Aca-Awesome

Pentatonix and The Fillharmonic

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Los Angeles County Fair - Pomona, CA

When I saw that tickets were available for this show on Goldstar, I accessed the site and saw that they only had 1 ticket left at their price.  So, naturally, I snatched that up, not really sure if any of my friends would be joining me.  Luckily for me, Jenn's friend Mariah wanted to go, and Jenn got a ticket, too.  I wanted to hang out and do Fair stuff before the show, and I was happy that Jenn wanted to do the same thing when I asked her that morning.  I made sure not to eat a big breakfast, even after my Saturday morning walk, because I'd be eating Fair food later, and that's enough calories right there.  The morning started off even better when I looked in my mailbox and saw that my Steve Dorian EP "Pull You Closer" had been delivered.  YAY!

Jenn picked me up and it was already quite warm when we arrived at the fairgrounds at about noon.  She loaned me her green floppy hat, knowing that I'd regret leaving my hat at home almost immediately.  A parade went by us.  We caught beads that were thrown at us, and we didn't even have to show our boobs.  Yay!  We were both hungry, so we perused the concessions and decided that she would order Bacon-wrapped Pork Belly, and I would order a Krispy Kreme chicken sandwich.  While I was in line to order my sandwich, I spied a sign that said "Fried Doritos".  Doritos?  Fried?  Wha?  I asked how they were made.  It took two people to tell me the gist of it because they thought I wanted much more detail than I actually needed:  Doritos, dipped in pancake batter, and fried.  OK, then, let's add those to the order!  Jenn got her food first, and when she met up with me, I was still waiting.  I told her, "I ordered Doritos."  She said, "Why?"  I said, "Because they're DORITOS!" and showed her the sign.  She got excited, too.  We enjoyed our food.  The pork belly was good, but a bit too fatty, so I concentrated on the Krispy Kreme Jelly Doughnut Chicken Sandwich.  Yup, JELLY.  So, yeah, that was yummy.  Our favorite taste, though, was the Fried Doritos.  Yum!

Feeding Sherry

We walked around a bit.  I saw a cartoonish picture of a hippo, so we made a beeline for that.  There were also non-cartoon animals, like peacocks, camels, an alligator, some macaws, and a lemur.  We took a silly picture that was adorable, then we fed carrots to one of the camels.  Her name is Betsy.  She really likes those carrots!

Feeding Betsy

We then walked around the China exhibit, and I stared at the Binturong for a while, because I had never seen one in person.  My photos were horrible, so here's a link to a bunch of images if you'd like to see one and you can't make it to the fair.  They have them in the Philippines.  No wonder I was so fascinated by it.  

We wanted to find the tablescapes, and wandered over to the Expo Halls, but they were mostly for selling stuff.  We ate ice cream from Bob's Ice Cream, and the smallest cone still had a HUGE scoop of ice cream on it, so we didn't finish it. 

Pumpkin ice cream and Dark Chocolate ice cream

 Mariah arrived, and we continued to search for the tables.  I tried some Fig Balsamic Vinegar from Bistro Blends, and it was fabulous.  I told the girls that they needed to taste it, too, and they were glad they did.  I'll need to order some of that.  They bought beautiful clothing from Nutan's Creations.  I resisted buying something, too.  It's good I didn't bring a lot more cash with me, or I might have gone nutso.  I might have ordered something from the website, but I guess I can't, unless I contact by email.  I don't know why people don't want their stuff to be sold easily.  I wanted to try the Stella Rosa Peach, so we sat down and shared a glass.  It was yummy.  We also received wine cork keychains and fans.  There was a Heroes hallway, but I quickly became bored with it, and we left.  I did like the wall of comic books, though.

Mmmm.... peach.

Mariah's date arrived, so we split off from each other.  Jenn and I finally found the information booth, and they told us that the tablescapes were at the grandstands.   I really enjoy looking at the tablescapes.  The winner of Best of Show was in the literature category, and each place setting was themed to a different literary character from stories that take place at sea: Captain Ahab, Pi Patel, Gulliver, and Jim Hawkins.  

100 out of 100 points!

Treasure Map Menu

We looked at the handcrafted stuff, too.  These were made by the same person, from Chino.  She's talented!

I think these are caps.  Angry Birds caps.

Mermaid Knit

Jenn and I were hungry again and didn't want Fair Food, so we ate at Maria's Italian Kitchen.  The server brought her a margarita.  She had ordered a mojito.  Whatevs. I had an Italian Margarita, which had amaretto in it.  The food was delicious.  We then headed back to the grandstands for the concert, and Mariah and Phil met up with us right before the show started.  Jenn had an extra ticket, so she let me sit in their empty seat.  Thanks, Jenn!

The Gals

Opening Act: The Fillharmonic

I didn't write down either one of the set lists, so I probably won't list in order, and it's probably incomplete.  Lame.  They sang "Treasure" and "Happy", and other stuff that I can't remember.  One of them was a Michael Jackson medley, I think.  Or not.  I'm so lame!  Anyway,  they really had a lot of fun singing "Happy".  I'm just happy to see VJ's dimples on overdrive.  Their arrangements are a bit jazzier than I remember from "The Sing-Off", and there were a few intonation problems in the chords, but it was fun to see them.  They were excited to announce that they would be in "Pitch Perfect 2".  I've seen the first one about 127 times, so that's awesome to me.

Pentatonix

Again, no set list.  But at least I can look at their website to figure out what songs I remember them singing.  Their set was cool, with steps, and the backdrop was of their logo, which looks like equalizer bars.

• Daft Punk:  Great way to open, and the fans went wild.  Kirstie's hair is really blonde now.  Jenn likes it better brunette.  Me, too.
• Telephone / Video Killed the Radio Star: 
• Starships:  Mitch is really, really good at rapping Nikki Minaj-like.
• Problem:  I really dig this song.
• La La Latch: New song, I'm not familiar with it.
• Say Something: I really like their arrangement of this one.
• There was a woman in the front row that stood up for most of the show, and took video or pictures or whatever.  Girl.  You're in the FRONT ROW.  I don't know why the people behind her didn't tell her to sit the eff down.  Jenn and I would have yelled ad thrown things at her, but we were far away.
• Let's Get It On: Avi picked a gal named Olivia from the crowd.  I wish they had her sit center stage instead of way off to house left.  She was funny as she couldn't take it and was waving them away, like "Stop!".  APPARENTLY, it was her birthday.
• Happy Birthday (to several people in the audience, a few of whose names they included in the song in succession).
• Royals:  This reminds me of my dad, because he likes the original, and the fact that he has it on his playlist impresses me.
• Pompeii
• Evolution of Beyonce: I mean, come on, they're awesome.
• As we waited for Kevin to set up his cello (yeah, this wasn't purely an a cappella show, so points off, people.  He also played it during the next song, but I can't remember which one that was), Avi treated us to his talent of singing two notes at once (like Tuvan singing).  We were told to listen to the overtone melody of "Lion Sleeps Tonight" as he sang bass notes simultaneously.  It was effing amazing.  A. MAZE. ING.  Here's a link to this at the Orpheum, because I can't keep it from you.
• Scott said that he knew that Avi was their bass as soon as he was introduced to him <mimcs Avi's very basso profundo voice saying 'Hi, I'm Avi'> "and I was scared."  At one point during the show, Avi's beautiful vibrato rang out, and I said, "THAT'S a classically trained voice."  Wow.
• Kevin then did "Renegade", and original song of him playing the cello and beatboxing at the same time (!), also known as "celloboxing".   It was an incredible sight to behold.
• Natural Disaster (original PTX):  Scott asked us all to help out, and he knew that we could, because "we know that 99% of you are singers".  Love it.  He did teach us what to sing first, since not all people know every single PTX song.  Me, for instance.
• Aha!:  Avi said that this would be a perfect "Lord of the Rings" song.  APPARENTLY, Avi tries to fit LOTR into every show and every conversation.
• I Need Your Love
• Evolution of Music: I really like this, but I do wish there was more stuff prior to 2000.
• Run To You
• Thrift Shop
• We Are Young:  Last song, and we were asked to sing along.  I love that song.

  

  Pentatonix

Amazing show, PTX.  Thank you!

Afterward, Jenn and I needed something sweet, so we got a baker's dozen of Mini Donuts with cinnamon sugar.  She also got us chocolate-covered strawberries before we went home.

Fun day!  Thanks, Jenn!