Rain Down On Me

So Raleigh turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag. Here are some of the highlights and lowlights:

-The hotel was nice enough, but it was full of little annoyances. Firstly they did not offer free wireless internet. They supplied us all with cables to access the internet in our room. Unfortunately that set up went wonky in the middle of the week. So I was basically without internet for most of my time in Raleigh. We heard phantom construction noises all morning and afternoon in the hotel. It did not bother me too much, but most of the actors did not enjoy waking up to the sound of drilling and sawing early in the morning. Then there were the children. On Friday and Saturday, the hotel was host to some sort of Christian Children's event. I truly felt like I had died and gone to hell. They were loud and obnoxious, and woke everyone up in the morning. I personally fell prey to the old "push every button in the elevator" ploy. Thankfully I was only going down a couple of floors. Our perseverance did pay off in the end. Enough of the company complained about the kids that the hotel gave every member of The Wedding Singer company a free night.

-The warm weather lasted only two days in Raleigh. For those of you out there (Scott) who may have been doing the bad weather dance in the general direction of Raleigh it worked. We went from 80 degrees and sunny on Friday to the 40s and rainy on Saturday. I discovered this as I was leaving to make the 20 minute walk to the gym Saturday morning in my t-shirt and shorts. That was a miserable walk especially coming back after sweating for an hour!

-I did find one good restaurant to eat at, The Red Room Tapas place. Everything else was a bust. I had what was probably the worst Pad Thai that I have ever eaten while in Raleigh, and I have eaten Pad Thai in many different places!

-Oh and speaking of the rain, we discovered on Saturday that the theatre's roof was a bit leaky. I had a couple drops of rain hit my shoulder while sitting in the pit. I let the Stage Manager know about it (not that he could really do much though). It turned out to not be a problem until Sunday. On Sunday the drips were worse. They were falling on the conductor, on one of the keyboards, on me, and on the edges of the stage. In fact at one point there was so much dripping that it looked like it was raining on stage! Now we do have a water effect in the show, but this was ridiculous. The picture above is of the puddle that had collected by my chair in the pit. Here I am suffering for my art!

- I am now in Fort Myers where it is sunny and will hopefully stay so. I also get to look forward to visits from Jimmy and Uncle Glenn and his entourage. It promises to be a fun week! I even went out and bought some swimming trunks tonight. Me at the beach. I think that the camera will be staying home if that happens!!!

Do You Raleigh Think So?

I realize that I probably will receive many hate comments for posting these pictures. But so far the best thing about Raleigh has been the weather. It was in the 70s yesterday, and should reach 80 today. It is a "warm up" for Fort Myers next week I suppose. (Pun was intended)

Goodbye St. Louis, Hello Raleigh

We arrived in Raleigh this morning leaving our two weeks in St. Louis behind. Here are some thoughts:

-St. Louis turned out to be more fun than I had anticipated. The first day that I walked around downtown it was like a ghost town. Raleigh seems like a ghost town, but I have learned to reserve judgement.

-I am going to add some more pictures of the Fox Theatre to Flickr. My pictures of the house did not turn out so well. I tried to be sneaky one afternoon and take pictures with no flash. Most of them turned out slightly out of focus. (As one would expect) So on Sunday after our last show I was brave and took some with the flash. What were they going to do kick me out of the theatre? Unfortunately the bright lights in the house were on so some of those pictures are dark. So you are getting a combination of okay pictures and blurry ones. I am also including some shots of the various wall paintings different shows have left backstage over the years. I had a hard time getting a picture of ours because it was a tight corner hallway with dim lighting. I guess that we are not as important as Chita Rivera!

-A big thank you to Earle for taking my reed and mouthpiece order today. I am playing through reeds at an alarming rate. I asked the other reed player for mouthpiece recommendations in the hopes that I will find one that will take softer reeds and require less blowing my brains out! We shall see.

-Raleigh has a CVS just 3 blocks from the hotel!

-I ate at a Tapas Bar tonight. I had seared scallops with chipotle-cauliflower puree and orange-sherry gastrique. The cauliflower puree did not have much taste just a little kick. The gastrique was okay, but I did not feel that either sauce was an amazing pairing with the scallops. I also had a tuna tartar with cucumbers, cilantro, lime juice, spicy mustard served on fried pita. The tartar more than made up for the somewhat disappointing scallops! It was fantastic. Given my obsessive tendencies, I see more tuna tartar in my future!

Bailey's with a splash of the family

So today was group number two of visitors to The Wedding Singer. Yes Mom and Jamie made the 5 hour drive down to St. Louis to see the show. I am guessing by their reaction (mostly Mom's) that it was worth the trip. Certainly it was worth it to show off the new "boyinthepit's Mother" sweatshirt. So they got in a bit early and I sent them to the Nadoz Cafe. I did not hear what they had to eat, but I had a most yummy Curry chicken panini there the other day. They saw the show, and were surprised (well again mostly Mom) by what I am not revealing here on the blog as of yet. Afterwards we attempted to get a few pictures. Now in my defense, I did have my camera, but I left the memory card in my computer after uploading the cotton candy pictures. So once again I had guests and no pictures to show for it. Jamie did snap a couple with his camera phone, and one of them is attached to this post. (I love that it says Jersey Boys. Maybe when that tour goes non-union...) We ended up going to Bailey's Chocolate Bar for dinner. Yay!! This time we branched out into their pizzetas. I had a yummy sausage one, and Jamie had mushroom. We did also get a cheese platter. Note to Brian Jose, if you are ever there again with more than 2 people sharing the cheese platter, get the extra bread. It is certainly worth the $3. After leaving Bailey's they dropped me off at the theatre. I left them with some of my winter clothes, and they brought a bag of my summer clothers. And as I type this message at midnight, they should have gotten home by now. It was a fun time for me, hopefully they also agree. Now the question is: Will Mom be able to resist coming to another town to see the show again? Pittsburgh is only 7 hours and 22 minutes according to Yahoo Maps!

How many musicians does it take...

to make a batch of cotton candy? Yes Gregg, our drummer, now has a cotton candy machine at the theatre. Why you might ask? Well it is a long story, and you really needed to be there. But suffice it to say that we now have a cotton candy machine. Sadly contrary to what you might be thinking, we have not been enjoying any cotton candy yet. Gregg got it yesterday before the evening show, and through a combination of not reading the instructions properly and overzealousness, we were unsuccessful in actually making the sugary treat. Most people got pelted with pink sugar though. Well we still have over two months left to perfect the technique.

An addendum to the original post: Gregg has now had success with the cotton candy machine. The problem that we face is that it takes too long to warm up so we generally do not have enough time to make large quantities of candy. It is too loud to have in the pit, and we do not leave it on in the dressing room for fear that it will end up coating the entire room with sugar! Ah the trials and tribulations of being a musician!

Jellicle Cats come out tonight

So last week it was the High School Musical Ice Show performers that were in town. (Or Skating Marys as they were affectionately known!) They were in the same hotel, and we met some of them in a bar one night. I actually considered going to see their Thursday 10:30am show. (I did see Starlight Express on Ice after all!) But when no one else was committed to go, I realized that it would be me alone with a stadium full of teenage girls. Needless to say, I quickly came to the conclusion that I would rather pull off my fingernails with rusty tweezers!

Tonight the touring cast of Cats was making a stopover on their way to Kansas City. Now the theatre world is small enough, but reduce that to the world of non union touring theatre and the degrees of separation become almost nothing. So we all tried to go out to a club to hear a singer and her band. When we arrived the club was too full and so went to a club across the street. I got to meet the current Grizabella, Munkustrap, and Rum Tug Tugger on the Cats tour. They all seemed to be nice enough, but it was an education of how good we have it on our tour. They are traveling by bus. We are flying. The Cats performers have a 2 hour call (3 when they are in a new city). Our actors generally show up at one hour before curtain. We musicians show up at half hour. And we do not have to play Memory night after night! For once the grass is not greener on the other side!

Saturday Night in the City with Brian Jose

So for those who do not know, my good friend Brian is a fellow IU alumni and a fellow performer. I have traveled many different places to see Brian in shows. The most memorable being the trip to see Brian in Miss Saigon at Gateway Playhouse on Long Island with Eric and his incredible smoking car. (To summarize we made it to the theatre but the engine was issuing a great deal of smoke when we parked the car. The only way that we were able to make it back to Manhattan was to drive 30mph on the Long Island Expressway and stop every few miles to refill the engine fluids!) But I digress.

One of the most exciting parts of the tour for me is that finally my New York / college friends now have a chance to hear me play a show that does not involve coming out to Nappanee. Brian was actually the first to plan his visit to The Wedding Singer. He has a friend, Danny (I'm so bad with names! Brian please correct me if I am mistaken.) who lives in St. Louis so he killed two birds with one stone.

Brian got into town on Friday, and we went out after the show. We went to a fun place that brews their own root beer called Fitz's Soda Bar and Grill. It is in a very fun college hangout part of town called the Loop. They were also kind enough to take me to a Walgreens afterwards to stock up on some essentials! Again see the complaint about the lack of drug stores in downtown St. Louis!

Brian and Danny then saw the show Saturday night. Afterwards the plan was to go to a place called Bailey's Chocolate Bar that was much hyped by Brian. I am happy to report that it lived up to the hype. Obviously Bailey's specializes in chocolate items, but they have other fun treats. Brian and I ended up splitting our meal. We started off with a cheese platter. They have a list of cheeses divided up into three price categories. We opted for three cheeses; fontina, brie, and a Norwegian cheese called Gjetost. The platter also came with an assortment of breads, berries, and nuts. The whole presentation was fantastic, but the Gjetost was the stand out. It was unlike any cheese that I have ever eaten. It was very soft, almost the consistency of peanut butter, and had a very nutty taste. I paired the cheese with a glass of pinot grigio. Then we split a pear bread pudding dessert. Needless to say it was to die for! I also got a white chocolate raspberry martini with dessert. Not that the martini went particularly well with the pudding, but it is a chocolate bar after all. I needed to get something chocolate! I am trying to convince some of the actors that we need to take a trip to Bailey's. Hopefully I will be successful as I really want to go back!

All in all it is a most fun weekend with Brian. I am glad that he got a chance to hear me play, and see the amazing Fox Theatre. Also many thanks to Danny for driving us around town. It was a pleasure to hang out with him as well! Sadly though I had my camera, I was a dunce and did not take any pictures with the boys! Curses!

The Saga of Atlantic City

So from the very beginning of my time here, there have been these rumors of possibly extending the tour to include 9 weeks in Atlantic City. The company manager asked me on my first day if I would be able to play for the extension. Unfortunately I am using up all of my gig leave time with the three months that I originally agreed to play. If I had known beforehand, I might have been able to work it out, but I cannot give up my day job for 9 weeks of work. Also considering the verbal abuse that I received at the hands of my coworker, I shudder to think what the reaction to an additional 9 weeks of gig leave would be. I would probably have to negotiate for an armed bodyguard!

Now that the details of the extension are coming out, I am not as disappointed that I cannot do it. They are cutting the living stipend for everyone because the hotel is more expensive. They are providing free meals cards for the company to use at the casino, but the company is staying 6 miles away from the casino in a Clarion Inn. It also sounds like most of the orchestra will not be extending so it is going to be an almost entirely new orchestra. Plus I am just not sure that I want to spend 9 weeks in Atlantic City. Everyone says that it is rundown and depressing. Oh well!

Crazy, fun times at the Flamingo Bowl

So I have been with the tour now for 2 weeks, and this is my 4th night of free drinks. It was also the first open bar night. And what a night it was! I was very proud of myself. Even after 5 pints of hefeweizen, I was still able to bowl in a way that did not endanger anyone else. I was actually alternating strikes with nothing. Eddie beat me in the one drawn out crazy affair that was our attempt at bowling. Curses!

Some of the highlights of the evening include smuggling out a piece of a broken ball. How the ball got broken I do not know, but Gregg the drummer is now a proud owner of a piece of it. Holding that stereotypical "drunken" conversation with Merritt the star of our show. It was the dreaded, "Hey man I respect you. I respect people who do different things like you do..." conversation. (I am assuming that he meant the repair work?!?!) It even included a fair amount of friendly finger poking. Well that is when he was seeing straight enough to be able to find me. Ah good times!

But in general it was everyone getting together having a good time and taking the concept of open bar not as a mere invitation, but as a challenge!

It has been the day of free stuff!

Okay so this has been a fantastic weekend. Mr. Brian Jose was in town and saw the show on Saturday night with his friend. I will write more about that when I have the time. I want to do our trip to Bailey's Chocolate Bar justice!

Today though has been all about free stuff. We had a meeting between shows with the NETworks general manager about the Atlantic City extension of the tour. Again I will expand upon that when I have the time. But we got free pizza in between shows because of the meeting. Then as the musicians were sitting around talking with the GM, we somehow managed to get him to agree to an open bar and free bowling at the Flamingo Bowl! Thus the reason for my abbreviated blog entry. We are scheduled from 11pm to 1am. So I am leaving in a few minutes. Hey, I have some priorities in life! Free drinks and bowling!

A few thoughts...

-Firstly I went to the St. Louis Art Museum today. It was a pretty average art museum as these things go, but I had an extraordinary lunch at the Wolfgang Puck restaurant in the museum. I had seared scallops on a bed of corn pudding. It was garnished with some edible flowers and greens. Very tasty!

-The downtown area of St. Louis is pretty depressing. There are many closed down shops and old buildings sitting empty. There is a Macys, but it is pathetic. In fact I have yet to find a drug store anywhere in downtown. You cannot spit without hitting a Walgreens in the Chicago Loop. Thankfully there are some places to eat. It does make me realize how spoiled I am to have a great city like Chicago so close.

-The Fox Theatre in St. Louis is unbelievable. To begin with it is huge. The orchestra pit is a gigantic chasm that separates the stage from the audience. We are also pretty low in the pit. The decoration of the theatre is out of control. It is very much over the top like the Oriental in Chicago. I am definitely going to have to sneak my camera in and snap some pictures when no one is looking!

-I have added a link to the right for my Flickr photo journal. I don't want to slow up Mom and Dad's computer with too many pictures, so I am putting the majority of my pictures on Flickr.

-Finally, I realized something today that took me by surprise. I am happy. That is not to say that I was unhappy before, but I am currently happy with my life. This tour was absolutely the right thing for me to do at the right time in my life. No regrets at all!

Guess

Arrow points to St. Louis

Charlotte was more fun than I thought it would be. The downtown area was very clean with good restaurants, interesting buildings and sculpture, and it all seems pretty new. Now onto St. Louis!

They are stuck with me now!

The original Reed I player left for Las Vegas today, so there is no turning back. I played again this evening, and it went really well. I still did not play a perfect show, but it was much better than last night. I also did not get any notes tonight. I guess that there is something to be said for actually practicing! Maybe I should do it more often!!

I got to go out to dinner tonight in downtown Charlotte. This is for everyone who might end up in Charlotte, but especially for Sherry K. Mert's Heart and Soul was fantastic. Most people who know me would be surprised to hear me recommend a soul food restaurant, but the food was fantastic and very authentic. I had salmon cakes with a side of macaroni and cheese and corn bread. The salmon cakes were very tasty (so tasty in fact that I was tasting them all through the show!) I again have time between shows tomorrow so I will have to see if I can find another fun restaurant!

Well I survived!

I played my first show tonight, and I survived. It went pretty well. I hit one really wrong note, but apparently I am not the first to do that. Plus it was a mechanical issue as opposed to a brain fart. But how does one convey that without sounding like a really big baby? At least I got that out of the way when I can still use the "newbie excuse"!

Ultimately it must have gone well as I only got 3 or 4 notes from the conductor. And now Nate is a nice guy, but he would definitely tell me if he felt something was wrong or could be better. My next show is tomorrow night. I am going to observe again tomorrow afternoon. If nothing else it will save my chops for 2 shows on Sunday!

Surprise!

Firstly, my baggage did arrive yesterday. Unfortunately there was an issue. I should have know as the AirTran baggage representative left me a message saying that he needed to speak to me about my bags. That is never good! It turns out that my bags were "left in the rain". How one's bags could be left in the rain is beyond me, but AirTran is a discount airline after all! So most of my clothes ranged between moist to soaked. I lost a couple of books, but thankfully my clarinet was fine.

Now for the surpirse, I am playing the show tomorrow (Friday). Nate, the conductor, pulled me aside tonight and said, "I hope that this does not rock your world, but the musical supervisor wants you to play Friday night and then observe again on Saturday afternoon." Okay?! I was originally supposed to play Saturday afternoon for the first time. At this point watching one more show is not necessarily going to make much difference so I say, "bring it on!"

Greetings from Charlotte

Okay so I am here in Charlotte. My checked baggage is not here, but at least I am here. I got a voicemail from the AirTran baggage service, but I was already at the theatre so I did not get a chance to call back. Needless to say I will call tomorrow. As much as I need my clothes, I need my clarinet even more. I will also be disputing the $50 upcharge I was forced to pay just so that my third checked bag could not arrive with the other two!

I watched the show tonight from the audience, and I sat in on the sound check. Here are a few thoughts:

Pros:
-I saw the show from 5th row center for free.
-The band is really tight, and sounds good.
-Everyone seems to be really nice. Well so far!
-I think that the show will be really fun to play.
-There was an opening night party at a club called "The Breakfast Club" tonight (appropriate ain't?!). So I have not played a single note yet I got free food and 4 free drinks! I can live with that!
-I start playing the show on Saturday afternoon. The guy that I am replacing is leaving that night. I will have three performances to observe from the pit.
-I do not have to drive!!!!!!

Cons:
-The part that I got in the mail does not exactly match the part that I will be playing. One of the numbers that I practiced the most is transposed down a half step! Curses!
-There is another aspect of the performance that I was unaware of. I will not spoil this for those who are coming to see the show. But this was certainly unexpected!

So hopefully my baggage will show up tomorrow. There is a TJ Max within walking distance, but I would rather not have to buy new clothes on my second day with the tour! Let alone a new clarinet!

Tour Schedule

Here is a brief description of the tour itinerary with the dates, cities, and venues. So far, I know people who are going to try to see the show in 4 different cities!

3/4-3/9 Charlotte, NC Belk PAC
3/11-3/23 St. Louis, MO The Fox
3/25-3/30 Raleigh, NC Progress Energy
4/1-4/6 Fort Myers, FL Barbara B Mann
4/8-4/13 Pittsburgh, PA Benedum Center
4/15-4/27 Dallas, TX Music Hall
4/29-5/4 San Antonio, TX Majestic
5/6-5/18 Houston, TX Hobby Center
5/20-5/25 Tempe, AZ Gammage
5/27-5/28 San Luis Obispo, CA Cohan PAC
5/31-6/1 Escondido, CA California Theater
6/17-6/22 Hartford, CT The Bushnell