Fire and Opera

This was my view this morning:

The venue was still quite soggy from yesterday's soaking.

Here is where I did my FlutePraying:

Notice the condition of the stage.

This was after the crew spent over 2 hours wiping it down.

The wonderful orchestra contractor made sure the muddy paths were covered with boards so we wouldn't be wearing the red clay for the rest of the day:

This was what the steps to the stage looked like when I arrived:

The excellent crew labored hard to get them cleaned up:

I've never been in fancier port-a-potties:

The stage covering was still so wet that there was fear of dripping on the instruments:

We were all given towels.

I never had to use mine:

Our marvelous conductor is on the left:

This is the view of the altar from stage left:

The green branches to the right of the drum are what burned:

My next stop was in Long Beach:

It was back to the car park for the final opera performance of this run.

Here's my work space:

The crew worked hard to set this up:

My dear brother Ken was able to attend:

Who knew a parking garage could look so cool:

Here are my instruments at the ready:

I have tomorrow off.

I'm going to sleep until Monday.

Next up: The King and I

I'll keep you posted.

Fire and Rain

What a difference a day makes.

The orchestra for the Fire Ceremony dress rehearsal was relocated inside due to the rain.

Here was my "spot" for the day:

We were grateful that someone finally recognized our "talent":

The orchestra venue was in the temple itself.

As we got ready to play, worshippers were filing by:

Our music is in the yellow folders:

The worshippers were waiting in line to go to this spot directly behind us...

...to visit this:

We had our own "shooter":

When the time came, we had a live feed to the ceremony site via big screen.

Remember the pre-records we did last week?

They paid off.

We got to go to lunch right after the 2 live intro pieces while the pre-records were played during the ceremony.

Here is the all important food location:

We were provided with delicious vegetarian food:

This was our view during the ceremony:

It was a good day for some mint tea:

I poked my head outside to get a picture of the smoke from the fire in the ceremony:

We then shuffled back to the temple where we waited to see if our 1pm-5pm rehearsal was a go.

Then the glad tidings arrived!

We were released for the day.

We hopped on the waiting buses, scampered into our cars at the shuttle site, and headed HOME.

I'm going to get seriously reacquainted with my pillow before my 8:30 opera rehearsal tonight.

We're in a new venue.

Stay tuned...

Fire Ceremony

Out of the Fire and Into the Car Park

I got out of the parking structure for awhile today.

I was on site in Yorba Linda.

We were in rehearsal for the Fire Ceremony on Saturday.

It was a beautiful day.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow.

Here's my work space for the afternoon:

Here I am at work (that's Steve in the background):

Talk about your drum line:

Pretty impressive:

The view from where I sit:

Part of the ceremony:

After a quick jaunt across town in 5pm traffic (hey, it only took 2 hours!) I was back in the car park for more opera.

I love my job!