Friday, December 28, 2012

David Archuleta's 22nd birthday &...9 months!

Edited by me, original photo credit to naree
HAPPY 22ND BIRTHDAY TO THE ONE AND ONLY DAVID ARCHULETA! Wow! It doesn't seem that long ago when I first saw him on American Idol...only 17 years old then! It's amazing to witness how much he has accomplished since then: 5 studio albums (not including the Asian Tour Edition of The Other Side of Down), 1 live album with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, 6 tours, a memoir, a leading role on a Filipino soap opera, and many more!
This morning, my mom, upon seeing the nice weather, said to me "you wanted to go to the Thai food place right? We can walk over today for lunch!" and I replied "okay!" then, realizing how perfect this is, I said "oh yeah, it's David's birthday!!" My mom goes on to say "should we celebrate by ordering more dishes? Are you paying?" haha! Here's to hoping he has a great day, year, and many more joyful birthdays to come!

p.s. Today also marks 9 months since David left on his mission. 15 months to go!

~Rinnie

Saturday, December 1, 2012

1 year ago...David Archuleta's My Kind of Christmas Tour kicked off!

Hello everyone! Since today marks 1 year after the first show of the My Kind of Christmas Tour, I decided to write a post about my experience, an experience of this tour from a fan who, very sadly, could not make a show.

*flashes back to 1 year ago*

I live in Seattle, and did not make the "Idol" tour show in Tacoma or the David/Demi tour show in Seattle because I was out of the country both times (Philippines and Taiwan respectively, summer vacation!). Determined to make a show, I got my hopes up that he might come here, since he hasn't been here in so long. When the tour dates came out, I was crushed. The closest shows from me were in Idaho, and the cities were 12-hour drives away, trips that I could not afford. A friend of mine goes to college in L.A. and lives less than 20 minutes away from the Anaheim venue and reasonably close to the L.A. venue, but I also could not afford to fly down and visit her to go to the shows together. Maybe I had a feeling that this would be his last tour in a long time, I don't know, but having waited almost 4 years to attend a David concert was just getting a little too long. It especially hurt to hear people talking about this being their 10th David concert, or complaining that they couldn't make a show this time, having already seem him more than twice.

However, many amazing ninja fans delivered! On the night of each show, I eagerly scrolled through my twitter feed for live updates of the show, for funny occurrences and for songs sung during VIP. The next morning, I would comb YouTube for the best quality video I could find of each performance. Eventually I would have favorites (such as This Christmas, Sleigh Ride, Fa La La La La, Climb Every Mountain) and focus on watching those performances from all the different shows.

I remember on the night of the Salt Lake City show, there was a cellcast/screencast. I was so excited to be watching a show live, and the quality was actually pretty darn great considering! David sounded absolutely amazing, but when he got very choked up talking about his family at one point, I realized that something must be up, since he sounded like he was saying goodbye. Sure enough, David said that he had an important announcement to make later in the show. Sitting at the edge of my seat with bated breath, I listened as he announced that he has decided to go on a full-time mission. I immediately started clapping and getting all excited for him...before I realized what that meant for the fans.

*back to the present*

But David has given us so much! I couldn't have asked for more and could never thank me enough. "Good things come to those who wait" right? I can wait 2 more years to tell David how much of an inspiration he is to me and to attend a show of his. Those of my friends unaware of my experiences are surprised that I have never seen him perform live, and think that I'm probably satisfied living off the YouTube performances. That kind of stings. I mean, come on, seeing your favorite singer in concert is not always easy! I know I'm just rambling now and have stopped making sense so I'll stop now. Thanks for reading!

~Rinnie