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Tootsie Yr2: STL part 2
Mar. 27th, 2023 08:51 amPer Thursday's post, I was unable to look at my show/playing recordings because I forgot that the charging cable doubles as the hook-up to my computer to access the camera's files. D'oh!
So on Thursday night I retrieved the cable and didn't record, which was just as well because one of our understudies premiered as the lead that night! He did a FANTASTIC job! But musically there were some wonky bits simply because things are different with a different lead, so there would have been no point recording really.
Anyway, in addition to that we each got a cute printed cookie to celebrate our 400th show!
A full-cast picture was released as well, but only on the Tootsie Insta so the image quality is low.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday was scheduled to be rainy all day, but I didn't feel deterred by the weather.
I held off on eating breakfast so that I could have a big honkin' pile of food at The Fountain on Locust, a restaurant and soda fountain and ice cream parlor here in St. Louis known for their ice cream martinis and creative house-made sundaes.
And Deco decor.
They're also known for their Royal Grille, a grilled cheese sandwich that's been rated the best in STL for several years running.
It's a secret combo of mozzarella and white cheddar with apple slices on whole grain bread.
You can add meat, so I added turkey.
Thankfully you can order a half-sandwich, so I got one along with a cup of dill pickle soup.
Yes, pickle soup! It's pickles crushed with potatoes and milk and other secret stuff.
It was extremely good. Something about the apples with the white cheddar was magical, sweet but also earthy and funky in that white cheddar way. It was an amazing contrast to the tangy, salty, delicious pickle soup.
Then it was time to be super-indulgent and get a sundae.
They have many options, but I had seen something on one of their old menus called "Sweet Annina's" so asked for that.
It's named after the original owner's daughter.
Orange sorbet with vanilla ice cream, house-made raspberry sauce, hot fudge, and whipped cream.
God it was good. Like a creamsicle, but with extra tartness from the raspberry and the chocolate making it taste like chocolate covered oranges too.
I took FOUR Lactaid to try and counter the cheese sandwich, soup (which probably had at least milk if not cream), and this huge sundae. Hopefully that's enough Lactaid but if not, it was all worth whatever price I pay.
After the meal I chatted with the server and uploaded pics to encourage people to COME HERE because it's pretty close to our hotel.
Then I decided to walk to Schnucks for some lean protein and veggies. I could wait until next week but figured I may as well walk off some of this meal now!
It was drizzling and cold but I'd brought my umbrella and the walk was relaxing.
I found what I needed and walked back. Round-trip it was about three miles, which burns around 200 calories for me, so I credited myself 150 and will probably eat sparingly for the rest of the day, mostly lean proteins and vegetables since there were a lot of fats and sugars in that meal. Thus with a few small choices I can enjoy indulgences.
Back at the hotel, a cup of hot tea and some anime and job bookmarking.
The evening show was good, I took another recording and we'll see how those clips turned out tomorrow.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, two show day.
I decided to try my black sesame "porridge" for breakfast.
Turns out that there's no such thing as black sesame porridge, what I got was black sesame SOUP, a traditional Chinese dessert.
But no worse for you than a sugared American breakfast, I'm sure.
I accidentally deleted my pic of the soup in its packaging, so here's a stock image of what this is:
(stock image)
The directions said to heat for only a minute (it's ok to serve it cold but tastes better warm).
There was a little packet of seeded granola to sprinkle on top.
It was very good. Just slightly sweet, and black sesame has such a wonderful toasty nutty flavor.
Like a tahini sauce really. If you like tahini you'd LOVE this.
There are two servings in a bowl and it comes with a convenient lid, so I saved the rest for later.
In the hours before our shows I poked around some job sites, worked on my Foodie Finds, and reviewed the footage I'd gotten from Thursday night's recording. Luckily the camera placement is ok, but the video was too dark and the audio is still unbalanced. I'll take more samples and continue adjusting, and eventually I'll get something usable.
The show went pretty well, though for some reason my body threw me into a full-blown panic attack in the middle of it :/
This happens once in a while. Maybe that last week in Cinci was stressful and it's just hitting me now; maybe I'm stressed about finding work after this tour; maybe my hormones are off-balance.
Whatever it was, I have had these attacks often enough to recognize them for what they are.
So I ignored it and got through the show, and tomorrow will be better.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, the sun is finally out around here which had me really looking forward to our day off tomorrow!
I did some work on my Foodie Finds and chatted with Jameson, who is doing a string of gigs this week so is very busy.
Before the show I had a listen to my recordings from the previous night.
My hopes were not very high because I'd been in full panic attack mode, and hadn't really been paying attention; in fact I hadn't turned the recorder on for several of the moments that I wanted.
But surprise surprise, I caught the BEST possible thing: the high E that I play in "Jeff Sums It Up"!!!
It's very unusual to see this note written for trombone because it's very high, and even among high notes it's difficult to hit because it technically doesn't "exist" on the horn (hard to explain but the gist is, it's a doozie). As a result I frequently miss the note, or chicken out and play it an octave down. But for once, somehow, tonight, I managed to hit it.
There are other mistakes in the audio from myself and the other musicians. I don't care, that's live music.
But that E is perfect, and now I've captured it. Woooo! This will make a wonderful memory for me :)
I got other usable clips as well, and saved those to my computer for future editing.
At the theatre, both shows went well. No more panic attacks for me (I knew what caused it so was prepared this time).
I took more recordings and will listen to them on Tuesday, after a nice day of no show music for once.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's Monday and I woke up around 8:30. Days off are always exciting, like snow days!
It looks sunny and clear out. I have been to the Arch, Downtown, and City Museum before with the circus in 2013 and 2015. so this time I want to go in the opposite direction and explore the massive Forest Park, and The Hill, which is St. Louis's "Little Italy".
There's also a big botanical garden, zoo, and art museum, but I'm not feeling another zoo, the art museum is closed on Mondays, and the botanical garden is pretty far from Forest Park for walking. We still have a full week here so I'll hope to catch one of these other great experiences another day. Because after all, days off should be at least partially for resting :)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
And now, reviews of some of the Asian snacks that I picked up with Elliana!
Marinated bean curd (tofu): I hadn't realized that this was a variety pack when I bought it. Yay! The flavors are spicy, BBQ, 5-spice, and soy. I tried BBQ first and it's very good! Basically slightly rubbery tofu with a nice flavor.
Snowflake crisp: This is a sort of tea cake snack that can easily be made at home, very popular in Taiwan and China. You take a bland cracker of some kind (Ritz, digestives, etc) and crumble it with butter, marshmallow, dried cranberry, and a little vanilla or milk flavor. What's most fun about it is the texture, which is like a dense marshmallow with crunchy and chewy bits. Very enjoyable and glad I got to try it.
Squid egg roll: Despite the name, these are a sweet tea cookie, actually similar in texture and flavor to those cream-filled cookie wafer straws that you see in the prepackaged cookie aisles here in America. The only squid ingredient was ink, used to get the color of the cookie. They were light and sweet and crispy, very good.
Tea marinated egg: These are shelf-stable which is mostly why I was so excited about them. Any food that can travel, especially protein, is VERY GOOD. That said, the packaging called these "soft-boiled" and they were certainly not. They were also more rubbery even than prepackaged hard boiled eggs, and the earthy sweet/sour black tea flavor was pretty strong, so I would pair these with rice and veggies instead of eating them plain in most cases. All of that said they weren't "bad", just not something I'd regularly eat.
I also want to mention that the "Umami Burst" bread has been VERY tasty! The mushrooms are mixed into the dough just like chopped olives would be. The seaweed and green onion are mixed in like you would herbs. And and the miso was probably added to the initial dough as a seasoning. I would have loved to try this toasted, or with a smoked meat and a mild cheese. Very very good.
So on Thursday night I retrieved the cable and didn't record, which was just as well because one of our understudies premiered as the lead that night! He did a FANTASTIC job! But musically there were some wonky bits simply because things are different with a different lead, so there would have been no point recording really.
Anyway, in addition to that we each got a cute printed cookie to celebrate our 400th show!
A full-cast picture was released as well, but only on the Tootsie Insta so the image quality is low.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday was scheduled to be rainy all day, but I didn't feel deterred by the weather.
I held off on eating breakfast so that I could have a big honkin' pile of food at The Fountain on Locust, a restaurant and soda fountain and ice cream parlor here in St. Louis known for their ice cream martinis and creative house-made sundaes.
And Deco decor.
They're also known for their Royal Grille, a grilled cheese sandwich that's been rated the best in STL for several years running.
It's a secret combo of mozzarella and white cheddar with apple slices on whole grain bread.
You can add meat, so I added turkey.
Thankfully you can order a half-sandwich, so I got one along with a cup of dill pickle soup.
Yes, pickle soup! It's pickles crushed with potatoes and milk and other secret stuff.
It was extremely good. Something about the apples with the white cheddar was magical, sweet but also earthy and funky in that white cheddar way. It was an amazing contrast to the tangy, salty, delicious pickle soup.
Then it was time to be super-indulgent and get a sundae.
They have many options, but I had seen something on one of their old menus called "Sweet Annina's" so asked for that.
It's named after the original owner's daughter.
Orange sorbet with vanilla ice cream, house-made raspberry sauce, hot fudge, and whipped cream.
God it was good. Like a creamsicle, but with extra tartness from the raspberry and the chocolate making it taste like chocolate covered oranges too.
I took FOUR Lactaid to try and counter the cheese sandwich, soup (which probably had at least milk if not cream), and this huge sundae. Hopefully that's enough Lactaid but if not, it was all worth whatever price I pay.
After the meal I chatted with the server and uploaded pics to encourage people to COME HERE because it's pretty close to our hotel.
Then I decided to walk to Schnucks for some lean protein and veggies. I could wait until next week but figured I may as well walk off some of this meal now!
It was drizzling and cold but I'd brought my umbrella and the walk was relaxing.
I found what I needed and walked back. Round-trip it was about three miles, which burns around 200 calories for me, so I credited myself 150 and will probably eat sparingly for the rest of the day, mostly lean proteins and vegetables since there were a lot of fats and sugars in that meal. Thus with a few small choices I can enjoy indulgences.
Back at the hotel, a cup of hot tea and some anime and job bookmarking.
The evening show was good, I took another recording and we'll see how those clips turned out tomorrow.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, two show day.
I decided to try my black sesame "porridge" for breakfast.
Turns out that there's no such thing as black sesame porridge, what I got was black sesame SOUP, a traditional Chinese dessert.
But no worse for you than a sugared American breakfast, I'm sure.
I accidentally deleted my pic of the soup in its packaging, so here's a stock image of what this is:
(stock image)
The directions said to heat for only a minute (it's ok to serve it cold but tastes better warm).
There was a little packet of seeded granola to sprinkle on top.
It was very good. Just slightly sweet, and black sesame has such a wonderful toasty nutty flavor.
Like a tahini sauce really. If you like tahini you'd LOVE this.
There are two servings in a bowl and it comes with a convenient lid, so I saved the rest for later.
In the hours before our shows I poked around some job sites, worked on my Foodie Finds, and reviewed the footage I'd gotten from Thursday night's recording. Luckily the camera placement is ok, but the video was too dark and the audio is still unbalanced. I'll take more samples and continue adjusting, and eventually I'll get something usable.
The show went pretty well, though for some reason my body threw me into a full-blown panic attack in the middle of it :/
This happens once in a while. Maybe that last week in Cinci was stressful and it's just hitting me now; maybe I'm stressed about finding work after this tour; maybe my hormones are off-balance.
Whatever it was, I have had these attacks often enough to recognize them for what they are.
So I ignored it and got through the show, and tomorrow will be better.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, the sun is finally out around here which had me really looking forward to our day off tomorrow!
I did some work on my Foodie Finds and chatted with Jameson, who is doing a string of gigs this week so is very busy.
Before the show I had a listen to my recordings from the previous night.
My hopes were not very high because I'd been in full panic attack mode, and hadn't really been paying attention; in fact I hadn't turned the recorder on for several of the moments that I wanted.
But surprise surprise, I caught the BEST possible thing: the high E that I play in "Jeff Sums It Up"!!!
It's very unusual to see this note written for trombone because it's very high, and even among high notes it's difficult to hit because it technically doesn't "exist" on the horn (hard to explain but the gist is, it's a doozie). As a result I frequently miss the note, or chicken out and play it an octave down. But for once, somehow, tonight, I managed to hit it.
There are other mistakes in the audio from myself and the other musicians. I don't care, that's live music.
But that E is perfect, and now I've captured it. Woooo! This will make a wonderful memory for me :)
I got other usable clips as well, and saved those to my computer for future editing.
At the theatre, both shows went well. No more panic attacks for me (I knew what caused it so was prepared this time).
I took more recordings and will listen to them on Tuesday, after a nice day of no show music for once.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's Monday and I woke up around 8:30. Days off are always exciting, like snow days!
It looks sunny and clear out. I have been to the Arch, Downtown, and City Museum before with the circus in 2013 and 2015. so this time I want to go in the opposite direction and explore the massive Forest Park, and The Hill, which is St. Louis's "Little Italy".
There's also a big botanical garden, zoo, and art museum, but I'm not feeling another zoo, the art museum is closed on Mondays, and the botanical garden is pretty far from Forest Park for walking. We still have a full week here so I'll hope to catch one of these other great experiences another day. Because after all, days off should be at least partially for resting :)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
And now, reviews of some of the Asian snacks that I picked up with Elliana!
Marinated bean curd (tofu): I hadn't realized that this was a variety pack when I bought it. Yay! The flavors are spicy, BBQ, 5-spice, and soy. I tried BBQ first and it's very good! Basically slightly rubbery tofu with a nice flavor.
Snowflake crisp: This is a sort of tea cake snack that can easily be made at home, very popular in Taiwan and China. You take a bland cracker of some kind (Ritz, digestives, etc) and crumble it with butter, marshmallow, dried cranberry, and a little vanilla or milk flavor. What's most fun about it is the texture, which is like a dense marshmallow with crunchy and chewy bits. Very enjoyable and glad I got to try it.
Squid egg roll: Despite the name, these are a sweet tea cookie, actually similar in texture and flavor to those cream-filled cookie wafer straws that you see in the prepackaged cookie aisles here in America. The only squid ingredient was ink, used to get the color of the cookie. They were light and sweet and crispy, very good.
Tea marinated egg: These are shelf-stable which is mostly why I was so excited about them. Any food that can travel, especially protein, is VERY GOOD. That said, the packaging called these "soft-boiled" and they were certainly not. They were also more rubbery even than prepackaged hard boiled eggs, and the earthy sweet/sour black tea flavor was pretty strong, so I would pair these with rice and veggies instead of eating them plain in most cases. All of that said they weren't "bad", just not something I'd regularly eat.
I also want to mention that the "Umami Burst" bread has been VERY tasty! The mushrooms are mixed into the dough just like chopped olives would be. The seaweed and green onion are mixed in like you would herbs. And and the miso was probably added to the initial dough as a seasoning. I would have loved to try this toasted, or with a smoked meat and a mild cheese. Very very good.
