O.C. Tanner Gift of Music Gala Concert

ON FACEBOOK:

Amy Hugh:  James Taylor backed by the Utah Symphony & the Mormon Tab is pretty sweet baby James!

Melissa Murphy: James Taylor - Tab Choir - Utah Symphony...What a great evening!!!

I love the Tab Choir.

I love the Utah Symphony.  We had family passes all the time our kids were growing up.

So, what’s the problem?

We fortuitously ran into Carol and Melissa after the concert on the plaza.  “May we borrow your cell phone?”  Neither Amy nor I had remembered our cell phones.  DeRay had dropped us off and we never saw him again.  “Hello, where are you?”  “I’m parked where I let you off?”  “Didn’t you go to the concert?”  “No.  I couldn’t find a parking place.”  We left a little later than 6:30 when we planned because DeRay was on the phone but the concert doesn’t start until 8.  We’re fine.  We didn’t reckon on the traffic.   Horrendous.  All the parking lots full.  It was no problem to get out of the car while DeRay was in the middle of the street.  He wasn’t going anywhere for 20 minutes. 

It brought back vivid memories of years ago when Melissa got 8 passes to a concert.  We picked up Amy and K’Leena and thinking we had plenty of time before we met Carol and Melissa, we stopped for a bite for them to eat.  And then the traffic jam hit us.  Carol and Melissa patiently waited with the tickets.  We got in but Melissa had a bag and had to go to a different entrance.  Carol went with her.  As we wandered down the aisles, they opened up the handicapped seating so we saved the whole row.  They struggled to get by the guards who insisted the place was packed.  They bullied in anyway and I met them on the aisle to show them where we had seats saved for them and their friends who they had given tickets too also.  Melissa was in tears.  She was the one lucky enough to get tickets and it looked like she was going to miss it. 

Last night was nearly a repeat of the nightmare.  I don’t want to go to the Conference Center again unless they do something about the parking and traffic.  It’s ridiculous to have to go three hours early for a 2-hour concert.  Tuacahn has plenty of parking plus golf carts to transport people; the storytelling festival offers rides in golf carts; Pioneer Memorial Theater has on-sight parking and shuttles for overflow; Legacy has ample close parking and it’s small enough that they don’t have to show it on giant TV screens. 

I think I have always hated that Large and Spacious building.  With TV, we need no gathering place.  Conference can be broadcast to every home in the country and church houses worldwide.  It would be less tiring for the aging General Authorities to broadcast from their offices.  It’s superfluous and was built where there was once a parking lot.  We always parked there when we went to the temple in the early years of our marriage.  (Speaking of marriage, I noticed as I posted that today is our 57^th Wedding Anniversary.  What a journey.  From poor students to poor old people.  With love.)

Amy talked us into going out to dinner at a Thai restaurant in Layton.  

When we got home, I thought we would watch a movie so I could try out my new hearing devices.

Instead, DeRay went down to Cai's and watched a football game until 11 PM.

Romantic.

I love the Tabernacle Choir.  I listen to it on Pandora.

I love the Utah Symphony.  It enriches my being.

Hey, I even like James Taylor.

Rehearsal Photos

 In 1971 he was on the cover of Time magazine, heralded as the harbinger of the singer-songwriter era.  Four decades later his warm baritone, introspective lyrics, and unique guitar playing still blaze a path to which young musicians aspire.  In 2012 he was awarded the distinguished Chevaliaer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government, and in 2011 he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.  Both medals are their nation’s highest honors for artistic excellence recognizing “outstanding achievements and support of the arts.”

He said his songs had finally reached the highest pinnacle, sang by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir accompanied by the Utah Symphony.  “They think they died and went to heaven,” he mused.