new pic of the international star

I have cool pets

my job does have its moments

This was my perch for Sunday’s evening show with Bon Jovi. While watch both show and crowd, I managed to come to a conclusion. I’ve worked as an usher for a variety of different events as it is usually fairly easy supplemental bucks. Whenever a concert comes up, everybody hopes for an uneventful night of hopefully folks just enjoying the show.

While I’m not a huge Bon Jovi fan, I respect ‘em and for what they do, they do it well enough. They put on a good show and the masses were pretty happy. It’s a kick to see bands that have been around long enough that the generations share them. Mother and son sat in the aisle near me and it was a hoot to see the lad (all of 9 or 10) enjoy the tunes while his mom “enjoyed” Mr. Bon Jovi. I I did learn a few things last night. Apparently, when Jon mentions that he’d like do a song from album that is about to come out soon, that is apparently code for “It’s now time to run to concessions, get a couple of eight dollar beers and you won’t miss one of the hits.” Those were some getting up and wandering around fans. People were headed up the aisles so often it reminded me of the Sabres crowd the night before.

I guess I was just jealous of their well financed errands to the concession stands, a lot of damn money for Blue Light I tells ya. Things seem a little more tense than the sports events as the evening unfolds and then it dawned on me, concerts inside are like night football games at the stadium. It was pretty mellow. I had to laugh a bit, when a chemically serene customer stopped on her way out with just a few songs left to announce that “Sir, sir, there might be drunk people up there, just so you know, just a few feet in front of usssss!”

Good to know

So, occasionally, you get one of those years...Marked another birthday last week and with a variety of obligations, managed to stretch festivities from Super Bowl sunday to a couple nights ago and the bulk of them sort of sucked. But you move on.

Met up with my sister for dinner at Rocco's in Clarence. It's owned by the same folks who own Sienna and a few other places and it was alright, nothing I'd go out of my way for. It had dubious beginnings. I called to get directions and the voice on the other end of the phone explained that they are in a strip plaza. I wanted to scream "No kiddin, as all of Transit is a flippin strip plaza there skippy.

Anyhoo, a few days earlier, my ex and I walked down to mythos for a late sunday brunch. I was intrigued to see that one of the offerings was Turkey Benedict, eggs benedict without the canadian bacon. I thought I'd give it a whirl, except the hollaindaise was made a lot earlier that morning. It and I had a parting of the ways in the mens room.

And so it goes, after a prefunctory party on the 8th at work, as we have all been beat down by our board of directors, my taste was gone, but a week later, I'm here doing online shopping as my mom-in-law (we all still family) hooked me up with amazon dollars and my folks did likewise from best buy.

Maybe I'll snag that chomby I've always wanted.

For the uninitiated, to make a little extra cash, I got a gig as an usher at the downtown sports palace (no free ads in my journal). It never fails to be interesting leading up to a given event, but once you get tired of being in the same circle for a given time, the charm leaves quickly.

Given the NHL work stoppage, there hasn't been much going of late, but I got the call to come work for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra shows (I couldn't begin to wonder where a Trans-Siberian shops, maybe in the Village, but I digress). Something stupid, maybe it was my checkbook, said to make myself available to work both shows.

Stupid checkbook.

Unlike (e:metalpeter), I'm not huge fan of the proceedings. I'm sure the players are lovely folks and kudos for giving a buck from every ticket to a charity. All well and good, but this is essentially hair metal for soccer moms. As crowds go, it's a fairly innocuous gathering. I mean, who would "pre-game" for the Transiberian Orchestra? So, you don't have much to worry about breaking up fights or any other type of concert shenanigans.

So, it's a kick to people watch. There are enough pyrotechnics in these shows that I pity any epileptics as it can be a bit seizure inducing. For the first show, I was just to the left hand side of the stage where among the visual treats were a couple in their late fifties doing a rather impressive space dance and an amazing number of folks concerned with recorded portions of the show instead of actually watching the show.

It makes you laugh.

A night out down there isn't cheap. That isn't a knock or a dig, just an observation, and regardless of event, it always startles me a bit to see the amount of time and money spent in not watching the show. The TSO audience could use some ritalin for the amount of time up and down getting snacks and whatnot.

A few folks popped up later in the show, must have been comped tickets. The cheapest seat I saw was in the $50+ dollar range and I know if I'm paying that money, I got my nutritional needs full and watching the flipping show. Maybe I'm jealous of the well-financing, as my dinner break set me back $12.75 for a burger, fries and a coke. I bought a bag of some of my parents' christmas baked goods to snack on and judging from the envious look that got from an fellow usher, I could have made good money peddling nickel bags of my dad's chocolate chip cookies.

For the second show, I was dispatched to the 300s (toward the top of the effin center), where again, it wasn't a whole lot of heavy lifting, just giving directions, pretending to find the jokes about how high the steps are are just hilarious, and watching folks in pursuit of that last beer while the TSO chirps "Merry, Merry Christmas." Hearing that for the second time made me want to heave my little tree out the living room rock star style when I finally made it home. But, I didn't as I bought some cool (or nerdy) ornaments this year.

The one bonus wild card to the first event gig in sometime (thanks, NHL), was the return of Buffalo winter weather. Since it hasn't snowed for real since 2010, I was keeping an eye peeled Wednesday as the weatherdudes called it right. That made me wonder how the roads around the arena would be and how my landlord would be about digging us out.

For once, the train won.