Thursday, September 8, 2011

Labor Day Weekend 2011


I acquired a Flip Slide vidcam shortly before they announced they were canceling the product line, but I still love it. Plus, I got to pick my own design for the forward-facing side, which was really cool. And then it sat in my bag for a while. But this long weekend (I'm taking the whole week off, and Julie took the Friday and Monday bracketing the weekend) I decided to put it to use, much to Julie's eventual annoyance. No, she really was a good sport, as you'll see.

After a day or two of filming, I sat down with iMovie on the MacBook Air (11-inch, works great for WoW after a few setting tweaks) for another day or two and picked, chose, edited, titled, etc. my way into my first iMovie. I also learned how to use iTunes Home Sharing, which was very cool.

So, I now invite you to the exciting times at Castle Henderscott on this rainy extended Labor Day weekend. Let the snark commence.

Coming soon: I have footage from yesterday's pantry makeover, and soon I'll be turning it into another little vid. I know you're on the edge of your seats.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

American Idol Tour Season 10

Thia Megia solo
Shirtless Stefano
Junior VideographerSign Waver
James makes his entranceJames DurbanJames DurbanJames Durban
The day they announced when tickets would go on sale, I set the date/time as an appointment on my iPhone, with a 24 hour alert. When the alert went off, I notified Julie that her ticket acquisition skills would be needed, and she warmed up her TicketMaster muscles in order to secure us the fabulous tickets she did. As has become our tradition, we also each scheduled a day off for post concert sleeping in, which worked out well this year since the day after the concert was the Friday of Labor Day weekend.

We did manage to get a spot in the parking garage across the street from Worcester's DCU Center, but we were on the sixth floor, which meant a LONG time of sitting and waiting to exit after the show. Made for a short walk to the entrance, however. We did get there about 15 minutes after scheduled start, but I don't think we missed much. Paul was singing as we took our seats (floor, row S), and he's my least favorite of this year's bunch.

In past years (this is our third), the format was very countdown oriented and sectioned. This year it was really well planned, and while they did have the solo performances in order of elimination, the flow was much smoother, with the duets, small and large group numbers integrated so it seemed more like a single show than a series of performers.

There was a pre- or early teen girl in the row ahead of us, sporting a hand painted, "Give Metal a Chance," in homage to James Durban. Speaking of James D., he was the only one to make an audience entrance, which happened to bring him within perhaps ten feet of us as he crossed the floor. Julie was ecstatic.

The first photo above is James and Lauren Alaina performing simultaneous stage leaps - awesome! Click on the yellow flickr link to go through the whole set. Many of the photos have additional comments.

Directly in front of me was a budding videographer, who at maybe seven or eight years of age spent the whole concert standing on her seat, waving her multicolored flashing light stick in her left hand, while steadfastly recording the whole show on her iPhone. While wearing a fabulous poofy ballet skirt, no less. I do expect to see her at the Academy Awards one day.

I was disappointed with Thia and Pia's numbers, as they really went pop, rather than the jazzy (Thia) or ballad (Pia) numbers they do so well.

Everyone did really well, although Stefano still seems like he's doing his best to sing how he thinks a boy band hunk would sing. The low point was when he walked out onto the forward stage extension and peeled off his t-shirt in order to finish out his song topless. Cheese-fest, but the teens loved it, based solely on the squeal-fest that ensued.

Even the American Idol himself, Scotty McCreery, did very well, and I found myself dancing despite myself.

Another great Idol night. Can't wait for Season 11.

My rating: Transwarp (5 star)
Julie's rating: Hole in One (5 star)