Jennifer Hudson & Josh Groban

 What i wrote by 9:15 pm before Josh came on stage

I vowed never to go to another Josh Groban arena concert because they were too loud and hurt my ears and I felt that wearing ear plugs to a concert sorry of defeats the purpose; however, I got a new pair of concert ear plugs that are supposed to preserve the sound quality, which I wanted to try out. 

I think they worked well, because I felt like could hear without pain. 

 I got here late, but still got to hear a fair amount of Jennifer Hudson. She is a fantastic singer. She was loud, but my ear plugs made me OK with it. I got a few brief recordings, but didn’t try to record the whole thing. I missed her lowest notes and also some of her high, quiet melisma. Curiously, at one point she lowered her mic and I could still hear her and I’m clear across the arena at the far end. 

I got a good seat in section 102, having waited until the night before, when someone got desperate

The best seats on the floor seem to be pretty much sold out. The other sections have quite a few empty seats

I think one goal of this pairing was to get a broader base of fans. I did see some black people, who are normally not present at Josh Groban concerts—but not a huge number. 

Jennifer Hudson is supposed to have a younger fan base than Josh. I do see some younger people. I’m not sure how many of them are here for her. I also see quite a few men — less likely to be at a pure Josh Groban concert. 

Here’s a Google discussion of their fan bases

https://share.google/aimode/0YSR8aOq2wCPcMGhw

I do feel that this is a nice pairing. Josh has frequently chosen to duet with altos. Typically I cannot hear them over his voice. He sings very loudly.  They blend well. The audio engineers don’t adequately compensate. He really sounds better duetting with sopranos. Their high voices contrast more with his and are more audible. 

However no one is going to drown out Jennifer Hudson. The fan recordings I’ve heard online sound fantastic. She comes though loud and clear even though her voice is low. Also her distinctive melisma comes through. 

I hope Josh doesn’t try melisma tonight. The times I’ve had him try sounded pretty lame. I don’t think it’s a strength for him. 

I’m also hoping that being lower in the arena should make the sound better. I think the balcony tends to be louder because the sound from the speakers near the ceiling kind of gets trapped. 

******

I am going to write more, but here's a link to my concert clips on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ0RoTZFGpy/?igsh=MTMwZHl4Y21uZTJvNg==

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Jennifer Hudson was extremely loud.  Fortunately, I had my new concert earplugs.  These were billed as reducing volume wile conserving fidelity.  I think it worked.

Josh was in excellent voice.  He sounded fantastic.  His hair looked a bit wild, tho probably somebeody made some kind of decision about that.

Here is an instagram post of Josh in Pennsylvania. https://www.instagram.com/p/DZc9l8nli12/

Josh's most loyal band member, guitarist and music director, Tariqh Akoni was there.  

The pianist, Danae Greenfield, was new to me 

https://www.danaegreenfield.com/

https://www.instagram.com/danaegreenfield/?hl=en

I hope Mark Stephens is ok.  The last time I saw him on stage he was looking pretty old.

I guess Josh hires local orchestras when he is on tour.  He used a bunch of Broadway musicians, who he knew from his stint as Sweeney Todd on Broadway.  They called themselves "Josh Groban's Meat Pie Orchestra" in memory of that show.

He had a video of his dad playing Trumpet.  His dad is 80 and not touring with him.  He alleged that the video was live Zoom, but I think he was joking, because you can't sound sync with Zoom like that.  There's a delay. https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ0RoTZFGpy/?img_index=14

He did introduce the drummer, but he's had so many drummers I didn't really notice.

I was at the far end of the arena from the main stage, but he had a satellite stage very close to where I was sitting, so that was lucky.  

https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ0RoTZFGpy/?img_index=13

He went down to the satellite stage twice, walking back through the crowd to the main stage while singing & shaking people's hands.  

https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ0RoTZFGpy/?img_index=16

I remember that from the "Awake" DVD -- seeing him go through the audience singing and shaking people's hands -- tho he was running more when he was younger.  I was glad to see him still doing this.  There were two aisles down on the floor.  He used both of them.

The tech people were near the satellite stage, so you can see them on some of my videos.  I always enjoy seeing them.  There are a lot of people working behind the scenes at these shows.

I'm going to try to embed my Instagram post here.  Curiously, they won't let me tag Josh on this post.  He might have restricted me, I suppose.  That might also be why I can't report imposters who follow me pretending to be him.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sky Song (@skysong263)

werewolf romances; dragon hatchlings; and vampire kings

My latest youtube rabbit hole is listening to stories on these topics.

Here are some examples.

 

In each case, there are generally still photos with a story read out, most often by AI, which makes odd mistakes.  The stories may be written by AI as well, for all I know -- or at least partly written by AI.

The ones I've been watching most have been the werewolf romances.  These are typically Cinderella type stories.  An abused scullery maid ends up marrying a prince.

The werewolf world has some features.  

People are connected by a "mate bond" which usually happens almost instantly after they see each other.  The mate bond allows telepathic communication between the two members of the couple.  If one of them tries to break the bond, one or both of them may die -- sometimes rather quickly and dramatically.

Sometimes, if a rejected person finds someone else rather quickly, before they die, they can mate to the new person -- but that's unusual.

The werewolves seem to live in a pack for the most part.  There is a castle with lots of folks living in it.  The highest ranking are called alphas.  The next highest ranking are called betas.  Sometimes there are other greek letters.  The servants are called omegas.  So far I've never seen a male omega -- only females. 

The omegas live in poverty and are typically abused by other pack members.  The alphas are often billionaires who have elevated corporate positions in the human world.  Humans apparently never suspect that their corporate executives might be werewolves.

The alphas are also unusually large, not only in their wolf form, but also in their human forms.  They are typically well over six feet tall -- once I even read that one was 7 feet tall. 6'6" seems to be optimal.  They are muscular, with sharply defined jaws. I have not found any out of shape, nerdy alphas who are respected for their intellect or character.  

Alphas are always characterized by "predatory grace."  They are very violent and kill a lot of people who threaten them. They rule, in a totalitarian fashion, by exuding a magical alpha aura that makes other werewolves submit.

These packs often are in very cold climates.  Maybe they escape detection by living in wildernessy areas. Omegas seem to be frequently thrown out in the snow with no coat to die.  Exile from the pack typically means death, tho sometimes people find a rogue pack to join.  If the the rogue pack gets strong enough, it might actually get to be a regular pack, if I understand correctly.

The packs are often at war with each other -- though particularly large and violent alphas can unite packs.

Even though modern times are often alluded to, the whole pack structure seems very medieval -- and the women's gowns are typically Medieval too -- or at least floor length.

I don't see any stories about middle class people. There are people like archivists and treasurers referred to, but they're always minor characters.

In these packs, it is considered shameful to not be a werewolf.  If you are "wolfless," that is really low status, fit only for scurbing floors and living in tiny rooms with only a thin mattress on the floor.  You generally don't get enough food, also.

It is a grave crime to use chemical means to suppress someone else's wolf, but that seems to happen quite often to the female protagonists, at the hands of abusive pack members.  Typically, these bad guys suppress a woman's wolf either because they fear her power or because they have some other female relative who they hope will marry the handsome prince.

When the tortured Cinderella does finally shift, it often turns out that her wolf is extraordinary -- extra large, some showy color, or exceptionally powerful in some way.  

After the female mates with the alpha -- generally characterized by a brief announcement and sometimes a party, but seldom by a thoughtful, lengthy courtship or engagement -- she becomes his "luna."  Sometimes the luna is also a "queen."  She is considered an important partner for the alpha.  

The lunas do sometimes have kids -- more commonly referred to as "pups," but seldom very many.  Contraceptives are not mentioned, but one has to wonder why there aren't more pups.  Quite often it appears that the babies are born in wolf form and only shift to human later.

I'm kind of beating myself up for getting so sucked in to these stories.  They are really not PC.  The women, for the most part, only escape abuse by their family members  because the prince (aka alpha or alpha king) establishes a mate bond with them.  If they're dying from a broken mate bond, they cannot recover on their own.  They have to have a more powerful alpha fall in love with them.

Success in life for these women is entirely dependent on having a rich, muscle-bound thug fall in love with them.

Sometimes these women, after they get the prince, do good things, like make sure omegas get enough food and are not cheated out of their wages. There is sometimes reference to the lunas cleaning up administrative issues in the pack -- though life after mating is seldom examined, unless an alpha finds himself tragically widowed, after his mate dies, in which case some aspects of their lives and children are revealed.

Why am I inhaling this stuff?  I have been divorced for 20 years.  There's no musclebound giant on my horizon.  For the most part I am contented with my lot.  I'm not really looking for the kind of guy that's featured in these stories.   Yet I keep listening.

****

 The dragon hatchling stories are not, so far as a I can tell, romantic.  Either a human (usually male) finds a baby dragon and starts raising it -- or a dragon finds a baby human and starts raising it.

These dragons are space aliens -- encountered on other planets. They have cute babies who bond with humans.

The relationship between the human and the dragon is characterized as transformative -- and results in some kind of diplomatic breakthrough in space politics.

I sort of like this type of plot better from an intellectual point of view, but I'm watching substantially less of them.

I haven't watched enough of the vampire stories to be able to characterize them-- but apparently they have children with humans.

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6/1/26

I've watched an incredible number of werewolf videos now.  I don't know how people keep producing so many.  

Words commonly mispronounced in the werewolf videos

• wound (injury v winding)
• tear (cry v rip)
• bow (weapon v human deference motion) 
• herb -- reader doesn't seem to know the "h" should be silent

Another thing I've noticed is that they commonly use images that look like actors from Game of Thrones in these videos.  I've documented some of these instances on X.  I'm going to embed the first post in that thread here

I have been watching a lot of alpha romance audiobook videos on YouTube. These videos have an audio story with largely still images. Curiously the images seem often to look like Kit Harrington and Maisie Williams pic.twitter.com/68IvlA33Xg

— Skysong263 🌈 (@skysong263) June 9, 2026

Lucifer rabbit hole

 I've gone down a YouTube rabbit hole of recaps of movies and shows.  Most recently this led me to recaps and clips from a Fox/Netflix show called Lucifer that I hadn't heard of before.

It turned out that the lead actor, Tom Elliot, is also an accomplished musician, which they worked into the show.   I found this YouTube video of his playing piano and singing 

(Turns out someone else is playing the piano)

For a long time, I wasn't very sensitive to what drew other people into particular performances.  I would look at what other people liked and scratch my head.

Here, though-- partly because I like the style of performance, but partly because I've learned a bit more about conveying emotions through performance -- I am totally blown away.

The Lucifer character is very complex.  He is famous, powerful, and supernatural -- yet also conflicted, vulnerable, insecure, hungry for love yet fearing love, wanting to overcome his background -- and dealing with a large, dysfunctional family.  It seems like a lot of the angels and demons seem to be actual siblings -- if not all of them.  Their mother is a powerful, yet troubled, spirit who possesses human bodies.

Tom Elliott is so brilliant in conveying this complex character.  He is really drawing me in.  His performance is all the more brilliant when he plays the piano and/or sings, because he maintains the character in the music.

When he sings "Creep" it gains new depth.  "I will survive" becomes an actual conversation.  

Sadly, it seems that this brilliant performer does not give concerts.  I wish he did.  I would like to go to one.

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Addenda 260118

I took some screen shots of the "devil face" of Lucifer.  I note that it doesn't always look quite the same.  Apparently, in the rubric of the show, it reflects his own inner dislike of himself and his sense of guilt.  It's not an apearance foisted upon him from the outside.  It's his own projection of his feelings -- tho he doesn't at first recognize this.

The actor is so powerful conveying the complexity of this character -- his charisma, his inner torment, his vacillations between confidence in his own power and his sense of inadequacy, his reluctance to fall in love; but the drama of his emotions is hypnotizing.  

He's coming out with a new movie, soon, I think.  I'm almost afraid to watch it -- afraid that it will break the spell of this role.

The Chloe character is not gripping me as much.  I'm more curious to see what she would be like in another role.

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I'm wondering about the the theology of the show.  It doesn't seem to be Christian, except once when Dan crosses himself kneeling in front of God.  Christ is never mentioned.  Is this a Jewish view -- what God and the angels would be like without Christ?

Is a belief in angels & demons integral to Judaism and/or Christianity?  What about the idea of God retiring?

Somehow when I imagine the prime mover, I don't see him as an aging man who might need to retire and might have become forgetful -- like not remembering where he left his powers.  

Also what about this human vision of God and the angels.  I know the Bible says that God made men in his own image -- but somehow I've never really adopted that literally as a view of God.  To me there's something much more transcendent about the divine. 

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Strangely, I get a sense of comfort from watching Lucifer with Chloe -- a sense of rightness about the world, rather than a scary devil.