I went to the Hollywood Bowl last weekend! I’ve always wanted to go, having only seen a few clips of parts of concerts. The stage was a lot different than I expected. I thought it would be more lawn, but there were amphitheater seats and picnic areas behind. It was also more in the foliage than I expected, and on the side of a hill.

This is the view from my picnic table.

Cheesing. I got the yummiest cheese ever from Whole Foods. Manchego El Trigal 12 Months aged. It’s a very flavorful and hard cheese. That’s grape juice kids! I love cheesing and grape juicing.

Other picnicers.

Dude with a funny mustache.

View from where I was. Pretty close to the back. You can still hear very well though.

People brought their lightsabers. John Williams played Harry Potter music for the first hour. It was narrated by…the actress who was the flight instructor I think. They performed the music of while Aunt Marge is blowing up, Fawkes, and other notable character themes. The second half of the concert consisted of a short medley of many famous movie themes: Casablanca, Doctor Zhivago, Jaws, Star Wars, The Natural, Gone with the Wind, Titanic, and other I can’t think of… Then they performed music from Catch Me If You Can, and then Casablanca, and then Superman. During Superman they showed clips of Superman movies, old and new, and also Batman clips, old and new. It was  a little weird to put in Batman clips, when the music was just Superman, but it was nice to see all the actors who had played Batman. Val Kilmer <3.

Lights during Superman

After Superman, they made like it was the end of the concert. Whaaaaaaat?! So everyone was clapping and about 5 seconds after John Williams had walked off the stage, he walked right back on to play…the Star Wars theme! Yaaaay. It would have been super weird for all those Star Wars people who had dressed up and brought their props if he didn’t conduct it!

Then he walked off and on again to play ET. The background colors were blue at first…but right near the end, the rainbow colors slowly started stretching across from the left. It was a reeeeally cool effect.

Then he walked off and on again to play the Imperial March.

Lightsaber bobbing to the music. I zipped up my stormtrooper jacket. I made an observation that only people who sat more in the middle and back brought their lightsabers. It was weird to see a sea of light up sticks (yes, light up sticks!) in the middle and around us…and then a sea of dark in the front.

Then he walked off and on.

And did nothing.

And walked off with the symphony. Such a tease! Many people yelled for Indy. Alas, it did not happen.

Aside from the staked parking, which I had never done before, the experience was really wonderful. Long live music!