Once upon a time...

I had something known as "free time." Whoa. But guess what, guess what? I just got a whole bunch of neato things in the mail (STUFF!) and I went to see Ani DiFranco tonight. For free. I have begun a part-time volunteer ushering career with San Diego's Symphony Hall. I signed up 3 months ago to usher for Ani's show, thinking that everybody else would want to, too, and that I'd better be first in line. Silly me! At the time, I wasn't fully aware of the demographics among the ushering crowd. I'd guess that the average age is about 74, and your typical 74 year-old doesn't much care for Ani's guitar-hammering-poetic-cursy-political-rantress style. They were actually short of ushers tonight. This was one of the concerts that they were trying to entice more people to volunteer for by offering other more sought-after shows as a reward--you know, like Burt Bacarach! I do not know how to spell his name, and that doesn't bother me.

SO! Ani was great in person. She is one of those stellar musicians who really performs, rather than just hanging out on stage and playing music. She poses wacky questions; she tells entertaining stories; she breaks into wrenching poetry at a moment's notice; and she plays guitar with a leg-slapping, butt-wiggling, make you want to holler out loud vivaciousness. In weird tunings, too. The only other person on stage with her was a very talented guy playing stand-up bass. I love those things. And rather than another musician opening for her, she had a spoken word poet for the first act. I think his name was Buddy...Buddy something. Abby who? Argh. Well, I'll get back to you on that one. He was truly entertaining, too, although I was worried about all the old folk in the aisles blanching at his liberal uttering of the f-word.

I made some new usher friends. I danced discreetly in the aisle. I successfully avoided the creepy hall manager guy. I admired the jiggly patterns of light on the stage. I counted how many guitars Ani played (3, I think). I closed my eyes and let the music surge into my cells. I laughed. I applauded loudly. I had a splendiferous time.

Life, occasionally, is a very good thing. I needed this!