"PAPARAZZI 2.0"
31.7.2011
As I composed myself back over at the side of stage after the show, I felt giddy. It is a feeling I have never felt before and that is almost impossible to describe in words. I grabbed the 3 other girls and proceeded to start taking a couple of snaps of us on stage with the crowd behind us, but before we could get a half decent one, Sarah came up and said “Ok Girls, grab your stuff - let’s go!” ARRHHH!!
We walked through the black curtains and back out to the elevated side areas out in the crowd, past some people who were still there and down a set of stairs. We waited briefly outside a set of double doors for the people with “in the crowd” Golden Tickets joined us. When the doors opened, I was surprised. This room was nothing like the one in Hong Kong! There was a huge bar, with plate after plate of incredible dainty finger foods and munchies… big velvet lounges and mirrors everywhere on the walls. ‘WOW, this is nice!’ I remember thinking.
I grabbed a bottle of water from the bar and sat down while Sarah got everyone to get out their tickets so she could give them their goody bag. She didn’t even ask me for mine… I guess she knows who I am by now haha. This time I had got the exclusive “Golden Ticket” t-shirt which I totally love, another poster and another lanyard and of course the Thirty Seconds to Mars bag it all comes in. Sweet!
As we sat playing with our goodies and preparing what we wanted to get signed by the boys, Sarah said to us “Come on guys, eat something! Look at all this amazing food they’ve made for you!” But for some reason whenever I get to the meet & greet area I have absolutely no appetite, despite having eaten barely anything all day. I guess that’s adrenalin for you. Everyone had their compact mirrors out and were fixing their hair before the boys arrived, someone caved in and tried a brownie and I was re-assuring some of the people who hadn’t met the boys before that they were going to be fine.
Sarah asked us to move up into a raised area of the room and form a semi-circle, just like we had in Hong Kong. This time there was only 6 of us though, so we all sat in a semi-circle on the chairs that were around. Waiting there felt like eternity. Even though I’d met them before I was still nervous. I was a lot more relaxed than 5 days ago but I still couldn’t keep my leg from tapping. I knew it was time when Sarah asked us to all stand up. “Here we go” I thought to myself excitedly.
Jared, once again, was the first one to come into the room. He was wearing his skirt/pants combo and the same white shirt he wore in Hong Kong with sunglasses hung over the front. ‘Don’t even THINK about putting those on Mr!’ I thought haha. Shannon followed, once again wearing sunglasses and Tomo was the last into the room. Something different this time was that Emma came to the room with the boys, as well as a couple of other people who I think may have been security or something, but they all went down to the other end of the room.
Jared walked over to us first and started talking, asking how we all were. I can’t remember what he actually said, probably because every time one of the boys come up right in front of you your heart and mind literally stop and you just stare in awe.
He came up to me and said Hi. I’m pretty sure he remembered me by the way he didn’t really seem cautious to come up and just start chatting to me. For some reason, my memory is a bit hazy but I do know the general gist of the conversation so bare with me. I noticed him looking at my shirt curiously, so I moved my hair out of the way. I detected a slight smile on his face as he read it. “Mofo….” he said. “You know, me and Shannon used to be called ‘Mofo’, I think Tomo actually stole it from us!” I laughed at him nervously. “This is really cool.” He said, still looking at my shirt. “This could be a fun design for us to make.” He added. By now my heart was completely beating out of my chest. Jared looked around to the other side of the room and yelled “Hey! Emma!” signaling her to come over to us. “Come take a look at this shirt!” OH MY GOD I thought. Emma came over and stood in front of me to look at my shirt but she didn’t say anything. Jared then said “This could be a really fun one…” She just looked at it as I stood there smiling at her like an idiot. Still, without saying anything, she beckoned over the photographer who was there to take our photos with the boys and said to him “Get a photo of this.” HOLY CRAP! I thought. I moved to a quieter area of the room and stood there trying not to look ridiculous as the photographer took my photo. “Thanks” I said to him when it was done. I moved back over to the group but Jared had gone down the room to sign other people’s stuff. That’s when Tomo came up to me.
The moment Tomo came up to me, without even thinking and without any hesitation, I simply put my arms out and he smiled and he gave me the biggest bear hug ever. The tweet, the way he battled against people on stage to give me his guitar pick… I didn’t know what to do except for just hug him and say Thankyou. I squeezed him SO tight and for what felt like absolutely ages. With my head resting on his chest I eventually managed to say “Thankyou so much for doing that.” quietly. As I let go of him he said “It was a great letter…” I was ridiculously happy and almost had tears in my eyes at this point. I really appreciated everything he had done for me and even though they probably were such tiny things to him, they meant the world to me. What a lovely person he is!
I unfolded my Melty Triad shirt that I’d worn to the airport and told him it was what I’d chosen to get signed. I held the spot of blank material over my hand and he signed it. I cheekily asked “I know I’m only supposed to have one thing for you to sign, but could you sign this as well?” holding the guitar pick out on my hand. “Of course!” he said. I thanked him again with a huge smile on my face and then he moved onto the next person. Our semi-circle had completely disbanded and there were only a few of us in the original area now, so it was a lot less formal than in Hong Kong which was great.
Shannon approached me next and again, I’m not sure if it was the adrenalin or just because I was in a really happy mood that I wanted to share the love, but I said “I’m going to hug you now.” LOL! I can only imagine what Shannon thought at that point but never-the-less he stretched his arms right out and lifted his head up and I went in for the hug. It definitely wasn’t the same kind of hug as what Tomo had given me but hey, I was still hugging Shannon so who’s complaining? Without wanting this to sound totally perverted, I remember the feeling of his body against mine. Only because well, the only people I ever hug are my girlfriends and none of my male friends are ANYTHING like Shannon Leto. I just remember thinking “Ok. This is different!” Hahaha. Moving right along. When I let go of him, he talked to me for a little bit (I can’t remember what he said) and I held out my Triad shirt for him to sign. As he started signing, the line looked completely wrong and he was obviously having trouble. I looked at him and said “I didn’t think this through very well, did I?” a bit concerned. “No, no, we’ll get there” he said re-assuringly. He ended up signing his name really thickly, in about 20 or so strokes. It was probably the longest he’s ever taken to sign something! I thanked him and he moved on. I’ve noticed that Shannon doesn’t really seem too talkative at meet & greets, well, at the two I’d been involved in anyway. Jared seems to be the one who does most of the talking, not that that’s a bad thing. Just an observation.
I stood there for a minute and just let everything sink in while I was by myself. I hadn’t had a moment to just breathe at any point previously so this was great. I was quite happily absorbing everything when Jared came back over to me again. I quickly snapped out of my zen mode and pulled out my shirt for him to sign. “I brought the Melty Triad from the airport.” I said to him. “I remember” he said as he pulled the lid off of his pen. “Stretch it out for me” he said, so I held the shirt out and he signed it – with no problem at all. What a pro! haha. Jared chatted to me for a bit (again, I can’t remember what about for the life of me) before the photos were about to get underway. Amongst everything that was going on, I somehow let Jared walk away from me at that point. WTF BEC?! I am completely hitting myself now but I didn’t even realize I hadn’t hugged him until I was back at my hotel room after the whole thing was over. *slaps forehead* I guess that’s my first mission for the USA!
After I’d finished chatting with Jared, I put my signed stuff back on the chair with my bag. When I turned back the boys were finished with everyone and ready to start the photos. “So who’s going first?” Jared asked. There was silence for a moment before Sarah said “Bec’ll go first!” looking at me with a grin. “Oh ok” I said cheekily. As I walked toward the boys, Jared was standing a little closer to me. “Do you wanna wear my crown Jay?” I asked him. “No.” he said in a funny voice that was like “It’s a girls crown and it’s pink. I am not going to be caught DEAD in that thing.” Hahaha. So I gave him a little ear “Oh come on Jared! You’re usually into crazy head gear! You’re no fun!!!” Haha, I can’t believe I actually said that to him!! LOL. Right I thought. I’m not giving up that easily. So I walked over to Shannon, who Jared was now standing beside against the wall. “How about you Shan? Wanna wear the crown?” He kind of looked at me for a minute from behind his sunnies, probably trying to come up with an excuse, before saying “Hmmm… alright.” WOOHOO! I thought. He took the crown off me and as Tomo walked up to join them, Jared said “Tomo should wear it!” Shannon laughed and held the crown out so I took it back off him and said to Tomo “Can you wear this please?” He kind of looked sideways at Shannon and Jared and then looked at me and said “Ok.” I imagine that look was the “I am so going to kill you later!” one. He bent down so I could reach and I put the crown on his head. What a good sport I thought to myself.
Jared and Shannon had left a gap between them for me and given what shirt I was wearing, I *had* to go for the Leto Sandwich option! I got in between them and put my arms around them, but before the photographer could take the photo my brain clicked and I said “Oh, hold on!” and I let go of the boys and moved my hair off the front of my shirt. “Gotta be able to read the shirt...” I said. I put my arms back around the boys and this time I wasn’t being shy. I held onto them like there was no tomorrow! Jared came in really close I remember his head being right against mine and even though I don’t remember doing it, I turned toward him slightly. I smiled and *SNAP* it was done. Just like in Hong Kong, I really didn’t want to let go of Jared and Shan. I was quite happy standing there with my arms around them, especially with how close I was to Jared. “Damn” I thought, why can’t this take longer?! Thinking back, if I had of realized I’d missed hugging Jared, I could have done it then cus I was half-hugging him for the photo anyway. (Seriously, how did I completely forget about him?!)
I thanked the guys, still holding them, and went to walk off, but as I moved forward, Shannon grabbed me and spun me back around toward them. “Let me see this shirt.” he said. I grabbed the bottom of it and pulled it out flat so he could see it properly. “Now THAT is very cool.” He said. “Thanks Shan!” I said with a huge smile on my face. Tomo handed me back my crown and I thanked him for wearing it then got out of way for the next person to do their photo.
I went and stood over by the wall watching everyone do their photos. It really is a quick process so it didn’t take long at all. I was on a massive high and again, it was a little window for me to just absorb, feel and take in everything going on. That was the first time I looked over at the boys, I could only see Jared because of people standing in front of me and I looked at him and went “This is real. They’re actually right in front of me.” I hadn’t had the time to do that until now and it was amazing. It felt a little awkward and strange, but at the same time, absolutely incredible yet still a little hard to believe.
Once everyone finished their photos, the boys disbanded and they started saying their goodbyes. Jared mentioned something about my shirt again before saying “Che Che!” (which is how you say Goodbye in Chinese… I don’t know about Taiwanese though lol). We all waved and said Bye as they walked upstairs. I felt a little sad. I know I’m seeing them again soon, but that was it for this trip and I didn’t want it to be over. It had all come and gone so fast and now all I had left was the memories.
Sarah asked us to get our stuff together and follow her back upstairs. As we got to the top of the stairs, I looked toward the stage and saw Jared again. He was walking along where we had gone from the stage to the meet & greet. He chatted to some security briefly before he disappeared behind the black curtain. I said a quick goodbye to everyone and said “See you in Highland” to Sarah before heading down what felt like about 50 flights of stairs with the girls who I’d been on stage with. I was searching un-successfully for my camera the whole way down to take a photo with them and only found it as we reached the bottom. By time I had got there, it was only me and Michela (the girl from Italy) and as we hit the bottom we found ourselves with a decision to make. Turn left; which was probably the way out, or turn right; through a door that we could see Mars’ gear and people behind. We decided to turn right.
We went through the door and were instantly surrounded by huge metal boxes and containers that were obviously all of Mars’ equipment. A few of the roadies kind of gave us a weird look but we just kept on walking as if we knew where we were going and like we were supposed to be there. I was desperately trying not to giggle uncontrollably. Eventually we came out at the same lift area we had gone up into the venue in – Mars’ entry and exit point!
As we walked out of the door, there were people lined up from the doors to a black car waiting on the road. OMG I thought. This is where the guys are going to come out! We walked down the clearing and the security guards let us through the barricade and we were now in the front row to see the guys as they left the building.
All I could think to myself was “OMG! It’s not over yet!” and I was so happy. We only waited for about 2 minutes before all the action started and I thought to myself “Here we go… AGAIN!” :D