After sneaking out off the office a little early yesterday, I dashed over to AMC Theaters to see “White House Down.” Why did I sneak out early? Well, after teasing a guy in the office mercilessly the day before yesterday about his (in)ability to dance, then making him watch a YouTube video on How to Do the Roger Rabbit, the guy (yeah, he’s haole) came over to me yesterday and did a combination of the Running Man/Roger Rabbit. I was traumatized for the remainder of the day! (That’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it.) You know that the tomboy in me wanted to see all of the action in “White House Down.” The female in me wanted to see Channing Tatum; doesn’t even matter what he does – sing, dance or stand there and look pretty. There’s PLENTY of action in the movie, which also features James Woods and Maggie Ghyllenhall (or however you spell her name). Jaime Foxx wouldn’t have been my first choice to play the President, but he had his moments. All in all, I enjoyed it.
On my way home, I remembered that Jonathan Butler was performing at Yoshi’s; two concerts last night and two tonight. I checked the internet to see if there were any tickets left for last night’s 10:00 p.m. show, which there were. After changing clothes and having a few glasses of wine with the outgoing roommate, I walked over to Fillmore. Yoshi’s is mainly a jazz club, with both an intimate stage setting and a lounge that often features free live acts. In addition, it’s a rather up-scale Japanese restaurant. I go to concerts there frequently. Jonathan Butler, for those of you who may not recall, is a native of Cape Town, South Africa. He grew up in a shanty town, singing and playing guitar when he was a child at white-only clubs. He has a wonderful voice and is an amazing guitarist, who is also very much Christian. That being said, he was probably the most famous for a song called “Lies” in the 80’s. I saw him perform for the first time at Yoshi’s about three years ago. At that concert, he played some of his former hits. He also played a gospel or religious-type song called “He Said He Would.” When the woman at the same table as me started singing along, he heard her in the audience and was so impressed that he asked her on stage to sing with him. This time around, he was performing more jazzy and South African influenced songs. He ended, however, with another religious song called “Falling In Love With Jesus.” Another random man from the audience joined him, not on stage, but was simply given a microphone and ad libbed, very well, too, I might add. My favorite song of the night, though, was neither South African or religious. He sang a version of The Average White Band’s “If I Ever Lose This Heaven,” which used to be one of my favorite songs; it brought back a flood of memories. So I’ll leave you with his song, “Lies,” followed by AWB’s “If I Ever Lose This Heaven.”