The Madonna Concert, Monday, June 26, 2006

It is not difficult to understand why Madonna appeals to gay people; her opening number practically welcomed them all to their own private show. It was fun actually. The woman certainly knows how to surround herself with beautiful men.

When we had first arrived, I wondered where all the fags were. I had assumed there would be very many more. It wasn't until Madonna came onstage and I pulled out my binoculars that I saw they almost exclusively occupied those $350 seats down on the floor. B and I were in the nosebleed section with all the other parents. And the lesbians.

I'm happy to report that I saw only one child the entire time. She was with (I'm assuming) her mom, and looked to be around 12. Most of Madonna's fans realize that her show is not a place for children.

I had heard that the show was going to be incredibly HOT. As in temperature. Madonna doesn't allow air conditioning at her shows since the removal of the humidity from the air effects her voice, so we went prepared. And before the show started we bought some lemonade. Nothing beats lemonade for quenching serious thirst, and boy was a I glad to have it.

It was so much fun to people watch. It's one of the things I miss most about New York. Here in CT, it seems like everywhere I go and everyone I hang out with looks the same. While in the outside smoking area catching some fresh air before the show started, I decided that I must be pretty interesting to look at too. I think I add fun to the people watching experience for others. B and I together must be something to look at! It was also really cool to go to a show for people in my "demographic". The line to the bathroom was miles long before the show even started - and it was full of women who were obviously mothers. All of us going before it started "just in case" so we didn't have to miss the show later. No one under 30 to be found. It was amusing.

When we sat down the stage was set to look like a giant disco booth. Very Paris New York. Very cool.

The show started at 8:50 when Madonna showed up in a disco ball which lowered from the ceiling. When she sprang out she sang "Future Lovers" while she pranced around in her riding outfit lording it over all her "ponies" (and what built ponies they were.) I was disappointed to find that many of the background vocals were recordings of her own voice. She also did "Get Together" in that getup.

Then she moved on to riding this saddle while she sang "Like a Virgin". She was all over that thing like a regular strip show.

Next was "Jump" in which four of her well-built men did all these incredible gymnastics on a giant monkey bar set which came out of the sky to land on the middle stage. They were all quite talented and fun to watch, and while they entertained us Madonna went backstage for a costume change.

When she came out it was on the cross and she sang "Live to Tell". When I first saw it I immediately thought of Pink Floyd's The Wall concert I had gone to where in the middle of it they pulled out the giant pig; totally inappropriate! But as she sang she had lots of videos playing all over showing the crappy stuff that's going on in the world. At the end she showed that 12 million children are homeless in Africa due to AIDS. On the giant screens were website addresses to find more information. I've got to hand it to her - people who spend that much money to attend one of her shows must have disposable income. She really is the queen of marketing. It was at this point, however, that I started feeling bad that all those suckers with all that disposable income spent ridiculous amounts of money to see her, and were watching her on the giant screens instead of on stage. Thank goodness I brought my binoculars. I was seeing her through a lens, but at least it was her and not her in a video!

I really loved when she performed "Isaac", my favorite song. "This is my religion" she proclaimed. "Mmmmmm, Im ninalu Im ninalu" was definitely a highlight of the show for me. It sounds so beautiful and it was wonderful to see the artist who sang all those Hebrew lyrics. I wish I could've found a picture on the internet to post here of him. It was so nice to close my eyes and sway to that song being performed live. It was truly the biggest highlight of my evening.

Another highlight for me was when she performed "I Love New York", which is another one of my favorites, having lived there for thirty years. It never fails to bring up the pride I sometimes forget I have for having survived that. And it reminds me of the wonderful friends I had during that time. Going to Studio 54 and dancing to Madonna songs as Rob bussed the area around the dancefloor. (He worked there as a busboy and got me in for free.) And having coffee with Stephen in The Big Cup.

Oh, I so wish I could remember all the details. I need to start taking notes during these things! The gymnasts (some things I've read refer to them as dancers, but this is clearly much less than what they actually are) were really terrific. At one point they were even rollerskating around the stage. I did, however, try my best to keep my eyes on Madonna during the performance, rather than all her outlandish accoutrements. I thought more than once that she'd do really well in Las Vegas. It was well conceived though. The background videos often combined nicely with the performers to create a nice visual if you were looking straight on, or if you were watching the giant videos instead of the performance. I had to laugh though when I saw this:
I mean, come on! She looked like a little girl dressing up for a gymnastics meet. Hey, maybe that's the song she did for the straight men?

She actually did one for the lesbians too. I don't remember which one, but she had two lesbians walking behind her holding hands and dancing while she sang some "I am woman" type song. Okay forgive me for not knowing the names of all the songs - I knew most of the words though!

She did a couple of slow songs along the way, and took advantage of the time to sit and relax. I am incredibly happy to report that Madonna is getting old too. (We must take small pleasure in the simple things.) I could see that she was really working hard and that all that heat was taking its toll on her. At one point she was bitching about how hot it was and how could we all have the nerve to just sit there when she was sweating her ass off for us. You know, the whole "show me some respect" thing. It was REALLY FREAKING HOT. It had to be well over a hundred degrees in there. And that's if you weren't dancing (which those of you who know me know that didn't include me.) I felt bad for all those women I had seen entering the building with long pants on and jackets on their arms to ward off the cold. As I mentioned, I was prepared though; after a particularly active bout of dancing, I whipped my portable battery-operated mini-fan out of my bag. Oh man, that thing rocked.
It even glowed when it was running. I felt very technologically advanced, even though I was probably the only person in the entire place who doesn't own a cellphone.

Anyhow, back to the show. She also played a nice 80's feeling set, wielding a guitar for the occasion. The band was all dressed in white, and they had blue lights shining down on them, and she was dressed in black - of course.
I must say that whoever designed her costumes did a horrible job. I mean, let's keep in mind that she's performing inside with thousands of people and no air conditioning. Check out the collar on that thing! It was all feathers - she must have been dying! I was not surprised to see the guitarist behind her playing all the same exact chords she was. I wonder if her guitar was even plugged in? It was all very techno and lots of fun.

I didn't care for her performance of "La Isla Bonita". The Mexican flavor felt out of place squished between all that techno disco. But I'm sure she was performing for a demographic which I am not a part of. She incorporated the song "Disco Inferno" into the beginning of one of her songs too, and that was lots of fun.

She also did a gig on Saturday Night Fever which was great. Actually, I think this is where the lesbians came in; I seem to remember them wearing white too. I kept thinking it would be so much fun if she had somehow contrived to come out in a Cher-esque costume with a big headdress or something.

The show ended with "Hung Up", which made me think of E since he is so tired of hearing that song that he asks me to skip it when I have the CD playing. "Time goes by. So Slowly. Time goes by. So Slowly. Time goes by. So Slowly. Time goes by. So Slowly."


At the very end of the song all these giant gold balloons fell down into the audience right into the arms of all those adoring fags! It really was a good song choice to end the evening. Madonna's been around for a long time. We've watched her grow up right before our eyes. And we've grown up right along with her. Time goes by...

The show closed with the curtain closing and across them beamed "Have you confessed?"

Here's a better description of the show from someone who was probably taking notes, or has no children and still owns a memory. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1532204/05222006/madonna.jhtml

So much for camping

We had plans to go camping this weekend in Sturbridge Mass. We do tent camping though, and pouring rain was forecasted, so I changed our reservation to another weekend. I'm so glad the campground manager let me do it; normally at such short notice (only one day) they would not give a refund. It cost us a $15 fee to cancel the old reservation, but that is better than the full cost!

B had taken the day off on Friday, so we decided we should head out and do something. So we finally checked out the miniature golf we always pass along the highway on 84. It's not as good as the website makes it look. We did have fun though. I shot an amazingly excellent game; I think I scored"2" on more than half the holes. R really couldn't deal with this and ended up crying as we left. I remember being that sensitive when I was a kid; it's a really hard way to be.

We were dripping wet by the time we left. The humidity was just awful, and we were all splotchy and sweaty. So on the way home we stopped at Stop and Shop and got the makings for sundaes. Ice-cream and all the toppings. We even took a few gummy bears from the pay-by-weight candy area. Back home we were enjoying our sundaes in supremo air conditioning while watching the original Garfield movie, when the rain started. It hasn't stopped since.

Yesterday we did not go out at all. B enjoyed that quite well, saying that it had been too long since he'd been able to. I spent a good portion of the day setting up my new computer! Yes, it finally arrived; my brand new Delll Dimension E510! It is lightning fast - woo hoo! The boys all enjoyed watching some extreme sports (skateboard, bmx, etc.) on TV while I played all afternoon.

Today the rain was getting us down. The Cheshire pool had a "Family Fun Day" planned, where admission was free. But it was rained out. Finally we ended up heading to the mall just to be somewhere else. I was glad to get my new Live CD, which I had been waiting for the release of. B and I saw them in concert a couple of months ago and it was amazing. It had been so long since I had enjoyed that kind of communal energy at a concert. It kept me floating for quite a while.

Anyway I also bought a used copy of Anchorman. I was pretty happy to find it used. It was one of the funniest (read: silliest) movies I've ever seen. It's what my family used to call a "Friday Night Movie". If you need a good laugh, definitely check it out.

The boys got new baseball caps. I have been pretty sick of looking at R's pathetic Boston Redsox hat and told him I'd buy him a new one if he could find one he likes. Santa had brought him one for Christmas, but the front was stiff and wouldn't wear well backwards. Well, we found one in Lids, a baseball hat store, of all places, which is surprising since the inventory was much less than I thought it would be for a store which sells nothing but baseball hats. Plus R has a lot of specifications which had to be met. Must be red. Must have some sort of Red Sox logo on the back, since he wears it backwards. And must have a soft front. Santa had a heck of a time finding one that met the two specifications which were required at that time, so the fact that this store had one with all three specifications was nothing short of miraculous. Of course the darn thing did cost $25. Twenty-five dollars for a baseball hat! At least he doesn't look homeless any more. It was worth it since he will live in the darn thing.

E also bought one for himself. His is camouflaged. He's wanted a camouflage hat ever since he got to wear my sister's boyfriend's for a short while. E still has birthday money which I walk around with though, and luckily it was buy one get one 50% off.

The boys also enjoyed giant pixie sticks from the mall candy store. Yes, I relax about the junk food once in a while. Later at home they cut the empty containers open on the other end and used them as giant straws at dinner.

More time on my computer tonight, copying over files from my old one. R considers the old one his now, "my computer" being one of his favorite new expressions. I think he envisions having more time to play computer games now. I did put a cool Cars desktop photo on it for him. (We saw that movie last week on Father's Day.)

I've got lots of e-mail to catch up on. Blogger won't let me do a spell check, so forgive any mistakes...

Visiting Friends

Lots of fun was had enjoying the texture of mud today. We went to visit some friends who have lots of dirt around waiting for grass seed, and the rain last night turned it all into mud. (In case you haven't realized it yet, clicking on the photo will bring up a larger one for you to look at.) We had a terrific visit with our friends. Their home is incredibly welcoming, as are they.

B went out with some friends after work, and since we were in the neighborhood, we stopped at Hometown Buffet for dinner on the way home. The boys just love that place. Actually, they love the desserts. However, we agreed that this would be the last time we go there since they don't like much of the actual food.

My new Dell computer came today. I'm really excited! I have to think about where to put it now...

A day at the beach

Well it turns out that Cheshire has a beach. I'd only heard of Mixville Recreation Area until today; lots of arguing in the editorial pages of the newspaper because there are no lifeguards anymore. Also concerns of overcrowding since there is no longer any fee to get in. Seems that all the town's energy is going to our nightmare of a pool.

R suggested we check out the park today. When we arrived there were two busloads of kids about his age there playing in the park. He actually started to get really upset and didn't want to get out of the car. He couldn't say what was wrong. I asked him if he wished he were one of those kids and he said yes. We talked about how most of those kids would wish they were him if they knew what we were about. He still hesitated getting out of the car so I asked him if he was embarrassed to be with his family, and again he said yes. We talked about whether caring what people think is a good idea, and finally, he got out of the car.

Once we found a spot on the beach, which we pretty much had to ourselves, he relaxed and had a great time. As did we all. The pond is nice and small, and despite reading about times when it has had to close because of goose poop, it was clean. The boys played in the sand and swam for three hours.

We did have the company of three kids under five at a couple of points, but as long as they steered clear of R's roads and castles he was fine including them. They all played nicely together for the 1/2 hour they were around.

We all really enjoyed ourselves and are going to suggest that playgroup meet there next week. The art class I was teaching is finally over and we have our Tuesdays back to ourselves again.