Think Pink

This is an irrelevant picture, but I didn't want the next picture to be the thumbnail preview image.

Back in the fall of 2017, after I had invited my sister and niece to see Lady Gaga, they asked me if I wanted to go see P!nk, since my sister loves her. But the tickets were too expensive, so we saw Katy Perry instead.

Last spring, I saw that P!nk was doing another tour, and since I had previously purchased tickets, I got a presale discount. So I bought four tickets: one for me, one each for my sister and niece as birthday presents, and one extra, because who knows what will change in a year?

So, as the concert was approaching, we invited our cousin April to come with us. My sister sent me this text:

So Wednesday night we headed off to Vivint Smart Home Arena. The show officially started at 7:30, but they had a DJ named KidCutUp playing classic rock/pop/hip-hop while everyone trickled in. Our seats weren't great (we were on the very back row), but it was OK.

The show officially started at 7:30 with Julia Michaels as the opener. My only experience with her is her song "Issues," which I don't much care for. But I really liked her live, and I liked her 90s-esque outfit. Not only is she a singer, she also wrote (or helped to write) many other pop songs, including Selena Gomez's "Bad Liar" and Justin Bieber's "Sorry," and she sang a medley of these songs written for other artists.

Then after another period of time with the DJ, it was P!nk's turn. She rose to fame when I was in junior high, a time when I thought I was too intelligent/sophisticated/nerdy to enjoy pop music. I think of P!nk as an older artist, but my dad had never heard of her.

I recognize P!nk's immense talent, but I don't usually get excited by her music. I never think, "I feel like listening to P!nk today," and I don't look forward to new singles. That's not to say I dislike her, I just don't get excited about her. I really have nothing to criticize about her, aside from her sailor's mouth. (Four and a half years ago, we had our front area remodeled, and the person doing the remodel said he didn't like P!nk's language. Then he was using the exact language he said he didn't like from her.🤷)

She made her stage debut by singing "Get the Party Started" while swinging from a mock chandelier. (That would seem more appropriate for Sia!)

Early in the concert, she sang a song called "Revenge," and before the song, she played a cartoon video of a fictional amusement park called Revengeland. The video showed cartoon characters getting tortured and mutilated. Apparently I don't do well with violence, because it made me physically ill, even though it was only animation. I had to sit down. (Some of that might have had to do with the unhealthy meal of J-Dawgs and Cadbury Chip Cookie that I had just eaten.) That diminished the momentum of my concert experience.

But she really is incredible. She sings just as well live as she does on recordings (unlike Katy Perry). Not only that, but while she's singing, she is dancing and doing all sorts of acrobatics. When I bought tickets, I got free copies of her new album, Beautiful Trauma. My favorite song from the album is "Secrets," and that was the best performance of the night. She had an acrobatic partner, and she was singing while she was swinging around in the air, even hanging upside down. It was spectacular. (You can see a video of it from another concert here.)

My sister said I looked bored the whole time. As I said, her music doesn't excite me that much, but it was a fun concert.

Then I had completely different experiences this weekend.

On Friday, I went to another mission reunion. I'm approaching ten years that I've been home, so these are increasingly less meaningful to me. It was with my second mission president, who I only had for five months. I tend to think this president doesn't remember me, because I was in the far-off area of the mission that whole time. But at the reunion, he said, "The first time I met you, you were much larger than you are now." And then he said, "I seem to remember, it was down in Lewiston, and you were wearing a suit coat that was four times too big." And that's exactly right! So he does remember me! Two of my companions were there, one of whom I hadn't seen since 2012.

I really enjoyed general conference this weekend, even though there weren't any earthshaking announcements, except for the temples. My biggest temple connection is Moses Lake, Washington. That was in my mission! I never served there, but I did have some exchanges and zone conferences there. Nearby Wenatchee would be prettier (I served in East Wenatchee), but I think Moses Lake has more members. (This week at This Is the Place, I had guests from Wenatchee and Spokane!) My grandparents served in Western Samoa, and I remember their mission address stuck to our fridge, in Pago Pago, American Samoa. So I feel a bit of a connection there. And I did visit Tooele (originally spelled Tuilla) last summer as part of my county seat tour, so I feel connected there, even though it could be seen as a rival county. I thought it was funny that President Nelson told people to be quiet during the announcements. I did notice in the last couple of conferences that the vocal reactions were much louder and longer than they used to be. (Before then, the only audible reaction I remember was Rome in 2008.)