Circus Xtreme Fairfax, VA - Slow Pleasant Week

[taz_39]

I won't bore you with the details of my two days off at the train yard in Anacostia. Taxes, chores, a short walk, let's leave it at that. Some of the guys from the band went to a bar in DC to watch baseball on opening day, looks like fun :)

(photo courtesy Chaz)

But overall getting into DC from where we are is pretty obnoxious. I just used the time to have a movie marathon.

Opening day in Fairfax was all right. This arena on George Mason University's campus was where I played my first shows with the circus, four years ago as of Monday. I'll always remember playing the clown walkaround act completely wrong, and panicking because I thought I'd be fired :P

Our rehearsal was a bit long, we had to run the whole first act without elephants again :/ Things became a bit more interesting when a little starling found its way inside and began to march around on the floor during the acts. He didn't seem bothered at all by the loud sounds or the people running around. It was a little distracting, but cute <3

(photo courtesy Rebecca W.)


After rehearsal we were in the band dressing room, which this week is a pipe-and-drape square up on the concourse. I was eating dinner. Jameson leaned over and said, "Just so you know, there's a bird right next to your head!" I became aware of little scratching and fluttering sounds, and slowly turned my head to look. It was the starling from earlier, he was trying to get out through the glass! Luckily our dressing room curtain was between us and him, so we could use it as a "net" to catch him. Brett (boss) pinned one edge of the curtain with his arm while I tried to pin the area underneath. That didn't work, so I ended up using one hand as a cage to pin the bird through the curtain while slipping the other hand around to grab him.

Once I had him firmly but gently in my hand, I pulled him out. We took a moment for some photos, because how often does that happen??

(photo courtesy Brett)

Then it was time to let him go.
We took him to outside, and since we were on the second floor he was clear for takeoff :) I opened my hands. He took a moment to gather his feet under him, then sprang into the air and was gone.

(photo courtesy Jerome)

The next day was a one show day. Outside looked like this:


...and was pretty cold, so once again I found myself indoors :P I practiced tying my bridesmaid's dress for my sister's wedding, and wrote a little bit.

Friday I met up with a gentleman I'd met on facebook via some circus fans, Lindsey, a retired Air Force Band member. We talked about nerdy trombone stuff and asked each other questions about what it's like to play in our respective ensembles. Lindsey treated me to dinner at a Greek place called Angie's. I tried their moussaka, a dish I've never had before. It was delicious!


It's always a pleasure to meet other trombone geeks and circus fans. Thank you for a great hang Lindsey!


Saturday was a normal day...almost. Intermission for the last show seemed to take a little longer than usual. My boss got on the com and gave us the situation: six of our clowns were stuck in an elevator backstage.
Let the bad jokes commence.

(photo courtesy Rebecca W.)

After a 10 minute delay the clowns were still stuck, so we opened the second act with half the clowns. Another 10 minutes later they were free! But the elevator was still busted. Funny stuff. Only in the circus.

(photo courtesy Brian W.)

Sunday, two shows. I got a visit from a big circus fan, who brought me a Kraken coin from Anonymous Mint! I was supposed to get him some autographs and failed (sorry!) :( But I was thankful for the gift despite that :)

After today's last show, we'll get 3.5 days off. Jameson and I are going to NYC to see THE David Gilmour at Madison Square Garden!!! SO EXCITED!!!


Other stuff:

Wednesday was Mable's birthday! She's the big 1-0! Happy Birthday Mable!

She's got a thing for carrots :)

(photos courtesy Adria C.)

On Friday there was an opportunity to go see the Blue Unit show in Hampton! I didn't get to go, but a large group went and it looks like they had a lot of fun!

(photo courtesy Ben H.)

Our drummer Chaz made a video of his work inside the drum booth. Give it up for the hardest working drummer in show biz!

Comments

Went today

[chuck wagner (from livejournal.com)]

The show was really good and the band sounded great!!! I saw one of the Baltimore shows but wanted to go again to see the Elephants one last time.

(This account I'm using as part of Google+ allows commenting but no journal posts oddly so I had to register a new account "chuck_wagner" to avoid confusion, thanks)