Happy New Year!

Thanks for the wonderful birthday wishes & vibes!!
12/31 was a blast!
Every year about this time Scott's childhood buddy Dave (yes, another Dave! Must be the name) and his wife, Hillary come to town on their way to and from their vacation cabin in Tahoe- They live somewhere south of Los Angeles..Dave is an engineering professor at Cal Poly and
Hillary is an artist. They don't get out to see music very often-at least not the Jam band thing like ever... Last NYE, the came along to the arena for NYE show...This year the were willing to do whatever we were planning and of course, as their sons were happy hangin out with Noah, we went for dinner and zoooooom out to see MK. We fed kids pizza, left a bunch of sugary/salty treats, I showed the older boy how to burn cds on my imac and left him with a new spindle of cd-rs (how his eyes glistened to see all the Coldplay Ive collected for Sasha). Then, we headed out stopping for Indian food (my favorite)....Hillary - who is about the most naturally mellow & happy person Ive ever met didnt mind being the designated driver. Scott directed her to Mission street and just as he said- The Tower Theater was just across the street from his work! We parked in the Pawn shop garage...and walked across the street pass Bruno's to The Tower, found Joe who had picked up tix earlier and then entered..
I like Reisha's mini-description of the place and so here goes her report:
"------------------------------------------------------------------------
reisha m - 04:16pm Jan 1, 2005 PDT (#3749 of 3753)
temporarily converted....&.....NEVER LEAVE THE SHIPPE!!!!
spam:
is it 'safe' yet?

{{HIPPIE 05!!!!!!!}}}}

ok... last nite:
lil rough @ 1st - kevie, BART & i dinna quite communicate quite as well as we coulda, butt it all worked out, & away we went! never did find 'real' info on this mythical splace, so went w/ google's 'next closest location', figgerin if we couldna figger how t' get from 17th & mission to 20th & mission, we were really LAME ducks...
no PROBLEM!!!!
funky, CLASSIC ole broke down palace - a REAL thAter, seats, stage, architectural wings acoustic stuff, cool murals on the walls, & NO HEAT!!!!!! place had flooded earlier last month ( the 18th show was moved) & it was still a lil wet in spots, but OH!!!!! WHADDA NITE!!!!
ran into more (known) freindly faces than i was thinkin, & there was AMPLE room to sprawl, run amok, wriggle, giggle, ...
got my levels all good & tilted - felt (headspace) comfy enuff to nibble a lil fun, gus! & from there......
body wasna co-operatin real well, but thats ok, i dont ALWAYS gotta be front¢er - i know that mark knows, & i can visualize what i cant see ( do it ALL the time, heheheh), so i found me a spot w/ good site lines, back far enuff where i could appriciate the lite show on THREE walls & ceiling, & ......
sploogespurge oodlesshiversofdelight really innapropriate thots, grounding, self, venue, city, state, country, planet, galaxy, multiverse, good & bad, sorrow & hope, me-you-us-them-all, small 'guilt' @ being happy when so many... take that good energy & send it out, be a conductor/receptor/reciever as mark weaves his magic spell"
...........................
LOL- Let it flow, girl!!
Hey, I missed Sugaree? Ratz!
......................
Scott,Friends and I moved down the aisle to some seats in the second row ending up right behind some of our fave folks-Mazzy, Dick & Vera-and WDP Jay!!! Reisha was there someplace but I didnt see her. The first few rows filled up and the balcony was happening as well- still lots of space for spinnery & elaborate move dancing in the aisles and through the back rows...There were cartoons and imagery projected on the walls to the l&r of the stage and over the musicians...We werent the only ones laughing though when a 15 ft. Betty Boop looked like she was mocking from behind the solo guitar/singer (didnt catch his name) who was singing a 'serious' song...Betty Boop continued to romp behind this poor guy during his entire set...Note to projectionist- NO CARTOONS during heartwrenching ballads, okay?! But speaking of walls- there is a pretty good mural of the settling of California...
The theater was cold and the floor a little damp but as usual, the music and dancing bods heated everyone right up!
Mark and his All Star team -well, I can only think in cliches this morn (oops-afternoon), rocked, had it going on, steamed up the place...Scott waited and finally Mark took out that Les Paul and proceeded to take things up several notches...
We really all had a real good time! Hillary was keeping up til about 2AM when she nodded it was time to get on the road- we wouldnt think of arguing with the designated driver and slipped out of the theater and onto Mission which was absolutely buzzing with people...There was a slight drizzle and the bang of a couple of firecrackers going off and what could be more inspiring to sing out "walking along the Mission, in the rain"?
.......On to Spring Tour!...

....I like a newspaper that is fond of it's hometown heroes! like the MIJ is.
This article asks " Where have all the non comformists gone?"