B.B. King and Balluminaria

On Friday evening Dianne and I went to Music Hall in Cincinnati to hear B. B. King in concert. It was a wonderful evening and we had pretty good seats. I have to say I didn't care too much for the opening act, Joanna Cotten. She has a good voice, but I just wasn't in to her songs. B. B. King had a large group with him including four horn players, a rhythm guitar, a bass guitar, drums, and keyboards. The band was a great group of blues musicians that put out a full sound. And B. B. King has an amazing stage presence. Although he now plays sitting down (at 82 he said his knees are bad), he sings and plays with such emotion that he keeps everyone captivated. B. B. King shared some interesting stories about his life (he claimed he didn't see an electric light until he was 16) between songs. It was fun to see him play live. Oh...and to the annoying woman sitting right behind us talking on her cell phone in the middle of one of B. B. King's songs, get a life and show some respect to him and those around you.

Today Dianne and I went to Eden Park in Cincinnati to see the Balluminaria. What's that? The Cincinnati Parks Commission organizes the event each year where hot air balloonist set up their balloons around one side of the perimeter of Mirror Lake in the park. The balloons don't take off. When it gets dark, they coordinate the lighting of their burners to get the balloons to glow. The colors are beautiful and the reflections off the lake enhances the effect. The photo here doesn't do it justice. It was nice to see...but it was cold!! It was about 40 degrees, but a little breeze really made it seem cold -- especially when you're standing and waiting for an hour and a half. The small photo shows them during the set-up stage while it was still light. The photo below shows the balloon glow. Hopefully it will be a little warmer next year.