November 26, 2014
As has been the case from the minute I started copying these old tales from the bowels of my computer and putting them all together in this blog, I re-read all of the stories and events as they transpired more or less in chronological order (not to mention getting side tracked with old emails, news articles, and god knows what else.) Going from the highest of highs in January 2005 with Journey receiving their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, through the chaos that surrounded the band in 2006, and ultimately to 2007 which saw no Journey tour for the first time since 2000 and left the band with out a lead singer for the second time in a year. That was a complete roller coaster of events, and I've yet to get to all that transpired in 2008 (a year burned so vividly in my brain that I can't forget it no matter how much I wish I could.) It was odd to relive many of those emotions again in 2014.
The thing I remember most about 2006 is feeling burned out by Journey. Having helped organize 4 fan conventions of growing magnitude over the course of 5 years and planning yet another for that year was finally catching up with me. It seemed that all of my free time was being consumed by Journey and I was in need of a break. Journey started their tour in Europe that year, and when they started talking about the tour, I thought about flying half way around the world to catch them. As it turned out, the dates the tour started conflicted with some family commitments, but having started thinking about spending my summer vacation in the UK and Ireland, I decided I needed a vacation more than another Journey concert and arrived in London a week after Journey had come through.
Another objective of my three week vacation was to unplug from the Internet. Other than a couple of emails to my mother letting her know where I was heading and a few others to friends I was meeting on my travels, I pretty much avoided everything. Visiting with a few of my Journey buddies (though unfortunately not all) did get me some gossip and tales, but for the most part I was out of the loop when the US leg of the tour began and Steve Augeri had to drop out of the tour and all the chaos and craziness that surrounded that began. When I returned to the States, I caught up somewhat with what had happened while I was out of the country, but was so tired of the chronic bickering and battling that I eased out some what. I was beginning to understand what Steve Perry meant about re-entering the earth's atmosphere without heat shields. I was in Journey over load.
We pulled off another successful JPP, though a vastly lower threshold of excitement than we'd had in 2005. By the end of 2006, Steve Augeri was officially out and Jeff Scott Soto was named his replacement. I was less than thrilled and decided I was done with my road tripping around the country for Journey shows. It was an expensive hobby and after seeing four shows with Jeff on lead, it wasn't working for me and not worth the time and expense.
That Jeff was let go six months later -- announced literally the day after "Don't Stop Believin'" closed out the finale of The Sopranos, an event that gave Journey HUGE exposure -- added to the burn out. With no Journey tour that year and a reunited Police, I took my traveling to them and spent a lot of time on their message boards. The Police fans were so happy and excited that their band had reunited when everyone on the planet had expected hell to freeze over before that happened, I soaked up all their positive energy. While the Police weren't "my" band, I had been a fan for years and I totally understood the feeling those fans had. I know I talked about it with several of them, including likening it to the ill fated Journey reunion with Steve Perry in 1996. I loved that feeling.
So I spent 2007 mostly seeing bands I'd never seen before (or hadn't seen in over 20 years) and wrote up a few reports for friends along the way. My status as a Journey "super fan" started to fade then, and has continued to do so ever since. Oh, I'm still a fan of the band and will continue to see them when they play in a reasonable proximity to home, but the days of cross-country travel and fan conventions are long behind me now. I do miss getting to see the many friends I made between 1998 and 2006 and try to keep up with as many as I can and every once and a while I think "maybe I should try to put together a JPP Family Reunion one of these years." No big fancy get together, no recording studio tours, no receptions with the band, no group seating at the concert. Nothing like that, just a nice, simple family picnic. Bring your blanket and something to share and hang out and chat about old times and new.
Perhaps I'll do that one year (if I can get what's left of "the band" back together.) For now, I can look back at a really fun time of my life and think, yeah, it was totally worth it all.
Showing posts with label nostalgia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nostalgia. Show all posts
Monday, December 31, 2007
Friday, December 31, 2004
Looking Back at 2004 and Planning JPP2005
August 18, 2014
It's hard to believe it was ten years ago already, but 2004 was a crazy year; much of it was spent planning things. The Journey Past and Present Committee had to get things prepared for the Hollywood Walk of Fame JPP convention, my office was relocating and I was a key member of the move team, and my younger brother got married -- one of five weddings among my friends and family that year (including JPP Committee members Darla Ellis and Emerson Dong!) There were also a handful of babies born that year among my family and friends. Looking back at my calendar, it's filled with parties, trips, and planning meetings on top of the routine concerts, outings with friends and family, and every day tasks. The one upside to this crazy schedule I was maintaining was that as a result of all the hard work I put in to the office move, I received a bonus which was sufficient enough to cover the cost of going on a 7-day cruise with Journey, Styx, and REO Speedwagon. A well deserved reward I felt. Little did I know how vital that would become.
Remembering that time now, I recall friends and family wanting to do things with me and I would have to answer "well, I'm booked for the next three weekends, how does April 4 look to you?" I was so booked up, I had to teleconference in to a couple of interviews for a new intern we were hiring to help me and a couple of my co-workers with our workload!
The JPP planning is a vivid memory from that year. The planning had started in general in mid 2003 after the application was approved and the star on the Walk of Fame was announced, but we really didn't get serious until early 2004. Having successfully put together three previous events, each with increases in size and activities, we were a fairly well oiled machine by the time we got into gear for JPP2005. The only wrinkle in the whole thing was that, unlike the previous three events, this one wasn't going to be in San Francisco, but Los Angeles. That made for a few challenges we hadn't experienced before. With the majority of the organizing committee living in the San Francisco Bay Area, it was pretty easy to schedule things like checking out hotels and venues. When the event is 400 miles away, it's a little bit trickier and definitely more expensive! We needed to identify locations in LA that might be well suited for our gathering, which is easy enough to do remotely, but we still had to check them out.
Leslie, Cheryl, and I flew down to Anaheim for the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) show in January 2004 and slotted time to make the hour-long drive up to Hollywood to check out the hotels and reception venue candidates. Our first trip was the Hollywood and Highland complex where we checked out the hotel and nightclub in the complex. These were our top candidates based on proximity to the Walk of Fame and each other -- saved on transportation issues for our attendees. Then it was off to check another couple of hotels before heading over to the House of Blues as a possibility for the reception. We really loved the venue, but it was too large for our then anticipated group of 100. We did say to each other "wouldn't it be cool if the guys played here?" Little did we know.
The band handled most of the logistics in dealing with past and current members and the Hollywood chamber of commerce for scheduling. We relied on the information from band management on scheduling dates and times. The original plan was to schedule the installation around the same time as the 2005 NAMM show and the band would work with the folks at NAMM about having a gig in conjunction with their annual trade show.
So we set about planning for January 2005, reserving blocks of hotel rooms, consulting with the night club, keeping our fellow fans and anticipated attendees posted. By the time we started booking things, we were expecting 125 or so attendees and had to figure out how to get them from the Hollywood Walk of Fame to wherever the band planned to perform in Anaheim. The logistics of bus rental wasn't a big deal -- we'd done that plenty of times for the events in San Francisco -- it was figuring out the timing. We expected the event to be on a week day, which meant getting 125 people from LA to Anaheim during rush hour. It was one of biggest concerns -- we didn't want to wind up accidentally leaving people behind and/or getting stuck in traffic and delaying the show.
Everything came to a head in November. By then our headcount had jumped to 145 people, but we still hadn't gotten a confirmed concert from the band. The event was scheduled for January and our attendees were anxious for news that there would indeed be a show. They were spending good money to attend an event that was open to the public -- with out the concert only our reception was a private event. The attendees knew the band would make an appearance at the reception, but the concert was the key item on everyone's agenda. We had also been expressly forbidden to tell them where the show was planned to be held. Right before Thanksgiving, everything blew up and we were informed that the NAMM show that we had anticipated had not actually been confirmed. A few days later, we got word from band management -- there would be no concert!
As you can imagine, this sent all of us in a tailspin. Fortunately, the day after Thanksgiving, Darla, Emerson, and I would be flying off to Miami for the Rock & Roll Holiday Escape cruise. Cat, who coordinated the fan club for Journey and was one of our key contact people, would also be on the cruise as would the band. Hopefully we could figure out what was going to happen. We put off telling the attendees until after the cruise and froze any further purchases needed for the event in case we were going to have to provide partial refunds. (Something, as the treasurer of the group, I was in a complete panic about.) Maybe we could come up with some miracle by chatting in person. We'd had potential disasters crop up for every other JPP that resulted in miracles that were better than whatever the original plan was.
Darla and I managed to find some time with Cat to see what we could expect and got some optimistic news that things could be fixed, but we would need to be on dry land and get a few more people involved before we could relax completely. One of the complications with meeting with Cat meant we would have to scuttle off away from other Journey fans on the ship -- some of whom were coming to Hollywood, including my roommate Janice. I hadn't met Janice prior to the cruise -- we had both wanted to go on the cruise but neither of us had a roommate to share the cabin. One of us (I can't remember who) posted on the Journey forum Back Talk that we were looking for a roommate for the cruise, and we paired up. I was sure Janice thought I was purposely trying to ditch her every time I would say "I've gotta meet Cat." Since she was coming to JPP, I had to keep my mouth shut about the crisis we were in. I felt hugely guilty, but promised myself I would explain it to her when I could talk about it. I may have mentioned something about "working out details" to her, but can't remember now.
When we got home from the cruise, we still didn't have a definitive answer and things fluctuated good and bad for several days. At one point it was looking so unlikely that we'd have a concert, I drafted an email to send to our attendees to let them know that what we'd hoped to have happen was probably not going to happen. With all of this around the holidays, my stress level was through the roof, despite the relaxing 7-day cruise I'd just been on to relieve the previous 11 months of stress! We were six weeks out from our event and pushing up hard against deadlines to have everything ready to go. The NorCal gang was heading up to Reno for a Journey show that weekend after we returned from the cruise. If we didn't know more by the end of the weekend, we'd have to let folks know.
It turned out, we didn't have to wait for the weekend -- a few days before the Reno show Cat sent us an email: "Show Confirmed!!!! House of Blues 9:00 p.m. JPP Attendees price $45." We had to wait until after Reno to let folks know, but a huge weight was lifted. Our biggest issues now were what to wear and how many guests the band would be inviting to the reception and whether or not we would have enough food for everyone. (There were lots of jokes about having trail mix and bologna sandwiches!)
Still, we had gotten through our biggest crisis and once the holidays were over, it was full steam ahead into January and one fantastic weekend in Hollywood!
It's hard to believe it was ten years ago already, but 2004 was a crazy year; much of it was spent planning things. The Journey Past and Present Committee had to get things prepared for the Hollywood Walk of Fame JPP convention, my office was relocating and I was a key member of the move team, and my younger brother got married -- one of five weddings among my friends and family that year (including JPP Committee members Darla Ellis and Emerson Dong!) There were also a handful of babies born that year among my family and friends. Looking back at my calendar, it's filled with parties, trips, and planning meetings on top of the routine concerts, outings with friends and family, and every day tasks. The one upside to this crazy schedule I was maintaining was that as a result of all the hard work I put in to the office move, I received a bonus which was sufficient enough to cover the cost of going on a 7-day cruise with Journey, Styx, and REO Speedwagon. A well deserved reward I felt. Little did I know how vital that would become.
Remembering that time now, I recall friends and family wanting to do things with me and I would have to answer "well, I'm booked for the next three weekends, how does April 4 look to you?" I was so booked up, I had to teleconference in to a couple of interviews for a new intern we were hiring to help me and a couple of my co-workers with our workload!
The JPP planning is a vivid memory from that year. The planning had started in general in mid 2003 after the application was approved and the star on the Walk of Fame was announced, but we really didn't get serious until early 2004. Having successfully put together three previous events, each with increases in size and activities, we were a fairly well oiled machine by the time we got into gear for JPP2005. The only wrinkle in the whole thing was that, unlike the previous three events, this one wasn't going to be in San Francisco, but Los Angeles. That made for a few challenges we hadn't experienced before. With the majority of the organizing committee living in the San Francisco Bay Area, it was pretty easy to schedule things like checking out hotels and venues. When the event is 400 miles away, it's a little bit trickier and definitely more expensive! We needed to identify locations in LA that might be well suited for our gathering, which is easy enough to do remotely, but we still had to check them out.
Leslie, Cheryl, and I flew down to Anaheim for the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) show in January 2004 and slotted time to make the hour-long drive up to Hollywood to check out the hotels and reception venue candidates. Our first trip was the Hollywood and Highland complex where we checked out the hotel and nightclub in the complex. These were our top candidates based on proximity to the Walk of Fame and each other -- saved on transportation issues for our attendees. Then it was off to check another couple of hotels before heading over to the House of Blues as a possibility for the reception. We really loved the venue, but it was too large for our then anticipated group of 100. We did say to each other "wouldn't it be cool if the guys played here?" Little did we know.
The band handled most of the logistics in dealing with past and current members and the Hollywood chamber of commerce for scheduling. We relied on the information from band management on scheduling dates and times. The original plan was to schedule the installation around the same time as the 2005 NAMM show and the band would work with the folks at NAMM about having a gig in conjunction with their annual trade show.
So we set about planning for January 2005, reserving blocks of hotel rooms, consulting with the night club, keeping our fellow fans and anticipated attendees posted. By the time we started booking things, we were expecting 125 or so attendees and had to figure out how to get them from the Hollywood Walk of Fame to wherever the band planned to perform in Anaheim. The logistics of bus rental wasn't a big deal -- we'd done that plenty of times for the events in San Francisco -- it was figuring out the timing. We expected the event to be on a week day, which meant getting 125 people from LA to Anaheim during rush hour. It was one of biggest concerns -- we didn't want to wind up accidentally leaving people behind and/or getting stuck in traffic and delaying the show.
Everything came to a head in November. By then our headcount had jumped to 145 people, but we still hadn't gotten a confirmed concert from the band. The event was scheduled for January and our attendees were anxious for news that there would indeed be a show. They were spending good money to attend an event that was open to the public -- with out the concert only our reception was a private event. The attendees knew the band would make an appearance at the reception, but the concert was the key item on everyone's agenda. We had also been expressly forbidden to tell them where the show was planned to be held. Right before Thanksgiving, everything blew up and we were informed that the NAMM show that we had anticipated had not actually been confirmed. A few days later, we got word from band management -- there would be no concert!
As you can imagine, this sent all of us in a tailspin. Fortunately, the day after Thanksgiving, Darla, Emerson, and I would be flying off to Miami for the Rock & Roll Holiday Escape cruise. Cat, who coordinated the fan club for Journey and was one of our key contact people, would also be on the cruise as would the band. Hopefully we could figure out what was going to happen. We put off telling the attendees until after the cruise and froze any further purchases needed for the event in case we were going to have to provide partial refunds. (Something, as the treasurer of the group, I was in a complete panic about.) Maybe we could come up with some miracle by chatting in person. We'd had potential disasters crop up for every other JPP that resulted in miracles that were better than whatever the original plan was.
Darla and I managed to find some time with Cat to see what we could expect and got some optimistic news that things could be fixed, but we would need to be on dry land and get a few more people involved before we could relax completely. One of the complications with meeting with Cat meant we would have to scuttle off away from other Journey fans on the ship -- some of whom were coming to Hollywood, including my roommate Janice. I hadn't met Janice prior to the cruise -- we had both wanted to go on the cruise but neither of us had a roommate to share the cabin. One of us (I can't remember who) posted on the Journey forum Back Talk that we were looking for a roommate for the cruise, and we paired up. I was sure Janice thought I was purposely trying to ditch her every time I would say "I've gotta meet Cat." Since she was coming to JPP, I had to keep my mouth shut about the crisis we were in. I felt hugely guilty, but promised myself I would explain it to her when I could talk about it. I may have mentioned something about "working out details" to her, but can't remember now.
When we got home from the cruise, we still didn't have a definitive answer and things fluctuated good and bad for several days. At one point it was looking so unlikely that we'd have a concert, I drafted an email to send to our attendees to let them know that what we'd hoped to have happen was probably not going to happen. With all of this around the holidays, my stress level was through the roof, despite the relaxing 7-day cruise I'd just been on to relieve the previous 11 months of stress! We were six weeks out from our event and pushing up hard against deadlines to have everything ready to go. The NorCal gang was heading up to Reno for a Journey show that weekend after we returned from the cruise. If we didn't know more by the end of the weekend, we'd have to let folks know.
It turned out, we didn't have to wait for the weekend -- a few days before the Reno show Cat sent us an email: "Show Confirmed!!!! House of Blues 9:00 p.m. JPP Attendees price $45." We had to wait until after Reno to let folks know, but a huge weight was lifted. Our biggest issues now were what to wear and how many guests the band would be inviting to the reception and whether or not we would have enough food for everyone. (There were lots of jokes about having trail mix and bologna sandwiches!)
Still, we had gotten through our biggest crisis and once the holidays were over, it was full steam ahead into January and one fantastic weekend in Hollywood!
Saturday, September 1, 2001
September 1, 2001: The Unfinished Essay
After I had written the major epic I'd sent to friends and family, I wanted to write something for JourneyDigest.com that covered the same ground, but in a more reflective state focusing on the feelings of a particularly memorable summer. I started a draft in early September with the intent of fleshing it out over the next week or so. I got busy and didn't work on it as I had intended and before I had a chance to get back to it the tragedies of September 11, 2001 occurred, bringing a crushing end to what had been a very joyful and wonderful summer. While pulling together the other material for this blog archive, I stumbled on that early draft and decided to include it in the archive. The thoughts in the first and last paragraphs were the seeds that prompted this piece.
As I pull out of my driveway on my way to work, I notice a group of children with forlorn faces waiting for the bus to take them to the first day of school. I continue on my way, and as I hit the freeway, I notice that the sun is hanging a bit lower in the sky over San Francisco Bay. I sigh as I realize summer is coming to an end. I haven't been this sad to see the summer pass since I was one of the forlorn faces waiting for the school bus.
As an adult, summers come and go with little notice, the days are longer, warmer, but that doesn't change the day in, day out routine. You take a week, maybe two, and go to the beach or the mountains or to visit family.This summer, well, this summer was different. Odd to think it all began back in December.
It was in early December when my mother told me that the sale of her father's house had been finalized, and that she would be giving my brother and I part of her share.This unexpected windfall meant that more of my savings than usual would be available for my summer vacation. I returned to work and told my supervisor my tentative plans for vacation for 2001, which included two weeks for the anticipated Arrival tour -- the first week and the California swing.My best guess for the dates was late May/early June and mid-August. Fortunately, I didn't need to be more specific than that at the time.
March rolled around, and the tour dates were announced. Now I knew when and where I would be spending my vacation. I told my parents my plans over St. Patrick's Day dinner, and my father was incredulous. "Texas? In June? For a week? Are they that good?" I laughed and assured him that I had not lost my mind. Texas certainly wasn't my ideal choice for my summer vacation, but then no one asked me!
And so, I began planning. Checking the dates and locations of the shows, when the tickets would go on sale, and mapping out my route. I'd start in Las Vegas, then Albuquerque, El Paso, Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston. A Phoenix date was added later, but I decided to by pass that show and spend extra time in New Mexico. While I was working on these plans, a friend from high school emailed me inviting me to visit her this summer in West Virginia. I hadn't seen her since her wedding six months earlier, but told her that I couldn't because of my plans to "go on tour." After several emails back and forth, I finally gave in when she sent "Journey is playing in Pittsburgh on July 14. We could go." Feeling guilty that I had to be bribed to visit, I added a weekend in West Virginia to my plans.
June arrived sooner than expected, and I was on my way. Loaded down with a suitcase, my laptop computer, and the all important cell phone, I boarded the plane to Las Vegas. This was the show I was most looking forward to -- the very first night. Yes, it wasn't the "real" show -- that would come later in Albuquerque -- but it was the first Journey show since Arrival had been released in the US. As eager as I was to hear the new tunes live, I was also excited about seeing the many friends I knew were coming to this show. When Journey went back on the road in 1998, at long last, I began meeting people from across the country who shared my love for this music. Now, three years later, to go to a show and not meet someone I know (or have communicated with on-line) is unusual. Las Vegas was going to be the biggest group of friends I would see until the California shows in August, so I knew it would be a fantastic time.
{{{Finish later}}}
... I get in my car and punch the CD button on my radio to change the tune. I smile as I am greeted by a loud drum beat coming through my speakers. I pull away and head for home to the sound of "We Will Meet Again."
As I pull out of my driveway on my way to work, I notice a group of children with forlorn faces waiting for the bus to take them to the first day of school. I continue on my way, and as I hit the freeway, I notice that the sun is hanging a bit lower in the sky over San Francisco Bay. I sigh as I realize summer is coming to an end. I haven't been this sad to see the summer pass since I was one of the forlorn faces waiting for the school bus.
As an adult, summers come and go with little notice, the days are longer, warmer, but that doesn't change the day in, day out routine. You take a week, maybe two, and go to the beach or the mountains or to visit family.This summer, well, this summer was different. Odd to think it all began back in December.
It was in early December when my mother told me that the sale of her father's house had been finalized, and that she would be giving my brother and I part of her share.This unexpected windfall meant that more of my savings than usual would be available for my summer vacation. I returned to work and told my supervisor my tentative plans for vacation for 2001, which included two weeks for the anticipated Arrival tour -- the first week and the California swing.My best guess for the dates was late May/early June and mid-August. Fortunately, I didn't need to be more specific than that at the time.
March rolled around, and the tour dates were announced. Now I knew when and where I would be spending my vacation. I told my parents my plans over St. Patrick's Day dinner, and my father was incredulous. "Texas? In June? For a week? Are they that good?" I laughed and assured him that I had not lost my mind. Texas certainly wasn't my ideal choice for my summer vacation, but then no one asked me!
And so, I began planning. Checking the dates and locations of the shows, when the tickets would go on sale, and mapping out my route. I'd start in Las Vegas, then Albuquerque, El Paso, Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston. A Phoenix date was added later, but I decided to by pass that show and spend extra time in New Mexico. While I was working on these plans, a friend from high school emailed me inviting me to visit her this summer in West Virginia. I hadn't seen her since her wedding six months earlier, but told her that I couldn't because of my plans to "go on tour." After several emails back and forth, I finally gave in when she sent "Journey is playing in Pittsburgh on July 14. We could go." Feeling guilty that I had to be bribed to visit, I added a weekend in West Virginia to my plans.
June arrived sooner than expected, and I was on my way. Loaded down with a suitcase, my laptop computer, and the all important cell phone, I boarded the plane to Las Vegas. This was the show I was most looking forward to -- the very first night. Yes, it wasn't the "real" show -- that would come later in Albuquerque -- but it was the first Journey show since Arrival had been released in the US. As eager as I was to hear the new tunes live, I was also excited about seeing the many friends I knew were coming to this show. When Journey went back on the road in 1998, at long last, I began meeting people from across the country who shared my love for this music. Now, three years later, to go to a show and not meet someone I know (or have communicated with on-line) is unusual. Las Vegas was going to be the biggest group of friends I would see until the California shows in August, so I knew it would be a fantastic time.
{{{Finish later}}}
... I get in my car and punch the CD button on my radio to change the tune. I smile as I am greeted by a loud drum beat coming through my speakers. I pull away and head for home to the sound of "We Will Meet Again."
Wednesday, December 1, 1999
Looking Back at 1999
February 5, 2014
As I've been going through the tales of 1999, I realized that they only glossed the surface of an important year. I first entered the world of on-line fandom in 1996 when Journey's brief reunion with Steve Perry produced their first new album in 10 years -- Trial by Fire. Circumstances changed and it wasn't until 1998 that a new Journey, now with Steve Augeri on lead vocals and Deen Castronovo on drums, went back out on tour and fans got to attend concerts and begin to put faces to the names from the various message boards, mailing lists, and news groups that were the virtual meeting places of the time.
I'd met a few of my on-line friends in 1998 at various shows and events, but 1999 was the year I met on-line friends that became off-line friends as well. Early in the year, some of the NorCal contingent of the Steve Perry mailing list decided to get together for lunch as some of the Atlanta based contingent had. While we managed to miss Liz somehow, Carla, Darla and I met for lunch and instead of meeting new people it was like meeting with old friends. Many other lunches and what can only be best described as grown up slumber parties were to follow. Somewhere along the line Ana Marie joined us.
In June, Journey kicked off their summer tour with Foreigner in Chicago. A group of fans from the Journey Digest mailing list put together a gathering of fans for the show. The night before the concert, many of the attendees met at a bar to see Kevin Chalfant, who had been the lead singer for The Storm with several former members of Journey. I rode to the show with one of the organizers and 5 other women and again those these were people I had just met in person, it was like a girls night out with friends I'd known for a long time. The day of the concert, those folks attending Journeyfest were allowed to attend sound check. I volunteered to help check people in and in doing so, I handed a name tag to Leslie Forysthe and noticed she lived in the Bay Area. We chatted a bit before and again after the show and so would begin another friendship that carried beyond the virtual world.
That meeting with Leslie led to her hosting a pre-show barbeque at her home before the Bay Area Journey show as she lived near the venue. Other than a brief introduction to Darla when we purchased the tickets and another brief meeting at Journeyfest with Jeff, another Journey Digest member, who'd flown up from Southern California, Leslie hadn't met any of the other guests. I'm still amazed that she trusted my judgement that these folks weren't totally insane (though Scott smashing the hornet that had decided to eat Jeff's chicken might have made her question that.) I can still remember hanging out in the parking lot after the show talking with Jeff and Janet and watching both of them battle in air-guitar.
November brought another San Francisco show and a gathering of the NorCal contingent that had grown from the 5 fans who'd met in 1998 at the first Journey Fans Convention (Debbie S., Janet, Scott, Kevin and me) to about 20 people from the Bay Area and Sacramento areas. That's when I finally met another Perry List member -- Cheryl -- and another virtual friend became a real life one.
A lot of friends have come and gone in the intervening years. Some have remained mostly virtual friendships or have faded away entirely as time and distance intervened. Others are seen few and far between, but it's always like picking up where we left off the next time we meet. Carla got married and moved out of state, but we've remained in touch through the years. Leslie left the Bay Area and returned and Cheryl's in SoCal now. And sadly, Darla passed away in 2008 -- a loss I still feel every day. So even though the tales relayed about 1999 are thin, the memories and friendships made in that year are still strong and valued.
As I've been going through the tales of 1999, I realized that they only glossed the surface of an important year. I first entered the world of on-line fandom in 1996 when Journey's brief reunion with Steve Perry produced their first new album in 10 years -- Trial by Fire. Circumstances changed and it wasn't until 1998 that a new Journey, now with Steve Augeri on lead vocals and Deen Castronovo on drums, went back out on tour and fans got to attend concerts and begin to put faces to the names from the various message boards, mailing lists, and news groups that were the virtual meeting places of the time.
I'd met a few of my on-line friends in 1998 at various shows and events, but 1999 was the year I met on-line friends that became off-line friends as well. Early in the year, some of the NorCal contingent of the Steve Perry mailing list decided to get together for lunch as some of the Atlanta based contingent had. While we managed to miss Liz somehow, Carla, Darla and I met for lunch and instead of meeting new people it was like meeting with old friends. Many other lunches and what can only be best described as grown up slumber parties were to follow. Somewhere along the line Ana Marie joined us.
In June, Journey kicked off their summer tour with Foreigner in Chicago. A group of fans from the Journey Digest mailing list put together a gathering of fans for the show. The night before the concert, many of the attendees met at a bar to see Kevin Chalfant, who had been the lead singer for The Storm with several former members of Journey. I rode to the show with one of the organizers and 5 other women and again those these were people I had just met in person, it was like a girls night out with friends I'd known for a long time. The day of the concert, those folks attending Journeyfest were allowed to attend sound check. I volunteered to help check people in and in doing so, I handed a name tag to Leslie Forysthe and noticed she lived in the Bay Area. We chatted a bit before and again after the show and so would begin another friendship that carried beyond the virtual world.
That meeting with Leslie led to her hosting a pre-show barbeque at her home before the Bay Area Journey show as she lived near the venue. Other than a brief introduction to Darla when we purchased the tickets and another brief meeting at Journeyfest with Jeff, another Journey Digest member, who'd flown up from Southern California, Leslie hadn't met any of the other guests. I'm still amazed that she trusted my judgement that these folks weren't totally insane (though Scott smashing the hornet that had decided to eat Jeff's chicken might have made her question that.) I can still remember hanging out in the parking lot after the show talking with Jeff and Janet and watching both of them battle in air-guitar.
November brought another San Francisco show and a gathering of the NorCal contingent that had grown from the 5 fans who'd met in 1998 at the first Journey Fans Convention (Debbie S., Janet, Scott, Kevin and me) to about 20 people from the Bay Area and Sacramento areas. That's when I finally met another Perry List member -- Cheryl -- and another virtual friend became a real life one.
A lot of friends have come and gone in the intervening years. Some have remained mostly virtual friendships or have faded away entirely as time and distance intervened. Others are seen few and far between, but it's always like picking up where we left off the next time we meet. Carla got married and moved out of state, but we've remained in touch through the years. Leslie left the Bay Area and returned and Cheryl's in SoCal now. And sadly, Darla passed away in 2008 -- a loss I still feel every day. So even though the tales relayed about 1999 are thin, the memories and friendships made in that year are still strong and valued.
Thursday, December 31, 1998
Viewing 1998 from 2014
January 22, 2014
As I've been pulling out these old tales of my early Journey adventures from back in 1998, I've had a big smile on my face remembering those times. All of those events are burned on my memory so clearly that even now, nearly 16 years after they occurred, I can remember the look, feel, and emotion of it all. 1998 was a huge year for me and kicked off a decade of amazing times and the start of many dear friendships.
In 1998, I had no idea that it was just the beginning of what would become a massive roller coaster ride and an adventure of a life time. I probably wouldn't have believed it if anyone had told me about what was to come. Friends and family who knew me prior to these events can attest -- jumping on a plane to travel 2,000 miles to attend a concert by myself and then later driving up and down California to take in 6 shows in two weeks was a radical departure from my usual self. Heck, I barely mentioned any of these events to my co-workers at the time because they were so out of the ordinary for me and even I thought I was a little nuts. Things changed dramatically for me after that year. (I still think I was a little nuts and I know my old friends and family think I was a lot nuts!)
Still, with all the things that happened after 1998, I have consistently said that one show of Jon's at his church in Petaluma would have been enough. Since that night in March, I've seen Journey nearly 70 times in places all over the US (plus Canada and the Carribean Ocean), met all the significant members of the band save two (Steve Perry and Arnel Pineda), organized five fan conventions, and met hundreds of fans from around the world. Even with all of that, the feeling I carried around with me for days after that show in Petaluma was amazing and would have been enough. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade all the adventures I had over those 10 years for anything in the world, but that night will live forever in my memory as nothing short of magical.
As I've been pulling out these old tales of my early Journey adventures from back in 1998, I've had a big smile on my face remembering those times. All of those events are burned on my memory so clearly that even now, nearly 16 years after they occurred, I can remember the look, feel, and emotion of it all. 1998 was a huge year for me and kicked off a decade of amazing times and the start of many dear friendships.
In 1998, I had no idea that it was just the beginning of what would become a massive roller coaster ride and an adventure of a life time. I probably wouldn't have believed it if anyone had told me about what was to come. Friends and family who knew me prior to these events can attest -- jumping on a plane to travel 2,000 miles to attend a concert by myself and then later driving up and down California to take in 6 shows in two weeks was a radical departure from my usual self. Heck, I barely mentioned any of these events to my co-workers at the time because they were so out of the ordinary for me and even I thought I was a little nuts. Things changed dramatically for me after that year. (I still think I was a little nuts and I know my old friends and family think I was a lot nuts!)
Still, with all the things that happened after 1998, I have consistently said that one show of Jon's at his church in Petaluma would have been enough. Since that night in March, I've seen Journey nearly 70 times in places all over the US (plus Canada and the Carribean Ocean), met all the significant members of the band save two (Steve Perry and Arnel Pineda), organized five fan conventions, and met hundreds of fans from around the world. Even with all of that, the feeling I carried around with me for days after that show in Petaluma was amazing and would have been enough. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade all the adventures I had over those 10 years for anything in the world, but that night will live forever in my memory as nothing short of magical.
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