Donnie Wahlberg is on the Rachael Ray show right now (Channel 58 in Milwaukee)

 Beginning at 8 PM Friday (CST) and repeating twice in the four hours after that, NKOTB's Coming Home - the concert and backstage footage of their 2008/09 tour - will be playing on Palladia (channel 1267 in Milwaukee). And yes, Lisa, I've already set the DVR.

Facebook Feb 18h

Feb 18th: American Idol: I think the male 12 was ok, but the choice of the female dozen was nuts. They cut Shelby Dressel and kept the mediocre blonde, which was bad enough, but then they axed Angela Martin. WTH? I had her pegged as a favorite to win. I can only assume her odd & continual personal troubles (Dad killed 1st yr, 6 days in ...jail yr 2, now her Mom's missing) knocked her out of the running. My early fave to win: Casey James.

* Lost: Excellent episode, u can really feel the season picking up steam. So in alt. timeline Locke is happy; he has his woman, comes to grips w/ his paralysis, and is fufilled @ wrk - all by abandoning faith, making him a true opp. of his 'old' self. Will Jack be equally fufilled by *embracing* faith in that timeline? Yin/Yang, etc?

- & no, I don't think PsedoLocke is 'good' and Jacob 'bad'. Aside from all the direct murders (Echo, the pilot) & a dozen other pts of fact, my gut says he's a trickster - a Loki (a conscious play on Locke/Loki?). Note also he tossed away the white rock, leaving the dark one victorious on the scale.

- Who's the child? Jacob. Hmm. Nah. I vote for a superior, judicial being keeping PsuedoLocke and Jacob in line and now sallying forth to rectify matters now that everything got sh** up. Odin to Thor and Loki? God to Jesus and Satan (if you mash up Christian theology)?

- Note Kate's name wasn't on the 'list'. Deep meanng? Who cares. I vote its because she's a boring, predicatable, and amoral twit. I do wonder if Sawyer saw the child becasue he is the one, the protector, or if that would hold true for anyone on the list.

* Universal Preps Cobain Bio Pic Dislike. Dislike. Dislike. Cross was Love's tool, and I don't buy some of his 'revelations'. Plus Courtney is [bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep] and should have nothing to do with anything of Kurt. She did enough damage while he was breathing. She's a dirty, useless piece of sh**t and I despise her.

* Johnny Weir 'Loves Wearing Dead Animals,' Calls Animal Rights Activists 'Crazy Fur People' The 'activists' were using him for cheap publicity, expecting your standard "Bend over and blindly apologize as the gods of PC demand". Essentially, he told them to go F themselves. Good for him.

* The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is posting FB messages in Arabic. Odd, and a wee disturbing, to see my 'wall' decorated by 3 posts in Arabic, w/ no English translation on hand.

* NKOTB is featured on AOL's home page this morning. The article includes some pretty good 'candid' pics.

* re: Sade's new album and single: 'Soldier of Love is a very good song and I like it a lot. I also liked Donnie Osmond's song of the same name, and bought a cassette single of it in the '80's. That's irrelevant - but I figured, so is everything else I post here, so why not include it?

* Went right from work to YaYa's parent-teacher conference. It went much better than I feared, w/ her teacher heaping praise and compliments on her. Still, she rightly pointed out that YaYa, if we can speak plainly here, rarely gives more than a half-ass effort in math and anything she finds 'boring'. Time to break her of that before it gets too ingrained (sp?) in her personality.

* Aside from breaking my son's foot the day went well. I have pics from the wrestling practice, so hopefully a blog post will follow. The coach went gaga for LuLu; his eyes just sparkled. He said she was a natural, that her body instinctively reacted w/ the right moves as if trained; that right NOW she would do well in a... tourney and be near the top of the food chain in her age bracket. Wow. My LuLu, a wrestler?

By Request - NKOTB's Dirty Dancing, official Video

Twice now I've tried to embed this video from different sources, with no luck. Eh, I never said I was a tech.

At the request of some parties here is the official New Kid's on the Block video for the song 'Dirty Dancing'.

It is set in Medieval Germany for some reason, and I think it's just goofy. It's a good song, a sexy song, and so you decide to make a video in Renaissance Faire outfits with a supporting cast speaking German. Yeah. Next time fellas just take two puffs and pass it on, cuz this is *not* your brightest idea, although it is funny at times.

Here's a link to the video: NKOTB

[BTW - translations I've seen of the speech indicate the King is saying NKOTB broke up years ago, and his daughter blowing him off by saying they've been reunited]

YaYa and LuLu's 1st Ever Concert, pt 3

When the group moved to the B stage we had a great view, and just like in Chicago the crowd went nuts for Dirty Dancing. YaYa's face lit up during this time too, and it was the first time I think she really got into the full swing of the concert.





Well, it wasn't *that* close, but that's certainly far closer to the mark than this one. We'd be on the far right of this photo, straight across from Jordan, assuming we're somewhere in the shot.















'Round about Click


I realized that I was in the clear. LuLu was fast asleep, YaYa was content, and we were in the home stretch. The money wasn't a waste, there'd be no meltdown, no early exit, and no hard feelings. Hot dog!









For Summertime YaYa was singing full blast and bopping around in her seat (remember, I did try waking LuLu at this point).





When it came time for the final encore, Hanging Tough/We Will Rock You, I told YaYa enough was enough. On your feet, throw your hands in the air, and wave 'em like you just don't care.

Oh, she was hesitant at first, and glanced around to see if she'd be the 'only one'. But once she saw thousands of arms in the air, she joined right along. Personally, unlike Chicago, it felt eerily familar and comfortable to do it. Yikes.

















When the house lights came on I threw Lu over my shoulders and went up to Lisa's seats. On the way out of the arena I saw Nikki again, and saw the woman I'd later buy some pictures from. I was also seen by but didn't see an employee of mine who was a few rows beind me. 'You were kind of recognizable. There's not many guys your size with a goatee at that concert.'

[not many, but some: in one segment Donnie thanked all the guys who'd come out with their wives or girlfriends, and the smart single guys who'd just realized the opportunites to be had there. During this the camera stayed on a big, bearded young guy with multiple piercings]

[I also saw a woman featured in a ho-hum Milwaukee Journal column about devoted fans. Please. Lisa's done far more things for her fandom than that woman. Where was her write-up, huh?]

I'm telling you, it was like being at a high school reunion, but without all the baggage and anxiety.

On the way to the parking garage Lisa and her friends decided to wait by the NKOTB bus to meet the guys, and somehow YaYa wormed her way into the mix. It was 11 pm on a school day, but the next day was her birthday and I'd already conceded her absence in my head. So I left YaYa with Lisa and took LuLu, still over my shoulder, on a two block walk to the car.

[The ladies had promised me a ride to my van, but had reneged in their quest for NKOTB. So Lu and I had exited the door on the far side of the arena from our parking spot]



Sometime later they would in fact meet Danny Wood, who took the time to stop and take a photograph with YaYa in honor of her birthday.

'She's adorable,' he told Lisa.



[note: Right as this important event took place Jolene's camera battery gave out, and all we have left is the camera phone picture. Don't think I'll forget Jo. Or forgive.]






That's the back of YaYa's head in the above pic.





Meanwhile Lu and I returned home, NKOTB on the radio, and went to bed. Lisa and YaYa never did return home, choosing instead to crash at a local hotel once their quest ended well after after midnight.

Obviously I'm overjoyed that my two oldest kids have now seen their first concert and that it was New Kids on the Block. Aside from that, however, how was the show?

The crowd was lame compared to Chicago, but in return I think the guys tried extra hard to make the show memorable. Jon seemed to be having a *lot* of fun, and Joe's voice was spot-on impressive yet again.

I prefered Chicago, not only because it was my first time seeing them but because the Milwaukee show was hampered, initially, by worrying about the kids and later by having to remain seated so as not to block YaYa's view. I'd have much prefered to have been on my feet and moving. And either way it would have been great to have had Lisa beside me.

Still, a great show and I'm so glad I decided to buck up and make it happen.

YaYa and LuLu's 1st Ever Concert - pt 2

We took our seats as Natasha Bedingfield was finishing her act. YaYa is a fan of one of her songs, the one she was singing at that moment as it turns out, and so she was immediately in awe.

Actually we all were. I was still shocked about the seats, and the girls were blown away by the size of the venue, the crowd, the noise level, and the flurry of activity. Their tension was palpatable for a moment there.

When the opening act ended I passed around earplugs - feeling mighty like a mighty Good Daddy to have thought of bringing them - and tried to raise Lisa on her cell. No dice. So I called her friend's husband two hours to the north of Milwaukee and asked him for his wife's cell number. Within minutes the kids and I were waving hello to Lisa and friends, all of whom had snuck down into the 200's themselves.

They were still in the last row however, whereas we, if you recall, were in the first. Ahem.



I'm going to interrupt the story for a moment to mention that all the photos you'll see were taken at that very show; the good, the great, the mediocre, and the awful. They come from my cell phone, Jolene's camera, Nikki K, and from the sister of one of my employees.

That sibling charged me - charged me! - five dollars for a CD of mediocre to poor concert photos. As she knew my intentions, and knew I make no profit from the blog, I objected. I paid the money, but as I didstated it was BS that violated Blockhead karma. The brother looked like he wanted to swing at me, but whatever. It was bogus.

There was ten or fifteen minutes between the end of the opening act and NKOTB, and I can't remember anything of that time, but I'm reasonably sure it was filled with terror at the thought that the girls would meltdown mid-concert.

But that was temporarilly forgotten as the introduction started playing. Cue the screaming, which fascinated my girls. And then, the sounds of 'Single' and the concert began, with the guys rising from the stage.











Confession time: it was downright embarrasing how big of a smile, and how much honest enjoyment and excitement I felt at that moment. There is nothing like the zeal of a convert . . .

The girls both sang along to Single and Right Stuff, but YaYa was still a little intimidated. Lu was up and dancing to my right, but YaYa not only stayed seated but asked me to sit down because I was blocking her view.

I obliged her, but you can't enjoy a concert properly sitting on your butt, at least I can't. That was a bit of a buzzkill for me.

'Round about the fourth song LuLu asked me when they'd play Summertime. I told her it was near the end of the conert and she growled her dissapointment. She then announced she was going to rest and proceeded to zonk out in her seat. She slept THROUGH THE REST OF THE CONCERT.

That means she slept through all the noise, the screaming, the booming music, the literally shaking floor beneath us when the entire section was jumping, even the slightly drunk woman to her right who stumbled and fell into her. I couldn't even rouse her for Summertime. She might as well have been comatose.





A few songs later YaYa began bawling. She'd dropped one of her earplugs onto the arena floor below us. No big deal - I had others - but it was way past her bedtime and she's a girl who really needs her sleep. The usher on the floor strolled over and offered to replace the earplugs herself (that's how close we were), and a woman to our left asked what was the matter. All told the incident was a non-event and took up five minutes of the night. But I tell it here to record it as the ONLY 'bad' moment the kids provided that night.











Throughout the concert YaYa continued to sing along with any and all songs from the new album, but blanked out on many of the classic stuff. The silence was noticeable.

"Didn't your Mom ever teach you the words to this?" I asked during Cover Girl.

She shook her head.

"Well I'm sorry honey. That's just bad parenting on our part. " I said.













I object to this next shot, but Lisa wants it preserved for posterity.





To be continued . . .