Prince Will Be My First Ex-Husband

I know I know, I’m almost three weeks late with my debriefing.  And it’s not like I have a good excuse, either.  It’s not like I have a JOB or anything.  I want to go stream-of-consciousness here with this, so bear with me.

JESUS it was cold!  My friend and I wanted to go have a nice and fancy-schmancy dinner but it didn’t work out the way we planned, but that’s okay because PRINCE!!!

Anyway, there were two opening acts that were pretty great.  The first was a young lady named Esperanza Spalding; she’s a jazz singer and plays the bass cello, and her bass guitar player was hot-t-t-t-t.  Yaaayyyiissss, chile…  Her ‘fro needs its own zip code.  Visit her website, she’s terribly talented.  And the second act was Lalah Hathaway, Donny Hathaway’s daughter.  She was beautiful, and her set was really nice, although she didn’t “break it down” like we were expecting.  I bought a t-shirt for the low-low price of $40.  Hey, can you blame me?  You better not try!  Before the show started, they were showing Finding Nemo on the JumboTron with bastardized elevator music smooth jazz playing on the speakers.  Surreal.  The stage was in the shape of The Artist’s symbol.  Our seats were okay, I’m remembering how he emerged from below the stage as the band played this church-ey number and his backup singers got down at the very beginning.  It was electric.  It was magic.  His perfect, smooth skin glowed, his voice was on point, his dance moves were bad as ever, and he played the hell out of that guitar!  My homegirl and I screamed like pre-teen fangirls and I was dancing in the aisles (and was soon rebuffed by an usher).  To the best of my recollection, here are the songs he and his crew did, not in chronological order:

• The Beautiful Ones
• Cool (written for The Time)
• Sexy Dancer
• Purple Rain
• Diamonds and Pearls (YES!)
• If I Was Your Girlfriend
• Kiss
• Bring It Down (written for Tevin Campbell)
• On The Arms of an Angel (by Sarah McLachlan)
• Uptown
• Raspberry Beret

… and a few more that I think I’m forgetting.  It was all very spiritual.  I almost cried.  He didn’t play “Let the Rain Fall Down” or “Dirty Mind” – my two personal favorites right now – but I’m sure that’s forgivable.  For so long, he wouldn’t even play old songs because of his religious convictions.  Ever since he divorced his last wife, though, he seems to have loosened up quite a bit.  My mom says she doesn’t like Prince “because he’s nasty.”  When you press her on it, she says “You know what I mean!”  I told her that she’s not allowed at any showings of my artwork.  Of course, being the prude that she is (though always lovable), she’s talking about Prince’s highly sexual and gender-bending lyrics and ways of old.  To her, if that’s the subject matter of your music nearly forty years ago, then no matter how you evolve down the line, you should always be judged according to your earlier work, and of course sexual = wrong.  SMH.  This is why she’s not allowed to view my work.  It’s highly provocative and explicit, and sometimes visceral (if I have my way and get into grad school), and I don’t want to have to keep smelling salts on my person with which to revive my mother and her oh-so-delicate disposition.  Back to The Kid.  At least one of those guitar solos had to have gotten me pregnant, I’m just gonna wait and see.  In any other circumstance I’d verify with several pregnancy tests and swallow the schmushmortion pill promptly, but Prince is the only man whose child I would bear.  His show was in three sections, each with it’s own costume change of course!  Can we take a second and ponder his beautiful physical body?  Christ, that dude is the same age as my parents, and he hasn’t aged not. one. bit.  My parents are really good looking for their age too, but damn!  His muscles, his skin, his 3 inch boot heels and perfect coif… le siiiggghhh…  I’ll tell you what, it ain’t nothin’ like a manly man who ain’t a-skeered of being his own effeminate self.  I don’t know what I’d do if I ever had the chance to meet him, but I’m sure it would involve hyperventilation on my part.  It was really interesting seeing all the people who had come out to see Prince.  It was all ages, all races, and seemingly all kinds of backgrounds represented.  That’s the true mark of an artist – the ability to keep it real within yourself and in your work, and at the same time touch many others from all walks of life.  It’s what every artist should strive for, in my humble opinion.  All in all, I had an excellent time.  I don’t get to see my homegirl that often, and when I saw the concert dates announced in the New York/Newark area announced and realized I actually had money in the bank for once, I though of her immediately.  We go all the way back to the 9th grade – a long time for me because we moved around a lot in my awkward years.

In conclusion, I’ll now be stalking that bass player ‘cause DAYUM he’s fine!