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Saturday, October 8, 2011

10.08.11 Chris Botti @ Green Valley Ranch - Las Vegas, NV

Ditching out on my show in the MGM Grand Garden Arena tonight to see my last Year of Botti show. Screw Journey, Foreigner & Night Ranger. This is Botti in MY town! :)

If you're in Vegas and like 80s rock, head to MGM Grand Garden Arena. If you've got class, style & taste, head to Green Valley Ranch for Chris Botti. Tweet me & say hi @amyzopfi.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

10.01.11 Kings vs. Avalanche @ MGM Grand Garden Arena - Las Vegas, NV

Kings arrive. Boys in suits! 
Just realized it's been a long time since I've posted. Lots of stuff happening in my personal life but no one but me cares so I'll try and back-post the events since Groban.

The past weekend we had the boys of hockey. The LA Kings vs. the CO Avalanche. I actually hate hockey as a sport. Zzzz. And I'm from Minnesota so I realize that's sacrilegious but man, do I LOVE the hockey players. Those boys are beautiful human specimens... and the best part, they arrive and depart in suits. Good suits. And they're so polite.

The guys from the Kings exec office are great to work with too. Every year it's a pleasure. No coincidence their home is Staples Center, my 2nd favorite venue on earth. Of course the MGM Grand Garden Arena is #1. They direct deposit money into my account twice a month. 

The team making ice.
Sprinkler-thingy.
Once of the coolest things is to watch them make ice. We went from on of the biggest nights in music history with iHeart Radio the weekend before to freezing water and driving Zambonis @ the arena. We have a system in the concrete floor that chills it enough to freeze water. We have this sprinkler-type thingy (yep, that's the technical term) with white paint mixed in and they just spray it along the perimeter of the dashers and work inward. Much like the route the Zamboni takes. Couple of layers of that, then they paint on the logos, then more ice. In total it takes about 4 days for us. 

George Bennett on the ice
Look closely. See the cracks?
1 perk of my job is access & having fun when I can so I brought George Bennett in to play on the ice. 1st mistake, I walk out onto the ice with him IN heels. Yeah, I didn't think that one through. I take 2 steps and c-r-a-c-k! My heel dug in and a series of massive spider cracks split the ice just as if I walked out onto Lake Calhoun in spring in Minneapolis. I freaked out. I thought for sure I screwed up the ice and Matthew Ball, our resident ice guru would hate me. But the damage was already done so I tried to get George Bennett to play. He had no interest. The hair on his paws were sticking to the ice. It was funny. Anyhow, turns out the ice cracks all the time. We have to keep it so cold that it is prone to cracking. They fix it before the game. Whew. Crisis averted. But in my apologetic email trail they managed to fuck with me and tell me they'd have to start all over. I love my guys. Wouldn't be any fun if they didn't fuck with me. 

I wanna drive a Zamboni...
So meanwhile, as we're doing hockey in the arena, we're also doing a boxing event in the Marquee Ballroom at the same time. Luckily hockey and boxing are manageable or I'd be out of my mind. There's only 1 of me and it's hard to be in 2 places at once. I'll post Nishioka vs. Marquez separately. 

And on top of it all, my big brother David came into town for a couple hours. He flew in from the Twin Cities for 8 hours, primarily just to accumulate miles but also to have dinner with his favorite (only) sister. So after getting doors open for boxing and then hockey, I meet him at my Happy Place, Seablue and we had a great night of goodies.

We love the hockey fans!
Next up @ the Grand Garden is Journey with Foreigner and Night Ranger but Chris Botti is playing @ Green Valley Ranch the same night so the plan is to get doors open for Journey, head to GVR for Botti and head back to the arena to close the show. That's the plan anyhow. It's the end to the Year of Botti so I hope nothing goes wrong at the arena or I'm hauling my ass to Phoenix to see him @ Danny Zelisko's joint with Mick Treadwell. I'd actually go just to see Mick and skip Botti. Love Mick. To death. 

Not sure what I'm gonna call this blog after the Year of Botti is done but I'll think of something. Or maybe it will just have to remain the Year or Botti. I kinda like the sound of it. And his music really did inspire me to travel, live and forgive. All things worthy of a girl's blog title.