Chicago 2004 "MoNsTeR Meet"
"Rewired," Briar Street Theatre, 07/16-19/04
PAGE 3: SUNDAY

(click here to see the Fanmeet photo gallery on BML)
(click here for PAGE 1: FRIDAY)
(click here for PAGE 2: SATURDAY)

Non Blue Man stuff (this will be very short, haha)
Room 306 slept in this morning, as we hadn't really gotten all that much sleep yet this weekend. Mere (bluechick) had to go to the airport, though, so we said our goodbyes... Jenny (katchoo) and Chaddie came to our room, since they had to check out of their room. Cyn hid in the closet and giggled, because she's silly. It was probably around 1 PM before we were all awake (literally and figuratively) and ready to go, so we planned to meet Sonia and Justin (BlueBum) at Clarke's for Linner (which sounds and looks better than Dunch)... Once there, enjoying another (rather good) meal, I looked around sleepily and realized I was a good 10 years younger that everyone else at the table. It was strange to realize, because I'd been with these people all weekend and not once had the age difference come into play. But since Mere and Nicole (Mandelgroove) weren't there, it was the first time I was the ONLY "underage" one... Haha. I gots lots of chaperones! Grrrr yap yap.
After the meal, Sonia drove Chaddie and Karen (nobody) downtown, so they could see some Picasso statue and other architecture type stuff... The rest of us headed back to the Hawthorne and just chilled in our room for a while. We probably could have gone looking at more of the city or something, but it was just as valuable to me to spend more time with my friends, just sitting and having great conversations. =) Besides, I'm not much of a tourist... I'd rather visit a city and pretend I'm a local (although that's pretty hard to do with my sense of direction--er, lack thereof).

Sunday 4 PM Meet and Greet
We decided to hit one last Not-Our-Show meet and greet, and at the same time, Jenny and Justin would try to purchase Student Rush Tickets (for them and Nicole as well, who'd be back later). When we arrived, the lobby was empty, with the show still wrapping up in the theatre... But it wasn't long before the band came out. I don't know who the Stick player and Drummer were, but John couldn't be missed, because upon entering the lobby, he hurled the large donation bucket across the room. It bounced along the floor and crashed into the entrance doors--LOL! I remarked to Cyn, "maybe THAT's why the Listening Station doesn't work." =P
The Blue Men turned out to be Andrew, Matt, and Martin. We fans didn't watch for too long before merging in the crowd to head out, as if part of the audience (haha). Andrew and Matt were both by the box office, and we passed Andrew first... I took his hand and quietly asked him if he was playing the next show (as he'd said yesterday), and he nodded. I followed with, "do you know who the other two are?" and he replied, "Same three" with a wave of his hand. I thanked him and moved onto Matt... I'd noticed him touching his face up with his right hand so I offered my hand to him in a way that made him use his left (I think I confused him in the process). I explained quickly, "We didn't see this show, but we'll be here for the next!" He nodded (probably thinking either "uhh... that's nice" or "damn, HER again?"). Martin was across the way, by the listening station... At some point I giggled and looked at his shoes--yup, those are pretty big soles on them shoes of his--hee hee. Once I was outside, I turned around to see Cyn's largely blued hand. *gasp!* Apparently Justin had told Andrew and Matt to blue her... Andrew didn't--he just mocked her by pretending too, but Matt was up to the challenge and had made sure to get his hand all blue before offering it to Cyn with a little smirk. She knew what was coming, but accepted anyways--I'm so proud of her.

The Museum Store Place
Since we'd had plenty of time to play in the lobby yesterday, we headed a few blocks over to a place called something like "Architectural Museum"... When Jenny and Justin had talked about it before, I'd thought it was an actual MUSEUM, but it turned out to be a large, eclectic gift store kind of place. We had waaaaaay too much fun in there... From the shadow puppets (which looked EXACTLY like the ones in the video in the BMG show), to the Chinese kitten statues that did RCM #2, to the vast wall of masks, all of which would have been hilarious to cover a certain face singing the Girl Scout Smile Song. So anywho, we wandered around in there for a while before heading back to the theatre to see our final show of the weekend...

Pre-show
Back at the theatre, I slipped into the bathroom to put in my psycho contacts. I hadn't wanted to wear them around the huge group of fans the day before, since I don't know all of them well, and didn't want to scare anyone... but Sunday was fair game. Mwhaha. I discovered that one normal eye and one crazy eye looks REALLY insane, by the way. Anywho, I ended up hanging outside with a bunch of people that were still around... And Joy and another staffer were there too, chatting. Cyn didn't notice my contacts for a good ten minutes, but when she finally did, she drew back and went *gasp!* Mwhah. *lurkface*
Once Karen arrived, she, Cyn, and I made out way to our front row seats. I sat between the two others, and the three of us ended up RIGHT below the gumball machine. The stage was almost at our knees, too--ooooOOOOOOooo talk about being close. We all donned our ponchos and joked about how we could use them to cover our entire bodies--haha. Chaddie ended up in our row, but on the aisle (stage right); Justin, Jenny, and eventually Nicole at front row, but left section (stage right); and Sonia was in her usual aisle seat in row H (same side). And then... deep breath, time for the last Briar show I'd be to in a while...

Sunday 7 PM Show Highlights
--Well hey hey, it's sonia's birthday again! Who'da thunk it.
--I have never seen anyone bust-a-move during Paint Drumming as Martin did, LOL! I think it was Karen who commented to me on it in amusement.
--When the Blue Men stepped on the stage for paint/marshallows, Martin's feet were close enough to touch, haha. He took an extremely long time to figure out the gumball machine (much like Bryce did with the Wands on Friday), but once he pulled out the marshmallows... He looked down into the front row and saw us, and lifted his hand as if to throw--he might have noticed my eyes (haha), because he aimed it at me. I tried to catch the thing in my mouth, but it bounced off my cheek (durhurh). I felt pretty silly, but at the same time it probably would've been worse if I'd missed with my hands (which I probably would have, since I'm a big gimp)--but THEN I thought, "shoot I gave away what's next!" but probably very few couple could actually have seen what I did, haha. Phew. Regardless, I still felt like a big dork. Still do. Oh wait, I AM a big dork. Hm. ANYWAYS. Andrew's spinart was really different--he did spots instead of lines, and his spiral had an odd "checkmark" in the center. Matt got so stuffed with marshmallow that a big chunk of it fell out of his mouth and onto the stage... He looked at it, as if decided what to do with it... When he brought out his little podium, he placed it directly on top of the fallen lump, with a smug "youdidn'tseethat" look on his face.
--For the mermaid poster, Martin leaned over it ominously and was obviously staring at one person in the audience, LOL. "Hey, you... yeah you. *wiggles poster*"
--During the flickoff scene in Crunch, Martin watched what Andrew and Matt were doing so intently... He was kind of leaning around Matt to look at Andrew curiously, and was still doing that when the other two had faced forward. It was like when a little kid can't stop staring at something strange... hee hee.
--During Audience Exploration, Nicole got a major staredown from Andrew and squirmed in her seat (and was on the big screen for everyone to see! haha). Instead of pulling the switch themselves, the Blue Men got Justin to stand up and do it for them.
--What a bizarre twinkie feast. Once the Blue Men had the girl all set and seated, a few latecomers started making their way into probably 7th row or so Center (and not on the aisle), very loudly. All the Blue Men stared at them, and Andrew got up from the table (tripping on the side, poor thing) to fetch the spotlight... He stood there staring at them, following them with the light, as they stuck their tongues out at the stage rebeliously (booo). Finally, they were seated, and the feast was allowed to proceed as normal. Well, not really normal. When setting up the (real) candle, Martin had this glint in his eye... If you've seen "Rewired" before, you could tell he was plotting, because he carefully set the candle RIGHT next to the flowers--at the edge of the table, too. Silly Martin. Of course, when he went to light it and Andrew extinguished the candle, the flower vase went flying off the edge. All the Blue Men watched it go, and Andrew frantically got up to retrieve it. As soon as he put it back on, Martin reached out with the lighter again (hahaha) and this time Matt pulled the trigger and knocked the flowers off. Andrew fixed them again, and waited until Martin stopped looking suspicious--hee. When the girl disappeared off the canvas, Martin was SO stunned, and kept glancing back at the canvas in disbelief for the next minute or so. After that, the Twinkie girl refused to give Matt any twinkie (awwww), and Martin gave him this litte "haha, tough luck, man" smirk. Poor Matt--no love. Being in the front row was great to hear that goo go SQUELCH out of the Blue Men's chests, LOL. Some jerk in the front row decided to throw banana goo back at the Blue Men--at the first throw, Martin glanced up sharply and tilted the community goo plate, as if he was going to toss the whole thing on the guy's head. Too bad he didn't, because the guy continued to throw goo even after the Blue Men had saluted. Matt stuck around in front of the table, staring into the front row as he continued to get globs of goo thrown at him. Poor Matt--no love, again. It was kind of funny, though, to see all those big spots on him! He didn't even clean any off before PVC IV, haha.
--As PVC IV started, I caught the tiniest of smiles on Matt's faces--perhaps he was having flashbacks of the night before--ha ha ha. The view we had was amazing, and Martin's PVC was almost directly in front of us. Watching him brought back memories of House, and how much he just kicks ass on PVC. He made even the simplest part (Matt) look stunning (he may have added extra notes in there, too...). At random points during the song, he'd look in our direction and peer at Cyn, me, and Karen in turn. (Hiiii Martin!)
--When Matt was loading his trowel for the History of Animation video, he made these tall pointy peaks, like mountains... Martin noticed, and reached over with his can to add little swirls here and there (trees? waterfalls?). As the video started, Matt stood behind the screen, holding the trowel up and sort of waving it back and forth, like he wanted everyone to see the masterpiece--and it really was quite pretty, hehe.
--During Tributes... right before someone yelled, "FREEBIRD!" one of the string players in the band must have slipped, because there was a quick blip of guitar-like twang. All three Blue Men whipped their heads around to look, and then Cyn bust out a big "HAHAH!!" at which Martin whipped back around to peer at her. The look on his face was a sort of mixture of accusation and amusement, as if he was saying "what is so damn funny? hee hee..." Of course, that reaction from him set Cyn and I into a fit of giggles--heheheh.
--Holy Wow can Martin drum! He was amazing on the high-set drums in "Time to Start," and on the big drum in "Klein"... He drums with his whole body. I wonder if because he was trained by BMG to drum (mayhaps with no preset notions of form and control), this primal, energy-filled style of drumming comes more easily to him. Whatever it is... wow.
--Speaking of "Time to Start"... (OK first of all, I cannot do the Basic Head Bob... I'm too trained by BMG to bob to the side, haha.) I didn't see this, but apparently chaddie went and actually did RCM #4 (sitting down, in the aisle) when it was announced, which probably made the Blue Men go bug-eyed, LOL. Later, during Wands, Matt stood her up and directed her to bounce around (like the other two Blue Men were) and dance, which was really cute to watch--yay chaddie! When directed offstage, Martin practically skipped his way out--LOL.
--During KleinFish, the band busted out these really nifty groove, and Cyn, Karen and I all started moving to the beat, hehe. YAY Band. Speaking of which, Dan was drummer again, and he's still awesome... John was there also, but I'm not sure who the Stick player was--it might have been Tom, though...
--When the Blue Men brought the Klein guy onstage, Martin gently pulled off his paper headband... then walked over to the edge of the stage in front of us. He very carefully, with both hands, reached down and offered it to me (aww hee hee), so of course I took it. I ended up putting it on my head, so Martin would know I kept it... and when the Blue Men were saluting with the Klein guy, I made a little move to take it off my head--either Martin saw that, or was going to come "ask" for the paper back anyways, because when salutes were done, he leaned over and stretched his hand over. I handed the headband back to Martin, who stuffed it back on Klein guy's head (rather crooked). Yay, I helped the Blue Men!
--KLF was so much funnnnn... As Chant Jam kicked into high gear, we turned around to watch the Blue Men wander to the back of the house... It was really cool to see two of them go running down the aisles with those long streams of paper--the perspective of that from front and center was breathtaking. The three of us in the front row ended up standing up in order to pull the paper onto the stage... at some point, Andrew came to visit, and danced around a bit with us... Another time, Matt showed up and grabbed two big handfuls of paper and flailed around (LOL).
--When KLF was all over, chaddie was, of course, on her feet... WRAPPED in paper, LOL. She's so ridiculous. I think I stood up just to give her props, then settled back down into my seat...
--Final paint drumming was great... Martin leaned over his drum and got splashed in the face, and promptly gave a look of shock to the drumhead, as in, "hey! what was that for?!" Haha... Then Matt set an INSANE pace for the ending sequence--I think I actually looked over at Karen and said, "holy crap!!"
--And then one final moment... When the Blue Men slipped behind the DNA screen, I noticed only two--the one on the right was facing right, and suddenly the third (Martin) popped back into view from the right of the screen--haha, he's so silly.

7 PM Meet and Greet
Cyn and I had traded cameras again, and we approached Andrew first. When I stepped in for my turn, he commented, "your contacts are really cool..." I thanked him, for the comment and the picture, probably shookheld his hand because it's my latest thing (I realized I got the certain style from Matthew Banks back in November, haha)... Then we moved on to Matt, and after the pictures I giggled and asked him incredulously, "was someone throwing banana at you?" His eyes widened a bit and he replied, "yes!! And I stood there and watched him do it... So he knew I knew it was him..." Haha, aww Matt... He's too much of a sweetie to get banana goo thrown at him. Poor thing.

Then we headed out to Martin, so as not to miss him. I think we got Cyn's picture first, and when I walked up to him, he gave a little smirk and said, "those aren't your real eyes, right?" Since this is a very silly question and he knew it, I replied matter-of-factly, "oh, they are. I'm a demon." Whyyyyy I had to say THAT, I don't know. But I think it got a chuckle out of him (maybe a "haaa...um, right" chuckle, but still a chuckle! Hahah... "chuckle" is a funny word). After the picture, a girl standing nearby looked at Martin, somewhat shocked, and exclaimed, "you talk?!!" She had a bunch of Blue on her, and it looked like she might have been standing watching for a while... Martin nodded a bit sheepishly and admitted "yeah, we talk, sometimes..." She then asked, "can I touch you?" He nodded and gave a little smile with his "yes" and let her run a finger over his cheek (ooooooo Blueness). It was cute, heheh. I made a point to give Martin a big hug and tell him, "you are an aMAZing Blue Man," because I was so thoroughly impressed with his performance. He thanked me... I backed off a bit, but stuck around in the area, fiddling with my camera. Martin looked at me, maybe a little puzzled-looking, and I explained "oh, I'm just going to take random pictures of you..." I got a shot of him as he turned to look at someone, and caught him in a smile...

A few minutes later, the group of remaining fans, plus Andrew and Martin, were lingering in the lobby and chatting, after most of the rest of the audience was gone. (Matt had already gone backstage.) I randomly asked Andrew and Martin if I could get a picture with both of them, and they obliged (and then for a few others, as well). Then all the fans gathered with them, and I snapped a picture... Some random audience member, looking quite excited and still decorated in paper, kindly asked if he could take a picture for me, and I jumped in the picture too. I thanked the guy when he was done... I find that audience members who stick around because they loved the show so much tend to have fun watching fans interact with the Blue Men--probably since normally the Blue Men stay pretty straight-faced and silent. Eventually, it was time for the Blue Men to leave, so we all said our goodbyes... We made sure to thank both of them profusely, especially since they'd been so wonderful with us in the Q and A the day before. I might've shookheld their hands, or just waved... I know I said "thank you for everything" to one or both of them... I was just so grateful to them both for being so kind, all weekend, along with everyone else. Such sweethearts at that theatre... =)

GROUP PHOTO: [standing] Cyn, Nicole (Mandelgroove IV), Jenny (katchoo), Justin (BlueBum), and Jen (chadwina). [kneeling] Jen (eternallyblue), Sonia (soniablue), and Karen (nobody).

Karen (nobody), Cyn, House Manager Joy, Jen (eternallyblue), and Jenny (katchoo).

Until the Last Goodbye
Once again, we found ourselves hanging around outside the front doors, not wanting to say goodbye. As Joy was locking up for the night, Justin got a great smushface picture of her through the glass (hee hee). Matt stopped by our group to say goodbye before heading off to his car (some kind of military-looking Jeep with the steering wheel on the right--what the hey? haha), which was sweet of him. It must be funny for those guys to hear a chorus of "goodbye! thank you!" from a group of fans... heheh. We might as well just say, "good lord we love you guys!" ;)

Nicole and Jenny had to head home, so we said our goodbyes, and the rest of us walked over to Nookie's. It was too late for the outdoor patio, so we got seated inside, and got mostly desserts... We spent much of the meal going around in a circle and telling about our favorite moments of the weekend (Sonia's idea, and it was a great one). Sonia and I had a Blue Man moment, when her fat soup spoon wouldn't fit in the bottom of her pudding dish... She tapped it down, and I watched with a "uhhhwhatareyoudoing?" look... then handed her something that would fit--my knife. She took it, and gave me a blank look before reaching for my normal-sized spoon (which was hiding under my napkin). Haha. But the funniest thing was when Cyn reached to smooth her hair, and flung out what she thought was a dry leaf--but it was a bug, and it landed on the table. The way chaddie and Cyn jumped was priceless... Sonia grabbed a ceramic coffee mug and covered the bug with it, and we were all laughing at the random event... Cyn got her camera out, and she and Sonia worked together to get a picture--on the count of three, Sonia lifted the mug and then slammed it down again... Only, in slamming it down, she squashed the poor little bug, LOL. Now all of this doesn't seem THAT amusing in writing, but for some reason we were all in hysterics. One of the staff at the restaurant came running up and mock-exclaimed, "I came as fast as I can! Is everything OK?!" And took care of the bug for us... But we were still laughing, and a few minutes later, the strict hostess came up to reprimand us for being so damn loud. Oooooooooooooops. Bad BMG fans.
After we were done eating, we left the restaurant... and AGAIN reluctant to say goodbye, hung out on the sidewalk. The streetlamp was a clap-on! Haha, well not really, but you know. There was more chatting and joking about the weekend... Then we decided we needed a picture of this crazy group, so we started setting up all our cameras on the nearby newstand (since they all had timers). I was ready to press all the buttons and run into the picture (as we all laughed at how dorky we were), when a guy came up to us and said, "I have one word for you--impressive!" He offered to take the pictures for us, and let us all snap pictures of the-guy-that-took-our-picture before he did so... Everyone I tell this story to says, "Man, you're lucky he didn't run off with all your cameras!" but he was a really nice guy. For one picture, he said, "everybody say 'dork!'" haha, how fitting. When he was done, he got a picture of the-people-he-took-pictures-of on his own camera... And it turned out his name was Eddie Murphy (unless that was a fake ID), haha. Eddie Murphy took our picture!

SOLO PHOTO: Eddie Murphy. GROUP PHOTO: Justin (BlueBum), Sonia (soniablue), Karen (nobody), Jen (eternallyblue), Cyn, and Jen (chadwina).

Finally, we said our goodbyes to Sonia and Justin, and the 4 remaining headed back to the hotel for some more gabber and a little sleep. The next morning brought more sad goodbyes, including that to Cyn's brand new white shoes, which ate the heels of her feet.

Hindword
What an amazing weekend... So many wonderful moments, fun people, and great times. You know, I'd thought that I was getting to a point where I knew maybe TOO much about Blue Man Group... that I was reaching the point where there wouldn't be much more to discover, and I would be more of a casual fan... But this weekend refreshed everything that Blue Man is. It wasn't even the shows, necessarily, but all the time I got to spend with my fanfriends, all the conversations and energy and life. At one point in the Q and A, Martin was talking about the Blue Man character... he said something like, "if you think you've found [the] Blue Man [character], you've lost him again." And although I know a lot about Blue Man Group and have had countless experiences with and through it, there is something else one can never find, just because of the nature of it... it's something that has to be rediscovered... a sense of community, curiosity, and pure, raw emotion. And that, I believe, is at the very core of what BMG means, and... that's why it means so much to me.
And probably why I can write so. damn. much. about this stuff. And why my fingers are about to fall off, now. Gah. *dies*

(click here for PAGE 1: FRIDAY)
(click here for PAGE 2: SATURDAY)