Majoring in music appreciation

It's two completely different sides of the musical spectrum. On the one hand, the 70th birthday celebrations for Eric Clapton at Madison Square Garden. And on the other, the reigning Tony Award-winning musical "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder."

Clapton kicked off the weekend at Madison Square Garden. He rolls through the setlist with some familiar bluesy favorites, such as "Key to the Highway" and "Hoochie Coochie Man." The first of the evening's guests, John Mayer, joins for "Pretending," and although his performance is entirely perfunctory, the rest of E.C.'s assemble still makes it a winner.

For a while the highlight is "Driftin'," dedicated to Ben E. King (who had passed away the previous day and who Eric once said wrote the most beautiful love song ever written in "Stand by Me.") This is delivered during the sit-down acoustic portion of the evening and every note sounds like it is driftin' up to the fallen King.

For this show, we had front-row seats ... of the third section from the stage. But for me, it was great, because no one was standing in my way preventing me from seeing the performers and I also got to move around to the music. It took about three or four songs for me to loosen the knots in my neck, but I really started to get into a solid hippie, trippy vibe around "Can't Find My Way Home." It was great to have uber-bassist Nathan East back with E.C. again in general, but particularly on this song.

And speaking of people who were back, the highlight of the first night was, without a doubt, Derek Trucks and Doyle Bramhall II joining Clapton and crew for "Let It Rain." One of the greatest musical regrets I harbor is missing the tour in which Derek and Doyle backed up E.C., prodding him to heights he hadn't reached for a while on material he had long since packed away. So for the few minutes we got of "Let It Rain," I was in high heaven.

Less successfully, Jimmie Vaughan had come out a few songs before to play "Before You Accuse Me," and while it was great to see him, the collaboration just didn't soar the same way. Jimmie's solo was a little stilted, and E.C., being the reflective mirror he tends to be, almost echoed the same thing back.

At a very early point in the evening, Mark and I started recognizing songs before they fully kicked in. With "Can't Find My Way Home," the crowd sort of doesn't get it until the full band kicks into gear, while both of us can recognize it in a couple of bass notes. "I Shot the Sheriff" meanders around for a while until the riff that signals the start brings most of the arena into the fold. I think two or three minutes prior to that point, I yelled, "SPOILER ALERT! It's 'I Shot the Sheriff'!"

That song, by the way, is one I never listen to home, but hang on every note during a live show. As opposed to say "Wonderful Tonight," which has become my group's signal to call a friend not at the show. Mainly it's a "Network Time Killer," as they used to say on David Letterman's "Late Night" show. I took the joke one step further and called my friend, Susan, who was actually at the same show and sitting closer at the stage. The things we do to make ourselves laugh.

One of the biggest surprises was "Tears in Heaven." It's Eric's biggest "hit" of all time, but he stopped playing it for a long while. I was pretty peeved to see people heading to the bathroom during it. When it first debuted in concert in the early '90s, well, it was like everyone in the arena held their breath, knowing that the song was for his son, Conor, who had died tragically at 4 1/2 years old. They cheered in support after every verse, every chorus. Now, it was just another song. That took some of the air out of my tires.

I'm not sure playing everyone's favorite "Layla" acoustically (as on the multi-platinum "Unplugged" album) was the best way to mark the milestone birthday, for we all kinda wanted to rock out, but it was nicely done. The same could be said for keyboardist Paul Carrack's version of "You Are So Beautiful." And though we pleaded for a change in the slow blues number, it still was "Little Queen of Spades," which offers Clapton and crew the chance to solo so beautifully, but has lost its zing from being in the rotation for a few years now.

The whole show had a very laidback vibe, which irked some of my friends, but which I rather enjoyed as just a way to chill out and rid myself of earthly concerns. And so it was pretty easy for me to jam my way through "Crossroads" and "Cocaine" to the encore of "High Time We Went," with all the guest stars coming back for one more solo in celebration of Clapton.

While I would hardly consider this a true retrospective a career that has gone so many places, the man throws a nice party.

Thanks to the Rangers' continuing playoff run (insert every expletive you can think of here, both for me as a Devils fan and just one of the people whose schedule was upended), the second show was changed to Sunday night. So after working Saturday, I was ready for more. But before the concert, we decided to talk a good friend into seeing a Broadway show we thought he would enjoy ... and that we were dying (so to speak) to see again, namely "A Gentlemen's Guide to Love and Murder."

Mark and I were blown away by it last year. I bought tickets the night it won the Tony (but before it actually did), so we got pretty good seats and had a great time. Now with co-lead Bryce Pinkham and some of the other original cast members gone and one of the members of the ensemble, Jeff Kready, now in the protagonist's role, it would be the same but different. Of course, Jefferson Mays, the Tony-nominated star who somehow manages to pull off eight distinct roles in the production, remained the primary reason to go at all.

So after some leg twisting, we got Steve to go, and we set out for the Sunday matinee ahead of the second Clapton show. I thought it might take a while for him to get into it since he's one of many in the world who aren't interested in seeing a Broadway musical, but he was cackling with laughter almost from the outset. Because this ain't your grandma's Broadway musical. It's full of snarkiness and malevolence, but retains a great sense of humor about itself.

Since that was a matinee show and they had to do it all over again at 8 p.m., I thought the actors probably wouldn't be hanging out with the fans at the stage door. But since everyone else probably thought the same thing, the crowd was actually rather small and we did stay for a bit to see who we could see. One of the first ones out was Jeff Kready (who Mark actually liked better than Pinkham in the co-lead role).

I moved to the end of the line, a dangerous spot if an actor decides to cut and run after a couple of autographs, but a great spot for taking pictures together if he is so inclined. And Jeff was so gracious with everyone, it's really heartening to see someone move up from an ensemble role in the show to the lynchpin that holds everything together.

I told him we had seen the show twice, I don't know why I was surprised by his surprised reaction to that, but he was very grateful to have heard that. My big question for him was about whether it got confusing when getting directions, between Jeff and Jefferson. And he said, "Not really, cause he's always Jefferson." And I quipped, "Or Mr. Mays," and he repeated "Or Mr. Mays" with a laugh.

We waited some more, got to see some of the other cast members, including the hilarious Carole Shelley, who puts the show in off-kilter mode right from the get-go as Miss Shingle. She didn't stop, but she did wave to all of us. I wondered if Jefferson Mays would even come out the door, after all, it's a rigorous day for him without fan dwellers.

But he did, and I almost lost my shit. I don't curse a lot in my blog, but I was about five seconds away from breaking into tears when he started down the line. I was in my choice position again at the end. That really turned out in my favor, when Mark took the picture to end all pictures -- me and Jefferson, with a couple of his characters photo-bombing on the wall behind us.

I know my babblings included telling him that "Kind Hearts and Coronets" was my favorite movie, and I had been apprehensive about the show the first time I saw it, but that I loved it so much and that he was so brilliant. (Another one taken aback at hearing we'd seen it more than once.) Jefferson told me that he originally saw the movie when he was 8 years old, and it made him want to be an actor.

My question for him was about those rapid-fire costume and character changes he undergoes, sometimes having to be back on stage within a minute. He said at present there were four people who helped him with costume, "one for each limb." He's funny without a script too.

I was so overwhelmed with how nice they were that I actually had to sit down to catch my breath. Then we headed for Guy Fieri's American Kitchen and Bar, which was unsummarily ripped in its New York Times review, thus sealing Mark's interest in going to see what the fuss was about. The maitre d' asked if we had reservations and I mumbled, "we have serious reservations." The food was remarkably unspectacular, but my Pina Colada Royale and our waitress, Olivia, were amazing.

And then we were back at the Garden for the second Clapton show. Now mind you, by this time, I have had about four hours sleep five nights in a row, my work schedule is out of kilter and I'm reaching the point of total exhaustion. Which explains why I kept falling asleep during songs, having vivid nightmares and waking up within the same song. In the '60s, you needed drugs to have that kind of reaction at a show.

I was able to take notice of the fact that overall, the show was better and everything sounded spectacular. But I would say I enjoyed the first one more, because I got to stand and dance and I was really feeling it. The second one, we were in the front row in an upper section, and if I got up to dance there for any prolonged amount of time, there's a chance I would have toppled over the railing in my state.

This time, knowing that "Let It Rain" was going to bring down the house, they moved it to the end and did away with "Cocaine." And the rest was pretty much the same, only better and yet not quite the same for me. We did the terribly un-rock-and-roll-like thing of heading home immediately afterward, which was necessary but a bummer, because part of the magic of all of it will always be hanging out with friends after the show. So I didn't get to say a final farewell to Smoosan and Steve and Willie and Bruce and Renee and the gang. Instead, I'll just say see ya further on up the road.

Doubling up on a hero and a dad

Heading into the April Chiller on very little sleep, my plan was to save my celebrity meetings for the second day. So when Sis met up with some of her pop culture icons, I went along as the general photographer. That ended up giving us two chances to meet the title character from "The Greatest American Hero" and Steven Keaton from "Family Ties."

The first celeb we saw the first day was John Schneider, probably best known to the free world for "The Dukes of Hazzard," although Lorrie was more of a fan from his time on "Smallville" as Clark Kent's dad, Jonathan. He looks amazingly wonderful and really knows how to work his crowd. Lorrie had a variant cover from one of the "Smallville" magazines with him on it to sign, and he hadn't seen it before. That's one of the things she loves to do most at conventions is show off rare acquisitions, so score!

We got in a little conversation with table neighbor, Terry Kiser, more renowned for the dead title character in "Weekend at Bernie's," but better known to us as obnoxious reporter Al Craven in "Night Court." (Wearing my "Night Court" crew jacket to the show was a nice talking piece.) Surprised to find someone interested in him from the latter show, he didn't have photos for that. But we did chat with him a bit without paying any money for it, a Chiller rarity to be sure.

That wasn't the case with William Katt, whom we know not only from the unlikely superhero TV show, but also from cult film favorites "Carrie," "House" and "Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend." Sis had a chat with him about how he carefully toed a precarious line to make his character sympathetic in the "Carrie" prom scenes, and that showed off a great retro find -- "The Superhero Illustrated Guidebook" which had him on the cover as "The Greatest American Hero" with the late, great Robert Culp. He hadn't seen it before either, score again! And he was super-sweet, I was already looking forward to my turn the next day.

Then we went to find Wesley Eure of "Land of the Lost" fame. Since we also remember him from pictures in soap magazines as Mike Horton on "Days of Our Lives," Lorrie got a great-looking picture signed from that era. Another kind and attentive celeb, it was funny that Sis was taller than him in their photo together.

And last but definitely not least was Michael Gross of "Family Ties," although Lor knows him even better from the film series "Tremors." Again we played the "Night Court" card, I told him that even as a kid I realized that the show was trading on his goody-goody image as perfect dad Steven Keaton in order to make the plot about him sexually harassing Markie Post's character work. I was smiling almost more than they were as I took their picture together, and then Michael took the camera, 'cause he loves taking selfies!

Then we went off hunting down treasures in the vendor room, where we found some rare DVDs and old magazines and other things we probably didn't need but were really excited to find. One of my particular faves was a press kit for the Cameron Crowe film "Singles." I had just seen the new Blu-Ray, so it seemed particularly appropriate.

Before we knew it we were back again and it was my turn to hang with the celebs. The Living Room area was populated with more fans than personalities, so we went to the adjoining room to see whether I could meet the duo of Don Most and Anson Williams (best known Ralph Malph and Potsie Weber). They were there, and they had no line. So after I scored tickets for my photo op (a separate line strangely enough), I was in the middle of a "Happy Days" sandwich. I promised I wouldn't say "sit on it" and we got enough of a chuckle for a nice photo.

When I was departing, Anson did something no other celeb has done in the history of my pop culture conventions -- he kissed the side of my head.

Said "hi" to Michael Gross, who was in that room visiting old friends such as Carol Potter ("Beverly Hills 90210"), but by the time we took another look around the Living Room (more on this in a minute) and then went to his area, he was back in place and ready for more selfies.

I told him I had gone home the previous night and watched some "Family Ties" on Netflix and he was proud of that. On his table, there was a special price for people who wanted a photo of themselves with Michael posted on his Facebook feed, but I stuck with the regular shot and did it the old-fashioned way on my own Facebook page.

But of course there was a downer, cause there's always at least one at any pop culture convention, and usually more than one at Chiller. The plan -- as it was -- was to wait on the short line for Vanessa Marcil (best known to me as Brenda Barrett on "General Hospital"). She had a photo op set for 11 a.m., and her handler said Vanessa was on her way down. Apparently she got lost somewhere between the elevator and the Living Room, because half an hour later, she hadn't showed.

At some point, we realized she wouldn't be down at her table before the op, so that's when we went off to see Michael and when we came back, "Kitty Katt" was being his engaging self. When it was my turn, we started talking about what it was like the first time he had to play a guy who didn't know how to work his superhero suit. I said it must have been truly bizarre to be acting like he's flying out of control when there was no precedent for any of it. He said indeed it did was, and added that show creator Stephen Cannell didn't even let him see the suit until they filmed the scene in which he first examined it so that his reaction would be true.

According to the pictures Sis took while this was going on, it was an animated discussion, there was only one in which either my hands or his hands weren't gesturing wildly.

Anyway, it definitely turned my frown upside down. When I got my hug for the picture, I said I would just stay that way all day and he said I could. Yes, he was a real "Kitty Katt."

Eventually I did get my time with Vanessa. She apologized to everyone for being late. As far as I could tell, only two people stuck it out on her line the whole time -- and one of them was a lady who had cut in front of me on the pretense of looking at the Vanessa photos available for autographs on her table.

We saw Billy Zabka of "The Karate Kid" at the next table being affectionate with his fans. Next to him, Gavin MacLeod of "The Love Boat" was also very amiable, although he insisted on wearing Captain Stubing's cap throughout the event. I was sad to see Rip Torn, a favorite actor of mine, looking kind of out of it. And not wanting a repeat of the Lee Majors photo, I chose not to go to his line.

Now I'm starting to lose my own train of thought. Anyway, I told Vanessa about the work I do on YouTube and Facebook on behalf of Sharon Wyatt and John Reilly. She really couldn't recall them being on early in her tenure, but when I mentioned they were often in Robin Scorpio's storyline she brightened up with a "Kimberly McCullough" and again apologized, this time for having a bad memory when it comes to things like that.

So she was perfectly charming and cordial, but I kinda felt like I was acting as much as she was just to get through it. I'll have to ask Lor if I was Emmy-worthy.

Then it was time for shopping again, and over a week later, I still haven't sorted all my stuff out, so I'll take my leave now.