twentyeight

So I'm 28 today. Feeling the full effects of being older today. Yesterday I attended the AIDS Benefit Concert. The thing went so late, we stayed til the end because in truth, we really only went there to see the Bare Naked Ladies, and they were the final act. They finally appeared on stage at 12:30am. That's totally insane. We were there since 7pm.

We had 200 level seats but since the concert didn't sell very well, we were upgraded to 100-level. That probably really sucked for people who paid $100 for 100-level seats in the first place, (we paid $60), but then when you think about the people who paid $30 for the 500-level seats, then all of a sudden we didn't get such a great deal as we thought.

A lot of people spoke, including Bill Gates and Melinda Gates. She's a pretty good speaker.. not just some trophy wife :)

When Steven Harper's rep came out, the crowd gave him an earful. Boos rang down. I usually like Harper, but in this case, he really dropped the ball on this thing. How could he not show up on such an world-stage event. We're talking about a world-wide conference, being hosted by Canada, something that comes once every 2 years, with a momentus cause like fighting the AIDS virus.. how could the prime minister not show up?

As I mentioned, we were really there to see BNL, as was pretty much 90% of the people there. We had to sit through so many acts, some quite frankly, were crap. Our Lady Peace.. wow, these guys suck rocks. They pumped up the volume like crazy, probably just to hide the fact that the guitarists weren't really playing anything, and the lead singer -- yikes. Canadian Idol finalists are like Barbara Streisand and Mariah Carey compared to the OLP singer.

The OLP singer also sang with his wife Chantal Kreviazuk. He wasn't very good but she was..

Chantal Kreviazuk was amazing, just singing with a piano. It was really, really good. It was good enough that the thought of buying her CD crept into my mind (not that I'd actually buy it, but the idea of it is proof that she was pretty good).

There was also some guy named Barry Ivan White. Not Barry White, as we all know he's dead. But that guy rocked the house.

Also there was Amanda Marshall, who sang 3 songs from her 1st album, the one I bought when I was a huge Amanda Marshall fan. She's a bit wacko.. I wonder if her agent ever suggested that she taking dancing lessons. Her act on stage while singing was hilarious. Mad convulsions..

Blue Man Group came out and did something. That was interesting. I've seen these guys perform live twice now and still haven't been to their show. I dunno if I could sit through 2 hours worth of their stuff though.

Alicia Keys came out and spoke, but did not sing. I bet the show would have had a better chance to selling out if she was going to be one of the performers..

Anyway, the night ended with BNL. Everyone was still around past midnight just to see these guys. They didn't disappoint. And between a couple songs, they announced that there was going to be a special guest singer -- Steven Harper. They started to page him, getting us to clap for him to show up. Course the idiot wasn't around, and then they started getting sarcastic, saying things like "surely, on a world stage such as this, with Canada hosting, surely the prime minister would have the decency to show up?", and then they gave their take on this, about being ashamed of Steven Harper.

I think that summed up the night pretty well from a political stand point.

I ended up in bed a 2am, which is why I'm sitting here this morning in kind of a daze.