Fond of Hats

What would go better with
the bacterial infection in my stomach and
a possible peptic ulcer
than a night with JASON MRAZ?

I would like to pretend that it was just me and him hanging out, but I had to share him with the rest of the people at the E Center.

I did feel a connection between us, though, as I stood at the partition separating me from the stage in the front row. Especially when I flashed him the I Love You sign when he first walked out on the stage and he FLASHED IT RIGHT BACK. Even made eye contact with me. That was the first "sign" that is was going to be one of the best concerts EVER! And it continued with two other moments of pure, blissful eye contact and flirtatious facial expressions at different times during the night.
That's how fabulously close we were. Our only SERIOUS regret is that we forgot our real camera. We only had our camera phones, which are NOT GOOD ENOUGH to have captured the true perfection of the night. And he was wearing a white shirt so it was like a ghostly smear on the screen for almost every pic.
Rhett and I both agree (oh yeah, he was there too) that it WAS one of THE BEST concerts we have ever been to.
He has perfect pitch (I swear) and buttery SMOOV vocals that will cause anyone to swoon (and I mean ANYBODY, Rhett). He has AMAZING rhythm and probably was a professional Salsa dancer in another life.
His moves were like pure you-know-what on stage. I was captivated.

And then imagine a cartoon character coming out of being hit by a train and shaking their face back and forth with cheeks flapping and you will understand one of his signature moves last night. Like he was trying to wake himself out of this dream of being rich and famous and having thousands of people in complete adoration, screaming his name. I was no exception - screaming very loudly, that kind of scream where you just can't believe you are barely out of reach of touching this amazing human being and maybe if you scream loud enough, it will catch his attention and he will come and be your private dancer.
There was so much personality, warmth, talent, musicality, innovation, visual stimulation (which, besides the obvious, was also in the form of screens and decorative lights) and a set up of songs that left us begging for more. Literally screaming, Jason! Jason! Jason! when he pretended to go off stage and leave us.
Of course he came back and sang 3-4 more songs and even did his adorable duet LUCKY with Lisa Hannigan, the ecclectic and somewhat epileptic Irish opening act.
I'm talking weird, this lady.
The duet was a bit off-key because everyone was screaming their brains out with excitement and they were trying to do it acoustically with no other help with the pitch. He still killed it though.
There was even a little bit of friendly politicking going on.

We stood the entire time, hugging the partition and joining him in the sing along. I was a bit drowned out by Rhett's singing behind me, but we both sang along to some old and new hits.

Rhett's absolute favorite was his rendition of the Remedy where he added a brass section and bongos and a fabulous arrangement of the oldie.
I absolutely loved it, too. And besides it being an oldie and very recognizable song, many people where confused to hear where we were going because they had never heard of him.

WHAT??

Please go here or here or here (to see the pic of Cam that we sent in and was displayed at the concert, although I had to click "next" NINE TIMES to get to it) or here if you are one of those people who don't know and love Jason Mraz because that is just NOT OK.

So my final conclusions about the night (besides the resolution to get Rhett to wear a fedora) can be summed up with the following adjectives and nouns

great music
fabulous pick of songs
amazing, prefect vocals
sexy, hip moves
soulful lyrics and melodies
warmth and personality overload
fun crowd involvement
creative and extremely satisfying arrangements
fantastic sense of humor and wit
my new crush


Shame on you if you don't make it to his next concert. You are MISSING. OUT.