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I Should�ve Taken That Left Turn at Albuquerque |
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Hello and welcome. If you're new here, be a dear and Read my Disclaimer. My diary not good enough for you? Fine, be that way. Try these instead: plf
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2003-07-08 - 7:09 a.m.� I had an excellent weekend. The whole weekend was phenomenal. Great music, beautiful park (including a gorgeous beach that I swam in on Sunday), lovely weather� it was just perfect. But seeing as nothing could top Friday night, that�s what I�ll write about. We got to the park on Friday afternoon, my mother and I were not in the best of spirits. We had just walked for a half an hour, uphill on one of the hottest, and most humid days of the year. We were tired, hot, and cranky. We did mellow out as soon as the music started though. The acts we heard were all excellent, except for a really lame comedy troupe that played during one of the stage breaks. But I heard a lot of acts that I will be looking to hear again. It didn�t take long before we were getting really excited about seeing Gord Downie. Especially my mother. She loves The Tragically Hip, Gord in particular. I love The Hip, and I love Gord too, but nothing like my mother. She has the 52-year old equivalence of a schoolgirl�s crush on the man. After the first act we moved up to the front of the stage. At that point in the night, there was no one sitting in front of us. So close that the concert emcees were making stage banter with us. At one point early on, one of them did the standard, �Who here is excited about seeing Gordon Downie tonight?� So everyone claps, and hollers, and then the emcee points at my mother and says, �Geez, you look like you�re about to explode already!� Yep, mom was just that excited. One of the emcees was Bill Welychka of Muchmusic (or Muchmoremusic). For some reason, shortly after he first came on stage, while the other host was talking, he looks at me, gives me a look of surprised recognition, and then smiles and waves at me. I smiled and waved back even though I am quite sure I have never met him before in my life. I recognized him from the tv, but that was it. Weird. In retrospect, I should have tried to play it up, and see if he could get us backstage. Why do I always come up with the best plans after the fact? Anyway, as the evening went on we inched closer and closer to the stage, but still a few people managed to get in front of us right before he was scheduled to go on. That always pisses me off, but I couldn�t be too upset, because the stage �security� was making everyone sit down. It was sort of weird to be that pumped up about a show, and not be on my feet, but at least it meant that we could see everything perfectly. Probably better than the people who had squeezed their way right up to the stage, because we were just a bit back, and totally centred. We were sitting so close to the stage that we could make out every facial expression. I could see the sweat on his face. Even my mother who is at this point legally blind, could make out Gord's face. The show was excellent. It was a way different dynamic than a Tragically Hip show. For one thing, there was some stage banter. And when the people in the crowd yelled things to Gord, he responded. Someone yelled out �That�s a cool hat, Gord!� And he responded with, �You are absolutely right.� And he was joking around, rather than doing his normal rambling rants. For most of the show, everyone dutifully sat cross-legged on the grass and rocked on from a seated position. That struck me as pretty funny. A crowd of twenty-somethings (and my mom, who had a good 20 years on everyone around us) sitting around, looking up at Gord and his guitar�it was like some bizarre storytime session for young adults. But like any Hip concert, we were surrounded by good natured, slightly obsessive fanboys and girls, which is what I always hope for, when I myself am an obsessive fangirl. I think it was around the second to last song that it started to pour down rain. It was during �Pascal�s Submarine� in any case. I love that song, by the way. Especially the horn parts. Anyway, getting back on topic, as soon as the rain started, all of us hardcore people sitting in front of the stage decided en masse that, fuck it, we were now standing up. So I bend down to make sure that my backpack is situated firmly between my feet and not getting kicked around by excited Gord fans, and when I get back up, my mother was no longer beside me. It didn�t take me long to see that she made her way up to front, and was leaning against the stage (leaving me, I might add). Throughout the show a few people had been leaving things on the stage for him to autograph. At the end after his encore, he brought them back out, signed, and gave them back. There was a whole crowd of people close to the stage at this point, some with things to sign, some just with their hands out wanting to shake his hand or just touch him, I suppose. When he leaned down close to my mom she yelled "I don't have anything for you, I just love you and I want to shake your hand." Then he reached into his pocket and gave her his guitar pick! Too cool! We were both on a total high all weekend. The only problem was that nothing else the entire weekend could top it. I doubt anything this summer could top it. I mean, just getting to see Gord so close was more than I expected, but that he actually gave my mother something was just unreal. So that�s my very exciting Mariposa folk festival story! Now sadly, my mini-vacation is over, and I have to go back to work today. Damn, I wish I was a wealthy layabout.
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The big 3 0 - 2006-06-03 Hello again - 2006-05-03 Random stuff in place of an actual update - 2006-03-15 Pictures. Just Because. - 2006-02-23 Christmas 05 - 2005-12-26 Currently listening to: Nothing |
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