Dueling Pianos, Lost Diamonds, and a Night on the Commons

Hi Internet.

Houghs and Larsons, establishing headquarters at Tunes By the Tridge. . .

Living in Midland has its perks. These days is the city really bends over backwards during the Summer months to keep the plebeians entertained and happy (which is good, because we have a lot of uppity, high-maintenance people in this town of ours.) 

I mentioned all of this last year, of course, and am once again referring to the city's months-long opening up of the Downtown Commons, a two-block wide stretch of Main Street. Live entertainment, relaxed laws regarding open alcohol containers, and a whole slew of pedestrian amenities, all closed off to traffic with giant concrete barricades. 

Two guys, two pianos, and a whole slew of song selections from oldies to present.

The Commons are the place to be on a given summer night, especially on the weekends, but the kick-off of each Summer Weekend is the free concert (provided by the Powers That Be in local City Government) put on in the park by the Tridge. Tunes By the Tridge is a weekly, two-hour-long concert offering anyone and everyone an opportunity to see a wide variety of artists from a wide variety of genres, free of charge. We usually attend a handful of these concerts every summer, focusing on the genres we prefer: we make it a point to do Dueling Pianos night, the 50's/60's/70's night, etc., and skip the weirder ones, like Jazz night and Zydeco night (seriously.)

Tonight marked the opening performance of the concert series, and opened up with the ever-popular - and Kris' favorite - Dueling Pianos. We got down there at the same time as the Larsons were rolling in, right around 6:45pm, and shortly afterwards we were joined by the Johnsons, Colliers, and Mitch (who rolled in stag, the rest of his fam not feeling up for it. . . per the usual.) We brought coolers, blankets, folding chairs, and were able to hang out and enjoy the evening's show, free of charge, for over two hours.

And of course, the weather was perfect.

Check it out folks - our Summer's first installment of Tunes By the Tridge. . .

The assembled team for this evening, Left to Right: Sophie, Danielle (Morgan was up getting food), Mees, Kris, Erik, Ryan, and then Kris' boss, Paul, and his wife, Melanie.)

Kris, cluckin' away about something or other. . .

About fifteen or twenty minutes into the concert, Danielle became alarmed: apparently the diamond off her engagement ring had fallen out of its bracket (or whatever you call that) in the ring, and was missing. She wasn't sure when it had happened, whether or not it was earlier in the day while she was at work, or when she was setting up her camping chair, but we started looking around in the grass for it. Needle-in-a-Haystack sorta thing, but we tried anyway. Clearly not being able to enjoy themselves with something so tragic happening, the Larsons took off to continue looking at home for it, but we made sure to keep an eye out for it here and there throughout the remainder of the evening. We all felt super bad for her.

Kris and that son of a bitch, Mitch.

Ella, Courtney, Mees, Mitch and Erik.

(Probably talking about dentistry.)

As usual, we drove separate, seeing how Abby 'wasn't ready' when we originally left. She ended up getting a ride downtown later once her older sister got out of work at 8pm.

She's a special gal.

(Probably talking about golf.)

The assembled masses. Dualing Pianos usually brings the biggest crowd of the season, along with the Country night.

The girls walked around up in the Commons, up on Main Street, most of the evening, where they did the usual teenage thing - taking pics and selfies all over the place (like this one of Ella clicking her heels walking down the street.) 

Abby, getting artsy with the sunset.

The dynamic duo.

Doin' it for the 'Gram.

Abby's pic.

Like I said, we had perfect weather this evening - made for some really awesome sunset pics.

Like we do every night, The Tribe closed the place down - last ones to pack up and head home at the end of the evening, long after everyone else left and went home.

Meanwhile, back on The Commons, Alayna took some pics of Abby and Ella.

Not sure which of the girls took this one. That's a shitload of ants, folks.

Abby's pic of a sunset over the Tittabawassee River.

Like I said before, we regularly looked for Danielle's missing diamond here and there throughout the evening - like Kris and Mitch are doing here - but we didn't have any luck. We were hoping the phone flashlights would make the diamond sparkle and therefore make it way easier to see amidst the grass, but it wasn't to be.

Packing it up, finally, towards the end of the evening.

The girls got one, last artsy pic of Abby walking up these steps they always like getting pics in front of on their way back to Alayna's car. Thus ends this season's first outing to Tunes By the Tridge, our favorite Thursday evening activity of the Summer. Stay tuned for future installments, kids.

- Brian

Tunes By the Tridge

'Sup, folks.

One of the cool things this little town or ours does during the summer is provide free, open-air concerts to the masses every week. This 'Bread and Circus' management approach by the municipal powers that be definitely screams 'Midland,' but it's appreciated - we make an effort to head downtown every Thursday for Tunes By the Tridge to check out the week's musical act(s).

Some are definitely better than others - the 'Bro Country' acts are usually abysmal (like, comically bad) - but the last two weeks we've gotten lucky. Kris' favorite night of the summer, by far, is Dueling Pianos, which usually kicks off the summer program, so it was mandatory that we head downtown for that one. Our local friend group are big proponents of this weekly outing, so we usually have four or five families on hand to hang out with down there. Each night we pack up a cooler and some camping chairs and stake out a space on the grass, then proceed to hang out for a couple hours while traveling troubadours play for our amusement.

Today's post highlights the last two weeks' concerts, which were both pretty cool. We're kinda busy the next two Thursdays, so we may not get back around to Tunes By the Tridge until July - have to play it by ear.

Anyway, here you go, kids - enjoy.

Thursday, June 6th: Dueling Pianos

The weather has been pretty solid the first stretch of June, and the night we came out for Dueling Pianos was no different - no rain, high 70s (a little overcast for my liking - no bronzing to be had - but decent enough.) Turnout for this inaugural concert is usually pretty high, and so it came to no surprise that it was pretty packed down there.

Erik and I had a Masonic funeral to attend for an old brother who had passed away, and so we weren't rolling in until, like, 7:30pm or so, but Kris, the Colliers, and all the kids were able to get down there and snag a spot for our group.

By the time we finally got there, the two dueling pianists - and an accompanying drummer this year, a first - were in the middle of busting out pop standards.

This one was a song made popular from the cheesy movie Dolphin Tale that Abby was obsessed with back when she was super little (and that we consequently checked out one Spring Break back when we lived in Florida.)

Kris and Melanie

Abby and Ella, taking advantage of the local food trucks that always come out for Tunes By the Tridge.

Alayna brought along her friend Amelia for the evening (always keep the kids out of our hair if they bring along friends to wander around with.)

Lonnie Big Balls (at left) rolled in with his fam about a half an hour after we first got there.

The jams keep coming. . .

Two idiots, fighting over a balloon apparently.

This vid definitely sums it up what it's like down by the Tridge on nights like this.

Yours Truly, Stephanie and Lonnie, Erik, and the Colliers, Ryan and Mees.

Jesus Christ, this kid really likes her balloon. . .

Frickin' kid enjoys stealing my hat off my head when I'm least expecting it. . .

The show ended around 9pm, and people began to wander off back towards their cars. Our group, however, continued to sit around, having drinks and hanging out. 

Meanwhile, Abby and Ella were still running around downtown and snapping off glamour pics for their social media accounts (I assume.)

Not sure why The H Hotel is such a point of interest for these two, but whatever. . .

Yeah. . .  we're those people.

The girls took turns taking pics in a tree at the end of the night on our way back to the cars (when we finally got everybody motivated enough to leave.)

Thursday, June 13th: 90's

The following week was warmer, sunnier, and we were actually able to get down there right when it started.

Abby was kind of in a funk when we first got there, but fortunately she snapped out of it after awhile.

Mitch came out this time around (sans Kelli, though.)

Turnout this week was even heavier than last week, on account of the marginally nicer weather, but since we were able to get down there earlier we were able to get decent seats (and parking.)

At one point, some of the dads wanted to grab some drinks downtown, so as we were walking down Main Street we spotted this random cat inside the abandoned floor of the Larkin Building (which houses my Masonic Lodge up on the third floor, if you'll remember.) This floor used to be Oscar's, one of Midland's old bars downtown, but the owner sold it years ago, and it's been empty since. This cat - Weezy, I guess - must be such a regular that whoever is caretaking this empty floor made the cat it's own sign.

Just look at how much fun Abby is having. . .

Chucks and Concerts.

The Cannonball favorite: The 0.5 Forced Perspective

Some Kings of the Hill: Collier, Erik and Mitch

And, like last time, Abby and Ella had to get a few pics for their social media nonsense on the way out of there (courtesy of the Cannonball.)

Teens are so edgy. . .

Kris, Mees and Courtney, mid-gossip.

Closing down Tunes By the Tridge, just like last week. Gotta wonder if we're pissing anyone off by doing this every week. . .

Once again, on the steps of The H Hotel. 

And, in closing, here we have Samson and Watson, who were totally fine with resuming couch time once we had gotten home and started watching some TV before turning in for the night.

- Brian