cat on a rainy tin roof

Paul Newman, you blue-eyed devil with the heart of charity gold, may your spirit rest in sweet repose.
my dear Mother is the only other person I have seen with eyes so blue. "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid" always in the back of my mind.

in DC tonight, with my parents.
they came to the Book Festival with me to hear Neil's mini-reading, a salty, clever bit on revenge excerpted from the Graveyard Book.


Washington Post's eloquent Mike Dirda introduced him:



see Dan Guy in the front row:




Neil signed and signed and signed some more with his broken finger and his big heart.
the line seemed to grow and grow, until finally at five pm, after all the volunteers and all the guards and anyone connected to the festival went home, Neil got up and went down the line and signed each person's outstretched soggy books. The festival was sold out of Neil's new book by 1 pm, which disappointed many a book buyer. (It will be out domestically on Tuesday...)



Next door to us, Salman Rushdie signed away. He asked my parents if he could join them at their table in the author's tent.



I suppose because they so look very approachable and non-threatening...



here is our champion line-wrangler, Tim and friend:



Danth Guyth came bearing gifts of the robotic nature, I didn't even know what he had... here is his tiny offspring showing his real feelings about the rain:




DC is full of amazing museums and public art, this little guy caught my eye on the pavement on 3rd Street:




the day was an unpredictable weatherfest, raining full tilt and bursts of sun, ending in a rainbow.
(yes, the placement of that light pole vexes me, VEXED i say)



finally, sushi at Sushi Taro in Dupont Circle, a lovely dinner.



on to New York tomorrow.

beekeeping 101

Last year, Lorraine really impressed me with her incredulous descriptions of her first beekeeping experiences.

As we all suited up our bee gear, i felt much like the crew of the Nostromo, and we all know how that turned out...
(anyone?) I wasn't nervous, I have been stung plenty, however, there was an air of respect, we spoke in hushed tones...

She promised me I could help harvest some honey from the Kitty hive but first we visited the other hives in the new electric-fenced area. A good thing we went to these hives first...



the Mimi and Kelli hives were very peaceful, sweet bees tumbling out, bumping into us politely...
here is my favorite picture of Quiche, the picture of calm:



they showed me how to use a smoker to control the bees (somewhat):







Sharon our birdchick & her husband Bill were great guides...he sacrificed a bee suit so that others would be protected...
here Shazz holds a tray of pollen and bee debris:



pointing out how to harvest honey from the frames:



she even wrestled me in my bee suit:



Neil carefully attends to the bees:



although i look puzzled, am more entranced really, the buzzing is hypnotic:



bee on my glove:



Kelli bees:



we ventured over to the Kitty/Olga hive and the mood grew a bit darker.



within two minutes of taking the lid off, Neil and Euan were both stung, and then quickly after, Dog went dashing away, licking his wounds:



here Sharon has a snack direct off the comb:



and Quiche cleans the frame of the delicious honey:



so grateful for this chance.

"my first name ain't baby...."

"it's Janet, miss Jackson if you're nasty!"

Worked the Staples Center show of Herself last night,
pyro buttons galore!

rumors of Prince in audience, but I didn't see him.
LL Cool J opened the show...the ladies love cool James.

the touring crew is made up of many of my former crew mates,
so there was a reunion every five minutes, healed my weary heart.
Ck & Todd , KVL & Kahuna....to good to see you all.

Red came over and we went out into the audience to watch the show,
with Francis and Jon at front of house mix position.
amazing!








oh girl, you have grown up.
and for the record, I never thought the infamous "wardrobe malfunction" was her fault.

here for the gore fans,
stage manager Kahuna sliced his leg open on stage and bled all over his keds.
who says rock n' roll isn't dangerous..?!

the light pours out of me....

things i like:

from the Kell exhibit:



Hank and his Pez collection:



Norton w/genii lamps:



Hank and Gumbo:



Batman in the new tshirt shipment:



back lot of Universal STudios:



w/me Juli!



Sarafina gave me this perfect catering blunder:

kitty back on the road...again!

i had a nice little rest and battery recharge.
yesterday i worked at Universal Amphitheatre, with the sounds of the studio tour behind me, it was a Jonas Brothers charity event. Great to see the band, the crew and the boys themselves.
tomorrow i am working the Janet Jackson show at the Staples center and then it's a weekend working with Beck.
Next week I will be flying out to help Neil and to see Quiche.
We will be in Washington DC on the 27th Sept, Neil speaks at the Library of Congress Book Festival.

The Mall
Washington D.C.

Event: 11:45am - 12:15pm
Signing: 1:00pm - 3:00pm

Neil has an appearance in NYC @ Columbia University on the 30th of Sept. @ 7 pm.
This is the day The Graveyard Book drops, Bod and Silas will fill imaginations everywhere...!

Teachers College at Columbia University
Horace Mann Auditorium
525 W. 120th Street
New York, NY 10027

We travel to Philadelphia the next day:
Wednesday, Oct. 1 6:00pm
Levitt Auditorium in the Gershman Y
401 South Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102

on to Chicago:

Thursday, Oct. 2 6:00pm
6pm Tivoli Theatre, hosted by Andersons Bookshop
5021 Highland Ave
Downers Grove, IL 60515


The venue is a beautifully restored 1920s movie palace with seating for 1000. This will be a ticketed event, 1 ticket = 1 book. After the reading (Chapter 3) and Q&A, 'Stardust' will be shown.

I will stay in Chicago for a couple days visiting family and Drew will be there with Tina Turner tour, so i will see him at last.

Then I return to Minneapolis and see Quiche at Spooky House until Neil comes back for his St. Paul appearance.

Wednesday, October 8th 7:00pm
Saint Paul's United Church of Christ
900 Summit Avenue
St Paul, MN 55105

after that I head to Baltimore to have some "lady-cation".... reunion with my girls!



We have the Graveyard Book tees ready for shipping now, and they look great--I will put one on and model it when I return from the post office, here is the proof in the meantime...I will be selling them at some of the appearances with a percentage of proceeds going to Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.



You can get it here if you can't make it to a tour stop:

back in the treehouse, another tour over...

this post will cover much ground, as i see i haven't posted since NYC. bad kitty.
the tour is finished and i am hanging out with Batman in the treehouse, life is good.

Jonas Brothers in Madison Square Garden, we did three nights there. When we arrived, the two blocks were covered in police cars, I don't know if it was a drill or because of the JoBros?


Their fans are beyond devoted. Every night, countless handmade items were delivered:



the creativity of the fans was impressive, from hairbrushes (email contact edited out!) to finger puppets, they found a way to send their messages to the boys.
this is Misty, the mistress of the Jombies:





Here is a slab of the basketball floorboards backstage. It really was a piece of magic being there.



I got to meet with Charles Brownstein, head of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, he of the charming league of gentlemen, we had a great time at the Irish pub across the street from the hotel.
I got to see Wendy, my partner from many years ago in the Harborplace pushcart scene, her adorable little family came to visit me. (I do believe Haven is a real vampire living in Brooklyn...?)
Michael Stewart and his girl Joey entertained us at the Beauty Bar, grateful as always, my Rehoboth brother!

The sponsor bus was parked out in front of the Garden and it got completely tagged. Even with security around the clock, the fans proceeded to cover every inch with paint and who knows what else.



We were following around several of the summer tours, one being Elvis Costello & the Police, saw their directional arrows in many of the venues:




another being Slipknot, who forgot to eat their greens....



the Burger King came to one of our shows, and i ran away, he was so scary:



I got to see my family on several of the day-off stops, Denver, Cleveland, DC---here is my cute dad with my nieces, Abra & Thalia (who wanted to know if the Jonas boys could play at their slumber party):



Drew and I decided to have a movie date, although we were in different cities.



We both went to see The Dark Knight on the same day, my theater was completely empty, until about two minutes before curtain, and a lady with a baby came in. Yes, the baby cried. I almost did too, the film was so powerful. go see it. do!

I got to be an honorary pyro crew member for the day, thank you Kev-o, here he is pointing out how to push the button:





Jonas camp touched down on a string of state fairs. Our gear didn't really fit on these postage stamp stages, but our stellar stage manager Brian did his very best. The crew, of course, had a blast at the fairs. I think many of us are roadies because of going to carnivals in our younger days and being entranced by the carny lifestyle. Set up in a city and then tear it all down...









Big Rob (the boys security detail) made us tshirts as a thank you to the crew (modelling for us is darling Sherman from the Veronicas, our opening act....)



carp Dana & video Jessie:



Jakey and me w/Big Rob:



the foxy Veronicas in Florida:



Tech Chris, in action, in Chicago:



Ironman Matt and Teeter from lasers, my new friends for life:



I toured with my girl Steffani all last year on Tool and she turned up on this one as well, shown here with Drew from the Demi Lovato band, at our end-of-tour party:



in Florida, with the gracious lady whose DNA powers the star brothers, she was incredibly cool to tour with, true grace under pressure:



and finally, me and all my tour brothers, i'll miss you.