We Are Family?

Super-long hiatus, but I'm back. Seriously -- I don't do the things I used to enjoy so much (writing, dancing, etc), so I need to start getting it together. I'm trying. I'm blogging on Xanga weekly, and I'll try to do so here.

I was compelled to return to this blog site to discuss the experience I had in Orlando on Friday and Saturday. But before I do, let me add this disclaimer: my negative feelings have absolutely nothing to do with my beloved Maxwell himself, who I had the pleasure of seeing live for the second time this summer. He performed beautifully as always. No, my issue came about the event itself.

Okay. The Tom Joyner Family Reunion has been held in Orlando for the past six or so years. The package price to the event, which includes lodging, concert tickets, park tickets, etc start in the upper 100's and go up to the thousands, depending on size of your tribe. Being that I live in Tampa, I did not see the need to purchase a package deal, especially when they were selling tickets to individual events. Now, I had seen Maxwell perform live in a much smaller venue in Clearwater, FL on July 30th, so when I saw he was returning to the area in September, I wasn't completely pressed. I had excellent seats to the July show and Maxwell waved at me, so I was (almost) satisfied. *wink* However, I told my girl - who missed the July show - all about it and she wanted to go, so I told her I'd go again and make a mini-weekend out of it.

She graciously purchased the ticket, which was $65 once you added taxes and fees, and I paid her back for it. We learned at that time that the concert was general admission, and the ticket said the show started at 9. The general admission thing had me worried, but the seating chart on the website made it appear that it would be almost banquet like, with circular tables and such.

I had to work on Friday, so I was rushing like crazy. The girls had already checked into the hotel,and I finally arrived at 7:45. We also learned earlier that day that the doors to the concert didn't open until 9 (show start time unknown), so we figured we had time. But not much...after I got dressed in a flash, we left the hotel at 8:30 to go to the Gaylord.

We got there and parked, and saw a line of black folks that was long, but not ridiculous. However, once we got IN the line, we learned that it snaked throughout the bottom floor of the hotel, with the venue being one story up. :-/ We were way in the back of the line, but there were a LOT of people still behind us. While in line, we also learned that the venue held 5,000 people. Once they finally opened the doors at nine, we slowly walked our way through the hotel, and in 20 minutes, we got to the venue. It wasn't even a real concert hall; it was like a gigantic ballroom with rows and rows of seats set up. By the time we got in there, we had no choice but to sit towards the back. The stage was soooooo far away. We weren't worried; there were two large screens on each side of the stage and we knew we'd get a view then. Maxwell took the take the stage at 10:30 and would you know, THEY NEVER TURNED THE SCREENS ON!!! People were sooo mad, my friends included. We couldn't stand the whole show since the seats weren't stadium seating....out of courtesy, we remained seated most of the show. (Although I HAD to jump up when he went into "Til the Cops Come Knockin'"...LOVE IT). I was honestly sooooo glad I saw him in Clearwater, because all of the intimacy of that show was lost in this particular venue. Of course it was sensual, but it wasn't the same because we couldn't see his face and see what he was doing. Boo. My Maxwell love forever reigns, but next time I plan to be in an assigned seat in a small venue. Thank you.

Let me just add, the experience didn't completely sour everything. My girls - self included - continued to drool over Maxwell for the next two days, even though our seats were 12 miles away from the stage.

After the show, we were too hungry to stay for Tom's afterparty and went to IHOP instead. Two of us went to Sea World the next day, where my girl had heard that Tom was having a Family Reunion BBQ. Apparently he invited everyone in radioland, but when we arrived we found out that you had to have a special bracelet to get into his special viewing of Shamu's Believe show and the BBQ. WTF. About midday, I turned to my girl and asked, "has anyone from the family reunion spoken to you? At ALL?". She told me, "nope". Me neither. The people we encountered, and it was a lot of them, especially at Sea World, were not very friendly. They just walked by without speaking, even when you acknowledged them with a headnod and smile. Or an actual hello. In fact, one man - so irate that he was in the wrong location for the BBQ with his "fat pockets" and ability to eat whatever he wanted (don't ask) - hit me with his stuffed Shamu toy while trying to leave the queue line. And I couldn't get so much as an "excuse me". It seriously turned me off from attending any other TJMS events, which sucks. Becuase Tom's event at the Florida Aquarium for the National Assn of Black Journalists was really nice.

I don't know, maybe I shouldn't let this turn me off, but I paid good money for that concert and I'm glad I didn't pay for the others. I imagined it would be better organized. And that people would be warmer. I know that this is one family reunion that made me feel like an outsider. Boo.