The Appleman : The Return of the Jedi (part 3)

[Christine]

we can only talk about that here, it would be considered as "ruining people's experiences and being picky" anywhere else...

but you say you're hesitating, haven't you taken your plane tickets yet ? can you cancel them ?

 

No, I'm all set to go (just need a cat sitter). I love London and want to see MFCers and Kate Nash. Just not as enthusiastic about the Mika gigs as I was last time.

 

I always love his live performances better than listening to the CD, I just don't know if I'm prepared to invest so much time and effort into trying to get to the front row if it's going to be a letdown.

 

That's why I want Mika to move onto seated venues in Toronto. It will never be the mind blowing experience that the Kool Haus was, but it will never be a huge disappointment either since all I have to do is walk down the street from my house at 9 pm and sit down for the show. The more you invest in it, the more you hope to get back and when it doesn't happen it's very disappointing.

 

I am looking forward to Palladium though and if Kata can manage to make it I think we'll have a great time regardless of what's going on with Mika. I'm really looking forward to Kate Nash and just generally hanging out in London too.

[Yoppappop]

pfiou ! you scared me !

 

i need a cat sitter too... a free one if possible

 

i'm going to queue with you since the morning on the first day, since i'll be all groggy with the lack of sleep and waking up at 4:30am to catch the train, but i already planned i wouldn't do that on the 26th and th 28th situation will depend on which of the previous ones i liked better... being pushed to death front row or being laid back savouring vodka-redbull (yes i have a slight obsession with that since i know it's legal in uk...) enjoying the music at the back of the crowd and avoiding the fights...

 

we need to arrange things for the 25th, i'm arriving at the train station at 8am, don't think i'll be at the flat (which i need the address of) later than 8:30-9, and hammersmith is not far from there... would be appreciated if one of you girls could wait for me so i can drop my big bag and then we head directly to join the 2 others in the queue if you plan to start that early... no ?

[Christine]

we need to arrange things for the 25th, i'm arriving at the train station at 8am, don't think i'll be at the flat (which i need the address of) later than 8:30-9, and hammersmith is not far from there... would be appreciated if one of you girls could wait for me so i can drop my big bag and then we head directly to join the 2 others in the queue if you plan to start that early... no ?

 

Yeah we'll work something out. Not sure if I could get out of the flat before 8:30 or 9 anyway but if you end up coming late I'll make sure you can get in somehow or I could even come back to the flat once I've staked my spot in the queue. Hammersmith is only 2 stops from West Brompton so I can probably do a round trip in half an hour.

[JackViolet]

Thought I would continue this here since the younglings don't want us peeing on their parade in the gig thread.

 

I had a fantastic experience on Tuesday but I understand how rare it is and this is why I'm so hesitant to go to another gig and ruin it.

 

I've been saying for weeks that if Mika didn't bring it to Toronto after the disappointment of Brixton that I'd have to give up on him. He really did go all out in Toronto (and I was lucky to have the sweetest spot in the audience) but I can't help thinking I'm going to feel disappointed again in London. I think he may have the same phone-it-in attitude because he's got other things going on like he does in NY.

 

Yup. My 48-hour turnaround was not really a 48-hour one. I think if you read between the lines, I made it obvious that I didn't enjoy the DC show as much as I wanted to (even if I was giddy as hell from the after-show thing)--I just thought it was all due to the bad audience. It was not.

 

I have also made it obvious just how important audience interaction is to me, and that Mika doesn't involve the audience in his show nearly as much as I want him to. He performs in front of them more than to them half the time. And he performs wonderfully, but it's not what I want if I'm going to investing that much of my time and energy to be in the front. Might as well watch him on tv then, or stay further back and enjoy it as a spectacle without the interaction.

 

(There was a reason I was waxing so nostalgic for his flirting with the audience in his early performance of GK in my Mika's Sexuality thread. If you read it over again I think you'll see I've been talking about all of this for ages, I just didn't include my personal opinion of it then, and how it affects my experience of his shows.)

 

Besides that, I've also been saying that my ardor for Mika has cooled and I came back to the MFc because I missed you guys ( ), not him.

 

So before I went to Philly, I was actually thinking that these two shows would kinda be my "last go" at live!Mika, and if I didn't enjoy it I'd just give up on following him to concerts.

 

And Philly far exceeded my expectations and I loved it and I thought "wow, so he CAN do all the things I want him to do."

 

But then he was back to my previous experience of him before in NY, so if that's his norm and Philly's the exception, well, I'm over seeing Mika live.

 

Edit: I still like his music just as much and I'll buy his CD and watch him on tv and all that. People seem to really not get that when I say "His live shows don't deliver what I want" it doesn't mean "I no longer like Mika."

 

--Jack

[JackViolet]

d

 

and i'm happy with jack's report !! i (inside) knew that ny wouldn't be a good show audience speaking... all the "first giggers" looooooooooooooved it, but mika would have sung anything they would have died happy... but i like to hear people that have already been to other shows to have an honest report... he obviousl had one idea in his mind : perez and katy... i got that when someone said that he was constantly looking up at the balcony and giggling... who was he looking at in your opinion ?

 

Exactly.

 

Andy was there too, he was giggling and singing along to "Big Girl"... haha. Also, Andy recognized me in the queue right away when he came out to film Mika, even though I was wearing a mask (I didn't wear one in Philly) and had dyed my hair the night before, and asked me how my classes were and actually listened to what I had to say, etc. (I still say that Mika asks things and then hardly listens to what you answer...) See, Andy is good at crowd interaction!

 

See, I have no problems with all of Mika's band and even his camera man: just him... I'm so special.

 

--Jack

[greta]

Exactly.

 

Andy was there too, he was giggling and singing along to "Big Girl"... haha. Also, Andy recognized me in the queue right away when he came out to film Mika, even though I was wearing a mask (I didn't wear one in Philly) and had dyed my hair the night before, and asked me how my classes were and actually listened to what I had to say, etc. (I still say that Mika asks things and then hardly listens to what you answer...) See, Andy is good at crowd interaction!

 

See, I have no problems with all of Mika's band and even his camera man: just him... I'm so special.

 

--Jack

lookin' forward to have a chat with Andy..I knew the guy>

and we want a report of your Patrick Wolf night:wink2:

[Yoppappop]

Edit: I still like his music just as much and I'll buy his CD and watch him on tv and all that. People seem to really not get that when I say "His live shows don't deliver what I want" it doesn't mean "I no longer like Mika."

 

--Jack

 

Exactly.

 

Andy was there too, he was giggling and singing along to "Big Girl"... haha. Also, Andy recognized me in the queue right away when he came out to film Mika, even though I was wearing a mask (I didn't wear one in Philly) and had dyed my hair the night before, and asked me how my classes were and actually listened to what I had to say, etc. (I still say that Mika asks things and then hardly listens to what you answer...) See, Andy is good at crowd interaction!

 

See, I have no problems with all of Mika's band and even his camera man: just him... I'm so special.

 

--Jack

 

people hardly get anything appart from "me loe mika " it's rather black or white, rather this or that... lack of nuances and depth (big lack, cause i'm not saying we're particularly deep )

 

and join andy's fanclub then ! for mika's defense (i know, i know...) i would say that andi has less to listen to and memorize than mika... so he can remember more things and faces ! but we have to admit that big m has a very well trained memory or very good natural memory, even if it's not about EVERYTHING... i guess you just to catch his attention one way or another, and as you said so well, it didn't "click" with you... too bad, but i'm not sure you're missing anything : for exemple, i guess a lot of people would like to be in my position with him remembering exactly who i am before meeting me and even after, joking with me, etc. but i feel quite uncomfortable with that, cause he doesn't HAVE to, and since we don't know each other, i still don't know WHY... and sometimes, i would rather be x or y than "oh yeah, olivia from paris, right ?"... sometimes yes, sometimes no...

[Suzy]

Jack, I understand what you mean. There are some elements of what you've described that I feel too. Except I yo-yo back and forth from fanatical to normalcy a lot more. I went all out for investing a lot of time in the queue in Toronto trying to capture what I missed from the London cancellations (and other cancellations from before). But a lot has changed from my first two encounters with Mika. It's unfair for me to compare "then" with "now" because he was so new to the music scene and had a smaller fan base, so he invested a lot more time with fan interaction. I should feel lucky to have had that. But still...

Just as sariflor mentioned earlier, as fabulous as the concert was in Toronto, I'm sad that he did not take the time to meet with fans before and after the gig. He already thought that we camped out, but he didn't make the effort to acknowledge that to us personally, yet he did for NYC. I can live though. In the grande scheme of things, that is a tiny little annoyance. I might give him the benefit of the doubt that circumstances are always different at each venue...or even that he only realized days later that it makes sense to acknowledge the die-hard fans who came early. I only planned to go to NYC primarily to meet MFCers like you and dcdeb. I would have been fine to buy scalped tickets at a discount once the doors opened and I'd have to settle in the back.

Sometimes when I think I'm finally grounded and expect less from him, there's that tiny part of me that still wishes Mika gives me something more unique and personal than just watching his performance. But I know I've reached the pinnacle a long time ago.....

[JackViolet]

for mika's defense (i know, i know...) i would say that andi has less to listen to and memorize than mika... so he can remember more things and faces ! but we have to admit that big m has a very well trained memory or very good natural memory, even if it's not about EVERYTHING... i guess you just to catch his attention one way or another, and as you said so well, it didn't "click" with you... too bad, but i'm not sure you're missing anything : for exemple, i guess a lot of people would like to be in my position with him remembering exactly who i am before meeting me and even after, joking with me, etc. but i feel quite uncomfortable with that, cause he doesn't HAVE to, and since we don't know each other, i still don't know WHY... and sometimes, i would rather be x or y than "oh yeah, olivia from paris, right ?"... sometimes yes, sometimes no...

 

I know, I know! No, I really don't want to criticize Mika for what he does with fans, because the thing is, he DOES go out to meet us--both before and after gigs!--and he doesn't have to do any of that. He does listen, and if I'm not one of the ones he listens to and remembers, that's not his fault, and the fact that he remembers so many is amazing in itself.

 

And actually, I exaggerate--he does listen to what I say... he listened perfectly well in Philly, and I haven't forgotten that he knew I had trouble with transportation in DC when I wasn't even talking to him about it. That's why I say my issue is the connection/lack thereof, not simply "he doesn't look at me and doesn't listen to me" because he does, but it never goes beyond the "yeah, I heard you."

 

It really is hard to explain without making it sound like I expect far too much and like I want him to stare into my eyes and hang onto my every word, but if there was that sense of connection, he could actually do even less than what he does and I'd still feel it was more...

 

Guess I'm the inverse of BJM. I talk to him and get to meet him and get to be at the front-center of the audience and still feel he doesn't connect with me at all, and she stands to the side and doesn't say a word to him and feels like they're soulmates and he's beaming love into her eyes the entire time.

 

--Jack

[babspanky]

Guess I'm the inverse of BJM. I talk to him and get to meet him and get to be at the front-center of the audience and still feel he doesn't connect with me at all, and she stands to the side and doesn't say a word to him and feels like they're soulmats and he's beaming love into her eyes the entire time.

--Jack

 

Sometimes I wish I inhabited that universe, as blinkered and unrealistic as it is. But I guess it's her reality.

[Yoppappop]

It really is hard to explain without making it sound like I expect far too much and like I want him to stare into my eyes and hang onto my every word, but if there was that sense of connection, he could actually do even less than what he does and I'd still feel it was more...

 

Guess I'm the inverse of BJM. I talk to him and get to meet him and get to be at the front-center of the audience and still feel he doesn't connect with me at all, and she stands to the side and doesn't say a word to him and feels like they're soulmats and he's beaming love into her eyes the entire time.

 

--Jack

 

i think i get it i've been noticing the lack of connection since the beginning of all those f*cking concerts...

and oouh !!! looks like jacky is getting a bit meany meany

[JackViolet]

Sometimes when I think I'm finally grounded and expect less from him, there's that tiny part of me that still wishes Mika gives me something more unique and personal than just watching his performance. But I know I've reached the pinnacle a long time ago.....

 

Aww. :-)

 

I want to reiterate though that I loved the Philly show and he didn't stare into my eyes then, either. I'd love it if he gave me "something more unique and personal than just watching his performance" but I don't expect that. This isn't about him not showering me with hugs and kisses after or before shows.

 

My main problem with NY, and the reason I say I don't want to camp out for more shows isn't that he won't come and pet me on the head for being so dedicated to him, but that the performance itself isn't audience-involved enough for my satisfaction.

 

--Jack

[Kata]

I kinda tried to say some of that stuff after meeting him in Copenhagen in november, but I almost got slaughtered for it And I wasn't even disappointed that he didn't give a hoot what I had to say, I just pointed it out as a fact - he really didn't

[babspanky]

I kinda tried to say some of that stuff after meeting him in Copenhagen in november, but I almost got slaughtered for it And I wasn't even disappointed that he didn't give a hoot what I had to say, I just pointed it out as a fact - he really didn't

 

And he didn't like our gifts either.

Bastardo.

[JackViolet]

Sometimes I wish I inhabited that universe, as blinkered and unrealistic as it is. But I guess it's her reality.

 

I don't know though. It's not entirely unreal--he connects with her, and that IS real. There's something in him that she registers as being on her wavelength, just as that is entirely missing from me.

 

If we assume that Mika doesn't really change his mode of operation with fans, and he's NOT gazing with understanding at her OR purposely giving me a polite cold shoulder, who is really more blinkered here? Both of our realities are subjective.

 

(Unless I really am that special and he doesn't like me. I'll admit I may be a bit hard to like because I don't quite talk to him like a fan should; I'm a bit off-hand even when I pay him compliments.)

 

--Jack

[Yoppappop]

I don't know though. It's not entirely unreal--he connects with her, and that IS real. There's something in him that she registers as being on her wavelength, just as that is entirely missing from me.

 

If we assume that Mika doesn't really change his mode of operation with fans, and he's NOT gazing with understanding at her OR purposely giving me a barely-restrained polite cold shoulder, who is really more blinkered here? Both of our realities are subjective.

 

(Unless I really am that special and he doesn't like me. I'll admit I may be a bit hard to like because I don't quite talk to him like a fan should; I'm a bit off-hand even when I pay him compliments.)

 

--Jack

 

if you're not talking like a fan, what do i do ?! so he really doesn't like me !!! oh. too bad.

 

anyway, is there something i don't know about BJM's connection with him ??? or "he connects with her" ? what ? not following...

[Suzy]

Aww. :-)

 

I want to reiterate though that I loved the Philly show and he didn't stare into my eyes then, either. I'd love it if he gave me "something more unique and personal than just watching his performance" but I don't expect that. This isn't about him not showering me with hugs and kisses after or before shows.

 

My main problem with NY, and the reason I say I don't want to camp out for more shows isn't that he won't come and pet me on the head for being so dedicated to him, but that the performance itself isn't audience-involved enough for my satisfaction.

 

--Jack

 

No. I don't want hugs and kisses. I mean, not that I would be repulsed either:naughty: , and its not so much wanting to be rewarded or "patted on the head" for camping out in line...It would be nice for him to want to get a glimpse of his fans. Perhaps that's what Andy is for...maybe he thinks fans would be less dumbfounded and ga-ga if someone other than him, captured what his fans are like. It just seems so unnatural to be filmed and it puts one "more on the spot" than just chatting with Mika himself.

[babspanky]

(Unless I really am that special and he doesn't like me. I'll admit I may be a bit hard to like because I don't quite talk to him like a fan should; I'm a bit off-hand even when I pay him compliments.)

 

--Jack

 

Well I also speak to him like that and have only ever given him back handed compliments.

Maybe in the time that he has, he can only interact with the people saying what he expects to hear, or acting how he expect them to act?

Anything else he just doesn't have much time for?

I remember when Kata had a pop at him at SH, he was flummoxed by all accounts. He certainly didn't expect to hear what she had to say.

[JackViolet]

if you're not talking like a fan, what do i do ?! so he really doesn't like me !!! oh. too bad.

 

Ha, no, apparently he thinks you're charming!

 

 

anyway, is there something i don't know about BJM's connection with him ??? or "he connects with her" ? what ? not following...

 

I mean, she feels like she has a connection with him. I say I "don't click with him," and it's obvious that she does.

 

I guess perhaps I'm easily jaded. After seeing him on thursday, I had no need whatsoever to try and see him yesterday, and I purposely stepped aside when he came out before the show to give others the chance to talk with him, because, well, what was the point of mine doing so? Especially when he was talking to everybody at once and no one would get to have a conversation with him per se.

 

Other people seem to be super-excited to see him, even for a second, even if they'd met him plenty before.

 

With me, well, if I can't actually interact with him in a way that would be meaningful, I don't much care about just standing there giggling at him as he makes small-talk. (And obviously he's under no obligation to have meaningful conversations with anyone. I'm just saying that I feel like I've already got my share of "meeting Mika" but everyone else seems to feel no amount of meeting him can be enough.)

 

--Jack

[Yoppappop]

Ha, no, apparently he thinks you're charming!

--Jack

 

ooooooooooooooh ! :blush-anim-cl: :blush-anim-cl: i feel like a 14yo stupid girl now :blush-anim-cl: you know something i don't ????????????

[JackViolet]

Perhaps that's what Andy is for...maybe he thinks fans would be less dumbfounded and ga-ga if someone other than him, captured what his fans are like. It just seems so unnatural to be filmed and it puts one "more on the spot" than just chatting with Mika himself.

 

Haha! If that's so... well, he already had me going "Mika, where's Mikey? I want to see Mikey! Please tell Mikey come out, Mika! Are you sure he won't be coming out?" and then he'll get the footage of me giving gifts to Andy and explaining what they are.

 

So he'll like me even less after this. "The Girl Who Goes To My Concerts To See Everyone Except Me."

 

--Jack

[Yoppappop]

Haha! If that's so... well, he already had me going "Mika, where's Mikey? I want to see Mikey! Please tell Mikey come out, Mika! Are you sure he won't be coming out?" and then he'll get the footage of me giving gifts to Andy and explaining what they are.

 

So he'll like me even less after this. "The Girl Who Goes To My Concerts To See Everyone Except Me."

 

--Jack

 

:roftl: reminds me when i made a messenger of him telling him to tell cherisse not to forget about me and the drumsticks at my last gig :roftl: his face at that time was quite priceless...

 

andy arrives right after the paris gigs i think... i don't remember if he was there in europe, was he ? or then, he was there from the uk dates...

[babspanky]

:roftl: reminds me when i made a messenger of him telling him to tell cherisse not to forget about me and the drumsticks at my last gig :roftl: his face at that time was quite priceless...

 

andy arrives right after the paris gigs i think... i don't remember if he was there in europe, was he ? or then, he was there from the uk dates...

 

He was in Europe.

[Yoppappop]

He was in Europe.

 

ok, then he arrived right after paris...

[Yoppappop]

i'm bored, good night !