Presumed to be awesome.

Saturday night found us at the official opening of what has now been declared the Best Damn Bar in WeHo, The Office West Hollywood, with the hottest, friendliest staff ever. Seriously, these boys are adorable and they love us like Dean Winchester loves pie! As they should. For we are awesome and we were totally the funnest table at the bar that night! And we have the pictures to prove it. *g*

But, that's for another post. This post is all about DARREN FREAKIN' CRISS!!!!! ( So, the Darren portion of the evening started with this: )

Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He's so damn adorable and so nice and charming and just RIDICULOUS AMOUNTS OF AWESOME!!!! We did tell him that we'd be having lunch with him soon because we'd just won the charity auction and he's all "awesome, you'll get to see me stuff my face!" *laughs* He did promise me that he'd take us somewhere nice. :)

The M&G was super fast, but it was handled really well, and he was gorgeous and charming and completely precious, and it was SO VERY WEIRD to be one of only 5 or 6 girls in line for the M&G, after having recently stood in M&G lines for Adam Lambert. The gay boys have mad love for Darren, let me tell you! Poor Adam, man. He would have been in heaven! *g*

So, the Darren portion of the night started with a hug from Darren and ended with Darren singing his entire set no more than TWO FEET FROM MY FAAAAACE!!!!!! Holy crap he was so close I could practically see his tonsils when he sang! *laughs* The bar was teeny-tiny. The piano he was playing at was tucked into the corner, and we were at the closest table to the piano. But by the time everyone squooshed up behind me, I was getting close and personal with the cute little twink in front of me and Darren was singing right in front of our faces. And, really, I don't know what I enjoyed more, Darren being OMG right the fuck there, or the cute little twink in front of me completely loosing his shit over Darren the entire time! He was so freakin' adorable!!! His name was Scotty. I know this because after Darren's set he turns to me and is all "I feel as if I've been in a relationship with you," let's meet! *g* Seriously, though, he was SO EXCITED over Darren. It was presh!

Anyway, Darren sounded AH-MAY-ZING! He did about a 40 minute set. He opened with this wonderful, slowed down cover of Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone," and he closed with "Not Alone." I'm sure I'm forgetting some of it, but this is what I remember of his set list, in no particular order, because my brain was pretty tequila soaked at this point:

- "Since U Been Gone"
- "Teenage Dream"
- "Let It Be" -- this was awesome and he had the entire bar singing along!
- "Coolest Girl"
- "Desperado" -- loved this!
- "Hit Me, Baby"
- "That's All" - so beautiful!
- a Disney cover, but I'll be damned if I can remember which one
- "Not Alone"

Also, DARREN STARED INTO MY SOUL!!!!!!!



Seriously, we were so close it was a little freaky. But awesome. Definitely awesome!

( My pictures of DARREN'S FAAAAAACE!!!!! )

There are videos of most of his set HERE. (With thanks to godlizza for the vids!) It cracks my shit up that you can totally hear us scream "THE COOLEST BITCH ON EARTH GOD DAMMIT" during "Coolest Girl"! We rock! :D

Thank the gods one of the brilliant professional photographers at the event had the presence of mind to shoot this picture:



HANDS!!!!!! Sweet jam on crackers, his hands. His gorgeous, talented hands! Excuse me while my mind goes to the dirtywrongHOT place for a moment. *bites lip*

Ahem. Ok, that was fun. *g*

Also, this happened:



*IZ DED*


You guys. The entire night was AMAZING! So much fun. So much pretty. So much tequila!!! :D

And now Darren is probably losing sleep over having to take three crazy chicks out to lunch at some point in the near future. *g* Sorry, Darren! We'll be gentle! I promise! :)

zoniduck and I went to see Bruno Mars last night at Martini Ranch, and he was AH-MAY-ZING! Not only is he adorable and wee and has a smile that just kind makes you swoon, but he's just a phenomenal musician backed up by a whole stage full of phenomenal musicians. Seriously, these boys were jammin'. Plus, he's just completely charismatic. I was charmed. *g*

The venue was about the size of my living room and was literally packed to the rafters. Seriously, people were standing on tables and packed wall to wall. And he only played about a 60 minute set. But he completely killed it and had everyone eating out of his hand. He could have easily played another 2 hours and had everyone enthralled.

And I just loved their sound. I have his CD and I really like it, but I think I loved his sound even more live (which, really, isn't something I can say about most artists). It was just really full and layered and funky in a totally cool, make you want to sway and dance kinda way.

His set included some of my favorites from "Doo-Wops and Hooligans," like The Other Side, Count On Me, The Lazy Song, Grenade, and, of course, Just The Way You Are. And he did some of his big collabs, like Billionaire and Nothin' On You, on which he had an amazing arrangement that started all stripped down and acoustic and then built up into full tempo. I loved it! He also did this crazy-ass mash-up of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean and the Whitestipe's Seven Nation Army which my brain still tells me would never work, but which totally did!

I didn't have my camera with me, so I wasn't able to take any pictures ( but here are a few vids I found online of last night's show )

Bottom line, Bruno Mars killed it! He sounds even more amazing live than in the studio. If he's gonna be anywhere near you, do yourself a favor and go see him!

And, 'cause I'm feeling AMAAAAAZING just the way I am *g*, I've got goodies for y'all. (But, really, buy the album; it is solid good music all the way through.)

♫ Just The Way You Are
♫ Count On Me
♫ The Lazy Song

llandaff joined me for the ATL shows. The first one was at a seated venue, at the Woodruff Arts Center Symphony Hall. I think what stood out for me the most about this show was how incredibly friendly the crowd was! I met SO many amazing people!

Vicki and I both had a M&G for this show. The set up was significantly better than New Orleans because they at least had Adam in a little room type area, separate from the rest of the line. Neil was again the M&G wrangler; he does a pretty damn good job too. This was the first time that I heard him give the "do not grope my brother" warning, which makes me wonder what horror must have prompted that.

This M&G felt far less rushed, and I had quite a bit of time with Adam. I was wearing a top that kind of fell off the shoulder and the first thing he noticed was my tattoo. He said something like "Oooh, that's pretty. What is it?" And before I knew it Adam fucking Lambert was tracing the dragonfly knot on my tattoo!!! So, I do my best to find words and explain that it's a dragonfly and he keeps tracing it until he sees it and says something like "Oh, yeah! I see that! That's so cool!" But, mostly, my brain was stuck at Adam's finger tracing over my tattoo! *g* After that he noticed my necklace, which is the same Nicolina Royale one that he wore on his some of his album photography. He picked up the stone and said something like "I love your necklace," which then prompted this whole conversation on Nicolina's amazing jewelry and how I had actually bought this piece before his album photos came out and how I was all "hey, Adam's wearing my necklace," and he laughed and it was delightful! So then I give him the "Atlanta" shot glass that I had brought for him to sign and he remembers the shot glass from NOLA; I tell him that this will likely be a theme because I really love tequila. He and Neil crack up and then we have this whole conversation about tequila! We all agree that Patron is our favorite, although I did give him a couple of suggestions for high end tequilas to try and he seemed intrigued. So, at this point, Neil realizes that we've been talking for a while and haven't even taken a picture yet, so he snaps that and I thank them both and wait for Vicki to have her time with him (which I'll let her tell first, but which was also fantastic!) so that we can then take a picture together. The entire experience was AMAZING and thoroughly DELIGHTFUL!!!

( Me and Adam, again! )

Vicki and I had great seats for this show -- third row, just off of center. We were far enough back to have great sound, and close enough to have the occasional eye contact during the show. The energy from the crowd was unbelievable! Probably one of the best of all the shows I've seen in terms of just great reciprocity of energy. It was so much fun, in fact, just to ride along with that great energy, that I hardly took any pictures and instead just enjoyed it!



( Here are a few more pictures: )

This show was just flat out so much FUN! Adam was clearly loving all the pretty ATL boys in the crowd. LP gave us an incredible drum solo on his second to last night. Monte's guitar solo during Sleepwalker blew me away! Everything about this show was just amazing, and high energy, and just a freakin' blast!

Life has gone from good crazy to just plain crazy this week, but I'm steadfastly refusing to concentrate on anything but the sparkly until next week. So, let's talk about Adam! *beams*

I flew into Burbank on Tuesday to meet up with coolwhipdiva for the two shows in Orange County. We had so much fun!!! On Tuesday night I had upgraded our tickets to 5th row, center, in the pit. The seats in the pit were crammed in so tight you could barely move, so it was a good thing that security let those seated there rush the stage and stand at the barricade, otherwise it would have been impossible to dance. And, really, how anyone can sit through this show without being compelled to get up out of their seats and shake their ass is beyond my ability to comprehend. Believe me, J and I danced. *g*

Costa Mesa is the closest that this tour is getting to L.A. (at least as the schedule currently stands), so it was very much a hometown crowd for Adam and all the band and dancers and they all had lots of family and friends in the crowd. And, OMG, they all looked so freakin' HAPPY. Adam had this silly grin on his face for a good part of the show! And, even though the sound mix was a little off that night (hello! I'd really like to be able to actually hear Monte during his guitar solo!), it was still just so much FUN watching them have so much FUN!











( Costa Mesa - July 27, 2010 )

On Wednesday, _lisalisa_ joined us. The shows were part of the OC Fair, so we spent the afternoon at the fair, checking out the exhibits, avoiding anything fried on a stick, drinking frozen margaritas, and just catching up and enjoying some much needed hanging out time! It was awesome! Before the show, we found a table and some wine, and I did up our make-up and glitterfied the three of us in the middle of the fair! We were very sparkly! *g*

I had an AMAZING view. I made friends with the security folks on my side of the pit and they let me stand at the edge of the barricade on Tommy's side of the stage, actually kind of between the barricade and the stage. The sound mix was thankfully much better on Wednesday night. And everyone was just on FIRE! Monte jumped into the pit for one of his guitars solos. Tommy was looking especially pretty. Adam's vocals were stunning. It was fantastic! And Adam's encore of Whole Lotta Love that night is my favorite next to Fantasy Springs. Just incredible!
















( Costa Mesa - July 28, 2010 )

Costa Mesa was DAMN GOOD TIMES!!! Now I need to get ready so I can make my flight to San Diego in a few hours. coolwhipdiva has promised me tequila shots and believe me when I tell you I can use them. Tomorrow I fly back home, meet up with editorzon at the airport, and then dance until my feet fall off at the Lady Gaga concert! And then on Sunday, another Glam Nation show here in Tempe. After that, I'm planning on sleeping for days. As soon as that happens, I'll come back and fill y'all in on how life outside of Glam Nation is sucking hard. But, for now, I'm gonna get my glitter on, hang with my girls, drink myself silly, and dance until I just can't anymore! *nods*

I'm in Denver tonight, in town for tomorrow night's Glam Nation show. But before that happens, I figured I better post my thoughts (which mostly go something like: aldkjalkdjfiajdkfjaslk!!!!!) and my pictures (which weren't many since I was busy getting my mind completely blown) from the Louisville show.

So, to follow conventional wisdom and start at the beginning, Allison Iraheta was the first opener and let me just say that this child can sing! I have no idea why she isn't seeing bigger record sales or headlining her own shows, because she's amazing. She's gotten so much more comfortable on the stage since the Idols tour last summer. And, yeah, she can SING! Her set left me wanting more. But since there were two opening acts, Allison's set was way too short. Orianthi was up next. Orianthi's thing is the guitar. She's some sort of guitar prodigy, who's played with the likes of Santana and Steve Vai, and was Michael Jackson's lead guitarist for This Is It. And the girl can shred the hell outa the guitar. What she hasn't quite gotten the hang of yet, though, is being the front person. She's kinda boring, actually, when she's not creating magic on the guitar. Consequently her set felt eternal. So I was actually happy to hear today that she's cancelling the rest of her Glam Nation dates. I'm not sure why, but since they've added Allison to many of the remaining dates I'm hoping this means we'll get a longer set from her.

Orianthi's set didn't actually last forever, even though it felt like it, and soon we were waiting for Adam to take the stage. Before that, though, let me just say that Adam's shows make for some of the most fascinating people watching ever! The crowd was actually pretty diverse: teenage girls who haven't quite mastered the art of eye make up but certainly didn't let that stop them; older grandma types, you know, if your grandma happens to wear floor length purple and black zebra striped glittery capes and blinking lights in her gray hair; couples, young and old, with the husbands on their feet and obviously having as good a time as their wives; hot gay boys done up in all manner of fierce and fabulous outfits; and women in their 20s and 30s in sparkling in various degrees of glitter. Fascinating! The greatest thing about the crowd, though? Not the crazy-ass outfits, or the amazing makeup, or the sometimes ridiculous accessories. No. The absolute best thing about the crowd was that every single person was having a fucking blast! Even before Adam took the stage, there was dancing and laughing and getting to know the people around you and big, happy smiles all around!

And then there was Adam. Jfc. And then there was ADAM. He opens with "Voodoo" and then goes into "Down the Rabbit Hole." By the time he gets to "Fever" the crowd is practically delirious. When he kissed Tommy the crowd went from delirious to straight up insane. I think I was most blown away by the acoustic numbers in the middle. He does "Soaked" accompanied only by Cam on the keys, and it was stunning. His voice. Dear gods. There aren't even words. And I was in heaven to finally hear "Aftermath" live. He picks the tempo back up after that and "Sure Fire Winners" and "Music Open" were again amazing, as were the closing number, "If I Had You," and the encore of "Whole Lotta Love." The energy during the entire show was amazing. I'm not sure if he does it consciously or not, but he really works the energy reciprocity -- building it up, bringing it back down, just letting it ride and flow -- to make magic. He works with the energy so masterfully I've got to think that he's experienced his share of pagan-ish ecstatic rituals. Whatever, man, it's just fun as hell to ride that energy along with him. *g*

I was too busy getting my mind blown into itty bitty blissed out glittery bits to take a lot of pictures. But here are a few:









( More Pictures of Glam Nation in Louisville )