Saturday Night Review

When I was in high school I loved to listen to folksinger, Melanie. She was popular when I was in my senior year and through a bit of college. She became known from Woodstock when she sang, Beautiful People, and the crowd for the first time at a concert held lit matches or lighters in the air and moved to the rhythm to the music. Later she wrote her first chart topper, (Lay Down) Candles in the Rain in response to Woodstock.

I saw her at a local venue over 35 years ago with some college friends. The concert was awesome, everything I wanted it to be. After the concert, we met her outside and had an opportunity to chat with her. Great evening.

Fast forward over 35 years: I found out this summer that she was coming our way in Oct. I have looked forward to the show since then! So last night we drove about an hour to a venue with the best acoustics in the state.

To make a long story short. She came out on stage and sang her first number, and my mouth dropped. She was completely off key and sounded awful. Just terrible. I thought, OK, maybe it will get better... maybe someone will tell her to tune her guitar and that will help her get on key.
That never happened. And the rest of the night was just too hard to describe.

Security seemed to be in odd places, giving me an uncomfortable feeling that something was going on and I could not focus on the concert. But focusing on the concert, was depressing because she was ruining all her songs. There was a man in the audience that immediately called out to her to say it was his birthday, and he kept repeating it and repeating it. Then he started to call out other things, some made no sense, some I could not hear. Soon security was sitting next to him. It was obvious at this point that the man was unstable. I started to feel I wasn't safe. I wanted to leave. My husband talked me into staying.

Soon Melanie was yelling from the stage at security to leave the man alone.

Some people got up to leave and she called out into the audience, "Where is everyone going? Why is there so much activity?" "Everyone sit down!"

It was the most uncomfortable situation. The audience started chanting to get the man out. Melanie yells at them that she has been doing this for a long time and everything will be fine.
She sings a couple more songs, the man is agitated. The police come and try to get him out of the aisle. People stand up again to get out of the way. Melanie yells again for everyone to sit down. But now we are all up out of our seats. I am mad now. My instincts said to get out of there before, and I did not listen. I am in a corner up in front and their was no exit on our side.

The man is now yelling for the police to leave him alone and that we are all witnesses. By this time, Melanie stopped playing, her husband was trying to calm down people. Finally, the police and security got the man out of the theater.

Now I was feeling nothing but anxiety, but the show went on and on and on. Way too long for me! lol

So when it was over, Melanie was having a meet and greet. I had brought my CD covers to have her sign, but I was anxious to just get out of there. I was done, so we left for our hour drive back home.

Sitting next to us at the show was a woman who traveled all the way from Australia just for the concert. She had seen her over 30 years ago and had a guitar pick from that show that Melanie had signed and wanted her to sign the back of it this time. She was so excited about being there that she was a nervous wreck before the show. We talked alot before the show. She had stayed a true blue loyal fan over the years. She knew everything about Melanie since the 70's.

I watched her face during the concert and she never took her eyes off of Melanie. She was crying through many of her songs even though her singing was so awful. The woman didn't seem to notice what was going on in back of us with the security, she didn't seem uncomfortable with the restlessness of the crowd. She was in her groove. I admired her for that. She traveled so far to come to the show and nothing was going to ruin it for her. I guess every experience depends on our state of mind. I could not get into the groove last night, the usual connectedness and inspiration that I get from an uplifting concert was not to be.

Ramblings

I so love to read Kelle Hampton's blog. Each and every post inspires me and often moves me to tears. I love her writing, her photos and most of all I love how much she enjoys her life and her kids. I wonder where she gets all of her energy for all that she does. I wonder if other women my age follow her. She gets hundreds of comments a post, so I know she is making a big impact on many people. Check out her blog, Enjoying the Small things @kellehampton.com.

I have lost the passion for writing on my blog, but I still read each and every one on my blog list everyday. It is the first thing I do when I get home to unwind. No one in my family or any of my friends blog or follow blogs, so they don't get it when I talk about the folks I have met through blogging. I know they think it is a little weird because I speak about some of you like you are my best friends. But I think you all know how that goes!

I came home and made sure I watched Oprah's interview with Lisa Marie Presley today. I was curious about her relationship with Michael Jackson and what she would reveal about it. To my surprise, she seemed to be very much in love with him and had many regrets about how the relationship ended and how she shut down and did not deal with her feelings over the years. She seemed sincere and if she was, it must have been a very hard thing for her to do. The parallels between Michael and her father's life are chilling. I always enjoy a good interview.

I used to love the Phil Donahue show back in the day and I swore I would never stop watching him for Oprah. But that didn't last as The Oprah show became more popular and more geared to women's issues. I have memories of being home taking care of the kids and folding laundry while watching Phil. I learned so much about so many things. I remember once Phil had a whole show based around the fax machine when it first came out. In later years when I went back to work, I would watch Oprah while putting dinner in the oven. Phil and Oprah both kept me company and informed.

Well, didn't know where this post was going to go, I just let it take me there.

long time no blog

We didn't know it was the last Sunday dinner at mom's house when we were having it. A couple of days later, her apartment was ready and it was time to move her the very next weekend. I am grateful that we weren't aware of it, because we didn't dwell on it being the last time. It was just a regular Sunday at mom's with her homemade sauce.

We got her all moved in over the Columbus Day weekend. The morning was sad packing up and dividing up 60 years of memories, but we managed. Once we got over to her new place, it was fun. The apartment was bright, clean, cheerful, and it was a good time helping her to decorate. Her place is much, much, smaller than the house, but she was able to bring all the big pieces of furniture over that she wanted. I know it is a big adjustment for her, but she is doing well.

Now we are renovating her home and hopefully we will be in by Christmas.

It was emotionally draining to help her make the move and if that wasn't hard enough, I got a call at the end of the day with some very sad news. A co-worker of mine was out jogging and dropped dead of a massive heart attack. He was a avid runner and had not had any physical ailments that he knew of. It was very shocking and scary. So needless to say the following work week was very difficult for all of us.