catch up

alrighty ... so, winter quarters has long been done, and with that, followed a period of decompression. i think that period just completely drained everyone, and even just now do i feel recovered. it feels more like we're touring again. our first few cities after WQ were all in Florida, a state which, is nice but not when you only see the state fairgrounds and train and that's it, that's it!, that is IT!!!

the plan is to travel up the east coast - as of now, we're in Virginia - norfolk, to be exact. but we'll get there . first, some 2008 highlights

this was my first new year's in a train yard - and it turned out not to be so different from a regular train yard party - and f.y.i. there really AIN'T no party like a train yard party. no fireworks though ... i know, it sounds like a such blasphemy, but it's true. there was lots of music and wonderful cookies from a very special friend. (thanks again!) however, so, all in all, i give it a thumbs up. remember, new year's was not only new years it was also one of VERy few days off, so everybody was really just too exhausted to get really crazy. we did 6 day weeks and 10-12 + hour days .... yada yada yada, did i mention the bisque?

right, so new years... good.

then.... there came something called my birthday - this occured circa February 7th - that was a thursday, but i started celebrating around Feb. 3, a Sunday, as SOON as our last show for the city was over.

i completely skipped out on load out and load in. load out was right after the show sunday night. load in was, i believe, on tuesday. the point is, we had from sunday night till wednesday when sound check was scheduled at 1:00pm.

plenty of time for
1) Super Bowl Watching - i'm not a huge fan, but it Was a great game.
2) Karaoke House Party
3) aMAZING food
3) cool house with a porch swing and
4) hiking in the Appalachians



these first few are from the house of John's stepmom's side of the family's house .... they were having a Super Bowl party
and were most accomodating.


now, i've never been much of a karaoke guy, but, as you can see, that's exactly what took over the evening after the game. they also had a pool table in the garage and a BBQ grill out there, so you really couldn't escape the food.




Some folks got down with some songs in Tagalog, which we didn't really understand, but enjoyed fully, nontheless. Joon (someone PLEASE correct me if i spelled that wrong) got stupid on the mic to a song that i dubbed Tagalog Tool! He was rockin' That's him in the orange shirt.



everybody got their turn on the mic, but when melissa played MC and started doing the robot to Technotronic's big 90's hit : "Pump Up The Jam" it's safe to say the party got crazy. Admittedly, i got in on the action when i found Radiohead's "Creep" on the playlist. and we all brought the house down with Ace of Base's "I Saw The Sign" simply ... NUTS!












a great homecoming for fulk, and a great start to my birthday week.

---

here's a shot of Fulk's house in Boone, NC. it's so cozy it's ridiculous. we got there the day after and recouped from the Super Bowl madness. I mean, just LOOK at this place! How could you NOT relax?! And what better place or hosts to show us around North Carolina?

just look at this lovely living room and porch. John grew up in this house and another in the same area. the mountains around here are beautiful, it's the start of the Appalachians - the Blue Ridge, I believe.

I'll put all the hiking Pics in another post, so ... don't fret!

no excuses

but, really, there are some good excuses why i haven't posted in far too long. my woes with electronics seem never ending - but isn't that the way with em? so, as people may or may not know - i lost my lil' sony camera back in Boston, circa last october. i've been making do with photos from my camera since then, but my search for a new photo taking device started promptly and i'm happy to say i'll be purchasing the Canon S5 camera this upcoming friday! i'm quite excited about it and have already purchased a camera bag and accesories!

anywho, my computer is the next victim - my laptop has lived a long and glorious life and i fear the end is near. the screen has started to black out and some applications don't like like they oughta ... with help from my good friend, Eli and his "radio shack in a bag" i'm able to use my comp, vie my magnavox TV screen, which ..... works, though it's annoying, and certainly compromises the mobility of said laptop. it does buy me time, though, and i'll still be getting the camera and back to taking wonderful photos and making more stop motion movies, which is really quite fun.

again, i aplogize for the lack of posts, there are several great stories, involving characters with names such as Terrell, Heather, Kevin, Boone and events such as birthday pies, appalachian hiking and phillipino karaoke. no joke :)

please be patient.

a semi- normal christmas

so, i ended up going with shawn and mona, over to their friends' debbie and petes' house. eli and i , that is.
shawn warned us that it'd be rather boring : "it's just gonna be some people sitting around, watching movies, and they've got kids - so, we're just waiting for santa to come around"

well, that just sounded fantastic to us. back at the train, we had the next day off, it was christmas, and it was one of the dancers birthdays - all this means, loud, crazy party at the train. now, for the past few weeks and off nights, it seems people have chosen to gather right outside of 90 car (car 190 - i.e. the car i live on)

after work, we were all pretty beat, and i was looking forward to a nce quiet night og blog writing, movie watching and chess playing ( quick plug here for GAMEKNOT it's my new addiction and i invite ANYONE reading this to play a game or two, it's an online chess site, and it's awesome, and they don't pay me)

anywho, i know such a quiet evening would NOT be had given the afore mentioned factors, so this normal evening sounded perfect.



check this place out! there's a chirstmas tree, wood floors, a tv set, and best of all .. COUCHES! the kids were hayley and ethan and were very charming as they were all excited about ol st. nick's arrival- hayley organized a plate of cookies with a generous variety of pastry and a glass ready for milk. the glass was decorated in greek images - a "greece" glass, in case santa hadn't been to greece yet, of course. like i said, charming. they reminded me of some former piano students of mine so i was very entertained and pleased with the evening.

mona is, perhaps, the most complimentary of this here blog, and i truly appreciate her readership. everytime she visits shawn she mentions a recent post, and how much she enjoys it - that's cool and feel good to hear since i have such an incredible ego that needs stroking quite often. at the house i told her i just posted a new one (the last one) and she rushed to grab a computer ( about a 10 on the ol ego-stroke-a-meter) i thought this a perfect oppurtunity for a little slice of carnia history.



this is a photo of mona (the bloggee) taken by me (the blogger) of her reading the blog, while being told by the blogger (me) that this photo would then be used to blog said moment, THUS the pun of mona seeing a photo of herself doing what she is doing at the very INSTANT of reading these very lines, while reading text descirbing what she's doing both NOW and THEN, but with the then and now boundries being crossed as she is temproally disected while remaining consciencely where she is now ... is complete.

so, to recap - christmas:good
house : awesome
kids : great
shawn : great photo subject/satisfactory chess player
lists : convenient
company : perfect
pictures : funny

so this is christmas?

tomorrow is christmas eve and it certainly doesn't feel like it. we've got rehearsals tomorrow. we've been doing full run throughs of the entire show for the past couple of days. more and more im past feeling like this is work and simply accepting it as what there is to do with my day. there is simply nothing else that exist - i believe "enveloped" is the proper word. the past few days have also seen the entire cast and crew be at the building no less then 12 hours each day. methinks i'm going batty from all the craziness - check THESE bags out!


what IS refreshing is knowing that none of the time is wasted - there really just IS this much that goes into this show, and everyone is being very professional about things from my vantage. i'm surprised that people are as focused as they are given the long days - it's inspiring, really.

amidst all of this i have felt tinges of unsettlement as the holiday comes upon us and here i am in an almost surreal world - far away from the family routes through San Antonio, familiar food, and comfy couches. i've got some mac n cheese, and my iPod and gifts to mail.

Mona is visiting - Mona is Shawn's girlfriend - they are from Cincinnati

this is Shawn, Mona is not pictured. they've got friends down here from what i understand, and they've rented a house nearby. "all are welcome" so says Shawn, so maybe i'll spend my day with them - they Are nice folk.

after all these long days though, all i'm thinking is how i need to do laundry and clean my room - and sleep!

doors

so, there are 2 kinds of folk here on the train ... from what i can tell anyway.

the hallways are very narrow, see VIDEO below, if ya haven't already, for a good idea of the inside of the cars.

anywho, 2 kinds of folks : those who hang out with their door closed, and those who keep them open. you're walking down the cars and through the vestibules, and you might see folks on their laptops, or making a meal -

watching TV, or on the phone. when you're walking through a car with all the doors closed it feels deserted. there's really no way of knowing if anyone's even home -

unless there's a lot of noise of course. no porch light that would be on, no car in the driveway, no window to catch a glimpse through - complete, uninterrupted and ABSOLUTE privacy.

it's pretty easy to keep to yourself out here - VERY easy, and VERY to yourself.

it's easy to get things done without anyone bothering you, and it's easy to be up to no good without anyone to answer to.

there are interesting people here indeed - and many interesting ways to becomes one of these interesting people - i just hope i can stay nice and plain

so tired - i'm starting to feel better, i've been a little sick. finally got a chance to get some groceries - was in DIRE need of laundry detergent, but now i'm glad to report that i've cleaned myself up!

had to stay late a couple of the past few nights and program and i think i'm just about done.
which is a huge relief - now, it's just re writes and edits, but i'm at least caught up to the show, and everything seems to be in working order. the keyboards Have been giving me alittle grief as they've been freezing up perodically, but i hope it's nothing to worry about and that ic an figure out a way to lighten their respective memory loads.

heading to sleep now - happy sleepings to you all

tired

so - i'm losing track of days here - we're getting one day off a week, but it's not regular. and i think if it weren't for union rules they'd work us every day! it feels like winter quarters is never going to end and there are all these people there everyday, but no fruits

until today - we had the first run through of act I. over the past few days, the band has been staggering our lunch so we can do sound checks while the floor is empty.



there's a great deal of scheduling for the performers to get their floor time to rehearse and block their own acts. of course there's a lot of space and several preformers so there are always acts getting their stuff ready.




it's not all toiling and brick making though - there have been 2 nights of note - Gag Night and Act Night

Gag Night is where the clowns presented what they've been working on - different acts to be or not to be the the show. there were solo and duet acts mostly and one 4 man act that was great. it was great to see the clowns in their element doing something fresh. everyone's been doing the same show for 2 years now - so there's definately that excitement here in WQ despite the long days...

12 clown gags in all, and i believe 6 were accepted.

last night was act night and was most of our first peeks at the new acts. you'd think with all this circus people flipping and jumping everywhere we'd have seen SOME of these acts by now ... but we, the band, are locked up in this back room playing this new music almost as quickly as it gets written and printed in yet aNOther cave of a room with all the orchestraters, composers, and copyist in it. if i'm not there, i'm off at my keyboards programming them and revising and re-organizing samples and loops and patches orders.... it's tedious, but fun ... but ... tedious



so ... right .. act night .... it was nice to just sit back and enjoy a show of sorts and they laid it out as best as could be done - it was dubbed "The Greatest Act Night on Earth" (for a more detailed expounding of Ringling's protocol concerning standards of greatness please click here

the acts are shaping up to be classic circus, and i couldn't be happier

there's a trapeze act! and several handbalancing and contortion act!

we had neither of these things this past tour.

the new tiger act looks great - more tigers and the tamer is a charmismatic guy with great presence

we've also recently at least run acts I & II so there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel - mostly we're just trying to stay focused and get sleep where we can.