But do you mean that literally?

Some weeks or months ago, the husband mentioned to me about some funny videos he'd seen where people had taken the music videos of songs and re-written the lyrics of said song to match what was actually being shown on screen. Well, tonight, he had me pull up one of the videos, and dang him, he got me hooked. I ended up watching quite a few of them, and yep, they're pretty hysterical. The lyrics are actually pretty clever, especially since they generally rhyme as well.

Two things I discovered in watching the videos:

1. It's funnier if you actually know the music video and the song really well, because then you know what it's supposed to be and what they've changed it into.

2. I was turned off immediately when the singing was really bad. I tried Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl" but couldn't get past the first couple lines. I tried The Cars' "Drive" and couldn't get past the first line because the last note of the line wasn't even correct. Sorry, pass. I'm not a big fan of cover versions of songs anyway, but if it's at least decent and for comedy's sake, I'm ok with it. When it's a bad singer, nope, sorry, I'm out.


The video that the husband had me watch was a-ha's "Take On Me".






I then went to look up what other songs were available. I stopped on Pat Benatar's "Love is a Battlefield" because I really like the song, but I've also always loved the video. The singing isn't quite what I'd like, but it's seriously hysterical enough for me to overlook that.






And then I saw that they had Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". Wow! There's a particular line that I loved, but instead of spoiling it here, I'll put it in a comment.

For some reason, the embedding on this video has been disabled, so here's the link instead.



The husband then had me watch Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf". This version is APPARENTLY done live in a karaoke bar or something because you can tell from the sound quality and the occasional laughing in the background.






And then, the husband had mentioned that there was an Air Supply video. He knows that I used to love Air Supply, but he couldn't remember the name of the song. And then it came up on the list - "Making Love Out of Nothing At All". A song and video I loved. And I got to see Russell and Graham the way they were back when I was totally into them. Perfect.






There are a bunch of other songs/videos available, so just go to youtube and search for "literal video". That should pop you up a good list.

more "Glee"

It's been announced that "Glee" has been renewed for a second season, not to be confused with the remainder of the first season that is still to come.

That's good news indeed, as I really like this show, and I'm hoping that the reveal of Quinn's real baby daddy and that Will isn't a baby daddy at all will wrap up those stories and see where it goes next. I was not fond of Terri's deception of Will, and Terri's character is drawn really poorly - she has no rooting value whatsoever, even as a villain. I hope they either flesh out her character or drop her altogether.

And of course, more cool songs to come!


But, I'm particularly interested in the tidbit that they're looking for new people for the show.

So, who's auditioning? :)

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2010 inductees

I'd previously mentioned that Genesis was on the list of nominees to be included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Well, today, the list of inductees was released, and Genesis is one of the 5 artists being inducted in 2010. How cool is that? I'm also happy that ABBA is included as well because I like them a lot too.

The ceremony is on March 15, 2010 in New York. So, if anyone has a spare ticket to the induction ceremony and wants to invite me along, I'd be more than happy to go. I can even arrange my own transportation to New York. I'll pencil in the date on my calendar so that I can be sure to be available at that time. I'm sure I'd be able to take a couple days off work to make the trip. Just give me a little notice so that I can arrange a decent-priced plane ticket and somewhere to stay.

Seriously, I want to go.

Thanks, Kevin

I'm glad I got to see Rockapella one last time with Kevin. And thanks to Wendy for the awesome idea of the letter sign.

I'll be looking forward to hearing the stories from Kevin's last concert in Tampa.






from all the California sad-eyed girls (and guys)

soft kitty song

How about a nice happy song for today, and funny interspersed as well?

"True Colors"

OK, I know, this week has been very Phil Collins heavy. It's just worked out that way.

This week's episode of "Glee" featured the song "True Colors", a song originally sung by Cyndi Lauper. I did like the version they did on the show, but my favorite version of the song was sung by Phil Collins and his backup folk during his First Final Farewell Tour. It wasn't quite as a capella as I recalled, but it's pretty minimal in music so you can really hear and focus on the vocals and the harmonizing. It was absolutely beautiful to listen to live.

Grandpa Phil, singing the Motown hits

Yesterday, I got a blip of news that Phil Collins had become a grandfather because his oldest daughter, Joely, had given birth to a child.

Here's an article with all the news.

I'm amused that Phil's granddaughter already has more hair than he does!


There's also a bit in there about Phil's injury that's impeding his ability to drum, and new information that he's working on a new album of Motown covers. I'm happy about that, but I'm a bit disappointed that he won't be putting a slightly different spin on them. Having him sing them exactly the way they were done doesn't sound as inspired as it could be. But, I'll wait to hear them to pass full judgement. I'll admit that I'm not that crazy about his cover of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A'Changing", so there's no guarantee I'll love them just because it's Phil. However, I do love his cover of "You Can't Hurry Love", so you never know.

sending out sympathy

I was going to write a restaurant review today, but before I had a chance to do that, I was made aware of a situation that has pretty much taken away any desire I have to write about that experience.

Instead, I'm offering the video below. I don't know what's appropriate, but that's what I came up with. There's a particular situation that I'm sending this out for - to parents, siblings, spouse, children, friends - with the hope that prayers, good thoughts, and best wishes from this stranger, added to those coming from a lot of other people, can help those in need in some small way.








May God be with those who need Him the most right now.

I was just sitting there

So, yeah, I was in Boston early last month.

A friend who'd gotten there the day before to have another adventure came and picked me up at the airport. There was a toll booth on the way from the airport to our hotel, so she stopped and was paying the posted toll fee.

I was sitting in the passenger seat probably checking Twitter or my email on my phone, and it took me a second to register that the toll booth attendant was talking ... and that the talking was directed at ME.

It was one of those where I wasn't paying attention, so I wasn't listening to what he was saying, until something registered, and then I played back in my mind what I'd heard him say.

"Genesis", he'd huffed.

I remembered that I was wearing a Genesis t-shirt from their last concert tour. And I knew that my friend wasn't wearing a Genesis t-shirt, even though I didn't notice that she was wearing a Rockapella t-shirt, though I really should have just guessed that.

He said he saw Genesis on their last tour and he ragged on them because they didn't play anything from "Abacab". I was really too stunned to say anything at the time. I mean, seriously, I was just sitting there minding my own business. Yeah, ok, I had the t-shirt on, but I guess I don't get a lot of comments so I wasn't really expecting one at that point in time, since I didn't know he could even see me well enough to notice my t-shirt, and I mostly wear the t-shirt because it makes me happy, because I saw them multiple times, and it was an awesome concert each time.


It wasn't until later that I could really process what he'd said.


Now, I like "Abacab", but I wouldn't say there are any major standout signature songs on that album, and Genesis has a whole lot of songs in their arsenal that they could possibly play. They played a REALLY LONG SET, and they even played songs like "Ripples" and "Afterglow" for f'ing sake, two absolutely beautiful songs that normally don't get played. They played a ton of stuff that's not in their usual repertoire, and they played a lot of really old songs, including "The Carpet Crawlers".

But the concert sucked because they didn't play any of the songs from ONE PARTICULAR ALBUM?

And for that, I got hassled for it, because, you know, I had some say in the matter, all while I was doing nothing to provoke it?

W

Australian Pink Floyd - concert review

I mentioned in a previous blog post that I was going to see Australian Pink Floyd in concert. The show was at the NOKIA Theatre at L.A. Live, which I'd never been to before, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect of the venue, much less the band itself.

The parking around the area can be a bit odd, so rather than park further out at a Convention Center lot since I was attending the concert alone, I decided to just go ahead and pay the $20 for the adjacent lot designated for L.A. Live.

I had known from the seating chart that I had a really good seat, but it wasn't until I actually sat down that I could really see how close I was.


My view of the stage.
I was in the second row behind the "pit",
which was just rows of seats.


The show started promptly at 8pm, with a 20 minute intermission after about an hour, and then they played for another hour or so after that, with one encore song.


Since I'm not familiar enough with all of Pink Floyd's songs to recognize them simply by hearing them, here's the setlist that I think they played, but I don't promise that it's 100% accurate. I know what I listed is correct but I might be missing songs I didn't recognize. The song title is followed in brackets by the album that the song is from.

set list
Breathe [Dark Side of the Moon]
Time [Dark Side of the Moon]
Shine On You Crazy Diamond [Wish You Were Here]
Welcome to the Machine [Wish You Were Here]
Pigs (Three Different Ones) [Animals]
Sheep [Animals]

intermission

Astronomy Domine [The Piper at the Gates of Dawn]
Money [Dark Side of the Moon]
Take It Back [The Division Bell]
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun [A Saucerful of Secrets]
Learning to Fly [Momentary Lapse of Reason]
"The Gunner's Dream" [The Final Cut]
The Happiest Days of Our Lives [The Wall]
Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2 [The Wall]
Wish You Were Here

band introductions

suite from The Wall
Hey You
Is There Anybody Out There?
Nobody Home
Vera
Comfortably Numb
Run Like Hell (encore)

So what did I think of the show? Well, I thought the band were terrific performers who put on one hell of a show for the most part. And while I basically enjoyed it, I still had very mixed feelings. And it was probably compounded by the fact that I generally am not into cover bands. The band sounded great instrumentally - it was like listening to the albums themselves. That is, until the singing started. It wasn't David Gilmour or Roger Waters. Yes, I knew going in that it wasn't going to be either of them, and I already thought that might be a problem, but I think it was the combination of hearing the same exact musical notes as on the album that then prepped me to also expect familiar voices. The music was dead on - the singing, not so much. As much as I did enjoy the show for the most part, I kept feeling like I was watching imposters and not the real thing. I guess for me, it's not just about the songs and the music, but it's also about a connection to the band itself. And the band I wanted was Pink Floyd, not the Australian version. If I want to hear a note-by-note recreation of the songs, I'll just play the albums myself.

One thing I found a little odd was that for most of the show, the band members had very little interaction with each other. They were each sort of doing their own thing, playing and singing and jamming, but there was almost no recognition that other people were on the stage performing as well. One of the things I like about bands is the interaction between the members, especially if the members have been playing together for a long time. The history they've built together is evident in how they perform together. There was really none of that. There was a giant screen with various images projected on it, and I found myself watching the screen a lot because it was much more interesting than watching the band members just standing there and playing their instruments. It was almost like they were just providing the background music for the visuals, and it wasn't until maybe the last 20 minutes of the concert that they really showed any interaction and cohesive stage presence at all.

There were 3 band members who did most of the singing. Early on, the piano player/keyboardist, Rob, had a voice that I rather liked, but as the night wore on, he didn't really sing any more lead vocals. The majority of the lead singing was done by Ian and Damian. I thought Damian was the better of the two, though he had a habit of "singing" guitar notes, which I didn't really care for. They were doing a fine job in duplicating the guitar parts, so I didn't see why he needed to recreate the notes with his mouth instead. Ian did quite a bit of the songs, but I'm sorry to see that for the most part, I didn't care for his voice at all. I can't really describe what I didn't like about it - it just didn't sound right with the Pink Floyd he was singing. I think the song where I noticed it the most was "Take It Back", which is a song I happen to love and know *really* well. The music started and it sounded great - and he was just not even close to being David Gilmour or really even singing the feel and meaning of the song. However, I will say that he did a decent job with both "Hey You" and "Comfortably Numb".


As I mentioned, the musicianship was excellent. The lead guitarist and keyboardist and saxophonist were really terrific.

During "Time", one of the background vocalists did the wailing on the song, and she was amazing.

The crowd seemed to really enjoy the show, and they stood up, dancing and singing during "Another Brick in the Wall".

During "Wish You Were Here", there was a nice moment where footage of the members of Pink Floyd themselves were shown on the big screen.

During the course of the show, there were two giant inflatable animals - one a kangaroo and one a pig/boar (with glowing red eyes) - that were on stage. They were definitely a sight to see.


I don't regret having gone to the show, but I think I've learned my lesson now - if I can't see the real band, I shouldn't go at all. It's not really fair to the cover band since I have an inherent bias going in.

the music industry is full of "Glee"

A lot of the reason that I love "Glee" is because of the music, music I know and music I'm learning because of the show. Well, APPARENTLY, the music business is in love with "Glee" as well. They do a great job with the covers of songs on the show, and I'm glad they're doing well on iTunes, but I'm hoping they'll release them on a CD or something, so I can have them all together, rather than one song at a time.

"Glee" is becoming the TV equivalent of "Rock Band" as far as *THE* place you want your song to be!

"Part of Your World" - probably like you've never heard it before

So tonight, my nephew posted a link to a YouTube video that I promptly stole and re-posted myself. It's the Cantonese version of "The Lion King", and it's a scene from that film. And in the related links, I found that there was a Cantonese version of "Part of Your World", and for reasons known to some, I just *had* to post that here.

Like with "The Lion King" segment, I only understand bits and pieces of it because my vocabulary sucks. With this segment, I understand the spoken bits more. The actual song itself is harder because they have to use more elaborate words, trying to fit both the meaning and cadence, which means it's going to be vocabulary I've never even heard of. But it was fun to watch.

And it made me realize that the Cantonese words for "street" and "chicken" are very similar, so be careful! ;)







This isn't completely alien to me because I remember sitting at my parents' house watching Cantonese versions of Disney movies that my brother had gotten for them so they could watch and understand what was going on.

But the weirdest thing was sitting there one day, and my parents had some music on, and it suddenly dawned on me that I recognized the music of that particular song. No, no way, can't be. And then the vocals started. And while I didn't really recognize the words much, I knew the melody and the notes and the song - it was Dire Straits' "Walk of Life", sung in Cantonese. I just started laughing because it was so unexpected. I have no idea where the song came from or why someone did a Chinese version of it.

Beantown

So the day has finally arrived - traveling to another state solely for the purpose of seeing Rockapella. I had a 7am flight out of LAX this morning and landed in Boston at about 3pm, half an hour earlier than scheduled. Luckily, my friend who was already here had seen that my flight would be early and was already around to pick me up.

We checked into the hotel and then ended up picking the restaurant next door for dinner. She had met a fellow Rockapella fan at the Hartford show yesterday, and she was going to the show tonight, so she ended up joining us for dinner. The restaurant was really good - fantastic food - and we all had a great time chatting.

The concert was really awesome, and they had a meet-and-greet afterward that went really well.

Afterward, we ended up going to another place for dessert and more fun.

It's been a great time in Boston so far. I'm not sure what we're doing tomorrow, and then it's time to come home tomorrow night.

a Genesis reunion - what I wouldn't give to go

I'd seen the article last week that Genesis was on the list of nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I know that the Hall has its detractors and that it really only means so much, but I still think it would be cool.

Well, then I saw this article today that they're at least working on stuff in case it happens and they're inducted. All the boys AND Peter too. That would be cool.

As much as I loved seeing the "Turn It On Again" tour, seeing Peter with them would be awesome.

one more week

This time next week, I'll be on a flight to Boston. And am I ready for my quickie trip? No way in heck. Yeah, I've got my flights, and I've got my concert tickets. The friend I'm meeting there has booked our hotel room, and she's also taking care of getting a car.

Do I know what I'm going to be wearing to the concert? No.
Do I know where anything is in proximity to anything else? No.
Have I figured out what I'm doing with Ron Jeremy's book? No.

You'd never believe I'm supposed to be going somewhere in a week, would you, given how unprepared I am, even though it's going to be a really quick trip?


So, this weekend, I've got to try on a couple dresses. I think I have an idea of what I'm wearing to the show, and one thing I did do this past week was to check the weather in Boston for next weekend. It was looking pretty good then, but I just looked again, and they're now forecasting rain for next weekend, which I'm not happy about, but, I'll deal. It just means I have to remember to pack a coat and an umbrella.

I figure I'll stop by AAA this week to get some maps of Boston just so I can familiarize myself a bit, so maybe I can help navigate if need be.

Ron Jeremy's book. I had thought about doing a new cover with Kevin's picture on it, but I'm not that good, and at this point, I don't have the time. And really, I don't think Kevin wants an actual copy of the book himself. Explaining that to his wife and daughters would be interesting. So, I think I'm going to put a generic kind of cover on it (just so I'm not obviously carrying around Ron's autobiography), and I'll see if I can get Kevin to sign it for me, if they have a meet and greet.


I won't need to pack until next Saturday morning, as long as I've figured out what all I'm wearing while I'm actually in Boston and not at the concert, which should pretty much just be Sunday. I have types of clothes that I like to wear on the times when I'm on a plane, so that shouldn't be hard to figure out. I do need to buy one more thing before the trip.

The husband will be taking me to the airport very early and dropping me off. I'll just need things to amuse myself with on the airplane, and hopefully, I'll be able to take advantage of their free wi-fi, if we can figure out how to get my phone to do that.

The friend will be picking me up from the airport in Boston. We'll just need to figure out where to have some dinner before the concert.

Our flight out of Boston on Sunday isn't until the evening, so we can have some time in the day to do something at least.


I'm looking forward to this trip, even though I still can't believe I'm actually going - and it's not to see Phil or Peter or Genesis! It's for a different set of 5 boys this time.

"Another Brick in the Wall Part 2"

Sometimes, a song gets so popular and is played so much on the radio that it gets a little overused, and we pretty much just take it for granted.

For me, "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" is that kind of song. It was ALL OVER the radio in its time, but it's really still a pretty awesome song, all these years later, and it still packs a punch. And the video was pretty good too.

Single Ladies - football style and then some

OK, I don't normally post two days in a row about the same thing, but I can't help myself.

What's better than Beyonce's "Single Ladies"? The song being danced to by the football team.







And then, there was the opening number of the show, also to "Single Ladies".







I loved this episode.

Single Ladies

After watching tonight's episode of "Glee", I'm totally in love with Beyonce's song "Single Ladies".

YouTube won't let me embed the video like I'd like to, but here's the link.

I love the dance versions on the show tonight, though. I'm so getting the DVD when it comes out.

Australian Pink Floyd

Some years ago, I happened to have gotten into Pink Floyd. Unfortunately, it was really way after the fact of their heyday. I mean, yeah, I knew about "The Wall" and "Dark Side of the Moon", but I only knew a couple things from the former. There was a time when I would visit Laserium (when they were still at the Griffith Observatory) fairly regularly for their "Dark Side of the Moon" show, partly because their visuals were pretty cool, but mostly because they had a kick-ass sound system, certainly tons better than mine, and you really need to listen to "Dark Side of the Moon" on a nice sound system. Yeah, I paid money to listen to a CD I owned on someone else's better sound system. Leave me alone.

I became interested in them enough that I bought a boxed set of some of their CDs (though it turns out it's not really a complete collection), and I even joined "echoes", a Pink Floyd mailing list. I was way out of my league there and contributed very little. I pretty much just read other people's messages and soaked in what they had to say about the various songs and albums and such. And of course, there always seemed to be the division between the Roger Waters and David Gilmour factions. I think I even bought a "history of the band" book at the time, but I don't think I ever got around to reading it.

That was right around the time when "The Division Bell" was released, and I really love the album, and not just because of Douglas Adams' connection to it. There are some really dark and biting songs on there that just speak to me during certain times. But, that was also one of the albums that tends to get dismissed by earlier fans, so it's not always "safe" to admit that you like it. Some people would regard you as not being a "true fan", but I've always hated the "true fan" argument, which I've gotten involved in more than once on very different occasions.

One of my regrets is that I never went to a Pink Floyd show - yeah, I know, once Roger left, it really wasn't Pink Floyd anymore. Let's drop that argument, OK? They were touring after "The Division Bell", but their local concert was either the day of or the day after my return from a week-long vacation in London, and I really didn't think it was going to work out in my schedule. Had I known that was the last time they were going to be around, though, I would have gone regardless.

So the resurgence of my Pink Floyd interest started late last year. I was listening to some of their stuff again, and I noticed that a group called the Australian Pink Floyd had a couple of concerts locally. I thought about going, but the timing and venue weren't quite working out right, and I really didn't know if I wanted to see basically a tribute band to a band that I didn't really know that well anyway. Yeah, that sounds confusing, doesn't it? So I just didn't go.

And then a couple of weeks ago, I saw that Australian Pink Floyd was going to be playing the newish Nokia Center (I thought originally that they were going to be playing Staples until I actually looked up the tickets). Not that September and October aren't already very busy months for me, but I toyed with the idea of going to the concert anyway, which is in late September. And for one ticket, they had a really good seat available, and it wasn't all that expensive, and throwing reason out the window, I bought the ticket.

So in the meantime, I've been immersing myself a bit in Pink Floyd, since there's quite a bit of their stuff I don't know. I'm not exactly sure what of their songs that Australian Pink Floyd will play though, and one thing I have realized is that I am not in fact going to see Pink Floyd. I probably know David Gilmour's voice much better than Roger Waters', and David's is probably more of what I associate with Pink Floyd (put down that rock - throwing it at me is going to do neither of us any good). And I have no idea what Australian Pink Floyd sounds like, so I don't know how I'm going to react when I hear another voice singing the songs that I'm now in the process of familiarizing myself with. I'm not particularly good at handling new voices with songs that I know. As much as I liked Genesis' album "Calling All Stations", it did take me a while to get used to Ray Wilson as the new lead singer, but at least they were new songs. Listening to a recording of him singing "Mama", though, was a whole different proposition. Since I'm not as entangled in Pink Floyd as I am in Genesis, it won't be quite as bad hearing a different voice singing familiar songs, but I'm kind of preparing myself for that anyway.

Oh, and this past weekend, I bought another Pink Floyd book, this one written by one of the guys in the band. I expect it to be an interesting read. You know, in all the spare time I have.

Pella poseur

So for quite some time, a friend who loves Rockapella had tried to get me to go to one of Rockapella's concerts. She gave me a couple of their CDs, which I listened to and liked, so I was interested in seeing them, but the timing never seemed to work out. Finally, I managed to make it to a Rockapella concert on October 15, 2004 at Saint Joseph High School. It was actually a great place to see them for the first time, because they performed in the auditorium of the high school, so it wasn't a very big venue, and I managed to get a seat in the second row when the doors opened for general admission entrance, so we were *really* close. I discovered that night that while I like their studio albums, I really LOVE their live performances. I don't think the studio albums capture the entire flavor of their style and personalities, and I love seeing them on stage and listening to them and watching them interact with each other and the audience. Here's my friend's trip report of the concert that night.

I have seen Rockapella in concert multiple times since that first time, both their regular show and their holiday show.

Doing a cursory count based on emails and unless I'm missing something, I believe I've been to 10 shows at this point:

1. Saint Joseph's - October 15, 2004
2. Saint Joseph's - September 7, 2006
3. Rancho Cucamonga - November 11, 2006
4. Reno - May 4, 2007
5. Caltech - October 19, 2007
6. Rancho Cucamonga - December 1, 2007
7. Las Vegas - September 13, 2008
8. House of Blues (L.A.) - December 22, 2008
9. and 10. Rancho Cucamonga - June 14, 2009

I was supposed to have seen them twice on December 21, 2008 in Rancho Cucamonga, but weather conditions rendered that EPIC FAIL Day, and those concerts were rescheduled for June 14.

So, I have done the milestone of traveling out of state to see them, though the trips to Reno and Las Vegas didn't involve going very far, and in both instances, while the husband didn't go to the concerts themselves, he did come with me to the cities, and we stayed an extra night or two and did other things while we were there, so it wasn't just about going to the concerts. I've also done the milestone of seeing more than one show a day, postponed from last December to this June, and that actually turned out to be a lot of fun.


But, even given those details, I'm not a die-hard fan by any means, and I certainly don't claim anything close to that. I might take the occasional day off work to see them, but otherwise, I will generally try to see their shows locally if it's convenient.


And then, last week, I saw a notice come through from them on Facebook - Kevin is leaving Rockapella at the end of the year. No, that's not possible. Kevin is one of my two favorites (the other being John) from the group, and Kevin is also the one who came up and sang to me during my very first concert, and I also know a lot of funny stories about Kevin thanks to my friend. I only know his voice singing "Under the Boardwalk" and "California Sad-Eyed Girl", and now, I'm never going to have a recording of him singing the latter song.

I'm already going to see Rockapella at Pepperdine on December 6, but that's going to be a holiday show, and while I like that version as well, I really love their regular show. And I wanted to see Kevin one more time in a regular show, but when I looked at the tour dates on their site, there was nothing out this way.

And then my friend mentioned wanting to see them in a regular show as well and where she was considering going. And one of the places was where I had vaguely thought about as well.

And now, it's turning out that in four weeks' time, I will be in Boston with my friend watching Rockapella perform at the Berklee College of Music, which my friend informed me is Jeff's alma mater. He's the wonderful vocal percussionist of the group. The really great seats we had been wanting were unfortunately already sold out, but we found some seats that I think are going to work out pretty well.


And since these plans have been arranged, I've been feeling a bit odd about this whole thing. I mean yes, I like Rockapella, but I'm not nearly as dedicated as my friend is or other friends of hers who routinely travel to see the boys and who the boys know by sight and name. And while I've traveled to see them before, this is going to be the first time where the sole purpose of my trip is going to the concert - I'm only going to be in Boston for a little over 24 hours in total. So I'm feeling a bit like an impostor. I mean, yeah, two years ago, I traveled around a bit chasing a band in concert, but that was Genesis, and anyone who knows me would at least understand that. But Rockapella? No, it doesn't really make sense, but sense or not, I'm looking forward to the trip, I'm looking forward to seeing them, and I expect there will be tears shed then and in December.

And that also means I have four weeks in which to buy Ron Jeremy's autobiography and figure out exactly what I'm going to do with it.