We're cracking ourselves up today. A couple of weeks ago, Sarah Rodman from the Boston Globe emailed us to see if we'd like to "chat" about the New Kids on the Block. We were happy to do so!
We thought that the article was going to be published this coming Sunday, but it was a fun surprise to see it today!
Wow, talk about excessive use of exclamation points, but this is pretty exciting for us!
!!!
The article talks about the reunion, the new album, and the public's reaction to it. We were proud to be part of such an elite panel of interviewees.
If you are new to our site, we hope that you check back frequently. If you are one of our loyal readers, we hope that you stick around. There is so much exciting stuff coming up!
Will Kim and Alexis ever make a decision about Boston? Will Alexis convince Kim that Vegas IS a good idea? Where will Tiny Kim and Tiny Alexis take the guys when they travel the city? Will Kim and Alexis ever get their submissions done for all the contests buzzing around NKOTB Land?
We hope that you have a great Friday. We would like to leave you with a picture of us having dinner with the guys at Kim's house a few weeks ago.
I just sucked it up and listed our Boston tickets on eBay I guess that makes me a douchebag. Lame.
I wish I could have forced myself to list them for a higher price… or not done the “Buy It Now” option. It would have been nice to offset some of the other costs of this tour, but I just can’t do it. Apologies to Alexis and the rest of the world who think I’m a giant loser for my anti-scalping stance.
Jon, Jordan, Donnie, Joey and Danny are back, and it’s pretty obvious that their audience couldn’t be more excited. That’s why we’re offering the most zealous New Kids on the Block fans a chance to prove themselves. If you make the cut we will fly you and a friend — four friends if you win the Boston trip — to not only see the guys in concert, but meet them as well.
We want to hear the most unique, craziest, die-hard fan story ever. The New Kids “Ultimate Fan” Contest is a show & tell deal, we are asking you to send in pictures that explain the depth of your NKOTB love. They could be shots from the group’s initial heyday (see the above example). They could be shots from last week. Along with the pictures, we need to hear your story that proves you are the Ultimate NKOTB fan! A panel of VH1.com employees will choose the winners based on the most unique and ultimate fan story received.
And in that same vein… Rachael Ray is also running a contest.
Women all over the world went crazy when The New Kids on the Block first hit the airwaves and the same is true today. Were Jordan, Jonathan, Joe, Donnie and Danny your obsession? Are you ready to spill the beans on your fanatic behavior? If you secretly kissed your NKOTB pillow before bed every night or decided your hubby was your one and only because of his resemblance to Jordan Knight we want to know about it! How far have you gone in your love for NKOTB? We want to hear your story! Ugh. Seriously? We’ve both been brainstorming about the craziest thing we’ve ever done in relation to the New Kids. So far we haven’t come up with much. The craziest, as in “least sane” and “inexplicable” and “what were you thinking” kind of thing that we’ve done probably won’t even make the first round of cuts.
Yeah, we had all of the merchandise back in the day… Yeah, our walls (and yeah, possibly the ceiling) were plastered with posters torn out of magazines (which are now neatly stored in 3-ring binders, thank you very much)… Yeah, I could still sing the songs in my sleep after not hearing them for 15 years… Yeah, I did this whole Mall of America for 16 hours to hear three songs and get mostly non-personalized autographs … Yeah, in college Alexis used to drive around Boston to see where they used to live and hang out…
But nothing that we ever did could really qualify as crazy – at least not in terms of what other New Kids fans might have done. It’s really all relative. And honestly? I feel like a lot of the “crazy” things that I’ve heard about fans doing are more along the lines of creepy. But who am I to judge? Haha… Maybe I’m just jealous. I lived in North Dakota, I was 13, and to be honest there just wasn’t a lot of craziness to be found.
I know that a lot of my friends think I’m crazy for being so excited about the New Kids on the Block and their reunion and new album and tour… All I know is that I haven’t been this happy or animated or energized or wound up about anything like this in awhile… And with all of the horrible things that are happening in the world… wars, terrorism, republican national conventions [okay, mostly the fact that I have to work during it], Salmonella, gas prices, the economy, The Hills, reality TV (except for Ghost Hunters – that show rules… and sometimes ANTM). What’s wrong with being excited about something that makes you so happy?
And speaking of things that make me happy?
Just a few:
Flight of the Conchords (shown here with me, Gina, Alexis, and Jess)
So I make one little ranty post about ticket scalpers, and now all of our ads are for... drumroll - ticket sellers. Maybe they were before too but I never noticed it as much.
I think the Universe is trying to tell me something.
We finally went legit. www.projectnkotb.blogspot.com is now just plain ol' www.projectnkotb.com
Kim and I decided that it is too hard to repeat the .blogspot.com to random people we see at Super America all the time. It is very exciting for us and the strangers we invite to look at our blog I am sure. We hope that it is exciting for all of you as well. This week is going to be full of exciting things. We have been working hard to pull this all together and can't wait to share the fruits of our labor with you.
Also, over at www.alexisandkimsexcellentadventures.blogspot.com we invite you to get to know us and our friends a little better and see what we do when we are not living New Kids-centric lives.
Alexis and I just finally decided that we're going to skip Boston.
I went to go list the tickets on Ticketbastard's "legal" ticket reselling site, and now I'm not only sad, I'm pissed off. Ticket scalping - in general, in theory, and in practice - makes me sick. I see a lot of live music, and it's beyond annoying and disheartening when I'm unable to get tickets to a show (or decent tickets anyway), because scalpers have scooped them up and are reselling them for hugely inflated prices. So I refuse do go through a "legal" scalping agency. I don't trust Craigslist (I'm old-fashioned; sue me). I think that people (in general) who resell tickets on Ebay are douchebags. For that reason, I thought I'd check out the TM option.
With all of Ticketbastard's exhorbitant fees, our two tickets that were originally listed at $77.50 each cost us $180.95. That's as much as I expect to get back for them.
The maximum price that I'm able to list them for on TicketExchange is $77.50 each. On top of that, they deduct $18.60 for a "seller's fee." Really? So the most I can hope to get back for them, if they sell, is $136.40. That's a loss of $44.55. That sucks. It's not like $44.55 is the end of the world, but it still sucks.
It almost makes me rethink the responsible, adult decision and plan to just go to the damn show anyway.
That said, if there is anybody out there who is looking for two tickets to the Sunday, September 28 show in Boston, shoot us an email. They're on the floor in Section H , Row 4, Seats 1 &2 (just in front of the soundboard). We'd love to get what we paid for them - $180.95.
I think I will go stomp around the house for awhile now. Please wish my husband luck.
It's been one hell of a week in ProjectNKOTB land. Sorry for the lack of updates. I hate bloggers who fail to update, and now we are those people !!! Gross. Not that I consider myself a blogger... that thought is also kind of gross.
Ahem.
We do need to report three VERY exciting pieces of news today.
1. On Tuesday, we had a very lovely chat with a very lovely woman from a certain print media outlet in Boston. We are pretty sure we know how the article is going to look, but we'd hate to get all proud about it and then look like dumbasses. We'll link to it once it's published :)
2. We are working on a pre-concert party and shuttle for before the October 21st show at the Xcel center in St Paul. We talked with one of the owners and one of the managers of this one particular bar where we tend to spend a fair amount of time, and they think it will work fine, but until we get official confirmation, we'd really hate to tell you too much. You know, that whole "looking like dumbasses" thing...
3. Number three is kind of fun. We'd hate to ruin the surprise. That said though, soon you will be able to outfit all of your children and pregnant friends with apparel to explain their existence... or your absence... as it relates to the fall tour. There are a few things for the rest of us too!
We'd like to leave you with this view of the tiny version of us, getting excited for October...
We're still undecided on Boston. You people are nothing but enablers!!!
The rational tiny adults sitting on our left shoulders are telling us that it's fine if we sell those tickets. We will be going to three other shows in addition to the mini-show that we saw at the Mall of America, and we'll be in 5* seats for two of them. We have regular floor seats to the September 28 Boston show, so it's not even like that will be the best view we've had (although I'm not sure how you beat 3 feet away). In fact, we'll have front row seats to a tiny part of that show on TV in the comfort of our own homes... live on VH1. So that's a completely rational decision, right? Any reasonable person would be happy making that decision, right?
Unfortunately, Alexis's husband called my husband the other day and fired me from being "the reasonable one."
The impulsive, tiny adults sitting on our right shoulders are screaming "Carpe Diem" at the top of their lungs, and trying really hard to persuade us that we NEED to go. We've already bought the tickets. We could technically go for very cheap. We figured out that we could fly into JFK, then take the Chinatown bus to Boston, all for under $200. We have a place to stay in NYC, so we'd only need a room for one night in Boston. I would need one day off from work. Considering how much I'll be working the first week in September, I don't think that will be an issue.
We're torn between seeing NKOTB in their hometown, and letting it go as "just another show."
I need to just put the tickets up for sale and be done with it. But WHAT IF this is our last chance to see them perform in Boston? Is it really that big a deal? Are Prince's shows THAT much better here in Minnesota?
This blows.
[HEIDI from Iowa - If you're reading this please send me an email at projectNKOTB at gmail dot com]
So, as this whole NKOTB reunion thing has been going on, I've been thinking a lot about a girl I was friends with in Junior High, Michelle [Michelle, if you're out there, give me a shout!!]. I googled her the other day and found this article in the People Magazine archives.
When we were 8th grade (I think), she and her mom formed the New Kids Network of North Dakota, and I got to tag along...
We gathered signatures on petitions to entice the New Kids on the Block to perform in North Dakota. We'd sit in the mall at a table with New Kids posters and paraphernalia and things with these petitions... I think we went to Bismarck and Grand Forks... I don't remember sitting at West Acres in Fargo, but I would imagine that we did.
I remember when People Magazine came for this interview. We ordered Domino's pizza (pepperoni, naturally), and they took a bunch of photos.
How Far Will the Women of Fargo Go to Lure the New Kids to Their Block?
So Far, 17,000 Signatures and Counting
Sure, to the rest of the known world it seems that the pop-rap group New Kids on the Block are everywhere: on TV and radio, in videos, coming to your town soon on tour or, possibly, to clear up some business at the local courthouse. But try living in North Dakota, where fans have to cross state lines to see the Fab Five in concert—even though North Dakota claims Kidiacs like Fargo's Michelle Bruzelius, 13, who has plastered her bedroom with more than $2,000 worth of New Kids memorabilia.
The very thought so steams 82-year-old Alma Herman, a former grade-school music teacher, that she has joined with Michelle's mother, Barbara, 39, in a petition drive to bring the Kids to Fargo and save their fans the 250-mile trek to Minneapolis. "We're the only continental state they haven't performed in," declares Herman, who's also the senior member of the newly formed New Kids Network of North Dakota, as the petition committee calls itself. "They can't ignore us. We're tough. We're Germans, and we don't give up."
While Herman strong-arms the senior set for signatures ("They like the group's antidrug message"), Bruzelius has turned the house she shares with Michelle and husband Joe into New Kids HQ, spending most of her day distributing petitions, writing letters and calling deejays. Bruzelius's efforts have cost her $2,200 of her own money and put 1,800 miles on her red 1987 Ford Escort, which is festooned with New Kids posters and buttons. Herman, Bruzelius and a third zealot, Tammy Bowman, 32, have already collected 17,000 names and hope to have 50,000 by Dec. 1.
Come Nov. 10, Bruzelius and Bowman will lead four carloads of fans to Minneapolis for a New Kids concert. For her part, Herman will stay home and hope for a show next summer at the Fargo fairgrounds. "You won't be able to keep me away," she vows, undeterred even by her heart condition. "You might have to carry me in one of those chariot things, but I'm gonna go."
I don't remember if it was the next day, or a separate trip, but they had us gather a bunch of New Kids fans at the Red River Valley Fairgrounds for a photo shoot... We did the choreography to "My Favorite Girl" (which we learned from watching the Hangin' Tough Live video over and over and over and over and over...) and they took more photos.
I remember Alma too... Here's another article about her.
Wow.
About the caravan of cars that is mentioned near the end of the article... Inside Edition actually came and filmed that little trek of ours.What a pain that was. I remember just wanting to GET THERE, but they kept having us stop so they could film the cars driving past. I have the tape somewhere at my mom's house in Fargo. Naturally it's not labeled. I wonder if they keep track of their video clips too... maybe they're in archives somewhere too?
Sadly, our petition drive didn't work :( They never came, but The Party did. Remember them? That's another post for another day.
On the way home from my class tonight, I was listening to the radio. Summertime came on. I immediately got the chills. Not the good kind of chills - the oh my god I think I'm going to puke kind of chills.
Way to go, MOA folks. Seriously, who was responsible for this.?
I did the math. The crude math. Math and I have never been good friends, or I may have gone into epidemiology. While I'm at it, holla at Team Diarrhea.
Back to the crude math... Assuming that we stood in the rotunda from 11:30 until 6:30, and assuming that the loop was about 15 minutes long (~5 minutes for the Today Show, ~4 minutes for the Summertime Video, and ~6 minutes for the making-of segments), that means that we heard Summertime approximately 12 times per hour, multiplied by seven hours... That equals oh my word, I'm going to be sick.
Was that intentional? It's seriously messed up if it was, and if it was a mistake and/or oversight - wow. I hope somebody got a good tongue-lashing. I'm not going to wish firing upon them, because that would be really cruel in this economy.
I just don't understand it... It was like my freshman year of college when the girl who lived across the hall from me played "Glycerine" by Bush at top volume all day and all night for an ENTIRE WEEKEND. Seriously Claire, what was up with that???
Is anybody else suffering PTSD from Summertime, or is it just me?
In other news, if we have any wealthy long-lost relatives out there who would like to subsidize and/or just outright pay for us to go to Boston, now's the time to show your face. We're getting ready to part with our tickets to the September 28 show (Heidi - we'll be in touch). We would love to go, but I need a new car someday soon, so... something's got to give.
New Kids on the Block and vacation Saturday, August 9, 2008, 10:07 PM CST [General]
Friday night, New Kids performed at Mall of America. A little secret? The show was held up for a half hour because their plane was late. But it was held up ANOTHER half hour because there was no cufflinks.
What?
Yep, one of the New Kids, (I suspect Jordan, cuz looking at the video, he's the only one that looks like he could be wearing cufflinks) refused to go onstage until some cufflinks could be located for his wardrobe. Apparently, in desparation to get the already-late show started, someone suggested he use safety pins. That idea was met with shock and disdain from the "Cute" New Kid, who was appalled that he'd be asked to perform using a safety pin, just to make a few hundred fans happy at HIS expense!
But they did a great job performing. Here's "Summertime." Sorry about the audio quality.
I'm on vacation next week and so is Lena, but Steve-O and Crisco will be holding down the fort and doing their thing. Have a great week!
Really? That seems awfully diva-ish. Then again, if *I* was already crabby due to a flight delay, and then somebody told me that part of my outfit was missing, I might have to throw a fit too. Maybe?
But why talk shit? Why spread rumors?
Then again, The Dave Ryan Show and I have never really been friends. In 2006 I got into an email pissing match with Steve-O related to the upcoming election and the morning show's asinine pleas for their listeners to vote for Michele Bachmann "because she's hot."
I think I will choose to categorize this little piece of information as "unconfirmed" and the source as "somebody who is completely irresponsible with their persuasive abilities." Fair enough, right?
And furthermore, KDWB had one of their interns videotaping the performance from the barricaded off area in front of the stage, and she sucked. Rather than try to be polite about it like the professionals, she had no problem blocking everybody else's view of the show. It's not even like the video is going to turn out very well. She was standing right in front of the speaker and didn't have a tripod. Not exactly Oscar-worthy material...
I'm not exactly sure what the point of this little posting is, but I'm sure I'll figure it out tomorrow...
Wow, what a day. I’ll try not to repeat too much from our posts yesterday. Oh, and to clarify: we were both posting yesterday, but they’re all listed with Alexis as the author, since we were using her Blackberry. Apologies for the jumping back and forth between first and third person narration, but it was a long day. Proper grammar kind of went out the window.
Anyway,
I picked Alexis up around 2:45 a.m. We stopped at the gas station first because the tank was on E. We didn’t want to run out of gas on the way to the mall! Alexis realized that she’d forgotten her wallet at home, so we had to go back to her house to get it. After searching for a few minutes at home, she checked one more time in the bag that she had thrown into the car and found it.
With gas in the tank and Red Bull in our bellies, we headed to the mall, arriving around 3:30. The driveways leading into the mall were all barricaded off from the north side (where we were). We pulled into the surface lot across the street, where several other vehicles were parked. We noticed that people were walking in the direction of the West parking ramp, so Alexis took one for the team and sprinted in their direction. The “official” word from the mall was that nobody was going to be let in before 4:00, so she was surprised to see a line already forming in the skyway between the ramp level P4 and the level 3 mall entrance. There were cars in the ramp too! She called me to tell me to come up the back (south) way, so I was on my way.
By the time I made it into the ramp, Alexis had parked herself in line. This is what it looked like from where we were sitting: I think somebody counted and we were numbers 60-something in line. 63 and 64 maybe? If only we hadn’t had to stop for gas…
We had to walk an obstacle course of stanchions before reaching the skyway.
We sat in the skyway until 5:00, when they opened the doors to the mall. The new Best Buy is right inside the doors at level 3 East. That line looked like this:
We made a tent:
Around 9:00, Magic Johnson showed up. He was also part of the Grand Opening festivities. We didn’t get a very good photo of that, but maybe one of these people did:
Shortly before 10, I ran back to the car to stash a blanket and pillow, before the CD presale started. I noticed a group of fashionable young boys being photographed by lots of girls… I had no idea who they were, but I mentioned it to Alexis and other people in line.
She grabbed the camera, told me to grab the dolls, and we headed in that direction. Apparently they are a new boy band, formed by Maurice Starr (who also created NKOTB). Alexis explained to them the importance of taking photos with Barbies:
I think they are called the Heartbeat Boys, but we could never remember their name in time… Yesterday, they were They Hardy Boys, The Funky Fresh Fellows, The Heartbreakers, Heart Throb USA, Don’t Break My Heart, and Menudo. They wandered the mall all day, but didn’t perform anywhere, at least as far as we knew.
At 10:00, the line for the CD presale finally started moving. Unfortunately, they only had ONE cash register set up for this event. Seriously?
By 10:45, we finally had made it through the presale line, and headed towards the next line at the rotunda. It was like a human feedlot, with people winding back and forth, back and forth, between the stanchions. It was very cattle-ish.
The first people in line that morning (the Return of NKOTB girls) were naturally the first people in the rotunda. Technically, they should have had to move all the way to the end of the first row. That would have meant that they were all the way to the side instead of front and center. Luckily for them, the Best Buy folks were being nice and let them only move partway down the row, so they wouldn’t have to deal with an obstructed sightline. Luckily for us, we landed in the row right behind them and to the right a little bit. I overheard the deal that was being made with the Best Buy staff and security, that if they needed extra room, that more people could fill in along the sides.
We made a deal with Kim (not OUR Kim, the Return of NKOTB Kim) that as long as she could be the first person in the autograph line, that she’d let us cut “in front” of her in line.
So now we were in the front row, just off of the corner!
So, now on to the final stretch of waiting. As long as you had somebody sitting next to you saving your spot in line, you were free to leave the line to eat, use the restroom, change clothes, etc.
They had videos running on the big screens over the stage. That was fine… except they only played three things on a continuous loop: 1. The May 16 performance from the Today Show, which consisted of Summertime and an old-school medley of songs. 2. The Summertime video. 3. The making-of video of the Summertime video, for which the soundtrack was – naturally – Summertime. That’s it. For SEVEN HOURS. It’s as though the Dharma Initiative was running the soundboard. Way to torture us with something that we once found pleasing. I was nearly ready to jump off of one of the upper balconies.
These are some of the nice people that we met in line. Unfortunately, we spaced on many of the names. If you see yourself here, let us know who you are!
Heather & Sadie from Iowa
(love his t-shirt!)
Kim, Kristin, and Mandie
Kim and Kim (gosh, there were a lot of Kims there)
Adorable 14-yr olds Sara and Cheyenne, and their aunt Jenny
The group of “TC Blockheads”
The line thickens:
Cheyenne, Sara, and Mandie
After sitting for several hours, we needed to go stretch our legs for a little bit. This is what the stage looked like from above:
We grabbed a quick happy hour drink at the new Corona Cantina on the fourth floor, then headed back to our place in line.
Shortly after we got back, a security guard who helped us out setting up some photos (thanks to the hookup from the TC Blockheads), asked if we wanted to be on TV. KARE 11 was covering the event (as were other media outlets). I guess 31-yr old women who otherwise seem normal, but who play with Barbies, might be good for a soundbite?
The article And the 11:00 news clip (11 instead of 10 because of the Olympics):
The 6:00 news clip included a snippet of me saying that we’re doing this now because “we have disposable income, vacation days, our moms can’t say no!!!” The show was scheduled to start at 5:30, but Dave & Lena from KDWB came out to make some announcements, including the one about the start time being delayed. Dave said it was due to a flight delay, but another media personality who will go unnamed said it was because they were being “bitchy,” especially their publicist, who he likened to Cruella DeVille.
We were starting to get pretty ripe by this time… We’d been up and at it for nearly 16 hours by that point. We’re still pretty cute though.
The Fine Flying Funky Bunch (I mean Hearty Boys? Heartbreakers? I give up.) and Maurice Starr used the delay as an opportunity to mingle some more.
You never know. They might be famous someday. Whatever their name is.
Finally, FINALLY, the show started just before 6:30.
There are dozens and dozens and dozens (okay well over a hundred) photos of the show. Rather than post them all here, you can find them here and here
Here are a few of our favorites:
I will swear until the day I die that this kiss was thrown right to me. There was full eye contact going on. It’s not my video or link, but I’m going to post it anyway because, SERIOUSLY??? I have been waiting 20 years for that.
Thanks to Kim/2008Blockhead for the link.
They sang Summertime (ugh, but it was fine live), Tonight, and Single. Ne-Yo is actually on the studio version of Single, but I wish it wasn’t too late to fire him. That song is HOT, and it was awesome without him.
Another link that's not mine:
And then, just like that, the show was over.
They left the stage for about 15 minutes. They came back (some of them in different clothes), and did a short meet & greet with the folks in the special needs section.
Jon was running late when the rest of the guys had already gone up to the table on the stage. A chant of “Jon! Jon! Jon!” was started by Donnie & Danny
He was actually just spending extra time in the “special needs” section before the on-stage autograph session started.
The autograph session was yet another organized line to go through. We were some of the first people to go through it.
We lined up at the edge of the stage. As we approached, if you had a bag or purse you had to put it in a basket, and someone carried your stuff to the other side of the stage for you. Like at the airport, but without having to take off your shoes.
As we posted about last night, Donnie made both of our days complete. He personalized Alexis’s laminate with "follow your thing" after she yelled at the security guard who was trying to move her along. He made me a 14-year old girl again, when as I was waiting for Danny to finish, he touched my hand then winked at me. So trivial, but so awesome.
Kim’s laminate:
Alexis’s “follow your thing” laminate”
The backside:
So, in a very large nutshell, that was our day. We went to Spanky’s afterwards to try to upload photos, but couldn’t get a signal. We mostly just stared at each other, with several good fits of giggles thrown in. I was ready to crash after a couple of beers and half of a burger, but Alexis went out on the town (wearing her laminate, naturally).
This morning we discussed future NKOTB-related plans. We’ve rethought our Boston decision. We think that we need to go. We also think we need to go to Los Angeles. Crazy? Yes. But how can you put a price tag on something that you’ve dreamed about for so long… and that can make you SO happy?
The savings accounts will be visited… plans are in the works. Stay tuned ;)
On the surface, you get savvy, smart, master's degree holding professionals who excel at their jobs and have loving families. Underneath all that impressiveness lie two raging fangirls willing to endure discomfort, inconvenience and the possibility of humiliation to prove that they are NKOTB's biggest fans (and hopefully, to score some backstage access).
About Project NKOTB
It all started about 20 years ago, when NKOTB really were new on the block. Kim and Alexis were fans then, and the love never faded. When the reunion was announced, Kim and Alexis knew that they had to make the most of the opportunity and see NKOTB as many times as possible, without totally abandoning those aforementioned careers and families.
Here, at Project NKOTB, they have chronicled their journeys to concerts at the Mall of America, Boston, Chicago, Saint Paul, Milwaukee, Omaha, San Diego, Los Angeles, Champaign, Des Moines, and Green Bay. They've trotted out memorabilia guaranteed to make women (and men) of their age group wistful and nostalgic. When it comes down to it, they generally party like it's 1988 (but with more drinks).
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