Madonna's Opening Night

The Madonna concert was fantastic. She definitely proved that she can still perform with boundless energy, at whatever age she is. Brit Boy and I both said that we would love to have as much energy as she does and we are quite a few years younger than her. After witnessing Madonna do her thing and seeing the end of the Olympics, I feel the need to jump on a treadmill somewhere. (smile)

Much has been made about her turning fifty the Saturday before this, but she thoroughly made that a non-issue as she jumped rope, did a pole dance, and writhed around on stage as she has for years. And the girl can dance! (smile)
Madonna didn’t disappoint and was every bit as dynamic as I thought she would be. Here’s a woman who is a true performer and a definite pro. I have always liked her music and I have witnessed for myself just how amazingly she puts on a show. It is really something to see.

She came out to her song “Candy Store” and was sitting on a throne. What an entrance. A highlight was the bit when the fancy car was driven onstage and a party broke out. I don’t want to tell too much so that I won’t ruin it for those who are attending later. But it was fabulous. She did reworked versions of some of her past hits and she played guitar at some points.

All in all, it was a full circle moment for Brit Boy and me. We were teens in the 80s and Madonna and Prince were big idols then, so to come around and see both of them as adults is a great treat. And the great thing is that both Madonna and Prince are still doing their things and they just show me that great work goes on and lasts.

A Hard Experience

I am usually rather upbeat here in my own little corner of blogland, but something bad happened last night and I have to mention it because it made it hard to sleep last night or early this morning, when we finally got home from the concert. And I have also posted a happier entry about the Madonna concert, because she was just amazing last night.

I am always hesitant about writing about too much negativity here, because I don’t want to be accused of criticizing things here in Britain, as one who was not born here. But what happened to me shouldn’t happen to anyone and so it’s not an America versus Great Britain thing. It’s a human being thing. Usually here on my blog, I refer to my husband as “Brit Boy”, but we had a serious run-in and so for this post, he will be as always, my husband. (smile)

We had left the concert and we were headed to catch our coach back to Wiltshire. It was late, but we were walking along with thousands of others leaving the concert venue in Cardiff. It was nice to just be walking along with my husband, holding hands and enjoying the night. We walked along in peace for a while and then the crowd thinned out a bit as people fanned out on their own routes home. Our coach/bus was waiting in a park near the venue, so we had to walk along a lighted path along the river with dozens of others to get back there.

So we traveled along, minding our own business, walking along at a pretty good pace so we wouldn’t get left behind, but not running at all. We were just enjoying being together. These three guys passed by us and then their two other friends acted like idiots. The first of the two came up right in front of me and raise up and mimicked as if he were going to jump on me and hit me and then the coward walked on past us. Then the second one stopped dead in front of me and did this weird wiggly thing at me like he was thinking he was a ghost or something, put his hand in my face, and made a noise at me and trotted along to catch his friends as they all laughed. My husband called the first one a “suitable name” that I won’t repeat here. Then as the second one passed, I called him “yet another colorful word”.

Now anyone who knows me, knows that I am a peaceful person and so is my husband. And I hate to even write about us having to deal with people like this, but sometimes you can just get tired of the craziness. Those losers kept trotting and laughing over how “clever” they thought they were. And my husband and I just kept walking in the other direction, but I must admit, we were angry. I guess that we should have been a bit relieved, because we hear a lot about knife crime and how people who are minding their own business and living their lives are stabbed by losers on the street terrorizing others. The thing is, these guys didn’t look like some roving teenaged gang, they were dressed neatly like they were having a night out. This made it all the more disturbing to me. These were “normal” looking guys, but they acted like brutes.

I will say here, that I didn’t shed a tear, but it enraged me that I as a woman, as a human being, can’t walk along a path with my husband and many others and be spared this kind of assault or worse. And we are so glad that it didn’t turn out much worse. I’m sure there will be those who say, well be glad that you weren’t knifed or killed…we know that and I thank God. But still, it just angers me that there isn’t more respect out there. I don’t think that this is too much to ask. I am not talking about an idealized world. I do believe that most people are decent, but they are drowned out by the people who cause the strife.

Madonna Tickets

Well, after quite a few days of wondering whether Brit Boy and I would get our Madonna tickets on time, we finally got them today. (smile) I just realized that there is a Madonna theme happening here since I wrote about her in my last entry too. But that’s okay. I like her music. It’s good time music. Plus ever since we saw Prince last year, we figured that we would try to see as many music stars from our teen and young adult years as we could to kind of bring things full circle. Prince and Madonna were huge in the 80s, when we were teens and they are still going now, so it is great to get to see acts that we have enjoyed for years.

We bought our tickets weeks ago, but there was a holdup in the printing and basically we were running out of days before the concert. Then the doorbell rang this morning and I flew downstairs because I knew it was our tickets. It was funny though. I had left a bag of plastic bottles and one with cans at the front door that we were going to put out for recycling, and I had to move them out of the way to open the door. Well, when I moved them, they made a lot of racket. The mailman probably thought I was one of those people that loads their houses with trash and keeps it. When I opened the door, I thought that maybe he didn’t hear it, but he said, “Are you okay in there?” I laughed to myself.

So on Saturday, we are off to Cardiff to see Madonna. I have never gone to Wales, so it will be a fun experience.