His Royal Highness PRINCE

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today, to get through this thing called life!..."

Was the opening intro to the show.

When tickets went on sale for the Prince Tacoma Dome show we considered the VIP seats but now that I finally attended my first Prince show at that venue - Thanks to an early Christmas present from my wonderful son. - I am glad my seat was on the floor instead of so close-up to such a high stage in that cramped area which seemed to be reserved for people who wanted to 'be seen' and not get down and funky like the rest of us - I mean, who sits during a Prince show? Not me! I guess the only good thing about those seats was the goody bag that came with it.

VIP section before it filled up.

My ticket said 'row 3' but there was no first row, Im assuming to leave that space open between vip seats and our seats so my row turned out to be 'row 2' instead. I was thrilled.

I loved every minute of the show, including the variation on Lil Red Corvette as I love unpredictability or I am easily bored.

Prince has always been on my Bucket List and I'm thrilled to be able to finally cross that off. I hope Prince returns to the Seattle area sooner than the 7 years of drought. Canadians got a 3 hour show, but I am willing to bet because American artists rarely venture out of their 'comfort zones' that it was a well deserved special royal treatment.

When Prince performed 1999 I had a flash-back of a New Year's Eve 1999 Widespread Panic show at the Fox Theater in Atlanta where the band and crew came out to wish us all a Happy New Year to the tune of Prince's 1999.

I was hoping Sheila E would show up, specially since she lives on the West Coast but was happy when Prince introduced Maceo Parker who I've had the pleasure of seeing perform since his days with James Brown at the Apollo in Harlem.

I dont know if Prince performed for 90 minutes because someone was taking photos or a fan sneaked under the stage as is the rumor but from the looks of traffic after the show Id say I didnt blame him for bolting as he had an after show jam going on in Seattle.

You could tell how much he loves his fans when several times throughout the show, he asked for the house lights to be turned up so that he could see the audience. During "Nothing Compares To You" I had my fan in my hand and arms raised as we all had because he had asked us to and he pointed at me at the word "YOU!" *swoon*

Loved the sequined gold pants he wore during Purple Rain and the gold mylar and purple paper confetti that rained down on us was incredible. One of my neighbors at the show, who'd seen her fair share of Prince shows told me that was a first for her.

Seattle Times Photo

I only wish he'd done Diamonds & Pearls but all in all, it being my first Live Prince show Id say that I certainly wouldn't have complained had he played longer but it left me me wanting more, definitely not unsatisfied. A grand affair.

Tacoma Dome setlist:

Lets Go Crazy, Delirious, 1999, Little Red Corvette, Take me With U, Raspberry Beret, Cream, Dont Stop Till You Get Enough, Nothing Compares 2 U, Cool, When Doves Cry, Nasty Girl/The Most Beautiful Girl In the World/Forever In My Life/Alphabet Street., I Would Die 4 U, Hot Thing, Kiss. Encore: Purple Rain, Controversy.

I also made it to the after show in Seattle in SODO at Club Republiq which was a funk fest. My only complain is the address on the ticket receipt was wrong, it directed people to Belltown but I lived downtown Seattle for some time and I knew something was off, asked a cab driver who directed me to the correct 1st Ave.

I didn't arrive till after 1 AM but was told Prince had not played yet. When he came out he was wearing shades, a red blazer with pink shirt and fedora. Maceo joined him on stage and we got down for another four hours of funk.

This is part of the set list I've been able to gather so far...- corrections are welcome.

Stratus, Pass the Peas, Calhoun Square, Dreamer, She's Always in My Hair, Which Way is Up, Everyday People, wanna Take U Higher, Better Way, Lets Go, Waiting In Vain/Crimson & Clover, Lets Get it On, Empty Room, Peach. You're My Everything.

I stepped out into the cold night basking in Prince After Glow, I dont even think my feet were touching the ground.

Mickey Hart Band with Dave Schools

What a FUN show last night! Still recuperating.

Sweet Scarlet, The Other One, Muddy River...Fire!!

Reminiscent of the band Mickey toured with after Jerry Garcia died except with the special added treat of laid down funk of Mr. Schools. Wish he'd done more of the spacey tribal stuff mentioned in this article

The Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart Is Having a Conversation with the Infinite Universe

Follow the next link to:

Introducing: The Mickey Hart Band

A link to the stream of the show in Seattle

Stream for Mickey Hart Band at the Tractor Tavern Seattle WA 12.1.2011

Chris Davis photo.

East Coast White Out

Throw a pebble at a map of the East Coast and chances are it will land in a city buried in snow. Our airport is a little quieter due to the many canceled flights.

I love winter but driving in snow is no longer the fun it was with the old Jeep. Now I have a small car and when the snow is deep the bottom of the car drags on the hard snow packed in the center of the road, this cant be very good. My car is so low that often it hits parking bumpers. I really need an old truck.

Last winter we had snow after snow storm, just like the East coast is getting. Because we have so many steep hills driving or just getting around for many, specially the elderly and those who are unable to walk, was specially treacherous, made worse because the City, in its infinite wisdom, had a no salting/sanding policy, plows remained parked. Adding insult to injury the city also cut the bus routes in half.

All those folks who thought they could leave their cars behind and use mass transit to get to their jobs were in for a rude awakening. This was during the holidays, when the market was plunging at its lowest and businesses were already hurting.



"Seattle refuses to use salt; roads "snow packed" by design Sections of Denny Way, seen looking east toward Capitol Hill, remain closed from several snowstorms in the Seattle area since last week." - Seattle Times.

Shovels, salt, sand flew out of the hardware stores.

Perhaps it was ESP or my mother whispering in my ear...that motivated the purchase of an electric snow shovel on one of my trips to the thrifts a few months prior. Brand new in its original box from Target marked down to something ridiculous like $12.00, everyone, including my son, mocked me.

Guess who laughed last.


I was the envy of my neighborhood.
Our backyard.

...Between noon and midnight on Saturday, the State Patrol responded to 246 collisions ... in King County

This one is hard to forget.

Two buses filled with children slid down an icy hill almost going over the highway barrier.

After much outrage, calls and editorials to the newspapers and city officials the city finally mobilized their plows to clear main roads. By then it was too little too late, there were already several inches of ice under that hard packed snow. Most neighborhoods were buried for weeks.

As soon as the snow cleared Seattle residents stormed City Hall to demand change. Later they spoke with their votes and gave the Mayor his walking papers.

The thing about being from NYC, a city that turns on their snow plows at the first snow flake - witnessing the response was shocking to me, specially since emergency vehicles like ambulances, fire trucks struggled and often were unable to reach people due to icy steep hills. Like Queen Anne Hill for instance, already scary on a regular day...

I read about one instance where someone was strapped to a sled and pushed down to the bottom of a hill to an awaiting ambulance. Maybe if we lived in the wild tundra...but in the middle of the city? One of the largest in the USA?

I think what made me most uneasy was the flippant attitude of some as if it was OK for "survival of the fittest"

The irony is that this is one of the most Eco friendly cities, it encourages electric, economy cars but the only vehicles getting around were the gas guzzlers and the snowmobiles.

Lets hope a lesson was learned. I love it here and this is the only major beef I ever had in the, I cant believe already, 5 years we have been living here.

I realize the intentions were meant to protect the oceans, only that protection neglected the city's most vulnerable citizens. As far as I know nothing definite has been proven to support the fact environmentally friendly measures couldn't have been placed.

Article about Seattle's last snow storm. Also links to the Seattle Times article that had close to 1,000 responses.

NYT interactive page where folks submit their own photos of this year's storms.

This photo of the Carnival Pride was taken at Inner Harbor in Baltimore and was published on

John Healds Blog



This is the ship my son took me on my 1st cruise.

~ In the extremely rare chance that this should wind up viewed by the person or persons who cruised on the Pride the week of 1/25-2/1/2003 and may have mistakenly ended up with the only mother/son portrait we had taken on this cruise please come forward, we promise to ask no questions :) I would even settle for a scanned copy.

The ship's photographer took a photo of us at the only dinner he was able to take time off for, the photo was displayed on a shelf at the ship's photo center but when we arrived to pick it up it was gone. We were told someone else had purchased it. (??)