For the Love of John Mayer

      Over the weekend, I got to go to LA and attend my fourth John Mayer concert. The first time I saw him in concert was almost 10 years ago. That sounds crazy. Some people don't like him because of the amount of girls he's dated publicly or the countless times he's put his foot in his mouth, but I don't care. I couldn't care less actually. His music is my music. His music has changed so much over the years, and I think his true fans have changed with him. Unlike the "young" girls sitting beside me (I'm only 31, but they were much younger than me) who kept waiting for him to "play something we know" or the 40-something wine-o's behind me that talked the ENTIRE time he was playing. Seriously, if you don't know any songs other than My Body Is a Wonderland, why are you here? If you and your four girlfriends want to drink wine and talk REALLY loudly over music, do it at a wine bar. Okay, enough of that.

    I on the other hand like to zone completely out of everything else but the music. The Hollywood Bowl is such a special venue. Tucked away in the hills, under the stars, and surrounded by walls of green trees and ivy, it's seriously wonderful. I only took three pictures, and one video, because I didn't want to be distracted.

 What's Montana good for? I can tell you one thing it's good for. John Mayer. I have never seen him, at least appear, to be in such a good place in his life. He seemed kind of...cheerful. Maybe it's because he can sing again, maybe he's really happy, I don't know. Do yourself a favor, download Paradise Valley. Listen to Wildfire first. Get over the fact that it's a little "bluegrass-y" and probably not what you're used to. Then push the back button and listen to it again. Try to sit still. You can't. His music has evolved with him. He doesn't keep making the same music over and over again.

I have only ever afforded nosebleed seats, but ONE DAY I will save up and spring for the pool circle tickets so I won't be distracted by the people just there for "something to do". During the break between Phillip Phillips and John, they had music playing really low as they changed the stage around. People were talking and getting up to go to the bathroom, but I just sat there. And guess what I heard, ever so quietly. I heard Black Water by the Doobie Brothers. In case you haven't read my blog before, this is my dad's music. My dad died a couple of years ago very unexpectedly. Whenever I am doing something I really love, or I'm at a special place, I hear the Doobie Brothers. Disneyland? Doobie Brothers. A&W? (my dad's favorite) Doobie Brothers. John Mayer Concert? Doobie Brothers. I love it.

You see, I was raised by two (very) ex-hippies. When they started having us kids, they left their party days behind, but kept the music. I was raised listening to music most 31 year old women never have. Saturday mornings were spent cleaning the house with their records or my dad's reel to reels blaring through his giant speakers through our two-story house. My mom recently sent me two of his hundreds of reel to reels just so that I could have them. They are so special to me. I can remember my dad, even as he was in his 50's, turning on the reel to reels and sitting in the basement with the volume ALL the way up, singing his heart out for HOURS. I could do that. I could waste an entire day listening to music and not wanting to be interrupted. I died of embarrassment when my best friend saw my dad sing Taking Care of Business at the top of his lungs. Now it is one of my favorite memories.

I was talking to my husband about music on the drive home from the concert. Since I grew up in Ohio, and he grew up in California, I asked him if they spent music class in middle school listening to Beatles music and analyzing the lyrics. Nope. We did, and I'm not sure if it's because I grew up an hour from the capital of rock and roll, or if my teacher was a hippie. I didn't fully appreciate it then. Do you ever wish you could go back and take a few of your interesting classes as an adult? We would learn about the reasons behind the songs, such as "Ohio" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Music is supposed to have a purpose. Yes, sometimes the purpose is just to entertain, but I love that John's lyrics actually tell a story. They make sense. 

I'm the girl with the weird playlist. When I die, someone is going to look at my ipod and say, "what was she thinking?" I'm the girl whose playlist includes Ben E. King, Otis Redding, Bachman Turner Overdrive, The Eagles, The Doobie Brothers, and Hall & Oates. I'm the girl who can call a Dream On cover off of one note.I'm the girl who knows all of the words to Linda Ronstadt's greatest hits album. I'm the girl whose 8 and 9 year old daugthers don't have a clue who One Direction is, could probably name only one Justin Beiber song, but can spot an AC/DC song a mile away. I'm the girl who listens to "Dear Marie", and when the last minute of the song arrives, closes her eyes, leans her head back, and is instantly transported back under a dark sky, tucked away in the Hollywood hills and my heart leaps as I sing, "oooooooooh, ooooooooh, oooooooooh."

Thank you, John. 

A Hollywood adventure!

Yesterday I went on an adventure with my friend Dana. We drove to LA to go to a John Mayer concert, and here are some pictures of our day! Our day began as every day should...at The Cheesecake Factory! Haha. We went to The Grove when we got to LA, ate and did some shopping! I love me some Crate & Barrel! After that, we went on the looong journey (a few miles down the road!) to find the correct parking lot that we wanted to park at for the shuttle to the Hollywood Bowl. It was not easy, lots of asking questions at many different places, but we finally found it, so now we know! I think we went on 30 escalators yesterday.

We got on our shuttle bus and it was HOT and stinky and there was no air moving at all. I will forever love the funky faces Dana posed for as we were waiting for them to turn on the bus! The other one came out blurry, but this face says it all. =)

Here we are in our seats! The 75 cent cushion rentals were a good call!

I really loved the Hollywood Bowl (with the exception of GETTING there!). I liked the set up, I don't think you could have a bad seat honestly. The Hollywood sign is right above the stage too!

This was one of the mountains to the left of the sign and I saw two people standing on the top...there must be a trail up there. I told Dana if Brandon was here, he would be watching for deer, haha.

There was a band called Owl City that the "young people" (ha! I'm only 28!) seemed to know and like. Dana and I were too busy spotting all of the ridiculous puns in their lyrics. They did end up having one song I knew at the end.

Here is, as he said, "John Mayer, opening for John Mayer". We didn't know what he meant, but he explained he flew this piano player out from New York just to play these four songs with him. The first three were different versions of his songs, and the last one was Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve. I LOVED his version of the song! Click on the link if you wanna see the video I took of it!

They took a short break and re-set the stage without the piano.

I don't think I will ever enjoy a musician live as much as I do him. I have said it for the past six years, and I'll say it again...GO SEE HIM LIVE! He must have been born with a guitar in his hands, because that boy knocks my socks off everytime! The past two concerts, I saw him in Fresno, but I enjoyed this one even more because of the venue I think he could do more. He is always doing something different and out of the box. I loved his cds, but live he can take liberties that you just don't have time to do with every song when it's recorded.

We walked down the ramp to the left of the stage on his last song so that we could beat the crowds and get our t-shirts. We were plotting the whole time we were sitting down how, if, when we could get them! It worked out too, because by going down that side, after he was done playing we were able to skip most of the crowd that goes down the other side on the people movers.

The shirt doesn't lie...it WAS a long night in Los Angeles! We got home at 2:30 am!

Here's Dana in her shirt! =) Love the pose!

The shuttle dropped us off right in front of the Kodak Theatre, at Hollywood & Highland.

A short block away was Mann's Chinese Theatre.

Earlier in the day, when we were searching for our parking garage, we saw people huddled on the sidewalk. We wondered if it was MJ, and we were right.

This psycho fan had made this posterboard with pics cut out of HER and MJ....even pasted in a locket. Hmm....

I snapped a bunch of pics of the star's signatures and prints in the entryway of the Chinese Theatre... here are just a few...George Lucas (above)

Steven Spielberg.

These next few were all in a row and had the same date, so it must have been for Ocean's Eleven.....sigh... Matt Damon

Brad Pitt

George Clooney

Here is my favorite actress...Meryl Streep

You would be amazed at how TINY the feet of some of the really older prints were! Ava Gardner, etc. They look like little munchkin high heels stepped on the cement!

I had a wonderful adventure, with an even more wonderful friend!