Barry Manilow, my Mother and Me

Got your attention, didn't I?!? Not too many 33 year olds 'fess up to being Barry fans. To be more accurate, the correct term for a Barry Manilow fan is: "Fanilow." Yep, that's the word. And yes, I am a Fanilow.

This dates back to the late 70's, when my mother Judith purchased a record of Barry singing live. I'm sure that wasn't the first one she bought. Or maybe it was and more followed, I don't know. I know she has several. This particular album has special meaning, for me anyway. One fun memory I have of my early childhood is Mom letting Leslie, Eric and myself each pick out a record to listen to. We had quite a few, including fairy tales on albums. Mostly we would pick those. But sometimes we'd pick this one, or Mom would totally just not listen to us and put good ol' Barry on. One song, I decided, apparently, to put motions to. The song is titled "Daybreak." One line says something about "runnning around, day after day...." (yes, the exact words at this moment escape me, but my greatest hits CD with the words is upstairs.). Me, being the cute little tot that I was (and still am, by the way, just a bigger version) decided the whenever Barry sang this line, I needed to run at breakneck speed around the dining room table. A Fanilow is born.

Years go by, and while a more closeted Fanilow, I still secretly didn't mind when Mom upgraded to CD's and would put them in the 5-CD changer in the living room and hit the "random" button. I don't think my step-dad shared my enthusiasm. When I moved out of the house, I kinda missed it. Not enough to be seen in public purchasing my own CD's, though. When I married Rod (very decidedly NOT a Fanilow) he took a bit of pleasure in chiding Mom about her taste in music. When she bought me my very own copy of "The Ultimate Manilow" (the before-mentioned greatest hits album) he was slightly horrified. I tried to put it in the CD player in the car soon after. Not pretty. Soon after, she presented me with a Barry Christmas CD. More fun for me! Yay! At my sister's wedding in 2004, as a kind of present to his mother-in-law, he requested "Copacabana" and took my mom out on the dance floor. I don't think he's willingly listened to a Barry song since, but it was a nice gesture. All in the name of family harmony...

In late 2006, Mom read in the Portland, OR newspaper that Barry was coming to town in January 2007. And so the fun began. Judith came up with a crazy plan to get all us Holter women to Portland to see the show. I was the only hold out, not because of the concert, I really did want to go, but living in North Dakota presented a number of obstacles. First of all, we were moving to Germany 3 months later. Second of all, because of the move, we didn't really have a ton of extra money to get me to Oregon (flying out of Minot, ND is really NOT cheap.). So Mom sat on it for awhile and called me up. She offered to buy my plane ticket and concert ticket, she in turn would cancel her semi-planned last trip to Minot. Since the kids and I already had plans to take the train out to Spokane before we moved, she wouldn't be giving up her last chance to see the grandkiddos before we took them overseas. So after hemming and hawing and talking it over with Rod (who thought us all certifiably insane at this point) I agreed. I took a week off work and out I flew. I flew to Seattle about 4 days before the concert. Little did I know the extend of how much she was into all this. She made us hats. That we were required to wear to the concert. In public. In front of thousands. Since this trip was mostly funded by her, I had no say. What she did was color-copy various CD jackets, cut them out, and glued them to foam visors she found at a dollar store. She made them for herself, my Aunt Janet, Leslie, cousin Sarah and me. My aunt, mom and I drove to Portland, where my sister met us at Sarah's house. The night of the concert, we dazzled up (also a requirement...in some way, shape or form had to have glitter on us that night) and headed out to dinner and the concert. My 6-months pregnant sister completely stole the show. As a surprise for my mom, she bought a plain white maternity tshirt and made her own iron on transfer. It read "The Littlest Fanilow" and pointed down towards her cute little tummy where my nephew Ethan was quietly resting. It was hysterical. When we got to the concert, the hats got attention, but her shirt got more. We even thought it could be her ticket to be invited onstage but no such luck. We had a tremendous time, and it only strengthened her obsession. He puts on a hell of a show, and unlike some singers, can actually sing live. We had a blast singing along with the audience to all the songs we loved. And my sister, cousin and I were pleased to see we weren't the youngest fans there, either. Phew!!!

A few weeks back, Mom got wind of a contest that Evening Magazine, a daily entertainment show of sorts on the Seattle station KING 5, was running. Barry was coming to Seattle and she wanted to win tickets. She REALLY wanted to win tickets. Grand prize was a trip for 2 to Las Vegas to see him there. But she just wanted one of the 5 sets of tickets they were giving away to the Seattle show. So enlisting the help of Leslie, our brother Eric and myself, she put together a scrapbook page of sorts as her submission to the contest. She used pictures from the Portland show of course, but also requested that my siblings and I show how we are passing our love for Barry (yes, even my brother doesn't mind listening) onto our young children. I should say now, that Tyler, being a Rod mini-me, refused. While he puts up with Grandma's "family song" ("I Can't Smile Without You" by, none other than, Barry Manilow), he is too much like his dad to go this far. She accepts this. Because she knows she has the others hooked. I still had my visor and I had bought a concert tshirt (reading: "At the Copacabana...you'll fall in love"). So I put the shirt on Meghan, and over her slight objections, got the visor on her head and snapped a pic of her holding my Ultimate Manlilow CD. Eric took a picture of Cecil holding an album, and Leslie (who somehow got her hands on Mom's collection of records...I must remedy that) lined up the albums and snapped Ethan's (now almost 2) picture. She printed them all off and made her page. And waited. About 10 days ago...she got the call...She won THE WHOLE THING. Judith Holter was declared "The Ulitmate Fanilow" and is being flown to Las Vegas, put up at the Hilton, and gets 2 front row tickets to his show. She will be interviewed by Evening Magazine later this week...and her trip to Vegas will be documented by a reporter following along on the trip. She has asked me to share via my blog, the winning entry. We are very proud of her. So proud, that my aunt and Leslie are once again making the trek to join her. For some reason, I couldn't convince her to buy me another plane ticket. What? No last min, round trip ticket from Frankfurt, Germany to Vegas? Hmph. Oh well, as long as she "sticky-notes" the Barry LIVE album (inside private joke there) I will get over it. I look forward to the pictures from the show and the autographed CD liner to my Ultimate Manilow CD that I hope she brings me when she visits next month. When asked how I would get the CD liner to her, I replied it was simple. She uses HER liner, and then trades me when she gets here. Soooo simple. (I won't let her see the grandkids til I get it. )

So enjoy the poster. I think tomorrow I shall wear my tshirt (yes, in public) and tune my IPod to my Barry songs when I'm running my errands. And sing my favorite songs, "Daybreak" and "Copacabana," and think of my mom....The Ulitmate Fanilow.