Do as I do vs. do as I say (re: schlepping hard cases into venues, and being easy on their wheels)
Posted: Fri May 10, 2024 11:58 am
I've already talked about playing this chamber orchestra version of 1812 (Memphis Symphony special concert series at this specific venue) last night at this fairly new theater venue in downtown Memphis (whereby a whole bunch of microphones are built in and there are adjustable/electronic acoustics). It's wedged in right smack dab to the old-old super-ornate Orpheum circuit huge Vaudeville theater, which - in the past - served as a Malco movie theater, and - these days - is where all of the touring Broadway productions are hosted in Memphis...
...so the perhaps 3XX-seat theater next door is called the Halloran Theater. Security is super tight - front and back. In the back, there are perhaps 25 parking places and what I would call a stage door. The stage door requires being buzzed twice to get through a gate, and then through the actual door itself. There's also a loading dock back there adjacent to the stage door. I was lucky enough to be able to park inside that gated area which also requires being buzzed in.
I found myself doing both as I say and as I do, which made me feel slightly better about myself. When there was no traffic on Front Street (the very first downtown street in Memphis on top of the Mississippi River bluff), I flipped my car around backwards, got buzzed into the gate, backed all the way up to the loading dock area, unloaded the tuba, parked the car in one of the 25 spaces, and then just pulled (pushed) the tuba past the stage door gate and the stage door which was only about 25 or 30 ft of outdoor use of the wheels. Of course once inside I was on smooth flooring and that was only about another 40 ft to the real stage door which leads directly to the stage itself.
Anyway, when I caught myself doing as I suggest others do I sort of chuckled it myself and sort of silently said "hmm".
I ~DO~ understand the temptation to park the car and then pull the tuba (hard case, or - if a bag- carry) all the way from the parked car. That temptation is - admittedly - great, but it's a habit that can be broken. It looks like I may have (??) broken it.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
for the curious...
entrance: (Main Street)
reverse: (Front Street rear parking - birds-eye)
interior view from stage:
...so the perhaps 3XX-seat theater next door is called the Halloran Theater. Security is super tight - front and back. In the back, there are perhaps 25 parking places and what I would call a stage door. The stage door requires being buzzed twice to get through a gate, and then through the actual door itself. There's also a loading dock back there adjacent to the stage door. I was lucky enough to be able to park inside that gated area which also requires being buzzed in.
I found myself doing both as I say and as I do, which made me feel slightly better about myself. When there was no traffic on Front Street (the very first downtown street in Memphis on top of the Mississippi River bluff), I flipped my car around backwards, got buzzed into the gate, backed all the way up to the loading dock area, unloaded the tuba, parked the car in one of the 25 spaces, and then just pulled (pushed) the tuba past the stage door gate and the stage door which was only about 25 or 30 ft of outdoor use of the wheels. Of course once inside I was on smooth flooring and that was only about another 40 ft to the real stage door which leads directly to the stage itself.
Anyway, when I caught myself doing as I suggest others do I sort of chuckled it myself and sort of silently said "hmm".
I ~DO~ understand the temptation to park the car and then pull the tuba (hard case, or - if a bag- carry) all the way from the parked car. That temptation is - admittedly - great, but it's a habit that can be broken. It looks like I may have (??) broken it.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
for the curious...
entrance: (Main Street)
reverse: (Front Street rear parking - birds-eye)
interior view from stage:
