"Diane, I ordered some hot milk from room service. Here's hoping it does the job and I'll be able to catch a few hours of quality sack time."

August 29/04

It’s 1:47 am. We played in Columbia, OH tonight (good audience) and drove out right after to check into our Cincinnati hotel. We have a day off tomorrow. A day off that is not a travel day is a rare and wonderful thing. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it but my husband recommended doing something out of the ordinary tomorrow. “Like eating in a rotating restaurant?” I asked. “Sure”, he said. If there is one right across the street from here I will see that as a good omen.

I have limited personal reference points to this city. Whenever I hear the word Cincinnatti, after thinking of Bailey, Jennifer, Venus Flytrap and Dr. Fever, I think of my friend Bryden Baird. Some you might know that Bryden is an amazingly talented horn player from Toronto who played in my band and on my albums and has toured with Esthero, Blue Rodeo and many others. For the first 7 years of knowing Bryden I remember him mentioning and phoning a mysterious tap dancer named “Diane” from Cincinnati. This went on for so many years that I began to think of “Diane” as being a fictional character, like the “Diane” to whom Agent Cooper (played by Kyle McLachlan) addressed his dictophone recordings while unravelling the case in David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks”. Bryden is an imaginative person who likes to pass the time on tours by saying and demonstrating such things as: “WHAT IF [these sugar cubes were my front teeth”], or “WHAT IF [this floor lamp was also a drink dispenser”], so he could have been making her up. After many years and reams of dictophone tape, Diane finally moved to Toronto to live with Bryden. I have met her many times and she is fully real but I still like to pretend she is the “Diane” from Twin Peaks, come to life.

In other words I owe it to myself and Diane to see a bit of Cincinnati tomorrow.

Today I called my dad and disconnected by mistake right away, then called right back. After my explanation he said, “You wouldn't believe how many hang-ups we've had the last couple of days. Most of the time I’m just sitting here minding my own business stewing in my own juices and then all of a sudden the whole *!%#-ing world wants to call and hang up on Alan Rose.” I said, “you sure have a colourful way with words, Dad”. He really does. We started laughing and he said, “Oh yeah? Here it is again with a few variations,” which I don’t think I can repeat here.

The other day at the giant mall in Cleveland near our hotel I bought a few pieces of clothing to supplement my onstage wardrobe choices. I tried one of the new things in the next show and when Sarah saw it she said, "oh, I saw that in the mall in burgundy and I thought it was your style." I said, "I bought the burgundy one also!"... "No way!"... "Way"... etc. She's got a good eye, that was funny.

I want to thank the 4 brave people who have commented on my last blog entry so far. At first I thought I had scared everyone off... thank you for your kind words.

Bedtime. Got to get some sack time for my big day in Cincinnati!
xo KR