Tom Jones International

From Big Names/Snall Venues in DC Met Blogs:

So, last night I went with a couple of friends to see Tom Jones at the 9:30 club. Yes, knickers were thrown (but not by us). It was an eclectic crowd, with everyone from 18-year-olds to retirees in the mix! Tom had a great band, and sounded pretty darn good for someone who’s 68 years old. He’s perfectly aware of his abilities and his limitations and works to stay within them to give the audience the best possible sound. (Aretha Franklin, I’m looking at you.)

He’s out supporting his new album.

—ajw93

From Rachael Ray’s Food Blog in .New York Magazine:

Monday, February 23: Tom Jones, I’m his hugest fan. I’ve had a crush on him since I was 3. We’ve been lucky enough to be introduced a few times so we went out because he was coming to town to perform the next night. We went to La Masseria, a nice Italian place in the midtown area, which was convenient for them; they were staying close by. It was he and some of his friends and me and my husband and a couple of our friends. We had a family-style Italian supper. We had Brunello to drink. I was married in Montalcino, Italy, and Brunello’s my favorite wine. They sent out a huge antipasti with fried zucchini, just long strings of crispy zucchini that almost looked like fried spaghetti. They sent out a little taste of two pastas for the whole table. A few bites of a lovely tagliatelle with bottarga, one of my favorite things on the planet, and then sort of a spaghetti alla Norma: Eggplant, tomato, basil, and scamorza, smoked mozzarella. Tom had rabbit and I had a chicken, sausage, and mushroom dish, and we sort of shared those. I traded him a little bit of mine for little bit of his That’s the way you do it in an Italian restaurant; pass around a couple of bites to everybody. I never eat dessert so that was the end of that story. My grandfather was a diabetic and he was my primary caretaker. He never gave up his pasta but he had to watch his carbohydrate intake of course. We grew up on a diet heavy in fish and greens and proteins mixed in with our carbs and we rarely had sweets in the house other than fresh fruit. It’s just not my thing and I’d always rather have another sip of wine and let that be my treat.