Her Kateness in NYC (long)

[jrp@accint.COM]

Greeting, beloved brethren in Kate...

Since I didn't see Andy or Doug's report, I'll make some general commentary
before relating my experience. (BTW...Chris and Vickie...you were
missed. I was suprised you couldn't show, and was standing next to a guy whose 
name I don't recall at the moment (an ex LH), who commented about you not being 
here, and |>oug I think mentioned it also. Well...you were in our
thought...at least until we caught a glimpse of Her. Ahem.)

First of all, I had a blast. I got in line at about 8:30 after
the catching the shuttle from Boston. I was 22nd in line,
with Andy and |>oug 1 and 2 respectively. The day went fairly
quickly, I was talking to a couple of people around me
who were only slightly wierder than I am, so it was interesting 
enough. When Kate showed at 3:45 or so, reports indicated the
line went all the way around three sides of Tower records. 

After a few minutes, they let us in, in 10s. The two earlier groups
averaged about a minute a person, but it went more quickly thereafter.

When I got in the door, I caught my first glimpse of Her...and
I thought/said (I can't tell...) "My God...She's Beautiful". While
standing in line, this sort of became a mantra, although I could
tell some of my cognitive functions were still working...I thought
about the structure of the sentence make sure it was "My God! She's..."
instead of "My God is...". Ahem.

Regardless, I finally made my way up to the front of the line, and stepped
up to the pedestal she was sitting on. "Hi" quoth she. "Uh...Hi" quoth
I, in absolutely brilliant form. "How you doin'" quoth she. "Uh...oooookay."
quoth I. "Who do you want this signed to?" "Uh...J--Jason". (Then,
my left lobe kicked in as she was signing..." "Uh, Ms. Bush...about
the song Lilly...did you learn the ritual that way or "(a guy
gave me a nudge to get going, Kate finished signing my piece now)
"No...it's not a ritual, just a prayer someone taught me" (Over my shoulder
was I was shuffled off) "Oh...thanks"

She signed my little picture from the MOP boxed set, like she signed nearly 
everything, To <person>, With Love, Kate Bush, X.

So, I wandered off, and found a spot where I could KateWatch for a while,
while talking to Doug and Andy and company. (One young lady from
SanFran tried to get her arm signed to have it tatooed in, but
Kate said something to the effect of 'Oh, I can't, maybe you won't like me
in a few years...', and signed something else. That's so sweet) We showed off 
our new posessions, and watched some more. She looked so sweet there,
signing and being cordial and pleasant to everybody. 

I wandered off from upstairs at about 5:00, and walked around. I found
this young woman, medium height, medium brown hair, fairly cute who
I was sure I had met before, and she bumped into me, and gave me
a flash of recognition and started to say something when someone
pulled her aside.

I wandered off, and went back up to see the gang,
and one commented they'd like to interview Lisa. I blinked, and said "Who's
that" "Kate's secretary...". Hum...

I wandered around a bit more after that, and found this REALLY
GREAT KATE-WATCHING SPOT! Behind her pedestal was a large
TRS stand-up poster thing, about 2 feet from the wall, and the
passage was blocked by a cd rack about 5 feet high. Well, being
a large guy, if I leaned against the wall just right, I could
see her Kateness sitting there, doing her thing, about
2 feet forward and 4 feet left of me! And (this is the coolest part) 
Del was leaning against the wall right next to me! I tried
to be inconspicuous...I didn't want Kate to be nervous, etc. 
But after a while, Del looked over, and noticed
I'd been standing in the same spot for about an hour, and chuckled.
The brown-haired girl looked over his shoulder and waved at me, chuckling too. 
(It was 6:15 about this time). Del was keeping track of time
for Kate. (I'll note for posterity, when he wanted to get her attention
one time, he said "Puddin'...Puddin?" and then spoke when she turned...
Kate was very much concentrated on signing and talking.) 

A couple of interesting things happened...one guy with a camera wanted
to try my spot, but couldn't get a good sight, so did a long-arm
over the cd case and snapped blind. Del said "Hey! That's cheating!"
and chuckled. This guy said "Can you take one then?" Del looked
like he was going to say no, then relented, and grabbed the guys
camera and snapped one off. The guy said to me "Hey! These Tower
Record guys are pretty cool"...I laughed, and said "Son, son, son...
you *don't* know who that was...(etc)". It definately made a big 
impression on the guy. (For my part, I think Del is very cool...I 
had envisioned him as a little more aloof than he was...he was just 
happy and joking around, a nice guy) After that, Del and I talked off 
and on about nothing important until things got wrapped up.

A few things of note. Number one: Bootlegs. She signed some of the
bootlegs (the ones I recognized as older) without comment,
like anything else. However, one guy came up with one which was
obviously one she hadn't seen before (I only caught a glance,
but the picture on the cover was an older one). She showed it to Del
and to a couple other guys, and was amiable enough to the guy,
but looked over at Del and was visibly upset/angry for a moment, but 
then put on her happy face at the next person. From my perspective,
I can tell you *I* will never purchase a bootleg anything of hers. 

Two: that picture. You know, *that* picture, the halter top one. I
saw her sign about three of them, each with obvious distaste,
directed at the picture never at the person. I think you can tell
when she is force-smiling instead of when she is really happy/oh-how-cute
smiling by how her eyes crinkle. Regardless, she tries to be sweet
to everybody...I think she knows it's not their fault.

Three: "HEY, KATE! HOW ARE YOU! I LOVE YOUR WORK SO MUCH!" A few of the more 
boistrous members of the line obviously startled her. I think there
is a significant difference in culture between what she knows and
what we have here. Instant-friendship/salesman/advertising type
of forward behaviour seems to makes her cringe. When I think back I think
I got a little smile from my 'Ms. Bush' instead of 'Kate'. I suspect
she likes it that way. (IMO) And, it seems that gushing, as it's called,
kind of embarrasses her a little, but I think she's gotten used to it
by now...one poor Oriental girl who didn't speak much English
was trying to get her thoughts out, and nearly feinted, but Kate was
gracious and let her finish, and smiled sweetly throughout. 

Four: STUFF! My goodness...it's like her birthday all over again.
At the end of the night, she had 3 and a half full large shopping
bags of *stuff*, which I will note got sent with her secretary after she and
Del and gang left. And flowers! They piled them up behind her, and it took two 
people to carry them all away afterwards. I noted some of the things she got, a 
couple of books, some cd's, letters, pamphlets, a red shoe (half of a pair) some rare
nicknacks, some junk (although I'm sure it has special significance
to somebody), etc. I do kind of wonder what happens to it. 

About 20 minutes before they left, I noted Del (who had been chewing on red
licorish(sp?) all day) said something to the effect of "I'm getting hungry"
in Kate's general direction, smiling and trying to get her to leave soon. She
wouldn't have any of it. As they were getting ready to leave, I said loud enough
for Kate to hear "Ms. Bush, that was really sweet staying so long. Thank you" 
She looked startled, turned around and flashed me a sweet smile, and Del winked at me. 

Hum, let's see. They wandered off between (?) 7:15 and 7:30, and I wandered around 
the store some more. I ran into this young lady, and I wandered up to her,
and put two and two together and said "Lisa?". In my mind, she looked
like she could be a Lisa...I'm really bad with names. "Yes...and
I know we met, but I can't recall your name", and we talked a little,
how I had figured out her name, that she's from NY, that no I'm not a journalist:I'm 
not *that* sleezy, no she couldn't do coffee, although she'd like to (forward of me, 
I know), but gave me a little squeeze and ran off. Sweet girl, I hope to meet
her again. 

So, that was it, I believe...I probably left some interesting things
out, I'm still processing all the info. 

I've decided I'm going to go to my library and do a work up on all the
aspects of Lilly that my ingeneum can come up with, I think it would 
make interesting reading for her. I'll probably post it before sending 
it, maybe next week some time. (I was kind of thinking about doing this 
for LH, since I do have a broad knowledge base in these things, but, to 
be honest, the amount of work I am going to do is only justified by the fact 
that Kate might be interested. As much as I like you guys...:)

So, that was my KateExperience. I am *very* happy, and it was only
a few hundred dollars and some time well spent. 

--
Jason R. Pascucci			Email: jrp@accint.com
Open Systems Engineer			Phone: 617-494-0066x317
Access International			432 Columbia St, Cambridge, MA 02141