2011.06.24 Rush @ MGM Grand Garden Arena - Las Vegas, NV

The opening sequence of Rush

Had an amazing night. I'm not a Rush fan but the production team is stellar. Very laid back, cool, Canadian. My good friend Tony is the head of venue security so we got together the night before for dinner. Reminisced about old times, old tours, new tours. Good stuff. Later in the evening his pals, Brian a lighting director and Ray a gear supplier joined us. 

Rush on stage @ MGM Grand Garden

But back to the concert. Like I said, I"m not a rush fan but man, do they put on a great show. A perfect combo of lights, performance, guitar, drums and vocals. It's hard to be a fan when the audience is so into it! 

Is that a monkey?

Tom Sawyer

Encore from stage left

No big incidents to speak of. The typical drunk 50 year olds who think they're in their 20s. We had 1 guy pee - yes whip out his wanker and pee - all over the row in front of him. This is what happens when old people try to act young. I know because I'm only 10 years from being one of those 50 year olds. But I have to believe that no matter how old I am I'm not peeing on anyone - well, at least in public :) or maybe when I'm 80 and wear Depends. 

We've had Rush in the building several times. It's a low maintenance show. Good crew. No VIP parties, lame tours, packages. Just a straight up rock show. It's nice to have one of those every once in a while. 

All in all a great night. Just what the doctor ordered before the circus better known as Britney Spears. Night night.

For a couple more crappy photos from my CrackBerry head to my FB page. 

If Only For One Night

It's been a while since I've posted anything substantive. I kinda lost focus for a while but am trying to get it back. Turns out it's easy to fall back into bad patterns but not so easy to get back to doing the hard things in life. But I'm working on it. 

So the plan was to blog something every day for a year. It's just not realistic for me to do that so I'm not gonna beat myself up or backtrack and make stuff up just to appease my OCD. I'm only gonna write when I have something to say or when I feel like it. This is my life and I get to make up the rules - and break them when necessary. 

This weekend is Rush and Britney Spears. Looking forward to Rush because Tony is the security director for the tour. He and his wife have become great friends of mine. Tony is usually out with Aerosmith but I've had him in the building with J-lo and some others too. I'm excited to see Britney too. Her show is getting decent reviews and it seems to be more dancing & theatrical like Gaga or Madonna than your typical rock band. Talk about 2 different types of music though. Rush and Brit are 2 opposite ends of the music spectrum.

The countdown is beginning to my next Chris Botti show too. About 3 weeks and I'll be in San Francisco. He's playing with the San Francisco Symphony. So excited. I need a Botti fix. I need out of Vegas for awhile, If Only For One Night.

Craftsteak

Another amazing dinner at Craftsteak last night with R & J. The skirt steak is so yummy. The fried artichokes were kinda bad but the corn, oh my god. Get the corn! Delish! Seablue is still my home away from home but Craftsteak is fast becoming my vacation get-away! I became the Foursquare mayor last night too! Hee hee. It's the little things in life that entertain me. 

I created and maintain the new @MGMGrandGarden twitter account so follow me there too! 

Ugh, I had a little too much fun tonight though. Tomorrow is gonna be rough. I know I said I was going back to healthy-me but it's proving to be more fun to be the old-Amy. We'll see. There's got to be a balance inside of me somewhere. 

Zzzzz

Zzzzzzz. I'm sick.

Love Won't Let Me Wait

George Bennett @ the arena

Started off the day with a sore throat and the beginnings of a cold. Shot myself full of Tylenol Cold & Flu and hit the road. George Bennett went to the groomer and I hit the shoe stores and got a pedicure. I had to run to the office for a bit so George Bennett got to run around the empty arena for a little. He loves that. It's one of the rare opportunities he gets to run free, hard, wild. I feel bad he has to be on a leash so much.

So when he finished running around the arena we headed back to my office. He knows the way so I thought, "Eh, no need for a leash." There was absolutely no one in the parking lot, so no one in the office - I thought. I open the doors to the admin offices and he books into the conference room. I hear a scream. Shit. We're not alone. Turns out DQ was having a meeting with the folks from a show we've got coming up. George knows how to jump onto the chair to get onto the table - that's how he gets to the top of my desk to sit. So hoppity-hop he goes. It was mortifying. Luckily the client was a dog lover and asked me to put him back onto the table so he could get a pic. Everyone had a good chuckle and I headed out tail between MY legs. Quel nightmare. 

A gift from Brian

When I got to my office there were goodies for me. Brian with McCartney's crew left me some great bottles: 2 rose champagnes, a red and a white. All excellent bottles, more than I'd ever buy for myself (or anyone else). I think they were probably left over from Paul's dressing room but hey, I could care less. I like good wine just like the next girl - and bottles given as gifts (even regifted) are just as lovely. A pleasant surprise indeed. 

All in all a good day. Got some great shoes. I'm excited to show D. He's the current flirtation. There's a lot wrong with me liking him because I kinda work with him. Not directly but enough to give me pause. Not sure how much longer I can keep up the flirting with him though without pulling the trigger. He's such a good man. Those are hard to find. And in my current state - Love Won't Let Me Wait any longer. I need a good man. I'm done with assholes... at least I think. 

Crazy Love

In church today I saw a dad kidding around with his son a couple pews in front of me. They were joking around about something, horsing around. My dad and I fool around like that in church too. Even me at 39 and him 75+ he knows how to get me to laugh in church. It made me miss my dad. It kinda choked me up. I also saw a man with his arm around his wife tenderly squeezing her during the service. It was so obvious even though I could only see the backs of their heads they were still in love after all these years. All this love around me. Crazy Love. What's that phrase? Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink. 

Time to get back to it. I've been slacking for the past week. Ok, who am I kidding, since Easter. Time to get back to the blog, to the workouts, to the sanity, to me. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be. 

06.10.11 Paul McCartney @ MGM Grand Garden Arena - Las Vegas, NV

McCartney

The public date for Paul McCartney was tonight. It was truly an amazing show. Coming off the high of a successful private date last night I was confident but cautious about the public date tonight. All the same concerns: sound check VIP party, getting butts in seats before he hits the state, crazy fans, staff taking pics of the icon, you know, the usual.

We had an unusual situation with this show. The door time was our normal 6.30p but the showtime was 7.30p. Our normal start time is 8.00p. Of course it's printed on all the tickets, on all the advertising and people are told this when purchasing tickets - but we all know - people are morons so we were all worried people would arrive late. As it is, Vegas has a notoriously late arriving crowd. 

A rock legend on stage

To add to the mix, McCartney had to be wheels up by 11.00p. This meant he had to go on no later than 8.00p. This sounds like a simple task but when we're talking about loading 13,500 people into a building when we know they're a late arriving crowd and that Paul won't go on stage if there are open seats in his eyeshot - talk about pressure. 

I think this was Give Peace A Chance

But before the show I was helping with a special group of kids. McCartney invited about 40 kids from the Nevada Blind Children's Society to be his guests at the show. Lots of artists do charity world but rarely have I seen ones go to this level and NEVER have I seen the Tour Production Director handling it himself. Lonnie and I worked out parking backstage next to the arena for the parents, escorts for them past the metal detectors and into their seats for the show. We warned them about some pyro concussions during Live and Let Die and made sure they had the escort out of the building after the show. As an added goodie I hooked them up with programs and McCartney tee shirts. Truth be told, I was given them for free to give to my staff but these kids will appreciate it more than my staff will. 

McCartney puts on 1 hell of a show!

So after getting the kids into their seats I headed to deal with the meet & greet for the casino. We got 4 people approved to get a quick pic with McCartney as he headed to the stage. (DQ and I were supposed to get our pic taken too but sometimes my job gets in the way of my personal opportunities - it's not the end of the world.) I had my team go out to get the m&g guests from their seats and have them escorted backstage. I was at the hip of Barry Marshall, Paul's manager. On the way to the meet & greet he paid me an extraordinary compliment to the President of Entertainment. He said he was going to bring me to work with him in London. Now how serious he was, who knows but for Barry to say that was a big deal. Barry doesn't shell out random compliments. He doesn't have to.

Even Yoko & Olivia Harrison
were there

But tonight the professional stars aligned for me. Barry & I scanned the seats from stage right minutes before Paul walked to the stage. 7.50p, all the seats were filled and he was smiling at me. In his most sincere, sweet british accent, "Well done my dear. Well done." I don't need pats on the back but comments like this from Barry are things people in our business work for and hold dear.

8.00p Paul hits the stage and I watch the 1st song from stage left, my favorite spot. A huge sigh of relief.

Live & Let Die

I watched some of the show, more tonight than yesterday. I caught Live & Let Die with the pyro. Awesome. Totally cool. Also caught Hey Jude. To hear 13,500 people singing in unison is something I can't explain. It's palpable, electric. It moves you. I got choked up and I'm not a McCartney OR a Beatles fan. 

The 2 encores were coming to a close so I headed backstage to make sure it was clear. I ran into Barry again. "You always keep so calm under pressure. You do your job extraordinary well. How do you do it?" he says to me. "I drink heavily," I half-jest. He cracked up and gave me a high-five. Barry's a proper Englishman so for him to high-five me was quite a moment. 

The end to a great night

My team and I pulled off quite a feat. To the outside world, no biggie. 2 Paul McCartney shows. To people in the industry who've had McCartney, they know what we did. And I'm so proud of us - the MGM Grand Garden Arena.







Set List

MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR
JUNIORS FARM
ALL MY LOVING
JET
GOT TO GET YOU INTO MY LIFE
SING THE CHANGES
LET ME ROLL IT
LONG AND WINDING ROAD
1985
LET EM IN
I’M LOOKING THRU YOU
AND I LOVE HER
BLACKBIRD
HERE TODAY
DANCE TONIGHT
MRS VANDERBILT
ELEANOR RIGBY
SOMETHING
BAND ON THE RUN
OBLA DI OBLA DA
BACK IN THE USSR
I GOTTA FEELING
PAPERBACK WRITER
A DAY IN THE LIFE
LET IT BE
LIVE AND LET DIE
HEY JUDE

DAY TRIPPER
GET BACK

YESTERDAY
HELTER SKELTER
SGT PEPPER

06.09.11 Paul McCartney for Hewlett Packard Convention @ MGM Grand Garden Arena - Las Vegas, NV

Paul McCartney playing for HP

Paul McCartney did a private date for the Hewlett Packard convention at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. I was worried about this show in particular. Pair McCartney with a bunch of crazy convention managers and it makes for one big nightmare. But it turned out to be one of the best convention/concert dates I've ever done. Everything worked out almost flawlessly and I looked like a frigging rockstar. Now I know I'm good but what makes me so good is my team and my ability to bring people together, convince them that I know what I'm doing and to trust me. 99% of the time that works out. And for the other 1% when I fail miserably, people around me don't let it get out. They cover for me. That's what a team does. They don't let each other fail, or if they do fail, they don't let others know about it. I am so proud of the people I work with. They're my friends, my colleagues, my confidantes and my saviors. If it weren't for them, I would have quit years ago. This job is fun and yes, I'm appreciative to have a job, but let's face it, after almost 6 years it's not really challenging. I should have probably moved on years ago but the people, the family in the Grand Garden Arena keep me coming back day after day, hour after hour, week after week. Here's to them.

Paul thanking the HP crowd

So back to McCartney HP date. The big concern for McCartney's team was that there wouldn't be butts in seats by the time Paul when on stage. He's a BIG stickler for that. I remember 5 years ago when he did a 2-date Thanksgiving weekend stint for both shows we had to fill seats with people from the upper bowl down on the floor. Now that seems cool for those people but what happens is when the original seat-holders show up, those inadvertent seat fillers get kicked back to their shitty seats. They are fully briefed of this before we ever bring them down but they don't seem to remember that part. It's a nightmare. But luckily none of that happened. 

About 8,000 HP attendees were having dinner in the MGM Grand Conference Center. It was my job to get them all into their seats in an hour and to make sure there were no gaps in the seats that Paul could see. Sounds simple but imagine 8,000 all coming at you thru 2 entrances, checking all their badges, making sure all have a wristband and scan each and every ticket. But the team I have assembled did just that - flawlessly. 

Paul took the stage around 8.40p. The entire HP crowd was into it for the full 2+ hours. Whew. Mission accomplished. Another successful event. And we'll do it again tomorrow.

2011.06.04 Nitro Circus @ MGM Grand Garden Arena - Las Vegas, NV

This might be one of the most fun events I've ever worked on! The Nitro Circus guys & the production team are all so nice! And some are from Australia so they've got the cute accents!

For pics head to my FB page. 

Soulmate

48oz steak at Seablue

Tonight I was at Seablue and they gave me the most ENORMOUS piece of meat! No, it wasn't in the form of a man, sadly. It was a 48oz steak. Have you ever actually SEEN 48oz of steak? It's ridiculous. I ate about 1/3 and took the rest home. George Bennett got a slice but I have a feeling I'll be throwing the rest out. I don't see it lasting in my fridge until Monday which is my next projected meal at home.

Top of the ramp!

Stairs are the scariest part!

Today was a great day. I admit I was NOT a fan of the Nitro Circus thing. Thought it was stupid, honestly. Then I met the people - mostly Australian.

And then I got to go to the top of the ramp they fly off of and my whole perspective changed. I LOVE this event. You really can't imagine the height and the slope of this ramp until you're t the top of it. CRAZY high! But oh so fun.

The crew atop the ramp platform

Tomorrow I think I'm going down it on a rug. If they'll let me I'm totally gonna do it. I think they've given me and a couple other guys clearance to do it. I can't wait. Just walking up and down the stairs was a serious adrenaline rush! It's funny how the event I was the least interested in turned out to be the one that is the most fun! Yeah, I know I should take a hint from this lesson and apply it to my personal life but as anyone searching for their Soulmate can tell you... it ain't that easy babe.

First Love

Seablue - My Happy Place

I'm sitting at Seablue with my MacBook Air in my spot at the end of the bar. At this point in the night the place is empty so I don't feel like too much of an asshole with my Air out. I love this place. Words cannot describe how much I love this place... and the people who work here. They've seen me thru boyfriends, heartbreaks, new jobs, new homes, big events in my life, mundane events in my life, and so importantly saved me from myself many-a-time. In the past 7 years, Seablue has been one of the constants in my life. I've seen different chefs, different wait staff, different bartenders, all except for Bill. Bill's been with me from the beginning. He's sexy-hot and the smartest man I know when it comes to literature, history and (ugh) trivia, and a dear soul. We banter back & forth and he tonight he rolled his eyes when I came in and said, "Get a life," but he's truly one of the best guys I know. The kids here don't come come any better. I love the other restaurants - and I know a few :) - but none of them have the same family-feel to me as Seablue. Seablue is my First Love. And you never forget your first love.