User:Divemistress of the Dark

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FAN NAME (OR PSEUDONYM)
A PHOTO OF YOU, OR REPRESENTATIVE AVATAR
Basic information
Country of origin: COUNTRY
Fan of: Remove icons/lines as necessary:

Stub.gifThe Police
Ghost andy.gifAndy Summers
Ghost stewart.gifStewart Copeland
Ghost sting.gifSting

Fan since: YEAR
Favorite Police-related album: ALBUM TITLE
Favorite Police-related song: SONG TITLE
Member of: FANCLUB/FORUM/WEBSITE MEMBERSHIPS
Website: LINK TO YOUR WEBSITE(S)

About me

This text nearly entirely stolen from my Myspace profile...I'll update it one of these days...

I'm the Divemistress of the Dark who hangs out on StewartCopeland.net, Policefans.org, and other related sites a lot. The profile is a play on those old "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark" television shows; the personal twist is that I'm also qualified to teach certain aspects of scuba diving, and the entry-level term for that is "Divemaster." (Technically, I'm an Assistant Instructor, but "Assistant Instructor of the Dark" has about as much verve as a wet sponge.)

I live in Nashville, Tennessee. I'm crazy for a whole lot of bands, but what's relevant here is that I wound up attending a total of seventeen individual Police appearances during the 2007-2008 world tour. It was a fun ride, but I'm looking forward to seeing what the individual members decide to pursue at the end of the tour. I've got all available digits crossed for a reunion of Stewart's terrific trio Oysterhead (with Les Claypool and Trey Anastasio), or his orchestral Italian band Gizmo. I have the feeling Andy Summers has a few outstanding albums left in him, as well.

I'm not anti-Sting, but right now I've mostly got eyes for his talented kids Joe and Coco. Although I actually really liked the lute album, and the autobiography.

Concerts & events attended

What can I say? The Police made quite an impression on me as a younger fanatic music fan, then didn't tour for 24 years, so I had to make up for lost time. Not only is the band terrific but its fans have got to be a really unique phenomenon when it comes to this kind of thing - I've met some really amazing people in my travels to various post-concert meetups, etc. I don't even know where to begin...in '07 GinaSuperCat, Samburusunset and I went to Amsterdam & London to see the band and met up with Hannah, Smudge, the inimitable Deitmar and some other great European fans...the week of March 26, '08 about thirty of us met up Stateside in Savannah, Georgia, to see one of Stewart's orchestral shows with Daniel Hope of the Beaux Arts Trio. The show would have been transcendent in any event, but getting to see it with the other fans was in a league all its own.

I'm going to try to cobble together an entry on the Savannah show shortly, but for now: in my purview Stewart doesn't get nearly the credit he deserves for his work with The Police, and his orchestral work is really sublime. He's just so supremely talented, you'd hate him for being so good were he not by all accounts a generous soul who gives great latitude to his fans and who seems to appreciate his tremendous gift. over.

I was particularly happy to see the mighty Elvis Costello join the Police tour. The man is an honorary Tennessean, he plays here so much, and having seen him a whole bunch of times I'm here to tell you his live show never, ever disappoints. For those not in the know, he and Nick Lowe used to run Stiff Records in London back in the 1970s, and some of their releases really stand the test of time. It would take more space than I have here to go into detail on all of it, but trust me when I tell you I am just a fanatic fan of their work, and for good reason.

In response to a question I found in my Inbox, yes, I have seen a band more times than The Police: The Flaming Lips, who saved my sanity when I was an artistic kid growing up in middle-of-nowhere Kansas. They're from Oklahoma City, and used to tour my neighborhood a lot. (They played a bar called the 3-D Klub, open for a few years till it got shut down by Black Flag in 1986. I still have my ticket stub...and clearly remember meeting Rollins that night...) It's fun to go see the Lips now, take note of the size of the crowd, and remember the show in 1985 they played to maybe 15 people...They're all great guys, too, who richly deserve every iota of their success.

For some reason I'm way into Australian rock. Maybe it's all that AC/DC I inhaled as a kid...I've seen national-institution Paul Kelly - who's won every Australian recording award imaginable - eleven or so times now. I would have done lots more were he not a resident of Australia who doesn't tour the U.S. all that often - though I have been Down Under a couple of times and caught a PK gig in Queensland in 2003.

Other bands I've seen at least nine times: Sonic Youth, the Pixies/Kim Deal, Wilco, Yo La Tengo, & the aforementioned Aussie icon Paul Kelly. (My odds have improved in recent years with the advent of Bonnaroo, a music festival that's held about an hour from my house. I've seen some mindblowing performances there.) Steve Earle, Neko Case, Mike Doughty, Mike Watt, Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello are ready to make this list, after I see them all a few more times this year - already have some tickets. Foo Fighters, Fugazi, Jawbox, Girls Against Boys, are up there somewhere too, I used to live in D.C., where they play a lot. I'm working on seeing the Dynamites, one of my favorite local bands, a few more times, along with Alex Chilton, late of the band Big Star, who still travels through here now and then despite having moved to New Orleans a few years ago. Glossary and Kings of Leon are also currently on my Nashville must-see list.

Other than bands I've seen multiple times, I'd have to estimate I've seen hundreds, if not thousands, of concerts. I don't mind traveling to see bands and have been doing that for years, including memorable shows like the first Free Tibet concert featuring the Beastie Boys in about 1995; also saw the first Foo Fighters tour with Mike Watt and Eddie Vedder, etc. I've just always been a huge music fan. My husband jokes he married me for my CD collection, and I'm not totally convinced he's kidding.

In response to another question I get sometimes: I'm not terribly gifted when it comes to instrumentation, but I did take vocal training as a younger person, and I guess I'm not half-bad. Actually, I'm distantly related to the singing Carter Family, of June Carter Cash fame. Lucky for me, as I'm constantly singing something in the car, shower, etc. I do sing a little in other contexts as well, but frankly I think the majority of my talents lie in other areas.

Welcome to my profile. Feel free to leave a note. -Dive

Other stuff

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Contact

Fastest method: Email me at divemistressofthedark@yahoo.com. (Sorry I haven't made this an external link, I don't know the Wiki code to do that yet...will edit it once I learn.)

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