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| A NIGHT WITH TAYLOR | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Oct 30 2009, 06:54 AM (345 Views) | |
| mouser | Oct 30 2009, 06:54 AM Post #1 |
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I am not sure why this gentleman took this long to post a "review" of Taylor's appearance at Marty's in Chicago, but it was worth the wait............fun blog entry. ONE NIGHT IN TAYLOR: OUR MEETING WITH AN AMERICAN IDOL As is common in the Chicagoland area, the winter and early spring of 2006 was extremely cold. For citizens of the Windy City, it’s like every year we’re sentenced to a two and a half month prison term, where going outside for more than a minute at a time is just not an option. The end of January and the early part of February are the worst, and I’m guessing that it’s around this time that most people find themselves watching more television than usual. Me and my girlfriend Jackie are no different… At the time, Jackie and I didn’t have a particular show that we found ourselves routinely watching. We were like television orphans. Then one night we decided to watch American Idol during one of their audition episodes. The decision to watch the show wasn’t anything outrageous for either of us. Although neither of us were very big fans of American Idol, the audition portion always offers up some quality entertainment. No one proves that better than this guy… But once the audition portion of the show was over, we would typically stop tuning in. This year however, Jackie had declared that not only was she a fan of the gray haired gentlemen who auditioned in Vegas, but he was also going to win. The more I watched this guy, the more I became a fan as well. Since no one else on the show struck our interest, we decided that we would watch American Idol every week until he was eliminated. Because I’m a Cubs fan I have no faith in anything that I root for, so I was sure he wouldn’t make it into the top twenty. But he did. Even though he made it to the top twenty, I was sure he wouldn’t make it to the top ten. But he did. Even though he made it to the top ten, I knew there was no way he’d get to the finals. But he did. I was shocked. All the disappointment training that I’ve gone through over the years was not being put to good use. Because we had invested so much of our time rooting for this guy, we became very passionate about him winning the glorified karaoke contest… so passionate that I would vote for him multiple times via text message, even though I didn’t have an unlimited texting plan. I was slowly but surely turning into a fourteen year old girl. The night of the finals we had our own little party. I actually had butterflies in my stomach, which is when I knew this obsession was going a little too far. At the end of the American Idol Season 5 finale, the winner was announced… and to our delight, the founder of the Soul Patrol was declared the winner. The man I’m referring to is none other than Taylor Hicks. One Night In Taylor: Our Meeting With an American Idol Two and a half years later I found myself in front of my computer at work. Jackie and I were still together and neither of us has tuned in to an episode of American Idol since. Our entertainment preferences had matured immensely, and the shows that we now favored watching were much more geared towards adults, i.e. The Hills and Laguna Beach. Christmas was soon approaching, and I was struggling to come up with a gift idea for her. After going down many dead ends, I decided to check the Ticketmaster website. Nothing they had on their homepage really struck my interest… I knew Jackie wouldn’t want to go see The Chicago Bulls play the Toronto Raptors, or attend the DePaul Gymnastics Expo. But before I left the website, I decided I would toss a Hail Mary and see if by chance Taylor Hicks was coming to town anytime soon. I don’t know where the idea came from, but I rolled with it. Low and behold, the former American Idol was putting on a small concert in Chicago on January 17th. He was going to be performing at a bar called Martyrs. Martyrs is a good sized bar, but it’s not too big where it would be difficult to see the stage. I knew that if we got there early enough we could get a pretty good spot. So I bought the tickets, and a month later we were off to see our American Idol. When we got to the venue, we positioned ourselves very close to the stage. We also positioned ourselves very close to the bar. That night in particular there was a $2.50 special on MGD cans, which is an unheard of price at a concert in the city, especially on a Saturday. Needless to say we took advantage of the deal, and when we cashed out four hours later we had racked up a $55 bill. When you do the math, that is way too much beer to be consuming in a four hour period, especially since we had already been drinking heavily beforehand. However, if it wasn’t for that beer special, we would have never met The Man. At around 11pm, Taylor hit the stage. He was about eight feet away from us during the show, and we were having a blast. After two hours of singin, dancin, and playing cowbell, him and his band said goodnight and exited stage right. Jackie and I thought the show was over. After we had already gotten our coats on, someone informed us that he would be coming back for an encore, a thought that MGD prevented us from having. So we went to put our coats back and return to the performance area. When we were hanging up our coats, a member of the band walked out of the bathroom and through a swinging door located right next to the coat hangers. That’s when MGD made the first of many bold choices for us that night: we would follow him. We walked through the swinging door and found ourselves in an empty kitchen. Confusion spread through our brains. How did this guy disappear? Were we in a labyrinth? After a few moments of investigation, we noticed a stairwell that went up. MGD gave us another great idea: we should go up these stairs. As we ventured towards the upstairs area, we couldn’t stop giggling. We knew this was getting ridiculous… but we had yet to be stopped by any sort of security, so we ventured on. That’s when MGD helped my brain come up with a flawless alibi. If anyone were to ask me why we were backstage, I would tell them that my father was the president of the Maxwell House Coffee Corporation. That way, I would sound distinguished and worthy of being in the backstage area. I loved the excuse so much that I wanted to get caught so I could use it. When we got to the top of the stairs, there he was. Taylor Hicks and his entire band stood before us, and they were getting ready to go back downstairs for the encore. As they descended towards the staircase, me and Jackie wished them all luck. Taylor was the last to pass us, and as he walked by I wished him luck as well. “Thanks man!” he said, and then gave me a masculine fist bump, a gesture brought to us by the Obamas. We couldn’t believe it! Because of MGD, we had mustered up the courage to sneak back stage and meet Taylor Hicks. It was amazing! But at that point we found ourselves in an awkward position… we were alone in Taylor Hicks’ dressing room. All of his entourage had followed him, and we were all by ourselves. So we did the one thing that any star crazed fan would do in a celebrities dressing room: we started eating the free food. We snacked on humus, carrots and celery, and washed it down with bottles of water. I must say, I was a little disappointed in the spread, but I was in no position to complain. At this point I should have been arrested. As we chowed down on the free grub, we could hear the encore below. It sounded great, but we didn’t care. We were VIP’s courtesy of the Maxwell House Corporation and loving every second of it. After about ten minutes the music below us stopped. We realized the show must be over, but before we could plan our next move our favorite American Idol walked back into the dressing room and sat right next to me. We were both in a state of shock. In all of my years of drinking MGD, nothing productive has ever come out it. Yet here I was, sitting next to Taylor Hicks while an assistant fanned him down. It was like sitting next to Cleopatra. As he sat there catching his breath, I decided to make a move. I said to him, “Great show!” He replied, “Thanks man! What’s your name?” “I’m Sean.” “Hi Sean, I’m Taylor.” Then he shook my hand. He went through the same routine with Jackie. So here we were… hanging out illegally in Taylor Hicks’ dressing room with him sitting next to me, stealing his food and beverages, and struggling to think of something to talk about. After a few moments of silence, I said the first thing that came to my mind. “You know, I spent about seven dollars and eighty cents in text messages voting for you on American Idol.” That was the only thing I could think of saying. Fucking MGD. After making this comment, Taylor looked at me for a moment. Then he asked, “Was it worth it?” I looked him in the eyes, and in a more serious tone than I’ve ever taken with anyone in my life, I replied… “Absolutely.” I believe it was me telling the winner of the most popular show in America how much in text messages I spent on him that made his assistant realize we weren’t supposed to be there. I also ruined my alibi, for if I was a real Maxwell I would probably have an unlimited texting plan. Either way, that’s when his assistant said that we should probably leave. We were in no position to but up a fuss about his request, so we complied. We said goodbye to Mr. Hicks and he told Jackie and I that it was nice meeting us. Walking out of the backstage area made me feel like a genuine groupie. Tons of women were by the door as we walked out, all asking if we knew Taylor… to which we replied, “Of course.” I’m sure they thought to themselves, “They must be associated with the Maxwell House fortune!” We gathered our coats and left the bar, stopping only so Jackie could buy a Taylor Hicks t-shirt. Thank you MGD. For everything. http://seanssabbatical.com/one-night-in-taylor-our-meeting-with-an-american-idol |
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| Gr8fulheart | Oct 30 2009, 10:15 AM Post #2 |
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"Was it worth it?" I smiled & laughed all the way through this. So~what if I'm a Folgers drinker?
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| Oldiebutgoodie | Oct 30 2009, 12:49 PM Post #3 |
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Personally I like General Foods International Orange Express myself- |
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| san | Oct 30 2009, 09:54 PM Post #4 |
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What a fun story! I totally related to their first encounter with American Idol...cold winter, something to watch... becoming obsessed in Taylor Hicks by the end! How many of us can relate? A few I think! Never been a beer drinker...this makes me want to consider it! hehe! We always blow our cover some way, don't we. It's like wearing a neon sign: "I'm a Taylor Hicks fan!" |
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| Gr8fulheart | Oct 31 2009, 08:16 AM Post #5 |
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Blow Our Cover? Now, what makes you say that? For me, its like wearing a 'blinking' neon sign across my forehead; with this 'star-struck' glaze look on my face. Forget the ; I'm already too obvious!Now~can anyone relate to that?
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I smiled & laughed all the way through this.
; I'm already too obvious!
2:34 AM Jul 11