My wife was invited to sing at a Prince tribute concert, and I was in the VIP room, trying to watch the show...
 
The band was on stage, playing Nothing Compares to You and the guitarist was playing an incredible solo, building up in intensity and tension. He was just about to peak when I was completely blinded by the flash of an iPhone - two ladies in front of me were having their picture taken together by a friend. I just couldn't believe their sense of timing. Whoever let those idiots in the VIP room...
 
Obviously, one of them subsequently spent quite a bit of time editing the picture and adding filters before posting it to Facebook. Ironically, that's when she was done editing that I recognized a somewhat familiar face that appears regularly in my newsfeed, as the lady in question appears to hang around musicians quite a bit. She's simply not recognizable in person...
 
At one point, I was also asked if I would mind having my picture taken with a lady I didn't know from Adam. I had to ask her friends to repeat the request a few times because it simply did not compute. I politely declined.
 
At some point, worrying that I might be blocking the view of people in the back, I turned my head and looked... Nope. They were having a meal and chatting, a young couple was busy making out - the person who had invited them wasn't onstage at that particular moment, so they didn't care.
 
In fact, the majority of them were guests of guests - even if the artists were allowed to invite their spouse or a friend, some of them obviously felt that the rules didn't apply to them, as per human custom.
 
I also realized in this week that, even if I have a tremendous amont of respect for him, I really don't like Prince much. Most of his songs appeared to me to be little but a simple melody on top of a riff and a groove, going on for 4 or 5 minutes without ever modulating, the simplistic melodies themselves being far from memorable in most cases. The few songs which evolved a bit more seemed pretty mediocre - nothing to write home about.
 
But there are obviously a couple of gems, great pieces of pop music. But that's a handful - and just my opinion. Obviously, when compared to the majority of inane pop stars out there, I guess that Prince does look like some kind of genius.
 
Anyway... I'm much better off at home with my books and cd's, away from people.

What are these people you speak of?
 
Are they anything like online collaborators?
 
 

People?  You went out to a PUBLIC place?!  What a horrible thought.
 
Did you learn anything?  Hmmmmmmmm?
 
 
 
 

 
I learned that I could have stayed home, played with my cats, learned a few more letters of the Hebrew alphabet, read half a book, discovered a Requiem I don't know, written a few pages.
 
But seeing my wife perform is worth more than all of that and certainly worth putting up with humans for a few hours.

duplicate

Rain

 
I learned that I could have stayed home, played with my cats, learned a few more letters of the Hebrew alphabet, read half a book, discovered a Requiem I don't know, written a few pages.
 
But seeing my wife perform is worth more than all of that and certainly worth putting up with humans for a few hours.

Seeing SWMBO perform trumps all.  Tell her 'Congrats', BTW
 
 

You have described a few reasons why I retired to the comfort of my own studio.

Next time, see if you can trade your VIP pass for a regular seat out front in the audience. I'm guessing the paying public weren't taking selfies or making out during the show.
 
On an unrelated tangent, I was reading today about the problem with squatters taking over unoccupied homes in Las Vegas. We're talking thousands of people. Kids looking for a party house, meth makers, prostitution rings, chop shops, all kinds of shady characters. One lady, when confronted by the cops, produced a lease agreement - said she met the landlord every month at a casino to make her rent payment.
 
Dude, you need to find a better neighborhood.
 
Not mine, of course. People steal your sh*t here.

Bit,
 
Portland is a homeless person's paradise.  We treat them fabulously.  

bitflipper
Next time, see if you can trade your VIP pass for a regular seat out front in the audience. I'm guessing the paying public weren't taking selfies or making out during the show.
 
On an unrelated tangent, I was reading today about the problem with squatters taking over unoccupied homes in Las Vegas. We're talking thousands of people. Kids looking for a party house, meth makers, prostitution rings, chop shops, all kinds of shady characters. One lady, when confronted by the cops, produced a lease agreement - said she met the landlord every month at a casino to make her rent payment.
 
Dude, you need to find a better neighborhood.
 
Not mine, of course. People steal your sh*t here.

From what I saw, and judging by my newsfeed today, it's just as bad on the floor. A lot of people don't really go to a show for the music, they go there to be seen and to look like they're living the life on their FB. One can't really complain because, at the end of the day, they buy tickets and fill the place night after night. But it's not about the music.
 
A few months back, we went to see Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox and I suddenly felt completely out of touch with the whole pop music thing. I can mark that evening as a turning point in my life. They were absolutely great, and they had some incredible singers and musicians, but the whole thing felt tasteless. The crowd was yelling during the numbers, and I suddenly realize that this was like a circus with people performing feats, every done just to impress people rather than because it made sense. 
 
It almost felt like one of those comedy shows where they tell people when to applaud or laugh. Not that it was surprising, there's a whole generation out there's who's being raised watching shows like The Voice and who needs visual cue to let them know that they should be feeling something. Can't really blame them - when every singer is over the top all the time and everything is a big epic chorus...
 
 
I've heard and read about that too. Fortunately for us, we are in a rather nice/fancy part of Vegas, and there isn't much in terms of vacant properties either. When there was that incident a few weeks ago, one of the cop was telling my wife how nice he thought the neighbourhood was - "we practically never get calls to me here" he told her.
 
At any rate, right now, I can't imagine living anywhere but here in Vegas.