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They Both Pay The Bills
I was awake too early on Thursday. Not sure why. Generically anxious, I guess.
Breakfast and messing around online until Jameson got up.
His Disney interview was at 10, so I busied myself with quietly dusting and packing meals for tomorrow while we waited. During his interview I eavesdropped a bit...it sounded fairly "normal" but he had headphones on so I couldn't hear much. It about 30 minutes and he said all of the questions were exactly the same as ones he's been asked by Disney Corporate in the past. This makes me a bit annoyed and sad, but then again, what are they supposed to ask? What new information could they be looking for? This is probably Jameson's 7th or 8th interview with Disney, with the same questions asked, again. Will anything come of this one?
He's supposed to hear back in about two weeks. Fingers and toes crossed, but we are both past the point of keeping our hopes up about these. It's great that he's getting these interviews, but they seem to be just toying around, and it's very frustrating. He needs a new job.
I practiced bass trombone, ate lunch, went to the store for secret Easter treats (ssh!) and a few nice things to get me through these busy days. Specifically, Cracklin' Oat Bran. You'll probably laugh but I swear to God, this cereal is essentially miniature oatmeal cookies. They're one of my absolute favorites, especially soaked just slightly in some sort of non-dairy milk to make them soft. Ugh, so gawddamn good!
(wikipedia photo)
Back home I did nothing important, just made tea and downloaded my raw genetic data from 23andMe since they're going out of business.
I SHOULD be planning dinner. I SHOULD be practicing tenor stuff. I SHOULD be learning civil court transcription.
Instead I nearly fell asleep watching TikTok on the floor.
Well...as an adult, that's my prerogative I guess.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, a day at Epic but it was NIGHT rehearsals, ooooOOOOoooo.
Really, just the same as usual except that I didn’t have to get up at 5am! Which meant I actually had time to DO THINGS before work. After Jameson went to the gym I practiced bass and vacuumed and spent 30 minutes doing “Phillipa Hair.” Left a bit after Jameson got back.
The first three sets were hot, being in the middle of the day, but we had good crowds.
For the evening sets it was beautifully cool and we had GREAT crowds because it's so much easier for people to stand and watch a show without the sun beating down on them! I found out tonight that we're averaging around 90 people per set, and that's during normal daytime sets. I think that's pretty good considering we're just an "atmosphere" band without an actual stage or anywhere to sit.
And for us the performers, it was so nice to not be distracted by sweat soaking our clothes or the sun stabbing us in the eye while we try to play an instrument and smile at guests. Night shows are pretty great!
The other thing that I noticed during these lovely nighttime sets was some people out there with professional camera equipment. I guessed (rightly) that we had some actual freelance photographers with us, and made sure to stand still more often to aid in some decent shots. Not for ego, but because any media taken of me can be a part of my resume. My portfolio is entirely made up of live performance media.
Later I interrogated some of the ladies in our Ministry of Magic dressing room to discover local photographers who do theme park work. They graciously gave me some names, and lo and behold the very next day one of those accounts shared photos of us!
These are from @motley_joey on IG. Excellent, high-quality shots of our performance.
I am especially grateful for these two headshots.
Additionally, some photos from one of our show techs, Tiffany:
And finally, one of the wizarding students (her name is Ashley and she's an actress) went to the trouble of getting into plainclothes and taking photo and video of our set!
Here is the video snippet. Love it! I can't wait to someday have a whole set to share with you!
Here are some of her photos. I really like a lot of these and wish they were higher resolution. Thank you so much Ashley :)
Seeing Place Cachee at night was lovely, though we really just had dusk, not true night.
I do hope that we end up doing some night sets once the park opens, it's a very nice vibe.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday was when I dredged up all of these photos. Making social media posts, updating my LinkedIn and YouTube playlists/portfolios, and responding to people commenting on all the media took up pretty much the whole morning.
I had been supposed to meet up with Ilian of Morningstar Mutes for lunch and to check out some mutes, but for one thing he didn't have any of his new models ready, and for another I decided to back out because of my unexpected Disney day tomorrow. Performing outdoors is a lot of steps and a lot of energy, and I am not that young anymore, so this was mainly a self-care choice to have a buffer day.
Groceries, packing lunch and dinner for Disney tomorrow, practicing bass, and relaxing for a bit while Jameson was out day drinking with friends. He messaged me while he was on the way home so I could start cooking dinner. I'd had the good fortune to find a place just a few miles from us that sells Amoroso hoagie rolls direct from Philadelphia!! How unlikely! So I made us Philly cheesesteaks. Tried to keep them as authentic as possible but added mushrooms (that's not inauthentic, just less common) and used American cheese slices instead of cheese whiz. They turned out quite excellent and I'll keep that recipe on file, and gotta remember those hoagie rolls the next time I do po'boys too.
That was it. Pretty chill day and I was grateful for it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, up earlier than I wanted to be for breakfast and the commute to Disney.
I like to get there a bit early to try for better parking, and to have time to get changed before the guys arrive too.
Had a pretty basic day, although I got to learn firsthand why my boss was so reluctant to have me learn multiple trombone parts this year. Harry, another sub trombonist who has learned both the first and second trombone parts, accidentally started doing the first part's choreography halfway through our Encanto medley. I'M the sub for first trombone, so this left me in a really awkward position in the middle of a live performance! I basically had to guess where the second trombone would probably move or stand, and just do that for the rest of the set. We got through it but boy was that awkward. He apologized and I wasn’t mad, I might’ve done the same thing (ok I CERTAINLY would have, I’m a putz) but it made me realize that the risks of too many people knowing too many parts. If TWO people ever got confused at the same time, it could wreck a show.
Anyway, otherwise normal and a nice day with the guys.
Also, for the first time today Epic Universe has overlapped into my Disney workplace!
I saw an employee wearing a Nintendo World Bowser backpack in the Utilidors.
And I overheard more than one conversation about rides, attractions, and food that people want to check out.
There is a misconception that working for Disney AND Universal is a Coke-and-Pepsi situation.
I have even alluded to that, as a joke, in this blog.
It is not like that at all.
Many, MANY people work for (and love!) both parks.
If either park were to enforce a non-compete on it's employees, it would instantly lose AT LEAST half it's work force.
It's kind of interesting to consider how these competing theme parks are linked by their shared work force, imo.
There are some die-hards for either park, of course, and especially at Universal I've met a lot of people who are passionately anti-Disney either because they love Universal sooooo much, or because they had a bad experience working for Disney. Still, few of the employees who work for both parks would actually badmouth "the other park," whichever park that may be for them.
Eh, just something that I was thinking about today.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday: Rehearsal for "Steamboat Lillie" 1920s-themed Disney band. I'm nervous!
Tuesday: Day at Epic.
Wednesday: "Steamboat Lillie" performance.
Breakfast and messing around online until Jameson got up.
His Disney interview was at 10, so I busied myself with quietly dusting and packing meals for tomorrow while we waited. During his interview I eavesdropped a bit...it sounded fairly "normal" but he had headphones on so I couldn't hear much. It about 30 minutes and he said all of the questions were exactly the same as ones he's been asked by Disney Corporate in the past. This makes me a bit annoyed and sad, but then again, what are they supposed to ask? What new information could they be looking for? This is probably Jameson's 7th or 8th interview with Disney, with the same questions asked, again. Will anything come of this one?
He's supposed to hear back in about two weeks. Fingers and toes crossed, but we are both past the point of keeping our hopes up about these. It's great that he's getting these interviews, but they seem to be just toying around, and it's very frustrating. He needs a new job.
I practiced bass trombone, ate lunch, went to the store for secret Easter treats (ssh!) and a few nice things to get me through these busy days. Specifically, Cracklin' Oat Bran. You'll probably laugh but I swear to God, this cereal is essentially miniature oatmeal cookies. They're one of my absolute favorites, especially soaked just slightly in some sort of non-dairy milk to make them soft. Ugh, so gawddamn good!
(wikipedia photo)
Back home I did nothing important, just made tea and downloaded my raw genetic data from 23andMe since they're going out of business.
I SHOULD be planning dinner. I SHOULD be practicing tenor stuff. I SHOULD be learning civil court transcription.
Instead I nearly fell asleep watching TikTok on the floor.
Well...as an adult, that's my prerogative I guess.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, a day at Epic but it was NIGHT rehearsals, ooooOOOOoooo.
Really, just the same as usual except that I didn’t have to get up at 5am! Which meant I actually had time to DO THINGS before work. After Jameson went to the gym I practiced bass and vacuumed and spent 30 minutes doing “Phillipa Hair.” Left a bit after Jameson got back.
The first three sets were hot, being in the middle of the day, but we had good crowds.
For the evening sets it was beautifully cool and we had GREAT crowds because it's so much easier for people to stand and watch a show without the sun beating down on them! I found out tonight that we're averaging around 90 people per set, and that's during normal daytime sets. I think that's pretty good considering we're just an "atmosphere" band without an actual stage or anywhere to sit.
And for us the performers, it was so nice to not be distracted by sweat soaking our clothes or the sun stabbing us in the eye while we try to play an instrument and smile at guests. Night shows are pretty great!
The other thing that I noticed during these lovely nighttime sets was some people out there with professional camera equipment. I guessed (rightly) that we had some actual freelance photographers with us, and made sure to stand still more often to aid in some decent shots. Not for ego, but because any media taken of me can be a part of my resume. My portfolio is entirely made up of live performance media.
Later I interrogated some of the ladies in our Ministry of Magic dressing room to discover local photographers who do theme park work. They graciously gave me some names, and lo and behold the very next day one of those accounts shared photos of us!
These are from @motley_joey on IG. Excellent, high-quality shots of our performance.
I am especially grateful for these two headshots.
Additionally, some photos from one of our show techs, Tiffany:
And finally, one of the wizarding students (her name is Ashley and she's an actress) went to the trouble of getting into plainclothes and taking photo and video of our set!
Here is the video snippet. Love it! I can't wait to someday have a whole set to share with you!
Here are some of her photos. I really like a lot of these and wish they were higher resolution. Thank you so much Ashley :)
Seeing Place Cachee at night was lovely, though we really just had dusk, not true night.
I do hope that we end up doing some night sets once the park opens, it's a very nice vibe.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday was when I dredged up all of these photos. Making social media posts, updating my LinkedIn and YouTube playlists/portfolios, and responding to people commenting on all the media took up pretty much the whole morning.
I had been supposed to meet up with Ilian of Morningstar Mutes for lunch and to check out some mutes, but for one thing he didn't have any of his new models ready, and for another I decided to back out because of my unexpected Disney day tomorrow. Performing outdoors is a lot of steps and a lot of energy, and I am not that young anymore, so this was mainly a self-care choice to have a buffer day.
Groceries, packing lunch and dinner for Disney tomorrow, practicing bass, and relaxing for a bit while Jameson was out day drinking with friends. He messaged me while he was on the way home so I could start cooking dinner. I'd had the good fortune to find a place just a few miles from us that sells Amoroso hoagie rolls direct from Philadelphia!! How unlikely! So I made us Philly cheesesteaks. Tried to keep them as authentic as possible but added mushrooms (that's not inauthentic, just less common) and used American cheese slices instead of cheese whiz. They turned out quite excellent and I'll keep that recipe on file, and gotta remember those hoagie rolls the next time I do po'boys too.
That was it. Pretty chill day and I was grateful for it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, up earlier than I wanted to be for breakfast and the commute to Disney.
I like to get there a bit early to try for better parking, and to have time to get changed before the guys arrive too.
Had a pretty basic day, although I got to learn firsthand why my boss was so reluctant to have me learn multiple trombone parts this year. Harry, another sub trombonist who has learned both the first and second trombone parts, accidentally started doing the first part's choreography halfway through our Encanto medley. I'M the sub for first trombone, so this left me in a really awkward position in the middle of a live performance! I basically had to guess where the second trombone would probably move or stand, and just do that for the rest of the set. We got through it but boy was that awkward. He apologized and I wasn’t mad, I might’ve done the same thing (ok I CERTAINLY would have, I’m a putz) but it made me realize that the risks of too many people knowing too many parts. If TWO people ever got confused at the same time, it could wreck a show.
Anyway, otherwise normal and a nice day with the guys.
Also, for the first time today Epic Universe has overlapped into my Disney workplace!
I saw an employee wearing a Nintendo World Bowser backpack in the Utilidors.
And I overheard more than one conversation about rides, attractions, and food that people want to check out.
There is a misconception that working for Disney AND Universal is a Coke-and-Pepsi situation.
I have even alluded to that, as a joke, in this blog.
It is not like that at all.
Many, MANY people work for (and love!) both parks.
If either park were to enforce a non-compete on it's employees, it would instantly lose AT LEAST half it's work force.
It's kind of interesting to consider how these competing theme parks are linked by their shared work force, imo.
There are some die-hards for either park, of course, and especially at Universal I've met a lot of people who are passionately anti-Disney either because they love Universal sooooo much, or because they had a bad experience working for Disney. Still, few of the employees who work for both parks would actually badmouth "the other park," whichever park that may be for them.
Eh, just something that I was thinking about today.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday: Rehearsal for "Steamboat Lillie" 1920s-themed Disney band. I'm nervous!
Tuesday: Day at Epic.
Wednesday: "Steamboat Lillie" performance.
no subject
I hope all goes well for Jameson with Disney!
Sorry about the choreography confusion. I can see how that could get very bad at some shows!
no subject
Yeah, that was a "special moment" lol. We were doing our show all normal and all of a sudden the dude walked right around me to be on my left side...and I was like, wait no...but all I could do was keep going and whisper frantically to him, "I'm Keith today! Pssst! I'm Keith!" lol. He figured it out but I can see why our boss doesn't want more or all of us learning multiple parts, because anyone could accidentally do that.
no subject