goofball on a train

I think I actually slept all right, though had weird dreams about a huge crocodile coming after me in the water because I didn't give it an offering (this seems like a mash-up of TikTik account @fishingarret, which I did watch before bed, and the Mugger of the Ghaut from The Second Jungle Book)

Anyway, before I could run off and have fun I had to do my cooking.
Hello Itaki, it's been a while :)


I cooked my chicken breasts first, in a regular chicken broth and seasoned with Goldy's spice blend and black pepper.
Next were the tilapia filets from Harmon's, also given the spice blend and pepper treatment before going into a turmeric ginger chicken broth.


I have a good sense of timing for the Itaki, and pulled the fish at the perfect time. It was flaky and moist, and the seasoning was great! Ate some of it for lunch with a challah roll and veggies.

Then a whole bunch of emailing and blog updating and meal planning before getting an Uber to the Natural History Museum!!
( Museum Stuff! )

By this time I had spent a solid two hours in the museum, and was getting tuckered.
I was about to head back downstairs when I noticed some people going out onto a sort of patio, and decided to follow them and see what was out there. An incredible view, that's what. (CLICK HERE to see)

There was lots of signage describing the atmospheric phenomenons, cloud structures, solar impacts of blah blah blah, but I just wanted to fill my eyeballs and not necessarily understand the mechanisms this time. It was 3pm, and the sky was just otherworldly.


Imagine what the sunsets must be like.

Unedited proof that I was here.


After that I did call an Uber, which was supposed to take me to Walgreens but we got held up by a "Free Palestine" protest. I was only a few blocks away so popped out of the car in the middle of stopped traffic, watched the protest for a while, then continued on to Walgreens just for a jug of distilled water for my tea kettle.

Back at the hotel I made myself tea and had snacks, and chatted with Jameson while he got ready for the premiere of Jollywood!! I can't believe the show goes live tonight!! He is SO HANDSOME in a suit :D


If you'd like to watch the new Jollywood show CLICK HERE.
Jameson is on the left upper level, sitting across from the blonde female keyboardist.

For dinner I had decided to try Zest, a vegan restaurant around the corner from the hotel.
It had great reviews, but I got a bad vibe as soon as I stepped in. 5:30pm on a Saturday, with a vibrant night life in SLC and lots of events happening downtown, and there were TWO people in the dining room. That should have been my cue to leave, but I didn't take it.

Here's what I ordered from the menu: "coconut yellow curry w/forbidden black rice and sesame stir fry vegetables, mung bean "tofu", sesame seeds, and cashews."

Here's what I got: green curry w/plain white rice in straight-up unseasoned coconut cream, with overcooked squash, bok choy, and green peppers, and mung bean "tofu."

AND IT WAS $25.

As soon as it came out I said something (I mean when you order BLACK rice and it is stark white, and the curry is green not yellow, something is clearly not right), and the server said, "Oh, our menu changed, the yellow curry was a SUMMER dish, this is our FALL curry."
Yeah ok, but like when were you going to tell ME that? Never, I guess. He seemed surprised that I had said something. I decided to eat it anyway--I really shouldn't have, but apparently my self-preservation was in the "off" setting tonight. Not only was it not at all what I'd ordered, it just was not good. The green curry broth itself was flavorful and nice, but the rest of it I'm sorry to say was just LAME. Overcooked eggplant and zucchini, bland goopy rice...and for $25!!!

I wrote them a scathing review but have to wait until we leave town to post it (it's one of the rules of traveling with a show, not to start a stink and invoke repercussions that could reflect badly on the company.) Man, what a disappointment. It WAS edible, but I could have easily made that in my hotel room with the Itaki and done a better job of it. I feel like such a sucker out-of-towner. I should have REALLY looked around and realized that the locals have shunned this place, and there must be a reason.

Ah well. This kind of thing happens from time to time. I'll have to take it as a "fool me once."
The rest of the day was lovely, so if that was the worst part of it I can't complain!

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Sunday was an early sound check because we had two shows, the first one being at 1pm.
So at 9am I was at the theatre warming up. It's a pretty one with a sparkly ceiling.


Sound check was fine, just running through a few numbers for the orchestra and then with the actors doing mic checks on stage. Back to the hotel for lunch, then back again for the first show. I thought it went well AND it was sold out, all three balcony levels were completely full! Yay! We did have a prop bouquet of fake flowers fall into the pit and hit Eileen (French horn), and it's not like a fluffy bouquet, it's a BATON with flowers tied to it, so she said it did hurt. That'll probably be an incident report. That's the second large object to fall into the pit so far, maybe we need a traveling pit net.

Otherwise it went well. Dinner at the hotel, then show number two, which also went well.

And then, opening night party!


It was at a restaurant a few blocks from the theatre, and what a nice setup we had!
Good food, really great mixed drinks (although I stuck with wine myself)


I tried to mingle but am not great socially, plus most of these people know each other already.


One fantastic surprise was my friend Tyler, who was my tour manager over a decade ago with another touring company and just last year was hired by my current touring company to do bookkeeping and tour management! I knew he'd been hired on, but didn't expect to see him here!! We haven't seen each other since 2008!! I didn't get a pic with him but should have! Ah well. We got caught up as much as we could in the loud environment, and it was just great to see him again. It is amazing that we met on tour so long ago, and our paths intersected again for the second time tonight. The entertainment world is a small one indeed :)

I drank and had some finger foods and a slice of cake, and chatted it up with mostly members of the band.
Somehow I managed to stay for almost the whole party (10pm-12am), but peaced out right before the end.
We were each given a lovely gift bag, which I checked out back at the hotel.


Inside were two luggage tags (obligatory, I've met people who use these as a sort of flex to display all of the shows they've been on) and a warm fluffy dusky-blue My Fair Lady hoodie! (It looks grey in the photo but it's not, promise.) I was impressed that they'd given me "my" size without having to ask me about it...I guess someone actually checked my existing records to see what size I am.


Not great photos but it was late at night and hotel lighting, you understand.
Everyone, male and female, also received these flower necklaces. I don't go in for jewelry but did appreciate how short the chains were, it will not interfere with my tromboning so I may actually wear it from time to time.


Overall, really nice party, and I appreciated the chance to interact with my peers outside of work hours :)

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Monday is another day off! Wow!
I'm definitely going to go for a walk, where exactly is TBD.
We also have single evening shows all week so really every day this week is quite free and open, there's no need to cram a lot into one day just because the evening is free. I expect to have small adventures here in Salt Lake, see some sights, play some shows, and then fly back to Orlando for that pesky overnight rehearsal (omg I can't think about it, I'll freak out!)

Other stuff:

There is a pup at this theatre named Tuukka who greets everyone who comes backstage!


Someone stuck googly eyes on this stairs sign. Watch OUT for those stairs, they're gonna getcha!