Return to Forever...

Hi Stephen,

Hey!! I just checked Twitter....(I used to check every day for new Tweets, but I got bored with it and haven't really looked at it for weeks)...and there were some new photos of you with a woman named Susan, at the Giants game this past weekend. Very cool! You look great!  I'm glad you had such a fun time, it makes ME happy to know YOU are happy!!

Yesterday, Pete was at the Batman movie down at Heinz Stadium all day---from 5 a.m. until 8 p.m.---and got to witness an explosion, some cool special effects, and lots of other stuff that he's been sworn to secrecy about.  He had a total blast being an "extra" in the movie!  He was unsure if he wanted to be gone for such a long amount of time, but I told him, "Go do it, cuz I don't want you blamin' ME later on for not "letting" you do it...I mean, it's a once in a lifetime thing...so GO DO IT."  Seriously, he's not puttin' that on ME!!
I said, "That would be like ME being invited to star in a porn movie with Steve Perry, and wondering if I should...COME ON YOU FOOL, JUST GO DO IT!" hehehehhehe

Well anyway, so after that ended, I met him at the parking lot where he had the van, and we took off to Stage AE (American Eagle Outfitters has a new outdoor pavilion right behind Heinz Stadium...it's where we saw the Monkees awhile back).  The venue SUCKS though, it only holds 5,500 people, it's outdoors, and there are no chairs, no real organization going on, nobody knows anything, etc., and they even shut down all the food only halfway through the concert!!  NO NACHOS?! WHAT?!! DAMMIT!

So, we went to see RETURN TO FOREVER...which is a group of awesome jazz musicians....

Chick Corea on keyboards
Jon Luc Ponte on violin
Stanley Clarke on bass guitar & cello
Mr. Gimbale on guitar (Frank?)
and Lenny White on drums

HOLY CRAP!!! IS THAT AWESOME OR WHAT?!!  Let me tell you, Mr. Perry, that was the COOLEST damned group of musicians I've EVER seen together---they were so IN SYNC with each other the whole time---like a machine almost---it was absolutely amazing to witness!!  LOVED IT!!

So, here are some clips for you...but OH!! I almost forgot....as we made our way to the seating area (they actually set up chairs but they were for "special people," not us...there was a woman that passed by Pete and he said, "HEY!! Look honey!! She loves Steve Perry too!"  And I said, "What?" (I didn't see her at first)....but she was wearing a white t-shirt that said, "I (heart) Steve Perry" on it....so I chuckled and said, "Yep, that's cool, I like your shirt..." and as I was about to keep walking away, she started a conversation with me about YOU...telling me how she's loved you and your voice since she was very young, and if she had to choose the sexiest men from the 80's, it would be a TIE between YOU and Peter Frampton! She and I stood there for a good 20 minutes, just jawin' about you and all your badboy sexiness. Very cool.  We even exchanged email addresses!

She was blown away when I told her I had met you twice, many years ago, and the rest of the boys in the band too...and your FTLOSM boys of that band as well...then I told her I had also met Lora, (she had no idea who Lora was), but she was absolutely GEEKED when I started to turn my phone on to take down her email address, because she saw the photo that I have of YOU on it, (yeah, you go with me everywhere you sexy beast, whether you like it or not)!! and she said to her husband, "LOOK HONEY!! I'm not the ONLY crazy chick out here who loves that man! SHE HAS HIM ON HER PHONE!!"  The husband walked over to Pete, they were shaking their heads and laughing at us, (couple of cackling hens), and I said to her husband, "Ohhhh yes, we WILL convert you, and then YOU will love Steve Perry just as much as WE do!! MMUUUHAHAHAHA!!!"  (It was rather funny).

Anyway, that is a rare thing to happen, so I wanted to mention it.  Her name is Marcia.  Pete says, "If you think YOU'RE crazy about him, this one (pointing at me) actually WRITES to him on a BLOG!" She thought that was awesome too...I mentioned the name of it, but she said, "I don't think he would read anything like that...do you?"  I said, "God I hope not...I'm really quite a strange ranger sometimes..." and she laughed, "So am I!"  So, we had a fun time dishin' aboutcha.

Were your ears burning?!

Okay, so whenever I go to concerts or whatever, I think "Steve might like to see a blurb of this..." and then I take some video.  But Return To Forever has songs that are MASSIVELY LONG....like, they started playing "Romantic Warrior," and holy CRAP, Pete laughs out loud as he sees me start videotaping, and says, "Turn it off..." and I said, "Why?" He said, "This song is 26 minutes long, that's why! You don't have enough memory in your phone to record all that!"  And he was RIGHT, it was a half hour long....geez!!  But very cool though.  Loved it loved it loved it.  My grandpa would have been up and dancing the whole time, he loved those guys...(well, Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke...not sure about Jon Luc Ponte and the others).

There were some noisy people behind us, just chit-chatting loudly and Pete says to me, "it's like they think these guys are just a BAR BAND or something...and they're trying to talk over them." and I said, "Yeah well, I'm gonna get up and go TELL THEM to GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE, and GO to a bar, since that's the kind of crap they want to listen to, if they don't shut the hell up."  (I'm so sick of rude people, I could just puke).

Then I asked Pete, "I thought you told me that Pittsburgh is full of CULTURE, but why then are the PEOPLE WHO LIVE HERE so totally UNCULTURED and LAME and RUDE like that? Don't they KNOW what culture IS?? Don't they realize who these men ARE??? THEY ARE LEGENDS DAMMIT!! GIVE THEM SOME RESPECT!!!  They need to SHUT THEIR FACES AND LISTEN TO THE AWESOMENESS!!"  Pete agreed.

Well, we missed Dweezil Zappa opening for them, but we did get to enjoy the rest of the show. But, listen, if you EVER come to Pittsburgh with a tour, (and I hope you will), just SKIP the Stage AE venue because it really is lame, and neither Pete nor I are very impressed with it.  Seriously, it sucks. People are smoking all over the place, (one man near us had this HORRIBLE NASTY cigar, and wasn't wearing any SOCKS with his brown pennyloafers...(hello 1980's? Somebody stole your fashion style)...and he was annoying me with his messed up hair and goofy face...everything about him just annoyed me.  I don't like the smell of smoke or cigars, and Pete is allergic to it, so it was all I could do to just sit there and ignore it...much to my dismay.  People just don't have any common courtesy anymore. There were noisy loud drunk people teetering around us, talking loudly, yelling incomprehensible things at the guys on the stage, WOO-ing and yelling, acting stupid...it was like being at the Mayhem Festival all over again. SIGH.

Okay, well, here are some clips for you...I hope you enjoy these clips, it's the best I can do on an iPhone. The one song is 10 minutes long, and I've got the whole thing on video, but it won't let me send it via email except for a tiny part of it...so, for what it's worth, GO SEE THEM if they come out there. You'd love it. (And bring Steve Smith too, he'd probably go apeshit crazy).

Well, I love ya kid...keep going to Giants games, and then come see a Pirates game with me, ok?!

Love, Rebecca