Meeting Mr. Copeland

Back in February I bought tickets for me and Jax to see Stewart Copeland's spoken word tour and scored us a meet and greet as well. It was a little under four hundred bucks total, which was kind of an insane thing to do since I'm not a massive fan of The Police and I don't really know his film scores or other work. Jackson didn't know him at all, but Copeland is one of the most respected drummers alive and I wanted us to go and kick start Jackson's discovery of a new-to-him musician. The day arrived and I was worried about traffic and parking and so we left way too stinkin' early. I picked up Jax at 1 and, of course, we hit zero traffic and found a perfect parky spot by 2:40. 

First up was late lunch at Tai Me Up for some fab grub.  I thought we'd kill a couple hours but the food arrived super fast and we wolfed it down, done at 3:20. Thankfully the place wasn't busy and the waitress there is an absolute sweetheart and didn't mind that we stayed until 4:30. We headed over to Reads to do some book shopping before arriving at the theatre at 5:30. 

The meet and greet portion was before the show and didn't start til 6. Finally, my hand-held fan on full blast in an effort to cool the fug down, we were ushered in to form a line. It moved pretty quickly and by 6:15 we stood before the man himself. Every thought I had about what to say flew right out of my head. I got as far as shaking his hand and introducing myself and then Jackson. He was signing Jax's drumsticks and I stupidly said, "So how are ya?" I gotta stop meeting celebrities. I always come off as a freakin' doofus. Then I turned to Jackson and said, "you have nothing to say??" That jogged his memory and while Mr. Copeland signed my copy of his memoir (which I will say he seemed kind of impressed, looking at the spine and saying "Oh!" as he recognised his book) Jackson asked him how he warms up. (Copeland said he shakes out his hands and stretches them then does single stroke rolls and paradiddles (or paradoodles, as I prefer to call them), which Jackson said was a helpful tip.) Then as I thanked him and we turned to go, Copeland said, "get him to give up drums and go into dentistry!" Cute!

(Kudos to Inez who took the photos - she did a fantastic job and I love that she took candid shots plus a couple posed. What a doll!)

Now it would be another nearly two hours before the show started. We squirreled away in a corner and chatted til they let us in to our seats at 7. The spots I scored for us were the exact row behind where we usually sit. Jesus God almighty. It was so tight and poor six foot tall Jackson was crammed in with his knees crunched into the back of the seats in front of him. I'm 5'5" and it was uncomfortable as hell for me. By the time we'd sat there for a half hour I decided we'd be better off standing out in the upper hall until showtime. Jackson was clearly dreading having to go back to the seats so...I made the call and we skipped the show. Stupid, I know, but I just thought, he's happy with having met Copeland and I was bored silly with his memoir that I read back in March, so why torture this kid with a show that I wasn't elated to see either. Plus Chase, his BFF, was back at the house waiting for him. We stayed long enough to hear the crowd cheer for Copeland and, oddly, chant E-A-G-L-E-S!!! at Copeland's prompting, and then hit the side door and left by 8:15. I figured he'd want me to race him home, but instead he wanted to drive to Lena's Water Ice for a chocolate shake (they have the best chocolate water ice, too!). I dropped him home by 10:30 and then steered Phineas towards home in the downpour. Aside from cramped seating and lots of waiting around, we had a great time together as always. The bonus was that Stewart Copeland was very nice and I didn't trip and fall on the walk to meet him. Hurrah!