The best concert I've ever been to

I'm not exaggerating! Last night's David Byrne concert was the best concert I've ever been to. David Byrne was the lead singer of the Talking Heads in case you didn't know. I've been to a lot of concerts, but last night was absolutely amazing. And we almost missed it! Here's what happened:

A couple of Friday's ago our friend Andy was listening to NPR (National Public Radio), and they were holding their fall drive (asking people to donate). For a $200 donation you could get 2 tickets to the "sold out" David Byrne concert. Andy called Cam immediately and asked if he knew Byrne was coming in concert. Cam had no idea. So Cam came home that day exhausted from the week of work, and a little upset about something. I asked him what was going on and he told me that David Byrne was coming in concert and it was already sold out, unless we donate $200 to NPR.

Cam has been a fan of the Talking Heads since the early 80's, and is still a huge fan. I've always liked them, but since being with Cam I have learned to love them almost as much as he does. We mostly listen to music at night while we are cooking and stuff, and 2 or 3 times a week we put in one of their CD's or watch the DVD Stop Making Sense. We even have a lot of David Byrne's solo stuff that we listen to. So, in my mind if David Byrne was going to be in Utah, my husband was going no matter what it took. Cam has been working so hard this past month or so, his last 2 paychecks each had over 20 hours of overtime, and his next one will too. He was going to that concert!

So I immediately went into action. If we have to donate $200 to NPR, fine! I donate $35 a year anyway to be a member, so what's a little more? Before I did that, I went onto Craig's list to the tickets section to see if anyone was selling them. No one was. Then I decided to find out where he was going to be and just see if, by some miracle, there were some tickets left. I googled it, saw it was at the Eccles theatre in Park City, and went onto their website. On their list of events it said "limited tickets available" next to David Byrnes name. I cliked on buy tickets, told them I wanted 2 and guess what? They came up for sale for $18 each! Eighteen dollars each!!!! I yelled to Cam, who was sulking in the kitchen, to bring me my purse. He came in the office and said "can we still donate the $200 to get the tickets?", I laughed and showed him the screen. He couldn't believe it. He told me Andy and Brenna are going to want to go. I told him I'm not letting go of these 2 tickets, I'll buy these and if they want to go, I'll see if I can get 2 more. So I bought them, Andy said to grab 2 more, so I did. I think we pretty much got the last 4 tickets. Out of curiosity I tried to buy 2 more and it wouldn't let me. It kept telling me there weren't 2 seats together. We decided NPR wasn't lying when they said it was sold out. We think they were giving away the sold out floor seats, our tickets were in the very last row of the balcony. Can I just say, the rest of the evening Cam was giddy as a school girl. He kept making me show him the printout of our ticket purchase. When it very first hit him that he was going to see David Byrne, his eyes actually got watery. I'm not kidding.

Last night was the concert. The Eccles theatre in Park City only holds 1,300 people. So even though we were in the back row of the balcony, it didn't matter! Any seat in that theatre is a good seat. And, get this! The Eccles theatre is attached to Park City High School, it is their auditorium. Park City High has an Eccles theatre as their auditorium! What the bip?

On the drive up we were talking about and anticipating how good the show was going to be. Is David Byrne still energetic and kind of eccentric? Or as he's gotten older has he toned it down a bit? Is he going to play any Talking Heads? We all agreed he probably wouldn't. There seems to be some bad blood with the ex-members of the band, and we weren't sure if he has just completely moved on and just does his solo stuff or what.

So the lights go down on the theatre, and the entire band walks on stage. David Byrne, 2 drummers, a keyboard player, a bass player, and 3 backup singers. All dressed from head to toe in white. I knew it was going to be good. I will just highlight a couple of points, or this will go on forever.

David Byrne has not changed at all. His voice is one of my favorite things about his music, and he sounds as good as ever. He can still belt out those lyrics when he wants to. And the way he moves! I've watched Stop Making Sense probably 100 times, and one thing I love is watching David Byrne move. There are ways he moves his hips and legs that pretty much define him. It was so cool to see him 25 years after SMS came out and see those familiar moves. After the first couple of songs, 3 dancers came out. 2 girls and a guy, all in white. They were great! Their dancing looked like it was not choreographed, but you knew it was! It wasn't that stupid Britney Spears robot dancing. All 3 of them would be doing something different, but then their arms would suddenly do the same thing, or they would all suddenly turn the other way. It's hard to explain.

And true to his style, David Byrne got the entire band in on the dancing, even himself! In one song, the dancers were doing their thing, suddenly Byrne lifts up one leg, and the male dancer dove between his legs and slid across the floor. And they did it so nonchalently. There was another song where the dancers were jumping over eachother once in a while. Kind of in a leap frog way. In the middle of the song, Byrne bent over a little, and one of the dancers leapt over him! And he just kept on singing. It was so cool! In another song, the dancers took the backup singers microphones and started walking slowly backwards. The singers followed them, still singing in the microphones. The dancers lined up the microphones, single file, behind Byrne and the singers sang behind him. Then, during a guitar solo, Byrne started winding his way between them. Then when he got back to singing, the dancers grabbed the microphones, and led each singer to a different part of the stage. Then the singers laid down and the dancers held there microphone stands in the air so they could sing into the microphone, so the rest of the song, the back up singers were on the floor singing! It was awesome! Sorry, this is the longest blog ever. I could go on and on, but I won't. Every song was a new adventure. They did 3 encores, and my husband had the best time of his life.

One more side note, sorry. I went to Wendover last weekend because some friends of mine had tickets to REO Speedwagon. I didn't go to the concert, but I went to Wendover with them for a girls weekend. Cam and I paid $18 for David Byrne tickets, how much were REO SPEEDWAGON tickets? $50 each! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Suckers!

Did he do some Talking Heads songs? Yes he did! Heaven, Slippery People, Once in a Lifetime, Take Me to the River and Burning Down the House! Here's a little playlist of what we experienced last night.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

I finally finished it! I don't know why it took me so long! It's not that I didn't like it, I just had a hard time finding time to read this last month or so I guess. I'm already about 100 pages into the 3rd one, so that is coming along.

Anyway, I liked the book about as much as I liked the first one. I noticed it is pretty much the same book, just different circumstances (chamber of secrets instead of philosopher's stone). So does this mean all 7 books follow the same formula? I guess most kids books do. Nancy Drew for instance is the exact same book written 75 or so times. I'm not complaining, just wondering. Emily did tell me the series takes a turn in the 3rd book, so I'll just have to see.

Here are the things I liked:

The Dursley's again. I really enjoy how over the top awful the author makes them. Giving Harry a used pair of Uncle Vernon's socks for his birthday, and his cousin Dudley gets like 150 birthday gifts.

The scene where Ron was throwing up slugs. I thought it was gross, but I liked it.

Tom Riddle's diary. I thought it was pretty cool how when Harry finally wrote in it, Tom wrote back. I didn't like so much Harry actually going into the diary and seeing things. I would have liked it better if the author just kept it to writing back.

I liked it when Fawkes, the Phoenix, just suddenly burst into flames in Dumbledore's office.

I'm liking the whole Weasley family more. Especially Mr. Weasley. I like his fascination with Muggle things. I like how they are a family of wizards and witches, but yet, they are so normal! The kids tease eachother, they have chores, they are poor, etc.

The "howler". That is the letter Mrs. Weasley sends Ron that when he opens it, it starts yelling at him. I wish those really existed.

And the thing I liked the most about the book--Gilderoy Lockhart! He is the Ted Baxter of wizards. I just loved him. I loved the colors of robes he wore and his silky hair. I love how much he loves himself and how he assumes everyone loves him and wants his picture and autograph (Ted Baxter). I love how he is really just an idiot who takes credit for things other people do (Ted Baxter). I love how his spells and wand tricks always go wrong and he always has some excuse. I liked how at the end, Harry and Ron find him packing and planning on sneaking away. I just really liked everything about Lockhart. His character alone makes me want to see the movie just so I can see him. I kept trying to come up with what actor I thought would do best in that part. I settled on Kelsey Grammer, but wasn' t exactly satisfied in the choice. I didn't want to know who it was while I was reading, I always like to picture things in my head. When I finished the book, I looked it up on IMDB, and saw it is Kenneth Branagh. I was kind of disappointed at first. He bugs the hell out of me. I really liked the Frankenstein movie he did, but hated, hated, hated the Hamlet he did. He added about an hour at the end that wasn't in the play! You don't mess with Shakespeare! (I better stop now before I really go off.) Anyway, after thinking about it, I do think he was a good choice. Even though I really don't like him, I do think he is a good actor, and I can see him doing good things with Lockhart's character. I was kind of sad at the end of the book when he loses his memory.

Now for the things I didn't really like:

Floo powder. This is the powder they use at the Weasley's to transport themselves to Daigon Alley. That just bugged me and I didn't like it.

Another minor dislike is Moaning Myrtle. I got tired of her sobbing all the time.

De-gnoming the garden. It really is a very minor scene in the book (1 page I think) with no relevance at all to the book as a whole, but nonetheless, I didn't like it.

The line in the book "celebrity is as celebrity does". I think Lockhart says it to Harry. When I read the line I almost threw the book across the room in disgust. The Forest Gump people should sue her.

All of them flying up the drain at the end holding onto the Phoenix's tail. I wish the author could have come up with a better way for them to get out of the chamber.

I didn't particularly like the idea of Ginny being taken over by Voldemort and doing all the attacking. I can see what she was trying to do. I mean it would be way to obvious if it was Draco Malfoy. But I thought using Ginny kind of disrupted the flow of the book. I think if the author wanted to use the last person you'd expect, than Percy would have been a better choice. I don't know, using Ginny just flopped with me. Like how it was Maggie that shot Mr. Burns in the Simpsons, just doesn't work.

And I know this has nothing to do with the book itself, but I hate the artwork on the front covers of these books! It is just terrible. I am not a fan of using a picture from the movie as a book cover, but in this case, I would much prefer a picture of Daniel Radcliff wearing a scarf of bravery rather than these Modigliani-esqe cartoons.

And the thing I disliked the most--The Mandrakes. These are the plants who's roots are little babies that scream and cry. They are used to reverse curses. I feel the whole thing was creepy and I didn't like it one bit. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the author really described exactly how they are used to reverse curses. Anyway, I hated the Mandrakes, and I hope they aren't in the rest of the books. And I think they will scare me more in the movie than the girl in the closet in The Ring scared Catherine and Emily.

There is one thing in the book I'm undecided on whether I liked it or not. And that is Dobby. There were things I liked and things I didn't like about Dobby. At first I liked his self-punishing ways, but after awhile it started to annoy me. I didn't quite understand how he is the one who prevented Harry and Ron from reaching platform 9 and 3/4's. I found the author's explanation somewhat awkward and vague. And I thought it was pretty stupid that the only way to free him was to give him some clothes. So at the end Harry gives him a sock and he's free? Come on! That's just stupid, and doesn't make sense. Shouldn't it be that only his master can free him by giving him clothes? Still, I didn't totally dislike Dobby. I have a feeling he is going to appear in more of the books, I'll have to see if he grows on me more. He is a character that could get a lot stronger now that he is free, I hope the author does that to him.

I am also gaining more of an appreciation for JK Rowling's writing style. I have some criticisms here and there, but there are some aspects to her style I like. As a whole, she is good at creating characters. Snape, Dumbledore, the Weasley twins, the Dursley's, Lockhart and more are good characters. And she has a good way of adding funny, almost intentionally unnoticeable little things to the book. For example, I can't remember the exact scene, but they are in one of their classes. Something happens like someone runs in the classroom or something, and she writes that it happens while "Harry was trying to turn 2 rabbits into slippers". I really like how she just kind of mentions things like that as if it is a perfectly normal thing for Harry to do. It just gives a sense of realness or normalcy to this world she has created. Does that make sense?

Well Em, this time there are more things I disliked than liked. But only by 1. I hope you notice that again most of the things I disliked are pretty insignificant. Especially the cover art. Maybe we shouldn't count that, it has nothing to do with the book. So we will call it even. I did like the book all in all.