On Tour! (super cool)

Hey, Sweet Baby,

Happy Late Night on the road! It looks like your first concert will be tomorrow night in Traverse City, Michigan, across the lake and way up high on the Mitten. Then three more stops in that state - boom, boom, boom, Thursday/Friday/Saturday - before you guys wind up back in Madison for the home gig. You are now experiencing Life On The Road, totally cool! And I would say that this makes you a photojournalist, certainly for this trip, as you are accompanying the band on the road and will be shooting behind-the-scenes. You are documenting the tour, so - photojournalist you are!

I think it's awesome, and I have just gotta repeat yet again how great the Whole Thing has been. Remember when I said, "Life Is Magic", waaaaay back about early 2013 or so? Well, now we are seeing it in action.

Those black & white shots from behind the guitarist that you got at the Sonic Boom last Summer are killer, with the humongous crowd in the background, so you are on a roll, and here, try to get some "gritty" rock n' roll shots, i.e. before the show, anything like cramped dressing rooms in clubs, rock n' roll grafitti, tour bus stuff (or van), just all the Real Life Stuff you can get your hands on - plus the concerts of course, but that was what really brought home the experience in the rock magazines of the 70s like Creem and Circus, was all the off-the-cuff stuff. Shoot when nobody is looking, get real cameo stuff.

For your stage shots, compose and shoot as you always would, in your natural styles. But in the off-stage stuff, just be a fly on the wall, and shoot at any old angle whatsoever to capture Real Life. Don't let 'em know you're shooting and you'll get great shots.

Well, I am glad that Geddy Lee straightened out the Neil Peart situation. I knew that the wording seemed strange : "retired from music". And Geddy, God Bless him, said today that's baloney, that it was just a case of a writer who took a quote from Neil out of context, and insinuated something that wasn't meant. Neil may be retired from touring, said Geddy - and even he seems to not believe that 100% - but he added that in no way is Neil retiring from music altogether, nor has Rush broken up.

I didn't think so. Freakin' rock journalists!

Not photojournalists! I didn't mean you, Sweet Baby! Just the kind of writers who want to stir something up. Rush will outlast 'em all.

A basic Tuesday for me, taking Pearl to Golden Agers, reading books (Stephen King & Van Flandern) and this evening watching episodes of "The Pacific" and "Walking Dead". It was so warm and Summery this evening that I went for my walk with no jacket, not even a sweatshirt. Just a t-shirt, like July. Go figure.

Have a blast on your tour! I will see you in the morning. I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)