Hey. It's been awhile. How are you, cuties?

Just bought a slew of tickets of various concerts coming through my town this summer and got pretty excited -- I haven't seen this many shows since the Rockstar days!

Here's what's on the list for this summer:

Stone Temple Pilots -- Hollywood Bowl
The Faint (both nights) -- The Henry Fonda
George Michael (shut up, you.) -- The Forum
Collective Soul - The Greek
Live -- The Greek
Blues Traveler -- The Greek
Stars Down (Lukas Rossi's new band) -- Viper Room
She Wants Revenge -- the Wiltern
The Who's Tommy -- The Ricardo Montalban
Radiohead (both nights if I can swing it) -- Hollywood Bowl
Raconteurs -- The Greek
The White Noise Supremacists -- my cousin's band!

It's gonna be a good summer, I think! If you're going to any of these shows, let me know, so we can exchange hellos.

Hopefully somewhere in all this, I can feed a little of my David Cook fetish but doubt I'll be making any of the AI concerts. Cuz, really y'all, I can pretend to care about the rest of the contestants, but the truth is I couldn't give a rat's ass! I'm hoping Cookie'll drop a solo album in the fall and start touring that bitch immediately.

Yes, "Cookie".

I also call him "Skittles" when no one's looking. Because, see, he sings this song that has this stupid lyric in it about "tasting every moment" and "searching for that magic rainbow..." and well, you know, "Taste the Rainbow " is the slogan for...oh never mind. All you need to know is I got it bad for the boy, and plan to check him out if he does any solo gigs.

Other than that, how is everyone?

Quick trip down memory lane: I heard a radio interview with JD Fortune the other day, back home in Canada. Then I watched a little interview with Lukas Rossi, back making music with some old buds. Wish I could link to them both but can't find them again now that I'm looking. It's so interesting to hear what the fame thing has done to two of my old favorite performers. I remember the excitement surrounding their wins -- two totally different vibes for sure, but still the sense of of the possibility of world domination. Both tasted that to varying degrees, and are now on the other side of it, each working in new, post-show ventures with old friends. I feel nostalgic and kinda sad for what was, wondering how you regain that spotlight once it's swung away.

But it's not all sadness and tears, far from it.

I can't wait to see Lukas' new band. See the evolution. Also can't wait to hear JD's solo album.

What's in store for Skittles? Will I be writing a blog two years from now about how fame broke him, too and how he's trying to start again from -- if not square one then from square two? I don't think so. Unlike my other two broken birds, Cook never lived in his car under a bridge -- which to me says that something broke them early, and music was something that helped stitch them back together. For Cook, he seems to have had a pretty stable childhood despite some rocky bits, and music was embraced as a joy rather than as a life line.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but hey! What's a gal to do while she waits for her damn pizza to arrive?

Lots of love, cuties :) See you at the show.