The World (of Jay) » Symphony

Scooping the Observer

Jay Kohler — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:33:20 +0000

A little citizen journalism goes a long way – Last week, the Charlotte Symphony had it’s first summer pops concert and encouraged more donations this year as they are facing shortfalls due to funding cuts, etc. Last week, it was well publicized that over $27,000 was raised, 4-5 times more than was usually raised each week last year.

I was looking online today for the figure from June 15th, but couldn’t find anything. A quick e-mail to Meg Whalen at the symphony, however, shows that the fans of the Summer Pops series continued their generosity!

We collected $29,130! Even more than the first weekend. We did not release the number publicly, but will anounce it at the concert this Sunday. We are thrilled! Thanks so much for your interest.

Lets go for over $30,000 next Sunday!

Weekend Recap

Jay Kohler — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:21:10 +0000

Been a crazy couple of days! Kicked things off Friday with a softball game that was called due to rain after 6 innings. St. Matthews ended up tied with Christ Covenent Team #2, 11-11. Since Tommy was out, I ended up hitting leadoff and went 2 for 5.

Saturday, we had quite the night. After a morning of taking care of Gunther and Heidi, Emily and I headed uptown and had lunch at Zink. Pretty good food, ended up filling me up quickly – only had room for the pita-hummas appitizer and half of my pulled pork sandwich. Still a very nice place to go eat and have a drink before…

DUHHHHHHHHHHH DUH DUH DUH DUH Dahhhhhhhhhhhh

The Phantom of the Opera was back in Charlotte, I haven’t seen it in a long time, long enough to not remember half of the plot, and Emily loves the show so it worked out perfectly. Our seats were in the Orchestra section, left side, very close to the stage, really good seats – we were able to see everything. I thought the production was done very well, impressed by Christine, a little let down by the Phantom – but not his singing, his acting was a bit on the hammy side. I thought the Phantom was supposed to be all badass and cool and all furious when Christine took his mask off, but this Phantom decided that losing his mask meant he was supposed to stumbled around like she blinded him or something. Still, a great show.

Afterwards, we met friends over at Nikko’s Uptown for Katie’s sushi birthday dinner, Emily was getting a bit tired after that and headed home (we had drinks before Phantom, drinks after Phantom at PJ’s, drinks at the bar at Nikko’s, drinks during dinner – she was probably the smarter person to stop there) while I decided to continue the party. We moved the party to Mez uptown and then, finally, the XYZ bar located in aLoft uptown. Somehow, I found my way to an ATM and a taxicab and headed home to pass out. Good birthday times – and I know Jon has some ridiculous pictures that I’ll have to link to once he uploads.

Sunday – woke up feeling pretty bad – although I have felt much worse. And I decided to work through the hangover by using…. manual labor. Mom & Dad were extending a retaining wall in their backyard so I was brought in to move and place the 80-lb blocks. Amazingly, this seemed to help me sweat out the leftover booze and left me feeling better. Then it was back home for a little studying before Pops in the Park. “Magical Night Music” was the theme, definitly some good stuff. Theme from Harry Potter, Pirates of the Carribbean – my favorite was Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. You know it from many different cartoons (Donald Duck – Daffy Duck dueling pianos in Who Framed Roger Rabbit).

Monday was full of work and studying, we had another softball game that didn’t end in a tie, but like the game the previous Monday, it got ugly quick. Ended up beating Morningstar Lutheran something like 41-6. They played the whole game a man short and didn’t have many hitters on the team (but the ones who could hit, smashed some serious HRs) I think I wound up 5 of 5 or something, and that includes the two times I came up to bat and TRIED to get out. Not the best fielders.

Tuesday was my test, and Jon Harding and I started another home brew. I believe it’s based off Rouge Hazelnut Brown. I’ll be posting my thoughts on our current brew, Dante’s Honey Whear Beerferno soon and I’ll have to coin a name for the batch that’s currently fermenting.

Whew, sorry for the novel, but now I’m caught up and will remember to post more frequently so I don’t have to jam everything into a huge post.

Weekend Update

Jay Kohler — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:03:33 +0000

The incredibly busy summer of June continues to roll along. Friday’s softball game wound up getting cancelled due to rain in the morning – The Mecklenburg Parks and Recreation department are a little too quick to cancel games sometimes. At any rate, it gave me a reason to head over to the Harding’s house to take a taste of our week-old-bottled “Dante’s Honey Wheat Beerferno” = very smooth, although it will have to age for a couple more weeks until it’s about perfected. We also swung by Mei’s for dinner – or at least I thought it was Mei’s… it’s sushi place there at the intersection of Rea and Colony. Food was very good, service was a little snail-like.

After that, met up with a few people (Lindsay, Mitch, Kelly, Emily) at the Yn bar off East. Had a couple Duvel Beers, which is probably one of the tastiest beers I’ve ever had. Except Yn has TERRIBLE glasses for this. Notice the picture.

Versus the glass they had…

This meant that the glass would up being mostly head. Had to pour extremely slowly due to this. No good.

Saturday, we had a little Surprise birthday party for Liz, which I had mentioned back in an earlier post until Kirk called me out on it and told me I had to take it out of the blog. Emily made her awesome guacamole dip before leaving for Chapel Hill, so I brought that with me and spent most of the afternoon playing cornhole or HORSE in the pool. Saturday night was depressingly boring – no takers on going out. I tried!

Sunday I got up early to help Kelly put out the tarps for Charlotte’s Pops in the Park – it was a perfect day for it. I also started a week of taking care of Gunther and Heidi while Bo and Angie are off on vacation. Although I’m normally 100% against getting up early, especially on the weekends, it ended up working out OK. Was able to get out to the pool for a little bit, met up with Lindsay and Mitch, before going to check on the dogs and get ready for Pops!

It was a great kickoff to the season. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, and you live in Charlotte, you need to check it out. The Charlotte Symphony plays a free concert over at SouthPark Mall – we usually bring a picnic out there, lots of wine, beers and snacks to share. This year, with all the economic problems, the Symphony asks for $5 donations per adult versus “Whatever you want to Donate” in years past. We did pretty well – http://www.charlotteobserver.com/breaking/story/770655.html.

Yesterday (Monday) The St. Matthews (Fighting Team #2′s) played Christ Covenant Team #4. The result was not pretty, as we ended up winning by mercy rule 27-1. I finished up Reaching base four times, but I’m going to say I was 2 for 3 (First at bat, they made an error instead of catching my pop-up) with a walk a double and a “triple” that would have been an inside the park homerun if the game wasn’t already out of hand and I wasn’t trying to make it any worse.

Coming up this Friday, we’re playing Christ Covenant Team #2 at Park Road Park at 8:15 over on field #6. Hopefully it’ll be a better game for spectators! In other activities coming up, Phantom of the Opera for Emily and I on Saturday the 13th, then, next Saturday – “Evil Dead: The Musical”. Yes, I’m for real. – http://www.actorstheatrecharlotte.org/

And a word of warning to anyone who remembers the old “Worldofjay.com” site (before some stupidhead took it over after I didn’t renew it) by the request of Lindsay I might post up a few of the archives for your enjoyment. Until next time!