Picnic music: Raymond Charles

July 17th's Picnic in the Park concert was by Raymond Charles and the Caribbean Authentics. Apparently they are a band that is mainly plays in the northeastern U.S. Too bad, as they were an excellent band and one I would like to listen to again some day.

The concert started at 7 pm, and even with Brian along and driving, I was still late to the concert. The usual large crowd was there so we had to sit in the back. We sat even further back than usual as the grass was wet in areas from the lawn being watered (heavily) that afternoon.

The band announced the next song selection and got applause. Then we heard thunder and saw a flash of lightning and the crowd applauded even more. "Bring on the rain!" was heard from the crowd. It is so dry we will take rain anytime, even during a concert.

It wasn't long before the first scattered rain drops fell. Quite a number of people folded up their portable lawn chairs and left. "What happened to wanting the rain?!" Brian and I moved next to a building under a roof overhang and out of the scattered rain drops.

When it looked like the showers had passed we moved to a bench to sit on. It wasn't too much longer before it began to rain again, harder this time. The rain felt good and the 90 plus temperature began to cool. We stayed sitting on the bench. Besides we were sitting under a tree and partially protected from the rain.

Intermission and the raffle prizes giveaway was chaotic. So many people had left the organizer was concerned she would be announcing winning tiocket numbers forever before finding winners. At one people she mentioned as a joke that even if you didn't have a winning ticket, if your ticket's number was close, fake it that you won. Hey, the 6 lbs of dog food was not raffled off this night.

During the second half of the concert, more sprinkles. When it again appeared the rain passed we moved up to a closer bench as the protective awning over the soundboard blocked our view of the band. Again the scattered raindrops. I did not complain. We stayed put even though we were now not as protected under a tree.

Fortunately the real rain did not appear until the concert had just finished. We got pretty wet walking back to Brian's car.

Though the crowd became a fraction of its initial size by the end of the concert, the remaining people were enthusiastic. Normally the dancers were mostly kids with only a few adults occasionally dancing. The reverse was true this concert as plenty of adults were dancing with only a few children.

One young woman in a tight red top and hippieish long blue skirt brought a half dozen full size hula hoops and shared with other dancers. She was fantastic with the hula hoop and seemed to twirl it effortlessly anyway from below her knees to around her arm above her head. I noticed it was harder than it looks when she showed others some moves and they struggled to keep the hoop twirling. Not only was the one woman easily twirling the hula hoop, she was dancing very nicely while doing so. Impressive. She had good moves and my thoughts turned to... um... well... um... dancing?

The music was reggae and Latin American. The band had three members who played guitar, keyboards, and steel drums. The music was happy, dance oriented, infectious. It especially had an effect on the women in the audience as many were dancing. Even Jen, the concert organizer, took time to dance to a number of songs. It appeared the music was making the women horny.

One young woman in a white dress was dancing with and around her man in order to get him to dance. I told Brian if he would dance a little with her and not try to look cool he would be getting "lucky" tonight.

Brian pointed out she was already pregnant. Oh. She didn't appear to look too pregnant and he still could get "lucky". She wanted to dance so bad and was all over him for the rest of the concert as they were on their feet for the rest of the concert.

Brian was amused - and so was I - by three late teen girls who danced. They had no clue how to dance to reggae music and appeared to be dancing to music to another concert. That didn't stop them as they energetically danced to a number of songs they were hearing in their minds.

After the hula hoop woman gathered her hoops and left, and the dance area was empty a few 20 something men wandered out there to dance by themselves. They were not dancing with one another, and it appeared they just couldn't stop from dancing a "funky goove". One guy initially appeared to be dancing a rain dance and later switched his dance style to something more suited to reggae. When a Bob Marley song was played another guy seemed to be even singing along to the words. No women went out and danced with them. Hmmm.... I think women just like to dance with one another.

Ya know.... this music was so fun and danceable even I was tapping my toes. And during the last song when everyone was on their feet, I may - though I will never admit it! - just may have been swaying to the beat.