My Name is Kris and I Blah-g

Last night was the closing night of David Archuleta’s USA tour. So, with Michaela, her aunt and 5 of her cousins in tow, we ventured to the E-Center to take in the show. He did not disappoint and neither did the younger girls who jumped, danced, waved their arms and screamed until the voices where hoarse. It was hilarious to watch them freak out. They seemed to be having so much fun. I took a couple video clips which are below. The quality isn’t the greatest but I mainly wanted to catch the moment because of the intensity of the crowd which seemed to go ape$h!t every time his name was mentioned let alone when he came on stage. The first clip is the first song of the night Touch My Hand. The second is Your Eyes Don’t lie which is probably my favorite David Archuleta song and one he doesn’t perform live very often. So there you go…Enjoy! Touch My Hand – Salt Lake City, UT 3/27/09 Your Eyes Don’t Lie – Salt Lake City, UT 3/27/09

Our respit was short. I totally spent longer than I anticipated at the E-Center this afternoon. I hadn’t fed Michaela or I any lunch and I feared that I had totally dehydrated my kid. So once we realized that David Archuleta was scrambling to autograph EVERYTHING for EVERYBODY without taking anymore pictures, we hightailed it out of there. It was hot. I was starving and Michaela was a sweaty mess. We made it home in record tim albiet there was a detour at the snow cone stand – gotta have the ice. We managed to scarf that down and Michaela had some sort of nap which would hold her the rest of the evening.Before I knew it, it was time to go. Mom takes a little bit longer to get going these days so we had to give ourselves ample time to get out of the house, into the car and on the road. Once we were on our way, Rickey phoned to do my “sound check.” Honestly, I felt so official – a part of something. It was fun. Rickey was excited and it was really easy to play off his energy. The sound check went well and before long, we had arrived at the E-Center. The crowds were already forming and there was a fight for the handicap spaces. What’s up with that?! There seemed to be only two empty ones left and they both had been barricaded by orange cones. I wasn’t having any of that, so I jumped out of the car to remove them so we could park. We wheeled Mom into the “VIP / Handicapped” entrance and who do we see but Mr. Jeff Archuleta! Wow! Ok, so I asked Mom, “Do you want to say hi to David’s dad?”  Sure! Just as we were about to say “hey”, his phone rang and he ran out the door. I watched where he went and noticed that he had to greet his family. We saw Lupe (who is super skinny, btw. She’s had 4 or 5 kids and she looks like THAT!? Hate her. Not.) and we also saw David’s brother. I didn’t see any other siblings that I could tell. What was interesting about this was that they would NOT let the Archuletas into this entrance. Unless you were in a wheelchair or had a special pass, you weren’t getting in. Poor Lupe! She had to sit outside for about 20 minutes or so while Jeff went to get her pass. Meanwhile, he came back into the waiting area and breezed past me so I said “Hey, Jeff.” And he responded with a “Oh, HI!!!” And he looked at me with this huge grin and I was like, whatchu smilin’ at?  I told him that he didn’t know me. And he insisted that he did. And then he told me he’d seen me before and wanted to know where I lived. Believe me, dude, you don’t know me, I thought! I told him and he asked if I had kids in sports. While it was flattering to be fake-recognized I was about to go, “Hey, buster! I may be old enough to be your son’s sister but I am not old enough to have a teenager.” That’s not true. I am. I am in total denial. I’M OLD! So, that is the extent of my brush with Jeff Archuleta. He had to get on an elevator at that point but I will say that he kept looking at me as if he knew me and I thought that was sorta creepy in a funny sort of way. I kinda hope that drove him nuts the most of the night. I will say that all that I’ve read about the man seems totally off base. He was totally approachable and he was very kind. I think the press is full of crap.So, we made it to our seats which were what I expected. FAR AWAY. But we settled in and figured we’d make the best of it. As predicted, there was a trip to the souviner stand but I luckily got away with buying Michaela a $15 teddy bear. This year’s format was a little different and the production values certainly have improved since the first time I saw an Idol concert back from Season 4. Each Idol is showcased with a 3 song set with the exception of both Davids who got 4 and 5 songs respectively. Chikeze, Ramiele, Michael Johns, Kristy Lee Cook, Carly Smithson and Brooke White were up first. They’ve come a long way. I genuinely enjoyed all of them although I wished I could have heard songs I was more familiar with, particularly from Chikeze. He is such a ball of energy that it would have been really great to hear that one song he sang from the show with all the banjo. That would have been really cool. Regardless, the first half of the show was stellar. I was enlisted to phone in to Rickey during Michael Johns and Carly’s sets. I wasn’t sure how it’d work. I dialed in and watched the display on my phone to make sure I wasn’t disconnected, occasionally I’d listen to it to see if there was anything there and during Kristy Lee’s set, I called my voice mail to make sure my phone was working! LOL. Sorry I was paranoid. Thankfully Rickey called later to confirm that the calls worked. Yay.I have to say that my favorites up to this point were Michael Johns, Kristy Lee Cook (yes, HER!) and Brooke White. All the Idols were fabulous but their sets in particular were fantastic. Special kudos goes to Carly though – she’s quite the performer…very intense and certainly loves to be on stage.Intermissionw as long. The E-Center wasn’t well ventilated so it was getting dang hot. I wasn’t really interested in the Guitar Hero contest but the MC they have this year was funny enough to keep things slightly interesting – especially when he picked on some little 9 year old twins and made them play air guitar. The daggers they shot him here priceless.Next up was Jason Castro and Syesha who were met with thunderous applause and piercing screams. As predicted, Michaela asked for a snow cone, so I had to run out during Jason’s set to get her one. Thankfully it wasn’t far and I didn’t miss much. I still get a kick out of Jason. He still doesn’t know what to say when he isn’t singing and when he starts to talk he feels silly. He admitted as much, too. He wondered out loud why he has to introduce each song with a story. Then he laughed about it.Syesha work a very low cut and SHORT dress. Had the camera man gotten any closer to her, there would have been a scandal. As it was, her chest seemd like it was about to explode from the dress – I am sure much to the delight of the guy sitting next to us. Syesha vocals are powerful but I wasn’t to impressed with the song material. Maybe I was just eager for the Davids to get on stage but her set couldn’t end fast enough which is sad because she is certainly a performer worthy of praise. Her final number got a standing ovation.I managed to take video of THE MOMENT. The moment that David Archuleta was greeted by his home town. All night the idols referred to it being “Archey-land” and each of them, I think was genuinely surprised at the reception they all received. Sure most of the folks there were there to see Archuleta but the crowd welcomed the others warmly, if not enthusiastically. If what they say is true, SLC has proven themselves to be the loudest crowd yet on the tour. I can believe that because by the time Archey started to rise from the smoke in the middle of the stage, the screams were so deafening it appeared the roof just might pop right off the top of the E-Center. I will upload the video overnight. It’s of his whole set and over 20 minutes long. It’s a big one. It may take a while. As for the performances, David once again proved himself to be a pro. He seemed really overwhelmed and by the end of his performances he had to leave the stage wiping away his tears. It was a magical moment to witness. All the while I thought of his Mom and Dad. They must really be bursting with pride. It certainly is an awesome sight to behold when you see one emerge as a super-star and tonight David was definitely a super star!David Cook took to the stage last. He is a skilled performer and worthy of the AI title. His music was solid and the crowd was almost as enthusastic for him as they were Archey…ALMOST. I am sure that his time will come when he plays his hometown. Cook admitted to the crowd that the other idols were nervous coming to SLC because the fan bases had been somewhat extreme this year. Tis true. I have witnessed many a Cookie vs. Archey battle here online. But there were none to be had tonight. It was definitely an IDOL NIGHT but with an emphasis on Archey. Of this, Cook was aware and didn’t seem to mind.If there was one thing that I could change about the show was the last song of the night. All 10 idols come out and sing some sort of chanting song (gee, the name escapes me but I know i have heard it before). The video screens show some psychadelic stuff and it isn’t very interesting. I would have liked to see the idols’ faces before they disappear to the backstage for the last time. But alas, it wasn’t to be.So, the show as GREAT! Each performer has grown so much and each brought their own personal style to they show which was nice. I enjoyed the format although I do miss the duets. It woud have been fun to see a couple of them sing together.Well, I am off to start the video upload and get to bed. I do have to work in a few hours and I am doggone tired!

I have been a big fan of American Idol for the past 5 years or so. I started watching in earnest around season 2. I saw bits and pieces during Season 1. We turned it into a family event each January when the season started. In fact when December rolled around Mike would always start a countdown. It was pretty much a guarantee where you could find the Fluck family on Tuesday and Wednesday nights from January through May. So, when Mike passed away I decided to keep the tradition going and this time we added two new viewers to the bunch – my sister and my mom. Each night we’d gather in my room and watch. This year our favorite was our “hometown boy” David Archuleta. It was a lot of fun to watch this show with them and offering up our critiques after each performance. To top off the season we got tickets to the American Idol show here in Utah.As with my American Idol tradition, I stopped by one of my daily online haunts rickey.org. Rickey is a fellow blogger but much much more popular than my lil’ ol blog and someone who has created quite a name for himself in the American Idol community. This year Rickey was a solid David Archuleta fan (although to his credit, he found ways to praise most of the contestants equally – but it was pretty obvious that David Archuleta was his favorite). As in year’s past Rickey has mobilized the Idol fans to become reporters at each of the stops on the tour. When he asked for volunteers I threw my name into the ring thinking that since the concert I was going to was David’s hometown, there’d be a lot of us vying for the position. I figured I could be “another voice”. When Rickey gave out the assignments, I quickly discovered that the lone voice for the Utah performance (day 1) would be ME. Oh boy. Long gone are days of me chasing celebrities. I gave that up years ago. Chalk it up to negative experiences such as my encounter with Kevin Costner, a pizza delivery gone bad to Clint Black and the fact that hey, I’m probably a little too old to be acting so silly – especially since this time around I am twice the age of the celebrity. I feel, for lack of a better term, like a dork. BUT… I have a lot of time vested in this year’s show. And to be honest, there is a little bit of pride in our guy David who is practically a neighbor. His family lives not too far away from here. He’s a fellow member of the LDS church and I’m um….well, old enough to be his uh..SISTER! So I am rooting for him to have success. He’s a great role model and not too shabby of a singer.The concert is in a week. I have watched some of the other “Archey Reporters” and I am starting to feel inadequate. I don’t have front row seats. For that matter, I won’t be sitting close to the stage at all. Since Mom is in a wheelchair, I arranged for some handicap seating. The arena only seats the handiapped folks around the perimeter of the lower bowl (which I find strangely biased against folks in wheelchairs). The other reporters have also managed to send in reports live from the show from their cell phones. My cellphone is a 2 year old Samsung that I don’t think is capable of holding a charge long enough to get through one of David’s songs. Since I am due for a phone upgrade, I have ordered the latest and greatest from Sprint – the Samsung Instinct. This phone isn’t easy to get and hopefully it will be here in time for the show. I don’t plan on calling in during the show – sorry, guys. But I do think that I can get some video if I sneak it. So, if you have a request for which performance I will try to get it. In addition to the new phone, I have gotten myself a ticket for the Shout Out. This is scary because I may have to act like a fool in front of a video camera to send a message to David. I could use some help here, too. What in the heck am I supposed to say???? David, I’m old enough to be your mother! I am a total lunatic! I think I may have to enlist the help of my daughter and much younger nieces on this one. I haven’t decided if I will go to the big picnic that is planned at Murray Park. It’s another 20 bucks to go and it’s also in the middle of the work day. I am having a hard time justifying that one and there’s also the dork factor. If I just had a fellow dork to attend with me, then I may reconsider. Finally, there is camping out by the tour busses and a possible meet and greet. I don’t see this as being possible unless I am given some sort of insider info and passes to get backstage. So, I will report on the show as I see it. I’ll do my best given my limited access. If there is something in particular that you’d like for me to report back on, just shoot me an email. I’ll see what I can do.