The music! The movies! The Grexer spottings!! Yes, once again it's time for Top of the Park, Ann Arbor's 24-day free outdoor festival. TOP opens Friday night, June 14. To see a schedule, go to http://mlive.com/aasf and click on "Top of the Park"35 responses total.
Weather permitting, I'm going to make an extra effort to get to TOP for the opening night Friday. The 7 pm concert is to feature Jim Roll, Chris Buhalis and Rollie Tussing III, who are Ann Arbor-based folk/country/blues guys.
As of the end of the day today, a good deal of the TOP setup is complete. All the structures are standing, most of the fencing is in place, and people have started running electrical. Just a few other minor things left to be done tomorrow and Friday. (I was one of 3 grexers that was on the setup crew, Eric Bassey and Scott Helmke being the other 2)
Gandy Dancer and whatever Mexican food we had last year... both of those restaurants are gone this year. But... Shihan Shah is at TOP this year!!!
Darn, the booths of Gandy Dancer and the 3 Amigos Mexican place were my favorite TOP food stands the last few years.
Also worth mentioning, the stage has what appears to be a new set of railings around the edge. This shouldn't make much of a difference, just worth noting (espicially for people like Scott, Senna and myself, who have jumped on the stage from the back, rather than the front like "normal" people)
The bulk of the setup is done, somewhat ahead of schedule.
What can I say? I overhired. I overanticipated the flake factor.
You couldn't have known that the crew of people you hired would work so well together. It was a lot of fun. Count me in for strike. (I know ... emails about that come later)
Last night's spottings: other, senna, dewshine, krj I enjoyed the music more than I thought I would. Would have liked to have stayed longer, but I had managed to forget the light for my bicycle, and wanted to get home while I could still see.
Friday night: I managed to arrive just in the midst of the opening song of the TOP season. Rollie Tussing III is a favorite of mine, I should get out to see him more; he plays a mean National Steel guitar. His 20 minute set was too short. The Ann Arbor Americana Anthology continued with Jim Roll's band; I do like his electric guitar tone. And the last of the local quasi-folkies was Chris Buhalis, who was bringing back echoes of the 60s with a talking blues about John Ashcroft, and closing with Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land." The only term I could make up to characterize the Cadillac Cowboys was "American Festival Music." They played a bunch of country-style music at the beginning of their set; touched folk with a cover of a John Prine song; went back to the 40's for a blazing boogie-woogie rendition of "Beat Me Daddy 8 to the Bar;" into the fifties and sixties or "Peppermint Twist" and the dazzlingly morbid "Last Kiss," which I just had to sing along with; and finished their first set with "Ghost Riders In The Sky." I was shivering -- had not planned ahead to bring a sweater, and it was cold -- so I gave up at the Cadillac Cowboys' intermission and went home. Grexers spotted: other, dewshine, gelinas and Cindi. Saturday night: The Ambassadors Big Band always pull in a good crowd from my parents' generation, playing hits from the swing era -- Glenn Miller's "In The Mood" is always an audience favorite -- and also some Ellington and other big band songs. This show is always a nostalgia trip for me, since there was lots of this music in the house while I was growing up. Grexers sighted: ea, senna and other. Grexer spottings are way, way down this year.
Are the Red Elvises showing up this year?
I'm hoping for good weather for The Birds tomorrow evening.
Oops, I think I misspoke. "The Birds" is Tuesday evening. Oh well.
The Red Elvises are not on the schedule this year.
Tonight's spottings included other, dewshine, and aruba. I kept looking about in a paranoid fashion, hoping to spot senna before he could sneak up on me, but he wasn't there.
I boldly went up to the stage to try to spot someone. I found other, who said some folks were around. But I didn't find such folks.
not having met cmcgee, I have no idea if I spotted her or not.
dewshine will be there every night. Just look for the gaggle of young people, she'll probably be in the center. She's about 5'8" tall, dark blond/light brown hair short and a bit curly with long tendrals in front (though you won't see them if she tucks them behind her ears). Her eyes are blue, green. or gray depending on what she is wearing. She bounces a lot. dea will be there tonight. He's taller than senna, also dark blond/light brown hair, brown eyes. He walks slightly bent over (back aches) so doesn't always look as tall as he is.
(*taller* than senna?! whoa. remind me never to call Damon a yellow-bellied chicken.)
Last time I measured him he was 6'6", he's grown since then, Staci insists that he is 6'8". I can't fully confirm since I can't reach that high, but I do have to tilt my head back further to give him the "Mommy Glare". Being only 5'3" has its draw backs at times :->
Glenda, I'm hoping to persuade you to come for TOP on July 2, for the band Uncle Earl, "all-female old-timey bluegrass." That's Jo Serrapere & KC Groves' band.
Useful tips for ea spotting: - Roughly 5'11" - Dark hair, (right now a bit longer than I like, I'm planning on fixing this problem soon) - Usually wearing some form of t-shirt, usually not as brightly colored as senna's soccer jerseys - Can probably be found talking to grexers, including (but not limited to) dewshine, senna, other, scott, or krj - if there are no other grexers around, probably lurking in a corner somewhere, looking around in a paranoid fashion (due to habits of certain grexers to sneak up behind people when they're not expecting it)
shoot; I don't expect to be in town on July 2. :(
resp:20 Holy s**t, he's apparently grown a lot since I met him.
Wants to go to TOP for Uncle Earl, too.
Is there a TOP schedule on line someplace?
http://mlive.com/aasf and click on "Top of the Park" (that URL is also in the original item text.) Jan and his family may be interested in "Family Afternoon" on Sunday June 23, which starts at 4:15. ----- I got to TOP yesterday just as the night was settling in, so opportunities for grexer spottings were limited: I saw other pushing some equipment away from the stage, and I saw remmers and mary as I was rushing to my seat as the movie credits began. Hitchcock's THE BIRDS is an odd movie with a bit of an unresolved ending.
(This is Valerie, hijacking Jan's computer.) Look on arborweb.com for this month's TOP schedule. [krj slipped in]
Re #27: All I can say is if I were them, I wouldn't have taken the convertible!
Ack, the Observer says that The Birds is tonight, not last night. I'm sorry I missed it. What's tonight, then?
According to the website the Birds was last night, tonight is Chocolat.
The page in the Observer just has them reversed, then. Thanks Glenda.
Chocolat would be a great movie for outdoor viewing. I really like the first half, a lot. Alas, I need to be up and about too early to be anywhere late tonight.
Oh, Uncle Earl does sound good. I'll try to make it out for that as well.
I liked the movie; the school board took too long to decide things they had already discussed to death for me to hear the music. :(
You have several choices: