The Hollywood Hills are Alive

... with the sound of me singing the Sound of Music. Well, me and about 18,000 other people. And it was a few weeks ago, but I'm pretty sure the chords are still resonating... in our hearts. Hah.
.
So, there are three things that top my list that is "Los Angeles". They are: the LA Temple (of course), Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles (delish but should probably only be consumed once per quinquennium), and...

THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL!

If you haven't ever been to the Bowl, and you live anywhere in the Southland, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?? Actually, if you're in the Southland and don't attend frequently during the three-month summer season of almost-daily events, there's also something wrong with you. It's FANTASTIC. Outdoor music etc., concerts and showcases of all kinds presented in a natural amphitheater nestled into the Hollywood hills. Well, natural but with benches etc. SOOOO great! My faves are the weekend concerts that are also Firework Spectacular(s), because I love real fireworks--sometimes they even make me cry a little--because I AM AMERICAN, and all Americans should love fireworks. Oh, and the Chinese should too, since they invented them. Only proper.

But while I love classical music and themed concerts, there is something just a little bit EXTRA-special about going to a Sing Along, and a SOUND OF MUSIC sing along, at that. What could be wrong with a two-hour pre-show costume parade, a huuuuge screen projecting the really long movie, and subtitles so everyone can sing along (hence the name, derr)? Ueberhaupt nichts, I tell you.

And I believe that if you're going to a Sound of Music sing-along, you should always dress the part, and eat the part. Part of the fun of the Bowl is bringing fun food, and if you happen to have an authentic dirndl in your hall closet, as I do, you are pretty dang excited to wear it once a year.

It's also super-fun times to ride the Bowl Bus when you're dressed up in your dirndl but all your friends are coming from the Westside, so you're alone looking a little bit like an idiot. I tried to look like maybe I was just some real-life Austrian who happened to be riding the bus in foreign Kalifornia (excuse me-- California) by reading a book in German and muttering key phrases to myself like "Ach! Du bloede Amerikaner, sei nicht so laut", but I don't think anyone bought it. My Ray-Bans weren't really kosher to the part, plus I smiled a lot.

I wanted real bad to have someone take a picture of me sitting alone in the bus, but I didn't get the guts. Hooray for photoshop!

Then when I arrived, I had to wait a bit longer even for my arriving friends, but luckily I was among unknown friends and family and fellow Austrians, like the Von Trapps (all grown up).

Poooor Jennie. All authentic, including the basket (but not including the Roxy backpack), but all alone. Look at the dude behind me staring. Hee hee.

but more than that, look at ME-- what is wrong with my neck?? I am bearing a freakish (and not flattering) resemblance to one Jane Bennett, and I don't mean the pretty Jane from the recent P&P,

I mean this one. If you know Pride & Prej, you know what I'm talking about. Horse neck.

So anyway, I sat around awkwardly for a while. Alone. Alooooone.

and then yay!! My friends showed up! In American clothing, weird.

hot Stacy

..though I'm pretty sure that, in truth, men are downright appreciative of a girl in a dirndl. Pictures certainly don't lie. And I know that Brandon and Ted wouldn't.

KJ and John arrive

The view of the actual 'bowl' from our seats...

Part of the fun of the Sing Along is a little bag we're given containing bits of things to wave along at appropriate times in songs, like tiny flowers for Edelweiss, a scrap of fabric for when Maria makes those famous playclothes-from-drapes (ohhh, that Maria) and these cards for "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" (Seriously. How DO you.)

Nobody actually waves them, it's dark and you wouldn't see it anyway, but it's a nice thought and creates a lot of left-behind trash.

The pre-show and costume parade/contest is MC'd by one Melissa Peterman (pretty funny actress, at least ad-libbing on stage) and... LIESEL!! The actual Liesel from the film! Old now, of course, and tiny compared to the giant Melissa, but Liesel just the same. I'm pretty sure she sneaked off the stage for a while, allegedly to go sing and dance around a nearby gazebo with her secret lover. Ohhhh, that Liesel.

The Von Trapps I'd seen earlier were a hit with the crowd, because Maria turned out to be a man.

One of the costume finalists was a group acting out the marionette scene-- so great! A little five-year old dressed as a goat was bounding back and forth in front of their stage.

Oh and by the way, people? It's LEDERhosen. Not Liederhosen. As in pronounced "layder", not "leeder"... LIEDERhosen means "song pants". Which would be AWESOME, of course, to have song pants, and appropriate to a sing-along, but probably more modest for them to be leather (Leder). In any case, please spread the word. A waterfall starts with just one drop of water, you know.

This was the other great costume finalist group-- the kids in the back are trees, with Von Trapp children hanging out of their branches, and the other kid is the Cap'n driving past the trees in his car (the Baroness is strangely missing). The car even had a license plate bearing "CPN TRAPP" and working lights for the headlamps!

Both of these groups were robbed for first place-- and a Mexican Riviera Princess Cruise-- by a trio of littles dressed as "Tea (with) Jam (and) Bread". Ugh, it's been done, I can't believe they won.

GOOD TIMES WATCHING THE FILM

eating, of course-- and in this case, Authentic Austrian Strudel made by moi. Or by mich.

and whoop, of course... always present. Not Authentic Austrian "Schlag", unfortunately.

Brandon found Waldo... I know. We didn't understand either.

Singing along to the nuns' Latin Allelujah chorus in the beginning of the movie. Not for the fainthearted.

During Edelweiss, everyone pulled out their cell phones and waved them back and forth, lighter-at-a-rock-concert-style. AWE - SOME.

The whole thing-- great. WUNDERBAR. You should come, next year! Start planning your costume now.

* * * * * * * * * *

PROLOG

I'm hard-core, and also Legit. I only bring Authentic Austrian food to Sound of Music sing alongs. For my dinner I made/brought:

-Semmel (bread roll) with salami, one of my fave pick-up-from-the-grocery-store meals while living in Austria

-Kartoffelsalat (potato salad; gold potatoes with oil and vinegar and dill)

-Guerkensalat (cucumber salad; thinly sliced 'English' cucumber with vinegar, sugar and dill)

and to SHARE... Apfelstrudel! Made it myself, yo. And I reeeallly wanted to buy phyllo dough pre-made, but the perfectionist in me wouldn't allow it. And how satisfying is dough from scratch??

After allowing the dough to rest for a a while, you roll it out as large as you can on a floured cheesecloth (or tablecloth)-covered table. Then to get it tissue-thin for proper apple strudel pastry, you have to lift it up and let gravity stretch it out. It's kinda fun. :)

The filling is made up of thinly sliced/cut apples coated with sugar and cinnamon, chopped walnuts, and breadcrumbs browned with sugar. Raisins soaked in rum too, if you're being really authentic, but I don't like raisins or rum so I added some vanilla to the apples. It was actually kinda tasty, and strangely, gave an alcoholish-taste to the apples.

To apply the filling, the breadcrumbs and walnuts are spread over the huuuge dough, and the apples put in a row along one edge. Then you lift the cheesecloth to fold the edge of dough over the apples, then continue to lift the cheesecloth so that the strudel rolls up/into itself. Pretty dang awesome. And easy.

My finished and baked strudel, dusted with Puderzucker (powdered sugar), and a cross-section...

YUM. Except I have to admit, I'd forgotten that Austrian pastries look good, but they're kinda bland. Couldn't bring the usual vanilla sauce that goes with strudel to the Bowl, so I just brought along a baggie of sugar and cinnamon to add, instead. Blaaaand.

The other treat I made to share was LINZER AUGEN cookies. The dough is made of butter, flour, ground almonds, nutmeg, lemon zest, etc... They are a sandwich cookie with jam in the middle, and the top layer has a cutout so you can see the jam. Traditionally, the shape is a fluted edge circle with three holes in the top, but since most of you won't make it to Austria to get the proper cutter, you could cut circles with a star in the center, or two sizes of hearts, etc..

  The jam in the center (seedless raspberry is best!) is heated for a few minutes so it will thicken when cooled, and the tops are dusted with powdered sugar.

Finished product. (on an Austrian Gmunder Keramik plate, I might add). YUM. These take effort, but worth it! If you want the recipe I will totally give it to you. I really should HAVE some to offer, for your effort of reading/skimming/scrolling through this entire post, but.. well, life's not fair. And I'm not Willy Wonka and can't transmit chocolate or other goodies via television or the like. But if you come to the Sing Along next year I'll make you some, for sure.

Alles Liebe, Fraulein Jennie