I have a big event coming up later this morning (Friday at 11 am) which should have me nervous but lucky for me, instead of spending Thursday night pacing and not sleeping, I just this moment (4 am) got home from Chicago, from seeing the Eminem concert -
whoa, what an event that was! And by what I could see, I might have had one or two rivals for oldest fan there! Papa Roach was very, very good, Ludacris was excellent, Bionic Jive not so good, Xzibit was fine, X-ecutioners did a great job dj-ing between the acts, D12 was excellent backup for Eminem althought their own songs didn't impress me that much, but Eminem was wonderful! Other than the D12 stuff, all but 2 songs were from the new album, and I must confess, to my surprise, I knew all the words and was able to sing along... along with the 20,000 other people singing along so no one noticed I was singing, luckily! But I actually knew all the words, and what a surprise that was to me; I have been playing the album a lot, but didn't think I had memorized it! The opening was the most wonderfuly put together montage of all these political types and self proclaimed experts, including Joe Lieberman and Lynne Cheney, pontificating on the evils of rap and specifically the evils of Eminem. I suspect they have never been to a concert - and the first couple of songs were Em's most political songs, so it actually made it feel as if it were a political statement just to be there, which to me was a good feeling. It has also been a long time (Sly and the Family Stone back in 1971?) when I was in a crowd so diverse racially and ethnicly, that felt good too, like the old days of the 60s, to see people rocking together. Let em tell you, the Eminem crowd was far more polite, incredibly more polite, much better natured, than the Bob Dylan crowd at the Bob and Joni 1998 tour - I'd hang with those kids again anytime. I am just unwinding for a second and the dogs are at the kennel so I have no one to share this with except by wonderful JMDL friends -- and Michael Yarbrough, if you are still out there, thank you so much for making me go back and check out Eminem again when I was one of those who ponitificated against him - Michael you may remember patiently exlained on the JMDL a lot of what Eminem was saying, and I went back after Michael's tireless educational efforts and heard the music anew and got converted - Michael, I looked for you, but didn't spot you I will probably get two tickets for the Eminem Auburn Hills concert - any Detroiters want to go? Now to try and sleep a little before the next part of the the day - Vince
