I know this review it kind of late… but I just got back to LA to my computer and I can type it now!
My mom, Emily and I went to lunch around 12:30… we went to this Chinese restaurant close to the studios which was good!!! We took out time eating because we didn’t want to go back out in the blizzard and freeze. I also went to get Vanessa some flowers at a nearby shop…
We walked over to the studio a little after 2:30 and got checked and stuff. They didn’t even check our names! So anyone could have showed up! We walked down the hall and Stephan was sitting on the coach and told us to take off our coats and stuff and go in the studio. I felt bad for my mom who was in the lobby, so I asked Stephan if my mom could come in too, since a lot of people didn’t show up. He was like “Where did you come from?” I said “Los Angeles” and he was like “ok! Sure!”.
Gina, Emily, Steph, Clarisse, Andrew, Steve, Oliver, Alex and her friend, Toni, Joann, and Dan were there too! Stephan was really nice and layed back… he told about what was going on and even pretended to be interviewed himself as an ice breaker which was hilarious! He’s very funny and down the earth. We all got to be interviewed and filmed at first. Stephan would ask us questions like “what’s your name?” “where are you from?” “why are you a Vanessa fan?” “what did you write in your essay to come here?” and his fave question was “what is up with the nessawife and nessahusband thing?!” lmao. I was SO nervous during my interview!!
The set up was cool! The studio was small. There were about 4 couches that sat like 4 people each, then there was the stage with the piano and then 10 directors chairs in a half circle around the piano. I sat up on stage, and I had a really good view of her.
Before she came it he was like, “Pretend to cheer like Vanessa is here, this is your soundcheck!”. I was used to stuff like that from the Pepsi Smash tapings where we’d have to cheer for an empty stage all the time, haha. Then when Vanessa came in we all cheered like crazy. It was soooo awesome to see her! And she was sitting like 3 feet away from me! It was cool! And it was also awesome because instead of looking up at her onstage like its like at most concerts, some of us were seated so we were higher than her, so I could actually see her more… and how friken fast her fingers move! Wow! She’s good!
She sang “Morning Sting” (twice), “C’est La Vie”, “San Franciso” (third time I’ve heard it, and I love it! And can hum part of the melody now, but it took awhile, lol), “Papa”, and “After Glow”. She also spent a lot of time answering our questions and talking to us!
The highlight of the show for me is when I got to ask my question, because I had been curious to what the answer was for a long time! I asked her what inspired her to write Paradise. She complimented me on my scarf in the middle of my question which was nice! And then she said something like she wrote it about a friend and it’s easier to write emotional stuff when it’s about someone else. I told her the song really helped me a lot. And she says she knows that a lot of people get attached to it. She doesn’t know why she’d never played it in concert, but she said she may resurrect it on the next tour!! Yay!! She played part of the intro, and I think she would have played the whole thing because she said “You want me to play it huh?” and I was like “Yes!!”, but Stephan cut her off and switched the topic to San Francisco.
Afterwards was great because she hung out with all of us in the studio for a bit talking, signing autographs, taking pictures, etc. It was cool when she was watching and helping Steve while he played her songs on the piano (that must have been awesome for you dude!!). and then he played “Paradise” and she started singing along, then a bunch of us joined in singing it too… that was fun!
When I got to go up and talk to her I gave her the flowers which she said were beautiful. And I also gave her a present and the scrapbook!! Yay!! She gave me a hug and said she loved everything, especially the scrapbook! She started going through it right away, and I guess even back stage she was looking through it! I also got a picture with her and she signed my cd cover. I cant get over how totally sweet and down to earth she is! I still don’t believe that she thinks she’s a celebrity! She couldn’t believe we all traveled through the blizzard (some of us pretty far!!) just to see her. She thought that was very cool. And when she talked to us… she talked like we were her friends and not like she was above us, she was VERY cool! I’m glad I got to meet her for more than a couple seconds like last time! She even remembered me kinda… She was like “You’re the girl who JoJo had me say hi to on the radio, right?!” I said yes! And she said “I remember that!” Then I talked about how she wrote a song about his hair and that she should come back to kiis. She laughed and said that hopefully she can! She told me she’ll see me next time she’s in Los Angeles! We also got a huge group picture with Vanessa in it which will be cute!!
Afterwards a bunch of us went to dinner! Emily, Toni, her mom, Clarisse, Steve, his mom, Steph, Katia, my mom, 3 members of the camera crew, and I were there… It was fun! And afterwards Gavin filmed us giving our thoughts on the show! Then David Hart came over to say hi! Clarisse, Emily, Steph, Katia, David, my mom and I went walking through the blizzard after that! It was freezing! But still fun! We went to see the tree in Rocafeller center and then over to Starbucks to warm up! We had to leave there around 10pm and then my mom, Katia and I went back to our hotel room… where we tried working on the internet tv, but typing was torture, lol, it was funny. My mom even joined the board! Then Katia left at 1 something to go on the subway. I hope everyone had a safe trip home and had as much fun as I did!! I cant wait to see the DVD now!!
My mom even had fun! Which I wasn’t expecting! She loved hanging out with the NESSAholics and is turning out to be more of a Vanessa fan. She understands how much Vanessa’s music means to me even more now, and that the NESSAholics are cool people.
Today the weather in the city was beautiful! I didn’t want to go home! But I have school tomorrow… But since my mom and I love NYC so much now, we’re going to probably come back next VC has a show there!!
