Visiting Farmingdale

This past weekend we went out to Farmingdale, a combination of visiting my mom (while my dad is down at CTY) and to attend a Weird Al concert (that I’m giving its own entry). We had plans to go to the beach, but because of utter exhaustion, the beach didn’t happen. Instead, Jethrien and I both fell over for a while and ARR played with Grandma.

Which was fine with him, as there was a train set. A vast, expansive train set my mother had borrowed from one of her friends that was the big hit of the weekend. ARR spent a little time in the kiddie pool and the sandbox, and some drawing with chalk on the driveway, but mostly he was in the family room with the trains.

Oh, with one noteworthy exception: After it cooled off a little in the afternoon, ARR was convinced to go in the big pool with mommy and loved it. We had forgotten his earplugs so he had to keep his head above water, but given that he seems to have inherited my water-sensitive eyes, he was fine with that.

ARR was up at 5:15am on Sunday morning. Grandma invited him to sleep in her bed, which went about as well as him “sleeping” in our bed—that is to say, he talked, climbed and kicked for 45 minutes. Fortunately, Jethrien and I were sleeping on the new air mattress in the basement and missed this entirely—we got to sleep until almost 8:00.

Then we jumped on a 9am train, so Jethrien could head to writing group and I could get the little man home. Unsurprisingly, he was tired enough to take a nice nap, and then Jethrien took him over to Liberty Science Center after lunch.

Weird Al Yankovic’s Mandatory Fun Tour

I’ve seen Weird Al in concert twice before; and I think the Bad Hair tour was actually the first pop music concert I attended. Jethrien and I saw him at the Paramount in Huntington this past weekend.

The man puts on a fantastic show, complete with costume changes and assorted video clips from his guest appearances in shows and movies and the AL-TV shorts and interviews. New to me were the acoustic versions of several of the older songs (“Like A Surgeon,” most notably); he’s gotten to the point where he can parody himself.

Also of note was the encore, which was (as I’d seen previously) “The Saga Begins” and “Yoda”. The local 501st stormtrooper brigade joined him on stage for the former. And the bizarre Yoda chant has grown and gotten even more absurd. (Jethrien’s theory is that it’s what they do when they’re bored on the tour bus.)

Upon reflection, Weird Al has the strangest ongoing career in history—he’s not a “big star”, but everyone knows who he is, and he gets a #1 album even after 34 years in the business. The man is 55 and can still kick above his head, and he’s clearly still attracting new generations of fans.

The seats in the upper area of the Paramount had a lovely view, but were only slightly more comfortable than the seats at BAM. My hips were not happy with me the next day.

In an amusing coincidence, my friends Ryan and Ally were also at the show. We ran into them before we went in, and then met them outside and went to get cupcakes after the show. (My mom asked about their lives the next morning, but we had mostly discussed important things, like role-playing games and cooking.)