Hi. I’d love your feedback on something. This week, for the first time, I’m posting the audio without a musical background. Do you prefer to listen to me read with musical background or without musical background. I’m just wondering if you find the music at all distracting. Please let me know in the comments! To hear me narrate the story now, please click the play button. (9 minute listen)
Coldplay Chicago
Somehow, last weekend, the stars aligned in a way that put me on a couch in a tapestry covered music room giving a lesson in how to play the khaen to Chris Martin, the lead singer of Coldplay. Even better yet, my daughter, Hallie was there to witness the whole thing. Just so you know, with 56 Million followers on Spotify, Coldplay is the biggest music act that there is right now. Chris Martin, though he would never admit it, is the rock king behind it all. Coldplay is an enormous enterprise. I think it might qualify as a city or even a kingdom. In planes, trucks, buses and limos, they move the whole operation from stadium to stadium to put on the most extravagant, environmentally conscious mega-concert of any modern day music act. Somehow, last weekend, Hallie Walker and I found our way into the inner sanctum of the city and I gotta say… It was amazing!
Here I’ll let Hallie go first. She writes:
As a girl who gets excited about staying at the Holiday Inn Express, staying at The Peninsula was kind of a dream. The bed was an actual cloud. The sheets? Butter. I’ve lit’rally never slept on something so comfortable in my entire life. My IKEA mattress and bedding are just not gonna cut it when I get back home now that I’ve experienced The Peninsula bed. We were living in luxury, baby! But $177 for a basket of French fries and a mediocre steak was just not the vibe. Not to mention my bad judgement on the midnight room service for a single glass of orange juice…
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Watching my dad jam with Chris Martin was undeniably the best part of the weekend. Hard to find the words for how special that moment was.
I’m not really a concert girly, unless it’s like Audra McDonald singing showtunes with an orchestra for 90 minutes. Standing for hours in crowds of people jumping around is just not my thing. But, I would SO be a concert girly if I got to experience every concert like we experienced Coldplay. They treated us like royalty, with a private backstage room at the venue, amazing food and box seats. And those box seats were magic. The show is a total spectacle and when you have that vantage point (not to mention in a temperature controlled room with comfy chairs, food, and sauvignon blanc) it’s a whole other thing. Everyone at the concert had a bracelet that lit up as a part of the synchronized light show for every single song. Whoever the lighting designer is needs a serious award.
It was a weekend I’ll always remember with my Daddy.
Next week, I’ll tell you the real story of what it was like living in this particular body through all the excitement of the weekend, but today, I just wanna share a few of the highlights.
What an awesome traveling companion Hallie was. She flew to Chicago from New York and I flew from Cleveland. We met up at the O’hare airport and began our once in a lifetime weekend. Hallie and I are both a little obsessed with the creative process. All weekend, she was busy creating vertical movies for TikTok and I was documenting the whole trip on Instagram stories. Every once in a while, we’d look up from our phones and be glad for each other’s company. We really soaked up the glamour of the weekend. Both of us enjoyed the bathrobes, the hot tub, the box seats, the chilled cucumber washcloths and we even had our own personal chauffeur. Satnam took us wherever we wanted to go and he had no trouble lifting my 50 lb wheelchair to put it in the back of the limo.
I left Kent with two khaens in my possession. (In case you don’t know, a khaen is a mouth organ from Laos that I play.) At home, I couldn’t decide which one sounded better, so I decided to bring both of them. On Saturday, we were scheduled to meet the band at four o’clock. That morning, it occurred to me that one of these cherished instruments would be an appropriate gift for Chris Martin. Believe me, it was very hard to let go of this D minor khaen, but considering how generous Chris Martin has been toward me, the gift seemed right-sized — a beautiful handmade khaen from Laos - the one thing that the musician who has everything doesn’t have.
Within minutes of meeting, Chris and I were sitting next to each other on a couch and I was teaching him to play his new mouth organ. It was truly one of the funnest moments of my life. He picked up on the instrument very quickly. Thanks to some of my good instruction, within moments after putting the instrument to his lips, we were making real music together. We jammed for just about 20 minutes before Chris had to excuse himself to do some promo, have a physical therapy session and jump into his ice bath before the big concert. What a life that guy lives! It was amazing to witness. Fortunately, Hallie got some good video footage of our lesson. You can watch it by clicking below:
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I was in the spirit of giving, so I planned to give the other members of the band each a pair of banakulas on Sunday. In my imagination, I envisioned a Sunday afternoon hang out with Coldplay. We would sitting in a circle and I’d be offering relaxed instructions in how to play this African rhythm instrument. I even asked Lauren, our host for the weekend, if this vision might be possible. It turns out the band had a packed schedule for Sunday and Hallie and I would have to wait in the wings in case some extra time opened up. In the end, no extra time opened up but I was quite satisfied with a few minutes in the dining room with the drummer and the guitar player — each with a pair of banakulas in their hands. We were shaking, knocking, spinning and doing the banakula thing. Unfortunately, we missed the video opportunity on this one.
One more highlight was the fact that I could see a Whole Foods store from my hotel window. I follow a very specific food plan and after we spent $177 dollars for room service on Friday night, I realized that this was not gonna be sustainable. Whole Foods was a perfect 10 minute wheelchair ride from my hotel room. It was the ideal circumstances to satisfy my breakfast and lunch needs. Dinner was provided by Coldplay’s personal chef who was more than happy to oblige my dietary restrictions. Here’s a video of a quick trip to Whole Foods for lunch.
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Overall, it was an incredible weekend. Next week, I hope to tell you the not so glamorous side of the story. It’s the part about living in this crazy body of mine. To close, I’ll say that I’m grateful for the connection I have with this remarkable human being, Chris Martin. Though it wasn’t easy, I’m grateful that I had the strength to travel and that I got to spend that quality time with Hallie. I hope you’ll all stay tuned to see what happens next. Thank you so much for being here. Enjoy living in that body of yours. Have a great Saturday.
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Coldplay Chicago