New York Botanical Garden: Emily Dickinson's Garden

On this lovely Saturday before Mother's Day, I went with my parents to the New York Botanical Garden yet again! This time, the theme they had in their main conservatory thing was the "Emily Dickinson Garden." I guess the idea was to plant all sorts of Dickinson's favorite flowers that she had in her own garden, and celebrate the poems she wrote about some of them. It was a truly beautiful display of flowers, as you can see. We also took a look at some of the other sections of the Garden, including the "Children's Garden" because Mom loves all the cute stuff they have there, like a giant caterpillar made of flowering plants!

March Showers Bring April Flowers

On this weekend of April, I took a stroll with mom to Central Park to soak in the beautiful sights of spring in bloom! If a picture is worth a thousand words, then I have nothing more to type! Take a look:

Spring Break Vlog (March 29 - April 5)

**UPDATED 6/19/10: The audio is now in sync with the picture in the video, but it cuts off about 10 seconds at the end.**

In this video blog, I tell you about the fun and relaxing things I did during my spring break (March 29 - April 5): checking out Greenwich Village with Luis, the potluck at the QSU, and hanging out with Shirley and Shovana.

March Fun Times: Part 2 (Vlog)

In this edition of my Vlog, I tell you about seeing the anime film Summer Wars and the Broadway Musical Mamma Mia.

Related Links: Summer Wars on Wikipedia, Mamma Mia: Official Site


Sean's Vlog for March (Part 2)

Sean MySpace Video

March Fun Times: Part 1 (Vlog)

This is officially my first video blog! In this edition, I tell you about the fun times I had in March when my buddy Mike came to New York for a brief visit. Thanks for watching/listening!

Related Link: The Secret of Kells

Sean's Vlog for March (Part 1)

Sean MySpace Video

February Fun Times

Again, it's actually April at the time I'm typing this, but I like to keep my posts listed under their proper months.

------------------------------------------

Wednesday, February 3:

After my morning class, I headed over to the Queer Student Union (which I didn't really know existed before) to check out their open house thing. I had seen a flyer hanging in a hallway, and I thought it would be a good place to finally start making more friends. The open house consisted of a gathering of a fairly small group of people, and we all introduced ourselves. We then went over the calendar of scheduled activities for this semester at the QSU. So this pretty much marked the beginning of my social life at Hunter College. Good stuff.

Wednesday, February 10:

This was the first Snow Day of the semester. I cannot explain how happy this day made me (especially since it would mean I would not have to go to school for 6 six days, what with my having Thursdays off, and that following Friday and next Monday being scheduled holidays at Hunter). Although, it would have been nice if Hunter had posted the news that class was cancelled before I went to the school, only to discover that the place was deserted. Anyways, the snow was beautiful, covering the city and the parks in a white blanket. After I got some more sleep, Mom and went out to Riverside Park to enjoy the snow. We built a snowman by the 91st street garden. I don't know how long it had been since I made a snowman, or even played in the snow. Well, actually, it was probably about 11 years.

Thursday, February 11:

I went to the Valentines Party at the QSU! I had some fun conversation, ate some pizza, met a bunch of new friends, and danced the night away. Lady Gaga is always the music highlight. I think I can get used to this party thing. As long as it doesn't get too insane, haha. But I think these people have just the right amount of crazy. I like them!

Friday, February 26:

Snow Day number 2! Hell yeah. Mom and I went out to Riverside again to enjoy the snow. We made some snowballs and generally just strolled about leisurely, taking in all the gorgeous whiteness that surrounded us. I took lots of pictures this times. Pretty!

I took videos too!

Saturday, February 27:

I'm pretty sure it was on this day, but I'm not 100% positive. My parents took me to see a play on Broadway called Present Laughter, written by the great Noel Coward. It starred Victor Garber in the lead role, who has starred in many film, TV, and stage roles. I'll paste the basic plot summary from Wikipedia.org so I don't have to come up with my own:

• "The plot follows a few days in the life of the successful and self-obsessed actor Garry Essendine as he prepares to travel for a touring commitment in Africa. Amid a series of events bordering on farce, Garry has to deal with women who want to seduce him, placate both his long-suffering secretary and his estranged wife, cope with a crazed young playwright, and overcome his fear of his own approaching fortieth birthday and, by implication, his impending mid-life crisis. The story was described by Coward as 'a series of semi-autobiographical pyrotechnics'."

Basically, the play was hilarious. All the actors were fantastic. We loved it! What more can I say? We were sitting in the very back row but it wasn't bad at all since the theater was smaller.

Okay, I guess that's pretty much it for February!

Adam Lambert Live Mini-Concert for "Stripped"

**UPDATED 6/19/10: This post now includes videos of all the professionally-filmed versions of each of Adam's songs. Hopefully those videos won't eventually be removed from YouTube!**

Note: This post was actually written days after the event described below. The YouTube videos I've embedded are not by me, but the blogger ones are.

I've got another doozy of a post here. It's amazing how quickly this dream-come-true appeared before my eyes, and flew by in a flash, without time to take it in. So, here's my story of how I got to see Adam Lambert perform live in an intimate mini-concert courtesy of IHeartRadio, as part of their "Stripped" series.

Last Thursday, as I was doing my routine of checking Adam news (I'm pretty much obsessed), I found out about yet another contest to win tickets to an exclusive performance by Adam here in New York. Since I never really win anything, I don't really get my hopes up for these kinds of things, but this contest offered a few different ways to enter, one of which was really easy, so I just thought "Why not?" All I had to do was post a "glammy" photo of myself on the Facebook page of IHeartRadio, and they would select winners from their favorite photos. That's it. I didn't have time to get myself made-up to take a new photo, so I just picked a very appropriate photo I already had, taken a couple years back during my "experimental queeriod." I posted that classic (in my mind, lol) photo of me with my eye make-up done in an Egyptian-inspired style, featuring the Eye of Horus symbol on my right eye.

Well, I didn't think I would win. I mean, come on, life doesn't do that kind of stuff for me. But Saturday night I got a message on Facebook from IHeartRadio: "CONGRATS! You've Won a Pair of Tickets to see Adam Lambert this Monday in NYC! Please email [address] for all of the details!" My heart started pounding. "Oh... my... god." Then, I told myself to calm down and not get my hopes up, worried that this might turn out to be some kind of prank. But I did what the message said and promptly wrote an e-mail to the given address. Later that night, I got a response from the people at IHeartRadio confirming that I won a pair of tickets (actually, not physical tickets, but admission on a guestlist) to Adam's performance, with all the details I needed to get into the event. I was completely beside myself. I still couldn't believe it. "Is this seriously happening right now?!" I was thinking.

Then I thought, "Crap, I have like 24 hours to find someone to bring with me! I don't know any other obsessive Glamberts besides me!" So I messaged a bunch of my new NYC friends, called around on Sunday, but didn't have any luck. These people apparently have jobs and stuff. I know--losers, right? So finally, on Sunday night I decided to message this girl named Liz I saw on the IHeartRadio Facebook--she had been trying to get tickets to the show, or find a winner who would take her, without any luck. I decided to make her dream come true. And I figured it would be good to give a passionate Adam fan the chance, rather than just a casual fan. I messaged her and told her I'd offer her my other ticket. She was pretty damn excited!

Then came that fateful day. Monday, February 15, 2010. Liz and I decided to line up way early at the PC Richard and Son Theater in Tribeca (by 2:30 PM). When I got there, she had already been there since about noon, apparently. There were just a few people in line ahead of us, and there were soon to be some more behind us, and we all made conversation throughout the day--talking about Adam, our favorite performances of his, and all the typical things Glamberts like to chat about, I guess. I'll spare the silly details. It was great to meet some more Adam fans. Glamberts have quite a sense of community, you might say.

The most unexpected thing happened a couple hours before the concert. Adam came quietly out the front door of the venue to greet his adoring fans. I turned my head to see him suddenly standing there, dressed as always in black, and I didn't even know what to say or do. He was right there in front of us! "Hi guys!" Adam said sweetly. I'm pretty sure I just awkwardly said "Hiii." He started signing things and taking pictures with the girls in front of me. I freaked out, grabbed my camera, approached him as he started to move down the line and asked if I could get a picture with him. Of course, he wasn't gonna say no. We touched shoulders, but I seriously don't even remember what it felt like to have him so close to me. I don't remember if I put my arm around him, or if he put his arm around me, or anything. I was out of my body in that moment. As I held up the camera to snap the shot myself, I gushed, "God, you look gorgeous." He said, "Thank you!" I thanked him for the photo, he looked me in the eye and told me to "Have fun in there!" You bet I will.

He went on to greet everyone else in the line of fans, which by this time was a fairly long line. Here's a clip of Adam greeting fans. You can't really see his face, but that's all I could get from where I was in line:

I'm telling you, Adam is stunning in person. He's gorgeous. His presence, his charisma, his radiance is like no other. Adam is quite the paradox though, because while I felt like I was in the company of a god, his presence was also strangely sedating, as if I was just starting to get high (not that I've ever done that, actually). He was both exciting and calming, I guess is what I'm saying, because he seemed so comfortable and natural with everybody.

After Adam finished signing autographs and posing for photos, he bid everyone well and went back inside. The line of people was buzzing with amazement at what had just happened. Then we all had a lot more waiting to do. And it was getting cold outside. The official event people came out with the guest list to start checking people off, and they gave everyone a red wristband that gave us admittance. When that wristband went around my wrist, I knew for certain that this was not a prank. I really had won tickets to this Adam Lambert performance--one of only about 200 people. I felt like such a lucky bastard. Finally, after even more waiting, we were directed through the front doors and then through the doors of the PC Richard and Son Theater.

The theater was uber small and intimate--just right for our crowd of only a couple hundred people. It was a diverse group. Teenage girls, young women, middle-aged women, young men, even some older men. Although Liz, me, and the other cool people were right at the front of the line, there were some [apparently] VIP people already taking up the front row when we got in. That's just not fair to those of us who spent hours waiting in line outside in the cold. Whatever. There wasn't such thing as a bad spot in the whole place, and we were about third or fourth-ish from the front (it was just a standing room, no seats). So, we waited at least another half-hour, until a radio announcer person came out and introduced ADAM LAMBERT!! Cue crowd screaming.

There he was in all his goth-with-a-glam-twist glory, not ten feet in front of me, dressed as before in all black (but without a coat now, of course). WOOOOOO!!! said I. "I wanna see you guys dancing," Adam said as he started his set with "For Your Entertainment," which got us all riled up:

Next, it was time to chill out and unplug, as Adam performed acoustic versions of his single "Whataya Want From Me" and his now-famous cover of "Mad World." During these two numbers, Adam's beautiful voice could be heard most clearly (since the band tends to overpower the vocals in a live concert situation). It was wonderful to just breathe deep, take it all in, and bask in the beauty of that falsetto on these quiet numbers. Part-way through the first take of Whataya Want From Me, Adam found himself distracted (as I'm sure the surrounding audience members were) by a lady near the front row yapping on her cell phone. Really, right now?! I actually caught that famous moment (as did several others--not to the mention the professional cameramen) with my little camera. "Could you get off your phone?" Adam asked in the nicest tone possible. Hilarity ensued...

WWFM Take 1 clip (video by me):

Here's the professionally-filmed version of the moment:

Contrary to popular idiotic belief, Adam was not mean there. He did not "bash the fan" or whatever. In fact, it was rather funny and light-hearted, and he didn't take it so seriously, making sure to show the woman he wasn't mad at her. But seriously, does anybody have any sense of common courtesy anymore? You don't talk on your cell phone when somebody's performing. You just don't. Why the hell would you even think of doing that when Adam Lambert is freakin' singing 10 feet in front of you? Well, we all had a good giggle.

WWFM Take 2 clip (video by me):

"Mad World":

Adam was very interactive and conversational with the fans throughout the show. We were all so close to him, the concert felt private and personal. He would joke around with us, and the audience would yell out random stuff during a silent moment to try to get a response from him. Banter stuff like that. Some of my favorite moments:

Audience member: "Take it off!"

Adam: "It's the music that's stripped--not me!"

Audience member: "Get naked!"

Adam: "You get naked. You first."

Audience member: "Do five more!"

Adam: "You do five more!"

After the two acoustic songs, Adam went on to "plug the heck back in" and performed the soaring "Sleepwalker"...

A rambunctious rendition of "Fever"...

"Fever" clip (video by me):

Professionally-filmed version of "Fever" (must watch!!):

And for an "encore," the glammy throwback "Music Again"...

He then went backstage and I was like "Noooo, come on, that was too short!" So the audience rallied together and started chanting "Adam! Adam! Adam!" until he came out smiling again. Here's some delightful Adam banter before the encore, including a joke in reference to the earlier cell phone incident ("Got your phones ready?"):

Yeah, he did an encore of "Whataya Want From Me"--"for the cameras," he said. He did another false start, actually; he stopped singing shortly and asked the audio techies for a little more reverb. "If we're gonna do this again, we might as well get it right!" he quipped. Oh, Adam--such a perfectioniste! Haha, a boy after my own heart. Anyways, although everyone would have liked to hear a different song (I heard some people calling for "Soaked!"), we certainly didn't complain about listening to Adam's beautiful acoustic version of WWFM again:

Professionally-filmed version--must watch!!

And before I knew it, the whole thing was over. It happened so fast I didn't even have the chance to take in what was happening. It felt like an incredible dream during a short afternoon nap. I still can hardly believe it happened--I won tickets to a live, intimate mini-concert with the one-and-only, the amazing, the incomparable Adam Lambert.

Yeah, that ending was cheesy. Whataya want from me?