We first heard about the show “Getting to Know You: Rodgers and Asia” a while or so before it took place. We had seen several shows put on by East West Players, most of them musicals in which our cousin, Marc Macalintal, had either played a part or, more recently, served as musical director. It was he who informed us of this latest show via mass notice on Facebook. It sounded interesting because it took place on my birthday. We didn’t have plans for my birthday itself but we had plans to celebrate a few days earlier with dinner at the Palace and the Loggins and Messina concert (see earlier reviews). The Rodgers and Asia show was part of a series of shows put on at theaters all over the L.A. area and produced by Reprise Theater Company. They each portrayed different aspects of the musicals composed by Richard Rodgers. These were all in response to the City of L.A. declaring October as “Richard Rodgers Month”.

When Marc first sent the link via Facebook we followed it to the Reprise Theater Company website. It said the tickets cost $50. Since this was above our budget, we decided not to go. We figured I would have a low-key birthday after all our celebrating on October 2. On my actual birthday I logged onto Facebook to thank people for sending me birthday wishes. When I did I saw that Marc had posted a notice that the Rodgers and Asia show tickets now cost only $20.00 with a special discount code he gave. This was more affordable than the original $50 and we still didn’t have any plans for that evening. We weren’t exactly sure what the “show” was, only that Marc was the musical director. The Reprise website described it as a “symposium including musical performances.” I think we also read that Jennifer Paz would be one of the performers. We had recently seen her in East West Players’ production of “The Last Five Years” (see earlier review). My wife had also seen her in the 2001 revival of “Flower Drum Song”, one of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals to be discussed at the symposium along with “The King and I” and “South Pacific”. Those are the three Rodgers musicals that feature Asia, Asians, and/or Asian Americans.

We got the tickets online through the Reprise theater website for only $22 each including the processing fee. The site let us just print them out. The show started at 8 pm at the David Henry Hwang Theater where we had seen all the other East West Players productions. Luckily, I had also taken a vacation day on the day after my birthday. We left home at 7:10 pm and arrived at the theater in Downtown L.A. at 7:50 pm going against traffic most of the way. As we drove northwest on the 101, we saw the new Gold Line light rail train track. Just before we went under it we saw the new light rail train slowly moving across it. I don’t think the train was actually running yet; they were still testing it. It didn’t actually open for use until sometime in November 2009. As we exited the 101 onto Alameda we caught a glimpse of one of the new Gold Line stations. It had these large shades that looked a bit like mushrooms.

When we arrived we had to pay $7 to park in the expansive lot near the theater. We entered the theater and climbed the stairs to the first level to get to the floor seats. When we bought the tickets online there were a few floor seats open and all the balcony seats available. We knew from the last time we attended a show at the theater that the balcony had a high rail that sometimes obscured the view. We got a couple of the last available floor in around the second or third row from the back on the left side. After we sat down we saw Marc’s wife sitting in the same row as us on the other end. This is probably the second time we happened to sit in the same row as her. An earlier time was when we saw the three Filipino Tenors in December 2007. The place was already crowded. The stage was set for the play currently playing at East West Players, “Art”, with a white backdrop and a white spiral staircase. For the symposium there were five folding chairs, each with a microphone on them and two mikes on stands for the singers. On the right side of the stage was a piano. Most people in the audience were dressed slightly formal or business casual.

At 8:10 pm, the panelists, singers, and Marc came out and took their places. A woman introduced herself as Susan Deitz, the producing artistic director for Reprise Theater Company. She mentioned that this symposium and the other Rodgers-related shows being held around the area are in response to the City of L.A. declaring October as “Richard Rodgers Month.” She then introduced David Henry Hwang (DHH) who would moderate the symposium. She mentioned that DHH was her student at the Harvard School (now called Harvard-Westlake). DHH was seated in the fifth chair from the left and said he hoped this show would receive high marks from his former teacher. Now I’ve seen the theater’s namesake. I thought he would be older but he didn’t look much older than us. The program said he won a Tony award for the play “M. Butterfly” that sounded familiar to me.

Jennifer Paz then sang “Getting to Know You” from “The King and I” with Marc accompanying on piano. The song begins with a quote about teaching. After the performance, David Henry Hwang began the symposium by describing how Rodgers and Hammerstein had six hit musicals and three of them involved Asians and/or Asian Americans and, as of present day, “King and I” was still banned in Thailand. He then introduced the panelists. First was Lucy Burns, assistant professor of Asian American studies at UCLA. The next panelist, C.Y. Lee, got applause at the mention of his name. He wrote the novel on which the musical “Flower Drum Song” is based. Nobuko Miyamoto was involved in early Broadway and film productions of “King and I” and “Flower Drum Song”. According to DHH, she went on to become “the inventor of Asian American art.” Christina Klein is a professor of Asian and English studies at Boston University. DHH then introduced the singers: Jose Llana who was in the original production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” and Jennifer Paz who was then currently in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theater and had flown down for the symposium. DHH mentioned that he had worked with both singers in his revival of “Flower Drum Song”. We noticed that DHH did not introduced Marc at this point, though he was partially obscured from the audience by the piano.

Christina Klein was the first panelist to speak. She described how Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals were produced at a point when the Eastern and Western cultures were starting to warm to each other. The old view was contained in a quote by Kipling: “East is East. West is West.” (i.e. they remain separate). But with the U.S. involved in Asia in World War II, their involvement in the Philippines since the beginning of the 20th Century, and the Chinese immigration to the U.S. since the 19th Century, people from the East and the West were finding that they had more in common. Klein noted that the relations between Americans and Asians in “South Pacific” and “King and I” ultimately do not work out other than Nelly’s acceptance of the half-islander children of the Frenchman in the former. Now I know where the quote “East is East” comes from that went on to be the title of a T.C. Boyle book and the title of an unrelated film, I believe.

Jose Llana then sang and Marc accompanied “Appuzzlement” from “King and I” where the king of Siam expresses his frustration with ruling during challenging times. He got very worked up and expressive and the piano music corresponded to that perfectly. When they finished, Jose Llana gave Marc a thumbs up. Lucy Burns from UCLA spoke next and described works that were inspired by or retold the three Rodgers Broadway musicals that included Asians and/or Asian Americans. I think one work she described was called “Broadwasian”. They all seemed strange and obscure.

After Burns finished speaking, David Henry Hwang said they were going to focus on “Flower Drum Song”. Llana and Paz then sang the duet “Chop Suey” from that musical. It was a playful and silly song that I think someone later mentioned wasn’t even about Chop Suey. Marc’s playful piano playing reflected the song’s mood. DHH then turned the floor over to C.Y. Lee saying that he (Lee) still writes every day (making him DHH’s hero) and asked Lee to describe the path from experience to novel to musical with “Flower Drum Song”. Lee seemed to ignore this request and first mentioned that he was 95 years old, almost completely deaf, losing his memory, and afraid he would make a fool of himself. Reading from his notes he described the changing perceptions of Asians by Americans from a sideshow attraction in the early 19th Century, to cheap railroad labor in the mid to late 1800’s to more general acceptance in the 20th Century thanks to Pearl Buck, James Michener, and Rodgers and Hammerstein. Lee then told a story about when he was helping David Henry Hwang promote his production of “Flower Drum Song” in 2001 or 2002 in New York and they were giving a similar talk. Someone had asked DHH why he had removed the character Helen Chan from the story and what happened to her. DHH told the asker that they’d have to read the book to find out happened to her. He then asked Lee if he wanted to say anything about it and Lee said, “Helen Chan committed suicide.” Driving back to the hotel afterward to their hotel afterward, Lee and his daughter wondered how many more books they would have sold if he hadn’t heard incorrectly and said what happened to Helen Chan.

David Henry Hwang then talked about his experience producing “Flower Drum Song”. He mentioned that it was the first and only Broadway musical so far about Asian Americans. When it was made into a film in the 1950’s, it was the first film with an all Asian American cast. The next one, “The Joy Luck Club” did not come out until the 1990’s. DHH rewrote the musical “Flower Drum Song”, modernized it, and made it a bit darker and more consistent with the novel. His “revisical” of “Flower Drum Song”, as he called it, premiered at the Mark Taper Forum and did well there. It then went to Broadway, got mixed reviews, and lasted less than a year. Since then there have been productions of his version in places such as St. Paul, Minnesota, and more recently in Manila, Philippines.

The focus then shifted to South Pacific with Jose Llana singing and Marc accompanying “You’ve got to be Carefully Taught,” a fairly short song. After the song it was Nobuko Miyamoto’s turn to speak. She first indicated that the T-shirt she wore was for the 40th anniversary of the Basement Workshop in New York, an arts organization that she helped found. In the 1950’s, Miyamoto danced in the film version of “King and I” and in the original Broadway production of “Flower Drum Song”. She became dissatisfied with only Asian roles so she auditioned for “West Side Story” and got the part of Francesca. She spoke very expressively and dramatically though she wasn’t quite as expressive as C.Y. Lee. I think before she spoke DHH said it was an honor to finally get to meet her. After she finished, Jennifer Paz sang “Happy Talk” from “South Pacific”, a song that my wife was not familiar with. I knew it because, of the three musicals discussed, “South Pacific” was the only one I had seen: a high school production during my sophomore year. After “Happy Talk”, DHH acknowledged and thanked Marc, the musical director.

Both Jose Llana and Jennifer Paz sang the next song that included dialogue with piano accompaniment by Marc and separate solos. It was from “Flower Drum Song” and I hadn’t heard it before. It mentioned something about the story of a flower boat. After the song, DHH thanked the panelists, singers, and Marc, and then asked if there were any questions. Someone asked why Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote three musicals that included Asians and/or Asian Americans. Christina Klein said something about the U.S. taking more notice of Asia after World War II and China turning Communist. Nobuko Miyamoto mentioned that Americans viewed Asians as exotic and since Rodgers and Hammerstein were Jewish, they could relate to a persecuted culture. DHHH asked a question about whether present-day advances in Asian roles become the future’s stereotypes. Jennifer Paz mentioned something about an Asian-American group overreacting to a movie. Jose Llana said something about Asian Americans being more included because “more people know them” as friends and acquaintances. He gave an example of a friend that included a character like him (Jose) in his novel. His comments seemed to underscore that it’s more about “who you know” then “what you know”. Llana qualified his and Paz’s statements by saying, “We sing." DHH said he recently read a fictional story about a character who calls a suicide hotline that has been outsourced to India. The last question was someone asking DHH if he planned to produce another “revisical”. He said he had no revisical ideas but wanted to do something to revive interest in Pearl Buck who he felt had been neglected recently.

The symposium ended after that last question. We said hi to Marc’s wife who was there with a friend from high school. We all went to the stage to say hi to Marc. We noticed that his hands were sweaty from playing the piano. He was glad we came. We left soon after.

This was a fun and informative way to spend my birthday evening. I enjoyed the performance of the song “Appuzzlement” the best. Of the talks, I most enjoyed C.Y. Lee. Now I know who the East West Players theater is named after. For my past three birthdays, I’ve done something that required a printed ticket so I have a printed ticket for each one: the film Into the Wild in 2007, the James concert at the House of Blues Anaheim in 2008 (see earlier review) and now the Rodgers and Asia symposium in 2009. The question is: what will be my birthday ticket in 2010?

My early birthday celebration on Friday, October 2, 2009 continued. We had eaten a delicious dinner at The Palace (see earlier review) and were now waiting in the Dine and Ride shuttle van to take us to the Greek Theater.

I had heard of Kenny Loggins the solo artist before I had heard of the earlier duo Loggins and Messina. Loggins, or “The Log” as my wife calls him, has recorded many popular songs that were on the soundtracks of popular 80’s movies. The first cassette tape of music that my brother bought was the soundtrack to the movie Footloose that had two popular songs by Loggins, the title track and “I’m Free”. Later we got the Top Gun soundtrack with “Danger Zone” and “Playing with the Boys” by Loggins. A bit later I learned that Kenny Loggins was part of the duo Loggins and Messina in the early 70’s who recorded songs that were vaguely familiar to me such as “Your Mama don’t Dance” (later covered by the hair band Poison, the first version I heard), “Danny’s Song” and “Pooh Corner”.

My wife has a closer affiliation with “The Log”. Though Kenny Loggins was born in Washington State like me, he spent most of his childhood and youth in Alhambra, California like my wife. Also like my wife, he attended San Gabriel Mission High School (SGMHS). When he attended, SGMHS was co-ed and when my wife attended it had since changed to an all-girls school. I’m not sure if Loggins also graduated from there but he is one of the school’s most famous alumni, if not the most famous. Despite this affiliation and that Loggins has performed at many concerts in L.A. area since he lives relatively close by in Santa Barbara (on a bootleg concert DVD he referred to others from there as “Barbarians”), my wife hadn’t yet seen him live. During the past few years, his concerts such as the one at the cultural center at Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga, and a free concert in Alhambra, would always sell out too quickly for us.

Four or five years ago, Loggins got back with his former recording partner, Jimmy Messina. They played some live concerts and released a CD of their greatest hits from the 70’s. My wife got this CD and I became familiar with many of their early songs. While Loggins’ solo work was mostly straight soundtrack vocal pop, his work with Messina was much more varied musically. There songs had lots of instrumentation. Some had Blues, Country, Celtic, and even Caribbean rhythms. And Jimmy Messina isn’t just part of the supporting band for Loggins. He sings lead for many of the songs and, I would learn, played lead guitar on nearly all of them. Loggins is primarily a vocalist. In 2009 we heard that they were touring together again. We heard about it early enough to get tickets to their show at the Greek Theater well in advance. We wouldn’t miss it this time.

Back to Friday, October 2, 2009, sometime between 6:50 and 7:00 pm, we had boarded the Dine and Ride shuttle van in the parking lot of the Palace restaurant. A couple who we had seen in the Palace also boarded the van. There was also a group of eight, most of whom had come to the Palace later than us, that we overheard were also taking Dine and Ride to the Loggins and Messina concert. They were still working on their entrees when we left to board the van. We thought the driver was waiting for them to board the van but after a few minutes he left with just four of us in the van despite enough room for fourteen. We rode north up Hillhurst. The traffic got heavy after we crossed the always crowded Los Feliz Blvd. It felt good not to be driving. We rode up to where Hillhurst merges with Vermont Ave. The driver didn’t stop at any other restaurants to pick people up. We overheard that the other couple riding with us had seen Kenny Loggins and/or Loggins and Messina several times before. One of them said he had seen Loggins and Messina 30 years ago. He was probably a teenager at that time.

Despite the traffic, the ride from the Palace to the Greek took only about 10 minutes. Somehow, the driver made a u-turn just past the Greek Theater and pulled over at the curb right outside the venue, just as he had said he would. He reassured us that his shuttle or another Dine and Ride shuttle van would pick us up at that very spot when the concert ended. I think they had shuttle vans running all evening. We entered the venue and employees scanned out tickets. There was no security check like there was at most other concerts I had attended. There also wasn’t a queue to get in. Just inside was a counter where they were selling lots of Loggins and Messina merch. There were many t-shirts including one with the words “Your Mama don’t Dance and your Daddy don’t Rock ‘n’ Roll”. They had key chains and CD’s including the children’s CD “All Join In” from Kenny Loggins. We noticed that the CD included the funky Blues Loggins and Messina song “Long Tail Cat”. I was surprised to see that one on a children’s CD, but it is a funny song. My wife got a green long-sleeved women’s t-shirt with the Loggins and Messina logo.

We made our way towards our seats. We had “bench” seats that were all the way in the back. When we showed our tickets to an employee, he told us to talk to another employee who he pointed out who would move us up. We went to him and he gave us new tickets, moving us up some rows. They had covered up the back bench seats and several of the back rows with netting that looked like green leaves or ivy. They had plenty of seats and were moving people up to fill the closer ones. Our new seats, row R seats 106 and 108, were still pretty good with straight-ahead views of the stage. The backdrop of the stage appropriately looked like the façade of the Parthenon or other Greek building. There were large screens on either side of the stage and a smaller, circular screen above the middle of the stage. They showed ads for Loggins and Messina CDs, both as a duo and as solo artists such as Loggins’ “All Join In” and Messina’s “Under a Mojito Moon”. There were also ads for the opening act, the Gabe Dixon Band, and other acts that would be performing at the Greek Theater in the next couple of months.

The crowd consisted of people 10 or more years older than us and mostly Caucasian though there were some Asians. There were a few teenagers who looked like they came with their parents and some people who looked to be around our age or possibly younger. The people in the crowd more often wore polo shirts than t-shirts. I saw someone wearing a hat with the name of the band Poco on it. For canned music, it sounded like they were playing a Huey Lewis and the News greatest hits CD. But then that CD started skipping badly on the song “Cruisin’”, a duet with Gwyneth Paltrow. They then put on a Blues CD.

At 7:30 the lights dimmed and the spotlight turned on for the opening act: the Gabe Dixon Band. The band consisted of two men: Gabe Dixon on keyboards who would also play keyboards for Loggins and Messina, and Jano Rix on drums and percussion. This lineup differed from the ads on the screens earlier that showed three men in the band. Gabe Dixon said he was from Nashville and that the first song was about driving home from New York. It was a mellow song with the repeated lyric “Five more hours”. After that song Dixon said he wrote the next song while in Ashville, North Carolina and that it had some Bluegrass influence. Rix tapped a guitar and the song was faster and more rhythmic than the first one. Dixon got the crowd clapping. Before the next song, he said this was his first time performing at the Greek Theater and that the next song was featured in the movie The Proposal. He said that it’s played when Ryan Reynold’s character is frantically running through the streets of Manhattan. It was a fast-paced song called “Find My Way”. Pink lights danced on the stage as they played.

Dixon said the next song was called “Disappear” and was about Romeo and Juliet. It was a slower song without the drum accompaniment. After the first verse, Jano Rix tapped the body of an acoustic guitar as he had for the second song. In a high voice, Dixon sang lyrics such as “How can we disappear”. Before the next song Dixon described how this was a chance to expose his music and warm us up for the “L & M Show”. He asked us to sing along to the next song to a part of the chorus that went “Whoa whoa oh oh oh” or something like that. It was a fast song about “running on fumes” in the “orange light”. The singalong was only part of the song during the chorus. It also included some jazzy keyboard playing from Dixon. After the song Dixon said that “it couldn’t be a better night” and that he would do just a couple more songs. He described how he wrote the next one after “going through a tough spell”. It was called “All Will be Well” and was a slow soulful song. Jano Rix reverted to tapping the acoustic guitar. One line of the song went “you can ask me how but only time will tell.”

After the song Dixon introduced his bandmate, Jano Rix, as an amazing multi-instrumental musician. He thanked Loggins and Messina for letting him play before their show and he and Rix started playing a fast upbeat song with more jazzy piano. Dixon got the audience clapping and sang about a “yellow light” and “until you’ve gone”. They ended the song to loud applause, bowed, and left the stage. It was 8:05 pm. The lights and the canned music came back on and the screens showed the same ads for CD’s and shows at the Greek as before. The crew re-arranged the instruments, removing Rix’s drumkit and Dixon’s keyboards. For canned music they played 70’s classic rock such as “Take a Look Ahead” by Boston and “25 or 6 to 4” by Chicago. The crew set out keyboards, drums, a steel guitar, electric guitars, and saxophones. Two chairs were set up in front of the stage along with microphone stands.

At 8:21 pm the lights dimmed again and Kenny Loggins and Jimmy Messina came out to wild applause. They sat down at the two chairs in front. Sitting on the left, Kenny Loggins had aged well looking trim in a black leather jacket and blue jeans with a full head of hair that was just barely turning gray. Sitting on the right, Jimmy Messina was more heavyset in a black shirt and black pants and a black cowboy hat covering the receding hairline between his long side locks of hair. But we would soon hear that his singing and excellent musicianship hadn’t aged a bit. If anything he had gotten better. Messina said it was “exciting to be home”. He explained at some point that though he lived in Santa Barbara, he was born in L.A. He described how this was the first song they played together and they started playing the soft but powerful ballad “Danny’s Song”. They had the audience sing along to the chorus and we obliged. They had a full band behind them: a musician who alternated between guitar and a violin that he played during the interlude in “Danny’s Song”, two musicians who alternated between guitars, flute, and saxophone, a drummer, a bass player, and Gabe Dixon on keyboards. Three member of the band including Gabe Dixon were wearing the same style of plaid shirt. Both Loggins and Messina played guitars with Messina on lead guitar for most of the songs.

For the next song, Messina described how “back in 1970, this guy (Loggins) walked into my house and played this song, the song about the bear.” There were wild cheers and they played “Pooh Corner”. Paired with “Danny’s Song”, it was kind of mellow start to the concert. But they were still sitting down and warming up. “Pooh Corner” had flute accompaniment and late in the song us in the audience sang the part the goes “count al lthe bees in the hive, chase all the clouds from the sky.” After the song Loggins described how during one of their early concerts at a club there was this big biker with long red hair who sat in front and gave them the stink eye through the first several songs of their set. Finally he said in a loud and low voice imitated by Loggins “Do the one about the bear!” “You never know.” Loggins remarked.

Messina described how he wrote the next song during their first tour together. It was the faster “Traveling Blues”. Messina sang lead and Loggins would join in for the choruses. The song featured a saxophone solo and the lighting effects created stars in the background of the stage. After finishing that song Loggins described in detail the origin of the next one. He had a weird dream in which he was trapped on an island where there was a convention of songwriters. In the dream he and the songwriters did this exercise where they passed around pieces of paper. Each time they received a piece of paper, they would write a line of lyrics that went with the other lyrics on the paper, pass it along and do this with the next one passed to them. After having this dream, Loggins suggested to Messina that they try writing a song this way and the result was “Watching the River Run”. When I first heard this song I thought it had a kind of “back and forth” conversation quality. Now I know why. They performed the song with only Loggins and Messina playing and singing on the first verse and the rest of the band joining in for the second. Towards the end two members of the band played what looked like flutes or electric recorders.

Loggins and Messina switched to different electric guitars for the next song. Loggins described how he would assume different characters that he had made up with different voices when he wrote each of his songs. As an example he said he assumed the character named “Billy” when he wrote song “Vahevala” and for the next song, he pretended he was “an old blues guy.” In response, Messina said something like, “Now you can just look in a mirror.” The song was the funky, bluesy, and slightly folksy “Long Tail Cat” and started with just Loggins and Messina singing and the sound of a loud, echoed bass. The rest of the band soon joined in. The audience got into it and Loggins had us sing along to the line “Oh my, oh my my. Your daddy’s getting older and the cow is going dry. So you go by, go bye bye on a Dixie holiday.”

There was a woman in front of us who stood up and danced to every song, cheered wildly, and sang along. At one point she asked if she could use my binoculars for a few minutes. Not too far away it smelled like some other people were smoking something other than tobacco. The weather had been sunny and clear during the day and even though the sun had gone down when we could still see the outline of the hills of Griffith Park behind the stage and across the street. The sun going down made it very cool, though, and we wished we had brought jackets like most people.

For the next song, Messina wore 2-3 instruments, holding one guitar on front and the other one or two on his back. He described how he had a CD for sale at the venue called “Under a Mojito Moon” and that he was slightly annoyed that Loggins also had a CD for sale that was $1 less in price. It was called “All Join In” and wasn’t coming out officially until 2010. Messina described how Loggins had asked him to “join in” for the next song that was on the CD. Loggins then said that the next song wasn’t one of theirs but a Lennon-McCarthy song. He said he could imagine himself and Messina as teenagers riding their bikes down the neighborhood street singing this song. It was the Beatles song “Two of Us”. The circular screen above the stage showed a scene of traveling through the countryside. During the song Messina switched to a different guitar and, finally, a mandolin.

Messina had removed his cowboy hat after the first couple of songs and said he had to put it back on to get in the mood for the next song. It was “Listen to a Country Song” and it did have a loud country beat accompanied by blinking bright yellow, orange, and blue spotlights. The song seemed to tell a story about the “Holiday Hotel”. Right after they finished, someone yelled, “Don’t ever break up again!”

The next song wasn’t one I’d heard them do before so I wasn’t sure if it was a cover or not. Loggins said it was inspired by the beginning of Rock & Roll. It began with the line “Georgia on my Mind” but still didn’t sound completely familiar. Only Loggins and Gabe Dixon played during the first verse and then Messina and the rest of the band joined in. It got very rockin’ and included the line “Back to Georgia”. We recognized the next song. Before playing it Loggins described how this concert was “a perfect setting”. Messina picked up a mandolin and they played “Be Free”, a laid back song that has a long instrumental interlude in the middle. Messina did a mandolin solo while another band member played a flute or recorder. The interlude included some Celtic-sounding music.

We didn’t recognize the next song but it sounded very bluesy with Messina singing lead. The line “Walking on out the door” was featured prominently along with piano playing by Gabe Dixon. The circular screen showed traveling through a tunnel and simulated stars made up the background of the stage. The music turned to more upbeat Blues (an oxymoron?) featuring the lyric “Give her the best that you got”. It showed down toward the end and then went right into the next song, the mellow and soulful “Have a little Peace of Mind.” This song featured one of the two saxophone players. Towards the end, Loggins put down his guitar, picked up the microphone, and sang loudly and soulfully. The audience really got into it and gave him a standing ovation by the end.

The next song, “Angry Eyes” was more rockin’. It featured another long sax solo, an impressive guitar solo by Messina, and then the sax player and Messina together. Red and blue lights shined on the stage and there was a flute or electric recorder solo. The circular screen showed landscape. Before the next song they introduced the band. This song featured both saxophone players. It was a loud Blues song that featured the lyric “You need a man.” The circular screen showed a slow dancing figure. It also showed images of Loggins and Messina when they were much younger and had very long hair. Loggins also had a long beard. The present Loggins said something like “Come on, we all had long hair.” There was also loud percussion and keyboards. One sax player did a solo and then the other did one. They played together and seemed to be trying to outdo each other. I believe Loggins said their names were Big Jim Wheeler and Steve Nieves. Towards the end Messina and the bassist played together. Red and yellow lights shone on stage. When they finished they said, “Thank you. You have been great.” And they left the stage. It was 9:50 pm.

Along with the crowd, we cheered for two minutes before they all returned to the stage to even louder cheers. The first song of the encore began with just Loggins playing. It was the raucous song about sailing “Vahevala”. The rest of the band soon joined in and Gabe Dixon played steel drums at one point. It had a long instrumental part and this time Loggins played the guitar solo. As they played, I noticed that the spotlights above the stage looked a bit like palm trees. They then played the more raucous “Your Mama don’t Dance” that brought everyone to their feet. They added an extended instrumental part and the circular screen showed old people dancing, in contrast to the song. I couldn’t see who said the part “Get out of the car, Long Hair!”

They left the stage and we cheered them back on. They did one more song, “Nobody but You”, a fast number, as yellow lights shone on stage. After they finished the song all the member of the band gathered in front of the stage and bowed. As they left to loud applause and cheering some of them shook hands with the closer member of the audience. It was 10:10 pm. A few people had stated leaving during the final song. It was crowded walking out of the venue passed the merch table. Once outside there was a long queue waiting to board the Dine and Ride shuttle vans. We had to wait for a van to fill and leave before we could board one. A blond man in a Dine and Ride shirt reassured us that more vans were coming. His voice sounded like that of Mark who I had called to ask about valet parking many hours before. We boarded a full shuttle and sat in the back seat. The driver was different from before. The van drove south on Vermont Avenue. Some of the other riders seemed disappointed that Loggins and Messina didn’t do any later popular Kenny Loggins songs such as “Celebrate Me Home”. I wasn’t disappointed. One rider also mentioned wanting to see the new musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, conduct. The L.A. Downtown News has since made his name the root of the words “Dudamania”, “Dudameloriffic”, and “Dudanomics”.

The van dropped off most of the other riders at the Dresden restaurant on Vermont Ave. It dropped off everyone else except us at a restaurant further south on Hillhurst and then drove north to drop us off at the Palace. It was 10:40 pm. We thought about taking the exact route back that we took to get there but we couldn’t easily turn to go south on Hillhurst. Turning left out of the parking lot was difficult and what looked like an exit onto Ambrose was blocked by a chain. We turned right to drive north on Hillhurst, turned right on Avocado, and right on Commonwealth to get back to the reverse route home: left (east) on Franklin, left (northeast) on St. George, right (southeast) on Griffith Park, left (north) on Hyperion, right (east) Rowena that turns into Glendale Ave, left on Fletcher Driver at a very confusing intersection and finally, onto the 2 freeway north.

From the 2 we got onto the 134 east that turned into the 210. But then traffic got very slow. At some distant point, two of the three lanes were closed for road work but the signs didn’t way at what point. The left lanes were very slow. The right lanes were faster but at some point they would be closed. It took what seemed like a long and frustrating time. Eventually we got to where the road work was taking place near the 605. Not until that point did the traffic clear up. We got home at 12:10 am the day after the concert.

Despite the commute home we enjoyed the concert very much. It made me see Kenny Loggins as more than a just a pop star on 80’s film soundtracks and Messina as more than a sidekick but rather a full partner in a duo and an excellent musician. He could sing well, too, even if his voice isn’t as well-known as that of Loggins and Messina could really play the guitar and mandolin. Both Loggins and Messina are accomplished in many different musical styles all on display at the concert. I didn’t miss Loggins’ later pop hits at all. Now I think I like Loggins and Messina better and now I know that it is possible to have a good concert experience at the Greek Theater thanks to Dine and Ride. We’ll definitely use them for the next time we see a show at the Greek.

You despite some “Traveling Blues” on the way home the “Two of Us” did not have “Angry Eyes”. Thanks to Dine and Ride we were about to “Find (Our) way” to the concert on time.

We celebrated my birthday three days early on Friday, October 2, 2009 with dinner at the Palace and a Loggins and Messina concert at the Greek Theater. The Palace was part of the Dine and Ride package where we parked our car at the restaurant and rode a shuttle van to the Greek Theater. We set that up through dineandride.com about one month before. For Dine and Ride to the Greek there was a choice between 2-3 restaurants in the Los Feliz area including the Dresden, a German restaurant. We chose the Palace, a Chinese restaurant, because I figured less of the food would have dairy. The website did show the special menu that came with the Dine and Ride package and I could eat just about everything but the ice cream for dessert. We got a Dine and Ride package because our experience is that traffic going to the Greek Theater can get very slow. When we saw the Prairie Home Companion live show there in 2002 we sat in traffic for over an hour between Los Feliz Blvd and the Greek. When we got there, the main lot was full and we had to park way up the hill near the Griffith Observatory. We missed 45 minutes of the 2-hour show. For Loggins and Messina, we did not want this to happen again.

Our payment to Dine and Ride covered the food, shuttle ride to and from the Greek, parking at the restaurant, and all the taxes and gratuities. We had to get our tickets to the concert separately. After paying for our Dine and Ride package, their employee, Mark, sent an e-mail saying to be at the Palace at 5:30 pm on Oct. 2. When that day came around about 3-4 weeks later we used MapQuest to get directions. I checked the Dine and Ride website that now said that Dine and Ride was sold out for the Palace-Greek for Oct. 2 and 3. When I first put the addresses into MapQuest, the directions included going on the I-5 and Los Feliz Blvd. We wanted to avoid both these routes because they get lots of traffic on weekday evenings, especially when there’s a concert at the Greek. We adjusted the directions until they worked out to something more feasible.

We left at 4:15 pm and drove west on the 210. There wasn’t much traffic going west. Most of it was going east. We took the 210 to where part of it becomes the 134 in Pasadena. From the 134 we got on the 2 south in Glendale that also didn’t have much traffic. We were making very good time. From the 2 we took exit # 14B that led to Fletcher Drive. We turned left on Fletcher, drove on a bridge across the Los Angeles River and turned right onto Glendale Blvd. We took Glendale Blvd to where it forks into Glendale Blvd and Rowena Ave. We kept right to take Rowena Ave and saw that the Silver Lake restaurant, Flor Moreno, had a different name and that Blair’s, the former Thai-American Café was still there. We turned left on Hyperion Ave. and passed the Trader Joe’s and Gelson’s where we used to shop when we lived in Downtown L.A. We turned right on Griffith Park Blvd just passed the Gelson’s and then turned left on St. George St. with John Marshall High School on the left corner. St. George St. had a few hills. It led to Franklin Ave. where we turned right. This part of Franklin was less busy, narrower, and more residential than the major streets of the area such as Los Feliz Blvd. We crossed what looked like a bridge with steeples on the corners and then crossed Commonwealth Ave., an extension of the street I lived on during my first stint in Los Angeles 13-14 years ago. There were lights at all the major streets including the one where we had to turn right: Hillhurst.

We turned right on Hillhurst and drove about a half mile north. The Palace was on the right side of the street just past the intersection with Ambrose Ave. We got there at 4:55 pm, over a half hour early. The Dine and Ride e-mail said to go to valet parking adjacent to the restaurant. But we didn’t see any valet in the parking lot just south of the restaurant. We parked in the lot in a space labeled “Old Man Parking” by informal graffiti on space’s tire stop. I called Mark B, whose name was given in the Dine and Ride e-mail to call if we had questions. He actually answered and said it was probably too early for the valet and just to park in the lot and secure the vehicle. There weren’t very many cars in the parking lot. The Palace was all in one building that looked to be about two stories tall. We climbed a few steps and entered a large front door with lion face knockers. The door opened right to the hostess. We told her we were Dine and Ride and showed her the confirmation e-mail. She seated us at a very well-located corner booth with a view of the entire restaurant. A waiter gave us the specialty menu that was exactly like the one we saw online.

The Palace advertises itself as serving “Authentic Chinese Food”. It’s a large restaurant with lots of seating including tables upstairs. The décor consists of black and dark red walls, dark red carpet, and black furniture. There’s a large fish tank near the entrance, a bar in the back with at least two flatscreen TV’s, and artwork of Chinese scenes on the walls, all done by what looked like the same artist. There’s also a gold-covered Chinese dress high on the wall behind a clear covering, decorative fans, tapestries of Chinese women in red dresses, and hanging from the ceiling are banners for each of the twelve Chinese year animals. There weren’t very many people there since it was three hours before the usual L.A. dinner time of 8 pm. On our table were decorative Chinese plates, chopsticks, and, we were glad to see, forks. My wife picked up a take-home menu from the hostess’s desk and noticed that it listed many dishes that weren’t on the Dine and Ride specialty menu, including some things we might like to try sometime.

The waiter first asked us whether we would like anything to drink. The Dine and Ride menu allowed us to order a glass of beer or wine. We said we just wanted water but the waiter insisted we could order a glass of orange juice in place of the beer or wine. We did that and it came in tall glasses with ice and it tasted sweet and refreshing. I couldn’t remember the last time I drank something other than water at a restaurant. We told the waiter our choices from the Dine and Ride specialty menu and our food started arriving soon after.

First, they brought our starters: vegetable egg noodle rolls and Chinese chicken salad. The former came in four separate sections and with a small tray of spicy mustard sauce and sweet dipping sauce. The egg roll sections were crispy. My wife preferred the mustard sauce and I preferred the sweet sauce. Though I’m not sure it was authentic Chinese food, the Chinese chicken salad was still very good. Both the lettuce and the small white noodles were very crispy. The dressing was the right combination of tangy and sweet. As we ate our starters, we noticed other Dine and Ride patrons come in and be seated by the waiters. We could tell because they mentioned Dine and Ride when they came in or they only ordered things from the specialty menu. There was a large group of eight that arrived over the course of an hour in groups of two or three. There was also a couple at the corner on the other side. They were mostly Caucasians that looked 5-10 years older than us.

Next the waiter brought our soup: one each of the two kinds: hot and sour and egg flower. The hot and sour tasted like its name but it was still flavorful and delicious. It had noodles and chicken in it. The egg flower soup only had egg in it but was still flavorful. After we finished our soups, they took our plates and bowls and brought our entrees along with new plates. There was the honey walnut shrimp with shiny walnuts and sweet white honey sauce; the roast duck Mandarin, all shiny brown with two small drumsticks; and there was a plate of sautéed vegetables compliments of the restaurants. They all came with two small bowls of rice. The vegetables consisted of baby corn, carrots, broccoli, peas in pods, zucchini, bamboo shoots, and fried tofu. They were all good, especially the pieces of tofu. The duck was also prepared with bamboo shoots and mushrooms all in a rich and flavorful brown sauce. The duck itself was crispy and had great flavor even without much sauce. The best entrée was the honey walnut shrimp with the walnuts sweet and crunchy, the shrimp cooked just right and the sweet white honey sauce was great for “dipping area”. It was a lot of food, but all very good.

As we ate we watched ABC News with Charles Gibson on the screens in the far corner near the bar. They showed Rio de Janeiro winning the bid for the 2016 summer Olympics and the disappointed people in Chicago. We were actually able to finish most of our entrees. For dessert, we had a choice of green tea, plum, and vanilla ice cream. My wife tried the green tea and plum flavors and preferred the green tea. We finished dinner at 6:30 and the hostess said our Dine and Ride shuttle would pick us up at 6:50 pm. While we waited we looked over a brochure given by the waiter that had all the Chinese New Year animals. We noticed that it recommended that someone born in each year marry someone born either four years before or four years after. We thought that this wouldn’t be very easy to do given that many potential spouses meet in high school or college where the greatest age difference is three years between freshmen and seniors.
At 6:50 pm two shuttles showed up, one nearly full and ready to leave and other empty. Each van held about 14 passengers. We boarded the empty van since we could sit where we wanted. The drive asked us who was playing at the Greek Theater. We said, “Loggins and Messina,” and he said, “It’s gonna be great!” We asked where we should catch the Dine and Ride shuttle after the concert and the driver said he or another van would stop at the same place he dropped us off: right in front of the Greek Theater. We couldn’t ask for much better service. With our dinner at the Palace, our evening was going very well and the main event was yet to come.

The Sandwich Joint opened in early to mid 2009 in the ground floor of the Medici apartment building across the street from the building where I work. It has a big, prominent, oval-shaped sign above the door. Other than the café in the building where I work, the Sandwich Joint is the closest eatery. On Thursday, September 24, 2009, I decided to try it.

When I exited the building where I worked I noticed that most people just jaywalked across the street to get to the Sandwich Joint. I walked west all the way to the intersection, crossed the crosswalk, and then walked east to the place. I entered and the cashier’s counter was just right there waiting. The cashier looked at me as if I should know what I wanted and how to order. I needed to study the large menu board above and behind the counter. First, I had to choose a sandwich from the 14 possible choices. They were all the standard kinds except the prosciutto. Next, I had to choose the bread between French baguette, multi-grain baguette, and croissant. Then, I had to choose toppings. The cashier didn’t say there was a limit to the number of toppings I could choose. Last, I could choose between having the sandwich hot or cold. The menu also had a list of the standard salads, drinks, and coffees.

The prosciutto sounded interesting, but, at $7.95, it was more expensive than the others. I picked the pastrami on a French baguette with a side of chips and my bill still came out to over $8.00 with tax. For toppings, I chose onions and peppers and I had them toast the sandwich. While they made my sandwich, I sat down and waited. The place is very small with four 2-person tables and a counter with 3-4 stools along the large arched window. There seemed to be many chairs, most of them stacked in a corner. The indoor colors were consistent with the outdoor sign: bright pastels such as yellow, red, and white. The floor was the concrete floor of a loft. It had high ceilings and there was the high exposed piping of a loft on the ceiling, though it was painted over in flat pastel yellow. There were many paintings on the walls, all of them by different artists, some of dark city scenes, others of musicians against bright backgrounds. Near the counter with stools was a shelf of reading material for patrons including a book of 50 years of Sports Illustrated covers and some art and travel books. It didn’t take much for the place to fill up because it was so small. I sat at the only open 2-person table near a group of four who had pushed a couple of tables together.

After about five minutes the cashier who had taken my order brought my sandwich to me. I had to get my chips from a shelf near the counter where I ordered. I think I just grabbed some original Kettle chips (from Salem, Oregon). They also had Dirty Potato Chips from Kettle. On the cashier’s counter there was a plastic display case containing the “Pastries, Etc.” listed on the menu. At that time the case only contained a croissant and a cookie. My sandwich was very large and I really didn’t need the chips for accompaniment. The pastrami wasn’t fried like it is at The Hat or for the “Metro” sandwich from the café in my building. The pepper and red onions on it were raw. It was alright, a lot of food, and not quite as good as the Metro sandwich. It was a bit bland and probably could have used some mustard, though I didn’t see mustard as one of the choices, just mustard vinaigrette. As I finished my sandwich, a few more people came in and ordered, some eating in and others getting their food to go. After finishing my sandwich, I left feeling very full.

I think the Sandwich Joint is trying to establish its own individual character that sets it apart from the chains such as Subway, Quizno’s, and Togo’s. It has done that with its setting but I’m not sure it’s quite there yet with the food. I usually just pack a lunch for work and I’ll continue to do so.