Here's the annual item for discussing the music and the movies at Top of the Park, Ann Arbor's 24-day outdoor summer festival. No one at the Grexlunch today could answer the query: was TOP a complete rainout for opening night, or did the second band manage to take the stage? A full schedule can be found at http://aa.mlive.com/aasf and then click on "Top of the Park."93 responses total.
Saturday night, the 7 pm band is the RFD Boys (venerable local bluegrass band) and the 9 pm band is The Ambassadors Big Band, playing 1940s swing-era hits. You can watch all the senior citizens in the audience sway in unison when The Ambassadors play Glenn Miller's theme song, "In The Mood." I enjoy both of these bands, which I guess means I'm sliding towards geezerhood myself; big band music was the sound of my parents' youth so there was a lot of it around when I was young. Note that there is no movie on Saturday night. Sunday June 17: For music, Dave Mosher plays at 7 pm and Jelly's Pierced Tattoo plays at 7:45, and I have never heard of either before. The feature film is "Meet The Parents," preceded by a short film from the Ann Arbor Film Festival. Monday June 18: Dick Wagner plays "classic rock" at 7, and the feature film is "Dirty Dancing."
TOP was not rained out opening night. Kevin Meisels, the Jim Roll Band and Rollie Tussing were unable to take the stage, but the Cadillac Cowboys did get a few tunes in before the weather came back.
I didn't know that the weather came back. It was pretty clear west of town after the first storm. I'm not a geezer. I've been a Glenn Miller fan since childhood, though I don't necessarily hear it that often anymore. Notably, my family sees The Ambassadors Big Band every year, since one of its players is a relative of ours. We'll probably see him at the Bilyea Reunion in Thorndale in August, too. I'll have to find a new place to park.
I felt so *happy* as I drove into the parking ramp to hear the RFD Boys through the open window. I'm so glad the festival is in its traditional location. Wow, what a crowd Saturday night; few empty seats for the RFD Boys, or for the first set by The Ambassadors. After the 10:20 pm break, the audience thinned out a lot. I spent a lot of time chatting with ea and senna (met ea for the first time), and after arabella came down for dinner we hung out with senna until the evening ended. Eric and Steve marvelled that I could predict what the last RFD Boys tune would be. (It's *ALWAYS* "Orange Blossom Special.") And we saw Eric/other, of course. No Italian sausages from the Gandy Dancer booth this year; they attempted to sell us on the virtues of their hot dogs instead.
I dined this evening on Oasis Chicken from Rendez Vous and was quite pleased with it. That, and the Stucchi's ice cream for dessert. Yum! Thank goodness the Ambassadors brought some of their own gear, because our full complement of microphones was just a bit short of what they needed. Fortunately, the 24 channels in the snake was enough. We had to use an overhead for the rack toms instead of individual mics on them.
Spotted y, senna, other, krj, and arabella tonight. Nice evening for a movie!
Indeed, quite pleasant. I echo scott's spottings, replacing his name with mine on the list.
In other news, Dirty Dancing is showing tonight. I recall it being rather popular with other people of a similar age to mine; that would seem to indicate that crowds will be reasonable, because college kids seem to be the least represented age group at TOP.
Tuesday night there are two local bands who I really like a lot. I may not be free to go so some of you will have to go and enjoy the music for me. The 7 pm band is Delta 88, who straddle the meeting point between country, rock and folk, with some inspired electric guitar work. The 8 pm band is the acoustic jazz trio Summers Delaney and Sharp: two guitars and acoustic bass, performing music shaped by the French gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt. At the moment these guys are my favorite local musicians. Tuesday's feature film is the animated adventure story "The Iron Giant," which was generally well-reviewed. Wednesday is Dr. Seuss night, returning after a one-year hiatus.
Rats, inspired electric guitars and I'll be away until the second band. I get the feeling that tonight will be underattended by people I know. I wonder how long I should stay.
Delta 88 might be a little mellow for senna.
I should be there Tuesday... I haven't yet seen Summers, Delaney, and Sharp, nor have I seen Iron Giant. As for Monday... feh. Classic rock and then "Dirty Dancing"? Pass.
As it turns out, I know the sister of the frontman of tonight's band. It was a decent show. Sparse attendance until the movie, when teens swarmed the place. The stage definitely appears to accept a larger capacity of people this year. I stayed for the first 45 minutes of the movie, and walke daround for some of the band. Other was the only grexer I saw, but I did manage to see several soccer jerseys. Last year's Newcastle, two year old Tampa Bay Mutiny, and an old Kappa Barcelona jersey, if I recall. I know you are interested to read this.
Didn't manage to make it to TOP tonight, but as I was driving past the Power Center on Huron, I noticed a pretty bad car crash ... looked like it had only happened a few minutes ago ... no emergency vehicles on scene yet. Later, when I was driving home, the Police had Huron blocked off in the direction I had been going earlier.
I'm not sure if the movie last night got rained out or not. It certainly got delayed by the severe thunderstorm which rolled in at 10:00. A fair number of people, including balynce, senna, and myself, watched the storm from just inside the parking ramp. We were standing where we could see the giant cranes over the construction site east of the parking ramp... I hadn't know that they leave the cranes in state where they can swing around with heavy winds, so we got to see them actually swinging around just by the force of the storm winds. It was much more interesting than a movie could have been. :)
It was more entertaining than the movie. If it went off (what's the word on it, eric?), it wasn't well attended.
re: 15 -- It did. Just before 10:00, they sent everyone home.
The storm not only caused the cancellation of "The Iron Giant" but it also nearly flipped the north tent into the construction pit, tearing apart some of its aluminum members and smashing one of our fence sections.
We noticed the destruction of the tent. Was there any danger of it seeking the company of the construction site?
I wasn't sure about the tent; it either could have been damage or perhaps some design feature I hadn't noticed earlier (one end had a more open shape). The really annoying part was when the first big gust of wind blew grit from the upper level right into my (contact lens equipped) eyes. The rest was really cool to watch. I'm torn between the nasty weather tonight and the somewhat interesting looking movie. Feh.
Neither the weather nor the movie appealed to me. Did anything make it?
Tonight was a total bust at TOP. The rain was sufficiently persistent that the whole evening was cancelled.
Wow, ouch. The weather's hitting TOP hard already this year. What's the forecast for tomorrow? The combination of the night and the event leads me to believe that, weather permitting, it will be the best attended night of the year.
The next few days are supposed to be dry.
Usually there is no movie at Top of the Park on Friday. However, tonight the schedule announces "The Wizard of Oz." Music is listed as "Various Artists, including the Saline Fiddlers Philharmonic." The Saline Fiddlers are fun. I don't know anything about Saturday's bands: The Couriers, playing big band swing, and Kung Fu Diesel, described as "rockabilly and roots rock." I've been looking forward to Sunday night since the TOP schedule was first announced. Performing at 7 pm is Grex's own Katie Geddes and her band The Usual Suspects. The 8 pm band is Repercussions, "world music percussion ensemble" -- I never heard of them before. The Sunday movie is "Dr. Strangelove; Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb," which is often regarded as one of the best movies ever made. (It's #26 on the American Film Institute's list of Top 100 American films -- oops, it's a British production -- and voters at imdb.com rank it as #11.) It's a 1964 black & white black comedy about nuclear deterrence through the doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction. Stanley Kubrick's only comedy; stars Peter Sellers (in three roles), George C. Scott, Slim Pickens. James Earl Jones has a very small role, it was his first film. Come revisit the paranoia of the cold war!!
I'm looking forward to Sunday as well. As I've stated elsewhere, I believe that tonight (friday) will be TOP's largest attended night of the year.
Featured acts at TOP tonight: Saline Fiddlers Gemini The Chenille Sisters Dick Siegel Madcat and Kane George Bedard and the Kingpins
This response has been erased.
Kung Fu Diesel sounds cool. If anybody see 'em, can you write up something on them? I'm not going to able to make it there tonight. Party at the homestead I've been invited to attend. Can't pass up a party where you're not responsible for clean up :)
Notice how Eric avoided mentioning the movie... what are you hiding from, Eric? Probably it's because you can't actually prove anything which I haven't already debunked in responses 4, 8, 11, 17, 22, and 25? (Oops, wrong item. ;P)
I'm sure everybody sees through your lies by now, Scott. :) "Wizard of Oz" is the movie.
I wish Scott and John would just stop with the heated ad hominem battles and stick with the facts.
That's an awful lot of musicians to cram in before 10 pm.
That's clearly a biased view.
It would fit if three did 20 minutes, and the other 4 did 30 minutes.
Mary and I wandered through TOP between 9 and 10 tonight. I don't think I've ever seen it so crowded -- what a sea of humanity. In the Grexer department, we spotted scott, senna, and ea. We were told that krj and carla were also on the premises, but we didn't find them.
I saw lots of people I knew, spoke/nodded to a few, but the only grexer I saw was an other jack-booted blackshirt striving mightily to keep the trains moving, if not on time. But that belongs in an other item, doesn't it? :)
I watched most of the movie but wimped out when it started raining. Spotted senna, krj, carla, ea, mary, remmers, and other. It was announced that the crowd was the biggest ever for TOP.
Where'd you hear that announced? I left shortly before the end, which wasn't very far away, to get home. Other than that, I spent the entire evening. I managed to spot dewshine, bjorn, mnetter toriamos, and possibly some other people I'm neglecting. I'm sure I spotted Joe without realizing it; how many tall people in soccer jerseys can there be, Joe? :) Say hi next time.
I'll have to keep my eyes more open.
Thought I spotted Joe as he was walking in, but not sure. Spotted Dewshine, senna, krj, scott, other, remmers, and I think I missed mary. Also spotted someone claiming to be a former grexer (aardvark? he was mumbling) on South U earlier in the evening.
I hadn't realized that the show would start at 6:30, so when Carla and I drove in to the parking structure, it was almost filled, and there were no visible seats. At least I got to hear the last three tunes by the Saline Fiddlers. After that, the Ann Arbor Observer's 25th birthday party was a show by most of the biggest local musical performers. Hanging out with folks at the back of the performance area was sociable, but it didn't do much for musical enjoyment. If I cupped my hands over my ears, I could pretty well make out the Chenille Sisters; Madcat & Kane carried better to the back, and then we moved down to the side of the stage for the very short set by George Bedard. I agree with remmers, this was the most crowded I've seen TOP; it was triggering a mild sense of claustrophobia. It took 30 minutes in line to get falafel for dinner, and all the other food lines seemed similar. The crowd thinned quite a bit for the movie; we stayed until the end, despite the rain shower.
Wow, now I am not so bummed that I missed it. I get weird in crowds.
I showed up for the very first part of the movie - it was indeed *very* crowded, and I didn't see anyone I recognized. I left shortly after the color part started, when some smokers wandered by and reminded me that clean air was important.
Silvia and I were there for all the music. It was a great show! I especially liked Dick Siegel, although they were all pretty good. I only spotted scott and senna, but we were seated way on the right side and didn't move around much.
Too bad I missed folks. There will probably be a movie or two with a larger crowd than this movie had, but not the music.
Stopped by TOP early this evening to hear Katie Geddes' group. Enjoyed them immensely, as usual. Love their rendition of the Lennon/McCartney tune "I've Just Seen a Face". Spotted (in fact, was sitting with) Grexers krj, scott, drew, aruba, and other.
I wandered by TOP much too late to see the usual suspects. Someday I want to see them, but it just wasn't happening tonight. I did catch the tail end of an interesting percussion group, saw sea & gang, krj, drew, other, gelinas, hhsrat, & senna, a short film, and the very start of Dr. Strangelove, before I decided to take my draining sinuses elsewhere (smokers...)
Let's see. Due to scheduling conflicts, I was a bit later than I hoped, but I still caught krj, drew, scott, ea, dewshine, STeve (I saw him just as everybody was leaving), mdw (with whom I managed to scare up a short chat), y, poidog, someone who looked very much like a former freekman, and probably gelinas among the crowd. You WILL be spotted, joe. You will.
Now that I think about it, was anyone else amused by the selection of short opening film? Its content might not amuse some families. I am thrilled by this week's selection of movies, by the way.
Cindy was most definitely NOT amused. She kept trying to cover Louis' twelve-year old eyes. I saw someone talking to mdw at the corner of the stage, just after he was talking to other. Was that you in the yellow jersey for some "A" team, senna? Saw STeve on the way out.
I was wondering about that. There were some young people there, though not as much as for, say, Dr Seuss. Yeah, that was my in the jersey. The word on the front was "Autoglass," Chelsea's sponsor last year.
Had a drink with jazz at TOP. I was sufficently befuddled to not remember why I knew his face. I hate that.
You only saw STeve on the way out because he was there only long enough to pick up dewshine.
What was the controversial movie?
A short entitled "Deep Creep." So did I spot dewshine, too? A couple of young ladies came up while we were talking, but nobody introduced anybody.
Jazz was there? Very interesting. Didn't we have a disgression in the public domain argument in last agora concerning community access? This seems like a similar case.
Oh yeah, the opening movie. Only time I've ever seen full frontal nudity at TOP...
Sure, it's a similar case, but one would have to know the movie to know there might be a problem.
If one of the young ladies had short, slightly curly hair with one thin long piece on each side, and the two finger straped together on her left hand, you spotted dewshine.
I'm doing good to know they were female. :(
I was looking forward to The Raisin Pickers (old-time music) and "Chicken Run," but I'm all TOPped out after three evenings there in four days. I might show for the band, but it's unlikely. My cats were complaining about being neglected this morning.
I appeared briefly, but took off as the movie was starting. It's one of the highlights movies of the year, but alas I am way short on rest.
I thought about showing up tonight, but decided against it, as I didn't really care too much about seeing Chicken Run. Tomorrow I have to work until 10, but may show up a few moments into the movie.
I went to hear Katie Donohue and the Raisin Pickers, but the kids were ready to leave when Ms. Donohue finished. I managed to hang on for the first thirty minutes of the Raisin Pickers; enough to know I'll have to watch for another opportunity to hear them. :)
I was going to pass tonight, but John Remmers and Mickey convinced me that the movie was a classic which I should see. I missed the opening musician, Charlie Dentel, which was a bit of a shame because he's the son of a musical associate of Leslie's. And the plan to do a theme night was dented because the scheduled New Orleans-style band was replaced by Crowbar Hotel, a perfectly adequate blues-rock band. Not much of a night for Grexer sightings: I saw balynce and other, and jiffer stopped by for dinner. The short film, "Stanley" (the title another tie-in with the evening) was the best of the short films I have seen, with a gentle husband and his love for his cabbage -- maybe a bit too much love for his cabbage -- and his bloodthirsty carnivorous wife. And of course the feature was "A Streetcar Named Desire," this year's concession to classic art, set in New Orleans with Marlon Brando playing Stanley Kowalski. I'd never seen the young Brando before.
Very light night for Grexer spottings ... senna, other, a rare jiffer sighting, and spotted llanarth/balynce but she didn't even notice when steve yelled at her.
Really, the whole festival has been light for Grexer spottings. No wonder there was little interest in a possible sponsorship this year. Friday night is "A Celebration of Women's Music," with Anne Doyle, Heidi Snyder, Lisa Hunter and Jo Serrapere. I've only heard Lisa Hunter before out of that batch, so I look forward to an interesting evening. Saturday night, the 7 pm band is an African percussion ensemble, Marunga's Global Village Ceremonial Band, which should be different; 9 pm is harmonica and guitar blues from Peter "Madcat" Ruth and Shari Kane, the long-time local duo. No movies either night.
(Ms. Doyle's name has only the one "e". She was named for the Margaret of that name.)
I managed to show up late. Jo Serrapere and the Hot Tail Section were very impressive, drawing on lots of American roots music: blues, 1950s jazz, and even a gospel parody. Grexers spotted: other. I guess most Grexers won't show up for a music night unless they are getting paid... :(
And those few who do don't stay long. :(
I miss TOP. :( :( :( I would have been there for the night of the 29th, that's for SURE.
Well, my apologies for being the source of much misinformation tonight. Muruga's Global Village Ceremonial Band didn't turn out to be terribly African at all, did it? I found a bit about Muruga (the drummer and band leader) at http://www.rosencoment.com/starwood2001/a-f.html . The guy has had an interesting, and slightly wacky, career, moving between blues, rock, and international "world music." I didn't take well to Muruga's band at first, since it was so contrary to my expectations, and then there was Muruga's silly hat, and an air which I took as "second-rate Rusted Root." That was probably the jam band influence: "Here's a song we used to play with Jerry Garcia..." But eventually the music and my mind converged somewhere around the jazz basis of what the band was doing: some of the stuff was very reminiscent of Abdullah Ibrahim's South African jazz music. And Muruga turns out to be a pretty impressive drummer. Madcat & Kane did their usual acoustic blues thing. For the last three songs, they brought up some guests: drummer Maruga, the bass player from Maruga's band (I think), and Big Dave (from the Ultrasonics). Shari switched to electric. Very nice, big electric blues sound. I liked the last number, a John Lee Hooker song about a bus ride from Detroit to Chicago. Sightings of Grexers and associates: valerie, janc & arlo, plus their guests Other Arlo and Liz; polygon and sgsk (I got to carry sgsk around for quite a while); jared & jess/smiles; senna, gelinas, other. Now that's more like it!!
Before the first band started, I was wandering around carrying a blonde and blue-eyed 2 year-old and talking to his mom. I was vaguely hoping I'd run into some Grexer and be able to introduce these people as "Arlo and his mom, Liz" and watch them try to figure out why Arlo looked different and why his mom wasn't Valerie. However, the only Grexer I happened to see was Eric and he seemed to busy to be subjected to mindgames. By the time the rest of the Grexer's showed up, I had both Arlos and both moms on hand, and all potential for confusion was lost. Oh well.
I showed up around the end of the first band, and spotted no grexers other than other. I did see someone who looked vaguely like Erik Olsen (former eieio) but I couldn't tell from where I was.
Silvia and I were there for most of the Witch Doctors and the movie. We spotted other and another Grexer who I've seen at walks, but could not remember his name.
For the Fourth of July, TOP offered a program of brass band music. The opening band was the Ann Arbor Civic Band, doing a mix of patriotic and nostalgic tunes. The second band was the fascinating Dodworth Saxhorn Band, presenting a recreation of a Civil War-era brass band. Their instruments were all manufactured by Adolph Sax between 1840 and 1880, most with the horns thrown over the players' shoulder, and with no spit valves. (There was some other modern invention they lacked for tuning, I can't remember the detail there.) I'm surprised that so many metal instruments from 150 years ago survive in playable condition. There was a good turnout for the music, but it did not look like many were going to stay for the movie. I saw a few non-Grex acquaintances, but the only Grexers sighted were scott and other. I'd like to hear the Terraplanes, a blues band, if I can manage it on Thursday; I heard their CD at Borders once and was somewhat interested, but I never followed up. THE MUPPETS IN SPACE will be the next-to-last movie of the festival, if I remember the schedule correctly.
the Ann Arbor Civic Band *always* does a mix of patriotic and nostalgic tunes.
I was late for the tap dancers last night; but that's OK, the tap dancers obliged me by running way overtime. :/ The Terraplanes were OK, but not as wonderful as I had remembered from hearing their CD at Borders that one time. Spotted grexers: Staci/dewshine, a friend of Staci's whose login I have forgotten, Eric/other, Larry/polygon, Steve/senna. We're down to the final weekend of Top of the Park. I'm planning to pass on Friday night. Saturday night, the 7 pm band is The Original Brothers and Sisters of Love, a band whose first CD I have really enjoyed. Loosely inspired by the great British folk-rock performers such as Richard Thompson and Fairport Convention, but not slavishly imitative of them -- don't expect to hear jigs and reels. They have a web page at http://www.tobasol.com, and you can read all the comparisons various local music writers have made there: "a folky XTC," Jeff Buckley, The Carter Family, The Chieftains, Camper Van Chadbourne... I've never gotten out to see the band live so I am really looking forward to this. Saturday's 9 pm band is Nite Flight, described as "calypso/reggae" on the Top of the Park web page. Sunday will open with the traditional closing-night performance from rockabilly band George Bedard and the Kingpins, and the movie is "Charlie's Angels."
Staci's friend is John/tiroka (we work together at WCC). I introduced him to Staci and to Grex.
Hmm . . . seems I might be spotting Grexers without knowing it. I go to WCC.
Tonight was a *great* night of music by the Brothers Groove and Professor Marvel and the 4th Quadrant.
Yeah, but I only spotted other and senna there. Brothers Groove was better; wish I'd showed up earlier. PM&4Q basically just did old funk standards, although it was refreshing to hear somebody do a Tower of Power tune.
Saturday's weather did not seem promising, but I really wanted to see The Original Brothers and Sisters of Love, so I went on down with an umbrella. I met up with Russ Cage, Mark/aruba and Carol, plus an old non-Grexer acquaintance of mine, Mark D., and we stood around under umbrellas for about an hour while the sky occasionally spit at us. TOBASOL started at 8, an hour late, and they had an hour left for their shortened set. Live I found them a somewhat frustrating band; I keep wanting them to sing better, and maybe actually learn to play the accordion instead of using it as a color effect. But there are lots of moments when I love what they are doing. Eric/other was sighted, of course, and during the weather delay he had lots of time to chat. Most of the people I knew wandered off after the TOBASOL set, and Nite Flite's presentation of reggae-fied pop songs wasn't catching my interest, so I wandered off to Borders for a while. When I came back, Nite Flite was doing a pretty good African flavored guitar jam, so maybe I should have stuck around. Sunday night -- last Gandy Dancer gazpacho of the season, with George Bedard and the Kingpins, followed by the movie "Charlie's Angels."
I plan on being at TOP tonight, hoping to see former grexer skeez.
If anyone saw the Ann Arbor News this morning, they had a nice article about TOP and Summer Festival. However, they didn't do a great job of fact checking, and ended up listing TOP as having ended last night. I will be at TOP from around 8:30 on
Re 81: I work in the open lab in TI108 Mon-Wed afternoons and Thur from 8-4. John is there Mon-Thur afternoons til closing as is annon (sp).
A bumper crop of Grexer (& associates) sightings for the last night of TOP. Roughly in the order I spotted them: aruba, Carol, scott, senna, ea, danr, Silvia, tsty, russ, eeyore, bhelliom, smiles, mooncat, jiffer, staci, balynce, and the user formerly known as hope. Most of these folks were assembled in one big crowd o' grexers at the back of the festival area for about ten minutes or so, as George Bedard & The Kingpins finished playing. George Bedard's rockabilly is fun in a festival setting; the crowd filled the place up nicely but it did not feel overstuffed like it did for the Observer 25th birthday party. The movie "Charlie's Angels" was dumb fun as an outdoor festival movie, though I did find myself looking at my watch a lot.
Yah! I was actually there! Course, I didn't stay long, was too damn hot. Along with all those spotted above I also spotted a Hector, though he's not a grexer, he's a dawg (who lives in my quad area of apartments and who is very friendly and sweet and I can't remember his mommy's name...)
I'll make it down there, once we get a cooler evening.
Heh. Too late for this year, Tim.
As Jared and I were about to enter Cooker's, we were spotted by a Remmers and a Mary. Freaky coincendence!
I had wanted to go last night, but we decided to stay at the sailing club and watch the Portage Lake fireworks, which had been postponed from Saturday night.
You have several choices: