“The noblest art is that of making others happy”.
P.T. Barnum
Monday, May 10, 2021
Lilacs in bloom at Highland Park/Rochester NY
The Rochester Lilac Festival is an art, music, food and flora festival hosted annually in early May over 3 consecutive weekends. Highland Park possesses a huge collection of lilacs which features more than 1800 bushes and over 500 different varieties.
This is the largest collection of lilacs in North America covering 22 acres of Highland Park's 155 acres. The park designer, Frederick Law Olmstead, was also responsible for New York City's famous Central Park. The largest celebration of its kind, this festival brings visitors from every continent and creates an exotic spectacle of languages, customs, costumes, colors and an endless array of international foods. This family-oriented event is the largest and longest-running festival in the Greater Rochester metropolitan area. The 123rd Lilac Festival 2021 dates in May are 7-9, 14-16 and 21-23.
The lilac was the favorite flower of a famous comedian. Her name?
Lucille Ball
Stop and Smell the Lilacs
Pat Locke, Maestro Muse
Sunday, May 9, 2021
Happy Mother's Day from the Chautauqua Lake Pops
Pat Locke, Maestro Muse
Saturday, May 8, 2021
Carrie and Jeff Ketterman
This talented couple from Corydon Indiana are good friends I had the pleasure of meeting and seeing them perform as the beloved Lucy and Desi at a Lucy Festival in Jamestown NY a few years ago. In the summer months they travel with their own Not So Long Trailer to many areas of the country entertaining Lucy fans and making new friends along the way .. Lucy and Desi style!
Carrie and Jeff Ketterman as Lucy and Desi
Jamestown NY
Lucie and Carrie
Carrie being Lucy
Jeff being Desi
The Not So Long Trailer at Lucy Fest
Jeff and Carrie with Comedian, Brian Regan
Vitameatavegamin
"Spoon your Way to Health"
It's So Tasty Too!
Jeff and Carrie Ketterman shared their first kiss on stage in the production of The Music Man in 2009. Carrie was playing the lead female role of Marian Paroo and Jeff was playing the lead male role of Professor Harold Hill. Sparks flew and the rest is history, as they say.
Since meeting, the two have been inseparable. They have ventured into 23 more theatre shows together, started two bands, operate a theme-based tea room in their historic home and have renovated a 19' travel trailer into a touring act to honor Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The travel trailer is quite unique and is affectionately called The Not So Long Trailer paying homage to the 1952 Lucy and Desi movie, The Long, Long Trailer.
During the recent pandemic they found themselves in isolation, like most, and decided to create various music videos to keep themselves and their friends and family entertained. These videos and numerous travel clips can be found online. They recently launched their YouTube channel and website, both under the name Our Technicolor Life. The website allows visitors to get a peek inside their busy lives with their music, entertainment, tea room, lifestyle and travels.
Upon meeting them, you might think you have stepped back in time. They embrace the style and fashion of past decades primarily the 1920s through the 1960s with a big focus on the 1950s. When not traveling in their retro travel trailer they are usually driving the back roads of Indiana in their 1959 Rambler Ambassador and generally exploring the history of the Hoosier State they call home.
On the road
Carrie collects vintage dresses, shoes, gloves and hats which she often times will wear around their beautiful historic home in Corydon for events such as tea parties in their Old Capitol Tea Room. The home sits on land where the Indiana State Constitution was written in 1816 and was built on the hollowed ground in 1916. More information on the home can be found on their website under The Old Capitol Tea Room. Corydon served as Indiana's first State Capitol in 1816, before it was moved to Indianapolis. The building sits in the town square, just a block from their home.
Jeff and Carrie's love of vintage fashion and history is just one of the many things they have in common. They are always looking for the next project that will challenge their talents and lead them down a new path of adventure.
A friend once told them, "Your lives are like watching a technicolor picture in a movie theatre for the first time."
Thank you for honoring Lucy and Desi with your extraordinary talent and love of Lucy!
Pat Locke, Maestro Muse
Friday, May 7, 2021
2006
A Glorious Celebration from the Bay to the Sky
Wednesday, May 5, 2021
Cinco de Mayo was first celebrated in the United States in 1863 in Southern California. The celebration was in support with Mexico against French rule. By the 1930s the holiday beame an opportunity to celebrate Mexican identity, promote ethni consciousness and build community solidarity.
Over the last decades Cinco de Mayo has gained increasing popularity in the Mexican-American population of the United States on May 5. It is a celebration of Mexican culture, heritage, cuisine, dance and music comparable to St. Patrick's Day for the Irish. Parades are staged and events, celebrations and ceremonies are held on this day, especially in areas in the Southwest that have large populations of Americans of Mexican descent.
Cinco de Mayo pronounced [sinko de ma ho] is Spanish for "fifth of May". Today, Cinco de Mayo generates beer sales on par with the Super Bowl. Cinco de Mayo is sometimes mistaken for Mexico's Independence Day which is celebrated on September 16, the most important national holiday in Mexico.
