I Had a Mid-life Crisis and Brought the Kids!

[Charliearnoid]

Little fucker.

I still miss him.

I can send you a replacement. Send an email with your name and address to charliearnold@comcast.net

[Schmaffy]

[quote="Charliearnoid"][quote="Schmaffy"]

Little fucker.

I still miss him. [/quote]

I can send you a replacement. Send an email with your name and address to charliearnold@comcast.net [/quote]

Thanks, but there can be no replacement. He was a one and only. He was tattered and torn, half-soaked in tequila, slightly burned, and had attended concerts, Nutter gatherings and funerals across the states. The others pale in comparison.

<<sigh>>

[DirtyMartini]

[quote="luddite lady"]Ha Ha! This is the kind of geeky dust up I love. First, thanks both of you for the hyphen. I totally forgot about that. Secondly, I can't be faulted too much for the apostrophe. I told you I was transported back to the eighties during their set. Leaving the apostrophe out would have been unauthentic. (Actually, I had no clue about the name change. Thanks for looking that one up.) But here's where the two of you are getting my pocket protector all twisted in a knot...I don't think the apostrophe is possessive. I think it is indicating a plural as it rightly does in words like TV's or VCR's. Doesn't the rule that applies to abbreviations also apply to numbers? For example, isn't it mp3's rather than mp3s? I'm more comfortable with the VCR example since I still have one of those but have remained mp3-free. And what if I was writing this before 2008? Would it be the B-52's' set, after all?[/quote]

HAHA.

Someone with a Strunk & White nearby will have to speak for them; I've just got Chicago right now and am working from style guide memory.

Llady, according to the CMOS, "capital letters used as words, abbreviations that contain no interior periods, and numerals used as nouns form the plural by adding s." Apostrophe-s is used to make a noun plural when the absence of an apostrophe would make for misunderstanding, such as in the case of individual lowercase letters and odd abbreviations/initialisms (such as M.D.'s, which can also be written without the periods as MDs).

So like Schmaff said, it's CDs, DVDs, VCRs, etc., NOT CD's, DVD's, VCR's. You would also learn your ABCs, but, because ps and qs are confusing, you would mind your p's and q's (or Ps and Qs, but I've seen that one vary).

In the case of B-52 with its terminal numeral, there is no confusion caused by a simple s. The original apostrophe-s was meant to suggest plurality rather than possession, but the apostrophe was extraneous; you can simply buy mp3s of the B-52s, a band that was formed in the 1970s.

Yep, before the name change, it would have been the B-52's' set (some might even say the B-52's's set, but they just need to be put down), which I can imagine was part of the reason they finally changed it.

[E]

Dang, I can smell neurons burning.

[English-lion]

LL ..... less then a week to go

[Maud138]

tic toc tic toc

[smudge]

[quote="E"]Dang, I can smell neurons burning.[/quote]

Uhuh. So can I. In my case, I think they're mine.

Moral of this story: if you're using a definite article at the start of your band name, eschew numbers at the end of it.

[luddite lady]

What's this about tic toc, and you'd better hurry up? Did you think there's more? I went to New York to see the B-52s. The rest is just so anti-climatic. Besides, I plan to spend the remainder of my summer exploring the mysteries of the apostrophe in written English. I'm just kidding. Here we go.

Part 42

At each Police concert I always intend to pay attention to the stage between sets so that I can see Jeff and the guys do all the final tweaking of the equipment before the boys come out. But I never do. I get distracted by things going on in the audience. The show at MSG was no exception, but I hardly can be blamed as there was a lot to distract me. I chatted with the Nutters around me, played flag flash relay with the folks in the pit and indulged in the greatest game of Spot-a-Nutter ever. It’s sort of like I Spy, but the first line is inevitably “I spy with my little eye something that is green”. It seemed like almost no time had passed when I glanced at the stage and saw that it looked ready to go. The chariot was set, Sting’s strange little table with all his sprays and drinks was there and I guess whatever low maintenance Andy needed was ready too. That’s when I noticed the marching band assembling behind the stage. From our view in section 119, we could see them lining up back there. Most everyone else in the arena, including the pit people, didn’t have a clue. It was fun to be in on the little secret even if I was not sure what the band was going to do. I never expected them to play a whole song with The Police. I thought that the lights would go down, somebody would announce The Police and these guys would march on stage playing some polka song. We’d laugh and groan and then our boys would come out for the real deal. Another scenario I imagined had Andy, Stewart and Sting actually marching out with them and playing along. I’d pee myself if I saw Stewart pounding on a big marching band bass drum or Sting stuck in one of those big tubas. Andy would maybe play a piccolo. What really happened was way better than anything I had imagined.
I actually was caught off guard when the show began. I was watching the marching band, expecting them to make the first move toward the stage. Suddenly, The Police were on stage playing Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love” and I was floored. (No, not literally. I didn’t flip over the wall like I was fearing.) It was amazing. To witness the band’s first live performance of a song at their last ever live performance is a truly unique experience. I felt privileged to be there. Still, I kept getting distracted by the NYPD band behind the stage. What the hell were they doing there?
My answer sort of came when the marching band assembled on stage in the semi-darkness immediately following “Sunshine”. As they started drumming I still wasn’t sure what song they were performing or even if The Police would join in. But when Andy lit into the unmistakable opening chords of “Message In a Bottle”, I exploded. It’s hard to top a show started by a gong, but this concert did. There were so many drummers on stage at once! And thanks to the location of my seat, none of them were blocking my view of Stewart. Seeing them all jam together was a percussive paradise. The NYPD band were kicking ass and you could tell that they and The Police were having the time of their lives playing together. I’d love to hear an account of that experience from one of the members of the NY Police band. Has any such thing surfaced?
Next question: has any one of you brainiacs built that time machine yet? I want to go back!

[English-lion]

I goody I feel like I'm at the concert

[policefan]

Ditto

: -))

[Maud138]

Sigh....

[luddite lady]

Part 43

The rest of the concert remains with me mostly as one beautiful blur. However, certain things do stand out in my memory. This was the first time I had a seat that allowed me to really see Stewart at work behind his drum kit, feet and all. I’ll never forget watching his performance. (I’m trying very hard not to make this sound smutty, and failing rather miserably. It’s the nature of drumming I guess.) I still don’t know a great deal about playing drums, but even if I didn’t know a cymbal from a snare, I’d have been impressed with Stewart that evening. There was nothing stopping him. Plus, he still managed to do a fair bit of pointing to The Flag and all its little brothers throughout the arena. And he never missed a beat, not even the time he hit himself on the head with a cymbal while leaning too far over his drums to peer at the gang in the pit. One of the points I remember best is when Stewart raised both arms and pointed his drumstick simultaneously at his people in Section 111 and 119 directly across the arena from each other. To pretty much every other spectator, it just looked like some hyperbolic arena rock flourish, but to those of us in the two sections, it was a special, heart warming acknowledgement. Stewart’s huge grin during ELTSD is something else I can’t forget. He seemed to get a big kick out of watching Sting’s and Andy’s kids dancing on stage with their dads.
Another stand out in my mind is “Can’t Stand Losing You”, particularly the “Regatta de Blanc” part. I danced and sang myself silly. It was a true thing of beauty when so many CHA balls were launched at the same moment throughout the Garden and the light show started going mad. Unforgettable. It was especially sweet to know that the firework-like display of CHA balls was not being managed by the production crew but by the fans. The balls along with the “flaglets”, as Stewart called them, epitomized in a very real form the energizing rush of emotion that the audience gave back to The Police during each show of the reunion tour. We were more than witnessing the concert. We were part of the experience. Like flower girls and ring bearers at a wedding, we were in no way essential to the event, but we made it just a little more grand nonetheless.
After “Can’t Stand Losing You” came the break before the encores. It couldn’t have been timed better. At that moment we all needed to decompress a little. And smoker and non-smoker alike, I think we all could have used a cigarette too.

[luddite lady]

We're almost done! I have just two or three more installments. Do you think I'll make it on time?

Part 44

The Nutters in my section had to exchange a few breathless remarks like “Wow” and “Incredible” before we could say anything really intelligible during the break before the encores. I sat down to give my feet a rest and flashed my little flag at some people below. I couldn’t spot The Flag in the pit any more but I didn’t like to assume it had got back stage as I did not want to be disappointed by false expectations. I did notice Conroy and his friend, Andy’s Sally, though. She was looking a little worse for wear. Her head was drooping severely since Conroy had made sure she had been head banging fast and furiously right from the time the boys hit the stage. Sally and Conroy were in the pit on my side of the arena and I had great fun watching them go crazy all evening. Anybody seated a little farther away and lacking knowledge of our Sally must have thought there was one totally insane blond in the front row who’d be needing some serious chiropractic work after the show. Instead of an adjustment, I reckon Conroy just pumped her up a bit before the encores.
My attention was soon captivated by the big screen over the stage. It was showing a shirtless Sting all lathered up with shaving cream. He was going to have that nasty beard removed! And I guess he understood that most of the fans hated it since he decided to make such a public show of its departure. I whooped and hollered and waved the THANK YOU side of my flag at the screen. Although I’m no longer the world’s biggest Sting fan, I don’t want the heart throb of my teen years looking like a homeless guy in hand me down yoga pants. I was puzzled though by the reaction of the folks in the pit. They seemed quite non-plus, even some of the ladies who were among the biggest crusaders in our anti-beard campaign on sc.net. It didn’t occur to me that they could not see the screen from their vantage point.
I was so busy watching Sting that I missed Stewart walk out on the stage with The Flag. (Watching Sting was how I missed Stewart throughout the early eighties too.) The crowd in the pit let out a loud cheer. In my ignorance, I thought they were applauding Sting whose on-screen image was just getting out of the barber chair at the completion of his shave. “It’s about time they noticed!” I thought to myself. Then I heard the sound of drums and guitar coming from the stage. I looked down to see Andy and Stewart jamming with The Flag hoisted on a rigging just behind Stewart to his left.
I turned to Lilrock and yelled, “Oh my gosh! The Flag is on the stage!”
Lilrock, having seen what had just happened on stage, kindly said, “Um…yeah!” in place of a less civil but more appropriate “No kidding, Einstein!”
It was not until about a week later that I saw Stewart present The Flag to the audience, have it mounted, salute it and give it a massive point before starting to jam with Andy. And that was only courtesy of Youtube. I guess it’s a fitting way for my experience with The Flag to end. The first time I saw it, I was oblivious to its significance and thought the people carrying it were lost and confused sports fans. When The Flag made it all in one piece to its final, triumphant destination, I mistook the reason for the Nutters’ cheers as their belated happiness regarding some guy’s shave. As ever, I remain the smug resident of Clueless City.

[Lilrock]

As ever, I remain the smug resident of Clueless City.[/quote]

And I'm the mayor of that city!
I had no clue who Andy & Sting's kids were, and I was blabbing to my brother on the phone when they were shaving The Sting, so I missed a lot of what you're mentioning
Keep it up, you're doing great!!!

[Charliearnoid]

Such an awesome trip report, and your timing couldn't be better LL!!