Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:10:04 -1000 (HST) From: Jackie M. Young To: Hawai'i Fans: Subject: LV Bash Report 12/20/08--LONG Here's the 2nd report. ;) ------------ LV Bash Report 12/20/08-12/21/08 We were all tired from the night before, so at least our local (Honolulu) contingent was treating the BMIFC "lunch" as a "brunch". ;) *Great* food, as we had at all the events this weekend! No "scrimping" going on there! Very tasty, well-decorated dishes, and in general very good service from the Hilton staff. Around 12:50 p.m., Garry came out to do the Q&A (I was surprised earlier to see him walk in and sit down to eat with some of the fans at a table next to us). As usual he was charming and witty (and in black, like the rest of the Stiletto folks). He was defensive about some of the negative reports about Barry's behavior at the recent Thanksgiving Today Show. He said none of it happened, and that he was suspicious about those who pose as fans, but who are really "journalists" who want to write negative stuff about Barry. Likewise, he denied Barry treating the deaf/signing kids badly at the Macy's Parade last Thanksgiving. He looked at most of the questions, but of course only answered the ones he wanted to. ;P He seemed very preoccupied with questions about when Barry would next play Buffalo, NY or Fargo, ND, and kept citing weather concerns for those areas. Since he obviously wasn't getting to Meryl's or my questions about when Barry would next play Honolulu, I shouted out from our table in the back, "There are no weather problems in Hawai'i!", at which everyone laughed. Garry then had to seriously address our question, which of course boiled down to the trip is too long to make unless they can play to as many packed audiences as they do in the UK (i.e., including other places in the area, such as Australia or Japan). And unfortunately for Meryl, she became a victim of Garry's sometimes cutting humor. ;( There were some complaints about the BMIFC server breaking down (Garry said they had hired this firm to do an upgrade of their site, but they hadn't done a good job so had been let go), and about not being able to access their phone lines reliably (Garry jokingly blamed it on Vikki, but mainly deflected responsibility by saying, "Don't most folks get their tickets online now?"). There was a question about how the Stiletto folks relax, and I think Garry said something like he tries to ski a few times a year, but Barry just works. ;) There was a question about what other projects Barry's working on that he mentioned in the Smooth Radio interview but that he didn't explain, and Garry said the rock album is still in the works, there might be another animated movie but he's not sure, and that there are more UK dates they are working on in the future. He said Harmony was still a possibility, but in the UK, now. In response to when the next Barrygram is coming out, Garry said it's been a while, and that it was hard to keep up with them because it takes everyone's time to produce and write, and then the costs of publication are going up, etc. Also, it's hard to get Barry to sit down and write replies for the Ask Barry column due to his hectic schedule. I asked about getting the "vault" songs legally, but Garry said there were some rights issues with allowing them to be paid for, which is why they're just listenable--but not downloadable--for now. The highlight of the afternoon events definitely was the screening of the working DVD copy they had of the recent Manchester, UK, concert. Since Barry has every show recorded, this was no exception, and it was *fabulous*!!! There was great high-def camera work on him all the time, he was very "juiced up", and the UK crowd was *very* wild about him (you could see why Barry likes to go to the UK a lot). They got all the "special" songs, like Who's Been Sleeping, Wild Places, I'm Coming Back, etc. (not sure about I'm Your Man??). It was basically the holiday show we were getting at the Hilton, but with lots of songs Barry seems to think are only popular in the UK. He did about 3-4 encore songs for them (one was Old Friend), and the final one was Forever And A Day. He looked really touched by their response, and he looked a bit teary-eyed at having to leave them. We all walked out of there telling the Stiletto folks we _wanted_ that DVD, but they cited legal rights, etc., as a reason for not distributing it. Since Garry's Q&A ran long, we got out of the UK screening late (4:15), so only had less than an hour to get prepped for the formal dinner, and then after that, the show. Casey had been hosting the events up to now, but at the sit-down dinner Sean showed up as Santa. He and Casey went back and forth, and even had the Stiletto hunks come out as half-naked elves. We did another raffle (I think the first one was during the lunch), and some folks didn't bring their tickets, so Casey said another general giveaway would be done during the coffee event on Sun., so as not to exclude anyone (unfortunately, some folks were absent on Sun., as they were already flying back). We also did the exchange of the "Santa gifts" during this time, and I got a great old book from the '80s about Barry. Meryl got exactly the CD she was looking for! One of the funniest bits at the dinner was some aggressive/playful fans lying on top of Casey in mock sexuality, and then the video screen immediately cutting to the Ultimate Manilow logo! To not be outdone, Sean did something similar in mock fun to a female fan who had been sitting in "Santa's" lap. Almost uniformly, several fans' stated Xmas wishes to Sean were to be sitting in Barry's lap instead of "Santa's". ;) On to the show: big, Sat. crowd, and I think we were a little louder on Sat. than on Fri.? ;) In any case, Barry again acknowledged that there was a fan club convention there for him, and he seemed in good spirits about that. I think some of our afternoon questions/comments for Garry might've gotten back to Barry, because as soon as he went into his Happy Holidays medley, he immediately went to the right side of the audience and shook hands with them! I mockingly/frustratedly cursed him out loud and gave him the finger, and Mara and Meryl gave me a sympathetical look. He also allowed himself to be a little more chatty on Sat. than on Fri., and started to talk about those "other" audiences and how bad they were, but how great we were. ;) I think it was during this segment that he suddenly decided that, since there was a fan club convention in town, that he should maybe do something special for us. He said something like, "No, I don't feel like doing that, what do you folks want to hear?" He held the mic out for folks to call out, and then he said, "Wait, wait, wait--I have an idea", and then he talked to his music director, Ron Walters, Jr., and ended with something like, "OK, can you do that, and then the girls can just improvise something?" Lucky us, we were getting one of those last-minute Manilow changes! ;=) When the band started with Who's Been Sleeping, the whole place just **exploded**!!! We had just been watching the performance he gave in Manchester, so we knew how revved up he could be, and we were hoping for that! He didn't disappoint, though I'd have to say he was more excited in Manchester than he was for us. But I think he enjoyed "breaking the rules" (he referred to how great the Hilton was to allow him to change out the show every once in a while, and that if folks wanted to see a different show, they "could always come back another night"). We got that song specially, plus a whole string of Xmas songs in a row (The Xmas Song, Christmas Waltz, and River). He was very chatty and funny that night--he said how the prop drink glass looked like someone had peed in it, and how he then had to go on and sing these beautiful Xmas songs to us after saying that. ;) Song List fr. Sat's. Show: 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) Santa Claus Is Coming To Town 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 **Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed** CSWY The Xmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting) The Christmas Waltz River 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) After the show I "partyed on" at the disco event, because it seemed they lowered the volume ever so slightly after I mentioned it being too loud on Fri., so it was a bit more tolerable to dance to. TJ Max did a great job again at the console, except for a few mis-mixes in beat. I really enjoy dancing, and I figured it's every Manilow fan's dream to actually _publicly_ dance to his songs (rather than to do so in their room alone), so I should just "forge ahead" even though I had no regular partner. ;) I'm glad I stayed because sharp-eyed Meryl noticed that Keely Vasquez dropped by to say hi, and some fans were taking photos with her. She seemed very nice and approachable. We invited her to come to Hawai'i, and she seemed very excited at the possibility. We left again around midnight, as there was the coffee/pastry event the next morning at 10. Again, *great* food on Sun., and they surprised us by giving every person in the room free M&P keychains (more than one sometimes), and free ONLOLT t-shirts (some fans were complaining on Sat. that they didn't really give all of us prizes, since not everyone could win a raffle, and that it would be nice to acknowledge our loyalty with general gifts for everyone, so they surprised us all by doing so). (Yes, I know these were outdated items they had to "move", but still I thought it was nice of them to give it to us for free, as some fans have very little Barry-bilia. ;) ) Kirsten brought all of the staff on stage so we could thank them, and I thought they all did a fantastic job the whole weekend in organizing everything for us, even to the point of partying with us to the wee hours in the morning! (They all said that Garry wouldn't give them the rest of the week off, that they all had to be back at work on Mon., with no comp time off. ;( ) The only thing I think was lacking (and I said this publicly to Kirsten) was that Barry should've spent more time at his own event. ;=P So we're all "tuckered out" and heading home after a fun-filled, but exhausting weekend. ;) 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 * * * * * ******************************************************