Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists II, Day 5

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday October 28, 2009 – Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists II, Day 5

6:47am

I was to bed fairly early. Pretty buzzed, so sleep was not coming immediately, but as I recapitulated my day, I did manage to slip away.

Awoke in the morning, thinking, “I don’t feel at all rested.” There was a reason for this. A glance at my clock told me it was 3:03am. Rolled over and made it back to sleep without too much fuss. The next time I awoke, it was 5:38am, and this time it was for good. My mind was already racing around everything that has to be done in order to get us to the gig and back. Saw several meetings that are needed on the schedule for today. Heard what I will need to tell the entire team in terms of how to prepare for and be “on the road”. Wrestled with all the logisitical difficulties we will encounter with a group this sized at the Abbey. My mind was not quite wittering, in the sense that it was all relevant and necessary planning. But it was on automatic pilot and had been going, so far as I could tell, from before I actually woke up.

A couple of guys came strolling into rehearsal last night after we had already begun, causing us to have to stop, reset the circles to accommodate them, and begin anew, repeating some territory already covered. Sometimes I wish I had the capacity to be that blithely clueless. How much easier would my life would be?

After a few minutes this morning, it was clear that no more sleep was in my near future, so I surrendered to being awake, and got up, painfully aware of how much of a clatter I was making dressing in the dark, and came up to the dining hall in order to sit and contemplate these matters over a cup of coffee before the sitting. It would be very nice if my sitting was not occupied with this stuff, but I’m not holding out a lot of hope.

10:02am

Sitting, good. Discussion about last evening’s rehearsal over breakfast; a little more "stuff" than I need or want, but probably good and necessary for the group as a whole. Thirty minute TTA Production Team meeting that actually ran thirty minutes. Now a bit of time for personal work as the Gnarlies (aka “Those Who Fly At A Somewhat More Modest Altitude”) are working out their stuff in the Chapel until lunch. Strings to be changed. And I need to meet with Howard to go over what he missed in the meeting with Robert yesterday.

3:17pm

Sounds like the Gnarlies had a barn-burner with RF at 10. I elected to practice. My loss. I continued through to lunch, taking breaks to change strings, to talk to the Fremont Abbey director about details for tomorrow, and to Travis about some transportation issues as well. In the late morning the Gnarlies worked again with Frank, Sandra and Jaxie on a circulation exercise. I popped in a couple of times, and once again found myself happily unnecessary.

Lunch was a low-key affair. Soup, humus and egg salad on pita. Awesome. The afternoon is mapped out. Gnarlies currently working with AT, although Frank was looking a little under the weather with a headache, and I am concerned for him. After Tea, the TTA Performance Team is on to go through some available repertoire for Robert to audition, so that he will have a pool to dive into for the show. Body Beat. Quiet time. Then, dinner. The evening will be the effective dress rehearsal for the gig.

6:38pm

Hell Boy appearance at Tea! The Chord from Hell with Hellboy Eduardo. No broken strings, so I’m not certain it counts.

Quiet time. We met with Robert re TTA repertoire for the gig, should it get called. I think Jaxie has a better feel for this than I do. When he calls on us, I’ll just look to my left with panic in my eyes, and follow her lead. After he departed, we ran a number of pieces. I was reminded how much I enjoy playing with this group. The hour was over too fast. Body Beat, with definite signs of improvement and assimilation. Kashmir is on for supper tonight.

11:53pm

Kashmir kicked ass.

Wonderful rehearsal. No latecomers. I guess that lesson was learned. We dealt with blocking and whizzing, with a little bit of circulating. Mostly instruction from the Conductor on what kinds of communications he would be doing, and some of the ways he might be doing them.

Bob was able to make it up for this rehearsal, which was completed quite early, so the TTA performance team + Pablo, Mary Beth and Fernando stayed in the Chapel for another hour running repertoire. Except that Bob had to drive back to Seattle, and we all have a gig tomorrow, I could easily have kept going and going. We began with a pretty substantial audience, but we outlasted every one of them. I was getting fatigued, but energized, if that makes any sense.

Evidently I was not alone. When I got to the dining hall there were a number of folks hanging out, some drinking tea and chatting, others practicing quite seriously, challenging one another with very difficult exercises. I had some work to do on the computer – boring shit like vehicle lists and cell phone number lists for the road trip tomorrow. By the time that was done, I was no longer buzzed, and so now I am ready to sleep. Long day tomorrow.