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Chapter 10
The video for Stars was shot in one day, and it was a blast. The concept was basically Steve's party. Anne had called Steve and had gotten him to play himself in the video. Nigel Dick was the director, Anne always thought his name was sort of funny, but he made good videos. The idea was Rose goes to this party, sees this guy, although the camera never sees his face, and eventually they get together and dance, that is where the tangoing comes in. Howie and Anne were each going to wear their clothes from Steve's party, and then there was going to be a costume change for when they tango. Howie would switch to a black tux, and Rose was going to wear a cool 1940's style red cocktail dress.
"Well we're here," Anne said as the busses rolled to a stop in front of the hotel. It's not normally this warm is it?" asked Howie as they got off the bus.
"No, I heard it was like in the 70's over Halloween weekend. Usually it's in the 40's or 50's by now."
"I see, so enjoy it while it lasts?"
"Exactly."
"So are you sticking around for the Pistons' game tonight?"
"Nope, hey that's right you guys are doing the national anthem thing."
"What are you going to do instead?"
"I'm heading
home for tonight. It's about an hour and a half that-a-way,"
Anne said pointing northwest. "I just couldn't pass up a chance to sleep
in my bed and get all my laundry done. I just hope Elise remembers who I am.
I think I'm going to bring her back with me, she'd love this. It's a shame you
can't come with me this afternoon. I promised Mr. Wangeman, that I'd stop into
rehearsal and do a few notes for their show. This show these kids are doing
is supposed to be really good. And tonight I am finally going to catch a football
game. My school made the state playoffs again this year."
"Well have fun. So when will we see you?"
"I'll be back
tomorrow afternoon. What time is it? My watch is MIA and
it's making me mad."
"It's about twelve thirty."
"Cool, thanks,
well I have to go. I don't want to be late. Bye, I'll call
you tonight."
"Let me know if they win."
"I will."
Anne quickly kissed Howie goodbye and tossed her luggage into the
rental car that had been arranged for her. Howie waved goodbye as she drove
off, and then trotted off to catch up with the rest of the guys. While heading
north Anne flipped on the radio and tuned it to the first station that came
in. "...from the way that it used to be, no matter the distance I want
you to know that deep down inside of me..." "How the hell can I do
that?" Anne wondered. She had developed a real talent for finding the guys
on the radio whenever she drove. It did not matter where she was, the time of
day, or where she was going, she could always find one of their songs, she had
even begun to scare Howie with her skill.
She drove into the parking lot of her old school at 2:15, "School's almost over," she thought. After she entered the building which she called home for four years, she wandered into the choir room. There she found Mr. Wangeman, hunched over his computer, typing up information on Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
"Anne, you made it. Thanks for doing this, I know the kids will really appreciate it."
"It's no problem, you know I love this kind of stuff. Oh, my mom finally got around to telling me you got married over the summer, congratulations."
"Thanks. Hey
could you do me a quick favor and run this down to Mrs.
Price's room, they need it for The Longboat."
"Sure, no problem. I'll be back in a few minutes." Anne walked down the tiled halls to the newspaper/photography/yearbook room. She slipped in the door trying as best she could to not disrupt the yearbook class. "Mrs. Price, this is for you from Mr. Wangeman."
"Anne, it's nice to see you again," Mrs. Price replied. "We were playing the new CD in the darkroom earlier, I like it."
"Thank you," Anne replied. As she exited the room, she heard the final bell ring and the halls clogged with students. Anne got lost in the rush. As she walked past a certain section of hallway 'the wall' where all the 'popular' students stood, staring people down, she got a pit in her stomach. "Some things never change," she thought. Anne turned on the lights in the auditorium. It still looked the same as she remembered, the purple paint on the walls, and the green seats, it still smelled the same. She walked out on stage, she closed her eyes and remembered her days here.
"Just like old times?" Mr. Wangeman asked from the doorway.
Startled, Anne replied, "Uh huh."
"The kids
will be in here soon. You can sit up there in the green seats if
you want." He handed her a yellow pad of paper and a pen.
Slowly the students began filing into the auditorium, most of them gave Anne strange looks. She could read "Who is this person, and what is she doing at our rehearsal?" on their faces. She recognized many of the students, although she could not remember some of their names. After a little stretching and a quick vocal warm up they started. As the show played out Anne scrawled out some notes. Mostly they were positive, but a few of the negatives were serious negatives. After the show was done, Mr. Wangeman gave his notes as did, Missy, the choreographer, whom Anne had graduated with.
"Anne, do you want to share your notes?" Mr. Wangeman asked.
"Sure,"
she replied and sat down on the stage. She heard someone say,
"God, I knew I recognized her from somewhere." Anne began, "Okay
guys I don't have a lot of things, Justin, you sound great and are showing a
great range in emotion. You're better than some of the Joseph's I've seen do
this part. Um, chorus, you are all doing a nice job, I know you're cramped up
there, some of you are really being expressive that's nice to see. Potifar,
where are you? Ah, get meaner when you see Joseph with your wife. Shoes. This
absolutely amazes me. You are three weeks out and I see half of you dancing
in boots, and sandals. I love those American Eagle boots too, I even own a pair.
But they're so heavy that you can't move as fast in them as you could in tennis
shoes. Kacy, I'm singling you out for this one because I know you. You can't
dance in sandals, I know you love your Birkenstocks, but you can't dance in
them. I talked to Miss Dubes earlier, she said you guys are wearing tennis shoes
during the show, so you should be dancing in tennis shoes, now."
The students startled to grumble and get restless. "Hey!" Mr. Wangeman bellowed. "She's here as a favor to me, she knows what she's talking about, show her a little respect. Continue, Anne."
"Some of you guys were late getting here, I noticed. Some of you want to do collegiate and regional theatre, well I've got a surprise for you. A lot of directors will cut you if you're late, when they say 2:30, they mean start at 2:30, not get here at 2:30. It doesn't matter who you are, they will cut you, because there are six people who will be there and can take your place. When I was in England doing Les Mis, the girl playing Cosette, who was a reasonably big star in London, was late twice and Graham, our director, fired her without a thought. Okay, enough with the bad stuff, now act two. Chorus, Pharaoh's Story, nice sound. I know it's a hard job you guys have, I've been there, keep up the good work. Brothers, during Canaan Days, very funny. Josh, Mr. Pha-ro-ah ma-hn, you are going to steal the show. That's about it. You guys are doing well, this is a college level show, you guys are on doing great. Mr. Wangeman, Miss Howe, Missy, they've all given you the tools, it's up to you to use them. It's been so fun to watch all of you, most of you 'get it.' And those who don't quite yet, I can see you're getting there. I just wish I could be here to see it, but I can't. Have a wonderful show. And don't scream at the game tonight, take good care of yourselves. Fire up little Vikings! I'll see you all at the game."
Anne signed a few autographs, and left the school, a few hours later she came back for the game, decked out in blue and gold. Excited she sat and watched the kick off.
"Anne?" asked someone behind her. She turned around. "It's Steph and Angela, remember us?"
"Steph? Angela? Of course I remember you, how are you?" Anne asked two of her friends from high school.
"We're good, Anne," Angela replied. "How are things with you?"
"Things are
good, I am just happy I could come home this weekend. Speaking
of coming home, Angela, don't you still live in Florida?"
"Yep, I stayed down there after college. Steph got concert tickets and so I flew back up here to go."
"What concert?" Anne asked, completely clueless.
"Backstreet, tomorrow night, we're pretty big fans," Angela answered.
"Really? Then I guess I'll see you there."
"That's right,
you're playing. I doubt you'll see us though, our seats
aren't that great," Stephanie said.
"If I can find you I'll try and hook you up with some backstage passes or something."
"That would be so cool," Angela added.
The next morning
Anne drove back down to Detroit, with Elise. The moment
the dog hopped on the tour bus, she bolted straight for Anne's bunk. "Don't
even think about it, dog," she ordered Elise who hopped back down on the
floor. She met the guys at the Palace.
"How was it?" Howie asked when he saw her.
"What the game? They won." Elise ran up to meet Howie.
"Hi there,
girl, how are you doing?" he asked as he scratched the dog's
head.
Before the show Anne was talking to the guys in their dressing room. "Okay guys, tonight is the night when all my cousins will be here. I got them passes, I'd just like to apologize in advance for anything they might say or do. They're screamers, they're at that age. I wish I had earplugs for all of you."
"It's no problem," Brian said.
"We're used to it." Nick added.
Anne went on stage
for her set, the night went off without a hitch. "Hello
Detroit! God it feels good to be home in Michigan, let's get this show on the
road," Anne said and kicked right into Why, which had become a top ten
single. After she finished Why, she scanned the audience, a sign caught her
eye, it said, 'Hey Rose, it's Steph and Angela, we're up here!' "I don't
believe it," Anne thought to herself, and then continued aloud. "Wow
this is a pretty big crowd, so where's everybody from? Hmm, do we have any Flint
kids here?" she asked, and looked down at Sara who was sitting in the second
row with Lauren and Lindsay, Sara was cheering. "How about Grand Rapids?"
Lauren and Lindsay were now on their feet cheering. "Detroit?" She
was hit with a wall of sound. "Ooh, did I forget someone? Oh yeah, how
about my hometown of Lansing?" The crowd cheered, and Anne went right into
Home, and played for the next forty minutes. She walked off stage high spirits,
the cheering crowd made her feel as if she was floating. During line check Anne
grabbed two backstage passes and snuck out to where the audience was sitting.
After climbing what seemed like hundreds of steps, she found Stephanie and Angela's
seats. "Psst! Steph, Angela. Here you go," she quietly said and after
handing her friends the passes, she slipped away.
Anne met her cousins after the show, they were so excited they could not hold still. "So how did she take it?" Anne asked Lauren, referring to when Lindsay saw her and Howie together at the VMA's.
"She was okay, she screamed, after she saw your interview. But by the time they sang she was like 'ooh Nick looks pretty cute, oh and so does Brian.' She'll be fine," Lauren said pointing to Lindsay who was getting a picture with Nick. Anne saw Stephanie and Angela walking her way and left Sara to keep Lauren and Lindsay under control.
"Hey ladies, how's it going?"
"This is so cool, thank you, Anne," Angela said.
"Come on,
the guys are down this way," Anne said as she lead her friends
down the hallway. Anne took a picture of Stephanie and Angela with Kevin and
Brian, their personal favorites. After the picture Angela continued to talk
to Brian for a few minutes. Anne had to go say goodbye to her cousins, they
had to head home. When she got back, Howie presented her with a brilliant idea.
"Hey Anne, we're going to order in pizza, why don't you invite your friends to stick around?"
"Are you serious? They would absolutely die."
"Go for it."
She went over to
where Angela and Stephanie were standing now talking to
Kevin. "Ang, Steph, got a proposition for you, we're going to get some
pizza, do you two wanna stay and hang out?"
"For real?" Stephanie asked.
"Uh huh."
"Yes, we'll
stay," Angela said, who was on the verge of doing a 'happy
dance.' "We owe you one, thank you."
The following two shows went well, after the final show in Detroit, everyone was packing up to go Brian had the radio on in the guys dressing room when something caught his attention. "Hey Anne, could you come in here for a sec?"
"Sure Brian, just a minute." She wandered in moments later, rolling her suitcase behind her. "What is it?"
"Listen to this," he said as he turned up the radio.
"What the
hell is that?" Anne asked, dumbfounded. "That sounds like Stars,
but I never recorded that version of Stars. Dammit, someone messed with my song,
I'm going to revile whoever is at the bottom of this. Thank you, Brian, now
I need to call Jake and get him to track down who needs to die now. God, this
makes me mad. You don't touch my songs after the master recording is done, especially
without my permission, it's in my contract for God sake." Anne stormed
out and went hunting for her cell phone, after swiftly dialing the numbers to
Jacob's office she waited for him to pick up. "Jake, hi, it's Anne."
"What's going on, my secretary said it was urgent."
"She has a
name you know. Anyway, I heard the strangest thing on the radio
today."
"What was it?" Jacob asked, a little nervous.
"I heard a
unique version of Stars, it sounded like a dance mix, dammit
Jake, you know they don't remix my songs, you know I hate that. Jake, I want
you to find whoever did that and get the mixes pulled."
"Rose, the clubs wanted a version of it, so I had one of the engineers put it together."
"You what? Jake of all the bloody, fucking..."
"What was that?"
"Dammit Jake, it's in my contract, you can't do that."
"It's been done, Rose."
"Well get rid of them, I hate it, it's my song, Jake."
"Why should I? It means more money."
"Is that all you care about, money? What about musical integrity?"
"You can't pay your mortgage with musical integrity."
"Jake, I want them pulled, now!"
"What if I don't?"
"Jake, I have
it in writing," Anne calmly began. "If I so chose I could
bail and sue you for breech of contract, no judge would side with you and you
know it."
"Is that a threat?"
"What if it is?"
"Rose, don't you dare."
"Jake, pull
them now, I never want to hear that done to one of my songs,
ever again."
"Fine," Jacob said through clenched teeth. He slammed the phone down, Anne quickly switched off her cell phone.
"Dammit!" she exclaimed, annoyed with the whole situation.
"What is it?"
Howie asked, he had just come out of the guys dressing room,
and was on his way to the bus.
"Jake, that bastard told them they could remix Stars."
"No offence, but so what?"
"I hate remixes,
especially dance remixes. They take songs that aren't
dance songs and try and make them into it, and they usually sound dumb. I remember
the first time I heard a dance mix of 98 Degrees' The Hardest Thing, I laughed
my head off. It's a ballad for God sake, it's perfect for slow dancing, but
not fast dancing. I once heard a remix of Everybody, I thought it was one of
the most pointless things ever, it's already a dance song. Agh, he's got me
upset and now I tangent, sorry. Let's go, as much as I love this place, right
now I want to get the hell out of Michigan."
Jacob immediately had the remixes of Stars pulled, he was furious at Anne for threatening him, bit scared he might lose his most lucrative client.
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