Jul 04 2006
Shamu vs. Kenny Loggins
Whom do you think would deliver more 4th of July bang for your buck: a 10,000 pound killer whale, or the sound track guru who brought us “”I’m Alright,” “Footloose” and “Danger Zone?” Tina and I managed to see both Shamu and Kenny Loggins this weekend, and the winner was, fins down…the whale.
Saturday morning after a workout at the gym, we drove to Carlsbad to visit our good friend Aiyana and her über-mensch of a boyfriend, Jake. After driving for three hours to go less than 120 miles, we made it to the beach for a fun grill-out, watching a pack of surfers tackle some nice-sized waves. The next day was Sea World in 95-degree heat on one of the busiest days of the year. We had a great time, though. The whale and dolphin shows were amazing, but I’ve seen meaner looking sharks at the aquarium in Newport, KY. Did you know that beluga whales have no dorsal fins so that they can swim just under the surface of the arctic ice as they hunt?
After two fun nights in Carlsbad, we had an IHOP breakfast before leaving Jake and Aiyana’s warm hospitality. The drive home was a snap, and we had plenty of time to prepare for our picnic dinner at the Hollywood Bowl.
We parked at the home of our friends Mark and Faleena, then walked one mile to the Bowl. Grilled chicken sandwiches, good company and an all-American performance from the L.A. Philharmonic under a cool Hollywood twilight were the makings for a fine pre-4th evening…until Mr. Loggins appeared on stage.
This one-time “Top Gun” wasn’t at all interested in giving the crowd what it wanted to hear. He played his song about Winnie the Pooh, then “Celebrate Me Home,” and a few other vaguely recognizable tunes while the entire crowd simply wanted to hear the movie songs that had made him famous. The Cure did this to me at Coachella a couple of years ago. I endured 100-degree temperatures and 60,000 people for 12 hours to hear a fat Robert Smith complain about the heat before playing “stuff off our new album.”
Screw that. Here’s the deal. If you were a big hit in the 80s, and tens of thousands of 25 to 35 year-olds have turned up to hear you play, it’s a safe bet they don’t want to hear your new stuff. Or the stuff you always thought was great, but that never really caught on. Just play the damn songs you know we want to hear!
Mr. Loggins decided to tease us with at least four encores including “I’m Alright” and “Footloose.” He then sang “God Bless America” with an amazing orchestra that deserved better, before leaving us hanging after the fireworks without playing his single greatest hit — “Danger Zone.” It was the 4th of July (almost)! TOP GUN is a supremely patriotic movie! The song was a smash hit! Needless to say, we did not buy any Kenny Loggins T-shirts on the walk home. Advantage: Shamu.
Our 4th was laid-back. We fumed as Deutschland lost to Italy in overtime, grilled burgers, swam in the pool, had pie at Marie Callender’s (boy do we miss House of Pies), and called it an early evening.
I hope you had a wonderful 4th, God bless America, and may he give Kenny Loggins a freakin’ clue.
Thanks to Amber Khwaja for the beach photo.
über-mench! Nice. Thanks. Glad you guys had a good time. It was great having you down here and I hope we showed you a good time. Hopefully next time we won’t have plans during the day when you are here and we can do the touristy thing together.
Sorry to hear about the show…I had a bad feeling.
And sorry about the game, but what a game it was! I finally finished watching it at about 2am last night (Aiyana had some car trouble…that was our 4th), but it was well worth the wait.
Join me in cheering for Portugal! (I will again be TiVo’ing the game to watch when I get home from work, if I can stay awake)
Oh, and I was at that Coachella show! Only I had come for the first day as well, and we didn’t exactly have anywhere to sleep on Satuday night. So we ended up sleeping on some freshly laid sod on the side of the road near the polo grounds and were awakened to traffic to get to the Sunday show. So, we were out of doors the entire weekend. Man that was BRUTAL heat (we’ll never be taking Aiyana to a Coachella show)! And then we drove, or tried to at least, back after the show on Sunday. We ended up taking a snooze on the side of the road again…anyway, long story short, the Cure were kind of a bummer. They did play some oldies in the encore though, if I remember correctly.
Saturday night was the kick-ass night. Flaming Lips, Air (at sunset no less), The Pixies, and especially Radiohead absolutely ruled.
You’re right. Saturday night that year was magical. Air, Pixies, Lips and Radiohead were well worth the price of admission for both days.
As far as soccer goes, I hate to say it, but I’m cheering for the French. Love Zidane and Henry, and France / Italy would be way more fun!
I was at the 7/3 Loggins show as well and I can only assume he held back on ‘Danger Zone’ for his July 4 perf. The pooh song was bull, though…
Judging from your photos, I was about ten rows behind you.
Turns out I don’t have AC! I could have sworn I used it last year. Oh, well. Only about 6-8 more hot weeks to get through!
I’m not sure I could live in the SF valley w/o AC. Our unit’s working hard to stay at 78 all day. Seems a bit counter-intuitive to have heat in a house down in Carlsbad, but not AC. Keep the windows open. It’s not bad at night.
There seem to be so many places in SoCal that have heat but no AC. It makes no freakin’ sense.
It’s actually not too bad down here. I’m closer to the coast than I used to be…of course I had AC in my apartment when I lived inland.
GET REAL DUDES!
So I meander to this site to vote on some fantasy football stuff only to find that some friends of mine actually attended a Kenny Loggins concert. Who are you people? Kenny Loggins is responsible for the single worst song in the history of music – “FOOTLOOSE”. ‘Jack get back … Please Louise”. Are you serious…I would have attended the concert with a gun to shoot the bastard while he was in mid ‘Everybody Cut”. I think I would have torn his head off with my bare hands during a Winnie the Pooh song.
The only song that has seriously contended for worse than “FOOTLOOSE” is “She’s Like the Wind” by Patrick Swayze. I have always maintained that “FOOTLOOSE” was worse because Loggins shoulda known better.
Excuse me while I go vomit at the thought of a Kenny Loggins show!
In our defense Mr. Punk Lawyer, we went to the show to hear the philharmonic and see a fireworks show. Mr. Loggins wasn’t the main attraction for us, but was disappointing nonetheless.
Remind me to slap you next time I see you for making such a lame defense of yourself. You could have gone later and missed the horrible bearded one. I think that Michael Bolton (in the mullet years), Rick Astley, Samantha Fox, Faster Pussycat, EnufZnuf, Zamfir and Enrico Polazzo would all have been more entertaining.
Pardon me while I go vomit again at the thought of Kenny Loggins playing a live show. Who would pay for that? Who would organize it? Milli Vanilli was better than him. Phil Collins has more guts than Loggins. I would wager that Air Supply’s lead singer could KO Loggins in the first round of a boxing match. Loggins is so lame that he should not be permitted to breathe.
I wish Shamu would have come from his lair and eaten Loggins on stage.