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“You!  Yes, you!  Have a blessed Silent Sunday”.

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Stopping to Exhale……

I was lucky to go to the CFTH tour in 2009 when it stopped in Cleveland, still a good distance from home but worth the trip. I took some pics, but I couldn’t lift the camera during the beautiful hymns.  This screencap from ArchuletaAvenue’s Ave Maria vid captures the essence of peacefulness and reverence of the performance.   You can see this vid here, and check out more lovely ones from their channel.

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Rounding out the ‘My Kind of Christmas tour news’ week!

Whewww….can it really be?  David Archuleta’s My Kind of Christmas was announced less than one week ago?  Most of the venues have been announced, with more to come according to David’s official website.    Most VIPs are already on sale with a third of those selling out in a little over 24 hours each (Update from Pastel ~ VIPNation also shows Stroudsburg, PA sold out).  A great start!

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Nobody covers better than David Archuleta

Tomorrow I’ll post another of our polls regarding My Kind of Christmas tour.  To get it started, I encourage you to go to our comments and tell us:  What songs should David Archuleta  cover during this tour?

As a reminder of the awesome covers from CFTH tour, I’ll leave you with this gem of a vid that Joanie (@suttygal) directed me to.  From LaurieFOD!  A perfect reflective song for Sunday.

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But “Wait”….

A great collection of pictures to a great song.  Thanks archswift12

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 “The Best Gifts” ~ Muldur’s recap from Constitution Fair

Muldur (Nancy) shared her story from Arizona ~  I might have done a teensy weensy bit of arm twisting.  Not a typical concert story, but a wonderful example of the often inexplicable experience of a David Archuleta concert, and that everything happens for a reason.  

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I don’t often write recaps.  Let’s just call it a story instead.  It’s about AZ, which is old news by now.  So skip it if it’s ancient history to you.

My story is centered around a man named Brian and it starts at the gate.  My concert buddy, Donna, and I were just a few people from the front of the line at the front gate and about an hour before we got in, we saw a man in  a wheelchair arrive and set himself up a few feet from us.  For a while, Donna and I were each quietly observing him and didn’t speak to each other about him. He was by himself.   FInally, Donna mentioned to me that he had on a TOSOD fan edition bracelet but no wristband, so she went over to speak to him.   I watched her as she walked over to Barbara Stowell and bought him a red wristband so he could get into the front seating area.  I went over and introduced myself to him, too.  It was hot and he had no umbrella so a couple of us held ours up so he could get more shade.  He was so sweet!  He had been to see David in Utah, California and a couple other places.  He travels to see him, too, although he lives in the Phoenix area and only had to take a special cab to get there.   We chatted with him and tried to keep the sun off all of us until it was close to time to go in.

When it got to the point where we could see people coming in and paying to get in, or at least that’s what it looked like, we asked Brian if he needed help to get in and he said he did and was very grateful we asked.  I asked one of our fellow fans, Randy, to help us push him across the field and over the curbs inside.  So just before the general admission started, we started to take him in.  On the way, I asked him where he wanted us to put his chair.  He said,  “As close to him as you can get me”.  He was a true fan.

We managed to get him across the field to the seating area just before people were let in and we placed his wheelchair just to the inside of the center aisle, parallel to the first row of chairs (before the musical chair moshing activity began). Then we took seats someone had saved for us in the third row off to the side (I think it was third at the beginning .   I bought him a lemonade and gave him my umbrella/parasol (the same Pooh umbrella I bought to keep the sun off me in Memphis).   Between the two of us, Donna and I checked on him often and he seemed to do pretty well through all the opening acts and the heat.  Thank goodness the sun went down relatively soon after we got to our seats.

I am sure you have all heard about the chairs.  It reminded me of when I was a kid and we used to play 1-2-3 Red Light.  The person who was “IT” would turn around facing away from everyone and the others would take little steps, or big steps if you dared, to get closer to “IT” without getting caught moving when “IT” turned around.  The security guy closest to me was young and honestly the expression on his face was priceless.  Without saying a word, someone moved their chair forward a couple of feet.  No one spoke, people just one at  a time quietly moved their chairs forward.  This happened three separate times I think and the security guy just looked at us.  I didn’t hear him say anything.  In the end, security had those on the end of the row turn their chairs into an arc to close off the end, because the crowd was pressing so much from the side.  So perhaps what happened with the chairs was supposed to be.  Brian in his wheelchair was no longer parallel to the front row, but he seemed ok.

When David was on stage, neither Donna nor I tried to go check on Brian but as soon as the show ended, the crowd started moving to the barricade in anticipation of David coming out for autographs and Donna grabbed Brian’s chair and pushed him up to the barricade.  I ended down the way a bit but I could see them.  I was also right on the barricade.  While we waited, I spoke to other fans and got out my TOSOD ATE booklet for him to sign if he came out. But I could tell by the size of the crowd there would be no signing.  There were hundreds of people lined up several people deep the whole length of the barricade.  But of course we were at least hoping to see him.  Finally, security told us to make sure we were all behind the barricade (no spilling out over the ends of it) and we knew he would come out. At that time, I looked behind me and there I saw a young woman, probably mid-20′s, with three little girls who looked like they were 2, 4 and 6 years old.  I asked her if she was a fan or if one of them was.  She said, “We all are!”  I asked her if she had ever seen David before or met him and she said, “No, this is the first time”.  So I moved back from the barricade and let them get in my place.  I only tell you about this little selfless act because I will also tell you about a selfish moment.  And you will understand that none of us is always one or the other.

I made my way down the line to where Donna was with Brian in the wheelchair.  He was still right on the barricade and so was Donna.  I stood behind his chair beside some other fans.  While we waited, feeling quite dusty and thirsty and tired, I looked up at the night sky and thought about David and how much I really wanted to be able to say hello to him, and that now that I was not up front, I would not be able to do that.  I don’t know if it was being tired, or being emotional, or what, but tears came to my eyes.  It was silly and selfish.  I had to keep wiping them away and I think a couple of people nearby wondered what was going on.

Thankfully, it was not long before David came out.  We heard screams from the right side of the barricade (we were in the center) and we knew David was doing high-fives.  I coached Brian a bit.  I told him to put his hand up as far as he could, to get ready because it would be very quick.  Donna made sure he was able to do that.  I asked Brian if I could reach my left hand out over his shoulder and he was fine with that.  We were all waiting with our hands outstretched and within seconds David was in front of us.

The strangest thing for me was that it seemed to be in slow/stop motion.  He touched Donna’s hand, then his hand touched mine.  He had missed Brian’s.  He was moving very slowly, in fact it seemed his hand was placed against mine, and without thinking I just clasped it gently and said “Hi, David!”.  He looked right at me.  He had a huge smile on his face as he was walking down the line and in the dark I could still tell he saw me and recognized me and just looked at me for a couple seconds, my hand still clasping his. I just smiled back at him.  And then I let his hand go.  Then for whatever reason, he suddenly saw Brian in the chair.   He reached out his hand to Brian, looked him right in the eye and gave his hand a great squeeze.  All of this only took  a few seconds.  Brian was so pleased!  He said, “He definitely shook my hand. He looked right at me!”

I wish someone could help me understand why the touch of David’s hand is so special, but it is.  I remember when he was in Asia last year at one of the signings, so many tweets from fans who had shook his hand, touched his hand.  That was such a special thing for them.  I don’t know if David would understand why the clasp of his hand means so much to people. I hope he does.  That unexpected hand clasp, when I had given up my chance to get one, and knowing that Brian had a special moment with David, made AZ one of my favorites ever.

As we walked Brian back to the gate where he would catch his special cab ride home, he thanked us over and over.  And he called us angels! He said he had been worried about coming by himself but we had helped him so much.  He was so grateful.  It’s time to end this story.    I thought it was about Brian, but maybe it’s really about something I have already observed several times since becoming David’s fan.  The best little gifts you receive from loving David and his music come when you give a little something of yourself.  If you are reading this, I think you already know that.   The End.

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…. sounds more like a beginning to me

Enjoy a pleasant Sunday with family and friends!