Les Paul flips me off. Really flips me off! Have to forgive him though; I think at 93 he's entitled to be a little crotchety. After all, we deserved it. We were clapping too much and giving him standing ovations. I really don't think anyone took offense at his one-finger salute - anyone who knows Les understands his brand of humor. Besides, with badly arthritic hands, it hardly even qualified as a "bird".
I could make this story short and just say, "heard some old guy play guitar and tell stories at the Pabst Theater last night", and direct you to read the concert review at jsonline. But that wouldn't be any fun.
I was thrilled when I heard Les Paul would be performing at the Pabst Theater for one sixth the price of last year's fundraising concert and dinner. As luck would have it, there were two tickets left in the cheap seats when I called. I ended up buying a ticket in the next price level anyway because it included a pass to the Les Paul exhibit at Discovery World. I wondered who I'd be sitting next to.
I was directed to my seat in the 2nd floor balcony next to a man and his young son before the theater was half full. Bob's son Hayden has been taking classical guitar lessons for seven years. We speculated who the "friends" were mentioned in the billing; "an evening with Les Paul & Friends, His 93rd Birthday Celebration... in Music." Maybe it would be one of the many rock stars Les knows? But I doubted it. Would have been cool to see him play with Eric Clapton though.
As soon as friendshipships were sealed with Bob and Hayden they were redirected to the next section over when the seats' rightful occupants arrived. It's odd, because an usher had sat them there in the first place. Had a few things in common with the next couple. Paul and his wife were also from Waukesha. (What a great way to meet people; just sit there and let them come to me.) They recognized me from somewhere, probably WaukeshaNOW. He's retired from the Journal Sentinel so we talked about that and other things. We were enjoying our visit before the concert's start when I glanced at my ticket before putting it in my pocket. Now I don't know where "2 FLR-RGT CTR D" is, and I'm not sure the usher knew either, because I think I was seated by the same usher as Bob and Hayden and was in the wrong row!
Sitting next to the third couple in fifteen minutes, I'm wondering if I'll eventually meet everyone in the theater one musical chair at a time.
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****pause for blog intermission... to be continued...
