Brisa's 26th birthday was November 21st, but with Thanksgiving the next day we were all working through it, so we didn't get to go out and celebrate until Monday, and I didn't get a chance to put this picture up and wish her, again, a very merry and magical 26th year of life. I've been dropping members off in town every night at all the different restaurants, and then I pick them up and talk to them about how their dinner was. I think that migh tbe my favorite part of the job because everyone's always a little drunk after dinner and I have so much fun running the "fun bus" for them. So from talking to all the guests I've gotten a pretty good feel for the restaurant scene. There are so many great restaurants, but I think I found hte best for Brisa's birthday. Matsuhisu. Incredible. Sort of like "Sushi Roku" in Pasadena if any of you have been there, but better. They serve their sake out of real bamboo too as you can see. So, Mom, I can't wait for you to come visit and I know exactly where we should go out for dinner! And I don't think I'll be able to afford it again until then but it is totally worth it.
As many of you know, the two six is a very wonderfully ominous and powerfully majestic number. It is activated by your awareness of it, so if you don't believe me, just make a little effort to notice and see for yourself, then tell me its bullshit. So of course, the 26th year is bound to be a cosmic one, all my best Bebe. Happy Birthday.
For 7 years now this day has been a day I felt uneasy about to say the least. This day has been the anniversary of something that I have never quite known how to feel about. Each year as it would come and go I would get a strange feeling about myself. I would look at myself from another year’s perspective and I would do my best to pay my respects to life and lives and the chaotic nature of reality. I would do my best to charge myself up for another big push towards the light of my dreams and resolve to commit even further to the intimately indescribable effort to manifest my pledge to bring love into the world in some big way. I don’t think any of this is going to change. I speak of it in the past tense only because this year, this day marks the anniversary of something I love. Something that is full of that light I try so hard to push myself towards. Something that provides the space to create a portal where love and light and all other good things can pour into the physical domain from the invisible. I was almost so caught up in remembering and being disarmed by the 7-year anniversary that I forgot to notice and spend more time focusing on the new one. Quaint as it might be, today is Brisa and my nine month anniversary, which may not seem like much to you, but when you’ve been dreading a day for 7 years because it confuses and strips you of your senses, to have it be resurrected again with a day of love and gratefulness and hope for the future- well, you’ll just have to imagine what it feels like I suppose. And if you can imagine what it looks like to have that resurrection come in through the smiling face of a beautiful Brazilian woman, full of light and love and her own commitment to her own dreams, well, you might feel pretty damn lucky too. Love you Bebe.
To practice Zen, you need deep roots. People with deep roots are rare. In the past anyone could practice Zen. But not now. Zen depends completely on yourself. It’s much harder, especially now.
Brisa and her brother have returned to the states and we drove over to Park City to pick up our skis/snowboards and say hello to all our friends before starting work on Wednesday. One of these pictures was taken right after I threw a bullseye. See if you can tell which one that is...
Since I called Mom during the show so she could hear “The Dance” with me, the secrets out. Rich Cray and me went to see Garth’s triumphant return to the stage, and indeed it was just that. I stand by Garth Brooks as still being one the best shows ever. The amount of energy in the arena is still unmatched. His voice is still unbeatable. He doesn’t run around quite as much, but then again it was the first of nine straight shows, he’s got 10 years on him now, but you wouldn’t think he’d missed a lick by the show he put on. The look of amazement on his face listening to the crowd was priceless, and I wouldn’t have preferred any of the other shows. Opening night, baby. Thank you Garth Brooks, what a treat. It was a sing along the whole way through, and his second encore was a medley of his favorite songs from James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain” to Bob Sieger’s “Night Moves” to George Straight’s “Unwound” to Don McLean’s “American Pie.” He’s rocking out right now, and you should all go to www.garthbrooks.com and find a theater near you where he’s going to broadcast his final show on the 14th all around the planet. You have not yet missed your chance to see the “Entertainer of the Century” again. I hear he just passed Elvis in most records sold, ever. Check it out, I’m not lying.
So Mom, here you go. From Dad sent through the Walls of Time…
The Dance Garth Brooks
Looking back on the memory of The dance we shared 'neath the stars alone For a moment all the world was right How could I have known that you'd ever say goodbye
And now I'm glad I didn't know The way it all would end the way it all would go Our lives are better left to chance I could have missed the pain But I'd of had to miss the dance
Holding you I held everything For a moment wasn't I a king But if I'd only known how the king would fall Hey who's to say you know I might have chanced it all
And now I'm glad I didn't know The way it all would end the way it all would go Our lives are better left to chance I could have missed the pain But I'd of had to miss the dance
Yes my life is better left to chance I could have missed the pain but I'd of had to miss the dance
Garth Brooks adds eight concerts at Sprint Center, sells them all out Sunday, October 7, 2007 The Kansas City Star. EDWARD M. EVELD It was only a few minutes after 10 a.m. Saturday when the marquee at the Sprint Center flashed the happy news: “Second show added Nov. 12.”
A Garth Brooks crowd numbering in the hundreds whooped it up — hey, these are country music fans — and it seemed that every face grew a big smile.
Fans knew that tickets to Brooks’ originally announced show on Nov. 14 at Sprint would get snapped up soon after 10 a.m., when they first went on sale. But many felt comfortably certain another show would be added.
Then came announcements at 10:17 a.m., 10:29 a.m. and 10:40 a.m. of third, fourth and fifth shows. Each time the crowd grew giddier. A sixth show was added, and by 11 a.m. the line was gone and the mayhem over. Ticket buyers could walk right up to windows of the new Sprint Center.
A total of nine shows were announced, Nov. 5 to 12 and Nov. 14, along with special guest Trisha Yearwood. And they were all sold out. That’s about 140,000 tickets, each costing no more than $32.50.
Brooks apparently knows how to make concert fans happy — and how to do it dramatically.
Saturday morning, friends Tammie Delk of Lee’s Summit and Nancy Hicklin of Odessa, Mo., found themselves only about 100 people back in line as they waited for tickets to go on sale. And they were pumped.
Hicklin has been a fan “forever.” Delk and Garth go way back, too.
“I’ve seen him two times before, in Nashville and here at the old Guitars & Cadillacs, back when,” she said. “It’s a really good show.”
Like many Garth Brooks fans here and across the area, mindful of the recent brouhahas about ticket sales at Sprint, they were hedging their bets.
“My brother is up farther in line, and his wife is at home online,” Hicklin said.
Many folks in line had their cell phones at the ready. Some brought along their laptops.
Just getting a spot in line hadn’t been a cinch. First there was the matter of getting numbered wristbands, which were available at Ticketmaster outlets and at the arena. Wristbands were required for a place in line at ticket outlets Saturday morning.
Delk and Hicklin struck out getting wristbands Thursday at outlets in Lee’s Summit and Blue Springs. So they headed downtown to the Sprint Center, where they finally scored.
Their wristband numbers, 666 and 667, turned out to be good ones. Before tickets went on sale, it was announced at the arena that the person wearing No. 573 would be first in line. Next would be No. 574, and so on. Still, Delk and Hicklin got to the windows just as the first concert was selling out.
Then came the announcement over the loudspeaker: “Garth has added a second show. The first show is no longer available.”
Hicklin ended up with six tickets to the original Nov. 14 show, although the seats weren’t all together. Delk got six seats together to the added show on Nov. 12, and they were much closer to the stage than Hicklin’s.
This slightly peeved Heidi Wagner of Kansas City, who was ahead of them in line and got tickets for the Nov. 14 concert. It seemed that as shows were added, some people were getting better seats on the new dates.
Although she praised Brooks for adding concerts and taking care of his fans, she said it would have been nice to get a choice of seats and dates.
“Garth’s a good guy,” Wagner said. “Some people are getting a great surprise.”
Including Jeff Remington of Lathrop, Mo., and his mom, Vicky Wray of Independence. Unable to secure wristbands, Remington arrived at the arena at 5 a.m. for a spot in the “late line.” Those without wristbands were the very last in line. Remington didn’t mind.
(Brooks, when you get a chance in your busy study schedule, can you post that picture of me in the American Flag shirt going to my first concert ever, which happened to be a Garth Brooks concert for my 13th birthday)
