The Great Gershwin

Last night Bill and I went to our first Oregon Symphony pops concert of the season. Trying to save money, we didn't go last year but this year they kept on calling us and we finally purchased a series of four concerts for $64. That's quite a bargain and we expected our seats to be high in the balcony, behind curtains or poles or something. We were surprised to find that we had quite good seats! They were farther back than ones we had before but we could still see well and we were right on the first floor. And added bonus for me was that the woman sitting next to Bill took out her knitting during intermission and gave me some valuable tips for knitting socks on circular needles.

The concert was called "The Great Gershwin" and was all Gershwin, including "Swanee", "I Got Rhythm", "An American in Paris", "Fascinating Rhythm" and "Rhapsody in Blue". Gershwin had so many songs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gershwin , surprising because of his short life. He died at only 38 years old!

We both enjoyed the concert but the one song that didn't meet our expectations was "Fascinating Rhythm". Both Bill and I felt that the Doraville Arts Theater did a much better job. The version we heard last night was much too rushed, possibly the way it was originally written - but not our favorite version.

Before the concert, we went to Pastini Pastaria http://www.pastini.net/ which is only a block or two from the concert hall. We had passed it many times but hadn't given it serious consideration before. This time, we checked it out on the net and found that they had gluten-free pasta available so we decided to give it a try. We will definitely be back. The food was good and the prices were reasonable. They also had quite a variety, including many vegetarian options.