ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) has been one of my bucket list groups for decades. Never thought I’d ever get the chance to see them in concert, but they announced a tour last fall with a stop in Houston. I bought tickets immediately. Since last November, it has always seemed like the show was far in the future, but it finally happened on Friday evening at the Toyota Center in Houston (home to the Houston Rockets basketball team).
We went into the city early to have supper after parking at the garage by the venue. We had to walk about eight blocks to the restaurant but, thankfully, I had brought an umbrella, so we didn’t get too wet when it started to rain halfway there. Lots of people around us did. One older couple (by older, I mean about our age!) were huddled in the bushes under the overhang from an office building. As we passed, the man said, “I’ll give you $10 for your umbrella!”
After a scrumptious meal, we made our way back to the garage to get rid of the umbrella (it was no longer raining and we only had to cross the street to get into the Toyota Center), we entered the venue and found our seats, near the edge of the upper bowl. The opening act was a Los Angeles-based group called Dawes, who are apparently quite popular in Houston. I’ve never heard of them before, but they put on a good show. At times they reminded me of Jackson Browne, at others CCR and the intro to one of their songs sounded for all the world like Pink Floyd. I’ll have to check them out.
At 9:15, the lights went down (subtle ELO reference) and the main event started with “Standin’ In the Rain.” From that point on it was pure bliss. Every song felt like an encore. Just about any ELO hit you care to mention was played (except “Xanadu”). They also did one Traveling Wilburys song (“Handle with Care”—they showed Lynne’s other band’s members on the rear-projected video) and one song from the most recent Jeff Lynne’s ELO album Alone in the Universe (“When I was a Boy”). Lynne looks and sounds terrific (he’s 70), and his band is fantastic. In addition to some guitars, a couple of keyboards and drums, there were two cello players and a violinist who recreated the orchestral parts of the classic ELO songs. The light show was great, with bursts of lasers, and lots of things projected onto the back screen and the stage. The audience was fully engaged during the entire concert, and my voice was raw from singing along to songs like “Don’t Bring Me Down.” Certainly one of the top five concerts I’ve ever attended. We had a blast.
Yesterday afternoon, we went to see the new Spike Lee film. We parked in the theater garage and went up the hill to our favorite pizzeria. When we left, it was pouring down rain again. I didn’t have any real reason to think it might rain, but I had brought along the umbrella, so we didn’t get soaked. Well, not quite as bad as we would have without it, but it was a small umbrella for two people and the rain was really strong, so my back got wet, which didn’t feel so good once we got into the air conditioned theater. Still, it was in keeping with the theme of the weekend, I guess.
BlacKkKlansman is based on the real-life story of Ron Stallworth, a black Colorado Springs officer (played by Denzel Washington’s son, John David Washington) who manages to go undercover with the KKK using another officer, Flip Zimmerman (played by Adam Driver). Stallworth ends up talking to David Duke a few times. Duke has political aspirations, but even Stallworth’s white colleagues think there’s no chance of someone like him ending up in the White House. It’s played for laughs, but it’s very definitely not funny.
Zimmerman—who is Jewish but non-practicing—pretending to be Stallworth, is offered the chance to become president of the local chapter. In parallel, the real Stallworth begins a relationship with black student activist Patrice Dumas without revealing he’s a cop. The movie is a fascinating look inside the Klan in the late 1970s, and it becomes more of a crime thriller as the story builds to a crescendo. Most of the cops are good guys doing their jobs, although there’s one bad apple amongst them and another scene involving Stallworth that will be familiar to anyone who watches the news these days. The resolution is quite satisfying. You feel good. Then there’s the punch in the gut that Lee uses as a coda to the movie: real-life footage from recent confrontations between American Nazis and anti-fascist demonstrators. What a powerful statement. Definitely a must-see movie, but it will leave depressed.
