Thank you so much, Prada. I have a feeling it's more along the lines of what J would have hoped for, absent information on how to go about getting a pass
. I appreciate your comment.
Times change with the years. When I first saw Leonard, passes weren't necessary. Then, came the time when passes were necessary, even though one might use the same one repeatedly [see jondi
]. After that, I have a feeling the time came when not only were passes still necessary, but dates were attached and security looked for them. Now, they're simply not given, at least not by fan request.
When I say that, of course, it doesn't mean that no one goes backstage and isn't visually credentialed in some manner ["backstage pass"]. However, getting there isn't via fan request, but through some integral involvement, in some form or fashion, to begin with, to where someone's presence is deemed appropriate and credentials are given or security is notified and made aware. I haven't been backstage in that context; though in New York, Leonard was allowing some fans to come back there [at intermission and afterward] with Anjani's and his show at Joe's Pub [their promotional tour for Blue Alert].
With these grueling tour schedules, and as spelled out by Robert Kory's comment, it all needs to be by serendipity now, and I'm confident that Leonard has his energy protectors looking out for him there, too; or if you by luck meet up with him one-on-one somewhere, Leonard is self-protective enough to be able to extract himself and move on, and with such grace that his exiting won't be awkward for the other person. I'm sure he hopes that when people ask if they may have just a moment with him, that they'll be considerate, circumspect, and self-disciplined enough to keep it at that. With his going to all these wonderful places, I'm sure that no one who loves Leonard as all of us do would want him to be held hostage in his hotel room through fear of running into ardorous fans. He deserves to maintain his freedom of movement.
Hi Donna ~
Great point regarding "the world we live in now" and the necessity of protection of our artists.
It looks like my descriptive wording was misleading. I didn't go IN his dressing room in Chicago. There was the main hallway within the building, and then a small anteway/anteroom [are those words?],
just outside his actual dressing room [perhaps, designed this way by intent]. It was a small and narrow area and his actual room, with its open door, was about 3 steps away. It was definitely considered backstage, though not precisely "dressing room."
Didn't I ever tell you about that? Leonard was happy to have a photo taken of us. I'd brought a borrowed 35 mm camera [I wasn't used to them] and my own colour [non-35 mm] camera. When it came to a photo of the two of us, I wanted it in black&white, so I paused, realizing I couldn't do both
. Someone volunteered to take it of us [so one might presume they knew what they were doing, right?]. I thanked him and handed it off, he took a couple photos just to be sure. When I returned home and got the film developed, NOTHING had come out on it. He had forgotten to remove the lens cover [perhaps, the energy of the moment affecting him, too]. I, in those moments and my unfamiliarity with the camera, didn't even think of it. Donna... I'm still not over this
. It's 'only' a photo, right? Mmm, wrong
.
~ Lizzy
.
. Meeting him was quite unbelievable for me at the time. Being as relatively unknown as he was, it was like going into the depths of the earth to find the hidden treasure... and then locating it. It was astounding to me that he was even touring. It seemed such an ordinary thing for someone as extraordinary as him to do. G~d doesn't go on tour, does He? And, even then, I knew I would always feel the same as I did about him then... and I still do today. Always will.