Sunday, April 25, 2010

Tour... Tour complete!

First of all, its been a long time since I last blogged. I think anyone who has a blog has written this statement and today its my turn to say it. So there.

Tour #4 in my illustrious Air Force Band career is almost in the books. We have one 4.5 hour bus ride back from Shinston, WV. This tour took us to the lower mid-west. Photos of some of our adventures can be seen here. We visited the great states of KS, MO, IL, IN, KY and WV. The audiences were generous in size, except for one (hello KSU!!!... hello?) and although usually its the small towns that have the most passionate audiences, we did very well in all the halls.

I think i lost my sunglasses in the Hyatt Place in Lexington. Someone want to go there and get them for me? Room 306? Anyone?

As I mentioned to my colleagues tonight after dinner, we all need to train ourselves out of tour mode and back into real life mode. Re-learn how to cook for ourselves (and our families) again. Reschedule dinner times back to 6pm, from 4pm. Not worry about doing laundry. And most importantly, stop saying "My bad. I did not know".

I had a few tour fails. Too many magazines that weren't read. Too much music brought and not practiced. Too many podcasts not listened to. Too much/wrong tour food left over. The aforementioned sunglasses. Not enough sit-ups. Too much clothing.

A few tour victories too: good running, good sketching, good basic sight-seeing, barely any t.v. watched, and good reminder of musical priorities.

While some may question the last one, the point is I bought a digital recorder for my birthday and recorded the last four concerts for my own evaluation. Simply put, I am not going to take for granted what comes out of my bell from now on. Thats all that means.

Ok, not the best blog post in the world, but I'm just trying to get back in the habit of writing again. You go on the road for 19 days, get super tired, then write about it in 10 minutes. Didn't think so.

Thanks for reading though. Lights out!
Floyd

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-"Never Tear Us Apart", INXS
-"Il Quinto Mare", Happy the Man, The Muse Awakens
-"Love's in Need (of Love Today), Airmen of Note, Live!
-"Lending a Hand", Transatlantic, The Whirlwind