I have absolutely no excuse for not blogging in 2 months. None of interest anyway. But – I’m back.
And so is, after an indeterminable dry spell, Clay Aiken.
I had begun to lose interest until I found out about Clay’s one-night show scheduled for March 12. My interest slowly gained after tickets went on sale but I did not buy them until after experiencing an excruciating 20 minute “I Shot the Sheriff” guitar riff by Eric Clapton at Madison Square Garden. [I had gone with husband and a friend. ]
The next morning, I ordered Clay Aiken tickets. Payback? Perhaps.
Clay’s show highlighted “Tried and True”, his soon-to-be-released CD , which was taped by PBS for airing sometime this summer. And man, was this a production.
So, we get to the concert hall (nice place – Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh), and we wait in the packed lobby and I notice we are standing next to a cute guy talking to a middle-aged woman. Hmm, I have seen this guy’s picture before. He is thin, he has a head of curly black hair… I nudge husband, whisper “That’s Clay’s boyfriend!” Husband says “No, that is some guy on a date with a cougar.”
Um. No. People start coming up to him to take pictures and get his autograph. It is the boyfriend, Reed, and the cougar is his mother. Ha.
Anyway, we finally go upstairs to our top left corner balcony seats – Ticketmaster’s “best available” – and it does not take long to realize that we had been had. No way were these the best available, the balcony was virtually empty, and the sides downstairs were only half full. The usher that approached me to see if my binoculars were a not-allowed camera said he was surprised because he had heard the concert had been sold out.
Something went awry with ticket sales to this show. I am still pondering – what. Unsold broker tickets? Clay fans throwing away balcony tickets for better seats? Whatever it was, the concert started late because the staff was trying to move people to fill the side seats. We moved to the front center section of the balcony, where the TV camera crane no longer obscured our view.
Finally, the stage lights up in an array of color. Purple, gold, pink.
The orchestra swelled.
And there is Clay, his back to us. The crowd cheers. And he turns to face the audience. And opens his mouth to sing. “Mack the Knife?”
He looked great. He was thin, his hair looked good. His suit was a tad too shiny, and a tad too baggy. [Not sure who dressed him, but velvet is just not right.]
His voice was amazing. He used his lower register like it should be used – smooth and deep and chill-inducing. Now I knew why I came to this show, now I remembered what I did not know I was missing. Wow.
He sang the songs from his new CD, which has a Johnny Mathis vibe. Old songs from the 60’s era. Beautiful melodic songs I had not heard in forever. Moon River [which, by the way, Clapton did in his concert as well, what is this Moon River resurgency?] It’s Impossible. [Yes, that is Perry Como, but I don’t care, he wrapped his voice around this one, it was amazingly good.] Unchained Melody [off the charts fantastic!] The Beatles’ “In My Life.” “Misty.”
There was a surprise guest …… Ruben Studdard! Ruben sounded great, and looked great, he lost over 100 lbs. They will be performing together this summer.
The best thing about a concert that is being taped for TV? Do-overs! After the show ended, Clay was instructed by the music director to redo 4 songs. We got to hear them again, yay!
It was a great night. I have only one nagging regret, that we did not wait outside for him after the show. I figured, there are no buses [this is in his hometown, this is not a “tour”], so we just left. I was wrong. He came out and shook hands, so I hear.
Oh well, I guess I am just gently dipping my toe back into the whole Clay scene.
If there is one thing Clay Aiken sings best, it is Christmas.
I am SO missing those Clay Christmas concerts [that I dragged my husband to.] The one in Washington DC (where I won a meet and greet, yay!) The one in NYC. Another one in Morristown NJ.
I have been watching a lot of movies and listening to a lot of music over the past few days.
Music first.
I am disappointed in the Adam Lambert album, For Your Entertainment. [I am/was a huge Adam lambert fan, btw.] And not because he acted like an immature a-hole at the AMA awards. [Smack. You are not Madonna yet, Adam, you need to earn your stripes before attempting shock-value.] Many of the songs on the album have similar beats that blend into each other. Only 3 songs stand out as good to me – and that is because they showcase his voice.
This is the best song – in my opinion. It showcases his voice and is reminiscent of Queen.
I received the Susan Boyle CD the same day Adam’s CD arrived. I really like it. Her voice is wonderful. And her album has sold more than double Adam’s in the first week – she’s up to 675,000 vs. his 250,000.
So, all these albums from reality TV shows? They may be good, but none hold a candle to what we watched last night on HBO.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert. Man! This is a total must see.
I am not even going to name all the stars on this. Okay. Here are some – Jeff Beck Band, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Aretha Franklin, Metallica, Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, U2 and Stevie Wonder. Billy Joel. Sting. Jackson Browne. Many many more.
If you missed it, it will air again, here is a link to the schedule.
We went to see “This Is It” yesterday, the rehearsal footage for the Michael Jackson concert that sadly never came to be.
He danced and sang as good as he ever did. There was no lip-synching while he danced, either.
He was spectacular. Even the night before he died.
It was so enlightening to see how much work went into the preparation
for this show.
The choreography, music, special effects, including 3D, and the music videos.
The note by note, step by step, detail that Michael paid attention to. He was in charge of this show, and he was very excited about it.
It is ironic how much work went into this, how much excitement there was around it. They were close to done rehearsing, and everything was coming together. And then. The horrible shock and sadness.
But this movie does not go there, to the sadness. This movie is pure joy. And love.
Our seats were not the greatest, they were in the nose-bleed section, way high, but right in line with the side of the stage, so we brought binoculars.
Before the concert started, there was video, and each time Adam Lambert’s picture – yes, picture – came on screen, the crowd roared and screamed. Definitely an Adam crowd. The husband tried to shush me – it is only a picture, jeez – but I got caught up in the moment.
Right before the concert started, I was focusing the binoculars at the audience directly opposite us – hundreds of feet away across the stadium – and 2 girls started waving at me. Husband says “some people are waving at you?” LOL – they are friends from work who at the exact moment I focused on them – focused on me. One of them is Tanya, and these are her pictures (below.)
The first set of performers were the top 6, in order of elimination, and I must say, Scott MacIntyre and Matt Giraud were really very good. They both played piano, and even did a piano duet.
Then, the rush for a smoke down 4 floors and out the door during intermission. We missed the first song of Allsion Iraheta’s set [ I mistakenly thought Danny Gokey was next, and missing him would be fine with me. Oops.] Allison rocked the house. She did Janis Joplin’s “Cry Baby” and Heart’s “Barracuda.”
Had to sit through Gokey. Waiting, waiting, for Adam ….
The screams were deafening….
He comes out singing Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love”….
Then, Muse’s “Starlight.”
“Mad World.”
Duet with Allison – “Slow Ride.”
Rips off his jacket.
And prances and grinds to Bowie’s “Life on Mars,” “Fame,” and “Let’s Dance.”
Woa.
Kris Allen was pretty good too. His last song was “Hey Jude” and he got the whole audience singing along.
Then, the obligatory group song. Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.”
We rushed down to wait by the buses afterwards.
Tanya and Karin (the two girls from work), and another girl that was with them, met us at the barricades, and we waited for Adam to come out (the others too) to sign autographs.
For 90 minutes.
There was a 4 year old boy who started getting annoyed, he said “They are wasting my time!”
At 11:30, with 90 minutes in, and we know the garage closes at midnight and is blocks away, things began to get dicey.
And the girls with us – they had taken the metro, which closes at midnight.
Then a security guard announces that those taking the metro should leave, the midnight closing is to reach your destination, not to get on the train – and these girls took off like a bat outta hell, they did not even say good-bye. They were – gone.
We waited 10 more minutes, and had to go get the car.
We forgot exactly what street the garage was on. Ran around looking for the garage, and finally figured it out.
Got the car with 5 minutes to spare – 11:55.
Decided to ride back to see if Adam had come out yet.
And saw the bus leaving, the last remnants of the crowd waving.
Things have gotten real strange around here lately.
Appliances are going freaky. The dishwasher started to smell like burning rubber. Called the guy, had that fixed. The A/C – not working real well. The A/C guy came yesterday.
Internet is acting wonky. The wireless signal is intermittently nonexistent or very low. There sometimes seems to be a connection with the BlackBerry, which cannot get signal at the same time the wireless acts up, I am not sure why, they are different services. And AOL software started going crazy yesterday too, I could not get online on the land line yesterday without using a different browser, but now AOL is remarkably working.
The other night, the house alarm starting beeping, really shrill, every few seconds, in the middle of the night. Turns out it is on low battery.
WTF?
I had all of these theories about bad feng-shui or some kind of craziness in the atmosphere that is throwing all signals off or maybe some planet is in retrograde.
And then around 3 am this morning, I am awoken by what I swear is a ghost riding on horseback through my bedroom – it was loud and thunderous and scared me to f-ing death. I yelled “someone is in the house!”
And I wonder if that is someone coming to make things right again. Or if this is the culprit – some ghost is doing this stuff.
Or if it was just a dream.
Or if I am thinking about my new script too much.
Or – was it Adam Lambert?
I am seeing him in concert tonight, yay! Even got this cool tee at Costco.
OY GIRL 