Hard Rock

Busy day on Monday.

It was Peter's birthday. The family celebrated with him over the weekend, because he and I were in New York City all day Monday. He performed with the All-State Symphonic Band.

It was a really good day. We arrived in NYC at about 10:00, and he and some buddies killed an hour by tossing oranges and apples around in a circle until someone dropped it and then they were out of the game. Doesn't sound like fun, but they had a blast. The band is made up of kids from around the state, and it was really cool to see them all becoming friends so quickly. When they had finished making fruit salad out the apples and oranges by dropping them so much, they had a little impromptu jam session.

They gave an outdoor concert on the plaza at Lincoln Center at 11:30. That was great. They're doing a lot of construction at Lincoln Center, and the construction workers stopped and listened (and even danced a little). The pictures are of Peter and his fellow saxophonists, and of the band with a bit of the city in the background.

After the concert, we all went to the Museum of Natural History and then to Times Square, where Peter and friends hung out at the Toys R Us for an indoor ferris wheel ride and then a game of Mario Kart on their giant wall-sized Wii screen. Finally, we had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, where 150 people wished him happy birthday over an ice cream sundae. (I was a little disappointed that it wasn't named for something rock-and-roll related. I would suggest "The U2 Sundae-Yummy-Sundae.") Hanging with his friends in New York -- it was an excellent birthday.

Unfortunately, there were no celebrity sightings this year. Long-time readers may recall that last year, when Peter played in this concert, we went to Planet Hollywood in Times Square for dinner, and Peter saw Snoop Dogg in the bathroom. (That was the day Snoop became the Official Rapper of the Lympho Bob Blog.) We were actually kind of rushed this year for dinner, so I didn't even get to look around at the excellent music memorabilia, other than George Harrison's acoustic guitar. Though I did get this nice shot of a large photo of Angus Young, guitarist for the band AC/DC. I love him because even though he's been playing for AC/DC for about 35 years, and I've been playing guitar for only 9 months, I'm pretty sure I know more chords than he does.

Which is awesome.