Everything's More Fun In Pigtails!

2009 MTV VMA Aftermath & Why I Wasn't Blogging It

Y'all? I can't even hire my TiVo to babysit the VMAs for one night while I go out and do something because it just lets Kanye out to just do whatever his stupidly-shaved head's ass is going to do. GAH. I was all, "Ooh, I have concert tickets for that night, I'll just record the show and watch it the next day - no biggie. It sucked the last few years, so I'm sure I won't miss much." Then I get an ominous text from my brother telling me to wait until I see what Kanye has pulled, but giving me no specifics. I knew it had to be bad, because it actually caused my brother to type "omg" for the first time in his existence. He is 36 years old. ANYWAY - I found out about the Kanye mess when I got home last night and then watched the show tonight and found out that it was actually enjoyable. How did that happen? Well played, MTV. Well played. Since I wasn't around to liveblog, I'm just going to be lazy and give you my thoughts after watching the show tonight and then I'll tell you why I wasn't home last night to see it - here's a hint - it involves a Blind love of mine. Shall we?

- Should I just get the Kanye thing out of the way first so we can move on? Anyone who has read any of my award recaps knows that I do not hide my hatred of Kanye. I've never liked his ass and never will. I'm sure he's talented musically, but nowhere close to the degree that he believes he is. To me, he's the Spencer Pratt of music - he just needs to shut up and go away. Kanye's actually worse because he has success so he can do things like go on stage and be an asshole on TV and ruin and excited 19 year-old's moment. And dear Kanye - Taylor outsells your ass so get lost. Beyonce was all class at the end when she brought her back. Go ahead, girl. And MTV really should have learned its lesson about even inviting Kanye back after he complains about not winning things all the time and vows to boycott. Idle threats! DO IT. PLEASE. Okay, I'm done. Now, on to the other business....

- MJ tribute opening - Madonna looked quite lovely, didn't sound so British and was pretty classy. But still - nothing can top my excitement for Scream with Janet coming out. I LOVE that video. Once again I say, go ahead, girl.

- Russell Brand. I have nothing to say about him actually since I fast-forwarded through every word he said. From what I hear, he wasn't really funny anyway. What's that sound my TiVo makes? Be-coop!

- Taylor Swift on the F train - I was on that exact train one week earlier and no fun dance party broke out. Damn. It's nice to see she's sounding better live, though. Go ahead, girl. (I know, I will stop. Why can't I stop saying that? I don't ever say it. Maybe it's in my head from someone saying it at the salon the other day.)

- Oh, Green Day - you can even get J. Lo on her feet and dancing. Also? I rock that song in Rock Band. Just saying.

- I think it's time to talk about Lady GaGa. I...I have no idea. She's mental, right? That red outfit she accepted her award in? Even Bjork would be like, "No thanks." But let's talk about why they randomly wheeled out a dancer in a wheelchair during her performance while GaGa walked with an arm brace for about 30 seconds. What am I missing? Why are there cripples in the dance number? I just sat there during the whole song saying, "I have no idea what is happening right now." The weird thing is that I really liked the whole thing, I just am so confused. Help me.

- Okay, so I don't really want to admit this shit, but that extended trailer for New Moon looked goooood. Damn. And Robert Pattinson? DAYAM. Totally reminded me of why I have a cardboard cutout of him in my room, watching me sleep. Ahem.

- Beyonce, Beyonce, Beyonce. I liked everything but looking at your ladybits. Seriously, it was like porn when she was dipping it low and grinding. Lower those leg cuts, missy!

- When did Chris Hardwick become the lead singer of Muse?

- What was up with Tyson Ritter of The All-American Rejects covered in glitter when they jumped in with the house band? Is he trying to be a Twilight vampire and sparkling in the light? He looked ridiculous, and he's usually ridiculously hot. Get it together, Ritter.

- And finally, I'm happy to see that Eminem is FINALLY lightening up. Maybe he can give Kanye some tips. Nah, he was never even 1/4 as bad as him.

So those were some thoughts on what I remembered. Barring any events that pop up, I should be here with you on Sunday live-blogging the Emmys, so make sure you come by for that and let me know what you think. I'm VERY excited for NPH. And if Ben wins for Lost.

__________________________________

Now - why wasn't I home for the VMAs last night? Why, because I was at the American Idols Tour seeing Blindy. He was honestly the reason I went - remember, not so much musically but just because I love his awkward, adorable blind ass. I want him to be my best friend. Paul? Not so much:



But we had fun the rest of the night (except for me almost vomiting during Adam Lambert's set. Ugh.) and were quite happy to find that we weren't the oldest people there without children by a long shot. Yay, we're not creeps!



...Or are we since we went outside by the buses after the show? If so, then we were 3 of MANY creeps out there, almost all without kids so I felt better. Most were there for Adam (again, gross):



Paul wanted me to get a picture of him for him and I tried to resist, saying my camera was going to get herpes, but I took the risk. I do have to admit that he seemed like a vey nice guy and not as pompous as he was on the show. Still, gross. He was gyrating during the show and making me sick. Not in front of the kids, Lambert. We also caught glimpses of Anoop:



Matt:



Allison:



Megan, who I didn't get a picture of, but who was gorgeous, and Mr. Danny Gokey, who won my prize of best singer of the night. Seriously, he blew the roof off the joint. Cute, too:



Kris, Lil and Matt hadn't come out by the time we left, but we didn't care because I was only back there for one person and one person only. BLINDY. And he didn't disappoint me. He and his mom came out and she walked him around - he took his time going down the line of people and she would hand him things to sign and guide his hand to give out many of the high fives people were asking for. Oh, Blindy.



The only bad part about the whole "waiting by the bus" thing was that all of the idols were behind a half stone wall and there were so many people out there that if you were more than 3 people back you couldn't get near them. They just came out and signed stuff, so there was no opportunity to have your picture taken with them. But do you think that would stop me from trying to get my picture with my Scotty? Oh, no. I would find a way, even if it was an unconventional shot. I enlisted the help of Paul, who called to Blindy to look his way and smile. Blindy obliged, and now I have this:



Yay!

In the immortal words of one Mariah Carey: "If you believe in yourself enough and know what you want, you're gonna make it happen." Go ahead, girl (SORRY!!! No more!)

Summer Vacation....

"Tune in, groove on, bust out."

Why, hello there. It's been a while, my lovelies. Apparently I decided to take a blog summer vacation. Who knew? I don't know why, but I just haven't been in the zone or inspired to sit down and take the time to write much outside of a Bar Tuesday review (and I even have two of those I haven't gotten to yet!). On the one hand, I have been keeping pretty busy this summer, which is always a good and fun thing because we know that will all change when fall TV starts, but on the other hand I fear my summer vacation may turn into a fall one, then winter....

I don't know, maybe I'm just getting old and crotchety and I'll be back here posting away as soon as September hits. Or maybe it's because I'm getting old and outgrowing all of it. I'm going to be 35 next month and I am not looking forward to it. That is OLD, y'all. I'm going to be out of the target 18-34 demographic! NO! Does this mean I'm going to have to start watching Diagnosis Murder repeats? I REFUSE.

Ahem.

Anyway, as I was saying, things have changed since I started my blog way back in January of 2003. Things have happened, life has happened and I have been happy to go through a lot of it with you guys. Maybe that's what will keep me coming back. However, I'm not in my 20's anymore - I initially set up a blog just to keep myself in the habit of writing. I had been out of it a little bit and wanted to keep at it to keep my writing "muscles" toned. The practice helped me in developing a stronger voice in my writing and my blog found me a lot of fantastic friends. This is another reason that I may come back and hang around more often, although I now have other ways of keeping in touch with them. As my age keeps creeping, life keeps happening to and all around me - friends are married and having babies and chnaging careers and going back to school and all kinds of things. Our priorities and wants and needs in life evolve, mine included. Perhaps the need to write just to write has gone away for me - maybe there's more important and other things for me right now. Maybe they're waiting in Brooklyn. Who knows? One can hope for more, right?

I guess what all of this senseless rambling is trying to say is, "Hi. I'm here checking in, but who knows how long I'll keep checking in for. I'll probably take most of the summer off, but before I do, here's a highlight of some things I've been up to instead of being here." Wow, I should have just said that from the get-go.

So lete's do this - the highlights of my adventures since my last entry. Shall we?

- Connecticon. PEOPLE, Connecticon was an AMAZING event. As I probably mentioned before, Paul and I are going to be having our own public access variety show so we have started filming some of our adventures for it. A friend of ours works at the convention center in Hartford, Connecticut and told us all about this anime/comic convention that she worked last year. Paul and I thought it sounded like the perfect place to film some stuff, and it was beyond our wildest dreams. The convention ran from Friday-Sunday and after going on the Sunday, we had wished that we had gone to the whole thing. We were there for almost 6 hours just fascinated by everyone and everything. It was the best. We need to go to more of it next year. And we need to go to the furry convention in October that someone told us about. But I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself. First, let's start with the ensembles. We heard that people dressed in all kinds of costumes and such for it, but my brother pooh-poohed my idea of wearing my Wonder Woman costume (Next year!), so we opted to just dress in bright, fun outfits. Paul pulled one of his thrift store finds from the other public access show that we guest hosted, thinking he would stick out a little, but as we found out, we were pretty underdressed. Anyhoo, here's what we wore:



To give you a partial understanding as to why we felt underdressed when we got there, here is a woman who I quickly became obsessed with and stalked for a good half hour before approaching her:



She was AWESOME. She was also the one who gave us the tip about the Furry Convention, which is something I simply need to be at. I wonder if I can get a monkey head for it. Anyway, there was so much to do and see at the convention. First, there were the people themselves. You really didn't even need to do anything more than just hang out with the people. They were all so nice, too. There were a lot of people with "free hugs" signs and impromptu song & dance parties were breaking out everywhere you went. I believe that Paul and I joined into a dance to a Pokemon-related song, but I'm still not sure. We enjoyed whatever it was. Aside from that, there were video game rooms, dice, card and board game tables, larp-related swordfighting tournaments, etc. There was also a huge shopping area with vendors selling all sorts of things and another room upstairs where artists were selling their stuff. You could get drawings commissioned, so Paul took advantage of that after seeing one of the examples shown on one table. So here, for only $10, is a personal sketch of Paul sitting on the toilet:



What is better than that?

Well, I would imagine some video clips would work out better. We ended up taking about 45 minutes of footage, but here's a 4 minute teaser video I made to whet people's appetite for the full show. Enjoy:



Oh, Connecticon - we love you.

- Dating in the Dark - People, I am obsessed. Have you seen this show? If not, get thee to abc.com immediately and watch it there. I LOVE IT. It's so ridiculous but I got sucked right in. If you haven't heard about it, it's a dating show that features 3 girls and 3 guys each episode who go on a series of dates in a room that is completely black. They can't see ANYTHING. After 3 days, each person gets to pick one person to see lit up. After they see what the chose person looks like, then they decide to either meet that person upstairs on an outdoor balcony to go on another date after the show is done or else walk out the front door. Here's what I love - when someone is waiting anxiously on the balcony for their desired mate to come out and meet them they can look right down and watch the person leave out the front door if they are not interested. So you've got this poor guy up on the balcony all excited and then you see the girl wheeling her suitcase right the hell out of there and not look back. It's so great. What's even better is watching the reactions of the people when they finally see the others in the light. They only light one person at a time, so the other is left in the dark to react and we get to watch them all mentally say, "Yeeesh!" Then they go back and shit talk with the other contestants. It's so great, just watch. Guilty, guilty pleasure. Mondays at 10!

- THIS. I have already requested one for my birthday. That is a must have item if I've ever seen one.

- Still revisiting movies from my youth from time to time, and I just watched Purple Rain. That movie? SUCKS. Oh my God. I think I'd only seen the TV edit when I was younger and I didn't remember most of it. I just remembered the lake part and clips that were in the music videos from the movie. But seriously, why is that movie so bad? Do people know this? Are they distracted by the good music? Because that is the only good thing about it. Now I love me some Morris Day, but are we supposed to believe that he is a straight man in that movie? And what purpose does Jerome serve on stage? Honestly, watch the performance of The Bird and tell me why Jerome is there. Give the guy a tambourine or something. But the acting? Oh my God. And the horrible message!!! So Prince - wait, "THE KID" - sorry, so The Kid watches his father beat the shit out of his mother all the time and then he hits his girlfriend on MORE THAN ONE OCCASION and both women stay with them? And The Kid never even apologizes? That shit is messed up. Appolonia should have stomped on his tiny ass with one of his high heels. I can't even imagine what Under the Cherry Moon is like. I don't even want to know. All I know is that this movie does not stand up at ALL. It's so bad. The music, however, does hold up. How can it not? Although I had no idea what Darling Nikki was about when I was listening to the LP in 1984. That's probably best, since I was 10. Buy the album, skip the movie.

- Tinted Windows!! The guys, or as I like to call them, "James Iha, the drummer from Cheap Trick, the guitarist from Fountains of Wayne, and Taylor Hanson on lead vocals" are doing a couple of shows this summer and one of them happened to be in Boston on Monday, so you know I was there. After the first week of indecision about some of it, the whole album completely grew on me and is just so good. They've got an 80's retro power-pop thing going on and I like it. The funny thing about seeing them live is that it looks like a bunch of dads who invited the neighborhood kid to come and sing with them while they jam. Still - they sounded really good, and it was really cool to see Mr. Iha play. As always, pictures:





You can't really see in those two pictures, but Taylor's ass was unbelievable that night. He's usually hiding it behind keyboards or not wearing jeans like this or something, but it was mesmerizing. I tried to crop it out of another picture but it still doesn't do it justice and just makes me look majorly creepy:



Maybe a video clip I took will show it off better. Taylor's looking fine, and that's James Iha to his right:



I also love the novelty of Taylor telling me that I'm his Cha Cha. I don't know what that means, but I want to be his cha cha. IF he gets rid of that stupid tiny Nonytail. Yuck.


So that's some of what's been happening here. What's been going on in your neck of the woods?

Oh, Billie Joe

Monday night I got to see Green Day again and they still rank as being one of the best live bands I have ever seen. Definitely top 3. Their shows are amazing. They played for almost 2 1/2 hours and every person in the whole arena was on their feet the entire time. Bille Joe wanted us to clap along a certain way? EVERY SINGLE PERSON was doing it. I've never seen anything like it. SO much fun. I turn into a maniac at their concerts and I have no idea why. Some little Punky Pam comes out out nowhere and I am ROCKING OUT like there's no tomorrow.

Of course, it wouldn't be me going somewhere in public if there wasn't a jackass moment. On our way in, we passed by the tour bus setup with all people posing for pictures in front of it. Everyone was standing in front of it, just smiling happily like this boy:



Aww - his parents are taking him to Green Day! Joe and I were people watching before the show and we were surprised by the mix of the crowd. There were the teeny-boppers who looked like Hot Topic threw up on them, there were the random frat guys, young couples on dates, guys who looked like they hadn't left the basement in months, creepy older guys who looked like they got lost on their way to a Quiet Riot show, sweet older couples who made us aww, and then there were quite a few parents and their kids. Most of the parents seemed to be just as much of fans as the kids, which was nice. And also made us feel old. Especially since Billie Joe has been one of my celebrity boyfriends since 1994, before many of those kids were born. Wah waah. Also? College Pam, her perm, and her love for Billie Joe broadcast in the school newspaper:



Oh my God. Someone just please shoot me now. And, as you can see, the jackassery continues because did anyone really think that I was just going to stand in front of the bus all nice like the rest of the folks?



[sigh] It's a wonder any of my friends go places with me anymore. Anyway, the tour still has a bunch of dates left, so if they come to your area I HIGHLY recommend it. And give Tour Bus Billie Joe a kiss for me!

Gavin & Joey In Boston 4/24/09

Oh, those DeGraw boys - how I love them so. Gavin's spring tour made a stop in Boston on Friday night and we were one of the lucky select cities to also have the bonus of Joey as one of the opening acts. I always say, the only thing better than one DeGraw is two. Lucy, Paul and David joined me at the show, but seriously people - I get in THE ZONE and pay very little attention to anything/anyone else. THE ZONE!

Anyhoo, we were lucky enough to be in the 21+ group so we could wait inside the lounge part of the concert hall before the doors opened while the 18-20s waited in line outside. This meant we also got to go in to the club first, so I scored a sweet front row position. And the thing I love most about this club is that there is no security pit, so I was leaning up against the stage. I actually sat my purse on it for most of the show. I loved it so much. See? Being an old lady does pay off sometimes. Just wait until I can start getting senior discounts and shit - watch out world!

ANYway - Joey opened the show with an acoustic set. I've never seen him do an acoustic show and I loved it. It was just Joey and his pal Andy Clayburn (who you may remember from my trip to the National Underground in February) on guitars and it was really cool. Joey sounded incredible, and it was a great way to start the show. Here are some pictures I grabbed:







And my favorite, the Joey smirking at me picture:



Here's a short clip from 2 songs that I took a little bit of video of (you can totally hear Joey's A&E voice coming out when he sings all low):



I had run into Joey in the bar before the show and we talked about him coming back to Boston as a headliner in a few weeks, so I'll get more/better pics and video then.

After Joey's set, the "official" opening act came on, a band called honeyhoney. I had never heard of them before, but I fell in love immediately. It's just a girl and a guy, and she plays the banjo and fiddle and he plays guitar and bass drum. They were fantastic. Lucy and I were laughing during the set because the guy in the band was literally 2 feet in front of us. It was so awkward. We couldn't look at him! In any case, you should totally check them out. I bought their album immediately when I got home. Here's Suzanne, the lead singer:



I didn't really get video of them because I was loving it so much that I didn't even think to, but here's their video of my favorite song from them at the moment:



After honeyhoney, it was time for Gavin. This tour is a bit different to go along with the feel of his new album. It's very stripped down with a lot of acoustic stuff going on. It was a whole new feel and I loved every single minute of it. Here's a little video taste of what went down:



I love him looking at my camera at the 1:49 mark. Anyway, here are some pictures I took during the show:







This next one is my favorite from this show:



LOVE that.

Here's a few more from the encore:







Now, onto my favorite song and picture from the night. First, I have been waiting to hear Gavin perform his song Glass for years now. He finally recorded it for this album, so I figured it was finally time for me to hear it live. I hadn't even prepared properly when he just busted right into it for the second song of the night, hence me not having my camera ready and not getting part of the first verse on video. In any case, here is the rest of it:



Man, I love that song.

Now onto my favorite picture from the whole night, me and Gavin:



He teased me a little for seeing me getting down during the show, but he loved that I was having such a great time. Oh Gavin, I always do, I always do.

Now when can I do it again?

Woodward Madness!

Last Friday Lucy Woodward came up to do a show in Boston, which is always a fun treat for me since her NYC shows are usually so crazy that I don't get a chance to talk to her for very long. Boston shows give us more of a chance to hang. This time around we battled with Red Sox traffic, which is always a good time. I may have been calling many, many people jackasses. And Massholes. Anyhoo, we still made it to the show on time and Lucy was rocking as usual. Sadly, because of the traffic situation for everyone, the show started late so Lucy had to cut a couple of songs from her set. Even so, she sang one of her fun new songs that we requested, so we were thrilled. Paul and I took turns manning the merch table during the show so we could go up front for some songs. Joining Lucy on the bill that night were the lovely and talented Rachel Platten and Toby Lightman. Here's a shot of Toby from the show:



I've seen Lucy play with both ladies before and they are really good. I didn't get a picture of Rachel, but she's a cute little thing, as you can see from this picture of The Professor blatantly checking her out as she walked by mid-pose:



Hee! Love it.

Since this was a Lucy Woodward show, I donned some kicking shoes for the occasion:



Lucy rocked some black boots, but I won the battle this time. After the show, we went across the hall to a bar and grabbed a drink with La Lucy. It was so much fun - she dished about what Randy Jackson is really like and performed the Single Ladies dance after Paul told her that he hurt his back from doing it the night before at karaoke. Paul turned to me at that moment and whispered, "I'm obsessed." It was awesome. After a while, it was time to make our way home so we said our goodbyes and took some pictures before we went, which led to The Greatest Picture I Have Seen In a Long, Long Time. But first, here are the others:







And then this happened:



LOVE it. A classy singer who is also super-fun and drops f-bombs left and right and poses for silly pictures like that? That is my kind of girl. Lucy rocks, y'all.

NYC Mayhem With 2 Lucys and 3 Boys - Oh Lordy

Two weeks ago (I KNOW, I am such a bad updater lately) I went on a NYC jaunt with Lucy, Paul, David and Joe to go see Lucy Woodward play her last NYC show before she moves to L.A. in May. I knew I was in for a trip when we were reuniting the crew from a crazy trip last summer, and adding Lucy to the mix just made it sound even better. As is custom with us, our trip started off classy as always with this being the first picture that I took:



Yep, that's Joe peeing in the shadow of a building in a random office park that we found right off the highway. "I can't wait anymore!" Oh, Joe. As you can see, this was shaping up to be quite the trip. I'm actually going to make this pretty much a picture and video diary of the trip because there are many, many pictures and some fun videos from it all, including me getting thrown off a mechanical bull. Oh, yes. Click below to see them all after the jump.

You Can Dress Us Up....

But as Paul and I proved recently, you still can't take us anywhere. But we'll get to that.

First - sorry I am so late with these posts. There have been Things to update about, but there has not been Time. My bad. The Idol thoughts and NYC adventures will be coming, but first, let's do this one.

Anyhoodle - Paul and I recently attended a charity event to benefit the American Heart Association's Wear Red campaign for heart health awareness for women. We were asked to dress semi-formal and to try to wear something red, even if it was just an accessory (Check us out on the red carpet!) . The event was sponsored by our local country music station and it featured 4 acoustic sets by country singers Dean Brody, Jason Michael Carroll, Jamie O'Neal and Jessica Andrews. I wasn't familiar with the guys, but I love both of those ladies so we decided to get ourselves some tickets. The tickets for the concert itself were only $9.85, but they were also offering a pre-show VIP reception for $35 a ticket with free champagne and appetizers as well as meet-and-greets with all of the singers. All of the proceeds were going to the charity, and you KNOW Paul and I love to roll VIP, so we were so in for that reception. Yay, classy Pam and Paul:



As soon as we got there, Paul headed straight for the bar, but moments later the singers all came into the room. Most of the guests hadn't arrived yet, so Paul and I made a beeline over to the two ladies so I could meet them and then we could focus on the free champagne and eats. We ended up second in line to meet Jamie O'Neal and if you guys have never heard her song There Is No Arizona, you should give it a listen. It was her first single and made me a fan instantly. Anyway, she was nice and looked very much like a country singer:



After that, we headed over to see Jessica, who ranks as one of my favorite country singers. She hasn't had an album in quite some time, so I was excited to hear that one should be released this summer. Some of you may know her from Who I Am, which was her big hit, among a number of others. (Sing it with me now, country fans: "I am Rosemary's granddaughter....") Pop culture people may know her from the song Show Me Heaven, which was on one of the Dawson's Creek soundtracks. In any case, she was super-cute and really nice and tore it up during the concert. Here we are with Miss Andrews:





After that, the room started to fill and Paul and I decided to kick back and enjoy the free champagne and the FANTASTIC people watching. We especially enjoyed this gentleman's tapestry vest/tie combo:



There were some hot messes there, especially this older couple who decided to stand right near me and Paul and start dry humping against the wall. Paul swears he was trying to eat her face off. It was disgusting. Throughout all of this, Paul and I were also watching that Jason Michael Carroll character because he was a quite fascinating fellow. He looked quite grungy and not really country. Also? He looked shady. That's when I announced to Paul, "Well, now we have to go have our picture taken with him because he looks like such a creep." Paul agreed so we got in line and decided to introduce ourselves as Bart and Stella. We also both secretly threw up the pointers just as the photo was about to be taken:



After the picture, he chatted us up while he was signing an autograph and he was SUPER nice and really cool. Paul and I then felt bad for being assholes for about 15 seconds, but it passed. Since we waited in line for him, we decided to just go and meet the other guy as well. This decision also may have had something to do with the fact that Dean Brody is hot as HELL, people. You can't tell it from the picture we got with him, but this guy has got ice blue eyes, dark hair and a kickass body. Mama liked. Here he is from a promo shot I found:



Mmmm.... And here we are with him:



As with the other folks, he was also really nice, especially when he stopped mid-autograph and asked if it was okay that he was making it out to both of us. I said, "That's fine, it's going to be under my pillow tonight anyway." Paul's response? A horrified, "You're a creep." Dean Brody's response? A goofy, "Awesome." Awesome, indeed. Paul was still reeling from me petting the head of the Marine who was standing in front of us in line anyway. What was I to do? It was so fuzzy and inviting!

After the reception, we made our way to the room where the concert was going to be, where I just chilled:



And Paul went straight to the place where he would be found multiple times throughout the night:



We watched both of the ladies perform and a little bit of Dean Brody's set, but our feet hurt and we were hungry so we went off in search of food during Jason's set. On our way back, we noticed some fun things around the hotel where the event was being held and thought they would make perfect props for an impromptu photo shoot. Of course, as with us, things started off relatively normal:



...but then veered very quickly into inappropriate:



You can see how classy we are in the rest of the photo shoot as well as a new Paul & Pam Show from the event after the jump!

"I've Never Been This Close To An Idol Before."

Oh, Paul. Those were his words up there as we stood in line for an autograph signing after a mini-concert by Melinda Doolittle at a local casino last weekend. Of course, Paul was saying this as he wiped the sweat that was pouring off of his face. I reminded him that he had touched Carrie's hand 4 times at her concert, but he replied with, "Yes, but I've never spoken to one before." Then he continued to sweat and wipe as we got closer in the line. It was hilarious. After we met Melinda and had pictures taken, his hands were shaking. Aww, Paul.

And can I just say how incredibly nice Miss Doolittle is? She's one of my all-time favorite Idol contestants and she was as gracious and sweet as she was on the show. Also? That girl can SANG. Crazy good. Her album comes out today, but we were able to buy copies at the event on Saturday. It's an old-school R&B throwback album and you all need to go and listen to Dust My Broom right now. Anyway, Melinda sang 5 songs off of the album and then closed with one of her favorites from Idol, and it was the song that Paul was hoping for the whole day, I'm a Woman. She sang the roof off of the place, y'all. Here's a clip I grabbed:



I thought Paul was going to pee himself with all of the growling she did. We waited over an hour in line for the autographs, but Melinda said she was going to stay until every last person got something signed and a picture. We were happy to get both:





After that, Paul and I were STARVING so we headed to this interesting-looking place that we saw off the highway on our way there called Stuckeys. It was attached to a gas station so we knew it had to be classy. However, when we arrived there with our stomachs growling like no other, we found that Stuckeys was actually a souvenir shop with Roy Rogers and Sbarro counters inside. With the horns of disappointment wah-waahing in our heads, we jumped back into the car and checked my GPS for the closest restaurant that sounded good. We found one right down the street called Brick Oven, so we headed over for what we imagined to be some tasty pizza.

Yeah...not so much.

Turns out The Brick Oven was a slightly shady-looking family restaurant. As soon as we saw the outside, we decided that we had to eat there. From the moment we walked inside, Paul and I had the giggles the whole time. First, our waitress brought over a dry-erase posterboard with the specials on it and leaned it against the wall across from our table. She left it there until the next party arrived and then she walked it over to them. Second, we were treated to some dining music courtesy of a boombox straight out of Breakin'. Then there was the soup that Paul got that he described as "a bunch of Progresso soups just thrown together."



After that, we noticed a drink menu on the table so Paul ordered a glass of wine. What arrived at the table was one of those single person bottles of wine accompanied by the smallest wine glass in the history of the world. Did I mention how dusty and dirty the bottom of the stem was? That was probably what put us over the edge into the church giggles.



Check out that boombox over Paul's shoulder. The Brick Oven was magic. Of course, we'll be bringing everyone back there but maybe for breakfast next time since I paid $11.95 for chicken parmesan which was clearly made with those frozen chicken patties and came with pasta and Prego sauce. I can buy that at the supermarket for half the price. Hopefully when we go back, the same patrons won't be there since Paul let a real big one rip just as we were walking out the door. Such class. Hopefully we can convince someone to order the "calves liver and onions" next time. Keep those fingers crossed!

We managed to take some footage at the restaurant during this week's Paul & Pam show and it includes a shot of the specials board as well as some footage from the casino and outside of Stuckeys. You can witness it all right here:

Double DeGraws: Making Up For The Fact That We Almost Died In Hartford

Last Friday David and I headed to Hartford to go see the DeGraw boys in concert. It's not often that Joey opens for Gavin, so the double feature was a special treat for me. Since Hartford is about a two hour drive, we decided to book a hotel room because I knew I wouldn't feel like driving home if we were out late, which I planned to be. The rates were good at most of the hotels, so we just grabbed a room at a Days Inn that was about a mile away from the venue. Y'all - now I know why the rates were so cheap. David and I spent most of the night saying to each other, "We're going to die in Hartford tonight."

For those who have never been to Connecticut, it is generally a really pretty and nice state. Hartford, however, is disgusting. There's really no other way to put it. It's nasty. The last time I was in Hartford, I ended up having to get a tetanus shot a few days later. Seriously. (I had cut my foot somewhere on the filthy streets of Hartford.) Anyway, Connecticut traffic can get a little clogged in the late afternoon, so David and I decided to both take the afternoon off from work and head down to the city early to avoid any of that mess. Surely we could find all kinds of things to do in the city, right? Eh, not so much. Sure, we could have gone shopping for CAT BOOTS:



WTF??? Can you get tabby boots? I am intrigued by the dingo boots, but cat boots????

Creeps.

Anyway, in lieu of cat boot shopping, we decided to just drive around the city and see where that took us. It...was scary. We almost ran over the same rabid-looking chihuahua TWICE, and the rest of the time we bemoaned the fact that our wills weren't ready yet, which was a shame because we were pretty sure we were going to die. Then we went to McDonald's for dinner and I was about to use the restroom until I saw a sketchy-looking woman wandering around the whole restaurant openly scratching her hoo-ha through her filthy sweatpants. She was just scratching that thing for days. Then she headed into the bathroom, so that was enough for me in terms of any need to use that bathroom EVER. Instead, we headed next door to the only other happening place around, VIP. VIP, of course, stands for Very Intimate Pleasures. I assumed it was a sex shop, while David thought it was a strip club, which led to both of us wondering what we would do if it were a strip club.

DAVID: How do titty bars work? Do they just come up to you?

PAM: I don't know, I've never been to one! What happens in the movies?

Because clearly, everything you see in the movies is totally true to life. Anyway, lucky for us I was right and VIP ended up being a sex shop, and it was gigantic. We wandered around for a while and then headed back to the hotel, where I noticed an odd looking stain on the rug in our room:



Is that a face? And is it made out of blood? What is that? Does he know Bedface? And still, and most importantly, IS THAT BLOOD??

Instead of pondering the horrors that could have taken place in our room, we busied ourselves getting ready and, doing things like taking a time out in the random chair in the corner:



Reading The Bible:



Wrapping a towel on your head and singing into the hair dryer:



And building pillow forts:



You know, the usual things you do to get ready. We then headed out to the show, and all of the thoughts of impending death drifted away as soon as I the first of the DeGraws hit the stage. Joey opened the show, sounding terrific yet sporting a new Freddie Mercury-inspired mustache. He had the mustache when I saw him at the bar a couple of weeks ago, but I just figured it was a fluke. Apparently, not. So now Joey looks a little like a child molester:



Okay, maybe he looks more than a little like one.





Eh, no matter, because he put on a great show. Here's a clip from my favorite Joey song:



After Joey's set, there was the little matter during intermission of some drunk girls who wandered off trying to reclaim their spots in the crowd near me, but people had taken them. This prompted one drunk girl to start pushing up against the new people that were standing there, trying to get them to move. It ended with drunk girl being removed by security and having to stand in the back for the concert, but there was a brief moment in the middle where I turned into a completely different person when one of her drunken pushes sent two people flying into me and led to me knocking into other people. I may have shoved the girl hard and yelled something along the lines of, "STOP IT, YOU STUPID BITCH!!!" That may have happened and David may have loved every minute of it. Moral of the story: don't mess with me while I am waiting for Gavin to take the stage. Speaking of which, shortly thereafter, he did take the stage, and all was right in the world again:







By the way, this was my first night using my new fancy camera and I love it to death. Especially when it captures Gavin shooting at me:



I love that.

The sound is also better in the videos - here's a clip from a non-album track that I have a live version of and love, but have never seen Gavin perform, so I was quite excited when he did. I mean, how can you not love a good ol' fashioned drinking song?



Here's a couple more of my favorite shots from that night:





And a montage of clips from a bunch of songs, including my favorite clip at about the 1:53 mark when Gavin is singing Proud Mary and shaking his ass. When he starts doing the train-rolling arm motions at 2:35? Pure bliss for me:



Oh, Gavin - how I have missed your shows. Now I'm going to be in withdrawal since there aren't any coming up anytime soon. But hey, at least I have lived to see the next one since David and I weren't so sure about that when we returned to the hotel to crash and were met with the soothing and dulcet tones of people drag racing outside.

PAM: What is going on right now?

DAVID: Are we going to die?

PAM: Who drag races anymore?

DAVID: People in Hartford since there's nothing else to do besides go to VIP and shop for cat boots.

PAM: What is this, Tokyo Drift? Are they Days Inn Drifting?

DAVID: Help!

Ah, but we made it and were quite happy to make our way into the nicer parts of Connecticut the next day, where there were homemade chocolate shops and such. Plus, I'd still go to Hartford any day to see a great concert like that. Double DeGraws makes everything better, even Days Inn Drifting.

Pam & Her Brother Do NYC

I took my brother on one of my NYC jaunts over the weekend and although it was FREEZING, we had a great time. He wanted to do the NBC Studio Tour again, but when we got there on Saturday afternoon, all of the rest of the tours were sold out for the day. While we were finding out this news, I got a text from Paul, who also happened to be in the city with some friends, and he said that he just sang Hollaback Girl at the American Idol exhibit at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. My brother and I just looked at each other and said in unison, "Well, let's go then." Paul was gone by the time we got there, but we spent time enjoying some of the newer figures since we last went a few years ago, such as Angelina Jolie:





Angelina was standing with Brad Pitt and they were the only statues that had a line of people waiting to pose with them. My favorite thing about it was that both my brother and I asked each other if we wanted Brad in the picture as well and we both gave it a big "hell no." I love Brad and all, but Angelina is my "I would go gay for her for 2 hours" girl. I also got to be creepy with wax Johnny Depp:



And hold hands with George Clooney in honor of the Fug Girls:



My brother visited with his old Sims wife, Britney:



While I was amazed that even wax Tyra Banks was smiling with her eyes:



The American Idol exhibit shows up halfway through the museum and there is a snack bar area and a bunch of tables and chairs in front of a karaoke stage. On the side, there is a wax Simon Cowell sitting on a couch and after you sing, he tells you what he thought of your performance. The karaoke was free and there weren't many people going up, so we decided, "What the hell?"



The audience didn't know what to make of my brother since he went up and sang Since U Been Gone - people rarely know what to do when a 6'4" man gets up and blasts out some Kelly Clarkson. Wax Simon told him, "That was my favorite song until now."



I was resistant to go up and sing because there were a lot of people there watching (and they weren't drunks like I'm used to at the bars), but my brother talked me into it. Here's a short video clip that my brother took of me up there:

vid

I love the pan over to Wax Simon sitting on the couch at the end of the clip. After I sang, Simon told me that he had one word for me: congratulations. I was quite relieved about that. Oh, Simon.

Anyway, after the museum and a little bit of walking aorund Times Square, we headed back to the lower east side and stopped into The National Underground for some of their famous burgers. I still hadn't tried one yet, but everyone I've talked to loves them and Gavin told me that they're "ridiculous" the last time I saw him, so it was time to give them a taste. My brother got the full burger with the works, while I opted for the slider, and they were delicious. I also got to see my boy Sasha, who had to stand outside in that ridiculous cold. I think the wind chill was about 20 degrees that day and it was WINDY. After a little while, someone lent Sasha a second coat to wear over his, and he ended up looking like this:



Which = awesome.

While we were eating, we asked Sasha and another guy at the bar where we could go to kill a couple of hours, so they suggested a bar around the corner that had a mechanical bull. Mechanical bull are the only two words that I have to hear before I'm completely sold. So after we finished eating, my brother and I headed over to this place, which was as good as they described. I can't WAIT to bring a crew there and ride the bull all night. This time around we just remained spectators, but it was quite amusing. But next time I am taming that bull.

After that, I brought my brother to a nearby karaoke bar that I've been to before and it was so much fun. The place was hopping and everyone was into every song. It was probably the bext crowd I've ever seen at karaoke. I sang Bjork's It's Oh So Quiet and people were singing along and doing all of the shushing with me. Good, good times. We stayed there for a while and then headed back to the bar to hang out for a bit. You know it's got to be pretty cold outside when I get desperate enough to wear a hat, because hats don't work on me very well. Lucy can wear just about any hat and look awesome. Me? Dork.



Sasha was warming up with yet another coat and some hot chocolate. Inside, we got to see a really good band play while we warmed up ourselves. I also got to say a brief hello to Joey who made a quick stop over to give me a hug and meet my brother before disappearing into the back room with his manager and folks. Once we were all warmed up, it was time to head out once again to go see Sasha's band play at another club. He was playing at the same club that I saw him at back in July when I went to see his show with my pal Karyn and he brought me on stage and let me sing with the band. Here's Sasha working the crowd the other night:



Happily, he brought me onstage to sing again, but this time I opted for some Welcome to the Jungle instead of Sweet Child of Mine. Here's a short video clip that my brother took, including the part that my brother described as such: "I got some footage when Sasha was groping you." HA! Of course, it was also said with the patented brotherly "Ew! That's my sister!" face. (And for the record, there was zero groping going on, but 1000% rocking happening.) Anyway, here's the clip:



We stayed for about half of the show, but by that time it was 2:30 AM and time for BED, so we headed back to the hotel. It was a long, but terribly fun night. I'm also glad that I was finally able to get my brother to the bar. And then the next morning we were able to get a reservation for the NBC Studio Tour and then hit a Magnolia Bakery on the way out for cupcakes. That was just the perfect ending to a fun trip.

Actually, in honor of Paul, here was the perfect ending on the ride home:



Now my trip was complete.

And now I can't wait to go back again. See you on December 20th, NYC!