The big concert

I am getting ready to go to the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra's opening gala tonight and I hope to heaven I am not wearing the same gown I wore last year. How princess-y does that sound? It is not as if I have a whole closet full of gowns. Well, I do, actually. But I am too fat to fit into most of them. This one black gown, I am not too fat for it and it makes me look thin and I hope I did not wear it last year.

Well, if I don't remember if I wore it, how is anyone else going to? That is what I tell myself in these situations.

The gala reminds me: I have to write what happened to me this morning at the Clinton-Bailey Market.

I ran into my old friend Dan Flintjer, who owns the Buffalo Cody Kite Company. We have not seen each other in about 10 years. He and my friend Gary and my brother George and a bunch of other people used to get together and hear this great blues harmonica player, Shakin' Smith. Wow, I feel guilty writing about blues harmonica on this blog. Leonard Pennario hated harmonica. He had his harmonica hatred honed to such perfection that it was one of the few things I could not bring up. I would ask him about the most intimate details of his love life but I could not bring myself to mention harmonica.

Anyway, Shakin' Smith. We heard him every Wednesday night at the Central Park Grill for about eight years, I am not exaggerating. Note to out-of-towners: the CPG used to be a stop on the Pony Express. This is the kind of bar we Buffalonians go to casually during the course of our everyday lives. Dan was a big Shakin' Smith fan and so was I. We would still be except Shakin' Smith married a nurse and moved to Georgia and we never see him any more.

Dan brought me over to his wife, Melanie, and her sister, Susan Peters, whom I hear sing now and then and just saw at the Elmwood Lounge a few weeks ago but never knew was his sister-in-law. That's Buffalo. And we're all talking. And Dan and Melanie ask me, "Are you going to the big concert tonight?"

"Yes," I said, my eyes shining. "I'm looking forward to it!"

"We are, too!" they said.

"Oh, I'll look for you there!" I said. "We can meet by the bar or something."

"That would be fun!" they said.

"Only thing is, I have to figure out what to wear," I said.

Melanie agreed that was a concern for her, too.

And we went from there. They're looking at me admiringly, and I'm thinking: This is one day when it feels cool to be the music critic. It is cool to be me. The Philharmonic is the place to be tonight. I am cool.

Then it turns out they're talking about the B-52s!!

Hahahahahaha! After all that. The B-52s are playing at Rockin' at the Knox and that is where Dan and Melanie are going and where they assumed that I, being the music critic, was going too.

Well, darn. I guess I won't be seeing them tonight after all.