The dress code for the Ball is taken seriously. So a tux was rented, and a long dress was purchased. Our most excellent babysitter was booked. And she even took pictures of us before we left.
It was like going to prom. The first order of business was to secure parking. Although we were not in a pumpkin carriage drawn by horses, we might as well have been. On our way from the garage to the restaurant, we got to see some of what we were going to be treated to later. And, we saw the ULTIMATE bubble blowing man. There was a strong wind blowing, and a man had a fabric web strung between two sticks, similar to a small hammock. He would dip it in his solution and spread it out, blowing millions of bubbles at once. It was magical.
We started out at Indigo for a nice dinner.
(you cannot beat anything served with wonton chips!)
And then, onto the main concert in Davies Hall. We saw KD Lang, and Tony Bennett. They sang separately, and then they did a few songs together. Each has such a different style, and completely different vocal character. It was such a treat to see each of them.
KD came out in a big white three piece tux with a black shirt. And bare feet. She bounced happily around the stage. Tony was in an expensive tux, and emitted enough class to fill the hall.
While the singing was on the stage, the real 'show' was all around us. There was a jaw dropping circus of humanity on display all night.
The age range was 22 - 122. There was incredible wealth and unbelievable wanna-be's.
We saw a man dressed impeccably in a kilt of black and white tartan. There was a gay couple with top hats trimmed with matching silver glitter bands. There was a woman dressed as black-and-white tart-little-bo-peep. There was a woman in a skirt made out of a few long feathers that were curled out, away from her legs, like a 'that girl' bob. There were two women that did not get 'the memo'; one in a short green satin dress, and one in a long scarlet red dress.
After the concert, we went outside to join the rest of the festivities.
And it became the 'black coat ball'. It was cold, with a cold wind blowing. There were regal long velvet coats, black capes lined in red silk, stunning sequined wraps... and then costumes of all descriptions.
Cool and the Gang was playing on one stage outside.
A latin band played in the opera building.
And then,there was a Big Band tent. With heat and big-band music, this was my favorite.
The food was amazing, and kept being refreshed all night. And the bars were every ten feet, well stocked, and no waiting.
There was a surprise scheduled for midnight. But with a toddler at home, midnight seemed like "noon tomorrow". We huddled around each other, waiting for the surprise to be revealed. Our guesses were 1. Santana, or 2. Chris Issak.
What actually happened was a light show. They used the back face of City Hall, and projected a light show onto the building.
They made it look like people were climbing up the columns. They "bent" the columns, they made balls "fly out" of one of the porticoes... It was truly amazing.During the show, they fired big ticker-tape style confetti out of cannons, and let it snow down onto the crowd. It was like a magical snow.
And finally, cold, and tired, we were ready to leave, swearing to come back in two years. Black and White 2012, here we come!
