Barry seemed to be in a great mood for the opening of the show. He came out in that rust colored
jacket that he wears occasionally - the style is reminiscent of the Beatles Sgt Pepper jackets.
No changes to the set list. Are You Lonesome Tonight was great again, and so was River.
This time during the 50's medley, Barry walked over and started mugging for the fake camera - and
making kissing noises into the fake lense. I haven't seen him do that in a while.
I was sitting in BB-27 on the stage, so if I really wanted to *see* Barry I had to view the
monitor - but at least they do have them installed now so that the people on the far side of the
stage seats can see. Still, you lose a lot of the effect of the songs from there - it's kind of
like watching the show on TV. One thing I noticed is how good the sound is over there. I was
hearing things that I don't normally hear. I found that interesting - I would have thought that
the sound wouldn't have been as good on the sides.
It was kind of neat to watch the funny cigarette skit from the stage seats. Kind of neat to see
Barry that close, too.
At one point Barry commented that we could just call him "Santa Barry". Ok, Barry reminds me of
Santa - well, twinkling blue eyes part, anyway. And he's been kind of jolly all week.
It's not looking like I'll be coming to the show as often in 2007 - in fact, I only have one date
planned. Hopefully that will change and I'll be out here feeding my Manilow addiction a lot more
frequently. But if I'm forced to go cold turkey, at least I've had a couple of great years seeing
the show. You never know what's going to happen - and I *do* believe in Santa Claus! :-)
A final point to ponder - why *is* it that in Las Vegas it's always the UP escalator that's
broken?? (hey, I'm writing this at 5:15am - surely you don't expect any deep philosophical
thoughts, do you??)
