A couple of weeks ago I went over to my friend Vivian’s place to hang for the evening. We ate sushi and chatted and drank some wine and did some more chatting and then we watched a movie. A movie that is somewhat legendary and one that neither of us had ever seen all the way through. And that movie? Is Purple Rain.
Now, I know what you’re saying, you’re saying “UIG come on that movie was EVERYwhere in 1984 how did you not see it?” And if you knew what a massive Prince fan my friend Viv is you would say the same thing to her. But louder and with more “WTF??” Because it’s true. We both knew the story (more or less) we know all the songs (obviously) but we’d never seen the entire movie. Until a couple of weeks ago.
And? It is awful. On so many levels it is awful. But fantastic at the exact same time, you know? Wonderfully awful was the way Vivian put it. Or maybe it was awfully wonderful? No. No, definitely wonderfully awful.
So as we were watching and marvelling at the awful and the wonderful, we started discussing the protagonist – Prince. I asked Viv if she thought maybe he was retired, since we hadn’t really heard too much about him lately. Some artists will do that, just get to a point where it’s “thank you, and good night!” but for reals and forever. You can’t hold it against them, especially when they’ve had a career that spans decades. Like REM who just disbanded recently. Can’t blame them, but still can’t say that I’m happy about it. But I digress.
So we had this little chat about Prince and how amazing it would be to see him live, and I reminisced about seeing him briefly at Lilith Fair in Toronto when he casually wandered onstage to play with Sheryl Crow (I think) and then just as casually wandered off. And then we said “well if he ever does tour locally we’ll have to go see him”. And I said goodnight and went home. Actually no, we drank some more wine and I passed out on her couch and THEN I went home. The next morning.
And when I got home I saw a news headline that read thusly: “Prince to kick off Canadian tour in Toronto”.
When I regained consciousnes, I texted Vivian to let her know that our magic conversation helped to kickstart Prince into touring. Amazing! Sadly the show is on a date where we cannot attend but still! We talked about it and we made it come true. Trufax.
Then, this weekend when I was in Ann Arbor, I happened upon this:
If this is a sing-a-long night we are SO there.
The Urban Info Girl 