Wow.
Not only can she rock the house, she can write. Margaret Cho blogs the opening night of Prince's new Musicology tour.
There was an overwhelming moment onstage during the acoustic portion of the show, where its just Prince, and he's sitting on a stool playing guitar, and the crowd is unable to stop screaming. He just stopped for a moment. His eyes welled up with tears, as he looked out into the massive crowd of worshippers, kids who were now adults who had grown up with him, the purple light cutting into the blackness of the Staples Center. It seemed he hadn't played a show like this in years, to so many fans, and possibly that he'd forgotten how much he was loved. Maybe Paisley Park is an isolated place where they practice and record and work and then leave for the day, and that he just didn't remember, that it was Prince we all screamed for, and that love for him was a tidal wave of nostalgic bliss, and we loved him now as we always did and always will.
For a different take on the man in purple, I wholeheartedly recommend viewing Kevin Smith's Q&A DVD, An Evening with Kevin Smith. At one point in his life, the cult filmmaker was asked, at Prince's request, to film a documentary at Paisley Park. Kevin tells a really good anecdote of what it is like to actually work under the pressure of someone who has been living in "Prince land" for quite awhile. I'ts fascinating and grossly entertaining at the same time, and trying to explain the story doesn't really do it justice. Anyone who has ever admired the "genius" of that 5-foot rocker, should really check it out, if for nothing else than a reality check.
(A little related self-plug: Next Friday's issue (the 16th) of Reporter will have a nice long article on Kevin Smith and his films, written by yours truly.)