2 Parks 1 Trombone
Feb. 9th, 2025 07:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taz_39Thursday, another straightforward rehearsal day.
Nothing special happened that I can recall, we did multiple run throughs and stayed hydrated and all that.
We are all rather tired--this is our fourth week--but it is satisfying to see the show coming together.
Back home the wash-rinse-repeat of packing breakfast and lunch, practicing bass, and having some crash time with Jameson.
A Japanese cookbook arrived from my sister Kate, for my birthday. I hope to be able to make something from it, once I have more than an hour to myself each day.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Friday and as usual I am SO GLAD for my singular day off tomorrow.
It was a bit slow for us because other groups are now rehearsing in the park, and sometimes they need to be able to do that without nine musicians making a huge racket. So we killed an hour just talking about show-related things in the breakroom, then slammed through one or two run throughs before lunch.
After lunch we took a field trip to Dark Universe!
Obviously and as usual, I can't share anything that isn't already public.
We rode a bus from Ministry of Magic to Dark Universe and slipped in through a standard employee gate.
This "world" is themed around Universal's classic horror monsters, such as Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, misc vampires, and more. It is a smaller world than ours and low-lying, so we could see the whole of it from the burning windmill all the way to the portal.
The most obvious features are the windmill and Frankenstein's castle.
The windmill has a fire effect (and a restaurant underneath called The Burning Blades):
The castle has a lightning effect, because you know, the doctor harnessed lightning to bring Frankenstein to life.
(yes the windmill is in this clip too but ignore it lol)
The windmill was not running while we were there but we did get to see the castle go off at one point which was very cool. We also explored some of the ride offerings though none of them are available for testing yet. And we walked through the STAKEhouse (get it?) which had great theming and I suspect will be very popular if for no other reason than it's dark and cool, and people will flock there to escape the Florida heat.
(photo directly from Epic Universe site)
Anyway, the main reason we were there was to act as an audience for performers in that world, just as they have already done for us several times. I can't go into detail about these entertainer experiences, but will say that they're intended to make the park more immersive, and that all of the performers that we interacted with were great and/or doing their absolute best, many of them having just started rehearsing this week.
I do want to mention how great it is that Universal has provided a "safe space" for performers to mess up without getting screamed at or glared at. There is a lot of pressure to learn quickly, and everyone is hustling to get the park completed, but it's overall a really supportive environment for us and that hasn't gone unnoticed.
We saw a few other sights, then bused back to the main hub where we could walk to our own "world." Ministry of Magic has lucked out, we are right next to the employee entrance whereas employees of other "worlds" have to take buses.
Upon returning, I felt renewed appreciation for the emotions that our "world" evokes due to the foundation of books, movies, characters, and soundtracks. Dark Universe doesn't really have that. People are going to CRY when they see the Ministry of Magic for the first time. There is a generation that grew up with the "wizarding world," and they will be awestruck when they enter. In that way, it truly is magical.
We'd intended to rehearse some more after our field trip, but the paint fumes in the park were so bad that our show director immediately cut us loose early. Sweet! Traffic was hideous perhaps because of the Super Bowl(?) so I still arrived home at the same time. I was so tired, from rehearsal and being out in the heat all day, that I decided not to practice and just relax for the evening. Jameson was out with friends so I had a quiet night.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, My One Blessed Day Off.
My fitness tracker has informed me that over the past four weeks (i.e. once rehearsals started) I have averaged an extra mile per day at least, and between 8000-10,000 steps. I will be interested to see how this compares to my steps at the Magic Kingdom with the Philharmonic.
Last night Jameson informed me that a few days ago, I was SINGING in my sleep!
First of all, I don't sing! And secondly, it is extremely unusual for me to do stuff in my sleep. I only sleep-walked once, as a child, while under incredible stress. And as an adult I talk in my sleep perhaps once a year.
I suspect that I was singing something from the show.
Imagine that you are asked to listen to three songs, 20 times per day every day, for a month.
That's thirty days, the same three songs, twenty times each day.
Would you start to hear those songs in your head, even when they weren't playing?
Find yourself humming them while doing other tasks?
Waking up at night with them playing in your head?
And would you get pretty sick of those songs by the 10th day, or the 20th?
Probably.
That is essentially what we've all been doing. 40 hours per week, performing the same 20 minutes of music and lines and blocking, over and over and over multiple times each day. And at the end of it, I've only had an hour or two free to myself each night to "decompress" before going to sleep.
So it's not surprising that I might be singing the show in my sleep.
And it's funny!
And it's why although I enjoy working on this project, I'm very excited for rehearsals to be over!
Anyway. Lately my posts have been quite long, and I suspect that you are not reading them. Which is good, because it means I feel I can write about whatever and no one will notice. And hence this babble.
I got about 7 hours of sleep, had breakfast, typed this up, and swept and mopped the tile floors before Jameson was up. Once he'd gone to the gym I scrubbed the shower, went out to get some bagels and groceries, packed my lunch and a bag for Disney tomorrow, then crashed through lunch and part of the afternoon. Shopped some samples from my favorite perfume shop on Etsy, and tried to make a hat band from a ribbon and failed so bookmarked some of those for possible later purchase as well.
Dinner was from our favorite Greek place, and I did laundry and Jameson gamed.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, off to Disney.
The band’s schedule has changed, it’s now two parades and two sets instead of three sets and one parade. I prefer this as I enjoy the walking but some guys don’t care for it. Anyway, Parade One was just fine, and between that and the set I ate a packed lunch.
Got caught up with the guys throughout the day and it turns out one of the trombones is having surgery on his arm and will be out for at least a month starting in March. I think that I’ll challenge myself to learn his part so that I can help cover (and not to be callous, but to get more work as well.) Memorizing 20 more pieces of music will be a lot on top of Epic Universe performances, learning the bass trombone, and transcription work, but there are other (male) musicians here who do just as much, so I have to at least try.
A photo that someone took of us today (a friend of the sousaphonist hamming for the camera.)
I put a pink arrow to help show which one's me.
After work, checking my fitness tracker shows that I got close to 17,000 steps and 7 miles. So, 5000-7000 more steps than I get at Universal. But I may end up at Universal more often, which will mean more steps there, just spread out over more time. An interesting comparison.
Back home I packed breakfast-lunch-dinner for tomorrow, re-packed my bag for Universal, caught up with Jameson, and we watched the Super Bowl together, neither of us caring who'd win.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday through Wednesday: More Universal rehearsal and bass practice.
Thursday: Working the Magic Kingdom.
Nothing special happened that I can recall, we did multiple run throughs and stayed hydrated and all that.
We are all rather tired--this is our fourth week--but it is satisfying to see the show coming together.
Back home the wash-rinse-repeat of packing breakfast and lunch, practicing bass, and having some crash time with Jameson.
A Japanese cookbook arrived from my sister Kate, for my birthday. I hope to be able to make something from it, once I have more than an hour to myself each day.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Friday and as usual I am SO GLAD for my singular day off tomorrow.
It was a bit slow for us because other groups are now rehearsing in the park, and sometimes they need to be able to do that without nine musicians making a huge racket. So we killed an hour just talking about show-related things in the breakroom, then slammed through one or two run throughs before lunch.
After lunch we took a field trip to Dark Universe!
Obviously and as usual, I can't share anything that isn't already public.
We rode a bus from Ministry of Magic to Dark Universe and slipped in through a standard employee gate.
This "world" is themed around Universal's classic horror monsters, such as Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, misc vampires, and more. It is a smaller world than ours and low-lying, so we could see the whole of it from the burning windmill all the way to the portal.
The most obvious features are the windmill and Frankenstein's castle.
The windmill has a fire effect (and a restaurant underneath called The Burning Blades):
The castle has a lightning effect, because you know, the doctor harnessed lightning to bring Frankenstein to life.
(yes the windmill is in this clip too but ignore it lol)
The windmill was not running while we were there but we did get to see the castle go off at one point which was very cool. We also explored some of the ride offerings though none of them are available for testing yet. And we walked through the STAKEhouse (get it?) which had great theming and I suspect will be very popular if for no other reason than it's dark and cool, and people will flock there to escape the Florida heat.
(photo directly from Epic Universe site)
Anyway, the main reason we were there was to act as an audience for performers in that world, just as they have already done for us several times. I can't go into detail about these entertainer experiences, but will say that they're intended to make the park more immersive, and that all of the performers that we interacted with were great and/or doing their absolute best, many of them having just started rehearsing this week.
I do want to mention how great it is that Universal has provided a "safe space" for performers to mess up without getting screamed at or glared at. There is a lot of pressure to learn quickly, and everyone is hustling to get the park completed, but it's overall a really supportive environment for us and that hasn't gone unnoticed.
We saw a few other sights, then bused back to the main hub where we could walk to our own "world." Ministry of Magic has lucked out, we are right next to the employee entrance whereas employees of other "worlds" have to take buses.
Upon returning, I felt renewed appreciation for the emotions that our "world" evokes due to the foundation of books, movies, characters, and soundtracks. Dark Universe doesn't really have that. People are going to CRY when they see the Ministry of Magic for the first time. There is a generation that grew up with the "wizarding world," and they will be awestruck when they enter. In that way, it truly is magical.
We'd intended to rehearse some more after our field trip, but the paint fumes in the park were so bad that our show director immediately cut us loose early. Sweet! Traffic was hideous perhaps because of the Super Bowl(?) so I still arrived home at the same time. I was so tired, from rehearsal and being out in the heat all day, that I decided not to practice and just relax for the evening. Jameson was out with friends so I had a quiet night.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, My One Blessed Day Off.
My fitness tracker has informed me that over the past four weeks (i.e. once rehearsals started) I have averaged an extra mile per day at least, and between 8000-10,000 steps. I will be interested to see how this compares to my steps at the Magic Kingdom with the Philharmonic.
Last night Jameson informed me that a few days ago, I was SINGING in my sleep!
First of all, I don't sing! And secondly, it is extremely unusual for me to do stuff in my sleep. I only sleep-walked once, as a child, while under incredible stress. And as an adult I talk in my sleep perhaps once a year.
I suspect that I was singing something from the show.
Imagine that you are asked to listen to three songs, 20 times per day every day, for a month.
That's thirty days, the same three songs, twenty times each day.
Would you start to hear those songs in your head, even when they weren't playing?
Find yourself humming them while doing other tasks?
Waking up at night with them playing in your head?
And would you get pretty sick of those songs by the 10th day, or the 20th?
Probably.
That is essentially what we've all been doing. 40 hours per week, performing the same 20 minutes of music and lines and blocking, over and over and over multiple times each day. And at the end of it, I've only had an hour or two free to myself each night to "decompress" before going to sleep.
So it's not surprising that I might be singing the show in my sleep.
And it's funny!
And it's why although I enjoy working on this project, I'm very excited for rehearsals to be over!
Anyway. Lately my posts have been quite long, and I suspect that you are not reading them. Which is good, because it means I feel I can write about whatever and no one will notice. And hence this babble.
I got about 7 hours of sleep, had breakfast, typed this up, and swept and mopped the tile floors before Jameson was up. Once he'd gone to the gym I scrubbed the shower, went out to get some bagels and groceries, packed my lunch and a bag for Disney tomorrow, then crashed through lunch and part of the afternoon. Shopped some samples from my favorite perfume shop on Etsy, and tried to make a hat band from a ribbon and failed so bookmarked some of those for possible later purchase as well.
Dinner was from our favorite Greek place, and I did laundry and Jameson gamed.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, off to Disney.
The band’s schedule has changed, it’s now two parades and two sets instead of three sets and one parade. I prefer this as I enjoy the walking but some guys don’t care for it. Anyway, Parade One was just fine, and between that and the set I ate a packed lunch.
Got caught up with the guys throughout the day and it turns out one of the trombones is having surgery on his arm and will be out for at least a month starting in March. I think that I’ll challenge myself to learn his part so that I can help cover (and not to be callous, but to get more work as well.) Memorizing 20 more pieces of music will be a lot on top of Epic Universe performances, learning the bass trombone, and transcription work, but there are other (male) musicians here who do just as much, so I have to at least try.
A photo that someone took of us today (a friend of the sousaphonist hamming for the camera.)
I put a pink arrow to help show which one's me.
After work, checking my fitness tracker shows that I got close to 17,000 steps and 7 miles. So, 5000-7000 more steps than I get at Universal. But I may end up at Universal more often, which will mean more steps there, just spread out over more time. An interesting comparison.
Back home I packed breakfast-lunch-dinner for tomorrow, re-packed my bag for Universal, caught up with Jameson, and we watched the Super Bowl together, neither of us caring who'd win.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday through Wednesday: More Universal rehearsal and bass practice.
Thursday: Working the Magic Kingdom.
