THE CYNDI LAUPER STORY

I CAN'T BELIEVE I QUESTIONED THE IDEA OF GOING TO A CYNDI LAUPER CONCERT

I arrived from a long trip to Chicago (July 4th weekend) when John informed said he wanted to take our first trip to Atlantic City - the "sin city" of the east coast. He said, in his adorable and excited voice, "I bought tickets to see Cyndi Lauper and Rosie O'Donnell at the House of Blues in September!"

I could tell he was pumped, so I pretended to be excited even tho I wondered how fun would it be to see Rosie O'Donnell bitch on stage for three hours.

You see, I dig Cyndi Lauper's music - she's a female rock icon! I can sing along to probably two songs, True Colors and Girls Just Want to Have Fun. But for some reason the idea of seeing this show really didn't appeal to me. But John is excited, so I was excited. He goes to Cubs games and pretends to enjoy himself, I can do the same for him!

SIDE NOTE: I must mention the foul impression of Cyndi Lauper from two prior events...

I attended the July, 2007 Gay Olympics Closing Ceremonies in Chicago where Lauper performed. She sang one song, True Colors, and left. She left me standing in shock, exclaiming, "That was it?!?!?!"

She was also the Grand Marshal of the June 2008 Pride Parade in San Francisco. We left the parade early so we could stand by the stage where she was going to perform and she ditched the performance!

FAST FORWARD TO ATLANTIC CITY - FRIDAY, AUGUST 7

We drove to Atlantic City early so we could check out the scene. As you drive into town you see outlet stores surrounded by big box hotels that are lined up along the ocean. The hotels are located along a board walk that has carnival games and rides. Each hotel has a large casino and a whole lot of D-List theatrical entertainment for it's guests.

We went to the House of Blues for dinner, John played the slots, I took photos and watched the hotel's crazy entertainment stage show. After John was done gambling we walked to board walk and played a few carnival games.

We started off with the water gun race and I won twice, so I brought home a small Cubs basketball for my dog Doris. We both tried to shoot a few hoops and had no luck, but it was a lot of fun.

I haven't been to a carnival like this in a long time, it was cool catching up with the carnie folk and getting back into my hometown summer roots!

We then took our seats - ready for the show! Rosie O'Donnell started things off with her comedy routine, which was very dirty and quite hilarious - we both remarked at how personable she was with the crowd, sometimes stopping the show to talk to people shouting out questions.

Cyndi Lauper took the stage and demoted Rosie to backup singer. They bantered back and forth about bullshit and background stories of Rosie's fascination and true enjoyment of popping zits.

As the concert went on, John and I found ourselves standing in front of the stage taking some awesome pictures. I think I knew half of her songs and to the rest, I did the "white man be-bop-bounce," you know, grooved along with the beat of the music while everyone else mouthed the lyrics. We were surrounded by die-hard Lauper fans singing along to EVERY song!

Midway through the concert Lauper decided to take off her shoes. One of the guys in the front row asked if he could have her shoe. She said, "No you can't have my shoe, are you kidding me? They're Dolce!"

Rosie comes out and tosses her ugly clogs into the crowd and said, "Here, you can have mine, they were $39 at Payless!" TOO FUNNY! She walked away giving the crowd her shoes!

A belligerent drunk pushed his way to the front of the stage. Standing right in front of me, he decided to call out "Cyndi" every two seconds to get a picture with his crappy-old cell phone. When she came slightly close to us she walked away quickly because she could hear this wasted guy harassing her to get a photo and autograph every two seconds while she's performing.

At one point, during a quiet moment where Lauper is addressing the audience everyone could her this guy calling his girl friend to get her to come to the front of the stage and said, "Bring your camera, she won't let me take her picture!" I was seriously embarrassed for him- the nerve of some morons!

During the encore Rosie came out to play the drums and told the guy in the audience that she needed her shoes back so she could get home that evening. She told him he could get him some swag back stage if he gave back the shoes. The funniest part is an older woman behind him caught the other show and she took it out of her purse and handed it back to her. O'Donnell proceeded to throw them to the side and walked barefoot across stage to play the drums!

Lauper brought out her adolescent son Declan and his friend Chris. They had the unique opportunity to be rock stars at the House of Blues, singing along to Girls Just Want to Have Fun. What an awesome moment for these kids!

Declan had on funky white sunglasses and showed off his herky-jerky "Elvis" type dance moves - very similar to his mothers style. He grabbed the microphone a few times and told the crowd to give it up for his friend Chris, who was more shy and scarred shitless at starring at a massive crowd...too adorable for words!

OH, WHAT A NIGHT!

We had one of the best evenings since we moved to Philadelphia! The next day John downloaded more of her music to his iPod and called his friends to share his stories from the concert.

I will now always be a fan of Cyndi Lauper and place her in the highest court of rock royalty!