Johnny enjoying a laugh with fans at the Ice Dreams 2011
meet-n-greet, April 30, 2011, Bensenville, IL.
Photo © David Ingogly.
meet-n-greet, April 30, 2011, Bensenville, IL.
Photo © David Ingogly.
Kayso we just got home a little while ago and are now plowing through more than 1,000 photos of this past weekend (I am not making this up) and so we need to do a little photo editing and also possibly some sleeping although not simultaneously, so today is kind of just Random Stuff I Remember About ... yeah. What it says up there. I'm too tired to type it twice.
Priceless highlight moments:
• Being involved in the ninja operation that is Somehow Getting the "Show Johnny the Love" Gift of Flowers and Special Card Delivered to Johnny Without Annoying Anyone or Over-Obsessing About the Details (note to self: Need more concise mission titles. Like SJTL: Odyssey in Texting). My compatriot in these delicate maneuvers is the founder of the SJTL group, Robin Fosdick, who is even lovelier in person than she is online, as if that were possible. Through a long and complicated set of circumstances, the mission is accomplished, he's very happy with the gorgeous flowers, and is particularly touched by the $350 raised and donated by the group to the Japanese Red Cross.
Johnny with the flowers (note vintage golden swan nestled in the branches!) from the "Show Johnny the Love" Facebook group.
• Conversing in The Edge lobby while preparing to hang the ginormously beautiful banners from the Chinese Angels and suddenly hearing a huge burst of cheers, whistles, and applause coming from the rink where the young skaters are rehearsing. Yep, Johnny has just arrived on the ice.
The banners! We only had room to hang two of them,
but they looked so fab! :) Thank you, Chinese Angels!
but they looked so fab! :) Thank you, Chinese Angels!
• Looking up from the task at hand to suddenly see Tara, in her fabulous pink skates, gliding over to offer a happy hug in the midst of the utter chaos that is 60+ young skaters all doing their own thing.
• Learning later that while seated in the stands watching some of the skaters rehearse, Johnny is surrounded by adoring little girl skaters who, with his kind permission, literally sit and pet him, stroking his hair lovingly. ♥
• Standing alertly and awaiting further instructions re: another volunteer effort, I suddenly hear behind me a brisk but warm voice I immediately recognize from thousands of BGJW viewing hours: "Hello, lady!" It's Patti, accompanied by US Angel Su Anderson. Big smiles and bigger hugs ensue, plus astonished compliments on my non-overalls attire. We discuss being appropriately blinged out for Johnny. Conclusion: "Too much is never enough" continues to be the motto.
• Accompanying another volunteer as a runner for the costuming department, we enter a room to see one more BGJW rock star: OMG it's Stephanie Handler!! I am thrilled to meet her; she is quietly amused at my Binkthusiasm. She's also knee-deep in "Future Stars" costumes, having flown in just that day from New York to help solve an unexpected snafu that has created an enormous challenge for the costuming people. But save the day she does, with assistance from more selfless volunteers. Yes, she is exactly as unassumingly awesome as she appears on the show.
• Sitting next to Robin in the on-ice VIP seating, I am thrilled to be there as she undergoes, wide-eyed and breathless, the unique, heart-pounding, indescribable experience it is to see Johnny skate live for the very first time. She is overwhelmed with the happy.
Johnny during the opening number, skating to
"Show Me How You Burlesque" by Christina Aguilera.
Photo © David Ingogly.
Johnny during the closing number, Lady Gaga's "Born This Way."
Photo © David Ingogly.
• Seeing Fireworks and Friends, which especially includes the indefatigable Josh King and the unflappable Jane Fiore, without whom I think we might have had neither Ice nor Dreams; Kori Ade of the North Shore Ice Arena, who coaches medalists Jason Brown and Jordan Moeller and who created the outstanding choreography for the show; Susan Oh, a fellow freelance writer from Chicago who was covering Ice Dreams for Skating Circle and live-tweeted entertainingly throughout; and Allison Manley, a fascinating skater who competes nearly every year in the US Adult Figure Skating Championships and who is the voice behind The Manleywoman SkateCast.
• Leaving the meet-n-greet for a few minutes to chat with some people, I notice Josh--who could have been taking a break and enjoying the buffet and the music--cheerfully helping The Edge maintenance crew clean up after the show. Which BTW I think was a sellout.
• And my favorite moment: Hearing, as word comes near the end of the meet-n-greet that the bus to take the skaters and their guests back to the hotel is ready to leave, Johnny--who, as always at these events, has stood patiently and graciously for more than two hours in a crush of people, signing autograph after autograph, posing for picture after picture, in a room that is a comfortably warm 450 degrees Fahrenheit--calling urgently across the crowd, above the music and the roar of conversation, to alert the most important person in the whole entire world:
"Mom. Mom! MOM!"
♥
Johnny during the red carpet media event
Photo © David Ingogly.
More--and by "more" of course I mean "an endless stream of"--
Ice Dreams photos coming up!
I am too wiped to deal with the promos.
and go see him at Skate for Hope. Kthxbai.
