Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:07:58 -1000 (HST) From: Jackie M. Young To: Hawai'i Fans: Subject: LV Bash Report 12/19/08--LONG Almost literally got in the door from the airport (well, OK, I did stop to do my laundry ;) LOL ), and I haven't read any other reports, so sorry if these are duplicates, but just thought I'd send the reports I wrote while at the Bash in LV ASAP. Will send in 2 parts. Decided not to send them from there because (as I note below), the Hilton is charging for wireless now in the rooms, and the Hilton Business Center was charging $7.50/15 mins.!! ;=P ------------ LV Bash Report 12/19/08 Well, after a harrowing (IMO) and bumpy flight from Honolulu (I, again, upchucked majorly on the way over ;( ), we landed in Vegas slightly later than planned (11:40 p.m. on Thurs. 12/18, but effectively didn't get into the Hilton until 12:45 a.m. on Fri. 12/19), so I guess you could say we were getting an early start on the day. ;) I traveled with local (Honolulu) fan Meryl and we were meeting up with her sister, Mara, from NY. I didn't want to spend that much on breakfast and wanted to go to McDonald's down Sahara Ave., but Meryl (ironically who's originally from NY also) didn't want to brave the cold (around 50 degrees), so we tried the excellent buffet at Paradise Cafe in the Hilton (was it named after Barry's song?? ;) ). Lots of Barry fans had the same idea, as we saw lots of folks with Barry t-shirts and photos. ;) Then we spent the rest of the day browsing the M Store and taking photos of Barry's mug wherever we could find it and losing each other in the process. ;) We were told we couldn't pick up our show tickets or registration packets until 1 p.m. that day. I came early to the ballroom, around 12:30 p.m., and not too many fans were there, so I chatted with the staff. I mentioned to one that I had brought a lei for Barry (again) all the way from Hawai'i (and had to stow it under my seat, keep it cool in a refridgerator in my room, etc.), and did he think there would be a chance I could "lei" him at the concert that night? He was really nice and said he'd check with someone he knew who was with Barry, so I was hopeful. ;) At registration we got a Bash t-shirt (I wish BMIFC would get the hint that we want stuff with his _picture_ on it, not just words ;P), our drink tickets and our show tickets. Got to see Chris Walters (that cutie ;) ) and Vikki Thomas of the fan club (I helped Meryl get Vikki a lei also, and Vikki seemed to really like it). I actually hadn't met Kirsten (Garry's daughter) face-to-face before, so this time I did and she's actually pretty nice and helpful. At the time of registration we also could participate in an informal pastry-and-coffee get-together in a small room off of the ballroom, and also submit questions for Garry for the Q&A on Sat. Of course, some of us submitted more than one question for the box, and one person submitted a complaint about the pens which were not working very well, and which Garry actually read at the Q&A! We really were kept quite busy all weekend with con events. After the registration we had at 5 p.m. what Kirsten told some fans was a "cocktails and appetizers" event, but it really was enough good food to make for a small buffet dinner! The Xmas decorations were fabulous!! The food was in a circle in the middle of the room, and there were light display decorations in the ballroom, and Xmas trees with bright lights. Very elegant, and many of us were surprised, since the BMIFC is known for scrimping on costs.... ;/ We only had an hour after the cocktail event to prep for the concert that night, which was almost sold out (the balcony area was pretty spotty with people, but the floor seats of course were all full. I tried several times throughout the day to stand outside the box office to sell my extra BMIFC ticket (I had bought a side-stage seat on the right-hand side separately), but to no avail, even up to about 15 mins. before the show. Pretty sad, but I decided to go in for the show finally, since I wanted to get my cameras and ME set up, etc. I told the security guard on our side that I was going to try to give Barry a lei that night, and the guard was pretty skeptical, but I told him I wanted to try and to not tackle me to the floor because I was no threat to Barry. ;) I also told the waitress for our BB section (I had BB-3) what I was planning on doing, and she told me I'd have a 50-50 chance on giving it to him. She said she thought Barry had cut back on the audience interaction when I asked why, because one night a fan during one of the dances with him had tried to grope him, but she wasn't sure. I told her I had also heard of a fan who wouldn't put her cell phone down to dance with him, and then there was one who wouldn't stop taking photos to dance with him, so I thought maybe he was just getting disenchanted with the bad behavior of the fans. The Fri. show started about 15 mins. late, but he seemed in good spirits and I had heard a rumor that he was thinking of dropping by the con either before the Fri. show or before the Sat. show (since he hadn't come before the Fri. show to our cocktail party, I was assumming it would be before Sat's. show, so he surprised all of us when he showed up unexpectedly after the Fri. show to the disco event--more on that later!). Ironically, the background music while the audience enters was disco hits from the '70s/'80s, and one of them is Wang Chung (Barry has in the past criticized the quality of music he was competing against during this period, citing hits such as Kung Fu Fighting and Boogie Woogie Oogie [or something similar], and Wang Chung is one of those similar vapid disco tunes). I just LOL-ed when I heard that in a Barry show, since I thought it was the height of contradiction. ;) The opening visuals and audio are a bit cheesy (IMO) and less edgy (IMO) than the M&P opening, but I guess he's really aiming squarely at Joe & Jane Civilian. ;P Opening voiceover is a cut from Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy says "I guess we're not in Kansas any longer", then some ballsy DJ announcing "Ultimate Manilow", some voiceover about Vegas, then fairly stock CG graphics with the hit song names twirling around backed by the usual thumping disco beat. Colors are steel blue and white and green. What's pretty creative is that he has members of the band playing in sillouhette, back-lit against the proscenium screen. The 3 girl back-ups come out singing first to "tease" the audience. Yes, it's mostly a dreaded hits show, but at least because it's the holiday season, Barry threw in several Xmas songs, most notably my fave, River. ;) He did mention because of the enthusiastic crowd reaction that he knew there was a fan convention in town, and we of course were hoping we'd get some of our special fan songs such as I'm Your Man or Who's Been Sleeping, but we didn't (more on that in a second post). As it would be my bad luck, Barry didn't come by the audience right stage seats AT ALL!!! ;=( He hardly even looked at us (didn't even wave ;P ), even though he shook hands with some of the front left side stage seats, and some of the main floor front row seats, but stopped when he got to the right (what does he have against the right, other than Sarah Palin [bad political joke ;) ]! ;P A few times I think if I had been a bit more assertive in showing him my lei, he would've accepted it, but I just had bad timing that night, and Barry had moved on to a different segment of the show just when I thought I could've caught his eye. ; (It wasn't until the Sat. night show that I figured out his stage pattern--during the beginning Xmas segment he's choreographed to shake hands on one side or the other, because on Sat. night (I guess to spite me ;P LOL ) he made a beeline for the right side and shook their hands (you may be able to hear me curse him on my ME--more on that later ;) ). Song List fr. Fri's. Show (though my batteries died during the last 1/2 hr., so I lost that part of the show, which were my Xmas faves ;( ): Happy Holidays medley (Happy Holidays, White Christmas) Daybreak medley (Daybreak, Somewhere In The Night, This One's For You) Christmas Is Right Around The Corner The Old Songs medley (The Old Songs, Weekend In New England) Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (cute ;) ) Decades medley (Sing Sing (??), Under The Apple Tree, Chatanooga Choo-Choo, Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing, You're Just Too Good To Be True, You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling, What The World Needs Now, Looks Like We Made It (very sexy moves ;) ) Islands In The Stream NY City Rhythym (with round-robin drill) Memory I Made It Through The Rain (with Grandpa Joe track and story) CSWY The Xmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting) The Christmas Waltz River (batteries died ;( , so the rest may not be 100% accurate, but I'm guessing the songs from what I have of the Sat. show) Ships (he does some "acting" here, imitating the father, but IMO it doesn't come off that well because it's not clear from his feet shuffling and shaky hands that that's what he's trying to do) Mandy (with Midnight Special footage while he sings with "Baby Barry") IWTS Copa (with Kye rapping and Barry shaking his ass and doing crotch grab on catwalk) Dancin' In The Streets/It's A Miracle (with silver streamers--I tried to protect my head based on what other fans reported about getting socked in the noggin with them) Since my batteries were all dying, I rushed up to my room to change them out after the show _just in case_ Barry showed at the disco party, and as I was going back to the ballroom, I was talking to one of the staff members about how it didn't work out with my lei, and he said, "Actually, he's here right now!" I nearly died!! I saw this entourage of black (as usual ;/ ) coming around the corner, and Barry was in the middle, with Marty Panzer trying to talk to him on his right. I tried to make eye contact with Barry, but he was too busy talking to Marty, and I wasn't bold enough to yell loudly, but I just kinda called out, "Barry, can I give this to you?" Adam Keif (who's kinda been brusque with me before) said, "Sorry, he can't accept anything" and rushed off with Barry. They turned down this "secret" hallway, and I later found out from other fans that he was going to Tempo, where he often hangs out with the band and singers after the show. (I later swung by Tempo to see if Russ McKinnon was around so I could say hi to him, but although he was there he didn't really see me at the rope and I didn't want to cause a fuss.) Meryl was super-excited because this was the first time she had had the opportunity to be so close to Barry (her sister, Mara, had gotten to touch him while he was surveying the disco party, and Keiko from Japan told me he had actually put his hand at the small of her back to push her towards the party). I heard from some fans at the disco party that all Barry had done was walk in, listen to the music for 2 secs. (his songs), and then immediately walk out. That seemed kinda strange. Like why come for only 2 secs. if you're not going to say something publicly?!? Oh well. They had a great DJ at the party, "TJ Max" (sp??), and he had remixed a lot of Barry's songs to a strong disco backbeat. Also, the Stiletto hunks (all looking like GQ men in their customary black--I guess we can always dream--sigh ;) ) were pretty nice to substitute for the lack of men at the party and dance fairly indiscriminately with everyone, even those with disabilities (physical and otherwise ;) ). I stayed for a little while at the party, but the music was waaaay too loud (we couldn't even hear each other talk), so I left around midnight. Sat. was going to be a full day, so I wanted to get some sleep. Sat. report in a separate post. (BTW, there's no more free Internet at the Hilton, they're charging $14/day, even at the Fortuna Cafe downstairs, which used to have free wireless. ;=( ) Just FYI, --Jackie ****************************************************** * Proud to have the same birthday as Lucy Lawless! * * * * "I think New Zealand geographically comes from * * ... Hawai'i." --Lucy Lawless, Late Show, 4/9/96 * * * * "Feel the fear and do it anyway." --Lucy Lawless, * * Evening Post, 7/4/98 * * * * "I LOVED forgetting it because it really made it * * so _live_ and so _immediate_...!!" * * --Barry Manilow, Manilow Talks CD, 1998 * * * * JACKIE YOUNG, JYOUNG@LAVA.NET * * * * * ******************************************************