Some of you are probably winding down your extended Labor Day weekend by the time I post this entry–and I really meant to publish this last Saturday morning–but as it turns out I’ve been laboring in L.A. the whole time, tidying up some contracts before my upcoming trip. No rest for the wicked as they say…but how can anyone be all work and no play in as great a playground as Los Angeles?

On a last minute whim I managed to spend a fun evening this weekend at the Hollywood Bowl with the rest of the Angelenos who made the trek up the hill then down the stairs into the amphitheater with their picnic baskets/bags in hand…

to enjoy dining al fresco under the fading sun…

From a high enough vantage point you could see the Hollywood sign behind the amphitheater’s shell. It was 80s music night and on the roster were Berlin, the Fixx, B-52s, and the Human League. The Fixx was the opening act for the first concert (remember Flock of Seagulls?) I ever attended when I was 13 or so, and they still rock now all these years later. I guess once a rock star, always a rock star. My least favorite band (B-52s) actually rocked the house (of 18,000 strong) down…

though that’s easy to do since by the time they made their appearance, half the crowd was already high and wasted and the other half was flying from second hand smoke. The guy to my left, slurring over his beer, told me I looked too young to know all the lyrics. Heck, if it takes a drunk guy to get that kind of compliment these days, I’ll have to go out to these concerts more often!

I have to say, as much as I don’t get the B-52’s music then or now, their one song Roam basically sums up my blog. But c’mon folks, we were all there for the one song that the final act, the Human League, finally got around to playing…

You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar
When I met you
I picked you out, I shook you up, and turned you around
Turned you into someone new…

Aaaahhhh, I can still hear the 18,000 voices singing along in my head now. Have a good week, everyone!