Day 44

Date: June 27, 2011

Time: 10:30pm (PST)

Playing on iTunes: "Tripping Billies" by Dave Matthews Band

Location: San Lorenzo, CA Day 3

Here we are...day 3 of San Lorenzo. Our final day in California! Today was a short one; a morning block then free day in San Francisco. This morning's goal for the corps was changes in the show. Even though we have been getting better scores every night, we still have a lot that we need to change to make the show amazing. One big change was a re orchestration of the notes in the beginning of the ballad. On the field it is set up so that the demons are playing right behind the pit and they're supposed to be mocking the angels' music by playing it badly, but apparently we weren't playing it 'bad' enough. So they re orchestrated it so it sounded worse than it did before (funny how that works huh?). And we also added in some pit to accompany them. It was a very cool, yet different, part of the morning block.

The rest of the morning block, we worked on some more sampler changes. Our sampler guru Ian Grom, came in and changed some sampler effects in the beginning of the finale and it definitely brought the final piece to a different level. Not a very physically hard morning block, but definitely a successful and productive one.

The pit loaded the truck in a total of 15 minutes today. That is our new record and
it is VERY fast for where we are in the season. Let's load it in 5 by the end of August!!

Once leaving San Lorenzo, we headed off to San Francisco. This city was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. I couldn't imagine living there though, way too many tourists. Here's some pictures that I took of the city:

Hyde St. leading to Lombard Rd.

Lombard Rd. from the top

Lombard Rd. from the bottom

View from the top of Hyde St.

Whiskey glazed pork over mashed potatoes
from a little Irish Pub

The pit went out to dinner again. This time instead of a beachside oasis, we tried a little irish pub near the wharf. Very different atmosphere but definitely a quaint dinner spot. Not too expensive either (considering the city we're in...). I could not get over all the hills around the city. No way would I be able to drive up and down those, very scary coming down those streets. You need to be an pro if you have a stick shift. Good thing it doesn't snow here...The trolleys were really cool. My friend Taylor and I took a trolley to the other side of the city. It was a really cool ride and very authentic to the city. I managed to leave without spending too much. I got some nice cigars, a new backpack (since my zipper broke) and some post cards. I will definitely have to come back another time and stay for a few days to do everything I wanted here because 5 hours just is not enough time to go do everything. But this was definitely a nice little teaser trip to San Francisco. I approve.

See you in Oregon!!

Thought of the Day: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." - Matthew 5:3