The Backstreet Boys Are Coming To Town!

WahhhoooOOOO! I can’t believe it! The Backstreet Boy’s are coming to town! It is apparently the hottest ticket to hit Our Fair City in a million years, and here’s the kicker, they’re playing at Olympic Stadium!! We are all just atwitter as we envision the possibilities:

(a)    The Backstreet Boys stay in our building!!! Could it be possible??? I am already practicing what to say if I run into, say Justin Timberlake in the elevator.  Swoon!

What? What’s that you say?

Justin isn’t one of the Backstreet Boys? Oh. Wait a minute, well, then who are they, exactly? Oh, what, never mind! Who cares! They are some famous type U.S. rock stars coming to Our Fair City!

NOT rock stars, you say? POP stars? And maybe, in the Galaxy of Stars, they might be categorized as, say black dwarfs??  (1) Oh, holy heck who can keep all of this stuff straight, anyway. While they may be yesterday’s news, or maybe even the day before the day before yesterday’s news, around here, the joint is jumping. Hot, hot, hot! The tickets are way, way pricy (the best seats are going for 1200 RMB, or around $170) and I am excited to say that we are in line to see them (although, in the, relatively, cheap seats). Here’s the local poop:

Backstreet Boys, one of the world's most popular groups, will take their third performance in China as part of the worldwide Unbreakable tour. The concerts will be the first mainstream Western pop concert in Nanjing and Hangzhou, and take place on March 4 in the prestigious Nanjing Olympic Arena [prestigious! And I can see it from my window!] and March 6 in Hangzhou Dragon Arena.

Backstreet Boys helped to open the door to Western pop music for numerous Chinese fans. Although ten years have passed since Backstreet's debut in the late 1990s, they are still held fondly in the memory of their fans. What's more, they haven't forgotten the passion of their fans two years ago and are keeping their promise to return to China.

I know, those of you who actually know me in person are like, wait, don’t you go to bed at nine o’clock at night? And drink milk? And knit? And don’t watch TV, and live a weirdly Digital Age Little House on the Prairie kind of life when you are not off gallivanting in China? What gives, with this staying out late, partying and going to Pop Concerts??

Okay, I admit, the ballet and symphony are definitely more my speed than some aged out boy band, but think of the HOOT factor! When Jeff first suggested we get tickets, I was totally, like, r-i-g-h-t. No. Chance. But he finally convinced me that I was seriously missing the fun part, and pondering it a bit, I realized, he was right! How could I possibly pass up this sort of cultural experience!? I mean, the Boy Band bit will be fun, but I’m going to be in an audience made of up entirely Chinese people reacting to an American Boy Band. This is going to be a totally fabulous ethnographic experience. And me and my little sociologist’s heart are all over ethnographic type experiences. (2)

I bagged the tickets today (long story that speaks to just another day in paradise: (a) Chinese speaking persons calls to confirm you can buy tickets at Olympic Stadium, (b) go with Chinese speaking person across the street to facilitate the purchase (c) discover you can buy tickets, but not right at that moment because despite the fact that you called them five minutes ago and they said “come on over!” the person who actually prints the tickets is not in the office yet (d) Chinese speaking person convinces person who prints tickets to hustle (via phone), and get to the office because we are standing there (e)discover that you can only buy tickets with cash, because credit cards aren’t really something that are used around here (f) negotiate reserving the tickets today and actually paying for them tomorrow because we will get nosebleeds if we end up in the only seats I have enough cash to spring for, etc), spending a whopping three hundred bucks on four tickets (we’re going with friends). Good grief! The last time I went to the ballet it cost me about twenty bucks! Of course, that was in St. Petersburg, but, still. That’s a lot of moolah for what will amount to some pretty crappy seats.

Ah, well, we can still hope against hope that maybe the Boys will end up staying here. I mean, we’re right next to the venue! And it’s a brand new, very private facility. So, maybe, just maybe we’ll run into them, whoever they are, at breakfast one day! Although, come to think of it, I'm not sure I would recognize them if I did. 

And as a final note, I send a little pre-warning yesterday to my friend Lucy about our oh-so-exciting news, and her response was:  “Sad, that you had to go all the way to China to get a little culture.  I knew Pa. and N.J. were a little 'backwater-ish', but sheesh…”  Okay, that totally made me laugh.
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(1)    Note to Vicki: I’ve been waiting to use that one. ;-)
(2)    I know you all know what it means, but just for clarification, ethonography is the branch of anthropology that deals with the scientific description of specific human cultures. My sociologist side just shivers with delight at the idea of watching a cultural exchange like this. It will be something like, although one imagines on a smaller scale, the Beatles when they arrived in the US.
 

Comments

[Jennifer]

I saw Prince during the Purple Rain era, in an arena in Rotterdam, The Hague (Holland). Not quite as socio-ethnographically interesting, but still . . .

[Ellen]

...but still very interesting! Although, you have to admit Prince during the Purple Rain ear was still at the apex of his career. These guys, maybe not so much.

[Pam]

Ahahahahahahahhaha! Who's their opening act? Wham? Oh wait, that was the 80s.

[Faith]

They look like white dwarfs to me! Wiki says that white dwarfs are also called degenerate dwarfs! Honest! I ain't makin' this up!

But, the definition for black dwarfs is even MORE appropriate! Hmmmmm. Knowing Ellen, she already looked all this up.

[Ellen]

Jealous. You are all just jealous. 10k miles away and I can feel the jealousy oooozzing off of you. ;-)