Friday night, I called the Kimmel Center’s Box Office hoping to buy tickets for the Max Raabe and Palast Orchester’s Saturday night performance. “Sorry Lady, SOLD OUT!” I don’t take no for an answer so I inquired about other approaches to getting tickets. I was told to arrive at the Box Office at 5:30 and I might get some rush tickets. Lisa and I left for Philly and got to the Box office around 5:15 where we stood in a long line. Who knew Max had such a following? Regardless, I kept the vision of us sitting in the theater enjoying the music of Max Raabe and the Palast Orchester in my mind. When we finally got to the window we were told no tickets were left. We exited the theater thoroughly dejected. I couldn’t quite figure out why the Law of Attraction left us high and dry especially since I really saw us sitting there enjoying the show!

We were a bit hungry so we decided to do dinner at this restaurant called Buca di Beppo that stood just next door to the theater. The place was great! There were tons of framed B&W photos on the wall, most of which featured young women with large boobies. The tables had red checked tablecloths and the wine came in baskets. “What a classy joint!” I whispered to Lisa as I motioned toward the painting of the Mona Lisa with her breasts exposed. Lisa told me that this place is actually a chain and not an authentic Italian family restaurant. They really had me fooled! I saw it as a similar restaurant to Arturo’s in NYC. We ate well, we ordered garlic bread and some pasta and seafood dish. There was so much garlic on everything that it clung to me the entire evening and still clings to me now. Once we were finished I told Lisa that we should go back to the box office and give it one more go. “What do we have to lose?”

There was no line at the box office, instead the people lined up to enter the theater. I asked if there were any tickets available.
“Nope, no tickets– these guys are sold out!”
“Please, there must be something available!”
Suddenly the cashier at the next window said, “Wait, I have something!” And he pulled out the final two tickets and we bought them for 46.00 each.

The Law of Attraction didn’t leave us high and dry. Just as I visualized, we sat in the theater and watched Max Raabe sing the songs of the 20’s and 30’s. They were fantabulous! At intermission, we saw Philip, the man we met the last time we saw Max two years ago. Both Lisa and I wanted to invite Philip and his wife back to Ludwig’s for Berliner Weiße mit Schuss (like we did two years ago) but we were so pooped that we just went home.

In the car, I said to Lisa that I learned a couple lessons and I hope she did too.
1. Don’t doubt yourself.
2. Don’t give up.
3. Think twice about ordering Garlic Bread at Buca di Beppo.

And now, here’s a video of Max Raabe performing:

I asked Rob to accompany us but after watching some YouTube videos of Max, Rob decided not to come. He said he feared that after listening to two songs, his balls might dry up and fall off. He stayed home.

And here’s a second video of Max being silly…

This is just a joke, it’s not something they do typically.