I don't know if you'd rather hear about my trip to California or me going to see Dolly Parton at Radio City last week. But since some of California was already more than a week ago, I suppose it can wait and I can just get Dolly out of the way, right?
Anyway, weeks ago Karisa started talking about how bad she wanted to go to Dolly Parton at Radio City and it seemed like an interesting enough idea so I said I'd go with her and the group she was rounding up . . . oddly enough, Karisa had to go out of town on business the week of the show and the rest of us had to enjoy the show for her.
First I met up with Jenna and Jenn (a.k.a. the ClazzyLadiesNYC) at Cosi for a little pre-Dolly dinner.
I ordered the shrimp salad sandwich and it was so good that my night was pretty much made after my first few bites. Everything else that followed that evening was pretty much just a bonus.
And then it was time to head over to the big show . . .
I was really taken with Radio City. It's really quite the building, everywhere I turned I saw something I really liked looking at.
In a certain sense, we had almost the very worst tickets possible--we sat in the very back of the very top balcony, but at least we weren't off to the side--even still, the view was plenty good. It made me regret having passed on a few rock shows at Radio City that I decided not to go to because I figured the place would be too big and I'd be too far back. Sorry Buff Medways, Morrissey, and Interpol. I should have come by. Maybe next time? (There certainly won't be a next time to see the Buffs at Radio City)
The Men's Lounge (I guess that means bathroom waiting room) was really great. That's what I'll have to say about everything I saw pretty much, that it was great.
I even liked the numbers on the wall . . .
. . . and the sign above our aisle . . .
. . . and the swerve of the ceiling.
Photos of each other were taken to pass the Dolly-Waiting Time.
Maybe you can tell that I was trying to look nice for Dolly? (I suppose you could say I got all gussied up?) And also, you can totally tell that Jenna smiles like a champ.
Here's Jenn and the 4th member of our band, Rich. To see Jenn as a blur here is a pretty accurate representation of the state of excitement she was in that evening.
Here she is a little less blurry.
Ah yes, the camera shot from the sky.
And another . . .
As payment for my erasing an unflattering photo of her, Jenna took a picture of me sitting. I am a fair boss.
And then, quite suddenly, the house lights were dimmed and the show began with Dolly's band lit from behind against the curtain. There was a bit of a curtain malfunction, actually, it was supposed to drop to reveal everyone but didn't and the first thing we heard Dolly say that night was something like "I'm coming y'all, I can't get out, hold on y'all!" or something like that.
Yet finally the spectacular majesty of the spectacle was unveiled!
I don't mean to frustrate you with a bunch of similar photos taken from quite far away where you really can't see anything, but I must represent that a performance was seen and it wasn't just the four of us taking photos of each other that night, right?
Dolly opened with "Those Were the Days" (this had to do with the fact that this was her "Vintage Tour" and that she was going to be playing lots of old songs, or something like that) and then, after talking for 5 or 6 minutes (between each song she seriously talked for 5 or 6 minutes) she launched right into "9 to 5", and right after that she played "Jolene", so, in other words, after about 15 minutes I had heard Dolly play two out of the three songs of hers that I knew.
Click here to watch that lady dancing in the aisle.
I really don't know what to say about the show. I guess I was overwhelmed. For one thing, I couldn't believe how corny it was . . . and it appears that most people know that a Dolly Parton is going to be full of corny banter, but I wasn't prepared for it and was corn-balled over by the corniness of it. I'd hate to meet her joke writers.
At certain points, like if Dolly was just singing about her family and growing up in the mountains, it'd just be her under the spotlight with a bejeweled (or perhaps bedazzled?) instrument.
One of the very last songs that Dolly sang was a rendition of John Lennon's Imagine. It totally brought so many people to tears, all around me, nothing but people crying. I think her last number (before an immediate encore) was "I Will Always Love You." At the end of the show there were many members of the audience expressing strong disappointment over the fact that Dolly didn't sing some song called "Islands in the Stream."
Dolly's crowd was pretty much equally divided between cowboys and crossdressers.
We descended to the mainfloor to check out the merch situation. Again, I was taken by the details of Radio City (if you can call an enormous mural a detail, that is).
I love lamp.
And that's a good looking shiny door.
After much deliberation, Jenn finally decided on which Dolly shirt was the absolute corniest . . . I mean absolute classiest.
Out on the street, Jenn was disgusted by the things that Jenna asked Rich to do.
If you didn't catch on earlier, Jenn and Jenna are coming on strong on the bloggin' scene with their new joint, clazzyladiesnyc.blogspot.com.
3 comments:
You could have seen Morissey at Radio City Music Hall and CHOSE not to?
Dang, man. I knew there was a reason we weren't friends... ;)
I'm just amazed at how orange Radio City musical hall was that night...then suddenly, the refreshing light and joy that Dolly brings turned everything blue and pink. I wish that when I walked into a room, it no longer was a dark or dreary color, but a bright one of splendor and sequins.
I'd like to give a special shout out to your hotness with the shrimp sandwich. Can I get a "whoo whoo!". I think you should pose with seafood more often.
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