Pinay New Yorker

They played to a packed Nikon Jones Beach Theatre here in New York last Thursday, August 14, 2008.  Alan and I had long planned to watch the show because we were both fans of Journey from the eighties, plus we have been keeping tabs on Arnel Pineda whose phenomenal rise to becoming the lead singer for the band cemented our loyalties to our old favorite group.

I had ordered their latest CD, Revelation (exclusively distributed by Walmart) weeks ago and we both agree that it was a good marketing strategy to have released a CD of their old hits with new arrangements and Arnel singing in lieu of the original vocals by Steve Perry, alongside their new tracks and  DVD of one of their concerts in their ongoing world tour.

While Arnel’s vocal range equals Steve Perry’s and the timbre of his voice is similar to the latter, you will hear him singing as himself in both the old and the new tracks.  By this I mean that you know it’s not Steve Perry, but you know it’s Journey.

At the concert, he was a firebrand moving all sides of the stage and really working the audience.  It was a tight repertoire and a good show on the whole.  Well worth having braved the thunderstorms for and sitting on seats that had just been rained on. As if on cue, the storm didn’t return until after the last song was sung.  Seeing Arnel perform among these rock giants makes me proud.  Arnel is not really an unknown singer in the music circles in Manila, Arnel was discovered by Journey from clips the band found on YouTube where he sang some covers with his band Zoo.

He’s living proof that Filipinos are truly world class performers.  I’m sure many of the more popular singers back home wish they had the same luck Arnel had, having been invited and eventually hired by a band as famous as Journey to be the new voice behind their music.  It’s a well deserved break for a great singer and performer — He was introduced as "Arnel Pineda from Manila," and at the end of the show, he remembered his roots and shouted "Salamat, kababayan!".

To which I say, "No, Arnel — THANK YOU!"

It was around 7 years ago that we first visited Mystic, Connecticut on the way to Rhode Island.  Alan had picked a restaurant where we were going to have lunch then we drove off to Providence, our ultimate destination.

He had chosen a romantic restaurant by the water, although we knew of Mystic Pizza then.  This time, we had made a pact to go and eat in this landmark made famous by that Julia Roberts movie of long ago.

Downtown Mystic was abuzz with activities as the Mystic Outdoor Art festival was on, seeing the streets overflowing with art exhibits.  We couldn’t get near enough but managed to find the St. Patrick’s Church parking lot (map) where we left the car.  The walk to Main Street was actually rather interesting because of all the exhibitor’s booths we passed.  Not exactly a good day to bring a kid on a stroller but we managed.

Mystic Pizza has two branches but we made our way to their branch on West Main Street.  While some people have said the pizza is just like any other pizza, we beg to disagree.  Perhaps it was the whole experience of going to a landmark restaurant that made it special, perhaps the sauce indeed gave you a "taste of heaven," but we were quite satisfied with our calamari for starters and a House pizza for lunch.  Angelo had his customary spaghetti and even he was quite happy about it. =)

The 15-minute wait turned out to be only 5 minutes, and service was friendly.  Prices are definitely affordable, and it’s one Mystic experience worth chalking up as having been there, done that.