What we did this weekend

I didn't go to the ABBA tribute show at the Pops on Saturday night, but Steve Thomas, a UC Medical Center prof, e-mailed me his impressions. He was disappointed that the show, with the Swedish band, Arrival (pictured) didn't prominently feature everyone's favorite ABBA tunes, such as "Mamma Mia" and "Dancing Queen."

"I was highly disappointed in the ABBA concert. They did not succeed
in getting folks to dance in the aisles until their quick single song
encore (Dancing Queen) - but at that point people were standing to
leave anyway. In my opinion the mistake made was not to feature
ABBA's most famous songs - they played a number of obscure tunes that
presumably were ABBA songs but we didn't know them," he says.

On Saturday, I saw the new movie, "Once," about an aspiring singer/songwriter in Dublin, and I was also underwhelmed. OK, it was a cute story, but I think it was over-rated, given a "10." And I didn't love the music. It tended to all sound the same. But maybe that's just me...

In the audience, outgoing CCM dean Doug Lowry and wife Marcia, Ann Stewart (Chamber Orchestra PR director), Stanley Aronoff (namesake of the Aronoff Center) and about half of the Enquirer's entertainment staff...

On Sunday, I was at the Chamber Orchestra's grand finale concert, with the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. Fun!

Did you do/see/hear anything interesting over the weekend?