Jingle Bell Doc

Last night Mitch's entire family and I spent the night out at dinner and a show. The dinner had been "planned" since we moved up here, to celebrate Mitch's passing of the bar, the purchase of new houses for ourselves and Mitch's sister's family, and we also were able to celebrate Sal's birthday, which is today. (Happy Birthday!) We had dinner at Oceannaire, which is now in my opinion one of the greatest restaurants in the Twin Cities. The wedge salad was the best I've ever had - it had huge hunks of blue cheese and perfectly ripe beefsteak tomatoes. Where they found these tomatoes in the middle of a snowstorm in December is beyond me, but they were to die for. Then, the crab cakes came....and I fell in love. Seriously, probably the best crab cakes I've ever had. Mitch's mom is a connoisseur of sorts when it comes to crab cakes, and if she says they're the best, then they are. A perfect finish to dinner - baked Alaskan and coffee - and it was off to the symphony.

We got tickets about a month ago to see "Jingle Bell Doc" - a pops performance at Orchestra Hall featuring the Minnesota Symphony, the Minnesota Chorale, the Twin Cities Bronze (handbell choir) and the Ascension Youth Choir. The guy running this show - none other than Doc Severinsen.

Now, if you're not sure who Doc Severinsen is, he is best known for his tenure as bandleader and trumpeteer on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson.

He's also known for his penchant for velvet. His wardrobe did not disappoint last night - in fact, he had TWO outfits for the performance - one for each half. Sadly, I don't have pictures of these, but I'll do my best to describe.

The first outfit was a simple black shirt and black pants with jacket. However, the black pants had been Bedazzled into very tasteful random dots, almost like stars. And the jacket was a gold, red, and green paisley glittery jacket with a black lapel. It was straight from the Liberacce museum, but he claimed he bought the fabric "at the Pope's garage sale - it used to be his shower curtain". It's no wonder there were some tempo issues in the performance - I'm sure the orchestra had a hard time seeing him from the glare of the jacket!

The second outfit was a little more understated - green velvet pants and a green velvet coat with a blue shirt and silver sequined tie. The coat had been Bedazzled as well, with silver designs that were unrecognizable. Some thought they were candy canes, while others thought they could be "c"s for Christmas. I thought they looked like horseshoes.

Other than the fact that Doc is a bit of a rusher, the performance was great. There was just enough mix of big band-style music and orchestral numbers, and the addition of the choirs and handbells were great. The only disappointment was the performance of "Sleigh Ride". They didn't do the original version, but a strange, shorter, no temple-blocks version. I HATED it, especially since I was completely psyched for Leroy Anderson's original version. (Here's your tidbit of knowledge for the day - Leroy Anderson wrote "Sleigh Ride" in the middle of July during a heat wave. Now I'll put away my dorky music knowlege.)

We had a great time last night. Here's to hoping Doc comes back next year!