further adventures in other people's vacations...

So there we were at the Tonga Room, enjoying our lovely fruity rum drinks in hideous glasses, complete with pineapple, marachino cherry and paper umbrella, when a guy in a black "staff" t-shirt came up to our table and said, "So, would you like to see Tony Bennett and kd lang sing in the Grand Ballroom in 15 minutes?" We said, "Sure!"
and Johannes and Annette were pretty pleased with the Fairmont even before that!

Part of my standard out-of-town visitors routine is to take people to the Sir Francis Hotel and make them go up and down the glass elevator a million times (good, free entertainment). We'd done that, then hiked up the hill and wandered into Grace Cathedral, then over to the Fairmont.

The concert was in the Grand Ballroom, a large (yes, grand) room with frighteningly low chandeliers (one of them looked like it was dangling by wires). It was mostly Mr. Bennett's show (dear Mr. Bennett: with all due respect, I was really more excited about kd), something they were taping for PBS. He had a blast and so did we. kd only sang three or four songs with him- apparently the two of them just finished an album of Louis Armstrong tunes together.

The funniest part, to me, was that no one was supposed to leave during the show, since they were taping. We'd been told that it would be an hour and we'd have to stay for the whole thing. No problem!
but Tony had such a good time, he just kept on singing... so after over an hour and a half, people kept trying to get up to go to the restroom and they'd just get chased into an empty seat- the people working this thing were really fast.
Toward the end an older woman tried to rush the stage (or something) with a couple tulips- alas, she was all the way in the back with us and the poor thing was more or less tackled by a staff member before she'd gone ten feet. They talked to her for a minute and then took her tulips away. it was a little sad.

We stopped for an Irish coffee at the Gold Dust Lounge on the way home, which explains why I'm still up writing this. Coffee at 10 pm on an empty stomach is not really a good idea, even when it's mixed with whisky.
But having pet tourists is awfully fun in this city... it's worth the lack of sleep. When else do I go out and have evenings like this?

außerdem haben sie, die lieben menschen, mir brötchen aus deutschland mitgebracht... they're in the freezer, just waiting to be warmed up in the oven.
yum!
next time maybe I'll remember to request some erdnußflips...