https://youtu.be/iybMovF-UPQ?si=vY6vuHszO4raC0pX
This past Friday, my sister, Nikki (one of your new Councillors!), and I traveled from Nashville, where we live, to Louisville, Kentucky, to see Duran Duran at the BEAUTIFUL Bourbon and Beyond Festival. First of all, if there is anyone here from Louisville, let me tell you how much I LOVE your beautiful city! There are many parts which remind me of Nashville. The two share in common being relatively small, very friendly, historic cities, with a great love for music and every kind of art and both simply have a very sweet feeling when you're walking through them. Before heading off to the festival grounds, I stopped inside 21c Museum Hotel on West Main Street, having read a lot about it and wanting to see the art on display. It's BEAUTIFUL & I highly recommend it to anyone lucky enough to be traveling to Louisville! I know I've just used BEAUTIFUL three times in a relatively short paragraph but it's required!
Being the decor~loving person that I am, as soon as I enter into an environment I take in its atmosphere and whatever touches of decor someone may have taken the time to add. Any decorators from Bourbon and Beyond here? If so, you made it BEAUTIFUL and DELIGHTFUL to enter into...a True Magical Land of twinkling lights whose colors just melted into each other. I already knew the combination with Duran Duran was going to be transcending. Let me get right to "Save A Prayer"! This was my 5th time seeing Duran Duran, the most recent being June 13th at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. "Save A Prayer" is always transcending and spiritually moving...it just is. But something about "Save A Prayer" drifting out into the night skies of the festival that several someones had obviously put their entire heart & soul into for making it beautiful & welcoming to its guests, all of us experiencing one of the first cool, crisp fall nights (which I'm sure Duran Duran was grateful for because, let me tell you, they have been sloshing it out here through all of America's late summer heatwaves!), the magic Nick Rhodes works from his synths with the hypnotic sound "Save A Prayer" has, Simon Le Bon's lilting voice, and...the Doves. For those of you who have gone to see Duran Duran on the "Future Past Tour", which wraps up this Saturday night in Atlantic City, NJ, you are familiar with the doves that descend upon the band and all of us in the audience. Having been to as many concerts as I've been to (by this I mean of all the artists that I love), it can be impossible to pick a single favorite concert moment (This is the spot where I need to say I've never had the amazing opportunity to go to a Boomtown Rats show since America isn't as frequently blessed with the presence of the Rats as the United Kingdom and Ireland. I know, however, that America will go as OUT OF ITS MIND over "Citizens of Boomtown" as I have if given the opportunity to hear it!) It's extremely hard to consciously choose a favorite concert moment ~ I've experienced so many amazing ones! However, I believe strongly my subconscious, which I trust implicitly as an equal guide to my conscious self, has chosen this one ~ Duran Duran doing "Save A Prayer" ~ in general, yes, but Duran Duran giving the gift of "Save A Prayer" to all of us lucky enough to have been put on the road that wound its way to Louisville, Kentucky and the extraordinary Bourbon and Beyond Festival on the evening of Friday, September 15th, 2023, in particular. No words will ever be enough to describe the gift of these beyond beautiful moments in the video above. At the beginning when Simon asks everyone to light up the sky like the Galaxy by lifting their cell phones up on high, and for the duration of the song, it was like thousands of souls lighting up the night sky ~ all of us present and the ones we Love who are no longer here ~ taking flight. Watch the video above and think of someone you Love.
Love,
Jennifer ✨ 🤍🕊️🕊️🤍 ✨