Cosmo Adventures
Okay, I’ll admit it. I almost didn’t go to PMJ show at the Cosmopolitan. Can you believe that? You see, I sometimes struggle with a feeling of social anxiety that tries to stop me from doing things that involve crowds and social interaction and all that people stuff. I thought about staying home and resting. I thought about doing practically nothing. One thing pushed me forward and into the light: Haley Reinhart. Thank you, Haley. What a wonderful night I would have missed.
Upon arriving at the Chandelier, I went directly to the bar and ordered my old friend, Vodka Tonic, who began to smooth me out a bit. Ahh. Tasty.
Once that was out of the way I headed to the seating area and caught sight of Airhigh and Iscat and spent a bit of time catching up. You will never believe what happened next. Can you believe none other than Patti Reinhart walked right over to where we were and took a seat? I couldn’t believe it. I leaned over and said “Hi, Patti!” and got the old who-the-hell-are-you look until I told her I met her at the Halien Shindig and recognition dawned on her face. I almost remember that she might have thought my name was Gary, but when I told her my name I almost believed she remembered me. Regardless, she was wonderful. I met her cousin who later vanished but was very nice. And later I met two of Patti’s old friends who used to live in Chicago and now live in Las Vegas.
It was funny, at one point, when Patti offered to get me a drink and when I said no thank you I guess she thought I might be a non-drinker and said how about a soda? Anyway, she was pretty insistent so I relented and said a Dos Equis sounded good. The waitress brought me a Coors Light.
Patti is so nice, and it was actually her idea to take the selfie that I posted on Twitter. I can certainly see where Haley gets her friendliness and good naturedness with people. Patti makes every effort to make others feel comfortable and included.
I know this is sounding like all I did was hang out with Patti, but I did get to talk to Haley too. Really I did.
Don’t believe me? Ha, you’re wrong!
When I saw Haley over by the stage I told Iscat and Airhigh I was going to go say hi. I moseyed on over and when she finished talking with someone I got a little one on one time. She recognized me right away and gave me a little hug. I got to ask her a few burning questions about her doings, and, although she told me a thing or two she also said she didn’t want some of it to get out just yet and so I made a solemn oath to keep my mouth shut and so it shall be. I mean, I did do the zipped lip motion, after all.
Haley did look very lovely in a shiny silver dress and gold glitter eye shadow. I am still amazed how really nice her complexion is. She either wears really good make-up or just has terrific skin. She is also still one of the nicest people I have ever met and made me feel perfectly at ease. I even got to tell her how much I enjoyed her airline story from the Mo Collins gig and how I loved her impression of the wacky Russian stewardess. .
I also enjoyed talking to Scott Bradlee. He was a cool dude and talked to Iscat and I a little about how they choose material and so on. He chose Habits for Haley because he wanted something modern and yet with a lilting quality that suited her voice. He seems very impressed with our Haley and feels she fits well with PMJ. I asked him if he would be doing more videos with Haley and he said yes, by the way.
Oh yeah, there was a show too, wasn’t there? The performances were high energy and a lot of fun. The band was really good, although I have to say I enjoyed Haley’s singing more than the others. I’m not saying that out of simple fandom. The fact of the matter is the other girls voices just didn’t come across as well as Haley’s. For some reason their voices didn’t seem to rise above the music, whereas Haley’s was clearly heard. It was weird, but even the bigger voices somehow got lost to a degree.
One of my favorite moments from a singer other than Haley was Blake Lewis doing his beat box stuff. He is good at it and I enjoyed it a lot. At the end of the show everyone did a little solo bit as they were introduced and Blake a little extended beat boxing. Great stuff. (By the way, Haley winged her part and made up some lines about not knowing she would have to be doing this and finished up with some scatting. Really good.)
PS: Airhigh and Iscat wanted me to mention that the Cosmo has no wi-fi, so whatever video we got will be put up later. Actually, everything with probably have to be edited by Tusk anyway since we really didn’t know what we were doing. For example, during the song I recorded, I couldn’t get the camera to record at first and only got the last half of All About the Bass. Hopefully something can be edited together from what we have. Or we might get some better stuff tomorrow. Hats off to Tusk, Yanni and everyone who records shows. It takes some real dedication and I discovered takes away a certain degree of connection with the live performance. I started to hold the camera up and look past it so I could see the real Haley and not her image on the camera screen. It’s not easy and I only did one song (well, half a song, anyway)!
PPS: I forgot to mention I also got into pest mode when I asked Scott if he only does new songs or maybe something older like… say… Different Drum? I know. Pest.
