Really Thursday night, and settled in at the Orange County, Ca. festival. Arrived in Costa Mesa around 12:30pm Pacific time, after leaving Philadelphia around 7:30am Eastern time. The point? That it all happened like it was supposed to (that's one out of two)! The festival directors from Mammoth (Ken and Flossie) are here, and invited us (Midiri Band) up to their suite after our set for (room service!) quesadillas and pizza. Joe, Paul, and Jim wound up (as usual) tripping over each other to tell funny stories. Our set tonite was sort of a funny story as well. The festival booked the opening set (after the Mayor's "speech") to feature a stride pianist from England - Neville Dickie - with the band. No one told Neville that the band also had a pianist. He found out when I introduced myself 1/2 hour before the hit. He was caught by surprise, but handled it well. The set was successful, but not without some drama; instigated by the festival directors. What would a festival be without drama (I'm learning)? It'll all blow over. We'll soon find out what tomorrow holds.