Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Before I get into the whole I-LOVE-JOSH thing, lemme tell you guys what happened to me on my way to the city. Thil and Sang dropped me off at the train station so I caught the train in. I was sitting next to a little old lady. The train ride took a while so I was listening to my Ipod - I blasted it for a "surround-sound effect" and closed my eyes so that my ears would get the full experience of the music. Suddenly I feel a tap on my shoulder. I open my eyes to see the little old lady wanting to speak to me.
Little old lady: Excuse me, may I know what you are listening to? You look like you are in heaven.
Me: *smiles* It's Josh Groban, you heard of him?
Little old lady: *shakes her head* May I have a listen?
Me: Sure! - I proceed to plug one side of my earphones into her ear, making sure I turn the volume down low in case I blast her ear drums out.
We sit in silence for 3 minutes whilst "You are Loved" is played. We must have been a sight - Chinese girl in twenties sharing an earpiece with little old Aussie lady.
When the song ends, I look at her and see her eyes filled with tears.
Thank you, she says. That was lovely. I must ask my daughter to get me his CD :)
Grobanitis - It's infectious.
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Now for the I-LOVE-JOSH-GROBAN bit.
I.LOVE.JOSH.GROBAN.
Tonight was AWESOME. If I thought that the first night was good, tonight was DA BOMB. Josh seemed more comfortable about performing and he opened up to the audience more in this concert.
He mixed up the songs a little bit so we didn't get the normal line-up as expected - which was good cuz otherwise it would be predictable. Some of the jokes he told were the same as the last concert, but this time he was more relaxed and said some new, funny stuff.
At one point he started singing random songs and playing random tunes like Rihanna's "Umbrella" song - OMG I hate that song but sung by Josh - that's like a whole OTHER thing...he went, "Under my umbrella...ella...ella..eh...eh...ehh" LOL - he should have recorded it instead!! (on the other hand it's such a bimbotic song)
There was a woman in the concert who had followed him all over Australia - from Melbourne to Sydney to Brisbane and back to Melbourne again. I recognised her from the Josh forum discussion pages because someone took a picture of her - apparently during the concert she held out a banner which said "Swap hug and Jack Daniels for drumsticks please?"!! Josh read it out and said, "Prove it". And she pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels from her purse so Josh ran and gave her his drumsticks (NOT the chicken kind, the real drum set drumsticks) and a hug.
Now THAT'S dedication. I spoke to her before the concert and she said all his concerts have been amazing.
When the song "In her eyes" started playing, the 2 girls who sat next to me, and myself, knew immediately that Josh would be mingling in the crowd as he always does, so we were looking frantically everywhere for him. Unfortunately he appeared at the top level and started shaking people's hands, taking pictures etc. When he FINALLY came down, I was STOKED that he chose to walk into the row just in front of me. How lucky was that?? I stood up, reached out and MOLESTED his arm. Yes people. I.touched.his.arm. I think I could have died a happy person there and then. My heart nearly popped out!!!
I was really glad I got to sit next to people who were screaming and yelling and clapping and bopping to songs like me - some of the crowd were too quiet and too still. Perhaps mesmerized by Josh's voice. Anywho, the crowd was awesome - some guy yelled out, "WE LOVE YOU JOSH!!!" And Josh was like, "oohhh thank you very much sir!! Takes a lot of courage for a guy to do that!!" LOL...
It all went by so quickly again...and in 2 hours it was over...again. I rushed like mad to get out of the concert area so that I could go to the stage door to meet him. When I got there, there were only around 5 or 6 people waiting, so I stood behind them. Josh's bodyguard came out and said, "ok people, please stand in a line". He proceeded to put barricades around us. He was funny (I think his name is Darren) - he told us his 4 big rules:
1. One autograph per person
2. No sticking pins into Josh (apparently people pin badges on him and stuff)
3. No hugs or kisses (at this point, the crowd went AWWWWWWWWWWW)
4. No posed photographs - we can take all the pictures we want but not with him *dang*
This is what happened: I actually brought a bag of goodies to give him but I wasn't sure WHEN I should give it to him - because people give him bags whilst he's on stage all the time but I wasn't sure I wanted to do that because:
1. I was sitting right in the middle of the row, and to get out would mean stepping on everyone's toes
2. I wasn't sure if the bags would end up with him because he puts it near the piano but when he leaves someone else takes it - I wanted to give it to him in person cuz I wanted to make sure he got it
SO I took a risk and waited for him to sign my CD before I passed him the bag.
When it was my turn to get my autograph, I said, "Hi Josh! Thanks for the awesome concert!!"
Josh said, "Thank you for coming!!"
He proceeded to sign my CD - I then passed him my goodie bag and said, "This is for you"
Josh said, "This is for MEEEE???"
He looked at it - because I stuck "Josh's goodies" on the bag in pink cut out paper
He asks, "And you did all the cutting and sticking of paper yourself??"
I said, "Yes" - At this point the crowd goes AWWWWWWWWWWWW - lol gotta love those Grobanites
He opens the bag and says...."Are those....JUGGLING BALLS???"
I said, "Yes, I know you love to juggle" - I knew because I've seen him doing it in interviews
He looks at me with big eyes and says, "Thank you very much!! That's so nice of you"...or something to that extent I CAN'T REMEMBER!!!
Then he said, "Thank you, I'm not leaving my room tonight!!!"
Then I held out my hand and he took it and shook it and I said, "THANKS" and he said "Thanks again for coming".
I.AM.NOT.WASHING.MY.RIGHT.HAND.
All this whilst I had the camera and the lights shining into my face too!!!
Josh signing autographs for people next to me
Besides the juggle balls, I also put in some lollipops, a squeezy chew toy ball for his doggy, Sweeney, a "Mr.Silly" book (you know those Mr.Men and Little Miss series) - I chose it cuz Josh is silly sometimes - A small bubblegum machine - because listening to his CD made me feel like I was taking candy from a bubblegum machine - you never know what flavour you are going to get - 2 packets of Tim Tams with "Hide me" and "Want me" on it - a scrapbook, which I decorated and wrote in the first few pages a letter to him, and told him that it was for him to fill the pages - he can draw whatever he likes and can compose his lyrics in it - so I gave him a pack of crayons as well, because I've seen him draw and colour with kids. I think that was about it...can't remember anything else - Josh is like a kid sometimes so he loves kiddy things. He's so adorable :)
And SO this concludes my first meeting with Josh. I'm in love. Josh is sOo uber amazing - he's like your regular guy next door. You expect him to be this megastar because of his phenomenal success worldwide but he has NO AIRS whatsoever - he stopped at each and every person to say thanks for coming. He is absolutely the sweetest person alive.
And the Grobanites were soooo well-behaved - there was no pushing, no shoving, no screaming - it was all very orderly and everyone followed the rules.
He is such a sweetie - and his band members are awesome - Tariquh (guitarist) came out to give autographs and say hi, and then Tim (acoustics) gave someone a hug - Lucia (violinist) was on the phone, and Craig (drummer) was really quiet!!!!
His new Christmas CD comes out today!! It's titled "NOEL". I can't wait to lay my hands on it!!
I don't think I will be able to sleep tonight.
I want to thank Sang & Thil again for coming all the way to the city to pick me up - I REALLY appreciate it - and sorry for the crazy behaviour - I was walking in the middle of the road and singing out loud because I was tooo frigging happy LOL.
*sigh* I'm in love. So THIS is what it feels like to be in love. :)
Yinny was Joshing around @ 10:54 PM
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