It’s 5:30 in the morning, We were up until 2 the night before due to poor decisions, packing, Fanime being the day prior, and several other causes, but we had to leave early. David and Roxy were shooting a video in San Francisco and they needed golden hour lighting – and there was no way they’d wait for evening golden hour. So, we hit the road at 6 AM to begin the trip to Seattle for the 2018 Ocarina Festival – featuring a performance from Ocabanda, panels from some skilled Ocarinists, and the opportunity to meet members of America’s scattered Ocarina community.
Side-note: I’m splitting this into two posts, since it’s so long it’d be the equivalent of reading a 13-page paper. Part 2 will come a week from this one posting!
Tuesday – The Long Drive
We arrived at San Francisco before 7 AM and parked at the Palace of Fine Arts. David and Roxy were collecting footage for a cover of a certain Disney song that perfectly matched the aesthetic of the setting.
We spent at least 4 hours shooting, which was equally frustrating as it was fun, since I wanted to hit the road and get to our destination faster. We were driving to a mystery location in Oregon (only David knew about) and had a long road ahead.
After shooting, we made another stop – still in the Bay Area – in Sausalito. It’s a picture-esque town, a tourist attraction, and happens to have a Starbucks that we worked in for around 3 more hours. We were trying to figure out how to get CDs of our studio recording from MAGfest made and distributed in time for our concert on Saturday, which took a lot of thought and energy. David’s laptop died, so we were forced to move on and hit the road. However, it was rush hour in the Bay Area when we left.
We headed north, then east to get around the Bay, and while we were stuck in traffic getting to Highway 5 at 5:30 PM (nearly 12 hours after leaving my house), I was dismayed to see that Google Maps estimated only a 90 minute drive to get back home if we were to turn around then. Of course we didn’t turn around, but it showed with absolute certainty that we were behind schedule.
We eventually escaped traffic and drove North, stopping in Weed, California for gas (and chicken nuggets), took a much needed mental health break at 10 PM at night, then kept going North.
Eventually we crossed the Oregon border and entered the land of no sales tax, but we had a mystery to solve. About a month earlier, David sent me a series of cryptic messages with a strong implication towards us camping or him leaving me in the woods to die.
At 11 PM, he exited the highway and started going to the mystery location in the pitch black of an un-lit Oregon backwoods night. I knew (or at least was 95% certain) that David wouldn’t really kill me, but given that late night, the darkness, and the sudden loss of cell service, I was getting a bit freaked out. I did enhance my freaked-out-ness as a comedic bit in the car, but it was freaky. We eventually arrived at a campsite – at midnight.
David handed Roxy and I pamphlets on what to do in case we encounter bears or mountain lions, which certainly didn’t help how freaked out I was. While we were pitching the tend (at midnight), I kept darting my eyes around and I saw a pair of animal eyes. I’m going to die, right here, right now, I thought, but upon further investigation, it was a pair of deer and I saw one eye from each deer, making it look like a menacing pair.
The purpose of this camping trip was to look at the stars at night, but as soon as the tent was pitched, I burrito-fied myself and slept. If I’m asleep I won’t be aware of the mountain lion eating my face off… or the beautiful stars above that I completely ignored.
Side-note: To confirm, I did not die. Just making sure
Wednesday – To Portland We Go
At 6 AM, I suddenly woke up to an intense cold, and couldn’t fall asleep again, until David and Roxy got up and put more blankets on me when they left the tent. I slept in a few more hours, we looked around the campsite (with daylight this time), and got on the road to Crater Lake.
Around noon, we arrived up there and Oh my god there was a lot of snow. It was nearly summer, and it looked like winter, but had a Spring temperature of ~62 degrees Fahrenheit. I connected to the internet to download Oregon on google maps, message my parents that I’m alive, and get some other communications done, then met with David and Roxy to explore, take pictures, and throw snowballs at each other.
Crater Lake was a fun, beautiful diversion, but we were once again set back on time to get to Portland. We next stopped in Eugene for Chipotle and Starbucks, then continued north to Portland. We arrived around 7 PM at Ella’s house, met her boyfriend Josh and some of her family and friends. David, Roxy, and I went to Josh’s house to set up for the night, admire Josh’s immense Dragonball Z collection, and pet the kitties.
David and Roxy slept early, but Josh and I went out for some food in Downtown Portland with Ella and their friends at Le Bistro Montage. They had some intense Mac n’ Cheese, turned leftovers into aluminum foil animals, and despite their location in a shady area under a bridge, had a really nice interior. Apparently the trend in Portland is nice interior, let the exterior die. Over the course of the night, Josh and I developed a major bromance, that would further blossom over the upcoming days.
Thursday – To Seattle!
I switched cars and rode with Ella and Josh to Seattle. The three of us stopped at an Asian grocery store to buy cans of thai tea, and then everybody made a stop at Voodoo Donuts, a popular donut place in Portland. I made a poor choice and ate two donuts, but they were pretty delicious. Josh, a parkour instructor, earned himself a free donut by doing a flip for the cashier. It was rad.
We continued on the road, stopping only for chicken nuggets, and picked up Jordan from the airport. We made it to the hotel, met with everybody else in the band and other festival attendees, and went for ramen at Kizuki. This was my first time meeting our sub for the concert, since Steven couldn’t make it on Saturday. The ramen was good, and we went back to the hotel to knock out.
Side-note: I 100% have an addiction to nuggets
OUR MIXTAPE IS HERE!!!
Ocabanda’s first EP is here! Check out our Bandcamp page for unlimited online streaming and a pay-what-you-want (above $5) to download! I’m happy the music we recorded at freaking MAGfest is finally available!
Click here to listen!
Friday – Rehearsal and Open Mic
Bright and early, Ocabanda met to rehearse our music, and one song took all of our energy and attention: Festive Overture. I underestimated this song, not realizing it was in double time and had many tempo changes, so I struggled through the whole rehearsal. The whole band struggled, and we majorly stressed over it the entire time. We took a lunch break at Chic-fil-A and got back to work.
We touched most of the rest of our music during that rehearsal, and then at 4, we broke to work on small group and solo stuff for an open mic that evening. David, Jordan, and I rehearsed the same arrangement of Mononoke Hime that Daniel and I performed at Fanime. We all eventually made it to the venue for the open mic, which was someone’s (very nice) home near Seattle, rehearsed some more there, and got down to watching everybody perform.
One of our Youtuber friends, Carlos, lives near the venue and came to . He knows the band and the band knows him, but this was my first time having any length of conversation with him. He’s a real nice guy and a crazy musician, so check his YouTube channel (linked on his name).
Among the performances were a fantastic set by an Ocarinist named Yoko with multiple accompanying instrumentalists, several solo acts including from our once-missing, visiting-for-just-today Steven, and then my small group performance with David and Jordan for Mononoke Hime. Here is the link to a video of it!
After the small group, the rest of Ocabanda came onstage, and we performed a short, 3-song set with Steven. He wouldn’t have had the chance to perform with us otherwise, so it was really nice having the full band together! That went great, and then we split… to go to Chipotle. Carlos came with the Ocabanda people, most of us ate, and then we actually part ways. Some of us stayed up late rehearsing and doing other necessary activities like responsible people, but I played some Super Smash Bros with some people in the hotel room.
Was it a good idea? Yes. Was it a good idea given the circumstances of Festive Overture being the death of us all? Probably not. However, it all turned out okay in the end…
That’s it for Part One!
Find out how the concert went, learn about what the panels were about on Sunday, and you’ll possibly here a story of Smash in the woods…
When the next post is live, click here!
If you’re interested in starting to learn to play Ocarina, I highly recommend Night by Noble. It’s one of the best made plastic Ocarinas I’ve had the pleasure of playing, and despite it being plastic I consider it performance ready. It’s great for learning, since any errors in sound you can’t blame on the instrument.
I have an Amazon Affiliate link with this product, so purchasing through me helps support the blog and gets you started on Ocarina at the same time!
One more time – that link is HERE!
My Social Media:
Most pictures from people on the trip, a few from online!
Andy Cormier 