4 O' Clock Friday Redeems Itself

I ragged on the new changes to the concerts after the Del Mar races. And I stand by what I said because the new rules are truly ridiculous. I also found out that the Saturday concerts are now 18 and older...which makes absolutely no sense and would have completely enraged my high school self.

With Jimmy Cliff (who brought Club Paradise, one of my all-time favorite movies, to life) playing last night, I decided to give the concerts another shot and went with my mom and my sixteen-year-old sister.

Based on the tragedy of the Cake concert, we planned to leave at 5 p.m. instead of 6:30 p.m. Luck was on our side because we were able to park in the nice, main lot for $10. Not free, but a lot more reasonable than $20. We then learned from a security guard that we didn't even need to buy the $10 race ticket to get in. All we had to do was walk down to the main gate and it would be $6. Amazing. We arrived so early that we were even able to watch the last couple of races and secure an incredible second row position in front of the stage.

Jimmy Cliff is incredible on stage. He was wearing a bedazzled headband, an all-leather black and red suit a la Eddie Murphey, and a red, green and yellow scarf. The music itself was so much fun to dance to. It was upbeat, positive and beautifully crafted. He is by far the most adorable man I have ever seen. He was flailing his arms, moving all across the stage, high kicking, doing faux tai chi moves and genuinely enjoying himself the whole time. His joy and happiness was truly infectious.

4 o'clock Friday, you better write Jimmy Cliff a really nice letter. I forgive you.