Las Vegas 2004 Fanmeet
"Live at Luxor," Luxor Theater, 08/20-23/04
PAGE 1: NON-TRADITIONAL JOURNAL
(click here for PAGE 2: BLUE MAN GROUP)
Foreword
I took a bit of a different approach with this journal... so just a forewarning that it's NOT in chronological order--rather, the dates and times listed here (on this first page) are when I actually wrote, not when things happened. Here's a summary of what did happen, in order: Friday, August 20th--traveled to Vegas, met up with fans and hung around, snuck into meet and greets, took a limo around Vegas at night. Saturday, August 21st--party at the house of Greg (BLUEMANGROUP27), fanmeet show with photo-op, brief tour, and Question&Answer session following. Sunday, August 22nd--trip to the Hilton to "experience" the Star Trek rides, Blue Man show, show at Jillian's on Fremont (featuring Matthew Banks, as well as Transit, Anthony Parrulli's band). Monday, August 23rd--*sigh* home to NH.
Anywho, here's the journal...
Monday, August 23rd, 2004
Gate C1, 1:40 PM (Pacific)
With an hour before my plane takes off for good ol' NH, I'm sitting here on the floor, away from the other passengers also waiting... Certain words from a certain someone just sunk in, and tears controlled by a blushing shock before now struggle from my eyes. Tears are a funny thing... they stem from something as simple as a little grain of sand to something indescribably... within. I'm struck with a feeling of being a real individual in this world--the real world... an independent body like so many others in the calm buzz of this terminal. But at the same time, I'm something more abstract than that--not a person of events and conversations, necessarily, but of underlying understandings and a score of feelings that collide with those of others. I technically didn't see a whole lot of Vegas, but I saw life and love and a stunning world within worlds... one that rejects routine and encourages discovery with each glance through blue-tinted lenses, perfect 20-20 vision, or the watery blur of my natural world.
Normally I would write a journal of such a weekend with efficiency and precision, typing at speeds that can almost keep up with my racing mind. Handwriting is saved for poetry, for things where I find myself pondering over each word evenly drooled from the pen... Normally I would think trying to tackle a weekend journal with a single stuttering hand is ridiculous, impossible. But today I write each word with a forced slow mind, in a way mirroring the time it took another certain someone to carefully read three simple sentences... My journals were edging towards routine, fueled by a constant rhythm instead of a unique one that would come find me. I see writing as an art, and as soon as it becomes a chore, it's lost to me... There are scribbles all over my page and I know it won't be long before my hand cramps, thinking its being pushed through the AP writing exam all over again, but I'm not going to care.
Have you ever met someone and felt like you've been friends for years? That you find more of a connection with him or her than those you really have known for years? Recently I hung out with some old high school friends, including my former best, and it was sad to realize I didn't connect with them--not only that, but that save a few exceptions, I never really did. And then I spend a mere day with people I know through bizarre screennames and flowing white text, and everything clicks in a way so fulfilling... it's not so much that we're all fans (or bringers of) Blue Man Group, but that we're fans of the life within the collective, something deeper than some blue dudes that put on a highly entertaining show. Needless to say, most people who haven't experienced it really don't get it; hell, some who have still don't. Not that they can't... most people on this globe are human, after all (I'm a little suspicious of the ones who don't like whipped cream and chocolate, however).
Freshest in my mind, the thing that wouldn't let me sleep for the five or so hours I was allowed this morning--Jillian's. I tried to tell Matthew (Banks) how surreal it was to be there, with all the fans and BMG people, in a club (completely foreign to a 19-year-old who hails from small-town NH)... but the combination of me being incredibly incoherent and him not easily hearing me over Transit caused me to fail miserably, and I ended up saying, "it's just weird." ...hopefully that made some sort of sense to him. It was just so unreal to see it all unfold--it was like those silly hypothetical situations we fanfriends always joke about in chat/IM, except that it was actually happening. It's still hard to believe that it DID indeed happen, and wasn't some hallucination caused by my utter lack of sleep (I was up for about 26 hours on Friday, with maybe 45 minutes of total naptime... then got less than six hours each night in Vegas--don'tblinkyoumightmissit!).
...anyways. Sonia (soniablue), Karen (nobody), Mere (bluechick), and I got to Jillian's in plenty of time, having rushed from the 7 PM Blue Man show. Matthew's set (he sings and plays piano and guitar, with backing bass/drums) was gorgeous--so many times I caught myself tearing up from the sheer beauty of it all... I just felt so blessed to be there and watch him play--he is so incredibly talented... What a voice on that man. A song or two in, though, Cyn and I noticed Mr. Brett Gillen himself slipping in through the back of the fangroup area... I found myself looking from him to Matthew and back again, completely lost as to whom to focus on. I knew that was going to happen! Haha. [I fortunately didn't actually explode, however.] Eventually, more than three years of waiting to meet Brettness won over, and I approached him with a sheepish "hi" and a wave, which quickly turned into a tight, mutual hug. He called me Jennifer, which no one ever does... I don't even have my full name on my credit card or in my signature (I mean the written one, by the way, not the webgeek ones). That caught me off guard, but was entirely endearing. Brett was everything I'd pictured him to be in my mind, which was homey and rather trippy at the same time. I remember lots of hugs, or half-hugs, or cuddles and whatnot, in those first few minutes... I lost track of them as the night went on, haha.
PHOTO FROM SONIA (soniablue). This was taken when Brett and I first met... I don't get much more fangirl than that picture right there. Haha.
Brett's long-arm (and I mean LONG ARM) shot of Jenny and me with him.
PHOTO FROM CYN. Brett with Cynnifer
PHOTO FROM CYN. The foot-shot may just be a new tradition for fanmeets... Now here's a pop quiz--which one of these is not like the others...
After a song or two had passed (along with a few "RAAAAH!"-type cheers for Matthew from Brett), Brett made sure I was sticking around (duh, hee hee) before he headed off to the bar, so we wouldn't miss the (amazingly amazing) music while talking... I ended up standing and leaning on a table, gazing at the stage in... well, part awe, but mostly something more like total admiration. As far as I'm concerned, Matthew is the most beautiful person alive... I can't really explain it fully (or partially even, without going on for pages), but to put it simply, I want to be like him... Sometime later I was trying to explain this to Brett, and I ended up completely lost for words, falling into a long ponderous pause that I broke with, "he's like my idol." To this Brett said, "oh yeah, join the club" (hee hee). Anyways... to see Matthew play was probably the single most inspiring thing I've ever seen in my life. And it was over so fast... but I'll never forget it.
PHOTO FROM JAY (gentner8).
Between sets, I got a chance to talk with Matthew, after a few others did (including Amy (ladybluebird), who gave him a lovely scrapbook page about the night he was so sweet with her two little girls, as a Blue Man after a Complex show on tour). [<-- How's that for parenthetical run-on craziness?] We said hello with a hug, and I told him he'd been amazing... then I went to grab the CD I'd brought him, of my first song (piano and vocals), which I wrote with him in mind, as he's the one who (unknowingly) got me serious about songwriting, finally... When I gave him the case, he seemed to think the cover (a simple graphic of a picture he took, with his words around it) was the whole thing... When I realized this, I let him know there was more to it... I hadn't planned on him opening it (and seeing the note I'd included inside, along with the lyrics) in front of me--I figured I'd sink into the floor if he did--but he did, and when he read the note... ...I'll never forget his face. It was reminiscent of the time last year I gave him an art, and he studied it beyond the ink and paper... only this time it was a small collection of words that took me hours to craft, as simple as they were... I stood half watching him, half turned away, playing the part of Blush personified... Once he'd taken it in, he looked back up at me and said something like "awww, give me a hug," as he stretched out his arms. I almost cried on his shoulder, but I'm glad I didn't, because that was a really nice shirt (hehe). It's kind of funny with Matthew... on one hand I'm entirely comfortable with him, and conversation flows easily... but on the other hand, I can't really comprehend how someone like him even exists, so I end up a bit dumbfounded in his presence.
PHOTO FROM CYN. Matthew, me, Cyn, and Brett.
I've been writing for almost four hours, with little to show for it compared to my usual journal pace... But there's something soothing about looking out the window to see varying mounds of clouds. We just passed a pair of perfectly straight jet-trails, an interruption of the wild somethingness up here. I've been sipping water, that came in a can! Have you ever heard of canned water? I hadn't.
Anyways. Back to Jillian's. Brett and I had been talking at a table behind a big pillar thing, so I didn't see Transit's opening two or three songs. Between all the talking and pictures and dazedness, I didn't actually straight-up watch Anthony (Parrulli)'s band save a couple songs, but what I did see was awesome--the lead singer had such stage presence (and a great voice)... And I did catch Anthony's solo in I think "Elephants," where he built up until he released this crazy energy, some sort of raw joy. And he was singing along, too, hehe. ...anywho. Meanwhile, there were so many funny little conversations going on... At one point Brett told me he'd googled himself and it came up with an art I'd made of him (in Blue)... and he was like, "Do you, like, know Mr. Google?!" Cyn almost fell over laughing, haha. Oh and the dork button! Lal snuck it into a couple pictures with Brett (which was very fitting for him, if I must say so myself)... When he finally saw it, he loved it so much that Lal gave it to him--he was sooooo excited, and wore it for the rest of the night--haha, he rules. Man, I'm going to miss him... and his hugs, too, hehe.
Lal and I with Brett, and then Tammy (BMG staff) joined in as well.
Hahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahahaah.
When Transit was over, the lights went up and the club closed down... we still stayed for a long time while the performers stuck around and then packed up, but we eventually all got kicked out (damn, I wanted some dance floor time or something). By then there were maybe eight of us fans, plus Anthony, Matthew, Brett, Aure(lian Bernard), and a few other Blue Man/Transit people. Goodbyes were sad... it felt like the night went by so quick. I'd already said goodbye to Matthew earlier, to make sure I'd be able to before he left, but we ended up saying/waving "bye" maybe three more times after that. [It was like, "goodbye!...psych!" Actually when we first said goodbye, neither of us seemed to know what was going on--whether it made sense to wait or not, haha.] Brett was giving everyone hugs and kisses--awwww. And Anthony was so ecstatic and thanking everyone for coming--I ended up with a couple hugs from him too. I was all hug-crazy that night. I would randomly go hug my fanfriends because I was just so happy we could all be there... the BMG people were probably like, "geez, those message board people are like, hippies."
In telling this I feel like I've left so much out... but I realized... normally when I relate conversations from BMG events, they are really fan/performer oriented, and also short for that reason. But at Jillian's, we were all just hanging out together, like a big group of friends/acquaintances talking about anything and everything, all night. ...and I don't usually record every phrase I remember my friends saying on a given day... if I did, I might as well permanently attach a video camera to my head. So I'd look like a Borg drone--yay the Borg!
Thursday, August 26th, 2004
House 896, 1:47 PM
It's a few days later and I'm back at my house (and computer)... due to the strange hours I kept in a different time zone, my daily routine (which was already sparse) is pretty much non-existant. It really doesn't feel like it's already Thursday, but it is, so I'd better get to finishing this journal, hehe. Soooo let's see, when I left off, I made a random comment about the Borg, so I think I'm going to cover Sunday-day, which was really my only "tourist time" (aside from briefly visiting the Forum Shops at Caesar's on Friday)...
Jenny (katchoo), Nicole (mandelgroove iv), Cyn, Mere (bluechick), Brian (SLC_FAN), and I all headed to the Hilton to check out the new Star Trek ride thing ("Borg Invasion"). We took the new monorail, which was very spiffy--it now goes from the MGM Grand to the Sahara, and gives quite a cool view of the strip and its sideroads on the way. Jenny and I couldn't stop chanting "monorail...monorail..." a la Simpsons, and she, Brian and I ended up throwing out random Ralph quotes, because he's funny. Anywho, at the Hilton, we met up with Sonia (soniablue), and the seven of us purchased tickets for the Star Trek rides (both of them, since you can't get one or the other). We decided to tackle "Klingon Encounter" first since a) it was more motion-oriented and b) some of us had seen it before. I went all geekazoid and starting singing along with the theme music and being all "yay Star Trek!" It was even MORE fun in the Borg one because we got to see The Doctor (from Voyager)--eeeee! And then there was a blue alien in the background of the video that we all flipped out at, haha. It was way too much fun to get chased around by the Borgs, so the rest of the ride wasn't as exciting (except the part where the chairs poke/grab you--eep).
On the way back to the Luxor, we stopped at the Lion Habitat in the MGM... there was a single lioness wandering about, and gosh was she beautiful. She prowled around the rocks, looking so big and heavy but so light on her feet at the same time... And her eyes were stunning. I felt bad for her with all those people and flashes huddling around the glass staring at her--as pretty and realistic as the environment in there was, she was about as far from nature as she could get. But at the same time, I was too entranced by her beauty to not be glad to see her. Rowr.
Vegas is such a bizarre city... There's so much spectacle and extravagance, and everything is just so extremely large and bright. I went out in a limo with Jay, Amy, Nicole, Cyn, Jenny, and Sonia on Friday night... Ironically (and quite awesomely), Randy (LuxorEmployee) turned out to be our driver!! Haha, that was cool... I think we expected to see the sights of Vegas, but instead we ended up just laughing and having a great time in the little chamber we were given, only looking out the window a few times. It was like... we didn't need all those lights and millions of dollars of entertainment... we were perfectly fine with just enjoying each other's company. Amy kept squealing, "I'm in LAS VEGAS!!!" but for me, I wasn't even realizing that for the most part... When we pulled up to a hotel on Fremont (or somewhere back there), it was actually really quiet and calm--a side of Vegas one might not expect... it was refreshing.
Nights at the Luxor were hilarious... with so many roommates, all hyper and giggly from the weekend's events, we didn't really get much sleep, and I don't think any of us cared. Apparently Cyn woke up laughing sometime Friday night, but I was so gone that I never even heard it (damn!, that would have been funny). Sunday night, not even the hysterical gigglings of four of us (Cyn, Nicole, Lal, and I) disturbed the fifth (Mere) from her slumber. So in reality we probably were all quite exhausted... but then again, Vegas seems to be a place that defies sleep.
