January 21, 2011
Welcome to the south where we go to coffee shops to sing songs, do windmill spins, practice kung fu moves, and watch our friends impress each other. Yes we are THAT cultured. Having artistic friends has been a blessing my entire life. I have been able to watch and listen to music, art, drama, and brilliant words fly out of my friends mouths just to tickle my ears and amaze my eyes. Last night was no exception. I've known her my entire life, and some would write me off as biased, but I like to pride myself on my honesty. Honestly, I'm honest about my opinions.
Maybe even a bit critical at times, but then again I'm supposed to be reporting travel tales from around the world, and if I'm not being honest...then why read? Seriously I wouldn't bother!
BUT lucky for you...I am honest with my thoughts on thing, so the following accounts are allllllll true. Well, except for the kung fu part...or is it??? You'll never know.
Anyways back to my best friend who happens to be a singer, songwriter, philosopher, and a cutie. She'll die when she reads this, but she cannot do anything about it! Sorry, friend.
Gloria Spillers possesses outrageous talents that she is only recently releasing out of the closet. If you've never seen her live, your opinions are invalid. The only way to appreciate Gloria Spillers is to sit in the crowd and soak up her velvety voice, catchy lyrics, and ear tingling melodies. Her biggest goal right now is to record. Yesterday she informed me that she felt like she was pregnant with 17 children and she was more than ready for delivery. Last night's concert proved she wasn't lying. The songs are ready, the artist is ready. All lights go. It's just getting her to the hospital or the recording room for that matter because honestly no one can record a multi-platimum record in a hospital, but I mean we could try. We could, but we wouldn't want all those heartbeats in the background...Gloria tends to be on a more morbid kick.
Last night, the Blend hosted her velvety voice alongside Jordan Sasser who is another bomb of talent all on his own. He is the kind of guy that appears in a room and things instantly get crazy. And I say that in a good way. So full of love for Jesus, Alex, and life (in that particular order), Jordan lights up a room. When he opens his mouth to sing, he STOPS the room.
I had the pleasure of arriving at the Blend, a coffee shop that caters to live music shows, just when the show was about to start. After hugging the two stars, I took my seat, grabbed a vanilla latte even though it was 8pm (so much for cutting out night caffeine), and sat back to let my ears bask in the melodious beauty. Both Jordan's and Gloria's quirkiness comes across in their acts. What musician's doesn't? Their song comments make me giggle. Gloria apologizes for taking her listeners on emotional roller coaster, and Jordan apologizes for the lyric journey. I heard no one complaining.
Afterwards, Stephen and Jordan decided to turn me into a live windmill by flipping me around and around causing my hat to fall off, my head to spin, and my questioning of existence. Then we decided to have a kung fu fight which I won, btw. Fabulous times.
At 11pm, we decided that now that our hearts and ears had been satisfied, our stomach needed to be filled as well, so we headed to Fat Tony's to devour BBQ and White Pizzas alongside bluecrab nachos. We are in the south remember. Stephen embarrassed the table by first asking the waiter if he was Fat Tony...was he implying that the guy was fat? And then he told the waitress that he liked her shirt because it was "sequiny." Ok, Stephen, just stare at all the sparkles. Jordan and I tried to entertain the table with a dance, but my rhythm couldn't match his and ended in an epic fail on my part, but I accepted this quickly being he's a musical rhythmic genius, and I am not.We all hugged bye in the parking lot wishing the night couldn't end, but it was 1am at this point and we all had places to be the next day.
Wilmington Nights never disappoint. I don't know if it's the whimsical, relaxed beach feeling where everything goes, or if it's the beautiful fellowship, or if it's the rockin talent that exudes from my friends, but whatever it is, it's always magical. Maybe it's because Jesus Christ is the center of the orbit. I'd bet on that one.
Tonight we are going to a Lumberton Revival...that'll be an adventure all on it's on.
~RL
