who's (on) first?

on Sunday afternoon we said goodbye to CBGB and went home to relax for 24 hours... then on Monday our friends Ron & Mary arrived - they had actually arrived on Saturday afternoon but because we were busy with Forks & Corks and CBGB until Sunday night they headed down to Naples for a couple of days to visit other friends and then returned to SRQ (Sarasota Bradenton) area for four days here...

we met up at 5:30 Monday hoping for a sunset drink but found the Beach House outdoor area closed due to high winds - really high winds... and the sunset was pretty much ruined by low clouds on the horizon - so no good reflection on the water and no great last minute colors in the sky.... because the Beach House had no room for us for more than 45 minutes (read that- "go screw yourselves until after sunset"- we only have one small area open and we don't care if more people show up") we went elsewhere.  The Beach House in our opinion only has the view going for it - the food is mediocre - oh I guess I take that back they do have a lot of good frou frou drinks with umbrellas and fruit in them that are also quite good....

so we moved on and had a drink down the street - we had later reservations for dinner at the Blue Marlin on Bridge Street - across from the Bradenton Beach Post Office (starting point for the Victoria Sterling Historic Anna Maria Family Tour- LOL)- we had a lovely dinner with a couple of good wines - an old Chassagne Montrachet and a new Old Stones Chard from Josh Bergstrom. After dinner we did a quick run from Bridge Street south to the Long Boat Key bridge and back to the Bungalow Beach hotel where our friends were staying... along the way I gave them information about the walking and biking path along the three mile long beach at the south end of the island and a couple of breakfast recommendations -

we made plans for the next day to pick them up for lunch after my arts class and so met about 1 PM and headed to the Star Fish Company- of course they loved it- who doesn't?  Three of us had the grouper sandwiches (yum!) and Phil had the oysters and shrimp combo.... we sat in the sun and basked in the radiant heat even while the day was on the cool side...

in the afternoon we finished the VJS tour of Anna Maria and stopped by the historic Anna Maria Pier for a short walk- there we saw the skyway bridge in the distance and a porpoise close up... after that we headed to our place for a bit of relaxing and to give Ron & Mary a chance to meet Lucy & Penny and see our condo - Mary has bad allergies to cats so they couldn't stay with us and had to limit their time at our place... for dinner we headed to another favorite Waterfront along with a couple of good wines - a 90 red and an 02 white burgundy-

Wednesday brought us to Riverhouse for lunch before spending time in the afternoon with Snooty our resident 66 year old manatee... and a drive by McKechnie Field and somehow the time got away and it was time for dinner before heading to the theater for Thornton Wilder's "The Matchmaker"- which will have its own post- (I also managed to get to both my classes this week- another post or two) but wanted to FIRST do the post about our visitors-

If you look very closely you can see the Sunshine Skyway bridge out in the distance-

there is a new Snooty book and so we had to get one to support our favorite 66 year old guy!

on Thursday we met Ron & Mary for lunch near the airport and said our goodbyes- had a great time during their visit and we hope they did too... next- What's on Second? second up - this week's classes!

blue is 40!

Last night we went to a concert at WFMT for FolkStage- it was a Joni Mitchell tribute concert by a group called Chicks With Dip- they are collaborating on this "show" but are independent artist influenced by Joni.  The first half of the concert was the performance of Blue in its entirety by the various members - each taking a song with an occasional assist by another Chick.  The second half of the concert was a show of their work performed by the artists individually (mostly).

an excellent evening of good music and baked goods (LOL)

and here is some information about them- from the website where the CD is for sale (cdbaby)

Joni Mitchell’s Blue: A 40th Anniversary Celebration features a stellar cast of twelve of the New York City area’s finest female singer/songwriters (and Philadelphia-based percussionist Cheryl Prashker) honoring the 40th anniversary of Joni Mitchell’s landmark album, Blue.

The performers on Joni Mitchell’s Blue are members of a collective known as “Chicks with Dip” — a group of independently performing female singer-songwriters who gather semi-regularly to enjoy each other’s company and the pleasures of good conversation, good songs, and good dip. The Chicks will celebrate their 10th anniversary this year. The Blue project has provided them with a rare opportunity to perform together.

“The idea for the Blue show sprang up organically last summer,” says Carolann Solebello, longtime Chick and former member of female Americana trio Red Molly. “We were discussing Joni Mitchell and what her songwriting has meant to each of us, and since we’re always on the lookout for ways to collaborate, the 40th anniversary of Joni’s masterpiece seemed the perfect opportunity.”

up next Neil Simon's Lost In Yonkers at Northlight theater and Emma at the Dead Writer's theater- stay tuned!