Tuesday, November 10, 2009

"Motown Madness" = Motown Sadness

First of all, no baby yet. Due date is a mere 2 days away and it doesn't seem Baby Bryand has moved an inch. In the meantime, Mom is here and we're taking advantage of freedom while we can!

Growing up, we had four types of music in our household: 1) Classical (Dad), 2) Beach Music (Mom), 3) Jazz (Compromise) and 4) Motown (Mom). As I think I've mentioned, Lindsay and I grew up not on "The Wizard of Oz", but on "The Wiz"...the version with Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. Sure, we have seen the original our fair share, but the go-to VHS tape (taped off television of course) was The Wiz. So imagine my delight when my beloved Goldstar (half-price tickets to various activities in SF and other major cities...tours, shows, restaurants, etc.) highlighted a show called MOTOWN MADNESS in SF?!?!?! It was described as a musical that would take the audience through the ages of Motown. I could hardly click "PURCHASE!" "PURCHASE!" "PURCHASE!" fast enough. Dave agreed to give it a shot, so we got 3 tickets for Dave, Mom and me.

That was 2 months ago. Last Saturday, the day arrived to see the show and we went down to Fisherman's Wharf (which Dave won't let me live down as that should have been our first clue that this would be a total dud...Fish Wharf is the #1 tourist destination in SF...so sad as it is AWFUL...but I digress). We got our tickets at will call and were pleasantly surprised to see we were FRONT ROW! Well, then we entered the theater and saw that our compadres were all of 40 people (in a theater of about 250 or so) that spanned the sophistication plane from "I HEART SAN FRANCISCO" shirts to Fanny Packs to stark white Air Force Ones (not the cool kind either). Dave gave me "the look" and immediately asked for a free pass to get a cocktail to help him through the next 90 minutes. Mom joined him and we spent the next 45 minutes smiling politely at the performers on stage (who kept making real eye contact, which is rather creepy when you're in an audience and just want to be incognito). There was one singer that was certainly the highlight of the performance and we could listen to her all afternoon. Other than that, there were cheap costumes (which is kind of kitch, but just didn't work for us) and moderate vocals at best. Needless to say, at the intermission, we bolted. We felt a tad guilty, wondering if the performers would notice that 10% of the audience disappeared, but at the same time, as Dave pointed out, we didn't want to use up any of our last moments pre-parenthood doing anything but be happy doing what WE wanted!

Mom and I took a moment to pose outside of the theater. The plus side is that we got to listen to our favorite music...the downside is that Mom & I may have been able to karaoke better than them (which is scary since I have only done karaoke once...wasted at a wedding and if I have any true friends, they'll never let me do that again).



So, we came home and decided we were grateful to have some time back in our day to just relax at home. All was not lost - Mom got to see Fisherman's Wharf and got to get GREAT people-watching in during our walk to/from the car (mostly consisting of, "Y'all! Do you see that man over there? His fanny is hanging out of his pants!" and "Brooke! Look at that woman's dress! I think she is a pros-ti-tute!" (drawn out with Southern accent).

Fortunately, Dave and Mom did forgive me for my misjudgment of the performance. Mom and I are going to see MJ's "This Is It" movie tomorrow afternoon and hopefully that will help us get our music fix!

Baby news to follow soon (???), but all is well here on the homefront.