Do you remember when we first met...them

(aken from my Block Nation blog.)

Now that the guys are wrapping another tour and head back to their "regular lives" (as in 4 of them get back into their regular routine, one will HOPEFULLY take a few days off before heading back into his "side job" of being an actor),  I was reading through a lot of blogs of people who FINALLY got to meet them for the first time.  How some were overwhelmed, some could not say one word in any language, some were too tired just getting there to care, etc.  It got me to thinking about my first experience which is now close to 4 years ago. At a time when not a lot of people knew about the packages and thus a lot easier to get.  Back when the pictures were in short craptacular (be thankful Dove Shore is with us for the tour, y'all.)  Back when the guys actually MINGLED with the fans w/ after the photo ops (which stopped after Sacremento on the first tour.)  So I went digging through the ning (for the relative newbies, the old message board on NKOTB.com before the fan club was opened) and had to wade through the threads before I found what I posted back then.  Date September 20, 2008.


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Alright, so here is my Montreal VIP report (some of you may have seen it already)

So to preface....as some of you know (at this point several times! lol) I was on vacation from August 30th until September 20th. Meaning I missed out on all of the promotion, only saw one or two video blogs and managed to listen to the album ONCE. The trip itself was a mixed bag. Good since Vietnam and Singapore are beautiful, bad because I didn't buy anything, I was facing major jetlag due to being in the air for close to 24 hours and it turns out that my sister and I aren't the most ideal travel companions (though the way we fought sometimes, we're Amazing Race catnip!) and to top it all off, our luggage is either still in New York or somewhere in Peru. At least the final flight home got in on time, which meant I had 40 minutes to change, shower, do something with my hair, print out emails and go.

I arrived at the Mise O Jeu restaurant with my brother just after 5:30, since we had to figure out where we had to park and then make it in since our names were not on the parking list. Went in, got our laminates with "O" marked on the back. Headed upstairs and most of my friends. Because they arrived early, they were in group "F" and hence we wouldn't be able to take our pictures as we planned. Dissapointing, but hey, what can you do?

So I ate a bit. Chatted with my friends. A few minutes passed and the boys entered the roped off area and we were allowed to take pics while they said hello and Donnie entered round 1 of hugging/kissing people. We took pictures of our friends getting their pictures taken. Eventually it was our turn.

First guy was Joey. I said hello and told him that I loved his solo show in 2002. He said thanks and said he enjoyed playing at the Hard Rock. I told him it was the wrong venue, and we were both struggling to remember the name of the place lol. Donnie was next in line, but he was hugging someone else, so skipped ahead to Jonathan who was at the other end. We hugged hello and I asked if he was ok, doing alright, etc. Danny turned to him and said "How ARE you doing, Jon?" Jon laughed and said he was doing good. Hugged Danny and Jordan hello quickly as we had to line up for the photo. Since the boys were already surrounded, my brother and I stuck ourselves in the back.

As the other people were leaving the area, we approached Donnie. My brother told him he loved his movies (true) and his brother's (mostly true...he hated the Happening lol) and told him that I just arrived home and I was too scared and exhausted to talk. Of course, that's just an open invitation to grab me and hug me and we rocked back and forth. (Didn't get a kiss, but my lips were a bit chapped so it's just as well.) At that point, I managed to find my voice and said that was I was scared that the jetlag was going to hit me fast. He said that I should take a 30 minute power nap now because I had to be ready because the show was going to a "f&*!@# blast." I then said that if you see me fall asleep at my seat, I give him full permission to throw a shoe at my head. He pulls out a bottled water from his jeans pocket, gives it to me and said to drink this to keep from getting dehydrated. He said he was coming out to hang with the crowd and he'll see me in a bit. We hugged one last time and my brother and I went back to the tables. I did take a sip from the bottle before it dawned me that I should be keeping it (because you know....it WAS pretty close to hip bone area!), so I closed it off and stuck it in my bag. (The bottle is currently in my closet. Yes, I am that lame!) [b](2012 update: that bottle is long gone....instead I have his sock. Decent upgrade.)[/b]


True to his word, Donnie did come back out a few minutes later. Joey was around for a good bit (my brother got a picture with him, and I...somehow didn't!), missed Jordan and saw Jonathan a while later. We hung back for a bit as Donnie worked the crowd like he normally does. My brother was taking a picture for a friend and the camera didn't want to work which made him say "What kind of piece of (beep) camera are you using?!" I stayed back a bit, letting other people have their time. Eventually he saw me, made the "come here" hand motion and hugged me again for a good 20 seconds. Then we had a good 30 second conversation which consisted of "Are you ready?" "Are you ready for this crowd?" "No, are you ready for ME?" "Yeah, I'm ready, but are you ready for US? Because we're so much better than Toronto, eh ladies?" which got a "Oh yeah" from the people next to us. (It IS Montreal, after all!) My brother got to make clink beer glassed with Donnie as well.

And that was it. I had fun, the ILAA people were great, I just wished I ate more!
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The pictures from that show are here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/yikes-mtlchickie/sets/72157607415193412/

And my first ever picture w/ what's his name is....
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yikes-mtlchickie/2876347135/" title="&quot;Are you ready?!&quot; by Maria Sakhrani, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3097/2876347135_cffd98e585.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="&quot;Are you ready?!&quot;"></a>



Since then I've done my fair share of these M/Gs. I try to remember my other ones.  A lot are a blur.  Some were sweet.  One was "wait that entire 'meet and greet' was 63 seconds." (yes I had timed it.)  One was down right bad.  One was epic for all the wrong reasongs (read: 6 hour panic attack before the M/G which that alone is for another blog.)  Most were fun.  But in the end, you never forget your first.

So time to post yours.  If you want to simply reply to this one, fine.  But it's probably in your best interest to post as your own blog.  Everyone willl have a different experience but no matter when it was, you will always remember it.

No NKOTB w/o Joey? It almost happened.

  Some of you may have heard by now, but in case you haven't...

During Joey's show on the boat, he admitted that he was going to leave NKOTB after the Full Service tour to focus on other things, but partially due to the relationships with other members were just like before before he realized it was more internal for him. (working on the upload for that, coming soon. NORMAL soon. And again, HE IS NOT LEAVING THE GROUP NOW.  Because sadly, some people need to read. ) It goes w/o saying that him leaving would have been a major blow and probably the group disbanding again since he is one of the leads.

That got me thinking. Where would I be now? While the core group of local friends I had were built during the first year, I made a lot of other friends AFTER my last Full Service show. Had it all ended then, a lot of good people would never have been in my life. No more cruises or tours or parties. No NKOTBSB (and Joey also admitted during the Town Hall on the boat that he shot down the idea at first.) Twitter wouldn't have been vital to me like it is now. And like many of you, the personal relationships we built with individual members would be close to non existant.

On the other side...I would have more money lol. And at the same time only one year of fun instead of four. I remember saying to Donnie in my last meet/greet on that tour that I was sad that it was over for me and he said "don't say that" (that was back when we didn't know each other.) Now I realized that could have been the last time I ever saw him. I was on the fence about going to Houston for the final show but ended up not going as I told myself "I already made my goodbyes to this tour." That could have easily been "I made my goodbyes to them for GOOD."

I would have respected Joey either way because if he wasn't happy in the group then what is the point of staying? But it's safe to say I'm glad he did.

I am not somethat that cries easily but I just about lost it when he said this:

"the most important thing about this group is not the shows and defintely not about the money but the love I have for these 4 other guys."

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So now knowing about this 3 years after he made this decision to stay, what are you feeling?

For those not on BN, a lot of us participate in a 30 day blog challenge and I would like to @denaaaa for creating the list of daily questions to answer.  Some were easier to write than others, some more entertaining, some more reflective.  For the last day, I wanted to share this with everyone.  


Why are you a fan?

Because I like pop music and I like cute guys? 

At least that was me 20 years ago. But now it means more than that. It was the one bright spot in my early teen years because when I had no one to talk to and deemed socially unfit, I still had "them." When they went away, I realized I was now on my own without them and I managed to survive. But when I turned 30 in December 2007, I was still in a pretty dark place in my life and I had to tell myself that I needed to do something for me but in order to do that, I needed something to spark inside of me. A month later, I heard they were coming back and I took that to be a sign. 

My life is nowhere close to what I envisioned for myself and chances are the dreams I had for myself when I was 12 will never materialize. That's how life works for some people. But I'm certainly in a better spot than I was a few years ago physically, emotionally, mentally. I have these guys to thank for turning me around. I thank those who I have met over the past 4 years for helping me become a better person. And there is that one person who I am deeply indebted to and eternally grateful that they're in my life. Artists and their fans have that special bond that can't be broken. We're fortunate to have that twice in our lifetime. I know that I want to embrace and enjoy every second of it of this opportunity. I hope that you all do the same. 

I guess that's the end of this challenge. I hope those who read them got to know me a little bit more, especially those who may have heard "things about me" from outside sources. For those who are cruising, stop by my room 8150 and say hi. I will try to tweet as best as I can from the cruise so I can update everyone not on board with us. It's our time to #liveitup. 


xoxo
Maria

On June 19, 2010...something happened.  Something strange and confusing and awesome and incredible happened.

 THIS HAPPENED.

I was there the night Backstreet Boys surprised the crowd at Radio City Music Hall.  (And so that we're ABSOLUTELY clear: I did get tipped off by a friend as to what point BSB would be showing up, hence my "bring them out already" comment you hear on the video.)  I remember seeing my timeline filled with mostly positive feedback but seeing some tweets of the "oh helllllllll no" variety.  We figured it was going to be a one off thing and that's it.

But then it led to something bigger.  Something larger.  Something that for me, prayed it would happen but never would and for others, were hoping that was being hinted at would never come to pass.  From then on, fans were scrambling to know who is who in the other band, learning the other group's songs (even Donnie once admitted that he was confusing Shape Of My Heart with Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely.)  In a music industry where an album no longer sells enough to make you profitable, a single can make or break you just on iTunes and the idea that 2 "aging boybands" go on tour is laughable, nine men set out to prove to everyone, including fans in both camps that were not thrilled with the decision, a disillusioned industry and maybe even to themselves, that in order for both groups to survive, something had to done.  Something to had to spark.

That spark grew into a flame which spread like wildfire.  Who remembers the night of the 2010 American Music Awards where as the last act to perform, they brought the audience to their feet and seeing musicians dance along to The Right Stuff and sing the words to Larger Than Life (I see you Pat from the group Train!)  Who remembers the giddiness of ushering in 2011 watching them perform in Times Square?  The europhia of seeing the stage? (Hey, we're women....and guys too.) And now who can longer hear the opening notes of "Viva La Vida" on the radio without thinking "If you came here by yourself tonight...?"  Who remembers the feeling of pride when music critics actually said kind words about the show?  And for the non North American fans, who will admit that without this partnership, NKOTB may have never made it back there at all?

As the curtain lowers for the last time in Manila signaling the official end of the NKOTBSB tour, let us reflect.  Who would have thought that they would get along so well that they would be spending the day at the golf course together and sharing their off stage clothing?  Who would have believed that some NKOTB fans would have realized "hey this Get Down dance is hypnotic!" (ok it's not but damn it's fun.)  And I can bet that BSB fans felt the same ("Wow, Mark Wahlberg's older brother is HOT!") And the one thing that BHs have been craving for is slowly coming true: as the BSB split off to record again with Kevin, this has motivated our guys to FINALLY push ahead with new music.

To the small quotient of fans who never budged on their original position of not being involved in this chapter of NKOTB for whatever reason they had, all I can say is...I respect your decision.   Maybe it wasn't meant for you.  But at the same time, it's too bad that you missed out on close to two years that reinvigorated your boys to push harder as performers and to keep up with their counterparts.

To the BSB fans that finally got to experience NKOTB live...as much as I hate to bring up Jabba The Hut...em, Lou Perlman, it's because of NKOTB that he set out to create the Backstreet Boys.  That means he gets that one shred of credit.  They're pretty solid for a bunch of 40 year olds, huh?

To the BHs who were resistent on the merge but who were willing to see BSB in person and grew to enjoy them...see they're not so bad! :)

To Brian, Nick, AJ and Howie...I'm not sure if I should call you "stepbrothers" as you were part of my life for a long time as well, but after this tenure, you'll ALWAYS be part of the NKOTB family.

And to Donnie, Danny, Jonathan, Jordan and Joey...5 Brothers, a million sisters, a million more "stepsisters," and 4 more "stepbrothers."  NOTHING can hold us back or keep us down.

Raise your glasses Block Nation and Backstreet Army.  We shocked. We  made people awe.  We kicked ass and took names doing it.  Time to bring it home for one final session at Mixtape.

#thankyounkotbsb