Concerts and Karaoke

I remember a concert I attended in Memphis the mid-1970's.  I remember it so well because I am not a regular concert goer.  It also stands out because the artist was Cat Stephens (and I loved his music) and because I felt so old.  I was about 30 at the time, but the other people at the concert were younger -- much, much younger (in outlook, if not in age).  I was an adult, with two young children at home, and had to be told that the sweet smoky aroma around me was marijuana.  I had never experienced the effect of thousands of cigarette lighters in a darkened arena, not to mention dodging Frisbees when the lights came back on.  I loved it -- absolutely loved it -- and felt younger at heart for a while.

I had the same feeling, and a similar experience, last week.  I attended an American Idol concert in Oklahoma City.  Our tickets were a retirement gift for my husband from his brother.  We usually watched Idol and then would predict who would get voted off each week.  We had our favorites, of course.  Mine were Casey and James; Tom really liked Haley and Lauren -- imagine that!

I looked forward to hearing Casey and James again, even though we were to be seated in the nosebleed section.  My brother-in-law showed us the arena plan and I was set all to watch the show on the oversized screens.  There was no way we could see the performers faces from where we would be sitting.

Mike decided we should try for a last-minute seat exchange and managed seats on the second row, center section.  I couldn't help but wonder at out good luck and did a quick Google search to see if there was anything negative about seats that close to the stage.  Nothing except the probability of having to stand throughout the concert and being on the receiving end of bodily fluids and other by-products of idol worship (American style).

I kept (tried to keep) my thoughts to myself  and determined that I would enjoy the concert as much as possible.  And I did enjoy the concert, except for the presence of my brother-in-law to my right, who blocked my view as he took dozens of photographs on his iPhone.  I can't blame him, though, because he paid for two sets of tickets (he wasn't able to dump the nosebleed tickets) and he loves to take photos (lots of photos).  I handed my phone to Tom and asked him to take a couple of Casey and James, which he did.  And I sat.  And I stood.  And I sat.  And I stood.  I loved hearing Casey, and stood all the way through anything James performed.  And I felt younger at heart for a while.  I feel younger at heart even now, as I write about it.  Maybe I'll go to another concert in 30 years or so!

Something else I have rare experience with is karaoke. I recently read an article in a local magazine about a young entrepreneur who has developed an app for smart phones. I remembered her from my daughter's Honor Choir days when they were both sweet little girls with the voices of angels. Now she has developed an app which translates into my having my own personal karaoke recorder. I downloaded LaDiDa to my phone and recorded my first song: It goes like this: "This is my song, this is my first song, probably not my last song, but this is my song." (Not very creative, am I?)


Sometimes I download apps and don't use them. I thought that this might be one of those. This time, though, I did find a very happy use for LaDiDa. On vacation, in Alabama, I showed it to my daughter and asked her to record something so she could see how it works, which she did (Patsy Cline's "Walking after Midnight".) Lovely! Part of the app is that you can save the songs and share them. I also asked my granddaughters to record some of the camp songs they were singing in the backseat of the car, after we picked them up from church camp. Wonderful!

When you use LaDiDa, you can choose different ways of recording and somehow, it adapts to your choices and to your voice (more or less successfully). You might want to try it for fun. (Search the app store for LaDiDa.)

As for me, the non-karaoke grandma, I'm happy for this app and for these songs now stored through my iPhone. I am now carrying around (once again) the voices of angels!

Annie



.