12/04-
The 2 friends that live in Portland were sick. Didn't turn out like I thought it would. But whatever, I should be use to it. The roads were closed because of flooding so my tour sidekick was stuck in Seattle. Too bad she couldn't meet up w/ me. We kept calling each other & I felt bad she was stuck over in Seattle. Here I was wondering how I was getting up to Seattle the next morning & I had a flight to catch out to Oakland on the 7th as well. Sometimes things just don't work out as you planned them, but everything worked itself out in the end & ended up being better actually. I had planned to fly into Seattle first then drive down to Oregon w/ my friend, I'm soooo glad I decided to fly into Oregon because it was my fav. show, one of my fav. venues and I met a wonderful new friend that day, Dai. :o) Not to mention how happy I was to run into Ursula there and then Joe, they are like the funnest peeps to be around. I was very happy. So back to that Morning:
The next day I get up my friend was supossed to take me to the venue on her lunch break, my first day on tori tour and it's gone weird. She calls me from work says she has a lot of paper work and she can't take me, so she got me a cab to the venue! I was like 'ok', but you know what, that turned out to be one of my fav. memories of the trip, the cab guy I had was just awesome, he was so sweet and funny, we laughed & talked the whole intire way. I told him what I was doing, he knew of Tori and we started talking about jazz music & old classic rocknroll. He told me of when he saw The Doors and we talked on & on like we been friends forever! It was great! I was worried of where I'd put my suitcases during the meetngreet. He was very helpful and he stopped @ a greyhound station to see if I could keep them in one of their lockers, I go in there right and their working on them! I couldn't believe it! I come back out & we drive to the venue, he drops me off right in front. Unloads my suitcases and he says 'take a picture of me infront of the Tori posters' so cute! So we're all laughing & having fun! We hugged and said our goodbyes. I actually was sad when I watched him drive away. You sometimes meet wonderful people during stressful times that make you feel at home or settle you down. He was one of those. I even remember his name, 'Scott'. Thank you. You did more than you know buddy.
So, I take my first photos of the venue marquee. Then got my gorgeous matching luggage (haha) and took it around the corner. There were only 3 people out there. As I walk up this old distinctive englishman comes out of his office and walks up to me and says in his beautiful english accent 'are you the young lady requiring about a meet & greet'?. Haha wtf? How did he know! He brought me into his office & was all talking to me, all the while I'm thinkin' what is this? It was nice though. The 3 standing outside told me that they thought that I was part of tori's crew by the way I was dressed & my fancy LL Bean luggage. Haha. So I introduced myself to the lovely Allison, Mark & the other guy, sorry I forgot your name! We talked a bit until I turned around and saw a familiar face & that familiar face I liked. It was Ursula! Yay! She introduced me to Amanda, a girl she met that morning. I ended up leaving my bags in ursula's car. What a relief! We all decided before I went to drop off my bags, all 6 of us would walk up to the radio station Tori was supossed to be at? But Ursula couldn't find the garage her car was in at first (they all look the same). So we walked around & finally found it, then on our way to the radio station that's where I met Dai. He was standing all tall w/ a pretty good camera lens behind a bush, lurking. Ok, just kidding, but he is tall and that camera was awesome! He was smart to be standing up on the hill a few yards from where they were unloading Tori's piano & stuff, trying to get some shots. I asked him in a kidding-kinda-way 'are you stalking Tooooorrii'. He looked a bit nervous for a second. Haha. Then said 'I'm just getting some shots, they already brought out her piano'. Somehow we got on the subject of 'are you going to the Seattle show', 'are you driving' like right away. He said 'yeah I am'. I jumped up to where he was & shook his hand and said 'Hi, your my new best friend' and we all laughed. I got his number & he got mine. With a goodbye we left to the radio station, stopping at a Vons to get something to eat. I got my beloved little fig newtons, which was funny because all I went thru they ended up going w/ me the intire trip (you can see them in pictures in Arizona, haha). We get there finally, hiking up hills & shit & Allison came up to me & said she left me a note w/ directions & taped it on the wall back at the venue. How sweet. We didn't go that way tho. We all waited there w/ 2 other peeps, we talked and waited some more, then I thought I'd better call Dai to see what's up on his end. He says he thinks the radio show was pre-recorded, and I think he said he saw her go in already? So I start walking & tell the others 'come on, he thinks it was pre-recorded' with a choir of 'ahhh's' we were on our way back. I waved & said 'hi' to Dai that was still standing there in the same spot! LOL. I called him over. I took a few piccys of Jon & Matt meeting each other w/ coffee. Remember I haven't seen these guys for 4 yrs. And get this LOL, this guy walks by w/ a cute bum & fohawk and I LOVE fohawks! So I was just watching him and/or his bum walk about, when he came near me I asked him to take a photo w/ me (I thought he was just some cute random local college guy & I'd never seem him again) and no one else seemed to know him either. I'm all 'who's that'? After he walked away. Then later that night, I see him on stage w/ Tori! Oooohhh shit haha. It's Tori's new guitarist Dan Phelps. I was all laughing to myself when I saw him. You see I been working so much that sadly I haven't had a lot of time to watch any tori related video, everything was new and fresh to me. How funny. Anyhow, jump back to where we were. So after a while Smitty (who I also met for the first time ever that day) came out & told us there would be no meetngreet. I didn't see why not, but whatever. I wanted to unload these gifts to tori so I wouldn't have to carry them around. I most certainly didn't want to take them on the plane w/ me again to Oakland, so Seattle was my only bet. It was funny, I didn't frett, like I knew that I would, seeing as every tour I gave her all her gifts in Seattle, even tho I Live in LA. Just always seems to be my perfect spot. Magical spot. Hemm...( Oh and to that ugly anorexic curly poodle haired bitch that asked my friend why I take 'so many pictures' (note: took 3 shots) wtf does it matter to your stupid dumb nosey ass, like why the fuck are you breathing? Who the fuck are you anyway? Please bitch. I'm a photographer, that's what I do. Get a life. Stop standing there with that stick up your ass, you delusional twat). So I really can't tell you what happened after smitty telling us that, because I don't remember. All I remember is Jim, Heather, Brigett and Casey finally showing up after taking the 'long way' from Seattle 'cause of the road closure. I remember us all going into a fancy resturant to go pee. After that it's all a blur. I don't even think I ate dinner that night, thank all the gods I had fig newtons in my purse! Oh fuck wait-how can I forget. I think that's when I saw and hugged hello to my fav. person ever (so far) to sit with during a concert! JOE! Hurrah! I think me, Ursula and joe walked to some mall to a food court to eat. My food was so sick, I only ate a little. Then ONE of my FAV. memories on tour, joe showed us this little stand where this girl made duct tape wallets, I had to buy the cute one w/ the porcupine & mushrooms on it. I even named my wallet 'the ursulajoe wallet'. I kid you not. I love my friends that much. ;o) We walked back, I saw some peeps I knew in the VIP. I waited outside, still needing a tix, smitty told me to look for him out infront @ 7:00. Ok. Earlier that day I introduced myself to him for the first time. I told him I was an OG (you know meaning old-school, as in I've been here forever) I think he confused OG for a 'Regular' (I've always hated that title-I guess people use it so you know who you're talking about) but honey there's a big difference between a regular & an OG. I'm not Obsessed. Ok-maybe I was back in '96, but that shit was world-changing. Anywho, I got a corner front row, but the place was so damn' small & tori kept lookin' at me, so I was happy w/ my seat. Not going to complain or be greedy. Plus I got some of my best piccys that night! And guess what? Izzy was my favourite doll and she came out and I was thrilled. Tori did my Beulah Land and that's all that fucking matters! Every tour before I asked for my precious Graveyard/Beulah Land combo and she has done them together from there on most the time. Funny/cute/ironic thing is that I didn't ask this time. She just knew I was there because someone told her I said 'Hi' & when I saw the setlist after the show with Graveyard/Beulah Land together I just smiled quietly while the sea of people all around me seemed to be now moving in slow motion and then slowly fade away. It was just me and my funny-lip-shape standing there. Even tho I didn't get Graveyard I got the other. Thank you tori, (but really Graveyard is only 3 mins. long!!!) ;o)
Let's not skip the show! Oregon was my favourite show out of the 10 shows I seen. Maybe it had something to do w/ it being my first show & that I just simply walked in & sat alone, not looking for any friends. Some concerts are better alone. I mean I knew they were there, but you know. I had a good seat and Isabel (my fav.) Doll came out smoking in this awesome, beautiful dress and boots. Hot! I lucked out! What
were my chances of getting Izzy, front row and beulah land all in one day and it being my first show back? Like I said it was my fav. show, this and Seattle. It was nice feeling the base & drums pulse through me again. It's been way too long. When Tori came out I thought that was the prettiest dress I've ever seen & I wanted it, haha. My opinion stays the same by the end of the tour. The set list was nice. Of course 'Yo George' being one of my fav. I loved seeing tori do it. 'Theme from the Exorcist' is always nice. I liked 'Almost Rosey' from the first time I heard it on the album, but there were some parts of the song I didn't like. After seeing tori do it live, I love this song! 'Mountain' has always been one of my fav. Fucking love this song, as well as 'Tombigbee' and 'Scarlet's Walk'...with my favourite line 'you just lift your lamp, I will follow' and I've always imagined tori holding one up on that part AND SHE DID! One of my fav. props tori! Way to go! 'Professional Widow' was so much fucking fun, great idea tori! Saw 'Big Wheel' for the first time w/ all it's little dance moves, haha. And the jumpsuit I thought was cool for about 5 minutes! 'Tear in your hand', I always call an 'oldie but a goodie'. And it is. It was good to hear 'Spring Haze' again. Then my beloved 'Beulah Land' came out to tell me she missed me. I missed you too Beulah babe. Where have you been off to? 'Carbon' is always nice to hear. Usually I don't really care for '1000 Oceans', BUT, my Grandpa died a week 1/2 before tour & I was still healing & this song helped me out. If I remember right I might have cried a little. 'Hotel' that hot bitch helped me to wake up and snap out of it! She's such a demanding little thing! And sometimes she's a boy & sometimes she's a girl! And then here comes 'Code Red' running down as fast as it can, to go in and around, through us again, fill the room. It is amazing to me how just 4 instruments make this sound, or rather how she plays thru the instruments, banging the drums, vibrating the base, twists around the guitars strings, off tori's tiny finger tips and vocal chourds and finally puncturing our ears. Amazing, she IS alive. This was & always will be my #1 fav. song off this album. I could have wrote that song. There's so much of me in that song. 'Bouncing off clouds' was my other fav. song off the album. There are my 3 fav. she already played (Yo George, Code Red & BOC). So I was happy. 'Hey Jupiter' has always been one of my fav. and I love to hear, but not a trillion times, you know? And I have to say besides Beulah Land, Yo George, Mountain, Code Red and the cute little improv about 'if you really wanna get there' (due to the road closures & record rainfall) that 'I'm on fire' was the real treat. She played it before Beulah Land so it was extra sweet. Great show Tori! Wish the rest of the shows made me feel like this. So after hanging around w/ friends for awhile I went to the downstairs bathroom and I kept getting crazy texts and phone calls, they kept getting dropped 'cause where I was (this strange underground) So thank you for being patient Dai and calling me over & over again, to see if I still needed that ride to Seattle. Now that's a decent person (hard to find these days). And the other calls were from my dear friend Peter! Now get this we have been friends for like 8 years, we met online at I think it was @forumz, you know when it use to be good. Well, here I lived in Los Feliz & he lived in West Hollywood & all these years we never met! He just so happened to be in town that night and he had time to catch most the show. He was calling me to meet him, he was standing outside, so I'm so excited & like running out and here we meet for the very first time! And of all places in Oregon at a Tori show, my fav. Tori show, so it was even more beautiful, even more Kewl :o)
He wanted me to meet his mom who was waiting in the car, and I was headed over there, but had friends calling me from every direction. Dai, Jim, Ursula and I had to get my bags out of Ursula car & my fig newtons out of Jim & heather's car to move into Dai's car, so I couldn't & I felt so bad. I hope he understands. I love that peter, he's a sweet lad. So off he went & off we go to get that brilliant looking luggage into Dai's car. So we all go. Oh I'm forgetting a huge part here, so Dai informs me that not only do I have a ride to seattle, but a place to sleep! Oh. Breathe out & relax. So, up to jim's car & back down to meet Ursula and joe asks dai if he can stay too (even tho they never met, that's how it works on tour and I love it-you make new friends this way). So it's just us 3 walking the bags to his car. We were like the last 3 people around! Dai's apartment was awesome, he has great taste in music & he's a great host. I was tired of eating crap food, so he made me some rice & Trader Joe's black beans! Ha! I even took a piccy of the rice & beans, yeah they were that good! haha. Good times! We all had fun talking. Our personalities are the same, so that's why it all clicked into place. This will go down as one of my fav. tour memories! I hold it dear. These 2 guys are awesome!
