Do you know the way to Marymoore? --with apologies to Burt Bacharach

Juneteenth: June 14--I didn't mention the Moody souvenirs yet, did I? The program is always a must of course, and this one has some wonderful graphics in it, without a doubt. There are like photos of far space nebulae, and the Moodies in black and white photos, all artfully interwoven with quotes and histories. Very worth the $20. The magnets were really cool too, I don't think I'll unwrap mine at all. I bought the all-black ball cap with the blue Moody Blues wording across it, and shall wear it lots….. very nice, quality stuff with a nice buckle on the back. The calendar was the real hit of the concession stand, the photos are vintage and very worth looking at. I was amused to see they had cut Mike Pinder out as much as they could get away with gracefully. Sorry I'm not a huge fan of Mike's, tho' he's a fine musician, he sure comes over like a fool in some of the things I've researched on him. Oh well, what do I know……… he sure has pissed off the rest of the band though, for them to cut him out like that in a couple of photos. I think it's funny.

Maggie Clarke sure didn't call by 8 am, as there was someone home all morning. So I guess she found another way to Redmond. I tried to ease out the door earlier, but my sister in law twisted my arm to eat breakfast, and I stuck around, talking and (yes) drinking cocoa. I think I finally cleared Sherwood by 9:30 am (they were having a car rally, a huge one!), and still no word (late or otherwise) from Maggie Clarke. I was supposed to give her a ride. And you know what? By this time I was saying "F*** it!" I work with children all day, deal with elderly/semi-senile parents 24/7, and do customer service for my job at night. And it gets tiresome dealing with adults who need to be spoon fed information and helped along, people who act helpless and aren't at all. This Maggie, I told her not once but TWICE via email that I was NOT Robin Bean, I was Christie Schultz, I had a fake log in, and maybe she was confused by Christie Schultz calling on her voicemail. I said I would be the only person wearing a DOFP tee at Britt, and indeed I was the only one in that shirt, and my blanket was not that far from Maggie's (from reading her Britt review). And I danced around in front at Britt a LOT, talking with Rebecca and Erika. I'm coming to the conclusion that some of the people on Lost Chords are just plain BUTT DUMB. She couldn't get things straight, emailed me a million times on line, and sure enough… still didn't get it right.

Now I have to change my log on, she has totally blown it I'm sure, trying to figure out who "Robin Bean" is, and has babbled it to every old dragon on Lost Chords who has it in for the terrible Tigger aka me, Christie. And now they are ALL probably terribly angry with me for being such a nasty bad person. Probably what really happened was that Maggie got lost checking out volcanoes, and that is cool (I have to confess to boredom at her posts though, as I have been up and down the Subduction zone more times that I can count, and know all this area pretty well). But she could have at least called at my brother's and let me know what was up.

Ok enough of my bad mouthing the inmates of Lost Chords. God had revenge on me for my crimes this morning. I stopped in Puyallup on the way up (this is about 2.5 hours north of Portland) at Fred Meyers' again to get things, ice, cough drops, to tap a kidney (this is becoming more and more serious, as an older female). I got back to the car with lunch (Freddy's fried chicken, yummy nums!) was tailgating in Strider in the parking lot, blew my nose, and my f***ing nose started to bleed!!!!!!!!!!!! PROFUSELY. Omigod…….. what a time and place for all this to happen. I luckily had a roll of tp in the back, stolen from the last motel, and mopped. And mopped. It kept ON dripping, I do mean like a broken water main. I was nervous about making this picnic Libby had set up at Marymoore Park. It was getting late. I bled onward. I thought it was stopped, would pull into the (again horribly thick) traffic, and it would start bleeding again!!!!!!!! Father's Day was coming, and everyone everyone was out, trying to buy Dad a gift. I felt like I was in a non- ending nightmare and screamed hysterically a few times. It was an hour before I finally made the right freeway connection, after almost being hit several times with one hand on my nose, another on the wheel, and my third hand (?)(whaa??) on the stick shift. I had sticky goo all over the wheel, me, my hands, my face, my levis, my black Moody shirt……… UGH. For what it's worth, my High School buddy, Mark Safarik (now a profiler with the FBI, and investigated the Green River killings) was right. Plastic grocery bags (used by the killer) make great blood catchers, and are easy to throw away afterward, nice and tidy.

It was actually a nice drive up tho'. I saw five private planes take off together from Woodland, going out to do ACM probably. It was really cute, and looked like a grand Father's Day adventure. Lots of people towing horses in trailers, is there a rodeo somewhere? I saw two Pregnant Guppies (air transport planes) fly into McChord AFB, which was good, as that means the conflict is stepping down. Also there were a LOT of bikers on the roads, on rice burners and Harleys alike, apparently doing Father's Day poker runs. What fun!

Traffic was only moderate, so I pulled into Marymoore Park in about an hour after clearing Puyallup (followed the Moodies' Ryder truck in actually), and hosed myself off with water from the cooler. It was hot…….. Marymoore was a green oasis, a wonderful sight for sore eyes, after the traffic I had dealt with. Once I got presentable, I found Libby and a couple of folks from Arizona, and from Canada. Not much of a turn out. (Sunday would have been much better, but that was Father's Day of course). It was nice to see others and catch up on Moody events, some had done other shows. So I chatted very briefly, and then excused myself to get my room.

The Redmond Inn is right next to the park, and I was shocked the Moodies didn't stay there, but as it turned out, they were apparently at the "manor house" staying in the park itself! Just as well I didn't know, I probably would have stalked them or something. They did the same at Woodinville last time they were here. I do seriously hope the band got a chance to roam about the park, it's a very nice place. Or maybe they just boogied for Pike's Place or the EMP. Seattle is a lot of fun to visit for a few days indeed, so long as you have wheels and don't have to worry about parking.

As I stood there checking in, my nose started to bleed again! And I had a coughing fit too. My God I was a basket case! The counter clerk looked at me kinda scared (probably wondering if I had SARs, West Nile or Captain Tripps) and offered me coffee. I took the elevator, and found my room, and laid down until the dang spigot turned off. Found a cart (one of the few times I've ever used one, preferring to develop muscles in hauling luggage.. it's cheaper than the gym!). Brought in my Stuff, found a swim suit, and located the hot tub. Boy did I need it too!

While I was soaking and looking through the skylight, I saw a hawk circling, Marymoore is a centerpiece to a large green belt area in Redmond. Overall I saw three bald eagles and this hawk in my travels. As I watched, one of the few times I've seen this for real, the hawk stooped on a victim…… that is, he went 'way up, then came hurtling out of the stormy sky, falling like a stone! How cool, to watch this from a hot tub! (It was a wonderful tub too, nice strong hot jets!)

The show was starting a bit early this time, at 7 pm. I don't know why, maybe they have issues about getting people out of the park before dark. It sure screwed up the lighting though, and it was sad that the Washingtonians didn't get so see the neat effects for "Higher and Higher" and for "Are You Sitting Comfortably?" Though cloudy, our Moody Magic held, and no, no rain fell.

Having a room, and moving slowly (terrified I was going to spring a leak!) I left for the show about 6:30. I parked 'way off rather than play bumper cars and snort dust; enjoyed the walk to the amphitheatre, encountering robins on the way (worms firmly in beaks), a family of squirrels fighting over a garbage can, and a guy with a black dog hanging around the outside, to listen for free. I also saw the sultry black limo cruise by going backstage, which I would assume carried our lads and lasses in the band. My seat was dead center, I was totally knocked out by my luck. While I was wondering if I should roll up my pants to show some ankle for Justin, someone yelled for me, and it was Nida Dubel! WOW it was good to see her! She looks really well, has lost some weight, has her hair all trimmed up, and looks happy as Hades. We caught up on all sorts of things….. and just yakked.

We had a funny thing happen at Intermission one show: a gal lost a necklace, and pretty soon, we were all down looking for it in the grass. Nida in her sari, I got on hands and knees, people treading lightly, others wandering by "lose a contact?" and so forth. "What we need is a Niffler" I commented, as she babbled "It's GOLD!" I got to be a hero! "I don't want to be a smart-ass, but check your bra" I remarked. She wasn't wearing one. But she did check her clothes... sure enough "Excuse me this is kinda...." she fished into her front. The necklace was in her shirt! HURRAH!!!

All four nights, I never saw Justin Hayward break a sweat! (John and Graeme changed shirts at Intermission, not Justin!) Indeed, at Marymoore he wore tees under his shirts for warmth apparently. (I felt fine in sleeveless shirts, but then again I live here). He indeed wore a dusty pink tux shirt this night (with ruffles!) and I thought he looked pretty good myself. Justin has a funny habit you don't notice until you sit in the front rows. He doesn't always look right at your FACE. I catch him looking at your FEET a lot. You can tell a lot about people from their feet. I caught him looking at my feet a couple of times, in disbelief probably…… as I kicked off my dirty Nike clogs, and was sitting there barefooted (and I have pretty big feet too, and they were grubby, and I didn't care after the day I had!) In fact I got kinda self conconscious about it, and put on socks and sandals the next night. I'm sure it's no big thing, but that's kinda funny about Justin, isn't it?

Bernie the Goddess had on a see-through blouse, black tux shirt, but she needs to wear a black bra with it. (Just a small fine point, and not noticeable past the first three rows). The other guys were wearing pretty much as before, white and black and leather, and tropicals for Graeme. Sunday night Norda had a really nice maroon suit on, kinda like tapestry, and Saturday night she had on a long black suit. Looked good both times.

Justin was also grabbing and massaging his throat quite a bit. Didn't notice any real problems with any voices, though on the recording play-back, Justin does sound a little thin in spots, vocally. I was evil enough to pop a cough drop in front of him, and though he wasn't looking directly at me, I did see him rub his throat and actually cough himself right after that. Poor guy, I don't think this place agrees with him. The allergies are really pretty bad here. He was rubbing his throat in the van too as they rode back to the manor house during one break.

The other thing I enjoyed from the band, was all the smiles I always get from Graeme. I'm sure he's smiling for the other ladies too, but in the front, I always get a happy grin from him, and that's a good thing. John winked at me a few times too, and you all know Justin…….. just because he is looking at you doesn't mean his focus isn't somewhere else. Justin looked sad at times, but then again he always does, and he smiled a lot too, when he wasn't being serious about his guitar playing.

The highlight for me, both nights at Marymoore, was being able to get up and dance with Graeme Edge during "Higher and Higher" and mostly the other people in the front row were of like minds. I know there has been horrible arguing on line about this, and I try to be nice when I am lucky enough to get front row. The second night in Redmond, there was this really heavy guy next to me I know I was blocking, and he really was just too big to get up and dance. I felt bad (he actually was very nice). BUT damn when in my lifetime am I ever going to be able to get up and boogie with Graeme Edge like that? I DON'T CARE IF I BLOCKED YOUR VIEW!!!!!!! It was the most wonderful thing in the world, Graeme at 61, doing the Funky Chicken! May we all stay just as healthy and keep rocking on, into the night! WOW!!!!!!! The butt shake is pretty non-earth shattering but it was fun, and the hula girl is incredible. Norda and Bernie both also did quite a bit of dancing through all the shows, it was fresh, spontaneous, and a lot of fun. They were having fun! It didn't look rehearsed, like the BUVs always did, it looked like some happy musicians just having a great time on stage.

"English Sunset" MUST be mentioned here. The other nights, it was moderate to nice, I like the song, but the energy just didn't crank. At Marymoore, you could tell right off it was going to ROCK. A subtle shift in the tempo perhaps. Anyway it DID move out, and Justin even eaked out a few more degrees of that swing he does (with John) with his guitar neck at the end. OOWWEEE!!! I love that song! And it moved out and rocked well the next night too. I think it was the last Redmond night, some sound tech put the "reverb" back in ES, and when it happened, I know I jumped, Justin pulled back like a millimeter and grinned a bit……….. it was cool. There is also a little electronic chatter in the background now, good tekkie work! You could just tell the song fit and worked. YOAW!!! Whatta song!

Someone said there was no energy to this night; maybe they should check their own pulse. The tempo seemed LEISURELY. After the horrible day on the roads fighting the Father's Day crowds, I didn't give a hoot to "move out rapidly", and I got the feeling the band was the same way. After the break, the audience slowly staggered through sweet pastoral molasses back to their seats; as I plopped in my own chair, I noticed Justin too was taking his sweet time donning that guitar for "Wildest Dreams". It was like, where's the hurry? It's a gorgeous day. The crowd is nice, and relaxed. I'm relaxed too. Why spoil the mood? I loved both nights at Marymoore, and if you want to gallop like a frog in a blender 110% of the time, maybe you should go see Hootie and the Blowfish!

The show over, I followed Nida & crew to her mini-van, and we hung around in the parking lot, waiting for traffic to thin. Another fan had Moodies' music cranked up, and we all danced around for a while. It was great fun there in the evening, dancing barefoot in a field to the best music in the world, while the stars came out! Then I slunk (exhausted) back to my room, avidly avoiding all Lost Chords people. It was a lot to wind down from, catching all that intensity in the front row . One thing I've been doing lately, is to drink less booze, and I'm also off all caffeine. It's a blood pressure thing, and frankly I'm happier for it. I feel better, have more energy, and feel "de-toxed". Having said that, sometimes it takes a bit longer to get to sleep, so I wound down gradually, and finally dropped off to Dreamtime. One more day, and then I could go back to my own home and my own bed and rest from all the Moody madness. And let the others carry on the "tour" without me.

I do know I'm not going to hook up with any more people I don't know, off Lost Chords. I did it once for Justin's Santa Barbara shows, and it worked out well, I had a wonderful time with total strangers, one of them Leslie Kubla (whom has dropped out of the fan thing now I guess, but what a funny gal!). It didn't work this time. Rhonda says the same whenever I see her, that you just can't keep up with that Lost Chords bunch. So…… onward to the next and final show for me.