made as a businesswoman, starring and Oscar nominated in "Gaslight" with Boyer and Bergman and knocking it out of the park in "The Manchurian Candidate." Wow, and here she is 83 years old and out at 11pm looking amazing. And fit as a fiddle.

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Earlier that day I spent some time with my pal Tom Kulaga who is a big marketing guy with the paper of record, The New York... The New York Something. The picture cut off the rest. We had a great visit and he is funny and smart and deserves to be at the New York Something doing the great, great things that he does.