Hello, A few hours ago I wearily stumbled through the door of my house in a little Wisconsin town. I've just finished a 6,198 mile odessy that took me from New York to Los Angeles. As there have been many excellent reviews of the past few weeks' shows, I will just sprinkle in some highlights and let you see what absurd lengths I had to endure to make it all happen. On Dec. 6th, I flew out to NY to see the show at the Beacon. It was great to see all the usual suspects waiting at the stage door before the show. Our patience was rewarded when the band finally showed up, and for some reason we kept pestering Dominic for pics and he grudgingly obliged. The show itself was OK. We kept playing cat-and-mouse games with the security guards which eventually led to me getting kicked out of the venue during Bourbon Street, but I luckily talked my way back in. You could easily see that the band was under rehearsed, but nevertheless it was great to hear the newly arranged material live. The following day I went to the yoga gym that Sting helped to create, and proceeded to get my butt royally kicked. I took the Ashtanga class, which is the form that Sting himself practices. All I'll say is that I was sore for 6 days afterwards. There are much more sane classes which I should have probably gone to, and if you're interested and in the NY area, their website is: www.jivamuktiyoga.com On Sunday I then flew back to Minneapolis, jumped in my car and drove to Denver for the Monday night show. This show was much more laid back and generally better. My friend Luuk came all the way from the Netherlands for the show and brought his friend Jessica - perhaps the most beautiful girl I've ever met in my life - to the show with him. Sting's music in front of me and a gorgeous woman dancing next to me... (insert stupid male quip here) That night, we had reliable information that Sting was to be going to a local strip club, so that's where we went. Soon enough we were there, but Sting never showed. We told our "waitress" why we had come, and she said, "Oh Sting? He has the worst b.o. ever! He smells so bad!" If a stripper in Denver knows this, it's probably true. I then drove another 1000 miles to LA to see the Tonight Show and also to meet the people who produced the VH1 FanClub show I was on. I thought they did a good job with it and wanted to meet them personally. It was cool to meet people who had interviewed the Police and hear their personal stories. They pretty much all said that the 3 members were much more quiet and intellectual than the press would have them believe. I was hoping to pay a visit to the archives, but they are kept at another facility. :( The Tonight Show was next, and was really fun. In the opening shot the cameraman zoomed in on my Ghost t-shirt!! It was also the fist time I'd heard the new song "Until." Finally, it was back to Vegas, where the BND began. It was here that I had the best time, solely because of the many worldwide fans that flew in for the show. The audience was (of course) disappointing, but knowing that 20 or so of my personal friends were next to me made up for it. The show zoomed by, due in part to Sting forgetting Roxanne and putting it in the first encore. By that time me, Andrea and Fred had gotten right in front - about 2 feet from his guitar, and at the end of Fragile we were the closest ones in the entire room to him. Very special. Before I knew it, the show was over. What followed is perhaps the biggest reason why I go to such great lengths to see shows. A large group of us (OK, I'll try my best: Jer, Deb, Paul, Rocky, Andrea, Fred, Jen, Sue, Steve, Maggie, Bill, others?) went out to eat and had one hell of a time. As I've said before, this is the most important part of going to a show for me, meeting and re-meeting fellow fans. It's like going to a church that only has a few members and only meets a few times a year. Just imagine, we could quote any obscure Sting/Police lyric and everyone knew what we were talking about! I wish that moment could last forever. Thank you everyone for making my life richer and giving me such wonderful memories. We'll see you again... James