My experiences at the AMA's

[rootiephi]

Ok so this is TOTALLY unrelated to the Pac 10, but there is more in this world that just sports right?! Well, it did take place on/nearby USC's campus so that counts right?! Ok so here is my little story for ya...

So I got to go to the American Music Awards on Nov 22nd, in LA. A friend of mine has a girlfriend who works for Dick Clark Productions, and she had extra tickets. It was a whirl wind trip of less than 24 hrs but quite amazing! I got to sit in the 29th row on the floor, and walk on the red carpet! I saw stars walk down the carpet right in front of me. Such as Lance Armstrong and Cheryl Crow, Carmen Electra and Dave Navarro, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Jenny McCarthy (and her boobs look much larger on TV!) Travis Barker, Paula Abdul, and Hillary Duff. The show was amazing! Just being there and seeing so many people packed into 3 hrs. I had to take it all in and make sure I didn't miss anything. I even got a chance to sit in the half disco ball thingy that Mariah Carey came out in for her performance. And at the end of the night I took threads off the red carpet as my souvenir! Kinda like the Berlin Wall. haha! I even made a snow angel (or should I say a carpet angel) on the red carpet itself! Yeah the free drinks pretty much influenced that one! I ended the night at some club on Sunset Blvd. called Privilege in Hollywood, and I saw Paris Hilton inside. She was making out with some dude. hmmm go figure! The only bad part about the trip was missing our flight the next morning and having the worst hangover ever! But it was all worth it. Definately an experience i'll never forget

[Autzen Powers]

too cool. I'm not much for music awards on TV, but I bet it was awesome live. Were you able to see much being on the floor in the 29th row?

[rootiephi]

Yeah I never really watched music awards on TV either. But you are right, it was much better live. Pretty much like a concert, but with many different artists packed into 3 hrs. Our seats were good actually. It was pretty much about 40 yards away from the stage in the center. The girl that hooked us up with tickets was in the 9th row! She was sitting behind the Backstreet Boys and a few rows back from Will Smith! We didn't have any stars around us.

[Autzen Powers]

did anyone perform "live" - meaning non-lip synced? could you tell? And who gave the best show?

oh also, I always wonder what happens in between the commercial breaks. Do you just sit and talk or are there happenings for the audience? Or is this "potty" time?

Or are there no breaks, because it isn't televised live?

[rootiephi]

I think everyone performed live without any lip syncing. At least I didn't notice anything like that. I had a few favorites, one was Cindy Lauper and Sarah McLachlan when they sang "Time After Time", another good one one was the Urythmics when they sang "Sweet Dreams".. (are made of these..) And another good one was the Rascal Flats. Ooh and Rob Thomas' voice was really good too.

Some of the bad ones were Lindsay Lohan and Hillary Duff. They just seemed so young and unexperienced compaired to some of the others out there. Plus Lindsay's voice was drowned out by all her backup music and singers.

During commercial breaks, people get up and move around a bit. It's mainly the first few rows that do that, however. Which is basically all the stars. A lot of the ushers are moving all the fillers in to vacant seats at that time as well. Then they warn people.. "1 min to show time.... 30 seconds... 15... and now 10.. lets count down..." and they count down to 2 seconds and then tell everyone to applaud. When they are warning people they say everyone go back to your seats. By the time it's back on, everyone is seated. It's amazing cause it's pretty chaiotic till about 5 seconds left.

It's funny cause there is a delay when it's televised. I always thought it was live from the show to the tv network. I was texting a friend of mine who was watching it at home, and we figured out it was on a 30 min delay.

Also at the end, it sucked cause they made it seem like the Rolling Stones were going to perform. Well we realized that they are live in Dallas and they just played them on the big screen for us in the audience. We were told to act like it was live and cheer. Riiiiight. It was lame for us, but I guess they don't care about that, just the tv audiences.

[Autzen Powers]

I love the Stones. They still give a good show even though they look like corpses now. I think I'd even be ticked off if I was watching it on TV. It's just different to have them live with the award audience right there.

I'm surprised that everyone sang live. I always thought that most of them lip synced.

That must have been so much fun to be there. How many times do you get that kind of chance in life? Total girl question: did you buy and outfit especially for the occasion?

[rootiephi]

I at least know that Mariah Carey sang live cause she told everyone when she got her award, that she had to take out her ear piece while she was singing cause it wasn't working properly. She's like I can even perform without that.

I actually had a dress that worked out okay. My friend and I thought about getting something and then returning it. But we found out that we were going for sure about an hour before we had to go to the airport. You can see some of our pics on Brady's other site www.mrgoodpost.com in his gallery section. Just go under Rootie's pics and you'll see em there. It's pretty much red carpet pics at the end of the night. We're being really goofy!

[Autzen Powers]

that is so cool. You guys looked really great! You done clean up good! And it looked like you were having a lot of fun. thanks for sharing! Since you have a friend in the industry, do you think you'll get to go to more events like that - or was that just sort of a one time thing?

I saw the picture of (you?) as the window washer - are you kidding? Were you really outside that window? I think I'd pass out.

[rootiephi]

Yeah we were having a lot of fun Well it's more like a friend of a friend who is in the industry. But I think that was kinda a one time deal with those awards. Her company was putting it on, and her boss just didn't feel like going so that's why there were extra tickets. But I won't rule it out for anything else in the future! I know that when my friend visit's her, they go to some pretty sweet clubs in LA. Maybe i'll just have to go with her again

That's pretty funny that you thought I was really outside that window! Brady and I went to the top of the Hancock Building in Chicago, and that was a fake set. I guess it really does work then!

[Autzen Powers]

I actually wondered if it was a photo shop. But it looked pretty real, because your hand is pressed up against the window. And I kept thinking, she looks so CALM! How can she be so calm?!!!! lol.