Idol Gives Back Party at the DC Hard Rock Cafe w/ Kris
So I went to the Idol Gives Back watch party last night at DC's Hard Rock Cafe - coincidentally in my office building! The big attraction was that it was advertised as *your chance* to meet Kris and yeah, always read the fine print b/c it did hinge on your winning a raffle.
But it was fun. I met up with @subeesweet, a great twitter friend, and when we got to the bar we saw a couple of ladies clearly there for similar reasons and invited them to join us. One of them turned out to be @xoxemjayxox, who I follow, and she was so nice. She was there to meet up with @yobench, another person I follow, so that was great to meet up and put faces with names.
So we get drinks, talk Atlantis gossip (yobench still had some good pics on her camera from that), get some dinner, talk about twitter friends (NOT IN A BAD WAY, more who we're curious about and would like to meet), and emjay scored some UNF gear by going up to someone and saying UNFIdol. LOL. We also all entered the raffle to meet Kris.
Well they get around to announcing the winners, and too funny, turns out that 4 of the 5 winners are male. Milkshake! (well one turned out to be a little boy, he'll get a pass.)
Then it was Kris time! They had roped off an area between the window and the bar, and were going to sneak him into that through the kitchen. Many kids there were just crazy and not going to leave the roped area, the bouncer guys had to keep asking them to take a few steps back. (The place was jam packed, all ages, lots of kids but lots of adults too, both genders.) We'd already strategized and decided we would hang back and let things die down before trying to get a pic.
So he comes in and it's SQUEEEEEEE time:
Not that I saw this because he's the pocket idol, I was in the bar area and Hard Rock guys made us not stand on our chairs. My pics of this part of the event are of other people taking pics of this part of the event.
So then the idea was the winners got to sit next to him and watch Idol, but first he was interviewed by Channel 5's Will Thomas, who I did get a pic of. You don't care about that. By this time we did decide to brave the crowds and attempt to get pics. The nicest bouncer in the entire world took cameras and was snapping pics of Kris since it was impossible to do this yourself unless you were upfront at the ropes, on 10th street or very tall. Here's the one he got for me:
From then on, we would go up and take pics and then go back and take a break or a drink. I think yobench talked to Lizzie (Kris' assistant) who told her that they had not known what to expect either and that Kris would be there awhile. At one point, the bouncer guy said Kris would throw out shirts (which he did, I didn't catch one). At another point, he started signing things - again the front row not moving, it's like the panda exhibit at the zoo -so what you did was hand your thing up over people's heads to the bouncer and he handed it to Kris who signed. Subeesweet brought this cute little toy guitar which Kris liked. I brought a printout of the poster for the concert he's doing soon with Keith Urban, and he looked a little surprised, looked up to see whose it was. I signaled me, and he smiled and waved and signed.
Oh yeah, and since this was an Idol Watch party for Idol Gives Back, he asked us all to text in a contribution. He also watched a little Idol. The crowd watched even less. Emjay said he really seemed to watch Carrie's performance and she got a good pic of him grimmacing at his Ford ad (which got the biggest applause from the Hard Rock crowd for anything in the actual Idol show, followed by David Cook's segment).
Nice moment - there was this lady who just sat in the bar by herself. She looked tough - tattoos, leather, denim, butchy haircut - but she was too scared to go up and even gawk at Kris like the zoo animal he had been turned into. So subeesweet and I encouraged her and she finally did, and when she came back, she was tearing up a little, genuinely emotional that he had signed the CD she brought. We quoted some LLWD to her and we all agreed you have to grab these moments.
So at 10 he left, we left soon after and it was a totally fun night. The only disappointment was that there was no singing. We did tell the Hard Rock guy that but he said the event was all under UNF's control. Oh well. The Hard Rock guy also promised he'll never blast YMCA into my office again. YAY.
So all in all, good times in DC with Kris!
But it was fun. I met up with @subeesweet, a great twitter friend, and when we got to the bar we saw a couple of ladies clearly there for similar reasons and invited them to join us. One of them turned out to be @xoxemjayxox, who I follow, and she was so nice. She was there to meet up with @yobench, another person I follow, so that was great to meet up and put faces with names.
So we get drinks, talk Atlantis gossip (yobench still had some good pics on her camera from that), get some dinner, talk about twitter friends (NOT IN A BAD WAY, more who we're curious about and would like to meet), and emjay scored some UNF gear by going up to someone and saying UNFIdol. LOL. We also all entered the raffle to meet Kris.
Well they get around to announcing the winners, and too funny, turns out that 4 of the 5 winners are male. Milkshake! (well one turned out to be a little boy, he'll get a pass.)
Then it was Kris time! They had roped off an area between the window and the bar, and were going to sneak him into that through the kitchen. Many kids there were just crazy and not going to leave the roped area, the bouncer guys had to keep asking them to take a few steps back. (The place was jam packed, all ages, lots of kids but lots of adults too, both genders.) We'd already strategized and decided we would hang back and let things die down before trying to get a pic.
So he comes in and it's SQUEEEEEEE time:
Click to viewNot that I saw this because he's the pocket idol, I was in the bar area and Hard Rock guys made us not stand on our chairs. My pics of this part of the event are of other people taking pics of this part of the event.
So then the idea was the winners got to sit next to him and watch Idol, but first he was interviewed by Channel 5's Will Thomas, who I did get a pic of. You don't care about that. By this time we did decide to brave the crowds and attempt to get pics. The nicest bouncer in the entire world took cameras and was snapping pics of Kris since it was impossible to do this yourself unless you were upfront at the ropes, on 10th street or very tall. Here's the one he got for me:
From then on, we would go up and take pics and then go back and take a break or a drink. I think yobench talked to Lizzie (Kris' assistant) who told her that they had not known what to expect either and that Kris would be there awhile. At one point, the bouncer guy said Kris would throw out shirts (which he did, I didn't catch one). At another point, he started signing things - again the front row not moving, it's like the panda exhibit at the zoo -so what you did was hand your thing up over people's heads to the bouncer and he handed it to Kris who signed. Subeesweet brought this cute little toy guitar which Kris liked. I brought a printout of the poster for the concert he's doing soon with Keith Urban, and he looked a little surprised, looked up to see whose it was. I signaled me, and he smiled and waved and signed.
Oh yeah, and since this was an Idol Watch party for Idol Gives Back, he asked us all to text in a contribution. He also watched a little Idol. The crowd watched even less. Emjay said he really seemed to watch Carrie's performance and she got a good pic of him grimmacing at his Ford ad (which got the biggest applause from the Hard Rock crowd for anything in the actual Idol show, followed by David Cook's segment).
Nice moment - there was this lady who just sat in the bar by herself. She looked tough - tattoos, leather, denim, butchy haircut - but she was too scared to go up and even gawk at Kris like the zoo animal he had been turned into. So subeesweet and I encouraged her and she finally did, and when she came back, she was tearing up a little, genuinely emotional that he had signed the CD she brought. We quoted some LLWD to her and we all agreed you have to grab these moments.
So at 10 he left, we left soon after and it was a totally fun night. The only disappointment was that there was no singing. We did tell the Hard Rock guy that but he said the event was all under UNF's control. Oh well. The Hard Rock guy also promised he'll never blast YMCA into my office again. YAY.
So all in all, good times in DC with Kris!