Marilyn, Robert, and Mister Willie

As I told the bfe, Hai, and that first niece of mine, tonight I dined with Marilyn Monroe, danced with Robert Cray, and even got to see Mister Willie!
No, not that Mr. Willie! I'm talking about the old man I sit with at the Gnats' games!
Hahahaha!

This evening, the Jepson Center featured
a lecture and reception as a prelude
to the grand opening tomorrow of the
"Marilyn: Celebrating An American Icon" exhibit.
The lecture concerned not so much Marilyn,
the person, of whom we all know the basics,
but Marilyn, the muse,
as perceived by various artists of the world.
Very interesting spin,
full of comparisons of the diverse works,
even contrasting the subsequent creations
with the original images upon which they are based.
I haven't yet visited the exhibit,
but it is said to contain the works of more than sixty artists!
After the lecture, "Marilyn" arrived by black convertible and sang to us - and flirted, too! - feeding our senses of sight and hearing while the reception slaked our senses of smell and taste and touch!
I do so enjoy these free parties the museum throws for us members!
Free wine for those of age, free lemonade for those who are not, and fancy food for all!

As you can see,
the sushi is beautifully presented,
as are the "Marilyn" crab cakes.
Get it?
There were other little puns
on the names,
but that is the only one
juicy enough to get stuck on the fabric of my brain.

I had to leave before the party ended, as I had a "date" with Robert Cray, bluesman extraordinaire, and his fabulous band, courtesy of the Savannah Music Festival. I've had my dance ticket since November, patiently waiting, waiting, waiting, for this evening to arrive. I haven't seen him since March of 2007, in Las Vegas, so this was going to be a treat!

Where were we meeting, you ask?
At the finest venue in town! That's right: the Lucas Theatre!!!
I had made sure to buy my ticket in the "dance" section, too.
Oh, yeah!
And dance I did, the entire time the man played! Sure, there were lots of new songs I didn't know, but all you have to do is listen to the beat of the drums and MOVE. But he also regaled me - oops, I mean the audience - with songs from "Strong Persuader", like "Right Next Door" and "Smoking Gun" and "Nothin' But A Woman". Wow!!!
Almost two hours later I was off to the ball park, to see if I could catch the last few minutes of the first home game of the season for our South Atlantic League champions. That's right, I said it: champions!!! My boys of summer did well last year, did very well indeed!
And I did catch the last two at-bats in the bottom of the ninth. The Sand Gnats may have lost this game, but we, the faithful fans, still were rewarded with FiREwORkS!!! Woohoo!!!
All in all, a truly fabulous evening!
I even got to visit with Mr. Willie, and the Foam Finger Girls (aka Laurie and Lynn), and ran into some other folks I haven't seen for a while.
Oh, what a night!