The Music Police

Like many people I have always been a music lover. Live bands, concerts, and musical recordings have been woven into the fabric of my life. I know what I like, and I know when to be open about something I don't quite like either. You gotta respect creation.

Now that I am married to a professional musician and master of the guitar, I have even more exposure to live performance opportunities. I now take notice of the behavior of people in the crowd, and have seen absolute involvement by adoring fans, to pure rudeness by ignorant young people. I am sensitive to clapping and the respectful acknowledgment of the musician in the room working and entertaining the crowd. So I like to extend the courtesy to other situations where I am around a musicians performance.


Unfortunately during our past stay in Cape May, we came across two very bad examples of people doing their "musical act." The first was during our dinner at a local pub in town that happened to be serving food late. The bartender warned us that the guy playing the music was loud and to sit over in the booths. Did not bode well. His guitar was completely out of tune! He kept stopping and saying he was tuning the guitar, and then the guitar still sounded the same. Gosh mister, how about getting some guitar lessons and learning the basics? Certainly don't ruin the patrons dinner.

Along with a totally off putting grating strumming style he was doing a horrible Bob Dylan imitation. This guy was difficult to clap for, but we did it to be respectful. Sadly all of his songs droned on in the same manner, and then horror of horrors, he added the harmonica. Ugh! This noise could have ruined our dinner. Luckily we can laugh about
the wrongness of it all. The second disturbance was a duo performing at an outdoor mall. It was 'American Idol meets karaoke Dolly Parton on steroids.' I really did not want to be accosted by this music while enjoying a beautiful sunny day. Once again we were eating at an outdoor cafe and unable to get away from this horrible ho-down!

Both acts at one point did a Beatles song and they each in their own terrible style, ripped the fab four's perfection to shreds! We wondered should there be 'Music Police' to say cease and desist immediately!?? Maybe we could hand this type of musical act a ticket. At least a warning for disturbing the public air ways. Just bloody awful!

Cape May In The Fall

Famous for it's Victorian gingerbread homes, the quaint historic seaside town of Cape May, NJ was a great fit for our vacation getaway. Beautiful architecture at every turn, plus a warm fall weekend that allowed for casual shopping and walking trips in town. Relaxing!
 

These fascinating Victorian homes are found on every block and gave us that Norman Rockwell feel as we crunched through the crisp leaves. Many of the homes are Bed and Breakfasts, where you can spend a bit of time living the Victorian life sitting out on your veranda rocking in an old fashioned wicker chair. Then after working up an appetite from sightseeing in your rocker, there are great restaurants to enjoy with affordable prices. Two of our favorites are 'The Pier House' and 'Lucky Bones'. Unfortunately 'Lucky Bones' is under renovation and we did not get to enjoy the fantastic pork chops this visit.

Creative decorations for Halloween were scattered throughout town along with many seasonal haunted events. The 'Physick Estate' not only has a great house tour, but contains a gallery with changing themes that feature subjects that Victorians enjoyed, such as their fascination with Spiritualism. This year the gallery show was called 'What Were They Thinking?' A retrospective of 160 years of bad taste! Cool! Bad Art! You gotta love it!

There are many shops in town filled with artistic treasures and the sparkling bits and bobs we love. 'Good Scents' was this trips winner. You will certainly find something unique to bring home and enjoy, no matter your taste in Cape May. The newest find was a place called
'The West End Garage' where you will find a sampling of the many great Cape May shops and artists all in one location.

Since we are really 'Mountain' vacation people, we don't get all excited by the flatness of the beach and ocean. Surprisingly we actually enjoy our visits to Cape May because this beach town is more than just sand and water...or is it because one of the best stores for Rubber Duckies called 'Bath Time' is here?