Nothing Left To Say But: I LOVE YOU BETTE MIDLER!!!!
by The Ever Divine Rachee Baby

Photo: BaltoBoy Steve Weiner

I just wanted to let you know that i saw the show last night in Florida and as usual it was amazing. Bette Looked fabulous and sounded even better. I fell in love with the new things she brought to the show and missed the things she changed but I cant say enough about it. It was absolutely divine.

And guess who sat only a few rows in front of me?! Yes thats right...Miss Jennifer Lewis sat like 5 rows in front of me and she is as sweet as sugar. When I went up to her to introduce myself she was warm and welcoming of me, she didnt push me away or ignore me like some other famous people I have tried to meet in the past.

The only downfall of the show was no fault of Bette's, however, the crowd was horrible! I mean, yes, there were fans like me there who were just swept up in the magic she brought but there were also people there who were yellin out at her everytime she went to say something about politics! I thought this was very rude. Isnt that what this country is about? FREEDOM OF SPEECH! Every entertainer is talking about politics right now and how dare anyone tell them not to. This really made me angry. Bette is an American citizen and has the right to voice her opinion just like everyone else and if anyone doesnt like that well then I'm sure she would turn to you and say KISS MY BRASS!!!!

The show was wonderful, she was wonderful and her expressing her opinion was wonderful!! There is not much left for me to say except: I LOVE YOU BETTE MIDLER!!!!

Dreams do come true.
by BetteHead Jack

Well, I have just returned from seeing Bette at the American Airlines Arena. Dreams do come true.

I had seen both shows in Ft. Lauderdale so I was familiar with the format and the first half was virtually the same with the addition of the Brittany Bunch, and Tenderly replaced Come On A My House and there was an emotional I Think It's Gonna Rain Today. When A Man Loves A Woman brought the hous down.

The second half was altered the most...Delores was intact with the Phantom bit. But the entire Rose section was cut. Bette had mentioned the Kerry appearance the night before after singing I Like To Be Told and she continued to mention how good our spirits were in spite of "all that we had been through".

Before closing with The Rose we could tell she was dying to make a statement about her concerns regarding a repeat of the 2000 debacle but she was shouted down by someone yelling NO POLITICS. I think that discouraged her from the encore of In The Cool Cool Of The Evening that I had heard of. Too bad cause I would have loved that....and any thing else she would have liked to say!!!

As usual the first few rows were tight asses but the rest of the crowd seemed like true belivers...From A Distance got a particularly powerful response this time...much like The Wind Beneath My Wings did in Ft. Lauderdale.

Bettehead Jack

Politics Or No Politics: Bette Is Divine
by ErikSky

Howdy Bootleg fans and readers alike, ErikSKY reporting to you live from beautiful downtown Miami. I'll recap tonight's wonderful show from the start... My drive from Sarasota was very nice and rather uneventful, however Alligator Alley needs something to keep you from falling asleep.... Six thousand miles of chain link fence and a few scattered gators just doesn't cut it anymore for entertainment.

Moving right along to the show as I don't want to bore you with local wildlife details. We cabbed over from our lovely hotel on 4th St right around 6:30 and began the river of Rum and Pineapple Juice that would be the demise of my evening. We were waiting patiently at the bar at "Bongo's" a lovely Cuban restaurant reportedly owned by none other than Miss Gloria Estafen and all his wondrousness. Anyhow, the Malibu kept flowing as we kept standing.... 45 minutes later, still, no table! At this point I had enough Rum to keep a wino going for a week, yet I hadn't eaten in what seemed like a week. I asked my guest if she were interested in seeing what they had to offer inside the arena, I didn't care at this point. I knew two variables were needed for this to be a successful evening, the first was I needed to eat or I was going to die and the second variable, I wasn't gonna be late for the opening song waiting for a lousy table all night at a place called "Bongo's." My guest quickly agreed and we were off. We ate, we drank some more, had some fries and some more rum (I said if flowed all night)...

Upon arriving to our floor seats in the lovely American Airlines arena I was disturbed to see my sneaking suspicion of a small audience. I had heard the show wasn't even close to being sold out but I kid you not there were some totally empty first tier sections... This could only be explained by one of two things, either a mass-casualty incident or she wore them out Friday afternoon at the Kerry-Edwards rally. I mean come on, she says it herself... "Nobody but the Jews" & "Nobody but the queens" THIS IS MIAMI! Jews and Queens, finally a majority!

The began about 25 minutes late at 8:25 and was incredible from the very beginning. I found myself beating along with this show much better than last years Tampa performance, must be the extra practice and rest. Her heart seemed to tremble in this show, it certainly wasn't weak in any aspect. I couldn't detect any flaws, on her part or technical. During when a man love's a woman, she did motion to the sound hunks, heck maybe she was getting a bit of feedback. Didn't matter to me, she sounded divine and literally blew the roof off with that number.

I truly believe a production of this magnitude requires a bit of sensitivity on the part of the audience. Miss Midler is loud and proud. She is a Kerry supporter, I am not. There were a lot of people around me her also were not Kerry supporters, I can't say whether or not they were Bush supporters but they didn't like the political motivation behind Bette's show. I think you should be sensitive, if you're not a Kerry supporter, that's fine... Put your political feelings behind you, I sure did... Take away her message in this show... The true message was of citizenship, companionship and love. Remember, Linus VanPelt always said "There are three things you should never discuss with another person, 1) Politics, 2) Religion and 3) The Great Pumpkin"! WORDS TO LIVE BY!

After intermission Delores Delago went off without a hitch, I love the new red Mermaid suit... Like me, red brings out her natural glow... I love the Phantom addition, what a riot... After Delores I was sad to know that September had been cut. I am guessing maybe if she is trying to record it, the label might have something to do with it being cut from the show... However, I'm not record company exec, I don't know the rules. The crowd though small was incredible emotional throughout the ballads, "From a Distance" another number that makes you put into perspective how you feel about how things are going received a massive reception from the audience, the standing ovation lasted a while (time for more rum)...

The Rose was probably the most incredibly emotional portion of the show for us. What a feeling to have thousands of voices harmonizing the same song with you. Tears were shed, on stage and off... "Just remember what it all means, what it means to you," Bette reminded us... It means everything at this point!

I was sad to see "Keep on Rocking" was pulled, I had looked forward to that all night but I can imagine it takes a massive amount of energy to belt that one out... The Rose was the end of the show tonight and it was well worth every resource it took to get there. My guest, a first time Divine Miss M agreed and I want to thank her, thank the folks and thank all of you. It is an important night for and an important time for all of us... Politics aside, love is in the air... Please go vote this Tuesday, I'm counting on you!

All my love,
ErikSKY