The company I work for is celebrating their 10th anniversary tomorrow night and to commemorate the occasion, they are having a formal dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in downtown DC. I have been fortunate enough to work for the company for 8 of those 10 years, on various government contracts, and although I probably could complain about various things, I will not. There are too many people out of work, for me to be bitching and moaning about an eight year employer. There have been more good times than bad times....plus all you need to do is click on the link to see how nice that Mandarin Hotel is (although that money could have been better spent on company bonuses).

But there is one little detail about tomorrow's celebration that I cannot let slide, simply because it is so ridiculous. There will be a musical guest at this dinner (which is a bit over the top in and of itself) tomorrow, and if I gave you 200 guesses, I PROMISE you, you'd guess wrong 200 times. The guest? Ashford and Simpson

Now I'm not diminishing the greatness of Ashford and Simpson at all. They are Hall of Fame songwriters who have given us great songs like "You're All I Need To Get By", "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing". They also gave us the mega-hit "Solid", which has curiously been overlooked as background music for male-enhancement products. And I bet you didn't know that Nick Ashford spends his spare time playing the role of Jesus..the Black version.

But as talented and accomplished as they are, Ashford and Simpson are 68 and 64 years old respectively, and their last hit was over 25 years ago. Furthermore, most of the employees of my company are under 40, which means no one really gives a good goddamn about seeing this duo perform on a Friday night. They are known for songwriting, not performing for God's sake. I started not to RSVP for this blessed event, until I realized how endless the blogging possibilities would be. It would be a crying shame if I didn't attend, take mental notes, and then come back and write an extensive review of what happened. So that's exactly what I'll do..not because I want to, but because its the right thing to do.

Baby This Love I Have - Minnie Riperton
(I started to end with an Ashford and Simpson song, but I just cannot do it. I don't even have any of their songs on my ipod)