WILL SING FOR BARRY MANILOW TICKETS

OK, so Weekend in New England never sounded so bad.

But hey, I just won two free tickets to next week's Barry Manilow concert in Des Moines by singing 15 seconds of my favorite Barry Manilow song for the good folks at KKRL, our local FM radio station.

Oh, yeah. I sounded like crap.  I was nervous as hell, and couldn't breathe...giggled in the midst of it.

There I was, standing outside my office building, crooning rather loudly and off key into my cell phone for all Coontown passersby to hear.

"Last night, I waved goodbye, now it seems years..."

Yup. Fifteen seconds worth.

Funny thing... the phone at the radio station rang about four times before it was answered...apparently there wasn't a long line of Barry Manilow fans dialing in from around our area...

I was recorded, and the whole thing was played back over the air about five minutes later, much to my co-workers' delight.

OMG!  I won!  I won!  I get to see my boyfriend from my misspent youth, BARRY MANILOW!

I know, I know! I have so many famous musical boyfriends from my misspent youth...Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers...

The list goes on and on.

Actually, truth be told, my college roommate, Tipper, was the bigger Barry fan. She had the poster of him in her dorm room, while  my dorm walls were covered with posters of, oh, I dunno...Kris Kristofferson. Go figure. But I loved Barry's songs...they were all so torturously depressing.

And that is exactly what I told the gal at KKRL.

"Of course I know the words to Weekend in New England...it's my all-time favorite most depressing Barry Manilow song."

OK, Mandy is probably even more depressing, but it's not my fave.

Now, I know not everyone is a Barry Manilow fan. I have, er, had a friend on the east coast who seriously scoffed at his very name.  Pfft.  Say what you will about Mr. Manilow, the guy can still sing.  Which, last time I checked, is more than I could ever really say about Kris Kristofferson.  But I bought all his albums, too...

Well, gotta go...off to my second job...they may want autographs...

"When will our eyes meet? When can I touch you? When will this strong yearning end? And when will I hold you  (long pause) again?"


Ahhh...