As the Light of Springtime Emerges Gradually .....

......It's time for

The EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival.

Although gardening is not really our thing, we are aware that we may have to develop some green thumbs for the benefit of Joanna, whenever she arrives at our home.

These links will connect you to some great photos of the festival
http://www.wdwmagic.com/epcot_flowerandgarden_festival.htm
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http://irrecenvhort.ifas.ufl.edu/A&P/Pictures/EpcotPics.htm

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The yearly event is one of our favorite activities with the Flower Power Concert Series. Personalities, from major stars to one hit wonders, from the 60s & 70s perform their ‘geeser rock’ to the best of their abilities and make light of their AARP statuses. Over the past 2 weeks, we rocked out – well Be did, Don is STILL mending the broken ribs – to several groups. Don’t think we have even one of their albums, but the event was a hoot all the same.

The Flower Power Concert Series

Paul Revere & The Raiders

Paul Revere & the Raiders has to be the zaniest group out there. Keyboardist, Paul Revere (many claim that original lead singer Mark Lindsey is the Paul Revere figure in the band but it’s actually the legal name of the keyboardist –---- and in the end ------ it just doesn’t matter) just celebrated his 69th birthday with surgery on his right rotator cuff (my life was enriched with that knowledge) and was quite subdued compared to last year’s performance. Still, he and bandmates had a great time with their corny banter, wild props and hits like “Indian Reservation”, "Good Thing" & “Kicks Just Keep Gettin’ Harder to Find” complete with their standard kick line. At their ages, it looked more like “Kicks Just Keep Getting’ Harder to Do”. PR&R is one of our favorite entries in the Flower Power lineup.

Tony Orlando
Brooklyn boy, Tony Orlando, was a man on a mission. He just wanted his audience to enjoy themselves. He was apparently aware that his own material was not particularly exciting. At one of his shows (we saw 3) he came out on stage, without fanfare, and announced “Alright. We’re going to do 3 of my songs first ….. and then we’ll do some good stuff.” Orlando featured his kickin’ band for the most part and played ‘party meister’ for most of the 30 minute shows doing sing alongs, background vocals and encouraging dancing in the aisles. Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Earth Wind & Fire were all a part of the song menu accompanied by a hot, energetic and musically tight backup band.

Carl Giammarse - Lead singer for The Buckinghams

The Buckinghams surprised me – I had forgotten that they recorded “Susan” and “Don't You Care” in addition to “Kind of A Drag” (a song which reminds Be of taking the cat for a walk). Their show was a bit more reserved than the 2 previous groups with the exception of a rendition of “Mercy, Mercy” by their wild looking ponytailed, body builder bass player (an original member) who took the song and made it his own.

Flo & Eddie of "The Turtles"
The Turtles (Flo & Eddie) were the princes of Bubblegum Rock in the 60s, and performed all 6 or so of their hits during their set when we saw them last week. The group, arch-rivals to The Archies, performed "Eleanor", "She'd Rather Be With Me", "Let Me Be", "You Showed Me" and of course "Happy Together"? The 2 front men for The Turtles did their best to duplicate the sound on their original recordings ("You Showed Me" sounded as sweet as 40 years ago) and a nostalgic time was had by all.

Future shows include The Guess Who (blew us away last year), BJ Thomas, Davy Jones, Peter & Gordon, Herman's Hermits,The Tokens, Petula Clark & Jose Feliciano ...... more later as we merrily skip through the adoption waiting room .......