As my time with Lilith Fair draws to an end, it seems that many of the people on the tour that I've become friendly with are leaving, too. A few days ago I said goodbye to the members of the Cardigans crew that I'd gotten to know, and yesterday Juliana Hatfield finished up her time with the tour. Today was the last day for Jill Sobule. I hadn't been too familiar with her music before joining the tour, but I've been able to catch most of her sets and become quite friendly with her. I was sad to see her go, but then I realized that I had only one day left myself. Jill is playing some NY shows in a few weeks, so I'll see her again soon.

Today I finally managed to corner Sarah to get a brief interview for Chaos Control, my on-line zine. I wanted to talk to her about her contribution to the new Delerium album. I also interviewed Camille for the same story. Of course, I probably shouldn't have been doing non-Lilith Fair stuff. But it only took about 15 minutes, and, while Sarah occasionally comes by the Nettwerk office, how often do I get a chance to speak with Camille?

I was a little nervous about approaching Sarah because I thought she might be mad at me due to my involvement with two of her band members missing soundcheck on Sunday. I had brought some friends back stage to meet Sarah at the NJ show on Saturday night. They ended up hanging out with the band and took Sean and Vince back to Hoboken. The next day's venue was also in NJ, but quite a bit further away, so they didn't make it back in time for soundcheck. Of course, it's not at all my fault. The Nettmedia bus left and my friends stayed to hang out with the bandmebers, who were not forced into going anywhere. But everyone is calling me a troublemaker anyway. When Ash, Sarah's husband, brought it up I got nervous because then I knew Sarah must be aware of the connection between the friends of mine she met and her tardy band members. But Sarah's really nice and I probably shouldn't have even worried about it.

Today my virtual penguin died again. It probably wasn't the best time to get one if I expected it to live. I've just been too busy. It seemed fine in the morning. I gave it food and drink. I checked the temperature. But sometime in the early afternoon it passed away and I had to press the "reset" switch again. Perhaps tomorrow I will have my friends in the Lilith Store babysit it.

Today was one of those days when nothing I had planned on doing seemed to actually happen, but at the same time many interesting and unexpected things did. I was going to continue working on an article I'm going on the various booths in the village. But first I was to check out who the "to be announced" act opening on the Borders Stage would be. It turned out to be Toni Blackman, a great hip hop artist. I did an interview with her and decided to stay around to take pictures of Jill Sobule. Much to my surprise, the two ended up sharing the stage for a song! It was great, a totally spontaneous collaboration of very different musical styles. So I did another little interview with Toni, and followed Jill along to her autograph session so that I could ask her about it. The signing seemed to take forever, but made me decide to also interview Jill about that experience. So when it finally ended, I got a few great stories out of Jill about her autograph hunting experiences, as well as the performance with Toni.

After spending most of my time waiting for that interview to take place, I headed over the dinner. I sat down by myself and was soon joined by The Cardigans' tour manager and sound engineer. I'd met the sound engineer, Torben, on my second day with Lilith Fair. He'd told me a really funny story about mistaking Sarah McLachlan for an employee of the venue catering. I decided tonight to ask him if I could record him telling the story again, so that I could put a article about it for the web site. He agreed, and I had stumbled upon my third article for the day. This was The Cardigans last night on the tour and I think I'll miss them. I've been trying to catch at least part of their set every night.

Yesterday was a day of in Baltimore. In between visiting the science center and going out to dinner, I visited a store containing all penguin stuff. I purchased one of those electronic virtual pets, a penguin version of course. Unfortunately, I somehow managed to kill it today (already!) I don't know what happened; I fed it, gave it water, played with it, and kept the temperature cool enough. Luckily, it has a "reset" switch and now lives again. Hopefully this time it will have a longer life span...

Today's show in Camden, NJ was one of the more fun ones. Aside for a brief shower of rain, the weather was nice and it was a good venue. Marnie and Amy from the NY office were again here, as was Marnie's roommate Michelle and dog Benny. This is the last local show, and I think Benny is really going to miss playing with Julianna Hatfiend's dog.

I started of the day in "tech support" mode, helping Donna from the production office get her new computer going. Later in the day someone else from the office radioed me for help with a modem, but I unfortunately wasn't able to solve that problem.

This afternoon, I was pleasantly surprised to see Rasputina come walking into the back stage area. They were once again doing a song with Joan Osborne. They're one of my favorite bands so it was good to hang out with them again. We asked them to do an artists diary, and they gave us five drawings. Not bad for a band only appearing on a couple of dates. They were warming up in the parking lot before going on, which was kind of an unusual sight (they all play the cello).

Because of the way the venue was set up, many of the artists were venturing out of their dressing rooms and hanging out. I finally got the meet Nina from the Cardigans, a band that I have become of fan of while on the tour. I've actually become friendly with their mixing and lighting people; the lighting guy was on the bus yesterday printing out resumes. He wants to do more work in America once the tour is over.

Suzanna Hoffs made her debut today, and I was really impressed. I was never a big Bangles fan, and she did a few Bangles songs, but for some reason her performance was much more powerful than I was expecting. Today was Juliana Hatfield's 30th birthday, so at around 8 there was a little party. I keep meaning to catch her set again but I always seem to be on the bus processing content when she's on. She's on for a few more dates so I have time.

Tomorrow is a day off in Baltimore. It's been four days straight of working so I can use the rest, and I've never been there before so it should be fun. Just as long as it's more exciting than Hartford....

The Jones Beach show was still kind of fun, even though union regulations prohibited us from shooting photos and video. There were some nice surprise appearances. Tara MacLean, who was in the area doing in-stores, came to do a set on the Borders Stage.It sounded great, despite some problems with the sound system. Later in the day, Rasputina showed up to do a song with Joan Osbourne! I was so happy to see that, as they're one of my favorite bands. I got to talk to them afterwards and got a short interview with Melora.

Marnie, Amy, Nicole, and Alex from the Nettwerk NYC office showed up for the show, as did Marnie's roommate Michelle. It was good to see them all again. Benny, Marnie's dog, also came. There were some problems getting her in, but I think she had fun playing with Juliana Hatfield's dog and hanging out with The Cardigans.

Now we're in Holmdel, NJ at a much nicer venue. Unfortunately, they have a digital phone system not compatible with the one on the bus. So we're trying to figure out how to upload stuff today. Marnie will be here again today, so perhaps we can give her some stuff to take home and upload. I just found out that Holly Palmer is today's surprise opening on the Borders Stage. I did a project for her a while ago and haven't seen her in over a year, so I'm looking forward to it.