A Night in Vienna

Debbie's currently studying violin under the tutelage of a woman who is a member of the Orange County Pacific Symphony. Turns out she was able to give Debbie a couple of comps to a concert they held Saturday evening at Irvine Meadows, now unfortunately called the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater.

We arrived early, according to local convention, to have a picnic on the grass before the concert. We brought dinners from Boston Market and spread out a picnic blanket. There were a lot of people there picnicking. Many elderly couples and middle aged couples. A number of middle aged guys with their daughters.....or maybe someone else's daughters. Relatively few young couples. After the picnic, we put our picnic stuff back in the car and went to the seats.

We got our aerobics for the day covered getting from the parking lot to the Terrace Level. I had no idea how far it was, and how far uphill it was to the seats. Reminded me of walking to school up in North Dakota, when I was a kid. Except for the snow. And, except that in North Dakota, it's uphill both ways.

The concert started right on time (unlike most rock concerts) and was quite good. The selections were by Viennese composers and concluded with two Strauss, Jr works: The Blue Danube, Thunder and Lightning Polka and Strauss, Sr's The Radetsky March. All three of these are among my favorites.

At the end, during the polka and the march, there was a pretty good fireworks accompaniment.

I liked the concert and everything else there, but there are a couple of reasons that make the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater less than desireable, compared to other venues. I've already mentioned the very long hike up to the seating area. There are a few golf carts available to carry the less physically ept individuals up the hill. Sadly, they are very few.

At the Terrace level, there are very few aisles, with a lot of seats between them. You might have to bump your way past upwards of fifty pairs of knees to get to your seat.

That far away from the stage, it's actually kind of hard to hear the quieter passages.

When the concert was over, the rush down that same path came to a crawl as everyone headed for the very narrow pathway at the same time. One can only imagine the kind of chaos that would follow if there were some kind of emergency. Oh, the humanity!

The half-hour it took to get from our seats to the car was dwarfed by the amount of time it took to get from the parking lot to the freeway. It was over twenty minutes before the car in front of us in the driveway was even able to move. We were in the car for over thirty minutes before I decided it was worthwhile to start the engine.

Now, after once spending over an hour trying to get out of the Del Mar Fairgrounds parking lot during the San Diego County Fair, and vowing to never go to the Fair again (I never have) you can only imagine what I think about a return to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater.

Oh, yeah....Expose....Expose!!

I don't know how it ends up that I'm the first with this one.

There are wires all over the place at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater! The whole place is built on a lie! Where is the Truth?

They've killed Freedom! Those Bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California