I am sorting through final photos/video clips and will post those soon. I thought I'd post my description of the event now so it's still fresh. I think it'll have to be in two parts to keep it from being unreadably long.
Part One:
So today was Mick’s book signing at the University of Washington bookstore in Seattle. The band played the Tacoma Dome last night in Tacoma, which is about 45 minutes from downtown Seattle. Today was a grey, showery day and, against all common sense, drivers in this area somehow can’t manage to drive in the rain. You’d think living in an area that gets some form of rain almost every day from November to April (at least) would not be thrown by a little rain, but Every. Single. Time. It. Rains, traffic snarls up. So getting from my house, through downtown, to the UW Bookstore, which should take me maybe 20 minutes, took about an hour. I was getting a tad cranky because I had originally hoped to arrive around 10:30 for the 12 noon signing, just to have time to park, go inside, have the obligatory stop at the restroom, and still get a good spot in the front of the line. As it was, we arrived (my husband and I) about 11:15 in pouring rain.
I had a ticket that was given me when I bought my book (two weeks ago) and which guaranteed me a spot in the first ‘group’ of people in the signing line. At the time I bought the book the store clerk said the size of that first group would really depend on how many people showed up overall, so it could be anywhere from 50-100 people.
There were three rows of seats in a cordoned off area in front of a podium. There were about 30 seats and about 20 of them were already filled when we arrived. Eventually one of the store personnel came out and told us that we would need to vacate the seats and actually queue up behind the ropes for the actual signing. He suggested we start lining up about 11:50. The demographics of the crowd skewed older… average age seemed to be 50. A few (like half a dozen, tops) teen or 20-somethings were there also.
Mick arrived promptly at 12. He was wearing some dark trousers with a pinstripe pattern which literally just hung off his skinny frame. He had a white shirt with somewhat poofy sleeves, a dark vest (which had a dark red satin back to it) a dark jacket, and his half cream-half reddish long scarf. It was getting a bit warm in the store and he fairly quickly took his jacket off. (I had taken my cardigan off after a few minutes packed in the line with so many people).
They were playing Mac music on the stereo system and one of the first things Mick did was ask his assistant to help him turn the speaker that was closest to him (high on top of a bookcase) so that it wasn’t blaring right at the back of his head. He said something about being able to hear. What was kind of interesting, and nice, was that he himself (partly because he was sooo much taller than his helper I suspect) helped move the speaker. (
http://youtu.be/4z9SMtfVW2A) I tried to imagine say, Stevie, actually putting her hands on anything and moving it at a public appearance and concluded she would call Karen over and get her to take care of it. (I found myself mentally comparing how things were going with Mick with how it might be if it were Stevie several other times during the signing as well.)
Mick stood behind the podium and jokingly acted as if he were a minister behind a pulpit. He said “We are gathered here today…” to laughter. (
http://youtu.be/RElLg2JftkU). A guy sitting in one of the seats in front of Mick started chatting with him about Mick performing weddings and such. Mick chatted very casually with the guy, saying that he had a restaurant in Hawaii and that he had started to do the paperwork (for being ordained) so they could marry people up on the roof of his restaurant. He chit-chatted with the guy for a couple minutes.
He said “Thank you for coming” to the crowd and someone said back “Thank you for showing up!”
He asked the crowd, “How many of you were at the show last night?” And a cheer went up and probably 60-70 percent of the people in line raised their hands. The line by this time was at right angles to him for about 15-20 feet, then curved along a bookcase and went the entire width of the store. He said about the Tacoma Dome “They’ve done something to make it sound better” and gestured with his hands like they’d done something to the ceiling of the place. (
http://youtu.be/OlFmgoqfa1Y).
Then he pretty much got going with signing. The staff was well-practiced and very friendly and efficient at getting people through the line. One lady stood at the head of the line and took your book from you and opened it up to the title page, tucking the jacket flap around so all Mick had to do was open the book cover and he’d be on the right page to sign. Another woman was there to take your phone/camera to snap photos for you. When you were next in line, while Mick was still chatting with the current fan, the camera lady took your phone/camera and made sure she knew how to use it (I had my iPhone and she said, “Now THIS is a phone I do know how to use!”). The book lady directed you to Mick’s left side when it was your turn, the camera lady snapped the shots, and then you stepped from behind the podium with Mick to in front of the podium and were face to face with him while he signed your book. (No personalizations were allowed, so he just signed his name, which he was very, very adept at doing without actually looking down at the page).