What is it with marriage proposals at concerts?
Maybe I just don't get it. Maybe it's me. I mean, I'm sentimental and all, but I just don't get why someone would take their most intimate moment and put it on display for hundreds or even thousands of people.
But that's what I've seen now, 3 times in the past half year: Men taking time out from the middle of a concert -- twice on stage and once from the audience -- to propose marriage.
The first time was last September 10, in Asbury Park, New Jersey. I was there for the weekend, for the
Springsteen symposium. The first night, I went with a few friends on a pilgrimmage to the
Stone Pony to see
Joe Grushecky. I'm not much of a Grushecky fan, really, and his following is rather modest -- though perhaps it's a bit more down on the shore, where his Springsteen connection helps.
Here are my notes from the show:
"Got to the Pony about 11pm, just in time for Grushecky. He was...Grushecky. Eventually Mary and I headed out to the outside area, I think so she wouldn't throw things at the stage when he did one of his Bruce covers. He did ok with
I Don't Wanna Go Home as his closer, though. We got out of there at 1:15am. I gave Chris a copy of my paper, and the one hour drive to my parents' place suddenly seemed
very long."
Mary is the one and only artisland, whom I'd known online for years but only just met in person earlier in the day. Chris is Chris Phillips, editor of
Backstreets Magazine. My parents live a little less than an hour from Asbury Park. I put Mary in my write-up. I put Grushecky in there, of course. I put Chris in there, and I put my parents' house in there. I even put in the title of a song that Steve Van Zandt wrote for Southside Johnny, and wrote about it as if it were Bruce's (Bruce
has played it, at least).
But I didn't put in one event that happened during the middle of the show: One of the patrons got on stage with his girlfriend, and proposed marriage. He held up the show for maybe 5 minutes or so while stumbling for the words, the audience starting to yell at him to do it already... and it was becoming pretty clear the girlfriend wasn't going to say yes. She said she'd think about it, and gave him a peck on the cheek. ok,
here's a picture, so I guess it was a little better than a peck on the cheek. But she didn't say yes (not that it stopped Grushecky's webmaster from putting it on his website). Good theater for the bar, probably bad for that relationship.
Then there was the
McCartney show at the
Palace, on October 14. Magical night, magical show. Front row seats. Got the program signed. And, oh, yes, got to witness another proposal.
An excerpt of my notes from the show:
"One thing I wasn't expecting was the number of signs. They were everywhere. Paul was occasionally reading them, and commenting on reading them. After
Eleanor Rigby, he spotted a little green one down the front row. It was, approximately, 'Tell Ben in the 4th row to propose to Melissa.' I'd seen a proposal during the Grushecky show at the Springsteen symposium last month; that one didn't work so well. This one fared a lot better. Sir Paul directed Ben how to do it, get down on your knees, Ben. Now all Paul has to do is come back for the ceremony."
ok, we're one for two so far. Maybe two for two -- that Grushecky picture looks better than I remember it.
Cut forward to this morning. We went to a
Young People's Concert of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. My father in-law, Aaron and me. Should be pretty safe from marriage proposals, right?
Wrong!Before the last number, conductor
Thomas Wilkins called up viola player
Shanda Lowery to help make a presentation to winners of the "What I See in Music Program," which is basically an art contest for children attending the shows. The presentation over, Wilkins told Lowery to stay with him, as he had one more presentation. Flautist
Sharon Sparrow scooted in to Lowery's vacated seat and whipped out a little digital camera, looking like a kid eager for a moment. Wilkins called a gentleman on to the stage and gave him the mike. The gentleman got all nervous, stumbling for words, talking about love.
It's happening again!! At a kids' concert!! The kids stayed with it, though, the gentleman got through the proposal, and when he took out the ring, half the orchestra was yelling at him to get down on a knee. And he did. And she said yes. He got a big hug from Wilkins. The flautist got the pictures. And everyone went home happy.
And, as I wiped a tear from my eyes, I realized, I still don't get it.
After the show, my father-in-law asked my if I got down on a knee to propose. "No," I said. "Me neither." Aaron just said, "I don't get it."
But I do get this: If you're going to propose in public, get down on your knees.
We're in Wikipedia
We've arrived! Yes, we now have our very own link from
Wikipedia.
I have to admit, it never really occurred to me to list our own pages in Wikipedia, but I noticed yesterday that the site has had some incoming hits from there. Backtracking, I discovered that the Wikipedia reference for the song "Atlantic City" links to my
discography. So there we are.
I flipped through Wikipedia, finding its
discography. It's pretty detailed with the chart information -- more of it than on mine, actually. But then I saw that a lot of the dates for album releases were wrong. They got the date for
Born to Run wrong. So I made my first-ever edit in Wikipedia, to straighten out the dates.
Now, my question for myself is: Do I add links to the discography and charities pages? My inuition is yes, but I'll think it over a bit first.
First Ski Run of the Season... and the last, too
Aaron had an offday from school yesterday; Elianna still had her pre-school. Perfect opportunity. I took a vacation day, and Lori and I took Aaron skiing. It was windy and the temperature had dropped 35 degrees overnight, but Mt. Holly is open (mount! 380 feet and they call it a mount). Aaron isn't much for sports, he despises team sports. But the solo sports
-- skiing and biking, he loves those. He's been taking lessons, they pick up on Sunday mornings half a block from the house, so we figured to see what he's learned.
We took the video camera. We'd capture this occasion. Lori was excited. She'd skied there as a kid, but that was... a while ago. Aaron was excited. Mt. Holly has a quad detachable lift, only one in souther Michigan, and he really likes it. The website said the lift was open. The phone message said the lift was open today. We got there, the lift wasn't open. Too windy.
First run of the day... First run! Aaron guns down the hill. Lori calling from behind to turn, show us a turn. And... Lori wipes out. Really ugly wipeout. Sometimes skiers look graceful going down. This wasn't graceful. The binding didn't release. Her knee popped. Looks like she tore a medial, but we won't know for sure until she can see an orthopedist or sports injury doctor, and that won't be till next Thursday. For our 3 hours of the hurry-up-and-wait routine at the hospital, during which we never saw an actual doctor (the Wayne State student and the Physician's Assistant did have very nice bedside manner, we'll give 'em that), we escaped with a $50 co-pay -- I didn't ask what it'd be for the uninsured. The folks at Mt. Holly were nice, they gave us a free pass for another day (come wreck your other knee! On us!!).
Lori had the video camera with her when she went down -- we
think it came out unharmed. She chose not to videotape her own ordeal.
I have since learned that, back in the '60's, Mt. Holly's ski lodge had a popular teen club. That's where ? and the Mysterians performed "96 Tears" -- and, after yesterday, I can see where
that title came from. The Yardbirds played there. Seger rambled and maybe gambled there.
I haven't seen the lodge yet. But I did meet the ski patrol. Doesn't quite seem the type of place that would have that history, I guess.
Using the discography for charity
When web sites first started becoming popular in the mid-90's, there was a call on the LuckyTown Digest for obvious reference points for Bruce Springsteen -- a lyrics site, a site for bootlegs, a discography, etc. I took on the
discography, which I continue to maintain.
Sometime later, a New York Times article noted that, for all of Springsteen's charity work, there was no site oriented to it. So, in 1996, I created the
charities page, which sought to list out charities with which Bruce had worked. This consisted of charities that received proceeds from "Various Artists" records in which Springsteen participated, and also charities that he worked with at his tour stops. Considering that Springsteen works with one or more charities at every show he plays, it goes without saying that the charities page is horribly incomplete -- there are hundreds of charities that could be listed, and I've only got 24. That's something that I hope to rectify in the not-too-distant future.
For nearly a decade, I ran the discography as a purely egalitarian sort of thing; staying totally outside commercial considerations. I just listed the releases, and the names of a few websites that might sell the listings. I knew that people occasionally went to the discography page to find something, which they subsequently bought. Last summer I received an email from someone who was ecstatic after buying his wife
seventeen items he found on my site. And I was happy for the little thank-you note. It costs me some money to run the site -- more than it should, probably -- but it just never bothered me that much.
Finally, this past November, a little action taken by my friends over at
hollerif gave me a bit of an idea: By becoming an amazon associate, I could get a commission for items sold from my page. It wouldn't be much, but maybe it'd at least cover the cost of the site.
Then I had an epihpany: I can do better than that. I can do
much better than that. I could become an amazon associate, get the commission, and then turn around and donate the commission to one of the charities listed on the site. Finally, an explicit linkage at the fan level between the commerce/discography and the public works! A flash of brilliance!
So I hooked up to amazon. I got a neat little logo to display -- and if you click on it now and buy something, some of it's going to go to a charity:
I signed up on November 12. A little late for orders of the
Born to Run 30th Anniversary set, but still in time for some of the holiday season shopping. The cool thing was, even if the item bought wasn't Springsteen, so long as they got there from my page, I still got the commission.
Amazon pays out quarterly. For the period from November 12 until December 31, 33 items were sold off the site. Amazon gave me proceeds of $27.12. This may not seem like a lot, but give it a few quarters and I figure it'll add to a healthy amount.
Then I had another epiphany:
Match the donation. Simply turning over the money to a charity is nice enough, but it's also neutral to me. By matching it, the buyer is partially committing my money, too. Springsteen has matched proceeds from merchandise sales at some of his shows, and that's one aspect of his approach that I'll happily emulate.
My first proceeds from amazon arrived at the end of January. The first selected charity is the
Kristen Ann Carr Fund. The donation amount is $50; I'll carry over the remainder of the match for next quarter's recipient. I am tracking each quarter's results at a new
donations page.
If you read this and shop at amazon anyway, I hope you'll consider using one of the links off this site to get there -- or just click on that nifty banner a bit higher on the page.
Thanks,
Matt
The scene at the RenCen
The Renaissance Center is home this week to the NFL Media Center, ESPN, and pretty much every sports radio station around. As the week has gone along, more and more people have been streaming in the lower levels of the building, buying souvenirs or hoping for a moment with any of the celebrities passing through.
Up in the offices, it's been quiet and getting quieter. As the mall becomes ever more crowded, the offices have emptied out. People working from home or from different locations. It's not this quiet the last day before the winter holiday.
In the mall, three main areas have been converted. The GM World area has become the Media Center. Where cars were on display in a sort of mini-museum/advertising area, there are many areas set up for the hosts and their interviewees. Everyone from ex-football heroes to bikini-clad women have been spotted. The two levels above the GM World area have circular rings where people walk; there are now so many people crowding the rings that there are marked "standing areas" in each one, where the tourists (and residents) may stop and peer down on the shows below.
On the 2nd level, GMU has become the credential center. The media pick up their badges there; without their badges they can't get anywhere.
And, in the Winter Garden area at the south end of the first floor, ESPN has taken over. A major tent housing multiple broadcast desks, and, in an open area, a mock football field where they can run their diagrams. At the corners of the football field area, are Cadillacs -- at one end a '74 Eldorado Convertible, and at the other a new Escalade. ESPN also has an area on the first floor for its radio show.
Guards, police and volunteers are everywhere. I didn't sign up to be a volunteer, and now I'm feeling sorry for it. They all got a really cool Super Bowl XL jacket/vest, and heck, it looks like a lot of fun -- fun, that is, if you can take a couple 4 hour shifts entirely on your feet.
The out of towners started streaming in as soon as the teams were determined. Even last Monday, there were plenty of Bettis jerseys to be spotted in the food court. That's also when the special Super Bowl kiosks started going up. There are a lot of kiosks now, all through the RenCen, and a walk-in store besides. The prices are outrageous, but business is brisk. Tenants are being offered a 20% discount, but I figure it'll go much steeper next week.
I stopped down a little before 3 today to check it out and take some pictures of the scene.
Over GM World, banners hang from the roof, 5 floors up, down to the first level. Someone on the 4th level is shooting with a professional video camera.
The view in to ESPN from the 2nd level.
The tourists will cheer just about any famous person. Here, David Spade responds to cheers from the ground floor, as he prepares to go on Dan Patrick's ESPN Radio show. It's just as well that David managed to get his arms in front of his face just as the shutter went, he looked a bit... tired. Rob Schneider is in the sweater behind David. They were promoting their to-be-released film, "Bench Warmers."
As celebrities come through, various areas within RenCen get closed off. At one point, the only public escalator on the south side of the building was closed off. Normally there are two -- one is for media only, and when the 2nd was closed off, there was nothing left. I got trapped during the Spade interview -- people couldn't get in to where I was standing, but I couldn't get out, either. Down below on the ground floor, the people cheer on cue -- that is, when the TV shows that they're live. I can't quite figure out what the cheese-heads were doing there, though; weren't the Packers eliminated last August?
The live audience for the interview with David Spade and Rob Schneider and whoever the heck the other dude was (the star, probably).
The ESPN personalities on the football grid. Ron Jaworski is holding the ball, and Emmitt Smith is the dapper one. The crew had applause signs for audience participation, but it was hardly necessary, they'd have cheered Smith if he sneezed. Heck, they'd have cheered him if he fumbled.
Emmitt Smith films a commercial before a live audience of hundreds. I love the look of the Eldorado in the corner. Other ESPN personalities sign autographs while Smith films -- many people walking around with signed footballs. Some friends of mine were volunteer wayfinders; they told me that people would routinely go up to anyone who appeared to be a celebrity, ask for an autograph, and then ask the wayfinder, "who was that?"
Side stage at ESPN, possibly setting up for another show later on. ESPN had two desk areas within the tent. The big SportsCenter broadcasts from the North side, and the analysts area on the South.
Rumors of appearances were plenty. At about the same time Smith was filming, the Rolling Stones were rumored to be in the building. It's a big, big building.
Back on Dan Patrick's radio show, interviewing Roger Staubach and Franco Harris. They're talking about the Minnesota game in 1975, you know the one. The offensive interference game. The iceball game. And yes, Pearson pushed off (we don't forget). But that did set up the first of two Super Bowls in which Staubach and Harris faced each other, back in Super Bowl X The other was XIII, and why am I typing Roman Numerals? I do like XL as a designation. Nice logo, this year.
The Winter Garden, from the South entrance.
