Olive the Woolly Bugger and Her Friends

An Evening With Jackie Evancho

King Center for the Performing Arts
Eastern Florida State College
Melbourne, FL

This evening Michelle and I took off for an evening of culture. We started with a Hibachi dinner at Fujiyama Japanese Seafood & Steak. We haven't enjoyed the showmanship that goes with a Habachi dinner for a long time. We both had the Steak and Salmon combination. Dinner was good but I'm not going to claim this to be a once in a lifetime dining experience.

Our main event of the evening was a concert by Jackie Evancho at the King Center in Melbourne, FL. Here is a bit of her bio from Wikipedia.

Jacqueline Marie "Jackie" Evancho is an American classical crossover singer who gained wide recognition at an early age and, since 2009, has issued five albums, including a platinum and gold album and three Billboard 200 top 10 debuts. Between 2008 and 2010, Evancho entered several talent competitions; made singing appearances, mostly in Pennsylvania (including singing the U.S. national anthem at a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game); issued an independent album, Prelude to a Dream; and attracted interest on YouTube. Evancho impressed composers Tim Janis and David Foster, each of whom included her in his concerts beginning in 2009. Later in 2010, at the age of ten, she gained wider popularity with her performances in the fifth season of the America's Got Talent competition, finishing in second place. With the 2010 holiday release of her O Holy Night EP, Evancho became the best-selling debut artist of 2010, the youngest top-10 debut artist in U.S. history and the youngest solo artist ever to go platinum. (fromWikipedia)

I first saw Jackie perform in a PBS Great Performances special on May 20,2011. She knocked my socks off when I heard her sing Nessun Dorma. Nessun Dorma (English: "None shall sleep") is an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot and is one of the best-known tenor arias in all opera. Every tenor has sung this aria. Luciano Pavarotti propelled it onto the pop charts and sang it as his final performance at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Nessun Dorma has always been sung by tenors because it is sung by the male lead in the opera. IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN SUNG BY TENORS! Suddenly I'm hearing it sung magnificantly by a little whisp of a girl who is barely a teenager. My God it was awesome. Try here

Tonight she was great. I kept hoping to hear Nessun Dorma. I felt sure she would do it as an encore–she had three. But alas that was not to be. She did, however sing O Mio Babbino Caro (English:"Oh My Beloved Father") a soprano aria from the opera Gianni Schicchi also by Giacomo Puccini. Click here for an earlier performance.

It was a very nice evening.

ePostcard_Merry Christmas

Off to Florida

The Great Outdoors RV Resort, Titusville, FL (28.550412, -80.861442)

We left Wagon Circle RV Park Saturday morning 26 Oct 2013. I layed out the trip based on our usual rule that we travel no more than 300 miles per day. That made a four day trip. However, when it comes to getting to Florida that rule seems to go out the window. We kicked it up in order to make it a three day trip:
** Saturday, 26 Oct 2013 -- Heber Springs, AR to Alabaster, AL -- 380 miles, 9:37
** Sunday, 27 Oct 2013 -- Alabaster, AL to Macclenny, FL -- 399 miles, 9:06
** Monday, 28 Oct 2013 -- Macclenny, FL to Titusville, FL -- 164 miles, 4:15
** Total trip was 943 miles

We arrived at The Great Outdoors RV Resort about 1330 EDT and spent the afternoon getting set up. A few folks stopped by to visit and welcome us. Of course that included our good friends Carole and Nelson Hommel. Glad to see them again.

So now we are settled in for the winter.

Now I have to put up with all the traffic going by my front window -- the things one has to tolerate while trying to climb into the middle class.