A Face Only A Mother (And Millions Of Fans) Could Love

I didn’t find a rotating restaurant in Cincinnati (not that I looked very hard), however 2 of my recent wishes came true, and some others I didn’t know I had at our next stop, Chicago.

1) I found a place that made fruit smoothies. I got hooked on Booster Juices when we were rehearsing in Vancouver and had been craving one recently with no satisfaction until then.

2) I did manage to rise to great heights by going to the top of the John Hancock Observatory before soundcheck. It was a gorgeous day, which made for a spectacular view by which to finish my smoothie.

Even my own mother said she thinks Sarah and I look alike. Given that fact, I always try to offset Sarah in a complimentary way with my onstage attire. The previous few show nights we had managed that effect without consulting one another but in Chicago we were a little too much in sync! A few minutes before the show, Sarah and I stepped out of our dressing rooms into the hallway at the same time, took one look at each other and started laughing. We were dressed in very nearly identical outfits: black top, blue jeans and black boots. We had both even put our hair up the same way, which both of us rarely do for shows. Our lovely on-tour yoga instructor Sharon Tron was there and snapped a photo of us pointing at each other. Needless to say I went back in the dressing room to quickly change my top and take my hair down.

After that show we had a backstage surprise: Butterfly’s guitarist Sean Kelly also plays in a Neil Diamond tribute band. The man who plays “Neil” was there to serenade us for a private concert of Neil Diamond requests. He looked and sounded very much like the real thing. They played whatever was called out: Solitary Man, Sweet Caroline, America, I Am I Said, Forever In Blue Jeans, Song Sung Blue... for some reason that night there were gigantic tins of caramel corn in our dressing rooms and one of those tins looked pretty funny adorning the coffee table in front of Sean and “Neil” as they entertained us from a big leather couch surrounded by red curtains. I was about to clamour for Jerusalem or Love On The Rocks when we were summoned for the drive to St. Louis.

This evening in Milwaukee I wrote a new song and photographed a great fireworks display from my 19th floor hotel room. Not a bad night.

Six more days and I’ll get to see my husband, who is meeting me in Calgary and will stay with me until the end of this leg in Vancouver on September 10 to take me home for a few weeks. Sweet...

xo KR

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"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