It Seemed Like A Good Idea at the Time

First, for all my Canadian peeps and anyone who wants to visit Canada: 

And another fun Choose Your Own Adventure!

I don't know if all these files will come through - or if you are even remotely interested - but I was sending one of the tunes out to some of my band friends and thought I may as well post it here.

Our next concert will feature guest trumpet soloist Joe Burgstaller, who has played with the world-renowned Canadian Brass. He was listening in via Skype from New York City and I must say, I thought he was pretty darn cute. Now that's something to look forward to. I must also say, his stand-in/trumpet-double for the evening was no slouch. Anthony Something-Something, ASU music student from Mexico City was fantastic. Wow. I love being around great music.

This is one of the pieces we'll be playing. It's an arrangement for brass band and has Vincent DiMartino on trumpet when he was a professor at U of Kentucky. I was stage crew for one of the Brass Band of Battle Creek concerts back in my college days and was astounded. At the time (not sure how it's made up now), it was a group of college and other music professionals/educators from around the Midwest started by the director of the Michigan State school of music.

Just for fun, because now I have it stuck in my head after listening to it in my car, is a medley of classic Disney tunes. It's long, but stick around to the end for some kickin' renditions of songs from my favorite childhood movie soundtrack: The Jungle Book. I listened to that album on a near-constant basis for a very long time. I should pick up a CD of it one of these days.

This one Dora will *snerk* at, it's informative fun for the rest of us!

Someone from the downtown theater center sent me a fax and this is on the bottom of the cover sheet:

Theater Logic
In is down, down is front, out is up, up is back, off is out, on is in and of course - right is left and left is right.

A drop shouldn't and a block and fall does neither. A prop doesn't, and a cover has no water. Tripping is O.K.

A running crew rarely gets anywhere. A purchase line will buy you nothing. A trap will not catch anything. A gridiron has nothing to do with football.

Strike is work (in fact, a lot of work). A Green Room, thank God, usually isn't.

Just a quick note to say I made it back alive from Yuma. People like to bash Yuma, but I think it's a cute little town. Also, the people we met with were really cool. So it was worth the six hours in the car. I also made some good purchases at the art center gift shop, all done by Yuma area artists. Shop local, yo!

I got back last night at 11:00 p.m. and I'm wiped out. But I have a board meeting this afternoon and then rehearsal tonight. Must.carry.on.

I have some more photos to post of Gila Bend. We stopped for gas at the most tourist-schlock filled Shell station I have ever seen. Crazy stuff, man.

If you missed it, I posted my full Grand Canyon trip slide show a few posts down in the "3:10 to Yuma" entry.

Hope all is well and someday I'll have time to waste nurture relationships on Vox again.

In the entry of the Yuma Art Center's theater. Just gorgeous. Arizona is chock full of Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps projects.

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As in three hours and 10 minutes to Yuma. Otherwise it's the "Noon Carpool to Yuma", which isn't nearly as catchy or exciting. I have a meeting down there tonight, which will make for a really long day.

I was in Tucson yesterday and the meeting was really contentious. Which boggles my mind because this a really good thing we're talking about. I ended up with a splitting headache that I treated with a chicken enchilada with green sauce from a Tucson institution, El Charro Cafe. Yum.

We have our work cut out for us, that's for sure. We've moved from the Little Red Hen scenario I've complained about and moved into the "you didn't ask us first so we're going to be angry" scenario.

Good thing Yuma has really good food, too. Not sure we'll stop and take a long dinner because it's a long drive back, but here's hoping!

Now that I've mentioned southern Arizona a couple times, let's go back to the Grand Canyon. Since you know I'll never get around to captioning all my photos (unless I do it over Christmas), I may as well give you the link to my photo album.

Here you go! Enjoy!

I have all my photos uploaded but I haven't put captions to them yet. As soon as I do, I'll post the link to them.

You're saying, "Yeah, cuz you've done such a good job captioning all your other pics. Way to go, Ames."

Whatever. My day got away from me and I accomplished nothing I set out to and will probably look back and see I wasted hours on nothing of consequence.

But that's a story for another time. Maybe. It might not be a story at all.

All that incomprehensible nonsense aside, here are a few sample shots.

Oh - and we saw some Argentinian stripper lady hiking out of the Canyon when we were at least an hour down. She was wearing flip flops, cheetah print stretch capris, a black tank and carrying no water. o_O

Then at Phantom Ranch, one of the ladies on the mule train was wearing a two-piece flannel set, red with cats all over it and a fur coat. Wow. She was, um, odd.

Okay - here are some shots from the South Kaibab trail down on Thursday.

At Phantom Ranch:

Hiking around the vicinty of Phantom Ranch on our free day: Hiking out Bright Angel. The last mile up almost killed me. Gah. I still hurt.

Oof. I hurt. Took us 6.5 hours to get out today, with a few rest stops on the way.

I'll post more tomorrow, including oodles of pictures.

In one word: spectacular.

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This will probably be my last post before I head out to spend a few days at the bottom of a big hole.

Driving to the Grand Canyon tomorrow, hiking down and spending Friday at Phantom Ranch then back up and out on Saturday.

The weather is supposed to get cold and rainy/snowy on the Rim, with a 20% chance of rain at the bottom. If by any chance you want to follow my weather patterns, here's a link.

I think I'll stick with my original packing plan, maybe throw in some fleece pj bottoms and wear one of my light ski jackets instead of a spring jacket. Best to stick with light layers. The ski jacket is pretty much just a shell, but it's more wind and rain proof than my other jacket.

The beauty of it all is that we're staying in a cabin, bedding and toiletries provided, meals are included, etc. I'm not sure what I'll end up doing down there, but I can guarantee it won't be thinking about work, my schedule, etc.

Because this isn't a normal walk in the park, I'm also going to call MomH before I head down. Someone died yesterday on the same trail we'll be using to get out. Sure, he was an older gentleman, but you never know. I'm not sure what happened. When BrownAmazon was out here and we tried to go down the trail, some crazy chick in flipflops hit a patch of ice and I thought she was going to knock me over the edge. So I'll be careful, I promise.

I'll post again on Sunday with pictures! Yay!