Artists & the world of sports

I had a grand time Friday night. The Dish and I attended the only concert we annually hit. 1964: The Tribute, a wonderful group of Beatles impersonators. I’ve been going for probably 10 years and look forward to it every time.

But Friday night was a special treat. For the first time that I’ve seen, the Fab Four had a little help. A brass section and a strings section accompanied them on on a couple of songs. And the violinist was a new friend, John Arnold.

I met John only a week ago, on my trip to the Super Bowl. He was seated on the front row of the Southwest flight to Phoenix on Sunday morning; he had the window seat and I took the aisle, and he introduced himself immediately. Turns out we have a mutual friend, Rusty Olson, who was my radio sidekick on KREF for several months before I switched stations.

John was on his way to the Super Bowl, too. His family was meeting in Phoenix and he was excited to see his nephews and enjoy the game with his brother-in-law, a big Patriots fan. We rode back on the same flight Monday morning and talked about our Super Bowl night. It was fun meeting John.

He told me he taught violin at OCU, but I never knew he could make the fancy fiddle dance like that. He was big-time good. MY brother-in-law, before he knew my connection to John, remarked what a superb musician he was.

And it all made me marvel again at what a diverse group of people make up sports fans. The stereotypical sports fan is that Saturday Night Live spoof of “Da Bears” fans. But sports fans are made up of all kinds of people, including artists.