Paul's 2023 birthday was celebrated over a joyful and musical weekend.
On the evening of November 2, 2023, the eve of his birthday, we were at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium to see the 50th Anniversary Tour of Devo, a band from his home state, Ohio. This is at least the second time the band had performed in Santa Cruz. The first time was New Year's Eve in 1979 at the same Civic Auditorium. Paul went to the first concert, but was still full of excited anticipation for its latest and perhaps last performance here in Santa Cruz.
.November 4, the day after his birthday, I joined Tom, Dody, Gail and Dee to see Ain't Too Proud -- the Life and Times of the Temptations at San Jose Center for Performing Arts.
Being a total stranger to American music, I have managed to detect a number of dissimilarities between the two musical bands. Needless to day, both of them are popular and successful, but they attract different audience. Devo is experimental, intellectual, and political while the Temptations is soulful, emotional, and progressive. Devo is an American new wave band formed in Akron, Ohio in 1973. It went to American mainstream music with its single Whip It as No. 14 on 1980's Billboard chart. In general, Devo can be characterized by its homogeneity, with members consisting of two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales, and Alan Myers, the fifth member. Fifty years later, Devo is still intact in its five-member band.
Like Devo, the Temptations is also a five-member music group. Formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1960, the original Classic 5 (Otis Williams, Paul Williams, David Ruffin, Melvin Franklin, and Eddie Kendricks) underwent an all but complete lineup change. With Otis being the last original member standing, the other four members succumbed to various misfortunes, such as drugs, alcohol, illness and suicide.
Apart from birthday immersion in music, we had a joyful gathering with family, and friends. Nick came to join our Friday birthday dinner, serenaded by Lee Anne, Leni and Paul via FaceTime. Our Saturday trip to San Jose was preceded by a lunch at Willow Street in Los Gatos. Yesterday, November 5th, Ed and Fernando treated us to a scrumptious post-birthday dinner at La Posta. It was hard to imagine that we had not see each other for more than half a year. While we were chatting at the dinner table, it gradually dawned on us what family and friendship really meant to us.
Happy Birthday, Paul! Your birthday has inspired all of the above.
