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2004-04-12 - 12:13 a.m. - Part I: Josh Ritter 4/1/04 April Fool’s Day 2004 – what a roller coaster ride it was… I arrived home around 4 p.m. and quickly made a batch of mint chocolate-chocolate chip cookies. While I was baking, I let my 8-month-old kitten, Opal, run around outside a bit since it was such a nice day. She came back in to finish up her dinner, and I said good-bye and headed out the door to for the Aladdin Theater to see my favorite singer-songwriter, Josh Ritter. I brought some of the homemade cookies in a zip-lock bag to offer as hospitality for Josh and his band, and I included a note telling them that in my travels, many people had been very hospitable to me, and I was just trying to keep the good karma going. Earlier in the week, I had emailed Josh and the band to invite them over for dinner. The band’s tour manager, Ari, was kind enough to take the time to leave me a phone message on Wed. thanking me for the offer but saying they wouldn’t be able to make it to dinner due to time constraints and other commitments. So cookies it will be. I was the fourth in line waiting for the doors to open at the theater, and the cookies became a topic of conversation to some of the other people who were quite interested in sampling some. Finally the doors opened, and the awesome people at the Aladdin Theater let me take them in when I explained that I, myself, wouldn’t be consuming them but that they were for the band with whom I had been in contact via the tour manager. My friend convinced me to try to bring them back stage, so I took a deep breath and walked through the curtain, across the back of the stage and through the door. What I saw was a stairway leading upstairs, and I thought, "I’ll just knock on the wall". But just as I had that thought, this big security guy comes out and says, "you’re not suppose to be back here." "I know", I said (afterwards thinking – why didn’t you feign ignorance you idiot!!). "I made some cookies for the band and was just trying to deliver them". The security guy said he couldn’t bring them upstairs for me and that I had to leave. So I went back to my seat. Immediately they placed a security guy at the curtain leading to the back stage. I’m sure they all thought I was nuts, but when I went to get a soda, one of the theater workers asked if I had gotten to deliver my cookies. "No", I replied, and he told me that Josh’s tour manager was at the merchandise table and perhaps I could talk with her. To shorten this way too detailed part of the story, I met Ari in person, had a nice chat, and she came to my seat, got the cookies, and took them up to the band. Yeah – mission accomplished!!! J Josh’s set was awesome. He really seems to enjoy playing his music and interacting with the audience. It’s funny when you hear a song live, you catch some of the nuances in the lyrics that you might not have heard before. A good portion of the audience chuckled at the line "but that new thing I’ve got no clue what it’s for" in the song, "Trying Hard to Love You". Josh actually commented during the song, "trust the Portland people to get the S&M joke", which then made us laugh even more. It took him a half a minute or so to regain his composure and carry on with the song. His energy is magical. At one point the golden back lighting on his curly wavy hair made it look like he had a halo – it sounds silly, I know, but listening to him sing his songs is like stepping into heaven for a little while. A couple of highlights were Josh’s solo songs – when he sang "Bone of Song" and then one I think is called "Girl in War" – very powerful… a halo well deserved. J For his encore he came back out with Zach and sat on the edge of the stage and played an acoustic version of "California" – no mike – just his voice carrying through the theater. You could have heard a pin drop. I felt like I was sitting in someone’s living room it was that intimate. He told us he wrote the song on the road between Ashland, OR and Chico, CA. A truck had overturned on the highway and there were oranges all over the road.. "don’t say this trip’s been done a hundred thousand times cause this one is mine"… After the show he came up to the front of the theater to meet his fans. I must say, he has to be the most personable musician I have ever met – he doesn’t just sign your CD and say goodbye but actually engages in conversation with each and every person. When it got to be my turn, a friend mentioned it was me who had made the cookies, and he thanked me and said the drummer had already made a big dent in the bag of chocolate ones. He had written my name on his hand to remember who had made them – how sweet is that! He said next time they should be bringing me cookies! We spoke about RI (where he lived briefly) and a few other things while he signed my copy of his "Golden Age of Radio" CD. We had our photo taken together and then it was time for him to talk with the next people in line. I left the theater just thrilled that I had not only seen this amazing performance but spoke and had my picture with one of the most humble and genuinely nicest musicians in the business! The world needs more people like him! Despite it now being 11:30 p.m. on a school night, I knew I was too hyped up to go right to bed. I figured I’d write in my journal for a while so I could gradually drift back down to Earth. But life sometimes throws you a curve ball…
30-something - 2005-03-01
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