405 Entertainment just steps away

At Lakeside, I can get a year's supply of culture and entertainment just by walking down the street. I grew up in a home with a lot of music, and I miss that. Last night at Hoover we enjoyed pianist Michael Chertock who has performed at Carnegie Hall and with the symphonies of Cincinnati, Toronto, Philadelphia and Detroit among others. Some concert pianists seem to take themselves awfully seriously, but he was quite charming, chatted with his 6 year old daughter in the front row, and played a very nice variety including Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, themes from two movies, Gershwin, and provided us with a stunning encore at the organ. The audience was wild about Michael, and he is cute enough to have groupies.

Sunday night the Scioto Ridge Boys performed their gospel and praise music. One member is retired from the OSU College of Food Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (where I was once a librarian). Here's a little piece about them at the Scioto Ridge Methodist Church website.

The always popular OSU Alumni Marching Band is the largest all brass band and percussion college alumni band in the United States, and they always pack the house at Hoover. Each year they return to the OSU Stadium for the first home football game where they can still perform "script Ohio." They don't do that at Hoover, but two drum majors did that twirlly thing Saturday night.

Friday night we took a trip back to the 50s (happens often around here) with the Diamonds, their do-wop and excellent instrumental skills (2 trombones, trumpet and sax). They began in 1956 and two of the guys in the photo in the Lakeside News weren't on stage, so they must be somewhat interchangeable. This photo looks like the group we saw. I thought they did a good job of keeping their act contemporary while not losing the nostalgia. Their signature hit "Little Darlin'" is remembered by most people from 50-70.

Eye, yi-eye-eye-eye
Yi-eye-eye-eye
Ya-ya-ya-ahh

Little darlin', oh, little darlin'
Oh-oh-oh where a-are you?
My love-a, I was wrong-a (la-la-la-la-la-la)
To-oo try to lo-ove two
A-hoopa, a-hoopa, hoopa
Kno-ow well-a that my love-a (la-la-la-la-la-la)
Wa-as just fo-or you, oh only-ee-ee-ee you

SPOKEN: My darlin', I NEED you (la-la-la-la-la-la) to call my own and NEVER do wrong. To
hold in mine your little hand (la-la-la-la-la-la). I'll know too soon that ALL is so grand.
Please,
hold my hand

My dear-a I-I was wrong-a
To-oo try to lo-ove two
A-hoopa, a-hoopa, hoopa
Know well that my love-a (la-la-la-la-la-la)
Wa-as just for you, oh only-ee-ee-ee you

Technically, this is the first "rap" with a spoken voice over, according to Lyrics XP.com.

Tom Chapin was the program on Thursday evening, July 22. I've seen him here several times, and Thursday he had a "back-up" guitarist whom I thought added a nice touch. He tells funny stories and always provides a good family show with good audience participation. The local story says he has performed for the American Library Association, which this year made the unfortunate choice of showing Michael Moore's disgusting and shameful movie at its annual meeting in Florida.