DOO WOP The undisputed highlight of the talent show at Mennonite Family Camp (Labor Day Weekend) was my performance of a love song I wrote a few years ago, "My Mennonite Baby", complete with a Mennonite Baby Doo Wop chorus line. Thanks to my talented friends, it was not just another good idea that failed in the execution. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ER During the first week of September, the August bobologue was almost written and ready to go out when I smashed some fingers in a window. You know, it's impossible to remember exactly how much one incident or another hurt. But judging from the way I screamed and hollered and cried and carried on, I conclude it was probably the most painful thing I've ever experienced. I went to the Emergency Room where, contrary to what you see on TV, things do not move very fast. Nothing broken. Anyway, I couldn't really type for a week so that's why the August bobologue was delayed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE FAT LADY Old college friend Dave White had an extra ticket to the L.A. Opera production of Cinderella by Rossini. There are no glass slippers and no fairy godmother, though there is a kindly old tenor who takes her under his wing. The crowd was well-behaved, although Dave said he had heard beer bottles clinking during Aida a month earlier. Of course Verdi always brings out the rowdies. I found the whole thing kind of interesting and kind of entertaining but it never really grabbed me. The sopranos seemed less irritating in person than on recordings, although the lead (like most people with operatic tendencies) sang like she had a sock in her mouth -- you know, "AHHHWWWRWWHHWW" instead of "AAAAAAAAAAAAAH". It's sad that some things that would have played straight in the 1800s only play ironically today, as when she declared that the only reward she sought was love and the audience all laughed. To be honest, I laughed too. It did get a little heavy at the end when Cinderella forgave her sisters and the chorus sang that they were in the presence of a goddess. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE BIG UNIT I went to a Dodger game by myself, as part of my new program of feeling good about single life. And I loved it. I went early to watch batting practice, and bought a field level ticket, and wandered around the stadium -- I sat close enough to the bullpen to hear the relievers joking around with each other, and then went and sat right behind home plate for an inning. I saw the man with the best nickname in all of sports (Randy Johnson "The Big Unit") pitch 8 scoreless innings against an emerging star from Texas, Darren Dreifort, who matched him pitch for pitch. At Dodger stadium this year if the Dodgers shut out the opponents, all the attendees get free doughnuts (Krispy Kremes, an ordinary doughnut with an inexplicably extraordinary mystique among societal elites). I saw the Dodgers' relief corps pitch into and out of trouble in the 8th, narrowly preserving my doughnuts. Finally the Boys in Blue won it 1-0 on a leadoff homer in the bottom of the 9th. It's important to get Krispy Kremes for free because they charge $4 for a box of 4 if you buy them at Dodger Stadium. Where I come from, one way to describe a sure thing is to say, "I'd bet dollars to doughnuts the new Stallone movie sucks." At Dodger stadium, those would be even odds. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOBOLOGUE REDUX Faithful Bobologue reader Steve Mrenna claims the August edition was too depressing. I don't apologize for that, but I do apologize that it was not very well-written. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ OTHER STUFF THAT HAPPENED I don't know about where you live, but here in L.A. I think the goatee craze has run its course. Increasing numbers of males 25-45 are willing to venture into public without their badge of conformity. Perhaps the guys who still have one really do like them. I heard local jazz DJ legend Chuck Niles play the most amazing cut, "I Know You Love Me Baby" by Big Joe Turner and a horn section including Dizzy Gillespie and Roy Eldridge. I didn't want it to end, and fortunately it went on for 15 minutes. Download it off Napster while you still can. It is from 1971, passing my "I only download songs off Napster if they're more than 20 years old" rule. Unfortunately, MP3 compression is not kind to Dizzy's muted trumpet. I am now at the age where I can be flipping through radio stations, find a station that plays several good songs in a row, and then be surprised when they get to a station break to find out I'm listening to an oldies station. Glory Days! Sweet Talking Woman! Kodachrome! Those aren't oldies. Oldies are Under the Boardwalk or Cherish. QUOTE OF THE MONTH: "Now we've got the situation that the parents are smarter than the kids. That's not the way it should be!" -- Johnny Rotten in his 40s ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Current Reading: New Frontiers in Mission -- by a Fuller professor who attends my church. Current Projects: Trying to actually finish my degree, instead of just talking about finishing my degree.