"The man who is tired of Weird Al Yankovic is tired of life" - Homer J. Simpson

If someone were to break in to my house and rifle through my CD collection they would notice a few things: an exorbitant collection of musical theatre soundtracks; a healthy 80's collection and a large amount of Cd's from three artists in particular: Elton John, George Michael and Weird Al Yankovic.

I've been fortunate to see Elton John several times, and last year I fulfilled a dream, nay, an obsession that started in 1982 with George Michael by flying to Sydney to see him in concert. My love affair with Weird Al started a bit earlier. I remember listening to the Dr Demento show on the radio as a child and two songs stood out for me: 'Another one Rides the Bus', and 'It's Still Billy Joel to Me'. I was later to find out that these songs were by Weird Al.

I've been an avid fan through the 80's when everyone was talking about his hits of 'Fat', 'Eat it' and 'Like a Surgeon', and into the nineties and the naughties, when all but the fans were saying, 'what happened to that Weird Al guy?' I didn't have to ask, I was there with him all along.

I was also there, at the QPAC concert hall on the 15th of March along with the geekier half of Brisbane. From the opening accordion Lady Gaga /Ke$ha /Justin Bieber polka tribute, through almost all of his hits (notably missing 'Like a Surgeon') from the last 4 decades, and finishing with the most entertaining encore I have ever seen.

The highlight for me was actually seeing Al in the flesh. At 51 the guy is in terrific shape, bouncing around the stage all night and kicking his leg higher than some dancers can.  He donned costumes for each song - yes, even the Fat suit! Between songs, to allow him time to get changed, a screen at the back of the stage showed clips from his Al TV show;  mock interviews of celebrities such as Eminem, Celine Dion and Jessica Simpson. It also played clips from TV shows over the past few decades that had references to Weird Al. As far as pop culture goes Al is the guru! He's been in, referred to, (or voiced a character in) shows from the Flintstones and Friends, to Everybody Loves Raymond, Family Guy, the Simpsons, Saturday Night Live, and more shows than you can shake a stick at!

The finale was everything I could have hoped for. Being a huge Star Wars fan - isn't everyone?? I eagerly awaited his two Star Wars tributes, 'Yoda' a parody of 'Lola' from the Kinks, from his 1985 album 'Dare to be Stupid', and 'The Saga Begins', the 1999 parody of 'American Pie' by Don McLean. He waited till we were all whipped up into a nerdy frenzy, then when the band entered wearing Jedi outfits we knew what we were in for. 'Saga' started it off, blended neatly into 'Yoda', complete with a row of dancing Stormtroopers across the back of the stage with Darth himself in the centre.

Does life get any better than this - I think not!

February - short and bittersweet

February dawned brightly, and was gone almost in the wink of an eye. Yes, I know it's the shortest month of the year, but it felt like only two weeks.  Where did this month go? What did I get done?

I managed by the end of the month to get down to my pre- Christmas weight of 70.1 kg, despite a few dodgy  weigh-ins due to a couple of  lost weekends with nachos and white wine! My next milestone is to get under 70kg and that won't take long!

I signed up for Clean Up Australia Day  earlier in the month. It's on Sunday the 6th of March, and my area to clean up is :  here

Rio!

My Monday, Wednesday and Sundays were taken up (mainly in the evenings) by rehearsals for the Savoyards 50th Anniversary concert. I was lucky enough to be a cast member of Sav's production of  'Boy From Oz' in 2009 and that qualified me as a previous Savoyards member, so I could audition for the concert.
The auditions and rehearsals all started in Nov/ Dec last year, but they geared up in Feb and it was full on until Opening night.

Queensland was still reeling after the floods in January when Cyclone Yasi reared her ugly head in Feb. Not content with that, Mother Nature decided it was New Zealand's turn on the 22nd, and an earthquake measuring 6.3, severely damaged Christchurch. and surrounding areas.

A lot happened in February, not necessarily to me, but we are all affected by the suffering of others.

Here's to March.