I haven't updated this blog in a while, mostly since I haven't gone to many concerts recently and the only events I've gone to are school ones. It's not that I haven't wanted to go to concerts, it's just that I've had no one to go with.
Anyways, I'm entered in a contest to blog from The Monster Ball in Newark, NJ, and I'd really appreciate if you could spare some time to vote!
CLICK HERE and on the side where it says support Adam, click to vote with Twitter, vote with Facebook, or vote with both.
If you do this, I'll really really appreciate it, because I feel this would be an amazing opportunity, and one that I'm ready for! I'd get to cover The Monster Ball with the amazing Dannielle Owens-Reid, creator of Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber and Everyone Is Gay, and I'd get experience by covering an event on video. Since I may be majoring in broadcasting journalism after my one year theatre prep course, I think this would be a great opportunity.
You may remember my blog post about my less than fantastic experience seeing Lady GaGa last June. Fortunately for me, this time was a lot better. I chose to not get general admission tickets this time, and instead get seated ones. I also decided to get the cheapest ones I could find. That meant I was in section 319, row 3. Since I was in row 3, I had a decent view and could see over peoples heads, unlike when I saw her last year and it was general admission. I went with my best friend Alicia.
I was able to buy merchandise quickly, before the doors opened in a sort of lobby area. The prices were slightly higher than when I saw her last year, but the merchandise was also better. I bought a black Monster Ball tour t-shirt, a pack of buttons, a glowing Lady GaGa bracelet, and sunglasses that were made to look like the pair of vintage Versace 676's that Lady GaGa wears often. When Alicia and I went outside, we noticed the "Jam Van", which she kept calling the rape van. We listened to some music in there, and I danced to Bad Romance, which sent my brand new sunglasses flying. Thankfully, they were not broken afterwards. Outside the van was life size Lady GaGa made of cardboard, which you could stick your head in. It cost $1 to get a picture with it. Right after Alicia and I got pictures with it, a guy stuck his head in and then he fell on top of it, bending it in half and partially breaking it. Lucky for us for getting pictures before! :) However, the Jam Van people weren't so lucky. Later on they ended up making people pay to get a picture next to a Lady GaGa poster.
After partying in the Jam Van for quite some time, we decided to wait outside the doors to go in. People that worked for Flow 93.5 approached us and took a picture of us holding up advertisements for their new iPhone app. Alicia was blowing kisses to the security guard and making hearts with her hands to try and convince him to let us in early. He did not, but security didn't check our bags or say anything about my camera being too big. Therefore, I managed to bring some food and water in, so I would not get dehydrated during this show. When we went inside first thing we did was talk to the Virgin Mobile angels and enter the contest to win a call from Lady GaGa. Unfortunately we didn't win, but that was fine. Next we went to take pictures with a replica of Lady GaGa's orbit that she has in the Bad Romance music video. Polaroid was sponsoring it, and it was free! The pictures turned out pretty cool, though I wish they were larger. However, I hear they're posting them online.
After that we got seated and noticed that the view was better than we thought. Lady Starlight was DJing and running around like a maniac. This was our opportunity to test out our cameras. However, they didn't work that well. Once Semi Precious Weapons came on, we started mastering our camera settings. Next to Alicia was a 10 year old girl. We kind of cringed for her when Semi Precious Weapons swore, but we also thought the lyrics "I can't pay my rent but I'm fucking gorgeous" were hilarious. We cringed again when Justin, the lead singer took off all of his clothes on stage. I really did not want to see his penis.
When GaGa came on, she started with Dance in the Dark. I didn't think this was the best way to start the show, but the visuals were very cool. Next was Glitter and Grease, which was one of my favourite performances of the night.
Forgive the less than perfect audio quality, I was using my new camera and it's not excellent at taking videos. She then performed Just Dance, and the hood of the car revealed a piano inside. Before she performed Vanity, she gave a little speech and said "all the freaks are outside" and "tonight and every night after, you can be whoever it is that you want to be!" It made me smile. For the next little while, I spent most of my time dancing and singing with Alicia. We were fist pumping with our glow bracelets. During Money Honey, Lady GaGa brought out a keytar.
When she called the winner of the Virgin Mobile contest, she mentioned that each night Virgin Mobile gives $20,000 to a charity that helps homeless LGBT youth. In a video before the concert started, she mentioned that she'd match all donations up to $25,000. This has made me respect her even more.
Next up were my favourite songs of the night. Speechless and You & I. When Lady GaGa performs Speechless live, her voice is so pure and it sounded absolutely beautiful. I teared up a little bit. You & I is a new song that she just added to her show, but she removed one of my favourites, Brown Eyes. from the setlist. However, that was okay because this song was so personal and it was just fantastic.
Before "So Happy I Could Die" there was a twister interlude. The stage changed and her outfit changed during this time to the living dress. It looked really cool, and the wings spread open and she looked like a giant butterfly. The platform also raised up so she was nearly on our level.
After Monster, she returned to the stage covered in fake blood.
After Teeth, Lady GaGa gave another speech where she said Jesus does not discriminate, he does not hate anyone, because if he did, how else would she be doing these shows every night? She then revealed that Jesus is her guitarist. During Paparazzi a monster appeared on stage, and I couldn't help but laugh when she screamed "It's taking off my clothes!"
After Paparazzi was the encore, Bad Romance. I was dancing like crazy at this moment. A fan threw a Canadian flag on stage and she picked it up and waved it around.
After the song ended and her whole crew was doing their bows, she picked up someone's panties and sniffed them, and yelled "Your panties smell good, Toronto!"
Bad Romance was the perfect way to end the show. I can't really describe how much I enjoyed the show. Her costumes, the dance routines, the motivational speeches, her intense love for the LGBT community, and her proudly waving around a Canadian flag at the end, it was all just amazing. This time I had an incredibly fun time, even though I wasn't up close. I didn't even have to meet her to feel her love and be happy, and I experienced this whole concert with my best friend. Her show has really evolved since I last saw her, especially with all the props and the costumes. I do miss the bubble dress, though. If you asked me if you should go to The Monster Ball even though you can't get General Admission tickets, I'd say yes. The show was amazing, and we had so much fun.
I went to see Sweet Thing at the Casbah not knowing exactly what to expect. I had downloaded the free download of Dance Mother off of their website and I enjoyed it, but I hadn't really heard much else. I was worried that I wouldn't enjoy them, due to the lack of all male bands in my music library.
I met up with Jennifer, Jodie, and their friends Kayla and Kaylee. They're from America! When I met up with them the next day, I had fun trying to explain to them that Coles is different from Kohl's. Anyways, enough about that... We waited in the rain, but we stood under a ledge in order to not get wet. However, I did still get wet. Luckily, I brought an umbrella unlike them because I am f-ing brilliant. Why? I'm Canadian. So I tell Jennifer that she should just go in and ask if we are allowed in yet. She barely puts her feet in the door and then she walks out because a band is doing a sound check. She asks me if I have seen "Eclipse" yet. Unfortunately, I'm stupid and responded "Have I seen the clips of what?" "Eclipse... Twilight." I have not, as I have no interest in the Twilight series. However, I recently learned that my brother has seen Twilight and New Moon, and he wants to see Eclipse. He can never make fun of me again. So, after some mindless chatter, I start telling Jennifer she should go in again. At this time, a woman comes out and says "If you want, you can come in and I can take your money." So we go in.
Once we are seated, Jennifer wonders where Sweet Thing is and where Tyler is... Oh, that Jennifer! At one point, Jennifer saw every member of Sweet Thing except for Tyler. Once Kayla and I finally spot Tyler, we basically freak out trying to get Jennifer to see that he's there. I think Kayla and I reacted more to Tyler than she actually did, so I was a bit disappointed that she didn't freak like she did at the Degrassi Goes Hollywood premiere. However, I pointed him out to her a few more times, and took pictures to show her how she lights up at the mere mention of Tyler being in the same room as her. When Jennifer and Jodie went to the washroom, Kayla, Kaylee, and I took their cameras and took silly pictures. When they came back, we were laughing uncontrollably, so they knew something was up. When Kayla went to the washroom, I took her camera and took silly pictures. When Jennifer went to go and get a drink, Tyler walked by her. I asked her if she noticed him walk by, and she did. Then I teased that she was drinking so she could shamelessly get her flirt on and not remember it.
The first band, I don't remember that much about them. The second band wasn't completely bad... I just got Twitter on my phone, and I was using it at some points during the night. When the band was on, they said they have a MySpace but that they don't do Twitter. I kind of joked about how they use a site that went out of style 3 years ago, but they hate something that is currently popular. So in 3 years when the next TwitFaceSpace social media site is popular, I guess they're going to finally sign up for Twitter.
-Embarrassing stuff that I said right before Sweet Thing started goes here. Wait no, it doesn't. However, it's on my Twitter and Jennifer hopes Tyler never sees it.-
When Sweet Thing came on, it seemed like the place was packed. It was a bigger crowd then when we saw Tyler Kyte by himself at the Casbah last year. I really enjoyed their performance. I recorded a few videos, but the audio is horrible. When I recorded videos when I saw Shiloh there, the audio was horrible, too. I'm going to say it's just the venue, because I don't want to say that my new camera has terrible audio quality just yet. I really wish my Flip Mino HD's battery didn't die. Even though I won it (from entering the Pepsi Flip Your Smile contest, with a picture taken of me on the night I saw Tyler at the Casbah), I am still majorly pissed off that it doesn't work at all anymore. Anyways, enough going off track here...
Tyler finally noticed Jennifer was there while on stage. Apparently he reacted to seeing her in the audience, however I missed it. What I did notice is that Owen has a great stage presence. It was entertaining just to watch him dance around. He picked up the microphone stand and had it on the roof sometimes... He even pointed it at one lady in the audience, who had a dress with a rose pattern on it, and she looked incredibly scared. During "Dance Mother", it seemed everyone really got into it. Not only the band, but the audience. Even with the lyrics saying "I don't want to dance, mother fucker!" During Change Of Seasons I think it was, a most likely drunk individual, with a beer in hand made his way on stage and started singing along. Apparently this individual was Max Kerman from The Arkells. I enjoyed the bands entire set, when originally I doubted if I'd enjoy anything at all. The music was good, the group had a stage presence, and seemed to be humorous. So overall it was really good. And wow, Tyler Kyte was really good at playing drums. So now I've seen him play guitar, piano keyboard, and drums. His talents make me extremely jealous.
After the show, another band went on. No one really paid attention to them because it seemed most of the crowd was there to see Sweet Thing. I kind of felt bad, but I didn't pay attention to them either, since I was too busy raiding the merch booth. I just looked up the definition of raiding. "An entrance into another's territory for the purpose of seizing goods or valuables." That doesn't sound like what I did at all! Well, I didn't seize goods or valuables, I purchased goods and valuables. I bought a Sweet Thing t-shirt and their tour EP. Owen was the one running the merch booth. I asked to buy the buttons they had in the display case, but apparently they lost the bag of buttons. He told me if I stuck around long enough, he'd crack open the display case. So, I opened my Sweet Thing tour ep and then started to get people to sign it. For the first time ever, I forgot my sharpies. However, Jennifer had an extra large Sharpie for the entire band to use. This made the signatures on the CD look like little blobs, but I still know where those little blobs came from! Maybe one day when they hit it big time and I'm busking on a street corner in Toronto singing Lady GaGa covers, I will be able to sell it and afford one months rent. Just kidding, I would never sell it. I'm going to live on the streets! :D
So when trying to get autographs, we were gathered around Tyler. Tyler remembered my name, which surprised Jennifer since he's only met me twice. (That wasn't too shocking to me, since Shiloh remembered my name after meeting me once. However, I did make that Operator contest video which might've helped in her remembering my name.) Wow, I go off topic a lot. Anyways, Jennifer says he refered to me as "Adam my man". I don't remember this... Maybe it was when Tyler was saying goodbye to everyone. Anyways, she remembers it, and she seems to be jealous. RT @livelikemusic@AdamBMusic how come Tyler called you Adam my man? I want him to give me a nick name Wow, I just retweeted something in a blog post. Anyways, I got a picture with Tyler and Alex is poking his head through in the background. Later when I got a picture with Nick, Owen randomly popped up in the picture. This made me think it was impossible to get a picture with just one member of Sweet Thing. However, I did get a picture with just Morgan.
Jennifer and I were near the merchandise booth, and they had stickers... We both wondered if these were free, but neither of us wanted to ask. We argued. "You didn't come all this way from another country just to be shy!" Owen ended up giving us stickers before we could ask. Yay Owen! Later, he cracked open the display case and Jennifer and I both got buttons. Originally I got the "I don't want to dance mother fucker" button, but I traded with Jennifer. It's probably a good thing I did. My Mom probably would not have liked me wearing it... When we said our goodbyes to Tyler, I had Jennifer ask if he was going to the Degrassi movie premiere this year. I don't know why I didn't ask him myself, but I didn't want to take away from Jennifer and Tyler time, because you never want to disrupt that. Ever. We said our goodbyes and then we all went outside.
Outside Jennifer was talking about her two year old cousin's (I think she said cousin, not nephew) reaction to the Lady GaGa episode of Glee. A lady came along and said "Are we talking about Lady GaGa? I'll talk about Lady GaGa!" "Oh, I was just talking about my two year old cousin's reaction to the Lady GaGa episode of Glee." "Well I am older than two, and I like Lady GaGa. I own her album on vinyl." I started talking to her and said I was going to see Lady GaGa on Monday. She told me to take pictures and post them on Facebook. How is she ever going to see them if I don't know her name? Oh well. So after some discussion about Lady GaGa, Spring Awakening, and striking Madonna's Vogue poses, I had to say goodbye. I said goodbye with high fives, as opposed to the hugs which Tyler gave them all.
And that concludes seeing Sweet Thing at The Casbah.
As you may have noticed, I did not make a post at the end of the last year sharing the names of my favourite songs and albums of 2009.
I did purchase several CDs last year, but I got a lot of disappointments. There were a lot of albums that didn't stick with me and weren't memorable. The biggest disappointment to me was LIGHTS album The Listening. It was filled with auto-tune and filler. I've heard some of her unreleased material, and most of it is a lot better than what's on the album. With this album, she lost a bit of her charm to me. I purchased a ticket to see her on her supporting tour of the album before the album was released. I should've waited.
Some albums I did enjoy were The Fame Monster by Lady GaGa and Picture Imperfect by Shiloh. The Fame Monster made me rediscover my liking for Lady GaGa, especially the song "Speechless." Picture Imperfect contained some songs I could really relate to during the later part of last year, like "It's Not Me" and "Ruin Me".
There are also albums that I wish I had checked out like Fantasies by Metric, instead of albums like Exposed by Kristinia DeBarge.
A lot of awful music appeared last year, like TiK ToK by Ke$ha. Though from the moment I first heard it, I knew it would be a hit. It's kind of sad when you think about it, that the number one song in the country contains bizarre unintelligent lyrics like this one.
Since the radio is mostly filled with autotune these days, I have started to listen to 80's music instead. There's one radio station here that now considers 80's music oldies. This freaks me out because in 30 years "Fireflies" by Owl City is going to be considered oldies. DO NOT WANT NOW, AND DO NOT WANT THEN.
So, I want to know... What are your favourite 80's songs, and who are your least favourite artists/groups on the radio today?
Being an online blogger, I have a place to broadcast my opinions, an online soap box if you will. Of course, before I bad mouth something, I'm going to back it up with reports of several people saying the same thing.
The two products I am going to be talking about are the Samsung S760 - 7.2 mega pixel digital camera and the Flip Mino HD - 60 minute camcorder.
I've got to say, these products both worked fantastic for the first little while. They were the best I ever had for what I needed them for.
After using the Flip Mino HD a little bit for about 5 months, the battery started to wear down. On one charge I can now only record 11 minutes of video. There are other reports (like this one) that say the same thing has happened to them. I find it kind of funny that most reviews say it works for for 3 months and then messes up, considering it only comes with a 3 month warranty, when most other products like it come with a 1 year warranty at least.
The Samsung S760 was working fine when I went to see RENT last weekend and I took pictures at the stage door. Then all of a suddenly the lens wouldn't go in. The pictures it kept taking were blurry, but if something was very close up, it would show every single detail. There are many other reports (like this one) of this happening, too. I think it's funny that this also happened right after the warranty expired.
I decided to include examples of what is happening.
This is a picture of my jeans from maybe a foot away:
This is a picture of my jeans from 1 centimeter away:
If I wanted to take a picture of something that close up, that'd be perfect. Except I don't really think there's anything that I can take a picture of that close up that would be a great example of photography.
So if you were planning on buying one of these cameras, I hope you listen to my warning and consider something else instead.
Last night was a first for me, it was the first time I was at a concert alone. Okay, other people were at the concert, but I wasn't there with them... Anyways, I arrived at about 6:15 PM and therefore I had to stand in line for the next 50 minutes. Rogers mobile was sponsoring the tour, so they had people there take pictures of fans waiting in line. I got my picture taken with one of the employees, who I swear is the tallest female I have ever encountered in real life. Since Rogers was sponsoring the tour, only people who bought tickets through Rogers new mobile concert ticket buying feature got to go to a meet and greet with LIGHTS. Therefore, I did not have the chance to get a new picture with LIGHTS and not be deemed a "hideous ogre" by some of her fans on Facebook.
The opening act was a band called Jets Overhead. I really don't remember too much about them...But they're from Victoria and the lead singer had what appeared to be a sock in his jeans.
LIGHTS came on around 9:15 PM, and started with "The Listening".
Her voice sounded tired, and not up to par with how I'm use to hearing it. I wasn't sure what to think. Her next song was "Lions".
After this my camcorder said the battery was near dead, despite the fact that I had just charged it before the show. I wanted to save the battery power that I had left for a good moment in the show. So I started recording Saviour. She did a two and a half minute intro for Saviour. My battery died because of that.
After Saviour I started feeling bad... So I escaped and lost my spot in the audience so I could go and get a drink. Thankfully, they were giving out free water! Hooray for not having to spend my school money on water! I had about 10 glasses, I'm not even lying. I told someone working there that I wasn't feeling well, so they directed me to where they suggested I sit down. While sitting down I missed Second Go and Ice...Two of my favourites, damn.
When I went back in, LIGHTS was performing Pretend, which is quite possibly my favourite LIGHTS song. It put a smile on my face. She then performed "Quiet" and I went back into my "I feel like I'm going to suffocate" state and left. This video shows that what I missed was good, though.
When I went back in she was singing "River". During the end there was a massive amount of feedback...She asked for people to name the feedback. One person said "Davey" and she then said "Why not something like Fiona Feedback?" "No, Davey!" "Okay, that feedback is called Davey, and Davey's a pain in the ass. Sorry if there are any Davey's in the audience".
There were people beside me who had glow sticks in the shape of hearts, and they threw them at her... I was afraid she was going to get whacked in the face by one of them, but she didn't. LIGHTS dodges glow sticks like George Bush dodges shoes. A fan in the audience gave LIGHTS a Wonder Woman belt (I think that's what it was) and she seemed very happy about that. LIGHTS then performed The Last Thing On Your Mind and got everyone to sing along. Though I no longer love Drive My Soul and February Air after listening to them 1,000 times off of her EP, I still love The Last Thing On Your Mind.
LIGHTS left stage and then came back for her encore. She did a cover of "In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins. It was interesting.... Kind of stretched out, but more cheery and electropoppy than the Phil Collins original. After that she performed an acoustic version of February Air. I learned something new last night, she has the same pick up for her acoustic guitar as I do. Despite not really liking the song anymore, I loved the acoustic version...It was a nice ending to the show and it put a smile on my face.
So there you have it... I didn't get to meet LIGHTS and show her fans that I am not a hideous ogre, and I wasn't feeling well the entire time, but I did have a good time.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
In the past couple of months, I have dealt with many things. There has been lots of tears, lots of pain, and lots of photos and videos that will come back and haunt me. Okay, not so much the last one, since I was the one who chose to go to school wearing a pink wig and play a mash up of "Single Ladies" by Beyonce and "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift.
Enough of that "I'm going to whine about my life" stuff. (I DON'T HAVE TICKETS TO SEE LADY GAGA IN TORONTO. :'( MY LIFE IS RUINED! [Actually, that's probably a good thing considered what happened last time I saw Lady GaGa in Toronto.]) Anyways, on my birthday I got to wear a pimp hat while standing on a throne in front of dozens of people as they bowed down to me. What better way to spend my birthday, right? I'll admit, it was pretty awesome.
Earlier in the year I gave my one friend a birthday card with The Jonas Brothers on it. "Jailbait Jonas, Ugly Jonas, and Joe Jonas". I decided not to say anything mean about Joe, because he's the one she likes... But maybe I should've put "Sandy Cohen Jonas" as suggested by Jodie over Twitter. Anyways, she gave me a card that said "Happy Birthday Adam" which had all the Jonas Brothers on it, including their little brother. Worst. Birthday. Card. Ever. Okay, not really... From her I got Disney Sing It: Pop Hits. It includes a lot of Disney pop songs, the majority of which are by The Jonas Brothers... Only Jonas Brothers song I kind of know is "Paranoid", and it's not even on the game. I do enjoy immitating an angry goat in heat when singing "7 Things" by Miley Cyrus, though.
So I was joking with my friend who went with me to the Degrassi Goes Hollywood premiere that JT's ghost needs to show up, because in the Halloween special Rick's ghost came back. I did not think this would actually happen, but I was wrong.
Oh Degrassi...
I've noticed this blog really does not have a set topic, and just contains a lot of obnoxious rambling. It's probably because I haven't blogged in a while... Or because I woke up at 4 AM because I have a cold. 4 AM use to be my bed time...
So uh... Last one to buy me a ticket to see GaGa in Toronto is a rotten egg.
