goofball on a train

Thursday. Very very tired after 16 hours at Epic yesterday. I wanted to sleep in, but had to get up and go take care of my stupid mute situation.

Got to Ilan's house around 10 and he tried a smaller version of his mute, which looks like it'll be a better fit. We also tried each other's bass trombones, and I was annoyed because his felt much easier to play than mine. But five months ago I couldn't play bass trombone AT ALL, and would not have been able to tell which horns were a good fit even if I'd been able to try a bunch. Now I can tell, but can't do anything about it until there's an opportunity to try more horns.

Nerd stuff.

I got home around lunchtime, packed meals for Epic and practiced very minimally, then tried to rest.
I have friends out tromping around in this ungodly Florida heat right now, logging 10+ miles in the sun and then doing it again the next day or going to the gym same-day, and I wonder if there's something wrong with me that I'm exhausted after a fraction of that effort.

Around 8pm the "emergency" bass trombone mute I'd ordered showed up. It's a traditional aluminum mute, so it required modifications. While we watched TV I filed down the corks, cut away some of the felt around the base to allow the cup portion to move the way I'd like, and used a hammer and nail to slam a small hole through the bottom of the mute. All of these mods help the mute to sound better...and are also why Ilan's 3D-printed mutes are important. We shouldn't have to damage equipment to make it work properly!

Before bed someone shared this post with me, from the Harry Potter official Instagram account.
It's part of a post that you can see HERE titled, "How to Spend a Day in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Ministry of Magic."


This is important because the more Universal and "Harry Potter Official" acknowledge and promote the band's existence, the more job stability we have in the park. So far we have a small snippet in Universal's official Epic Universe trailer, and now this. Very good signs that Place Cachee Jazz might be sticking around!

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Friday morning, I felt exhausted but gotta suck it up. Time for a day at Epic.

I left earlier than usual because our set times are an hour earlier this week, and also with it being Memorial Day weekend and Epic fully open I wasn't sure how bad traffic would be. Luckily it was normal and I got there in time to get good parking and practice bass for 30 minutes. I had to practice in a stairwell again because the warm-up room was in use. As I was playing some of the wizarding students found me and perched themselves on the stairs to listen, lined up like little birds. They tried to guess which Beauty and the Beast song I was playing, and I had fun switching pieces for that game :)

Because park attendance is capped, it was not as crazy as we'd expected out there and our sets had "normal" attendance. It was extremely hot with heat indexes close to 100°F (37.7°C), and I felt awfully drained by lunchtime. Luckily there were many sweet treats floating around in celebration of opening weekend, so a small slice of cake and some butterbeer-flavored popcorn bucked me up!

We also received a few small mementos, including this touching card that was made using a pictures of our shows and rehearsals.
(Remember that you can click each image to enlarge)


And this picture, which was taken after a set on Grand Opening night.
This is our management and I think also the production team.


Before I knew it the day was done and I was packing up as usual.

Today I realized, I've only got FOUR more work days at Epic Universe before tour begins. Crazy!

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Saturday, managed to sleep until 8 and felt somewhat-recovered. But we were spending the whole day at Fringe Festival, which is outdoors. I made sure to hydrate extra before we left.

Boiling hot again, but we made the best of it. We ordered brick oven-fired pizzas from a food truck, they were delicious! Jameson ate all of his, I shared mine with two of his friends who joined us for the festivities.


We went to see four shows throughout the day. The first was Everfolk. It was a show about a failed attempt to start a fantasy-based amusement park in Utah, involving Taylor Swift!


This play was based on a real event, and now we are both interested to learn more about Evermore Park and how it almost came to be.

General sidenote: all Fringe productions are generally low-budget artistic statements when it comes to props, costuming, audio, and sound, but the artistry and vocal/acting/dance skills of the people involved ALWAYS shines through. I am always blown away at how much raw talent resides in the Orlando area, and always find myself wishing that there were more opportunity for all of us struggling to make it down here.

Before the next show we had time to kill, so went to the lawn/food truck area to grab a snack and drink. Canned alcohol was BOGO, so we got two nutrl seltzers, and Jameson got cheesy fries. I found a Vietnamese stand with a tiny old woman shaping dumplings, LEGITIMATE. I got her tofu summer rolls and they were excellent. We had a good time chatting and many of Jameson's theater and theme park friends stopped by to hug him and catch up :)

Next show was Ghost Stories by Paul Strickland. This was my favorite show purely because the timing of the light and audio effects was PERFECT. We found out later that this was because he brought his own sound/light crew, one of whom was his wife. Rarely at Fringe do you see GOOD audio/lighting; this might have been the first time I've seen it happen lol. It made his storytelling that much more immersive, and I sat perfectly still for the whole hour, entranced. Good stuff!

We only had time for a quick pee before the next show, which was outdoors. It was a stage combat version of CLUE! The "stage" was a dusty patch of earth under a big drooping tree, where we sat on benches and enjoyed watching CLUE characters pummel each other with everything from their fists, to knives and cudgels, to a garden gnome! But in the end it was POISON that "done them in," and the butler who finished the job with the candlestick (of course!).

We had a little time before our final show, so got ice cream sundaes. I asked for half the ice cream and double the toppings and got it! Lots of chewy brownies :D And yes, I took two Lactaid!

The last show was a condensed version of The Great Gatsby.


I think the music was all-original for this production. The choreo was especially impressive. The storyline got a bit lost--if you hadn't read the book or seen the movie you might be a little confused--and there were LGBTQ+ and BIPOC elements added that are definitely not in the original story. But Fringe is all about artistic expression and interpretation, and these additions were in good taste for this production imo. I wasn't too impressed by the music, but the other elements were very well done and it was a good show. Our friend Lea played an important role and did an excellent job.

We met up with Lea afterward to share a drink with her and other members of the cast. At this point my social battery was 100% drained, so I'm sorry to say that I just stood quietly and tried to survive the crush of people and loud guffawing and screeching of actors around me :p I am completely understanding of the extrovert need to be loud, central, and "on," especially after the adrenaline rush of a performance well done. But I'm not that person, and it was better for me to hang back and not be a killjoy.

Eventually Jameson was ready to leave, so we said our goodbyes. Got home around 11, asleep by midnight.
It was a fun night, we go to Fringe almost every year and enjoy it every time :)

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Sunday, breakfast, laundry, dusting our big bookshelf which is a tedious chore that I only do about twice a year.

After lunch Jameson went for a haircut and I practiced trombone, then relaxed for a bit. It was Sunday and a holiday weekend after all.

Dinner was Olive Garden. A nice thunderstorm rolled through.

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Monday: Memorial Day, I doubt I'll get much done other than cleaning, practice, and cooking dinner.

Tuesday: Day off, probably running errands in addition to the usual stuff.

Wednesday and Thursday: Working at Epic.

Thursday, working at Epic.

It was quite hot and no cloud cover at all. High of I think 92, with a heat index of 96 (33-34°C.)
And it is still MAY. By the time we hit July the heat index will be triple digits every day (41°C and up.)

All of our sets went just fine, we were sweating buckets and I drank a whole electrolyte drink which I don't normally do but it seemed a good idea. Not surprisingly most of the talk backstage is about the park opening, and the special event on the 21st. It's all very exciting but I'll be happy when the publicity part is over. They hype is well deserved of course...just speaking on a personal (introvert) level :p

Adrian (clarinet) has a garden which has produced a surplus of veggies. He gave me some!
The little tomatoes are called everglades tomatoes and are the size of blueberries.
Not sure what I'll do with everything yet but the tomatoes will likely be a weekend snack!


Back home I caught up with Jameson and packed a small purse for Hollywood Studios tomorrow.
I'm very excited that we'll get to have a day just for us. For fun, for enjoying each other, for enjoying Disney, for celebrating having made it this far, and for the exciting job things that are hopefully to come.

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Friday was an INCREDIBLE day at Hollywood Studios! Full post HERE.

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Saturday. I got up and did laundry, hydrated a lot to make up for yesterday, vacuumed, ran the dishwasher, and practiced bass and tenor trombone. Ran through all of my Disney music in anticipation of subbing in at the Magic Kingdom tomorrow.

After lunch I drove out to my new friend Ilan's house to pick up the 3D-printed bass trombone mutes I'd ordered from him a while ago. Ilan is the founder/owner of Morningstar Mutes, among other things. And he recently celebrated the birth of a little girl. He's not new to fatherhood, but even a childless schmuck like me knows that a newborn baby is just as much work as a full time job. Therefore I was pleased and grateful that he'd managed to get my mutes finished in the original time frame.

I got to his house and texted "I'm here" rather than ringing the doorbell and potentially waking any little ones. That was a good call: the baby was dozing and the toddler was having a quiet storytime, and Ilan was able to bring me into the house without disrupting either. He went to go get my mutes while I looked around the foyer. There were mutes EVERYWHERE, and a 3D printer quietly humming away in the corner. Ilan informed me that there were two more printing night and day in his garage.


Ilan just recently started producing these mutes after years of testing and collaboration with other professional trombonists (he's a bass trombonist himself.) While trombone mutes are important for creating colorful sound changes (hear some samples HERE), many mutes do not work well across the entire range. Some notes can sound distorted, out of tune, or may not even sound at all if the mute disagrees with your horn. And the design and structure of mutes has remained largely unchanged for hundreds of years.

The options available up to this point have been Humes & Berg cardboard composite mutes (virtually unchanged design since 1935) and a variety of aluminum mutes, all shaped like wine bottles and perhaps sporting a copper base if you wanted to get boujee. There were also mutes introduced by jazz artists, such as the plunger, bucket, and hat mute, and you can guess from their names where all of those originated!

To counter the problems of imperfect mutes, musicians have done goofy things like drill holes in them, wrap tape around them, intentionally dent them to change the sound, etc. And mutes freefalling out of your bell in the middle of a concert has always been a common problem thanks to the use of cork to hold them in; cork wears and chips over time, dries out and crumbles, and even filing cork down to fit your bell doesn't guarantee a good fit (especially if you get a new horn later on, or want to sell your mute to someone with a different horn.) So as you can see, all sorts of problems exist.

If you've read this far, congratulations, you total nerd.

Anyway, Ilan's mutes address a lot of these issues. For the problems with distortion and tuning, he's made the mutes larger than traditional ones which results in less backpressure and adds more resonance. He can do this because carbon fiber-infused plastic is even lighter than aluminum, so the size of the mute can be increased without increasing the weight. Additionally, carbon fiber does not dent or rust, so the mutes are more resilient. And instead of cork, Ilian is using a sort of soft synthetic material attached to the mutes via velcro so that you can move them around and adjust them without permanently changing the shape of the mute, as would happen with cork.

And on top of all of these improvements, you can add metal bottoms to the mutes which improves the sound. Copper is very preferred for adding warmth to sound, but he also offers brass or aluminum bottoms which usually offer a sharpness/clearer resonance.

Here are my two mutes, a straight mute and a cup mute for bass trombone.



The cup portion of the cup mute is a flexible plastic, which makes it easier to store and less likely to crack on impacts.
The straight mute has a small handle printed into the body on one side to make it easier to grab and remove (another innovation you won't find on traditional mutes.) Both mutes have a copper bottom. It's been a long time since I could afford a copper-bottomed mute.

In addition to these, Ilan showed me a tenor cup mute that hadn't printed quite right and asked if I might like to buy it at half price. There was nothing wrong with it other than aesthetics (some visible glue + it went a little wibbly on the cup portion) so I took it. In fact, since the cup is removable it's exactly what I need for one specific mute change on this tour. Yay bonus mute! It was great to meet Ilan and do business with him. He's a bit in the weeds with orders right now but I really hope that he'll get his feet under him because he's got a great product with innovations that a lot of trombonists really do need.

On the way back home I stopped at a Walgreens to get some special Snack Pod treats for Jameson and I!
He wanted Nerd Clusters, Mike & Ikes, Reeses Pieces, and Combos. I also got PB M&Ms again, sesame stick snacks, and Gushers. We weren't sure that all of these would work, and we were right: Combos are too big, and Gushers are too sticky. I tossed some Gushers in corn starch and we'll see if that helps. This is a fun experiment!

The rest of the evening was pretty chill, I just packed my Disney meals and tried (and failed) to relax.

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Sunday, up early for the Magic Kingdom.

(photo courtesy Disneytouristblog)

The Castle stage is under repairs right now, so they're having the band do more sets to provide more entertainment in the area. Five sets, one parade, and the flag retreat, which is seven sets total and two more than usual. It has still been very hot, mid-90s even without the heat index, and minimal cloud cover. Therefore I went into work bucking myself up for a long and sweaty day with shorter breaks between each set.

When I arrived, however, I was surprised to find Cory, another of Keith's subs, setting up. After conferring we realized that Keith must have double-booked us. This happens from time to time; Keith did book Cory first but neither of them remembered to tell our boss, and then Keith must have forgotten about it and asked me to cover later on.

Our boss walked in, looked at both of us, shrugged, and said, "Rehearsal day. You two work it out."
Translation: Neither of us needed to go home. We could both stay, get paid, and he'd just call it a rehearsal for one of us. Yay!!

We quickly decided to divide the sets evenly, and for the flag retreat Cory offered to play the 2nd trombone book so that Crash (2nd trombonist) could go home early. The result of this was that instead of doing 7 sets today, I only had to do 4! YAY!!

Needless to say I had a wonderful day and did not care one whit that it was hot and sticky work. I got to play all of my favorites including Be Our Guest, Hot Dog Dance, and the parade, had time to cool off and chat with the guys between sets, and did not feel overexerted. Truly lovely.

(Courtesy random IG account)

The tough thing about subbing right now is that I don't know which day will be my last before tour starts.

So, I treasured today. I noticed the smells of candy and popcorn and roasted nuts. I felt the little bubbles from the bubble wands pop on my cheek and hands as we danced with kids during our sets. I played "When You Wish Upon A Star" as we marched past the castle, and remembered how my heart had pounded and my eyes had welled up with tears the first time I'd gotten to do that, because it was a dream come true.

Things like that.

It was a good day. I'm sure there'll be more...just don't know when :)

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Monday and Tuesday: Days off. Now is the time to prep for tour. Practicing, packing, cleaning the guest bedroom, gathering supplies. Some cooking and cleaning too I think.

Wednesday: You guys. Can you believe it? Wednesday the 21st is the Epic Universe Grand Opening Celebration. I'll be at the park from 8am-9pm for this special event. The entire event will be livestreamed HERE if you'd like to watch (you do need to sign up.) Not sure if you will see me in the footage (or if you'd even want to) but there will certainly be lots of exciting stuff in store!

(random photo)

Monday, up early again for transcription. It was raining hard and looking like an all day rain, which is wonderful as we've been in a drought.

I transcribed and had breakfast, then shot over to Walmart for cough drops for Jameson and some special ice creams that we've been waiting to appear on shelves! Pop Tart ice cream sandwiches, and Butterfinger bars!


We have also been waiting for Rice Krispy Treat ice cream sandwiches and Eggo Waffle ice cream, but those have not been forthcoming yet :p Ah, it's good to be bad!

Back home to show the haul to Jameson. He was in the process of getting more info from Disney about his new job. He'll receive a work-only cell phone and a work laptop, his choice of Mac or PC. They are also working on setting up a music studio for his use. How official! How awesome!

The rest of my day was just plugging away at transcription. I was able to get most of it done, but even with going at it for 6-7 hours today I'll still have to spend 3 hours on the review and edit tomorrow. Argh. Didn't get to go for a walk or practice or plan dinner. We ordered taco salads and tried the Butterfinger bars. They are very good and were worth buying.

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Tuesday, up at 6am to finish transcribing and start the review process. I hate to get up so early on one of my few days that I COULD sleep in, but there is so much that I should be doing BESIDES transcription, and I need it out of my face.

So, coffee and an hour of typing followed by breakfast and almost four straight hours of poring over text and audio to catch errors. With breaks to pee and stretch and chat with Jameson, I finished it all at 11:30 and submitted the one job that's due 48 hours from now. The others I'll submit on one of the Epic days.

That out of the way, still a lot to do. To the grocery for dinner ingredients, then lunch. Packing meals for Epic, practicing for an hour, taking down my listings for my old trombone stuff and dragging said stuff out to the curb for bulk pickup tomorrow.

In the middle of all that I got a nice notice from LJ, about having won a year of professional service from participating in the LJ Birthday hashtag thing:



This is very nice, and I'm grateful :)
Because I'm American and can't pay like I ought to, I'd hoped to win, and put significant effort into the entry.
Just wish that I could pay and not be a leech, and not have to worry about it!

For dinner I made us a buffalo chicken recipe from Half-Baked Harvest that Jameson likes a lot.


He startled me several times today by laughing, humming to himself, openly smiling, and generally being chipper.
It's been so long since he's been actually happy about something that I forgot what it's like!

That makes me sad. But that's clinical depression.
Long-term. Hard to break out of. Always lurking, even when by all appearances things are going well.

He basically hasn't had employment-based validation since the pandemic.
And on top of that, his body has been betraying him these past few years (kidney stones, hernia, arm muscle atrophy and surgery.)
And on top of THAT, constant job rejections and interviews that led to nowhere.
All of this led to this depression in him, that has lasted for YEARS.

Like Jameson, I also get a lot of personal value from my work. Unlike him, I can glean validation from most any TYPE of work as long as it's useful to society OR I am appreciated on some level by bosses and colleagues. But Jameson has specific expectations of himself, or needs more specific validation...I don't fully understand, I just know that he needs something that he hasn't been getting since 2019.

For now, I'm grateful to have The Real Jameson back for a bit. I hope he sticks around longer this time :)

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Wednesday...

7 DAYS UNTIL EPIC UNIVERSE IS OPEN.

It seems like just yesterday we were crowding into orientation, excited and nervous, wondering how we were gonna memorize all that music, shocked that we were also being asked to ACT and do CHOREOGRAPHY. In just a few days this park will be officially complete and open; the rehearsal period will be over, and a new phase will begin.

It's been an amazing journey. I'm so grateful to be a part of this massive, exciting new theme park!!

---    ---    ---    ---    ---   

I drove straight to Epic and practiced bass trombone.

Right as I was wrapping up, Jameson sent a picture of his official offer letter for the position of Producer with Disney Event Group. He'd gotten it, and a contract to sign, this morning.

(this is the logo used at the top of his offer letter.)

Just a few hours after that, I received the American Federation of Musicians official contract for Beauty and the Beast.
Took a picture and sent it to Jameson. Signed it and sent it off.

Wow.
Life is SO STRANGE.

We are so, so fortunate.
Not only do we get to experience these monumental career highs...
...we also get to do it at the same time, and with the same company!!!

No matter what happens next, no one can take this moment away from us :)

---    ---    ---    ---    ---   

My day was normal otherwise. It was hot and sunny, we did all of our sets without the cart or Plume. The cart is supposed to be back with us by Saturday, so that's good.

Partway through the day Universal announced that they'll be livestreaming a special Grand Opening event on the night of the 21st, starting at 7pm EST.


We knew that there was an event planned; I'd already been scheduled to work that day and was asked to stay and perform three additional sets for a bit of extra money. So I'll be there for whatever happens, though I won't get to see much because I'll be working. YOU can watch the whole thing, though! I hope whatever-it-is is really cool!!

Additionally, I got a detailed route sheet from Beauty and the Beast. It's a document that shows which hotels we'll be staying in on tour, whether we'll be taking buses or flights between cities, and other small details like rehearsal days and some venue info.


I need this info to complete my Foodie Finds, but also to help plan whether or not to take buyouts and book my own travel or housing. And also, receiving this kind of detailed info really locks you into a tour; they only give it to people who WILL be traveling with them. It's a huge security risk otherwise. So, all of this makes everything REAL. It's really happening! I know I keep saying that but it's been so hard to believe without a scrap of paperwork.

(Regarding tour buyouts: When on tour, the production company books hotel rooms for the entire traveling company, but sometimes people want to visit with relatives, save money by pooling on an Airbnb, rent a car instead of riding the company bus, etc. To accommodate this, the company offers what's called a buyout, where you let them know that you want to book your own shit in X city and they give you the money that they would've spent on your housing or travel. It's really convenient!)

There are a few things in this BATB info that tells me this tour will be different, in a good way.
One of those is that we MIGHT get our own storage boxes that will travel by truck!!
That means I could bring more than what fits in my luggage! What a luxury!

The other thing is that nearly all of the hotels are EXTENDED STAY.
That means REAL REFRIGERATORS!!!!!! OH MY GOD!!!!!

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Thursday: Another day at Epic.

Friday: Jameson and I celebrate our career success with a day at Hollywood Studios!

Saturday: Lots to do, but hopefully catching a little bit of rest too.

Sunday: Day with Disney and the Main Street Phil :)

Finally, I can share:

I will be joining the all-new Beauty and the Beast national tour!!


Cities list and tickets will be HERE for anyone interested.

---    ---    ---    ---    ---   

I think most of you kind of knew about this already because it was so hard for me to keep my mouth shut haha.
I was offered the trombone chair way back in December!
Today a casting announcement went up, so it’s finally public :)

Australian promo video. The show premiered in the West End and is now in Australia through July.
This is an all-new edition: new costumes and new orchestrations!



I want to explain a little bit why this tour is different from others I’ve done.

Think about The Lion King.
It's both on Broadway in New York, and on tour.

The Lion King national tour has been running for 23 years.

(image courtesy London Theatre)

I don't expect BATB to run for THAT long.
But the schedule that I was handed goes at least to 2027.
It DEFINITELY has the potential to go for years more.

Additionally it's a union tour, produced and managed exclusively by Disney.
That is a higher production value--and pay scale--than any other tour I've ever been involved in.

And finally, if they like my work, there is so much potential to be called for even more Disney musical opportunities. On tour, internationally, AND on actual Broadway in New York City.

Hercules the Musical is currently opening in the West End.
There is a Tangled musical being written right now.

You know?

I promise, I am not just playing this up to be a big deal.
It IS a big deal, for any musician.
It is potentially life-changing for me.

---    ---    ---    ---    ---   

On one had, I am very intimidated and terrified.

Most of these people have never heard me play before.
What if I'm not good enough?
There is a layoff right away in Chicago in July.
They could easily replace me at that time if they don't care for my playing.
Of course I can't control that, and worrying about it accomplishes nothing.

To be asked to perform with a tour of this level is currently the biggest accomplishment of my entire musical career.
Terrified and worried about it as I may be, every day I remember:

They could have asked anyone. And they asked me.

And THAT has already been given, and cannot be taken away from me.

---    ---    ---    ---    ---    

Warning: at some point I'll probably write a really sappy navelgaze post about all the struggles and hardships, the experiences and relationships and connections, that ultimately got me to this point in my career. But for today, it's enough to say that I'm gonna get to play Beauty and the Beast!!

Up early again for Epic.

This time I went to Sprouts before work, because they have Spindthrift sodas and it turns out Jameson likes them :)

From there it was a normal morning, I was able to get a full hour of bass trombone practice before our sets which made me very happy.

The sets were all normal, but...there is already some pretty crummy behavior going on.
Universal is more of an "adult" park, which in some ways is a good and fun thing...and in some ways, opens the door to a lot of potential unpleasantness.

Today we had good crowds, but for the first two they were like TV audiences.
That is, we looked out onto a sea of phones. I felt like I was at a press conference or something.
And when we tried to interact we got no response or blank stares from most people.

Usually by the end of the set, if people stuck around that long, they'd start to warm up and clap and dance and whatnot. But not everyone stays that long; a lot of people take a quick video clip and leave. We're an ATMO band, which means we're supposed to add to the ambiance of Place Cachee, and make people feel like they're in 1920s wizarding Paris, and give guests an experience that they can't get anywhere else. But if you never once look up from your phone...what exactly did you pay for when you bought your ticket? You could have stayed home and watched videos of the park online, and saved some money. I guess that makes me old but, it was my thoughts today.

We had more questionable guest behavior in the form of a drunk guy who came running up to me during our performance and started yelling at me in Spanish. He didn't seem aggressive, just seemed to be acting stupid, but he was much bigger than me and got right up in my personal space. Our handlers were apparently too timid to do anything about it. The other two musicians immediately stomped over to "suggest" he step back...politely, and still in character. But they shouldn't have to do that in the middle of a show. We shouldn't have to stop a show to "handle" guests, that is what a HANDLER is for.

This stuff is only going to happen more and more, so we'd better get used to it and our handlers had better step up. I would hope that at some point we'll have training on how to handle negative interactions...but I won't hold my breath for it. I will simply have to watch out for myself. If I see that help is not forthcoming, I will act to protect myself...i.e., I will simply leave the set until the problem is removed. In the event that I can't leave because someone is trapping me or grabbing/touching me...let's just say I'm grateful to be holding a trombone. Which can be a VERY effective weapon. Which I hope no one will ever have to experience.

But you know. FAFO.


Aaaanyway, that was the excitement. Otherwise it was good sets and good crowds.

---    ---    ---    ---    ---

I ate dinner in the break room and then drove to Will's for what was likely my final bass trombone lesson.

Chatted with him and his wife a bit, asked questions about his recent heart surgery which he said went really well, he's just a little sore and is recovering nicely. This is our first lesson in I think 3 weeks, and I was very gratified when Will exclaimed over the noticeable difference in my playing. I don't always practice as much as I should or work on all the areas that I should, but I do practice regularly and have worked very hard to be more comfortable with the bass, and it showed. I could feel it myself in the lesson, remembering how I'd sounded with Will previously. I'm still not as good as Will and probably never will be, but that's ok. I'll get better with time, and will continue to do my very own best :)

Back home the routine of unpacking and cleaning myself up and splatting on the floor.
Jameson had his last gig at Epcot tonight, and is tired but overall positive about his first performances post-surgery.
We will see how his arm feels over the next 48 hours.

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Friday I was up too early. Coffee and typing this and breakfast, trying to figure out what to make for dinner and settling on a cheeseburger fusilli bake that we both like. Got the ingredients for that. Did not practice, didn't feel like it.

Had an exchange of information with the upcoming tour management, and that made me feel relieved although they still haven't given us much. Now I've got flight and hotel bookings for rehearsals in Schenectady. What I REALLY want is onboarding paperwork and the dang music. But, gotta be patient.

The rest of the day was slow, I just did research related to touring, worked on foodie finds, and read my book to relax a bit.

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Saturday, up early for no reason again. I guess this is my life now.
Slept poorly too because had eaten too many acidic things all day yesterday, and felt mildly heartburn-y and nauseous all night. It happens.

Jameson had a playdate with friends this AM, so after he left I drove out to the nearest Michaels to look at foam inserts for my bass trombone case. The case is heavy-duty, but the padding inside is not the greatest so I need materials to cushion the horn further for transport.

$80 later I had some chunks of foam, some dark grey felt (they were out of black), two sheets of black craft foam, two foam cones, a small cushioned black case that was maybe meant for glasses(?)...and these adorable post-its, because they're fun and life is short!


Back home I chopped up the foam and put a chunk in the bottom of the trombone case to cushion the trigger mechanism, which currently is touching the hard side of the case and could be easily damaged as-is. I think the foam is perfect to protect it but we'll see. Additional foam in the more narrow section that houses the tuning slides. There was a lot of leeway for motion there that is greatly reduced with the foam.


The black craft foam, I cut a piece to put in the bottom of my mute bag to help muffle sound. I like to start packing up mutes before the show is over where possible, and this will help me not to make noise while doing so.

The foam cones are to be inserted in the trombone bells, to protect them from being crushed during transport. They extend slightly beyond the edge of the bell, which allows them to take impacts instead of the bell itself. The bell may still receive damage sometimes but odds are greatly reduced by using a cone (this is why my bass trombone's bell got crushed during shipping to me, because the idiot who packaged it did NOT follow my directions and did NOT use a cone.)


The small black case is for one of my small tuning slides on the bass, which must be removed for the instrument to fit in the case. It will probably also hold my mouthpiece once I get an appropriate sheath to protect them from clinking together. For the time being I cut a bit of the dark grey felt to go in there and provide extra cushioning, and threw random things in there like a mouthpiece brush and tape and spare trigger gummies.


More of the grey felt will be put in front of the bell-and-cone, just to snug it in there more tightly. I was very satisfied with how my little plan worked out here.

I practiced a bit but wasn't feeling great, so mostly tried to rest.
Later on we drove down to Colonial Ave to see a Queen tribute concert.
We've seen this band before, our friend Allen (whose nickname is Shrek) was a sound guy on the circus and now exclusively tours with this tribute band. It's good money for him and he absolutely loves it, plus they come through Florida once or twice a year and we get to see him! We had dinner together and got caught up, then Allen got us our tickets and took us backstage to meet some band members. Everyone was pleasant as always, and since Jameson is both a keyboardist and Queen fan he always has lots of nerd-stuff to chat about with the lead singer and the keyboardist :)

The concert was lots of fun. The theatre is old so it was warm and stinky, but that also made it feel, I guess "classic!" Like, this was a common live venue setting back in the 80s and 90s. Few people were looking at their phones or even recording...most were really interacting, cheering, and having fun. I feel like that might be a rarity any more.


After the show we said goodbye to Allen and thanked him for the tickets, and left so he could get started on loading out.

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Sunday, my brain finally allowed me to sleep through the night AND stay asleep until 9am.

This was partly because it was raining! It was darker than usual so I think my brain didn't know what time it was.
We have been in a drought here in Florida and BADLY needed this rain.



It also gave an excuse to have a nice slow morning.
I still feel kind of like, on the verge of having a virus, though I feel better than yesterday so that's something. I had an electrolyte drink, and waited a while before practicing bass, and then Disney stuff on tenor. After practice I had lunch with Jameson and then took a coffee grinder I'd sold on Ebay over to UPS so I won't have to worry about it on Monday. Then Jameson and I rested. He gamed and I watched Aladdin for no reason other than I felt like it. Maybe it's just comforting while I'm feeling under the weather.

Before dinner I cleared out the areas under the guest bathroom and kitchen sinks, and after dinner I did the master bathroom. Tomorrow we are having new sinks put into the bathrooms and new faucets in all three. Opened each box to make sure all parts are there and nothing is broken. We've had terrible luck with contractors and getting ripped off and/or paying for services that do not get completed, so please cross your fingers for us that we will just be able to get these installed without drama or issue.

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Monday: Three faucets and two sinks getting installed early in the morning. The rest of the day should be free. I'll probably practice and pack for Disney. If I'm feeling better I'll make something for dinner.

Tuesday: Rehearsal day at Disney.

Wednesday & Thursday: Working at Epic.

Blog post for LiveJournal's 26th birthday, about holidays and celebrations.
Read it HERE

Monday, after breakfast:
     - Ran dishwasher
     - Mailed off the sold trombone accessories
     - Went to Lowe's to buy 2 bathroom sinks and 3 faucets, and schedule installation of those
     - Did laundry
     - Made grocery list
     - Chatted with step-grandma about how her first Easter went without her husband there
     - Responded to misc social media comments on my posts (this takes significant time so I list it with chores)

After lunch:
     - Folded laundry
     - Practiced bass trombone
     - Made Reverb listings for my digital court reporting stuff that I need to sell
     - Reached out to schedule a possible visit with an American trombone craftsman in July
     - Cheered for Jameson as he got the call for his second interview with Disney!!

MAN I really hope they consider him seriously this time. He's been told it's the final round, and he's never made it that far in the interview process. I hope so strongly for a good result for him.

Also some Epic coworkers sent me a few more nice photos that a professional photographer took on Saturday.


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Tuesday, breakfast, then
     - packed lunch and dinner for Epic
     - washed tenor trombone because I want to start practicing doubling
     - grocery for dinner ingredients

After lunch,
     - put chicken in a marinade for dinner
     - went back out to get pickled ginger at Walmart since they hadn't had it at Publix
     - solidified an appointment with the trombone craftsman up in Chicago for July
     - packed more stuff for Epic (clothes, trombones, music, etc)
     - put music for an upcoming Chicago tribute band on my iPad
     - went BACK out because I'd ordered some photo prints at Walgreens and they were ready in like 2 seconds

...and took a rest, which I hope is acceptable.
Meanwhile Jameson worked. A pretty normal day for both of us.

Here is my framed show photo.


Jameson has a few framed photos of live performances, from when he played with Mulch, Sweat, & Shears at Disney. His parents have some too. It's not something that I would've thought to do myself, and will be a nice memento especially years from now.

For dinner I made a spicy sesame chicken ginger salad from Half-Baked Harvest.
Shredded Napa cabbage, romaine, flavorful marinated chicken breast, mandarin oranges, pomegranate seeds, wonton strips, avocado, roasted peanuts, green onion, cilantro, and a soy-honey-ginger-orange-gochujang dressing.


I was surprised that Jameson actually liked it, and enough to go back for seconds, so I'll be making it or some variation of it again for sure.

As we were winding down our evening my stepmom called to catch up (I'd emailed her over Easter.) She's in Delaware with friends. I was glad to hear that as she has glaucoma, is legally blind, and is from a rural area, which all means she's dependent on others for even short trips. She's doing well, and we made plans for me to possibly come visit during one of the tour layoffs.

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Wednesday, up early and after doing "Phillipa hair" and eating breakfast,

     - shipped an item that I'd sold overnight
     - stopped at Whole Paycheck for a few things
     - got to Epic, put away my food, got makeup and costume on
     - dragged my trombones to the stairwell and practiced for an hour

I did 45 minutes on bass followed by a 15-minute review of my Place Cachee Jazz music, because remember last week I was disappointed with how I'd played. It was a busy week and I was tired and stressed, but that's not an excuse especially when we are constantly being recorded and watched by management.

Thankfully, today went a LOT better. Gave myself a little pep talk and did just fine all day.
After one of the sets we were mobbed by people wanting selfies with Plume (our puffskein). About four groups were able to get photos before our handlers intervened so we could leave. Moments like these are always hard because we'd truly love to stay and let everyone have a photo! But we also have just a short time to prepare for the next set, AND we need to clear out because other atmo performers also use that space (Cosme the wand shop owner, but also the aurors and wizarding school students.) Hopefully people will be understanding just as they are with meet-and-greets.

Otherwise it was a normal day, and I hope to have another just like it tomorrow.

In closing, HERE is a review of the musical offerings at Epic Universe which of course strongly features us.

TL;DR:


And here is a recent performance clip with me, Joe (trumpet sub), and Adrian (clarinet)

Watch on YouTube

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Thursday: Day at Epic

Friday: Day off. Housework, practice trying to sell more junk.

Saturday & Sunday: Also days off. Cooking...maybe I can convince Jameson to eat out once too...

Monday, I was up just a little before Jameson for breakfast and to feel nervous about the Steamboat Lillie rehearsal.

After Jameson went to the gym I practiced bass and packed my meals for Epic tomorrow.
Ate lunch in the car on the way to the musician's union building near downtown, which is where rehearsal would be held.

I haven't been to the union building for ages. Bad memories. When I first moved to Orlando Jameson lived in an apartment so I couldn't practice there without disturbing the neighbors. I'd practice at the union building whenever I could get a reservation for it...but 9 out of 10 times my rehearsal was halved by assholes (men) who insisted on rehearsing past their assigned time, or who would bust in in the middle of my time slot to banter and guffaw and use the space as a hang, and would glare at me for being there (even though I had more right to be there than any of them considering it was MY time slot.)

This was one of the reasons I left the union soon after. And then we moved to a house in Kissimmee anyway.

It all looked pretty much the same, maybe slightly cleaner but not much.


Three ladies were already there practicing. I introduced myself and got set up. Others were running late (people have kids and real jobs) so we used that time to try on our flapper dresses from Amazon. Our bandleader had wisely ordered multiple sizes, knowing that sometimes clothing online is not what it seems. My dress fit perfectly, and it is pale purple, almost the same color I wear as Phillipa in 1920s Paris at Epic Universe. Go figure!

When everyone else arrived we buckled down and plowed through the music piece by piece.
None of it is particularly hard, but some arrangements were pilfered online and are kind of "not the best" as far as making sense. Overall, though, people will have an easy time recognizing familiar Disney classics played in an old-timey jazz style. My favorite arrangements were the ones our bandleader did herself, you could tell she knows what she's doing as an arranger.

Overall this rehearsal went much better than I'd anticipated. Jazz is my biggest weakness as a musician, and improv jazz is worst of all. Playing it makes me feel inadequate and self-conscious. But this was a good group of patient people. And fortunately a lot of what was marked "solo" improv in my part turned out to be optional or for anyone to solo, not just trombone. Phew. It was a big relief not to have to improv much!

Back home I thanked my Morning Self for packing the Epic stuff so I wouldn't have to do it after a long day :p

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Tuesday. Halfway through April, wow.

They've moved our Epic sets by about an hour so I was able to get up an hour later, still 6:45am.

I argued with myself about bringing the bass trombone to Epic because with the schedule change I may actually have time to practice. Decided to bring it and at least have a try.

It was a normal day, quite hot and sunny. I did indeed find time to practice, only 30 minutes but way better than nothing. I was incredibly tired today, but so were a lot of other people, so maybe it's the heat or the alignments of the planets or something. Nothing else to report except that leaving work an hour later (5:30pm instead of 4:30pm) really, really sucks.

This was the "best route" according to the Googs:


What kind of squiggly-snake BS nonsense is this?!
Just horrific. And Epic isn't even open yet. Ugh.

By the time I got home I was truly exhausted, and thanked my Morning Self for insisting that I bring the bass to Epic because Evening Self had absolutely no energy for it. The morning version of me sure is stepping up this week! LOL

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Wednesday. Jameson had to get up at 8 for a doctor's appointment, so I just got up when he did.

Had breakfast and went out to get myself bagels and coffee but otherwise stayed at home and felt nervous about tonight's gig.
Practiced parts of the Steamboat music that I'm uncomfortable with, and tried to relax the rest of the time because I feel stressed and tired. Our third party has been getting our pay wrong, multiple weeks in a row, and it's stressing me out on top of misc other things.

When it got to be time to go I packed some snacks, trombone and music stand, trombone stand, mutes, in-ears, music, and dress shoes, then put on my Phillipa makeup and stockings (I had smuggled my makeup bag and stockings home from Epic for this haha.)

The venue was easy to find. Dragged all of my stuff inside and got set up.
From here, everything kind of went off the rails.

Problem 1: A child--I'm talking Gen Alpha--came running out from somewhere to do our sound setup, already on the phone with someone for help and with a panicked look on his face. Oh, lord. Sound check was supposed to be at 4pm and we did not play one note until 5pm. We found out later that the actual sound guy's grandfather had died and that's why he wasn't there...and we are all sympathetic to that. But the venue also could have told our bandleader that, so she could have had us come earlier, or made arrangements for us to warm up elsewhere while sound got their sh*t together instead of wasting an hour sitting on stage.

Problem 2: The bassist's bass started BREAKING. I don't exactly know how, but suspect that since it was hot outside and she'd had a long drive, she'd brought the car-warmed bass into the absolutely freezing theatre and it had started to crack (this is a VERY common problem with wooden instruments including clarinets, and is why unionized musicians insist on specific temperatures in performance spaces.) We all jumped on our phones and frantically started asking around for any bassists in the area to help...within the next hour.

Problem 3: Our trumpet player's audio pack died immediately meaning she'd have to do the entire show without the click track.

Problem 4: There were four songs that we didn't get to at rehearsal, that we were planning to cover at this sound check. Which we now couldn't do because due to the theater's audio crew (a child) not knowing what they were doing, we were now an hour behind schedule.

We did end up getting an emergency upright bass from a local bassist, god bless her.
And we did get our mixes together. But had absolutely no time to warm up or run any tunes.

And hey, the dresses were nice. Here's mine.


Problem 5: I have to apologize if this sounds snooty or rude, and I have loads of respect for our bandleader, who worked very hard to make this band happen. But truth is truth, and every musician on that stage with me would agree: most of these arrangements were simply NOT GOOD. Even during intermission our reed player was frantically making changes to her part to try and make it sound reasonable. There were so many times that I, a low brass instrument, was written to play ABOVE the trumpet and saxophone. That just doesn't sound good, which is why people don't WRITE that way :/

Problem 6: The click track was difficult to hear, and one of us (trumpet player) didn't have the click at all and so couldn't hear any count-offs. I tried to give her the count offs when I could, but *I* barely knew them either as we'd only had that one rehearsal and one run-through of each song (well, most songs.) The result was that we'd start with the click and quickly migrate away from it. So imagine trying to sing a song while another completely different song is playing loudly in the background. That's what it was like, and it was horrible. I stuck with it for a while but when we hit the Monsters, Inc. medley it's very syncopated AND I have a solo. I locked eyes with the drummer and we simultaneously reached out and yanked out our ear buds, lol. At least that was comedic, because the rest of the situation really wasn't.

Problem 7: Our poor bandleader had paid a professional photographer/videographer to come and take footage of this set, to use for media promotion to hopefully get the group hired for corporate events or weddings or whatever. Yikes. He probably got some decent visual footage...but I doubt much of our audio was usable the way things were going. Between the bad arrangements and not following the click track and the bassist being on an unfamiliar instrument and all of us having to play in a very cold space...it just didn't go very well.

Was it terrible? No. Every woman on that stage is an excellent musician. But circumstantially, we were screwed.
Even without the sound check issues, having a gig based on less-than-ideal arrangements, with only one run-through rehearsal, and using a click track when we had a perfectly excellent drummer, is what did us in. It's a shame. I was grateful that Jameson had NOT come out to support me for this one.

I do think that the idea of an all-female 1920s Disney jazz band is awesome!
But tonight it was too rushed, too unorganized, to come together.
Maybe in the future the parts can be refined, we can talk the bandleader out of using a click past the count-off, and we can have more rehearsals. I think all of that would make this a great band.


(but the odds of me playing with this group again, after that experience, are slim.)

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Thursday: I was supposed to have a bass lesson but Will is still recovering from surgery so it's a day off. Practice, some chores, the usual.

Friday: Another day off, I'll cook dinner and probably find other things that need to be done. Still have a lot of crap to list for sale online.

Saturday: Day at Epic.

Sunday: Easter, Easter church gig, eating candy all day with Jameson hopefully, making us a nice-but-basic Easter dinner. Thinking of my mom (Easter was her favorite holiday.)

Addendum: Someone made a video of our full set at Epic a few days ago! I didn't play my best (this was the last set of Tuesday and I was ungodly tired and unfocused) but now you can hear ALL of the lines and see Plume's big reveal, the percussion number, etc!
(and yes, we know we need to be miked, we've been asking for mics from day one and will continue to push for them!!)

Watch on YouTube

Monday, up early for Epic.

It was a fairly normal day, except now people can record us. Crowds were thin but I think it's because most rides and shows are actually up and running, so people don't need to loaf about under the blazing sun when they could be, you know, petting dragons and such.

There was a snippet video of us posted later on, not the full show, just some nice highlights.
This is the first public footage of me performing with Place Cachee Jazz!
(the timestamp is 14:04 if the video doesn't automatically start there)



Between shows I practiced a little, but there still just isn't time for it...by the time I get everything set up I've only got 10 minutes to play. If there were a dedicated warm-up room I could leave my things there, but there isn't.

After work, Whole Paycheck for the hot bar and some favorites (tofu bites, Koia shakes) before booking it home to pack for tomorrow and practice bass.

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Tuesday, Epic again.

It was a bit drizzly in the morning which made it cooler :)

We did one show without the cart (mostly to protect Plume the puffskein from drizzle) and the rest were with the cart. All of the shows went well, though some were a bit underattended.

TMI WARNING (nothing explicit, just talk about "gut stuff")
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I also felt malaise during the second-to-last show, it felt like either my usual nerves/stress physical reaction or something that I ate causing abdominal cramps, or perhaps both. Sometimes this happens. I've suspected for a while that I've got stress-related IBS or something similar, but since I don't feel nauseous, stop eating, or lose weight due to these episodes, I generally ignore them. A buildup of stress? A reaction to something I ate? Something more sinister? As a Millennial American, I have no financial way of knowing unless it becomes a medical emergency or starts significantly disrupting my daily life. It must be nice to have the privilege of simply seeing a doctor when you don't feel well. What must that be like! Only my parents and grandparents got to enjoy that before pulling the ladder up behind them.
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Rant over...but not really.
I'll probably die from something completely preventable, thanks to this, so will never not be angry about it.
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Anyway, it was a normal day and I drove straight home afterward. It took me a while to pack breakfast, lunch, dinner, and clothing for Disney tomorrow, and afterward I wanted to rest and make sure I'm not getting sick (based on tmi events above.) Ate dinner and dessert just fine...who knows.

Also, on the way home I was listening to NPR and they were discussing the workings of immigration court. I was gratified to hear the host describe the details of the work I've been doing for the past several months. It also made me worried, for the first time, about what it means that immigration trials are currently on hold. And with Trump deporting people like he's doing. That's peoples' rights on hold.

Not for my sake at all...I really hope that immigration hearings resume soon. Because people who come to this country are supposed to have rights. And if these cases DON'T resume....it's pretty damn bad sign.

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I got to sleep in a bit later, 7:30am!
A relaxing morning of breakfast and seeing Jameson off to the gym, then I left for the Magic Kingdom.

The weather was calm and clear, not too hot even, and attendance was clearly up. We had great crowds all day!

Apparently Wednesdays are when the Dapper Dans rehearse under the Castle. They were with us in the warm-up room all day (not the group performing in the park that day, but a different set of four guys, possibly subs.) This meant that the band guys mostly stuck to their man-cave break room, and I stayed in the warm-up room because to me that IS the break room. The Dappers didn't mind at all, so I got to enjoy sitting quietly between sets and listening to their lovely harmonies all day :)

Here's a clip of them in the park.
(For those who are LJ or DW Friends, you'll get to see a video of their actual rehearsal today in a separate Friends Only post!)



We added "Heigh-Ho" to the parade music, and it went quite well. I was glad I'd memorized it in time.
Overall a really nice day.

Small introspection: it is a wondrous thing to be working at two amusement parks right now, one old and one new.
I've possibly mentioned this in previous posts, but felt it again today.

At Epic, everything is frantic with the energy and chaos of a new park about to open.
Everything is innovative and novel, the landscape is constantly changing, excitement is high, things are moving quickly.
There is an incredible undertow of hope and anticipation.
It is stressful, but also exciting.
There is a feeling of being a pioneer of sorts...every day I am aware that I am one of the first to walk these halls, to ride these rides, to look upon this newly-made "world."
My voice--the sound of my instrument--is one of the first to echo in the Ministry of Magic.
Those who work here, right now, are the first to call this park "home."
There's a wonderful feeling of pride to be a part of this new venture, a phenomenon about to be revealed that will surprise and delight millions, and touch the hearts of people around the world.
Memories waiting to be made. A legacy waiting to be written.

(photo courtesy Orlando Sentinel)

And then the next day I'm at Disney, riding the employee bus to the Castle.
The bus drivers are chill and friendly, take time to smile and greet everyone, and in return employees wave and shout, "Thank you!" as they get on off the bus.
Everyone walks patiently into the Utilidors, chatting and clocking in, most already in costume.
Nothing seems rushed or frantic; routines here are established.
Everyone knows their role and if they don't they've got someone to guide them.
The floor is worn, worn, worn by the feet of thousands of Castmembers before us.
The walls are covered in the legacy of Walt Disney...his image, his art, his innovations new and old.
Decades of memories. A legacy writ so deep that it has become a part of human existence.
There is a feeling of pride equally deep...of being part of an old magic, a cherished treasure passed down like an heirloom through time and space.
There is a feeling of belonging.

(photo courtesy AllEars.net)

Both places have such strong magic.
Standing with one foot in each world, as I'm doing, leaves me awestruck when I stop to think about it.

What a treasure.

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Thursday: "Day off" for me, so catching up on housework and practicing AND supporting Jameson as he has another interview with DEG today!

Friday: Epic Universe, but rehearsal is at NIGHT for the first time! I can't wait to see Place Cachee all lit up :)

Saturday: Day off, supposedly meeting with someone to talk about bass trombone mutes.

Sunday: I picked up another day at the Magic Kingdom, hooray!!

The preview day that Jameson and I selected for Epic Universe was Saturday April 5th.

We got up a bit early and fought traffic to the guest parking lot.
(This is one thing that still badly needs work...it took us 20 minutes to get into the lot from less than a mile away, and the park isn't even open yet! I really hope they add more access points soon.)

As we were parking, my WhatsApp started pinging. It was my Epic Universe group chat.
The photo/media ban had been lifted! We were allowed to take pictures and video!!
And here I was pulling up to the park, ready for a full day of seeing it!!

I've never had much luck with money...but BOY do I have good luck with life experiences!!

As we were walking to the Chronos portal, parking employees and security guards and EVERYONE was shouting to guests, "The photo ban is lifted! Take pictures! Take video!" One even screamed, "Someone, take a photo of meeeee!!!"

Everyone has had to keep quiet for SO LONG. It's hard! I think we are all relieved and excited to share what we've been working on all this time!

The Chronos portal, the entrance to Epic Universe, and my first photo of the park!


We walked in and were in Celestial Park, which is the hub where all the "world" portals meet.
Here there are gardens, lots of food options, rides, and kiosks for future shops (most of which are still closed.)
It is a very beautiful park, and has been well-documented already, so I didn't take many photos here.

(stock image)

The primary ride offerings are the Stardust Racers coasters, and the carousel.
We watched the coasters for a while...they are beautiful to see, and I've heard that they're one of the best coasters Universal has ever done. I can believe it. The carousel was running, so we rode that. The animals are not attached at the ceiling, which makes for a really cool effect and you also go up higher than expected! The animals are all based on constellations. It doesn't move in a plain circle like a traditional carousel, either, and that was surprising and fun.

CLICK HERE to see my footage of riding the carousel

We continued to the Wizarding World / Ministry of Magic portal, because we wanted to grab a drink and catch my show's set before seeing the Circus Arcanus show.


It was such a cool thing, to walk into this park as a guest for the first time.
Looking around...there was where we rehearsed for 3 hours one day because there were paint fumes where we normally rehearsed. Here's the wall I watched someone "age" for a week. There's the shop where we got to watch a magical creature animatronic being installed. It is truly such a special thing to have seen a theme park being built from the ground up!

Anyway, we first stopped at Bar Moonshine for a fancy cocktail featuring absinthe and limoncello (no idea what else was in it but it was delicious!)


I could hear my group performing outside, so as soon as we had our drinks we rushed out.

For the first time: meet Phillipa, Chandler, Jules, and our puffskein named Plume!!!

CLICK HERE for footage of the band performing!




(video and first 2 photos from Attractions Magazine, last photo from me)

I am SO GLAD that we don't have to hide our show any more!!!

These three (Mariah as "Phillipa," Adrian as "Chandler," Adam as "Jules") are "the PR Trio" that I've been talking about.
They're the three who are chosen to perform any time there's a PR event or Warner Bros. execs in the park. So of course they did an amazing job today!!

After they finished I was gratified to see one of our stage managers take a group photo of them and immediately share it on LinkedIn. The media ban is INDEED lifted. Hooray!

(photo courtesy Brendan)

Soon, I'll have media of my own performances to share! How exciting!

We finished our drinks quickly and queued up for Cirque Arcanus.

Jameson in the queue. The theming of the queue gave us both a bit of nostalgia for our time with Ringling Bros.


The show was, once again, mind-blowingly incredible.
I'll say it again: if you get a chance to visit Epic Universe, this show is a MUST. Make time for it in your itinerary.
The level of performance, and staging technology, happening in this show, is going to change the entertainment industry.

We explored some of the Place Cachee shops and mentally bookmarked some things that we might want.
We visited Cosme's wand shop so I could show Jameson the circus Ringmaster's wand, and introduce him to Cosme herself (all of the Place Cachee / Ministry of Magic performers share break rooms and dressing rooms, so I see all of the Cosme performers, Aurors, Exchange Students, Living Portraits, and Circus performers, EVERY day!) Cosme has a custom wand, and showed it to Jameson, that was super cool :)

We then used my wand to cast a few spells around the park, getting a niffler to drop it's horde of coins and making some musical instruments move around in a shop window!

From there we entered the portal to Super Nintendo World.
The last time I was able to go, the park was still heavily under construction. This was my first time seeing it complete!

CLICK HERE to see the portal to Super Nintendo Land courtesy Attractions Magazine

We saw that Mario and Luigi were out for a meet-and-greet, and only had to wait about 10 minutes for that!


We explored the gift shops and saw LOTS of things that we wanted, but managed to narrow it down to a few things haha.
Since it was about lunch time we decided to eat at Toadstool Cafe.

(stock image)

The theming in there is absolutely adorable. Every once in a while Bowser's flying battleship floats through and the lights dim, things become ominous, ADORABLE, then it moves on and the Mushroom Kingdom continues going about it's business :D

All of the restaurants in the park, by the way, are self-serve, which is SO MUCH FASTER.
There are QR codes at every table. You scan them for the menu, pick what you want, order it, and pay.
Done. No waiting for the check. No hoping your server heard you say "No mayo" above the racket. You just eat and leave when you're ready. We absolutely loved the convenience of this throughout the day!

Anyway, We got a bunch of foods to try!

Jameson had spaghetti and meatballs. I tried his meatball and it was delicious, tender and with a little bit of spicy heat (not too much, just barely noticeable and very tasty!)

(LA Times photo)

I had the chicken Caesar salad, which I realize is "boring" but A) look at the adorable Super Star plating! B) I knew we'd be eating A LOT today so tried to at least be slightly healthy here lol.


Mushroom-shaped "garlic knots." Very tasty!


Our dessert, a Question Box tiramisu. The question box was shortbread cookies, and inside was an absolutely decadent and delicious tiramisu. We enjoyed it very much, and it looked so cute!


We decided to walk our lunch off at Berk.

(stock image)

This is the only park I'd never visited during construction, so I was very excited to see it. It did not disappoint! The theming is immersive and adorable. It's a land definitely geared toward a younger audience, but it is also beautiful and there's lots of people of all ages to enjoy. We tried to ride a Viking water boat ride/shooting game, but it broke down while we were in queue so we ended up bailing. Then we queued up for a Toothless meet-and-greet, which was going smoothly until a huge crowd of INFLUENCERS showed up with media passes and bogarted the line (-_-#) What started as a 15-minute wait became an hour.

But we consoled ourselves with the knowledge that once the park was open, the wait would be at least 2 hours long, daily. Not only that, during previews meal and merch prices are HALF OFF. There were only about 11,000 people in the entire park, across all the worlds. Every queue that we were in, every experience that we enjoyed today, was EXCEPTIONAL compared to what paying guests will have to endure. We made very sure not to EVER forget that, and be appreciative even while waiting!!

Finally, our patience was rewarded :)

CLICK HERE to see our meet and greet with Toothless!



As you can see from the video, the level of expressiveness and interaction from Toothless is astounding. I know that he is controlled by a puppeteer, and also some of his sounds and expressions are controlled by someone with an iPad somewhere. Seeing al this artistry and tech come together in this experience was absolutely wonderful. We got to see several small children interacting with Toothless, and you could tell...they completely thought he was REAL. It's going to be a very memorable experience for kids and their parents, that's for sure.

We saw lots of other cool interactive tidbits throughout this world, including an Astrid and Stormfly meet and greet, and several fun statues that would move or make noise if you turned a big wheel at their base. I'm sure loads of footage will be forthcoming...we didn't take as much footage here because of all the media/press swarming around while we were in this world. I felt silly with my little phone while surrounded by people wearing stabilizers and high-fidelity mics and thousands of dollars-worth of media gear. Let them document this for you :)

We entered the Untrainable Dragon stage show. You can already see this show in its entirety on YouTube because it's in Universal Beijing. Jameson had seen it before, but I hadn't. Again, the technology and puppetry, animatronics and acting and staging, all made for an incredible show! In my opinion the Circus show is still "the groundbreaking one," but this show is also extremely impressive and well worth seeing if you can stand the wait.

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We wandered Berk a bit looking for the Mead Hall, yet somehow couldn't find it? Not sure what our problem was haha.
From there we went to Dark Universe for a cooldown and a drink. The Toothless queue had been in the sun for nearly an hour, and the show queue hadn't been much cooler. Stepping into Das Stakehaus, we were greeted by blessed darkness and cool air :D The whole ambiance is to make you feel like you're underground, among twisted tree roots and coffins shifting in the soil of the walls. The lighting is reddish and dim, and it flickers every once in a while whenever Frankenstein's daughter harnesses the town's electricity for one of her experiments.

In other words, it's a VERY cool restaurant!

(stock image. I'm sorry for all the stock images but I was far more intent on enjoying my experience than being an influencer!)

Jameson had a spiced beer, and I enjoyed a Darkthorne Mead which was a very tangy, sweet cider featuring blackberries, vanilla, and spices. Jameson took a lot of footage here for his mom, who enjoys all things spooky.

Outside the restaurant it is quite themed too. Some vampires on display:


As we were rounding a corner we saw Bride of Frankenstein doing a meet-and-greet! Couldn't resist!
We had a big ol' philosophical discussion. She knew right away that I was a musician....I wonder how.... ;)

CLICK HERE to see our interaction with Bride of Frankenstein



I'm kind of going out of order here, but actually the first thing we did when we got to Darkmoor / Dark Universe was try to ride Monsters Unchained. I was very apprehensive about it, but Jameson really wanted to try it so I screwed up my courage.

Nothing to do with monsters....EVERYTHING to do with MOTION SICKNESS.

The queue was incredibly themed and amazing to walk through, I'm sure there will be MANY spoilers soon (HERE is one of the ride.) The preshow is apparently amazing too...but we didn't get that far. Right before the preshow is a holding area where they show you what the ride will be like...yikes. I could feel the blood draining from my face as I watched the seats jerk around, sideways and around and nearly upside-down. Nope. Even just 5 minutes of that was going to be too much. Universal is known for using high-res screens and simulated motion to create an immersive experience. This is not something that my brand of motion sickness can handle, at all. Jameson and I looked at each other, then backed out, following the single-rider lane out to the gift shop.

I'm sorry that we missed out, but also, crisis averted. This was a definite case of "know thyself." Many other people will greatly enjoy this ride. For us, it would have ended the day!

We returned to Super Nintendo World to ride some rides we KNEW we could handle lol.
The Mario Kart ride was awesome! First the queue, which was themed to look like Bowser's castle study. The second part was a factory for the Bomber Bills and Bob-ombs, I didn't record that part. Bowser's study was great, I loved the titles of the books, the Bowser-sized furniture, and the little Boos floating around!

CLICK HERE to see my footage of Mario Kart queue

The ride itself uses Augmented Reality, which is just so incredibly cool and immersive. It felt like you were really in the game at times! There probably won't be many POVs of this ride because cameras won't be able to focus through the AR goggles. If you've played Mario Kart, it's very similar. Jameson got 117 coins, I won with 132! TAKE THAT MUAHAHAHAHAAAA :p

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We rode Yoshi's Adventure as well. It's meant for little kids BUT is worth riding for the incredible view of Nintendo World. HERE'S a good clip of the ride in Japan, the one in Orlando is exactly the same.

We went back to the gift shops for the items we'd picked out earlier, then returned to Ministry of Magic for dinner.
Neither of us were deeply hungry, so we treated ourselves to butterbeer and butterbeer crepes.
I got to try the crepes during restaurant testing/rehearsal, but Jameson had never had them and he loved them.
Definitely one of the best dessert offerings in the parks!


We cast a few more spells, including a kite shop spell that blasted air on us and a mysterious shop where a Demiguise apparated and then faded away. So cool.
We then walked the Ministry of Magic queue. The ride was not open (it's had troubles since day one), but the queue is so immersive, incredible, themed, and MASSIVE, you have GOT to check it out!

THIS Attractions Magazine footage is better than what I got, so check it out! Simply astounding.

We hit one more gift shop, then it was after 7pm and time for us to leave.

Wow.

Such an incredible experience, that we were grateful to have.
Being able to see and do as much as we did, without massive crowds and essentially for free/at significantly reduced cost, and with a fraction of the wait times, is something that will NEVER happen again in our lifetimes. This was an experience I'll never forget!!

Back home, I lined up our modest merch haul for a photo.


Jameson got the Mario Kart magnets for himself.
He also bought me that Place Cachee picture frame shaped like the Phoenix Arch. He got it so I can put my first decent show photo in it. This was so thoughtful and sweet! I can't wait to find a good photo for it!

For myself, I got a Chain Chomp shirt and a matching Chain Chomp enamel pin (Jameson saw it at the register so I HAD to get it lol)
The Japanese text says "Wanwan," that's what Chain Chomp was originally called. "Wan wan" is the sound of a dog barking.

My wand is pictured just because I've shared it here in Friends Only posts, but not in public ones (I think.)
We also kept our Bar Moonshine cups as a sort of souvenir.

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I know I've said it like 80 times but this was such an incredible experience.

I know that the park will be packed and crazy and expensive the minute it opens. But in a year or two, if you have a chance to visit, I highly recommend it. There is no other theme park like it out there. Even with previews (not all rides working, not all restaurants and shops open) we had an incredible time, and this is going to be well worth a visit for anyone coming to Orlando.

Thanks for following my journey of working for Epic Universe, and getting to experience it!

Starting today, there will be LOADS of footage of the entire park.
The jig is up, the secret is revealed!

I cannot wait to work in coming days and see footage of our show popping up!!