I had seen the Veronicas once before, last year when they opened for Natasha. I knew who they where before the show, of course, but I had never heard anything from their second album until that day. And “Untouched” totally blew away anything they had done previously. I left that show with two thoughts in my mind, “Natasha was awesome!” And “I gotta get the Veronica’s new CD.”

The following day I got the album in iTunes. And the day after that, I decided I needed to see them in concert again. I got my chance this week when they played a sold out show at The Music Box at the Fonda in Hollywood on Tuesday (06/23/09). I got there at 7pm, my usual “hour early,” only to find that they had changed the schedule to add an extra opening act. Now Carney was set to go on at 8:00 – 8:40, followed by Pretty Reckless from 9:05 – 9:45, and finally the Veronicas from 10:15 – 11:45. And they stayed pretty close to that schedule, with the Veronicas wrapping up their show at 11:35pm.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself, lets start with the line outside.

They searched all the guys really well, patting us all down. The girls, well, they just kinda looked at them. Sexist security much?

The first opening act was Carney. They where okay. Also the girls tell me that they where really sexy. I wouldn’t know. LOL

The second act was Pretty Reckless. Upon seeing her walk out, the gentleman next to me commented that it was more like “Pretty Naked.” I wanted to disagree, but he wasn’t that far off! I do have to admit she was cute. And musically, she was okay.

Finally, it was time for my girls!

I had never used my new camera at a concert before (as you recall, I just missed getting it in time for Demi’s last concert) so I was learning as I went along. By the end of the show, I think I had it figured it out.

Check out this pic of Jessica Origliasso,

And this one of Lisa Origliasso.

Not too bad, if I do say so myself.

Oh, and the show was amazing. “Take me on the Floor” was perfect. And they had some great banter, at one point I remember Lisa asking “Has anyone here in love?” *cheers* “Is anyone in love with me?” *louder cheers*

Mandy Moore put on a good show earlier this month, but this, a real concert was something I really needed. Definitely a highlight of the year so far.

So I hadn’t heard of the Grammy Museum or LA live before. I hadn’t even heard that they where building a huge new entertainment complex next to the Staples center. Now admitingly I don’t make it up that way very often (I think the last time was in 2004!) but I still thought I’d have heard of it.

Anyway, I was there on Thursday (06/11/09) to see Mandy Moore. But before I headed over to the venue, I decided to swing by Disneyland. I only had a couple hours at the parks, so I decided to spend it at DCA. Quite possibly the stupidest thing I have ever done, for unbeknownst to me, Selena Gomez was at Disneyland that day! In fact, had I simply checked twitter on my phone when I arrived, I’d have seen her tweet about eating a pickle at Disneyland: “I ate a pickle, ice cream, fries, corn dog, and corn at Disneyland. Hmm now what else is there to do here? Oh. I guess I could ride rides…”

But sadly, I did not check my twitter. As I got onto the tram several tween boys where seated right in front of me. And my ears perked up when I heard one of them mention Selena. Another clarified, “Selena Gomez, that girl from Camp Rock” Ar which point I realized that if they couldn’t keep Demi and Selena straight, they where probably idiots and tuned them out. Had I instead corrected them, I might have learned why they where taking about Selena.

I arrived at the Grammy Museum with a good hour to spare. And was the 15th or so person in line. Not too bad if I say so myself. As I stood outside the venue I pulled out my blackberry and checked Twitter. Once I saw Selena’s tweet, suddenly everything made sense and I quickly realized I had missed a possibly once in a lifetime opportunity. I mean, how often does one actually get the chance to meet a DC star? Even with SDS resources I had only met Amy.

Needless to say, I was bummed. But then I remembered I was 15th in line to see Mandy Moore. And I realized that this day was still gonna be beyond awesome. As the line grew longer, they took us inside the building, up to the second level, and into the theater. I end up in the front row of seats, which meant that there was both no on in front of me, and because we where sitting, that no one behind me would complain about my height.

The event was called “The Drop” in reference to the familiar phrase that signifies the release of the new album. The idea behind it, was to explore the process of creating the album. So we started with a roughly hour long interview and Q&A with the director of the Grammy Museum and Mandy Moore. Mandy told us a lot about Mike Viola who was in many ways her partner in producing this album. She had many great stories about the little house in Boston, and how they used the different acoustics of just about every room in the house on different parts on the album.

(Click to enlarge )

Following the end of the Q&A, Mandy preformed several songs acoustically, accompanied by Mike who had been hiding in the back the whole time.

Finally, following the end of her performance, Mandy autographed copies of her new CD. Sadly, the no photo rule was still in effect but I did get a moment with her and an autograph. I considered snapping a photo as I left, but decided against trying it.

Monday morning bluehost suspended the hosting account for SaveDisneyShows.org. The SDS hosting account includes all of the SDS related sites including SaveKP.com, SDSForum.com, DisneysWitch.com, and the site that was targeted by the hackers, FixDisney.com.

We believe the hackers where able to access the site through a security hole in an outdated version of phpList. I upgraded the mailing list software and remove the phishing site the hackers had installed on the server. /after speaking with Wayne, we felt we had the problem solved.

We were wrong. This morning Bluehost re-suspended the account. And after discussing the situation with Bluehost, I was again given access to the site and I found the tool the hackers had installed that gave them access to the site after we plugged the original security hole. I went through every file on the server and found several problem files which I’ve all removed.

The site should be secure now, and should be back up Wednesday Morning.

 UPDATE 06/10/09: SDS is back up.