 Sunday, June 28, 1998 Los Angeles, California 12:57 PM Yesterday we were at the Rose Bowl, the largest venue on the tour, so it wasn't surprising that it was the most strenuous day so far. It wasn't even that our work was harder, it was just that everything was so spread out that it seemed to take forever to get from backstage to the village, from one stage to another, etc.... There were a couple of new artists added yesterday. Ana Gasteyer from Saturday Night Live performed on the village stage, in character from her Lilith spoofing "Weekend Update" appearances. She was accompanied by David Sinclair, one of Sarah McLachlan's guitar players. I was kind of hoping that Ana would appear at the press conference in character to shake things up a little but, but she was just being herself at that point in the day. Sinead O'Connor was the 'surprise guest' for the show and her set totally blew me away. I got to meet her very briefly back stage and she was nice but didn't say a whole lot. We were on alert to take photos of an celebreties we saw, since this was LA (or close enough). I heard that Gillian Anderson was there, but the only person I saw was Ellen Degeneres. Ellen seemed nice enough, but she did turn down a bubble pen when Jessica from Surf Diva offered her one. Perhaps she didn't really know what it was (a bubble pen can be used to write with, but part of it is filled with bubble making solution. When you unscrew the top, you a pull out a hoop and blow bubbles)! I was kind of sad to see the Surf Diva booth go, but they were only doing those last two CA dates. They're an all-female surfing school; I wrote a profile of them for the web site and found everyone at the booth to be very friendly and enthusiastic about what they do. They gave me a bunch of bubble pens that I was planning on taking back to NY, but unfortunately other Lilith crew members ended up wanting them and I only have one extra left. Today we're in Phoenex, AZ and it's very hot!!!! The venue has mist spraying through out the village to cool things down, but unfortunately that will mean we have to be careful carrying our cameras around there! Lane has just left the tour, so it means Nina, Jennifer and I are on our own. I'm sure we'll do fine, and we won't be forced to listen to Stereo Lab on the bus anymore! Not that I don't like Stereo Lab, I've actually gone (and paid money) to see them live, but I guess I just get tired of hearing the same music too often. It's been almost a week since I left NY and I think I've adjust pretty well to being back on the road. The first night on the bus I found if difficult sleeping but not it's not a problem at all. It's really good to see some of the friends I made on last year's tour again (as well as Gina, the office manager from Nettwerk/Nettmedia who's out for the whole tour).The only bad thing is that Nettwerk NYC email is down, so I haven't been in touch with any of my friends from there. 11:41 PM I managed to survive the heat, though at times I wasn't sure if I'd make it through the day. There was no shade whatsoever in the village stage area, where I spent the first few hours shooting. Luckily the catering area was very easily accessible, so it was easy to grab something to drink between performances. Today something kind of strange happened to me. I was standing near the stage, getting ready to shoot but staying out of the way until the exact song I wanted. I felt something hit my back but didn't think anything of it until the people in the front row started pointing. It turned out to be a baby bird, which probably fell from the nest high obove the stage. It just sat there for a minute or so then ran off. When I told Colleen about it she pointed out that I probably broke the birds fall and saved it's life! |