as promised....

the most Christmassy sign ever Spokane, WA


the beautiful Davenport in Spokane, WA


view from my Kelowna, BC hotel.....beautiful and icy cold


view from the Victoria hotel...waterfront, we dined on the freshest fish....



miss Cyn @ her booth in Seattle----best globs ever.


salmon waiting to be thrown in Seattle Pike Market----


worked in LA with my hero Ali, here she is on the porch of the treehouse
modelling a Neverwear girls shirt---we have a new design up: www.neverwear.net
Neil gives us a great nod in his last journal entry: www.neilgaiman.com
thank you, boss!


Jello & the boys on stage San Francisco

travelling kitten & a jello shot

Here is is almost ten days since we left Canada....
so busy.
The tour took us through Portland & Seattle where I saw Nancye & Cyn,
those girls & their towns are so high on the applause meter for me, i really am a true fan.
Nancye came and helped me do my job, she even drew the secret santa names....
I got to visit Cyn at the hippest craft fair, one that ate a goodly chunk of my per diems....
but am now in possesion of some fine crafted wares, by local artisans that i met in person, not some nameless faceless toiler...
i do have photos of everything, but am in a rush to post this, we are heading to Vegas tomorrow for a day off @ the palms resort where i will see mister Drew, home fiinally form timberlake,
and i don't know that time will allow for tinkering on the internet webs...did i mention that some suites at the palms have bowling alleys in them??? what!!??? i actually remember some torried stories from motley tour of the girls that came to see the boys in those suites...
can i mention how much i LOVED Spokane? we stayed in the enchanting Davenport, complete with stained glass tigers.
i organized, with Ngoc's generous help, a crew outing of Beowulf in imax (not in 3-D but hey...) & then went to the peacock lounge for a glass of wine. It was so wintery, so christmasy. I will post a big bunch of photos, i do swear.
Last night we were in LA, and the guest list was silly with those famous types, but Anne really hates it when i name drop so i shan't. We stayed at the hilton downtown and jon there treated us like royalty. we played the nokia theatre where i was for my run with the eagles about 6 weeks ago, and i was having "witchy woman" flashbacks. I will be there for the tori show when i get home, and that is something to look forward to!
This morning we woke up on the streets of San Francisco. Jello biafra of the dead kennedys is slated to sing a song on stage with the band, they are about to launch into "holiday in cambodia"---i have to see this. pinch me, i am dreaming....

frozen

am in Canada, woke up this morning at six am to an amazing view of evergreens & snowfall, mountains & ice. we crossed the border and lost a few of our guys to the new laws governing entrance, and so we have a few Canadian pitch hitters (pinch hitters? can’t be sure of the terminology, at ths point) Our few left-behind guys will simply have a week off and sit in a hotel room, awaiting our return to collect them. This happens alot more these days, as the US border tightened up, other countries responded in kind.

When we arrived in Saskatoon, it was 6*F and no kidding, the winds were knife-like. It was so beautiful though, like an old fifties movie on those snowy streets. I was, as usual, in a bit of denial, so i didn’t bring a coat or snow boots or mittens. i do have my hat, though. I saw my sister over Thanksgiving, and she took me thrift-shopping in Denver. We drove around to a treasure house of a store, where prices are still sitting somewhere in the 1980’s. I found a fantastic made-in-Ireland wool catholic-school-girl type skirt, some toasty sweaters & a mohair scarf that looks like the pixies made it. still no coat, but i think it will be ok. It was so fun to see her in her new cozy house on the water, complete with geese.








haven’t downloaded all my photos from Houston & British COlumbia & other points of interest, i will have to do some work tomorrow on the day off in Victoria. In Texas, I went to see the Lucy exhibit—did i write about her? They didn’t let me take any photos in that section there, but i was proud of Houston for presenting this exhibit, in this time of rampant creationism & elements of fear.
So instead took this photo for miss Red the lioness, one of her sisters...she has been banking the home fires, caring for my mister Batman & also, as it happens..... the ever-lovin' Spice Girls.
That lady-- she can do it all. thanks alot, my friend.

I toured a very thorough gem display, i got shivers more than a few times of the beauty found in the rock.
Here is the view from our hotel there, the science museum, which i walked to from the hotel, also had a butterfly wing which you can see if you look up in the left corner of the photo, looks like a big cage, and butterflies of all species flew around my head..

more soon, i am leaving out whole big parts of this tour, but i can't keep up lately.
Meanwhile, my radio is blowing up, people are calling, something is happening here on the Kelowna stage....let's go see.

Kitty back on the road...

we fly today to Austin to load in the show and start the winter tour,
i am almost packed and ready. It has been such a busy "break" in between Europe and this US/Canada run,,,,I will work on some past event blogs, such as the premiere night of Beowulf--hmmmmmmm! hello brad pitt & warren beatty--we were trying to convey to Maddy that warren was the brad pitt of his day
the week of rehearsals at Sony soundstages in Culver City was lots of running around, seeing some of my crew again, i think this short run will be easy and quite fun, as well as over quickly...the writer's guild was striking Sony heavily and i would always beep & chat with the writers--go union go!

I had to postpone my show at the Doll HOuse though, but think a spring show will be fine...will have time to take some more photos....
more soon, off to Austin.
please be in touch, all you all. will post dates on my calendar.

here is a photo i took from the plane from Athens to Istanbul..
.

BEOWULF IN 3-D IMAX!!!

I am still literally off-balance from this film-going experience. STUNNING!
Saw the rough cut in 2D with Neil a couple weeks ago in the Paramount screening room on the lot, and i was amazed by it then, by the way the story unfolds, by the way the characters became so real, by the way that my secret vision of how life was like in old Denmark came to life on screen--by the fact that I have a major crush on an animated character---*sigh.

However, seeing it in 3-D IMAX with the glasses and all at the press screening---
i could barely speak after viewing. This is a milestone. I was astonished, and can't get my mind off of it. A true new wave of technology has arrived. We all slugged through Beowulf in high school english class, and i must admit I have always had a strong affinity for the Scandinavian lands. The Viking life just appeals to my Irish roots. It's in my DNA. Ray Winestone is so powerful, Hopkins, Penn, but Crispin Glover takes the prize. His Grendel is a beautifully nuanced "monster", the poor guy just wanted a little peace & quiet!
i nominate him best supporting. and A. Jolie, she took the piece home. Beauty in the most dangerous form. The big premiere is on Monday. more soon.
all i can say, make the extra effort to see it in 3-D IMAX.
BEOWULF:take a look!

cloud covering the moon...

the sky has been dark with a strange yellow light, giving even morning sun an evening feel.
the fires are burning, ash is everywhere in the air, i got into my car & it was coated in white crumbly ash, inside & out.
people are losing their homes and all i can hear is the sound of helicopters. It is burning hot in the air. BAtman sits, watching & listening, out the window. He knows something is wrong out there.

this will be a brief blog and i am addressing things on many levels: be grateful for what this life has offered.
life can end from one second to the next. be present. the problems that you think are big, they are small.


this will pass like a cloud covering the moon. Don't feel despair, my friends, make this life count.
i am grateful for every day i wake up.
signed, a four leaf clover of a girl...

birthday girl, scream awards & dream life

last week was almost more than even this Batgirl can handle.
my birthday, working the Eagles/Dixie Chicks shows at the new Nokia theater in downtown LA, Neil in town, my landlord's poor kitty that i have been cat-sitting had a serious episode that landed us in the kitty ER over the weekend (she is MUCH better, saw her today), my beloved Ghosty got hit by another car on Hollywood Blvd, (just some body damage, but still!)the Scream awards @ the GReek Theatre....ok. wait.
let me just show some photos...


Neil got us into the big El Capitan theatre presentation of 3-D Nightmare before Christmas, where the director Henry Selick came to talk about the process w/ some of the people involved in the making of this classic. He showed us how the heads of Jack were changed and the eyelid movements show emotions...
downstairs they had an exhibit of artifacts from the film, i was taken by the box of Jack heads. They gave us free popcorn in Nightmare tubs..and they had a film clip of Tom Burton's voiceover behind a Mexican wrestling mask, saying thanks for coming to see the show. Neil then got up on stage to help introduce the Coraline clip, which was stunning. The advancement in technology since the Nightmare days, wow.


.yes, it was the day after my birthday...
On my birthday, Drew took me to the new Sean Penn film "into the wild"--we went to the arclight. the film wasn't perfect, but it moved me, the book was a personal favorite. sometimes, we all consider leaving everything behind...I like the restaurant there @ the arclight, they put little clapboard sheets down on your table, saying when your movie starts, so the waiter knows when time is nigh....

then we had a night of it @ the Scream Awards on the 19th, Neil won the ICON award, the show airs tomorrow (Tues 23 Oct) night on SPike TV.
Steve Owens took this photo of us, me w/my camera...
we walked the red carpet right behind Paris Hilton (Neil spotted her back at the hotel, but Red & I, we thought she was a lookalike until we saw her again at the event, where all the paparazzi were screaming for her--oh well, who knew?)

Drew wore a Neverwhere (www.neverwear.net) shirt in honor of Neil. Roger Avary also put on a Scary Trousers shirt to announce the clip of Beowulf. I seriously love that guy. Did you see "killing zoe"!!? SAw Rob Zombie & Sherri, they flew in for one night off the Ozzy/Zombie tour to honor Alice Cooper in the tribute. Ozzy & Slash played with them as well. big noise!

Harrison Ford won the Hero Award, Shia LeBeouf presented it to him.

Shia & Neil posed for me in the green room. I was pretty fan-girl over Han Solo standing right next to me. but even more exciting? Bruce Campbell in the corner. A real room full of people, i didn't recognize half of them until they got up to accept their awards. Seth Rogen presented Neil his award and Boss was just right in there with a speech praising the CBLDF and making a sincere thank you. Drew & I were seated in the audience behind him, where we could see him, in the tv jump boxes. seated next to us was the actor that played Sabretooth --at 6'8", he was taller even than Drew. Down at the other end of our row were all the remaining cast of Star Trek, Kirk, Sulu, Chekov, Spock & Uhuru, (see her next to Drew & REd on the carpet walk in this photo-she is like royalty)

in this photo of Kevin smith, you can see the Giger-inspired angel statues that shot flames behind him, miss Wendy's new company made them...really impressive.

Quentin Tarantino & Robert Rodriguez won for Grindhouse, which i LOVED, that film got no love from marketing. My Greek brothers, Tommy Lee & Criss Angel presented something, but i was too busy trying to dry off my camera, which i accidentally placed (carefully, even) into a cup holder that i didn't realize had a cup in it, with beer in it. Death by drowning. I got this very last photo of the Star Trek reunion, but man, it isn't good. I really wanted it to be good for my little brother, who at one time, was quite the fan...Nimoy looks great!unfortunately, I drowned my camera just before Neil's acceptance speech so i got no photos of him up there, a few film clips, but until i figure out how to pull stills, hope someone else got a good shot of him.
now, what new camera shall i save my quarters for...? check out the show Tuesday night (Oct 23) on Spike TV!

the legendary Rick Baker

i grew up loving every kind of horror movie, tv show, charles addams cartoon, creepy comic books (thanks to my brother!)--
Halloween just lives in my heart. When Malena sent me an invitation for Miles' group artshow being held at Rick Baker's Sinovation Studios, it was like getting an invitation to Valhalla.
The studio was tricked out like a graveyard, and there were pieces there by my hero Bernie Wrightson, Dan Brereton (*sigh)
and William Stout, to name a few...
An artist new to me whose work i was drawn to like a magnet was Ragnar, simple graphite drawings on paper, but it struck me in the heart, thunderbolt-like. There was a video loop of Michael Doughtery's upcoming scary "Trick r Treat"--oh yeah! and let's not forget the letter-perfect
Miles Teves
Here are Red & Charle by the classic portrait Miles did of Malena, can you see it in the lower right hand corner?

here Charle photographs the display of movie masks (Miles did the green one for the film "Legend")

Then we went upstairs into Mr. Baker's private viewing room, no photos allowed, sorry. It was truly an education in movie magic. From American Werewolf in London to Men in Black to Nutty Professor, Batman to Ed Wood, the models were on display. I will always be grateful for Miles inviting me. As we came down the spiral staircase after the tour, Rick Baker himself was at the bottom, I gave him my best million-dollar smile & said my thank yous. He was a true gentleman.
Here is a photo of Miles & cowboy boot-wearin' uberartist Coop & Malena & Miss Ruth, getting herself struck by a bolt...
a truly great night.

am i dreaming?

i know i have mentioned Ghosty, my car before. it is the sweetest little miata convertible. this car was a virtual gift from the Gorgeous couple Miles & Malena...they gave me such a great deal on it & i have loved every minute of driving him. He has various nicknames such as the Aspirin, the Tic Tac, the Barbie car...
anyway. I have been on and off the road so much I haven't really gotten him a local doctor, and it was time. The Viking told me about ISE auto mechanics right over in my neighborhood. I took ghosty in there to get a tune up. and...a couple hours later,
I got the call every car owner hates to get: "How attached are you to this car>..?"
Craig the owner & Melissa who seems to be the glue holding the place together were very nice to me after i walked over, saying: whhha? VERY attached, thank you very much.

Last year, my radiator overheaed and the upshot was that some of my cylinders were affected. Craig said: do you want to commit to this car? because it will be a costly repair to try to get the problem under control. A valve job head gaskety sort of thing.
All this was said with love & kindness, two tones i am not used to hearing from a repair shop.
So they had the car all taken apart and meanwhile, i also needed a headlamp replaced. Craig said he would call me when it is put back together. I go back, he says: we are going to monitor the progress together. I stand at the counter, preparing to pay, and Craig says: let me go ahead and mail that bill to you. I said: hmmm what's that?
he said: you can go now & pay me later. This is my first time there!
I told him that was best bad news i ever got, given in the sweetest way.
I am in love w/ this auto shop.

BEOWULF, baby & things to watch for...

The trailer for BEOWULF is up on the front page of Paramount's website. whoop!
this film is holding great fascination for me. when i saw the 3-D clips @ comicon, it was truly jaw-dropping.
it is like a shiny present under the tree...
us & uk release date: NOVEMBER 16th...

take a look:
http://www.paramount.com/

and Neil has won the big Spike TV/SCREAM/Comicon 2007 ICON award,
the award that was presented to Frank Miller last year.
(am very proud of Boss, he has had a non-stop year....)


this year, Scream is taping at the Greek Theater right in my neighborhood.
also they are doing an Alice Cooper tribute...w/ozzy, zombie, slash, joe perry & more--Halloween is coming early!
what to wear...oh dear.
for a quick clip of last year's award show:

http://www.liquid-theory.com/scream_sizzle_716.html

The show is airing on October 23rd on Spike TV...watch-----

also coming up next week, a 3-D viewing of Nightmare before Christmas @ the El Capitan and a big Rick Baker Halloween artshow & a Simpsons table read...finally a real holiday for me.
am usually out on the road at this time--a first!

Last time I was home for Halloween, i turned on the TV to see "13 Nights of Fright" that Neil was hosting with Malena...
for a teeny look at that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_XqLLOM0to

will take photos...i promise.
ps who knows how i can make this these links active? signed, your friendly neighborhood luddite

kitty back on the road...

some new dates are up for the winter tour Tool, i know there will be more announced,
we have rehearsals in LA for about ten days, and then on to Austin for the first show...
i have to say, this is one of the best crews i have ever worked with
alot to love on this tour...
here is a photo from Istanbul, our guitarist & drummer, tour manager, rynne & me w/the legendary Peter Murphy of Bauhaus...
i fake-fainted when i met him, he was a real sweetheart & very versed in the ways of the Turkish people. he gave us lots of stories.

we did our last load out of the European run in pouring rain on the slick decks of the Istanbul venue, i mean MONSOON type rain. We just marvelled at the amount of rain dumping on us. The day had been a beautiful clear day on the waterfront --over all, the show was one of the best of the tour, i think because everyone was very ready to advance toward their homes...
more soon, just wanted to post these dates. who can come see me???

2007 07 Dec Spokane, WA US Spokane Arena
2007 05 Dec Portland, OR US Memorial Coliseum
2007 04 Dec Everett, WA US Everett Events Center
2007 27 Nov Saskatoon CANADA Credit Union Center
2007 25 Nov Billings, MT US Metrapark Arena
2007 24 Nov Salt Lake City, UT US E Center
2007 23 Nov Casper, WY US Casper Events Center
2007 21 Nov Denver, CO US Pepsi Center
2007 19 Nov Tulsa, OK US Tulsa Convention Center
2007 17 Nov New Orleans, LA US New Orleans Arena
2007 16 Nov Houston, TX US Toyota Center
2007 14 Nov Austin, TX US Frank Erwin Center

..six day without a cell phone...

...so i am home now. but Toasty, my blackberry, did not make it. he decided to become an airline hostess, and stayed on the plane from istanbul. toasty escaped from my bag, and when i realized, right about passport control, they said, nah, you can't go get him.
what if it had been a pacemaker, or perhaps, my passport itself? anyway, nobody turned him in, so i am without any phone numbers, yes, i didn't back up my info. & will i do that again, no. maybe i should have been nicer to him...? ah well. toasty two will reap the rewards of my new behavioral learnings.
...anyway, what this means is that i had a real vacation with NO cell phone, went up to northern CA to meet drew on the timberlake tour, and since the shows were cancelled, we went to see a camille rose garcia exhibit, a raymond pettibon exhibit & i got to meet cheryl & sven's baby levon.
we drove down the astoundingly beautiful pacific coast highway and stopped at the mystery spot. pretty impressive....ok, who knows what the real story is??? (like the guide says, then it would be called "the solved spot")
tonight we are going to the hollywood forever cemetary where they show films (tonight: the exorcist) on the crypt walls, and i will go say hello to johnny ramone's ghost.
meanwhile, miss Heather had her baby last night (this morning?) Welcome little Eli!
when i get a longer minute, i will post photos, and i will report on the last part of the tour, which was a bone-crushing four in a row, but we made it, barely, i am still falling asleep in the middle of sentences...off to the grocery store, which has been like a dream coming true, shopping for my OWN cereal etc. did i mention i was in Greece, home of my half my heart? (the other half lives in Ireland....)
rambling ending now...

the ocean at my window

two days off in Biarritz, France, a big surfing town. this crew really needed a stopover, we had a half day off in Frankfurt, Germany but we needed to get off the bus for awhile and step into a town. Renee & I found this little shop in Frankfurt. Where could we get away with these outfits...? sadly, i left them there...
these goldfish swam above our delicious grilled dinner...

Back to our two days off...luckily for us, there was no room anywhere else for us but Biarritz. A seaside town in France, up by the border of Spain, it was a slice of beauty, with French Mexican food & their version of margaritas... and lovely people. We whirled around the resort and spent our euros with no regrets. Our hotel, Tonic, was seated next door to a pub with a boat theme, delicious pizza & the boys were all in love with the saucy French waitresses.

Walked the beach at night and i slept with my window open, hearing the surf hit the shore over & over. put me into a deep deep sleep.

The next day we found little treasures in vintage shops, but oh so expensive...i mostly window shopped & day-dreamed. Resting up for the next bout of shows... Spain, I was so sorry not to have more time in your borders. Next time.

after that we went on to do another co-headliner with NIN in Italy, we even shared the production office with them, it was a cozy little family. The Trail of the Dead guys were there too, **shouting out to Leroy! The convergence of the crews was such a blast...

today we have a show day in Zagreb, Croatia....former Yugoslavia. Our production office looks like a true war room, we have a conference table that is a big wooden circle & we are on the phones constantly today, sorting out every little detail that can go wrong on this final four in a row of shows...I will download photos that I took next post, Zagreb, a truly amazing city, with millions of beautiful people and skies of electric blue. This morning though, show day, i woke to pouring rain in the hotel...Tomorrow Serbia, and we lose our tour buses. Charter plane to Athens and then Istanbul and then a ka-billion hour flight home...home sweet home...

from london to paris to germany to spain

day off in london, we assembled at the k-west hotel with crews from many other tours in town for this that and the other. a serious high school reunion of roadies.... i saw miss Abby, the wardrobe geisha here with Prince & tour manager
Marguerite in town w/ the Used. Scuba Steve as here with the rolling stones---nothing like seeing your friends when you are out of the country.
2 show nights in Brixton and one night in
manchester—i was enchanted by the comment to me from one of the local crew: i could listen to your accent all day. i stopped, me? and of course, had to smile. guess it is true, we sound as charming as they do to us...!

we picked up 3 lighting guys, Ben, Ross & young Darragh from Ireland. also added three caterers, Mike, Sean & Jolene, our blond dining goddess, who completely stole my heart. how they got out of town without being photographed by me, i will never know...all i can say "mistakes were made"...
our buses were crowded to the hilt, but we were fine with it.
the food was delicious and we had excellent company, someone to ask for the right kind of tea or to toast your bread when the toaster was put down for lunch.
that is one big reason why you take catering with you, when you can, it means that it is a familiar face in the dining area, someone who knows you don’t like tomatoes but that you do like a certain kind of wine..

Lola and i went thriftshopping in london and found some great little off-the-map places. I wanted to buy this typewriter, but really i couldn’t carry it. there are many orphan machines in the US that i can adopt.
we also tried mushy peas (my verdict was definitely a no) and i bought some PG Tips for 95 p. just because it was only 95 p. I also learned i can’t count British pounds fast, like i can american dollars. they are too big and incidentally, they spend way too fast,
our dollar is puny compared.... on to paris, we took a ferry across from the white cliffs of Dover.
I always think of the Dumas story of the 3 musketeers, ferrying in through Calais—
we watched Frank Miller’s300 going across the countryside of france, captain roberts ran it into the ground, but i loved it. still had a problem with the narration but again, i thought it was so beautifully done.... “tonight...! we dine...! in hell...!”other Boss is in China & i hope all is going well for him.

last night, we got into Paris, just in time for me to put the daysheets under the doors of the crew and then i jumped on the metro to get out to my cousin's home. She picked me up at the station with her two tiny sons who laughed at my weak attempts at french. they are just beautiful.

we ordered pizza and had wine, and talked. it was so good to be in a real home, not a hotel or a restaurant –wish i had more time there, it is so easy to be with Maura, the companion of my childhood.

so just when you think your red velvet heart is going to break in half from wanting to be home,
i got to watch the jesus and mary chain play “just like honey” and go transported back to another time. they still had the magic. winehouse again a no-show, and we have to leave before bjork, boo!

tomorrow area 4 festival. things to look forward to? two nights off in Biarritz. we are staying at a beautiful coastal hotel under the watch of Viking ghosts that settled (conquered) in this whaling town centuries ago.
here is a view from our hotel in Paris:

here is a view from the venue in Brixton:


tonight the boys did a trial run of the pack for the Antonov, the cargo plane that will carry our gear from Belgrade, Serbia on into Athens. many of the crew are extending their tickets to stay in Istanbul but not me. I want to see Batman.

home of mozart, onto to swiss alps

the postcard scenery of salzburg is a true phenomenon.
every time i looked into the aqua blue-green of the river,
i couldn't help but mentally photoshop in a floating drowned body, to balance the pure serenity of the scene.

morticia addams, that's me.

we walked along the water & ate at the nordsee, which was an all seafood place--prices were skyhigh, but the shrimps were perfect. the swiss franc & the euro are dancing on the grave of the dollar...


we went to a marionnette show of "hansel & gretel" and i was enchanted by the puppetry, but had to leave, as our show cancellation was just going down during that time, so i was too distracted to watch the whole show. sad but true, as metallica says.

the birthplace of mozart is a bit like the georgetown of my youth, shops and restaurants along the water.
my first time in austria...

we pushed on to switzerland for the gampel festival, where every direction you could look was solid gold breathtaking view.
one of the bands playing was a group of bag-piping vikings who played all manner of homemade industrial instruments & sported runes on their costumes...i watched from sidestage & made little movies.

we stopped at the truck stop and i phootographed the swiss chocolate offerings.


eric said the dining area in catering was like a mad mash-up of christmas and halloween, and damn if he wasn't right. bright red tablecloths with orange orange candleabras and scattered sprays of greens...what? eric is doing the reporting on the tool army website,
he will set the record straight....

i am now in belguim, on the last night of the pukelpop festival,
we just shared the bill with NIN and kings of leon, trail of the dead & sparta. LaCuna coil cancelled but they are playing on our stage tomorrow...motorhead is down at another stage, we will all dash over to see lemmy (but who is playing keno at the rainbow??) tomorrow we hit Holland, and i am working on 3 hours of sleep. still haven't mentioned more than a sliver of what has been happening...tomorrow?