Everybody's talkin' at me--Nilsson

June 7-9: Really nasty weekend. I'm barely keeping up with Lost Chords, I wind up deleting so much these days. I'm running a fever, apparently driven by allergies, as others around me seem in the same shape. It's a nasty, asthmatic hack, deep in the lungs, and destroys your energy. I don't want to be sick before my vacation! I was supposed to work on June 9, but at the last minute, the $%^&* sub-coordinator wiped it off the website. Just as well, as I really feel bad and need time to get ready for trip.

June 10: I have a job interview, in Cape Flattery (Neah Bay), way 'way out on the point where the Makah Indian reservation is. (The Makah have distinguished themselves in the past few years by going out and shooting whales. There must be a huge debate on the matter going on within the tribe, as there have been no more whales killed, and right after that one was killed, three more washed up dead, killed by Mother Nature. Bad mojo if you ask me. I think they are being a little tacky myself, using a gun instead of traditional methods.) I look at the map and guestimate a two hour drive out there from where I live, but I took off a half hour early anyway. It's well I did, as (of course) I wound up behind slow moving back-hoes on two lane highways, and it's a good three hours before I made it. Interview is scary, they are looking for someone who is willing to pick up qualifications to teach Physics and Chemistry as well as Biology (I don't think I could deal with Chemistry…. some things you just have to pass on!). Nice folks tho'. Made it through interview with barely a cough.

The landscape is striking. This is a dropping-off place, rather like I imagine Cornwall looks. The place where you drop off one last time into a land of dragons and sea serpents, the "final end to sea and land" like in "Tregordock". The forests are mystical, there are old spirits here, the Makah were here for eons before any of *us* White Honkys arrived. Their homes, traditions and world is totally intact, relatively untouched by any new ideas. It would be nice to teach here, but I don't know if I'm up to the task. Went home (we are now talking a total of 6 hours on the road driving). I pack up Strider the Ranger, and head off for the forests of Sherwood, OR (another three hours). Get to my brother's at a decent hour for a change, and have a nice nice talk with them before collapsing in bed. Very tired already, what with drive, interview and illness. One cute note: on the way, I actually pass Dr. Feelgood's Pu b! Heheh have the Avengers been here in Tigard, OR?

To Light Your Journey: Into the Heart of Lightness

June 11: I'll see the Moodies tonight! I'm listening to the Oldies (KLUE?) station in Eugene as I drive through, and the DJ says "let's see a show of hands, who wants to go see the Moody Blues?" They were giving away tickets! So the Cuthbert had some promotions sent ahead, the word is getting out to radio stations, despite what people might say about "no promotion". The DJs then played "And the Tide Rushes In" which was a wonderful tribute for Ray, I wonder if they knew he was not with the group anymore. No song could have been more perfect.

I toyed with the idea of going to Klamath today, and then BACK to Ashland/Jacksonville, but as I drive, I realized this is a tall order (especially after I so badly underestimated the drive time to Neah Bay, I was a little skittish about the "road warrior thing"). The map is indistinct regarding the road between Klamath Falls and Ashland. My hotel was in Ashland (a Motel 8 I know well, very nice place) Anyway, I first scouted Jacksonville……… it was a treat getting into the area, very pretty sort of wine country, and residential homes. Driving through Jacksonville, I was delighted with the "old town", small and touristy, and some genuine historical sites.

Spotted what might have been the venue, and cruised up a side street. My God, there is the tour bus, and people standing around it! I don't want them to think I'm a stalker, cruising by in my dingy Ranger! So I tried to back out gracefully from the residential area I was in, and there coming up the very narrow street was one of the white Egotrip equipment trucks, a huge semi. I got over and let it pass! And quietly departed the area, having no idea where "backstage" and normal life began and ended. There were no huge signs pointing the way to the concert, but I finally figured out the place was up in a hilly area……….. "Britt Gardens". And parked the car and started hiking.

Yikes!!!!!!!! They are lining up already, and it's only 11 am! WELL. The line is pretty long already, so I felt no need to rush. Some rumors surfaced about "another line" on the other side, so I checked into that, and found more people sitting literally in the dust by the RH fence (they would be on John's side when they ran for their seats). Bumped into Rebecca, and her friend (I forgot her name) from the Bay Area! My goodness I hadn't seen them for 5 years if not more. Rebecca is really fun, one of the "old time hippies" which I say in a fond sense. She and I had one intense conversation about chakras……… and she said something I needed to listen to. She reminded me of the 4th heart chakra, which controls the heart. (She also reminded me that it was Scorpio Moon, which is Justin's lunar sign…. hehe still a fan).

A tidbit, Rebecca said that Char Kemp had been in Tahoe, so that is nice she got to get out and do some vacation time. She works hard I know. And as well, Frusty Sue said she had been in Tahoe, but kept a low profile. I still haven't read a real in-depth Tahoe review. Then again, I'm a little behind too.

Anyway I decided I really wanted to be on the other side if I was going to rush for a spot in front, so I bade Rebecca and her friend farewell and set up a lawn chair on the left side. It was in a hot spot too, in the Sun. A bunch of middle school kids were under foot, EVERYWHERE. I went into teacher mode a few times and bossed them out of the way with their skateboards……. It did no good, they were hiding in the bushes like naughty elves, telling dirty stories and chattering on their cell phones. It seems that the parents in the town actually allow them to hire out to "line sit" for the big competitive events, and several are "professional" and well known to security, nice kids actually. They were quite entertaining. They made $5-$10 a hour!!!

I think it was Erika who told me that there was a Kid's Festival there at Britt during the summer, where they set up different stations for kids to do various crafts. The kids know the place very well, it's their backyard and park. There were other older kids doing hackys too, and they were very skilled. One kept catching the hacky on the brim of his hat!

I had a weird thing happen while there. (Though what could be weirder than a real deer strolling through our area, I don't know. No kidding, Bambi came by and visited the line sitters! One of the kids muttered "Oh for a gun!" the little sh*ts!) Britt Hill was apparently once a garden/orchard which a guy named Peter Britt (one of those Conestoga-driving, "original pioneers" that the Oregonians light incense to) planted in the mid-1800's. I wandered down a path near my chair and found a HUGE tree. Now I have to tell a personal story, but maybe you can apply it to your life. There is a "guided imagery" exercise/game that counselors sometimes play. You close your eyes and imagine a tree (go ahead and try it……..)*

Now you describe your tree, or draw a picture. I have to confess, the first time I did this I saw a dead tree (this was in the early 90's). Anyway what this is supposed to represent is, where is your LIFE? It's the Tree of Life. WHEW that is a strong revelation, and for several years I've been wondering what the hell in my life was dead, or had died. Well it turns out part of my journey to the Klamath area was to look up a friend from an old relationship, whom I had found on the Internet. While the details are personal to me, and boring to you, the point is I have been hearing all Justin's songs about "lost loves" with a totally new perspective, to say the least.

Anyway while I walked down the path, I saw this TREE, which was planted in 1862 by Britt himself, and it's a ancient, huge gorgeous old Giant Sequoia. The Oregon Heritage Tree. And next to it, is a very dead pine tree (much smaller of course). You go to Moody shows feeling a little metaphysical sometimes anyway……. this really added to it. A grand old tree like that was a real trippy find, especially right now!

It got to be 3:30, and everyone in line was good friends by now. We had been sun burning in the sun, or eating, or reading. Or watching butterflies cruise by. Or laughing at the goofy kids (see above). Security was a little bossy about the line-sitting, they had some bad experiences a few days earlier with Hootie and the Blowfish fans, I guess. (A later review would refer to the Moodies as "some of the loudest noise we have heard on Britt Hill for a while"; geeze who do they USUALLY have there?). They then passed out "entry" tickets (1-50) to the first people in line (the line is down the hill and into the highway now). The deal was, one person from your party runs in and "throws down the blanket" thereby staking out your place. I made friends with this older guy, and his granddaughter, who was a charming young blonde in about 5th grade. We wound up with blankets right down in front of Norda, and had tons of fun doing karate, tai chi and ballet moves while waiting for the show to start. She said her name was Erika, and spelled it for me when she saw my note pad :) The kid was good, too, a gifted dancer indeed.

Earlier on I had spotted this bossy looking woman who was marching around, looking for a ticket (and she found one eventually, lucky as it was sold out). I was a little put off by her at first, and then she wound up sitting right next to me, and eventually oozed onto my buzzsaw blanket. Turns out she was really a Good Egg, and was ½ Apache and ½ Hawaiian! WOW what a combo! And she said her Mum was "one of the Big Hawaiians" these are really huge people, the men and women both, not fat, just big! I turned her on to Hawaii by James Michner, and she made me write it down! :) During curtain call, she was doing a real live Hawaiian hula (it has to do with bent knees, and comes over like a kootch dance); I hope the Moodies appreciated it!

And next to me too, was Vic Kelly from Lost Chords who is doing her Tommy Foundation thing. She and her husband Tom were really really nice. She said they "had permission" from Justin to use "I Know You're Out There Somewhere" for her cause, and I didn't catch all the details. (For sure she pulled out "the usual photos" for Justin to sign, so she could auction them for the cause. I've seen this over the past 12 years for cancer and leukemia causes too. I wonder how much the Moodies get this from fans, and how they deal with it, not being trained in counseling). This might sound wrong, but I'll preface it by saying I have worked with rape, and crisis counseling for years, and at some point, you have to detach from it or you will go nuts. There are a lot of missing, kidnapped, raped, abused people out there, of all ages. Where the problem is, is when parents have it happen to their child, and the guilt (whether real or not) is always with you. Every parent wants nothing more than to defend and protect their children, and when some bastard violates all boundaries…… you feel it's your fault. And it's no one's fault but the perpetrator.

I've seen several people just crawl into a bottle, because they can't recover something they have lost in life……. usually a child, but not always. Sometimes it's a lost love. A lot of people have lost things, and are trying to find them…….. listen we're trying to find you, as the song goes. It's something that most of us would rather not carry with us all the time, and I felt Vic was doing that. (Tom was moving on, she wasn't). I wish the whole family well. They had two kids (teens?) in tow, who kinda reminded me of the Osbournes' kids…… as parents, you have to be there for the living as well as the dead. To paraphrase Billy Graham, "The Dead are in Heaven, and God will keep an eye on them for you". I'm not sure the answer is to generate another foundation for missing children, as there are so many already in place. I couldn't be sure, but I thought I saw Justin actually cringe away from our area during IKYOTS. Maybe I was wrong.

Anyway when we got off the Tommy subject, the Kellys were really nice former hippies, he had organized the "Psychedelic Grocery Stores" which were in Boston and Los Angeles (the Sunset district of LA,at the corner of Hollywood and Las Palmas, not San Francisco as per a Justin interview). And Tom was involved in the Elysian Park Love-Ins too. Good people, at a rough spot in life.

I was supposed to find Maggie Clarke from Lost Chords at this show, and at least say hi, but although I combed the line, and yelled frequently "Paging Maggie Clarke!" she was no where to be found. I had no idea what she looked like. Oh well I had a few more days to find her, and she knew I was staying at the Ashland Motel 8.

The rush in was not overly stressful. I managed a very nice seat off to the SR (lefthand) side right up front, right where I like it. I bet the people who came from far away and bought scalper seats in the front row were really pissed off, as there was tons of room for lawn seats in front of them. And especially when everyone got up to dance for IJASIARRB, and never sat down again.

One thing I gotta thank the gods for this year. The Moody Blues finally came to my corner of the world during GOOD WEATHER. NOW everyone can see why some of us live here, and would not ever want to live any other place in the entire world.

Norda looked a little ragged at Britt, and better at the other shows. I truly think they could do better lighting on her, she was getting a lot of overhead lighting, and that is not good for angular face planes (I notice John and Justin get lots of front lighting with the spots, and that tends to blend their facial planes, which yes are going to increase as we all get older). Norda was pretty warm apparently, and stripped down to a skimpy spaghetti strap top……. Anyway her flute playing is excellent, professional, and at times inspired. What is really giving me a thrill is her dancing and hopping about…… she is a real kick! We are so used to Justin and Ray just kinda standing (even though putting out good music) so a little action is a welcome thing.
	Bernie is the ultimate Goddess, and I envy the young man who sees her for the first time, it must be a heady experience. She mostly wears this white long Grecian thing, with one of those wide belts that I saw at the Mall, embellished and tied like a guitar strap (very pretty outfit). Bernie is growing on me, now that she is more relaxed I think she is letting go a bit….. she makes very funny faces, a bit like a cousin of mine, makes me laugh. She is good people……. Norda and Bernie dancing is some of the most fun stuff in the show. They are less cheesy than that back-up girls, the BUVs during the 90's, and it's a good thing.
High points of the show: We had all been egging Erika on to get a drumstick, and her Grandpa helped her make a sign very sweet "May I please have a drumstick?" (Notice the "please"). She held it up numerous times, and I saw Graeme look over there, barely smile, and give the smallest of nods…. that kid was going to get one, no fears. Anyway when Justin did the Dino walk, he was literally right in front of this kid, and as she sat there smiling up with that gorgeous little girl smile, he beamed, and leaned over to give her his pick. She was thrilled! And of course, at the end, Graeme gave her some sticks, and pulled out MORE from his back pocket for another kid who was up there begging too. Kids all over the place!
	It was a little awkward in the spot where "Legend of a Mind" used to be, but it was probably just me, not the band.

The show finally started, people in front were ready with shoes off and wine corks pulled, and it was wonderful to see the band again. Of course, they opened with "Lovely to See You". The three security guards placed themselves like large Buddahs right against the stage, cross-legged guardians, then nodded their heads in time to the music. Bobble Head Buddahs. The stage was only one foot off the ground at best. Fashion: Justin wore black creased pants for all the shows I saw. This show he had on a very attractive red-pin stripe preppie shirt, which I liked the best of all his shirts. (It looked pink unless you were up close). John had on a tank top with a white (silk?) shirt thrown on over it, and he changed at Intermission to a white tux shirt I think. Graeme, a tropical shirt I think. Gordon wore as little as possible. (Good). Even better, he sweated a lot. :) Paul I barely noticed in the shadowy corner, he wore white a lot, and at times, the Technicolor light-butterfly landed on him, making him look like Oberon!

During the "Dino Walk" my Apache friend, Vic Kelly, and I all lined up, and were doing this "come hither" motion to Justin, which was pretty funny. Earlier as the Buddah's settled into place, they had been more or less nice to us, and made some crack about us not rushing the stage. I commented "Don't worry about it, I wouldn't know what to do with a Moody if I DID catch one!" It's true. I wonder often what it would be like to really be friends with one of the Moody Blues. They must have a human side somewhere…… Vic and I were doing a "We are not worthy" bow to Justin too, so that was fun, and we were just horsing around!

Very few blue glow sticks, and no red ones popped up, any shows.

"Lean on Me" Justin did some really nice back-up, and I think it was the last night in Redmond he definately did a little musical "fantasia" at the end of the song. The amp work, and (I think?) the Fender (?) really made the guitar work in this song very very nice. It's a bouncy catchy ballad.

"Higher and Higher" was mind bending, especially seeing a 60 year old man up there doing the Funky Chicken! Graeme really moved out, I was deeply impressed. For most of the shows, he changes into this rather plain shirt, but on the back, there is a appliquéd hula dancer, and when he jiggles his butt, the long red fringe on the dancer wiggles back and forth. It is a real kick. The lights, if you got to see them, at the end of the song do this "pock pock pock" thing all over the stage, like white lights shooting up from all different places, as close to strobe effects as you can get without the real thing. Justin's solo was very very good in this, pretty much like the recording. The drumming section that opens is the lead-in rhythm from "Who Do/Hoodoo You Love?" by the doors. (That itself was enough to make me howl, as I'm an avid doors nut, that is one of my fave doors' pieces). It ends with this really pagan drum beat, drums were incredible all through the shows. I love Graeme, but they are so lucky to have Gordon, he is one of the most gifted musicians I've every been privileged to see on stage.

Juxtaposed/following the violent/active song H&H, came the concert coda…… "Are You Sitting Comfortably?". Wow wow wow……………….. DID ANYONE VIDEO THIS????????????????

In the West, I turned to see what Justin was seeing (for he too needs inspiration). The lights were projected like huge kaleidoscopes, onto the trees behind the audience, and as I looked to see them during this song, there (framed and centered in the trees) in the West rose Venus the Even Star, Justin's ruling planet. It was Earendil, the Mariner, with his lantern the Silmaril leadingthe Way to Westernesse. I almost cried it was so beautiful. "Are You Sitting" is for the most part acoustic, with just a very few small synthesized keyboards. Gordon picks up a flute, Graeme gently taps a tambourine, Bernie gently touches the keyboards, Norda does her solo, Paul does rhythm guitar in the shadows, John does a gentle bass. And Justin, stands perfectly still, bathed in a blue magical light, picking his big brown guitar and singing his troubadour poem about Merlin and the Seven Wonders of the World.

It was a haunting event, there in Peter Britt's magical garden, and I hope this image stays with all of us (especially the children) long after the stars grow cold.

The show ended, (and someone else got my pick I was diving for on the stage, Justin had done one of his famous pick flips at the end). I don't even remember how I got out. Must have wandered down the hill, through the faery, foot-lighted garden, and stumbled out to my car. Normally in such a place, and as easy as it was to see backstage, I would have waited around to see the band leave, but I truly was wiped, tired, and didn't care. (They never stop to sign things or talk anyway, and I can't blame them after all the energy they put into shows). All I wanted was a hot bath, and rest and silence, I wanted to be alone for a while. Tomorrow's trip was heavy on my mind, and I wanted to think. I got lost on the way to Ashland, wandered in to my motel, a nice young illustrated man was reading Ray Bradbury at the desk. (That friend of mine from Klamath was a real Bradbury fan, of course it was my karma talking to me.....). My head barely hit the pillow and I was out like a light.

*Those who are fans of JRR Tolkien will also recognize the Tree from "Leaf By Niggle" one of his better short stories.