Tom's 60th Birthday Party

I hesitate to blog Tom's Birthday Party because we had to limit our attendee list.

Our house is huge, for us, but not huge for LOTS of people. Therefore, and unfortunately, some of our friends, as much as we wanted to, were not able to be included.

All that said, I'm gonna post a few pics anyway.

Is this the face of a 60 year old? I think not!

This is actually a big year for us - Tom wanted to throw a MASSIVE Party, but again, we just don't have the space. Tom turned 60 June 2, June 8 was our 35th wedding anniversary, and December 24 I turn 55. All that adds up to 150 and for some reason Tom finds that number significant.

I'm a humbug about special days, December 24 each year is just that, December 24, nothing more, nothing less. Christmas is December 25, Halloween is October something, 30, 31... You get my point. Tom on the other hand loves any reason to make a fuss, makes you wonder how we've made it together so long doesn't it? They say opposites attract, but what is that makes them stick!

Tom decided he wanted a party for his 60th. I threw him a big one for his 40th, rented a hall, had a magician , catered food, open bar, yadda, yadda, yadda; he doesn't remember to much about it, neither do I really, but the pictures make it look like we were having a good time.

So this year, he wants a party, and he wants to get Angélica Balado to perform, I've posted about her before. Angelica Balado performs Contemporary Yucatecan Trova, she has a lovely throaty voice, plays guitar, and her percussionist vocalist partner Melina Ruz is a wiz on drums n things.

Tom actually ended up doing uch of the planning. I handled food and details, he handled the I wants. To that end he enlists good buddy Lida to act as his agent and track down Angelica Balado, give her the date, see if she is available, and importantly find out how much she costs. Lida is local yucateca and speaks the lingo muy bueno. Tom has some phone numbers, but none seem to get through; Lida works, n works, n works, finally after the 3rd week, and a week before the party she makes contact. Now Lida is a BIG FAN of Angelica and is maybe just a bit startstruck, and can't believe she is actually talking to her, so that in itself was cool. Angelica is in fact available, and although pricey, it's what Tom wants! Woo Hoo!

Here are Angélica Balado and Melina Ruz performing for Tom at his birthday party.

Here's Tom, Victor, and Me enjoying the performance.

Here are scene shots of guests during the performance. We had extra folding chairs so that anyone that wanted to sit and watch could. Unfortunately we were so in to the guests, and the performance, and the party that we neglected to take photos, and those that we did take aren't great. Group shots all seem to include someone in a less than favorable pose or expression and I won't do that to my friends.

Here's a good one of Tom and Jette!

The pool was absolutely stunning and magical with the lights and balloons, and shimmer, and shadow, but, again I didn't get a good photo. Oh when the breeze would swirl the ballons around the pool it was so cool.

I'm hoping some of the friends that took photos might have a few good ones to share, and then I will post them as well.

Angélica Balado

Once again the cultural activities here are amazing. We went to an orchestral event a few nights ago, gratis of course. As part of the distributed program was a flyer for a concert to be given by Angélica Balado to be held at the Teatro Peon Contreras. We absolutely love the music of Angélica and percussionist partner Melina Ruz. These two perform regularly at Amaro (a local downtown restaurant), and frequently as part of the lineup of musicians performing on street stages during the regular Saturday nights activities. Angélica and Melina have also performed at a number of other venues around town and we always try to go.

Angélica is a contemporary 'Trova' style singer/songwriter with a beautiful smoky voice; she plays guitar, sings, and is most often accompanied by the percussions and voice of Melina.

Last nights performance was sponsored by Instituto de Cultura de Yucatán. It was an acknowledgement and recognition of Angélica's 30 years in the music field here in Merída. The performance was indeed a treat as Angélica was backed up by a band of eight talented musicians one of whom was of course Melina Ruz. There was also a brief photo homenaje of Angélica's musical career which was very enjoyable.

The repertoire this evening was of new works by Angélica that haven't been widely heard yet. And they were great. There was also one costume change.

At the end of the evening Angélica was presented a plaque recognizing her 30 years in the local musical community, and unfortunately my spanish isn't what it should be, and my knowledge of local dignitaries also is severely lacking so I don't know who the 'guy' was that made the presentation. He was however recognized by the crowd who were pleased and enthusiastic at his entry to the stage. A number of flower offerings were also presented, and then we had a lovely encore (otra) performance.

Another bonus to the evening - we didn't realize you could get tickets before hand, so showed up at the box office 30 minutes before the doors open. The ticket agent and I were making our way through the seating chart, starting of course at stage level and moving ever higher; we were at the 3rd level when a man walked up and sort of pushed past me to reach a hand under the window partition to hand the woman 5 tickets that had been returned. We got 2 of these tickets at sat Row 3, stage front. WOO HOO! We could look Angélica in the eye, and she saw us as well. Also in attendance were friends Lida and Diana who were able to join us in Row 3 after the performance started.

Cultural Note Here! It is not uncommon here to say Yes to an invitation and then not show up. This is true for events at theaters like this and equally as common for invitations given and accepted for activities at your home. There is a lot of speculation about this phenomena but no clear consensus on the why's! Therefore, even though the seating chart indicated ALL the seats were taken when I was at the box office, the theater had plenty of open seats once the performance started

If you GOOGLE, or Search the internet for Angelica Balado you will get lots of 'hits', some of them are even vids of performances on YouTube. I could stick one in here, but which one - so if you want to see/here Angélica you can do it for yourself.

Should I list the band members that performed? Sure, Why Not!
Victor Lopez (Bateria)
Jorge Julian Gomez (Teclados)
Pepe Rivera (Bajo Electrico)
Melina Ruz (Percisiones y coros)
Jonathon Rojas (Guitarras y Direccion Musical)
Roman (Piano)
Lenny Sanchez y Victor Martinez (coros)