Duran Duran stole my heart

This was one of the best (and shortest) tours ever---
We flew into Vancouver, BC and even the airport was gorgeous, what a beautiful city--
got to the hotel and immediately it began to pour.
My niece lives there, she is attending college but she was home and missed my visit...booo!



the first show went without a hitch, we got to see Darcy, our Canadian co-worker.
After the border crossing, which also went pretty smoothly as we lost no soldiers--we headed to Seattle.
Cyn came out to meet me and also Joe Paul and Gael visited. Cyn and I had a little adventure, trying to get out of the WaMu theatre, but all was sorted in the end. I love Seattle so much. Cyn, I want to buy your "poor climber" painting. I can't get it out of my mind.



my favorite thing was getting back on the tour bus, and this was my first pop-out bus...see how the side pops open. At night, our driver, Smitty would give us a mini-ride, pulling the bus back into driveable shape...



my bunk is the bottom driver's side, i am superstitious now about getting that bunk! Don't know if you can make it out in the photo, but it is in the very bottom of the right edge of photo---



here is the view from my hotel in Concord, see our big brown bus in the top right hand side?



the show was great fun, i have toured with several of this crew before on different tours--my stage manager in front of the big cityscape backdrop:





the lighting crew was a bunch of old friends from various tours, they had a beautiful set-up, this is putting up the rig, with Jerry riding the lights like an electric cowboy:



here it is a little bit higher in the air:



here you can see where it eventually ends up:



these are from the Santa Barbara Bowl, i walked up into the crowd to try to get a photo looking down, but my camera was overcompensating for the massive lighting, so i didnt get what i was looking for....



yes, I was always a Simon girl:




this was from the casino show in San Diego:



the casino chefs made us a chocolate sculpture that was entirely edible, including the sugar pane photo, but i didn't try any of it...






here's Ali, the little sprite, my ssssssusssterton sister, partner in FoH crime...she is sitting at the pink sparkle drum kit of the sweet Roger Taylor.



and i want to send a shout out to our opening act: Your Vegas, these super-cute guys put on an amazing show.
you can hear their music on myspace--
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=20644391

Mal the drummer doing load out:




and Mark and Coyle waiting for sound check:



the production manager, Wob, quickly became a favorite, he is the brother of my production manager on Tool,
and that is one dynamite family.



when i drove away from the last date, i left a trail of broken heart pieces behind me on that desert mountain, i miss the tour bus, but things are getting busy at home....i am heading to Balticon over memorial day weekend (hello BALTIMORE!!)
and then back home to meet up with Mr. Gaiman at Book Expo.

final note: Neil's got a history with these guys, his first book was a biography of Duran Duran, which now sells for upwards of a hundred dollars on Amazon, if you can find it....small world, indeed.