It's usually more by good luck than good management, but I almost always have good seats for the plays and concerts that I want to see. But ordering tickets the other night was even more successful than usual. Michael W. Smith will be coming to the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Fairmount Park in August, in concert with Mercy Me. Many of the folk who attend will be lounging on blankets on the grassy hillside that still commands a good view of the stage and performers, and those tickets will be distributed without charge, as is true of all concerts held at the Mann each summer. That's where I was most of the time, when I was in school and college, but now I pay the freight and get to sit indoors. And most of the seats are quite good. But this. I had a choice between aisle seats in the fifth row of the orchestra and the best seats in the premier balcony box.



The Mann Center is a couple of miles from Memorial Hall, site of the great exhibition celebrating the Centennial of American Independence, and is named for Fredric R. Mann, one of Philadelphia's eminent philanthropists and civic figures during the second half of the last century. And an important figure not only in the cultural life of Philadelphia. Mann Auditorium, the home of The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Tel Aviv, is also named for him.



I last saw Michael W. Smith in concert when he was touring after the release of his great CD Worship. The CD was released on September 11, 2001 and the concert in Philadelphia was only a couple of weeks later. It was a wonderful night of praise and fellowship, made even richer in the shadow of the terrible events of that month, and I'd be looking forward to the concert at the Mann even were the seats not as good as they are.