Disney Soundtracks by Candlelight

GeekTherapy · August 19, 2023, 1:21am

Originally published at: Disney Soundtracks by Candlelight -

#18: Listening to live music is always magical, but when the music is Disney music, it’s even more enchanting. On this episode, Stef and Ariel share their experience with Candlelight Concerts on the beach, featuring the Orchid Quartet. With a setlist of Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, and more, our hosts and their partners found another way to revel in their love of Disney.

Resources for this episode:

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Transcription

Ariel Landrum 0:10
Hello, everyone, welcome to the Happiest Pod on Earth. I’m Ariel.

Stefanie Bautista 0:14
And I’m Stefanie. And we’re Disney fans but really so much more than that. Ariel here is a licensed therapist who uses clients passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and mental unwellness.

Ariel Landrum 0:24
And Stef is an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help her students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them.

Stefanie Bautista 0:31
Here at Happiest Pod. It’s a place where we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens. Why don’t we do that? Because just like we are more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums we consume. But also we go to a lot of cool Disney events when we can.

Ariel Landrum 0:44
Yes, we do. So what Disney experience are we dissecting and sharing today?

Stefanie Bautista 0:50
Today we had the privilege of going to I guess you could say an unofficial Disney event, which was the Candlelight Concerts with Orchid Quartet on the beach. We have the privilege since we are living in Southern California to have experiences like these open air concerts outside different venues that offer like small settings. I know we’re still in a pandemic, but…

Ariel Landrum 1:14
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:15
We do want to support the musicians when we can because they’ve been out of work for so long. So there is this service called fever and Fever has different events around Los Angeles and one of them was the Open Air Candlelight Concerts, which is what Ariel here got us tickets to…

Ariel Landrum 1:33
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:33
Because she’s awesome.

Ariel Landrum 1:34
Yeah!

Stefanie Bautista 1:34
And it was a really cool intimate setting outside literally next to the beach in Huntington Beach right next to where people are like rollerblading, biking, and skating. It’s like a little …

Ariel Landrum 1:47
Would you call that boardwalk our boardwalk or would you just call that a sidwalk.

Stefanie Bautista 1:51
I would just call it like a side? It’s funny because like the beaches here stretch for so long that the boardwalks are really just the pier right? That juts into the ocean. We don’t really have boardwalks like I’ve seen on the East Coast, like let’s say Coney Island, or other beaches on the East Coast where they actually have a walk. That’s a boardwalk along, that’s running parallel to the water and the beach. Here we have sidewalks that like I said, people can bike they can rollerblade. Walk along, exercise, run; all those things. So it’s kind of like a restaurant right next to the beach. And it has its own little parking area. It’s normally I think a concert venue for very small concerts, but they do have food service, I believe during like regular hours. So…

Ariel Landrum 2:36
Yeah, yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 2:37
They have a stage set up outside and then they had chairs like lounge chairs around fire pits, because up and down Huntington Beach. They have fire pits for people to hang out at. And this one was just an enclosed space ticketed of course because Ariel had to get tickets pretty early. I think right?

Ariel Landrum 2:56
Yes, yes. I bought these tickets 2 months ago I think.

Stefanie Bautista 3:00
Yeah, 2 months ago. And the umm..

Ariel Landrum 3:01
This was the their final event at this venue? Sea Legs?

Stefanie Bautista 3:07
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 3:07
That’s that’s the name of the restaurant venue, Sea Legs.

Stefanie Bautista 3:09
Yeah, I Sea Legs at The Beach. Yeah, if you look it up, it’s called Sea Legs at the beach. And yeah, I mean, it was awesome.

Ariel Landrum 3:16
For anyone who’s wanting to check out any Fever events, you can go to FeverUp.com. And select your your city, your location, and really an app. The they’re more of an app that you would download on Google Play or Apple Store. And the they do have events that are around major cities. So I’ve seen some blank for Chicago. I think I’ve seen some for New York, San Francisco. So it isn’t just an LA based app. It’s less likely to be effective in small places, like shout out to Salina, Kansas. I don’t think you’re going to have this app working for you. But if you’re gonna visit a major city, it’s worth it to download this app to see what small intimate events and gatherings. They do a lot of pop ups and they advertise a lot of pop ups. Some of the ones that I’m seeing that are that I have seen in the past was a Alice in Wonderland themed pop up that all the potions you drink were a bunch of like alcohol concoctions.

Stefanie Bautista 4:24
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 4:25
So yeah, so they aren’t just Disney events.

Stefanie Bautista 4:29
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 4:29
They definitely have outdoor music, they have movies, outdoor movies, and that’s just what’s going on for the summer. Things obviously changed a little bit in the winter, but fun, fun little thing to kind of find some some unique experiences out there.

Stefanie Bautista 4:44
Yeah, definitely. And I think before we get into the content, what we did, how we did it, and also a little bit of background on live music and how it can help us in our practices. I know that being a Disney fan. Sometimes we have no choice but to limit ourselves into, you know what Disney things can I do. And like, of course, the first thing you think of is going to the parks going to Disney. Watching a movie. But unfortunately, those things aren’t always accessible to everybody…

Ariel Landrum 5:12
No.

Stefanie Bautista 5:12
Especially when the price points of the parks are so high…

Ariel Landrum 5:15
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 5:15
You can’t really like stay at a hotel. It’s not like staying at a regular hotel, you got to dish out like, at least $300 per night, make it a whole vacation thing. And also, we don’t have Disney movies just out and about every single month. You know? I know Jungle Cruise is out, we will be talking about that in another episode. But during this time, especially, you know, thinking about pre pandemic, and now, we always ask ourselves, “What Disney things can we do?” You know? And you just got to kind of keep an eye out or maybe just you know keep your ear to the ground for certain events like this. So like I said earlier, this wasn’t a sponsored Disney event.

Ariel Landrum 5:53
No.

Stefanie Bautista 5:53
But just as there are many fans of Disney and a lot of lovers of Disney and Disney music, we can’t always go to the Walt Disney Concert Hall. There’s not always, you know, the LA Philharmonic just readily available to play our favorite things. There are official Disney events just like how they do at the Hollywood Bowl here in Southern California. They’ve done original scores for Star Wars, they’ve done original scores for The Little Mermaid, which I’ve been to before. And those are like official things that you know, there’s photo opportunities, like there’s, you know, like you can pretend to be Ariel and Eric inside the boat. Like I did that during The Little Mermaid One. There was a costume contest. There’s like those official things, but when you can’t do those things, sometimes you just gotta know and I think being a part of Disney Facebook groups, Disney, I think Clubhouses on the app conversations and just kind of you know, following certain accounts on Instagram.

Ariel Landrum 6:56
Yes. Disney influencers, they do have their finger on the beat when it comes to finding out both the official and unofficial events and following in a specific hashtag hashtags like #DisneyEvents, #DisneyLiveMusic, #DisneyLiveConcert. Those things are going to give you options and opportunities to experience really Disney in a very different way. And and specifically for this event, because the restaurant is so close to the water there were people just on the other side of like the the wooden fence, I guess I don’t know, hanging out listening to live music. They didn’t have to pay for a ticket to come see they were further away from the stage. So I mean, they couldn’t really see the Quartet that well, however, they got to hear the music just as well as we did. It was amplified beautifully. So and and definitely there were people there there already picnicked out so they were aware of the event in general.

Stefanie Bautista 7:53
Mm hmm. Exactly. And like I said, if we can give you the lowdown on some of these events beforehand, be sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter and we will try our best. Sometimes we find about these concerts like just as they’re coming out or, you know, like we’re not sponsored by Disney or not sponsored by any of these events. But you know, if you would like to, we are more than welcome to collaborate. But anyway, we can get into our experience with our Candlelight Concerts. For me, live music is always such a big part of my life. I know for you as well. Ariel, right?

Ariel Landrum 8:28
Mm hmm. Yeah, definitely. Cover bands are a huge thing on the military base my friend. I, I always say this, because again, I was a military brat. My very first concert was in Guam and the, like, official concert with a real band. And the band was Sugar Ray.

Stefanie Bautista 8:49
Yes. Well, you know what, at least it wasn’t a cover band. It was actually them.

Ariel Landrum 8:53
Yes. Yeah. That was the first time I saw like a band that wasn’t a cover band. They came all the way to Guam. They played for the troops.

Stefanie Bautista 8:59
That’s amazing.

Ariel Landrum 9:00
For some reason I went with a best friend and her mom thought we were gonna get in a mosh pit? I don’t think she knew the music. So we had to sit down the whole time.

Stefanie Bautista 9:08
It’s pretty chill. They’re very chill. It’s not like that.

Ariel Landrum 9:14
Yeah, fun fact one of our friends who I won’t say his next door neighbors with Mark McGrath. And…

Stefanie Bautista 9:20
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 9:21
If you’ve ever seen the app Cameo my my partner had him Wish me happy birthday and sing to me. So I have a video of Mark McGrather.

Stefanie Bautista 9:27
It came full circle.

Ariel Landrum 9:28
So full circle.

Stefanie Bautista 9:30
I love it. I mean, for me, like Live Music has always been a part of my life. I’ve been going to live concerts for so so long. I probably have gone to I mean, my first concert probably was the Hollywood Bowl like ages ago when I was like such a little kid. My mom and dad loved listening to live music, so whenever there’s a band outside at like a festival or whenever there’s like, any sort of performance, I’m there. My brother’s a musician. He’s amazing. A lot of my family, they’re great musicians. Really musical minds and theater and everything like that. So it’s just a part of my life. I myself have played live music here and there have very casually I guess.

Ariel Landrum 10:10
Oh, she’s the best singer. She will singin at my wedding. If I have one. I’ve already made I’ve already made her promise.

Stefanie Bautista 10:17
If and when. But anyway, if and when.

Ariel Landrum 10:19
I could marry myself.

Stefanie Bautista 10:22
Let’s not go down that path.

Ariel Landrum 10:24
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 10:25
Anywho um, yeah, so I love anything that has to do with live music. I think this past year has been so difficult for me because I haven’t been able to listen to live music. But this was like the first concert that I’ve been to since where everything shut down. And so I mean, for, like I said earlier, it was outside in the open, everybody was socially distance. We were not like enclosed. So for me, my comfort level was really good. Because not only can I take my mask off to eat, because I’m far enough away from everybody else. But because we’re outside, especially near the sea, there’s always a breeze, you don’t feel stifled or anything.

Ariel Landrum 11:06
And definitely the coordinators. If you stood up, you had to wear your mask. They did a good job of like monitoring that reminding people and they had masks there to give out the disposable ones if someone forgot one.

Stefanie Bautista 11:21
Or if it flew away, because it was so windy.

Ariel Landrum 11:25
That sea breeze though.

Stefanie Bautista 11:27
Sea breeze, right? I put my beer on, so it didn’t fly away. Until I finished my beer, and that happened like 5 times. So, you know, listening to live music historically, is something that is therapeutic for many, many people, which is why we gravitate to it so much. A little bit of background on that is in ancient Greece, physicians and musicians were housed in holy healing shrines. In ancient Egypt, healing chants were used on the sick to make them feel better. Ancient Chinese medicine believed that in order to promote healing music was used to correspond with 5 different organ and meridian systems. Buddhist monks have long used Tibetan singing bowls and their meditative practices, which has come back into popularity with sound baths. I had a little singing bowl in my classroom that I used to use. I remember if my first like time using it, I was not the greatest, I’ll used as a gong. It work to get their attention. I used it as a gong, but I don’t think I ever quite mastered doing that like the the circular motion to make the sound come out. I can do it with a wineglass with my finger. But I can’t do it with a singing bowl and it’s little…

Ariel Landrum 12:43
Listen to Miss Congeniality over here.

Stefanie Bautista 12:45
I know, right? It looks like a mortal mortar and pestle. So that’s why I always think of I’m gonna grind stuff in it and not create music with it. But I don’t know, can you do that?

Ariel Landrum 12:55
I can. I do have a Tibetan singing bowl here at the house. If your hands are completely flat, and it’s in the middle palm, and the the more you’re actually looking at it, the more that you can create that reverberating sound, and that pattern. And a lot of people make the mistake where they’re, they’re using this stick on the inside, it’s meant to be on the outside and you’re really just curving your hand and wrist. When you’ve got that down, you can make it get really loud, you can slow it down. That concentration and focus specifically from the singing bowls. Trying to make it more quiet and pulled longer notes. It helps really a lot with mindfulness and meditation. And you’ll notice that the sound goes away as you start to cup your hands. So trying to keep a flat palm is also a really good sort of like exercise in regards to majority of the time our hands are curved in especially…

Stefanie Bautista 13:49
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 13:49
Typing or using the mouse.

Stefanie Bautista 13:53
That’s really great news. I mean, like, that’s good advice to know. I’m going to try that again. I still haven’t it. Because when I tried doing it the first time the kids we’re just like, “What are you doing?” “I don’t know what I’m doing. Do you want to try it?” Let’s just use it as a gong. It’s an attention getter. Here it is. But I will definitely try that. Maybe I’ll try with my baby and see if it works on him. He loves instruments.

Ariel Landrum 14:16
Like way to model, like you know putting yourself out there and learning as you go, right. Like totally unabashed.

Stefanie Bautista 14:22
No. And my classroom we were all learning all the time. If I didn’t figure something out, they would help me. If they hear somebody else I’d help them it was like a very symbiotic relationship with me and my students. I loved it. But listening to live music, like I mentioned is so therapeutic. For me. I try to go to a live concert at least. Man I don’t even think maybe once a month, maybe twice a month if that. If you guys ever get a chance to go to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, because this is a Disney podcast, it is so magical. The architecture is beautiful. plenty of places to take pictures outside. It is designed by Frank Gehry, I think. One of the more iconic buildings in downtown LA, you can’t miss it. And they have great, great events that have to do with Disney. And they also house the LA Philharmonic when they are not at the Hollywood Bowl So…

Ariel Landrum 15:16
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 15:16
Once those events come back, I hope that you all would; can try to go.

Ariel Landrum 15:20
Absolutely. And then just to touch on the, you know, some more live sort of like music history in regards to its therapeutic uses, you know, eventually, eventually the the, we Westerners we catch on, right? Like, it takes a bit, but we catch on. So even after like years of history of music being therapeutic, it really wasn’t until World War 2 when a lot of the service members who were injured in the hospitals would show that they had better treatment adherence and would feel better when music was playing. And that ended up inspiring the National Association of Music Therapy, which was formed in 1950. Which is now called the American Music Therapy Association. So for anyone who is interested in both music and therapy, or its therapeutic uses, you can actually get certified specialize in Music Therapy. When it comes to sort of like the healing powers of music, you know, melody, harmony and rhythm, they stimulate our senses. So so this is definitely a way if you have, particularly for me with youth clients who are not interested in talking to my my old self. Some, some crazy old lady thinks that she can get them to open up. Oftentimes we use music, to be able to open up and share with one another. I have them make playlists in regards to songs that make them feel happy, songs that make them feel sad songs, give them energy songs that make them sleepy. The Music we’re drawn to can bring about feelings of bliss, concentration, motivation, and even euphoria. And those are definitely things I felt when I was watching the live music when we went to the ‘Candlelight Orchestra.’ Like..

Stefanie Bautista 17:07
Yeah…

Ariel Landrum 17:07
Candlelight Concerts.

Stefanie Bautista 17:08
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 17:09
Does that count as one?

Stefanie Bautista 17:12
I guess so. We haven’t counted in a while.

Ariel Landrum 17:16
Some of the other powers of music are that it boosts your energy, it definitely improves your sleep, it can calm stress, particularly, like out here where we have really bad road rage. Oftentimes, if you choose very soothing music, it’ll help you be able to stay focused and motivated. But it’ll also help you not want to, you know, murder everybody in the LA traffic, which I certainly have felt once or twice. It definitely reduces anxiety for medical procedures. So there are some hospitals that will play music while you are having surgery. You can even get to curate your playlist sometimes. They will or they’ll play like classical music. Definitely, when it comes to birthing, there are some hospitals that allow women to sort of choose, or people can give babies, not even just women, but people can give babies, really the birthing process to have that, that soothing music to help, like have our heartbeat sort of match the energy tones, which that’s obviously very stressful and body stress experience. Also, you know, you can play music and it actually affects our pets. I have a playlist for my dog. I definitely have specific songs on YouTube that I will play. She has severe anxiety, she’s actually on Prozac. So she really does have severe anxiety. Sounds of ocean waves, and anything that patterns music wise, like ocean waves, helps helps to calm her.

Stefanie Bautista 18:49
Yeah, definitely. And I mean, even when you’re not in that setting, when you’re getting massage or you know, I got a facial not that long ago. They play soothing music and they play actually, because where I got the massage was out near the Southwest. They played Indigenous music. And it was very soothing. It was different than us like than classical music and you know, European and Western classical music and it was soothing it on a different level. So different music different genres can evoke different emotions and feelings in your mind, especially when you’re in such a almost a meditative state when you’re like zenned out.

Ariel Landrum 19:28
Yes. yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 19:28
It’s great. And it I I’ve seen that it has different effects on you like I slept way better during this one. I mean, I don’t I try not to fall asleep, but I always tell like whoever is performing the service, “I’m a very tired individual. So if I start to snore, sorry, but also it’s a compliment.”

Ariel Landrum 19:46
“I’m a teacher and a mom.”

Stefanie Bautista 19:48
I’m very tired all the time. And I love going to Disneyland. So I mean I’m not doing anything to help out my tiredness by going there all the time. But you know, music has so many therapeutic and healing attributes. I think we take it for granted and we don’t we don’t realize it, especially if like you’re in the car singing. I think that’s therapeutic in itself. I know where, you know, we’ve talked about karaoke before. And that in itself is therapeutic. So this is just another one of those branches.

Ariel Landrum 20:20
And, and even for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, the vibrations from the music, that pattern beats, those rhythms. Those are just as healing. The body wants to match that. The body wants to feel that energy. So really learning to not only just listen to the sound, but see if you can feel that rhythm. Particularly you know, if you’re someone who wants to feel music in your body, maybe even learn you know to dance. That’s that. All parts of music is still still healing for a variety of people.

Stefanie Bautista 20:57
Yep, and when they say dance is healing is one of those things too. I mean, it’s therapeutic in itself because of the way you’re using your body to respond to the music.

Ariel Landrum 21:05
Yes. So, um, responding to the music going back to our Candlelight Concert..

Stefanie Bautista 21:15
It was a journey.

Ariel Landrum 21:16
It was it was a total journey um so I no matter how hard I try or how many times I set a calendar or reminder or a timer I’m late. I’m just a chronically late person. I try not to be. It happens. I started getting… The goal was to pick up stuff at 5 be at the venue by 6 concert starts at 6:30. I started getting ready at 3. That should be enough time.

Stefanie Bautista 21:50
You did? I didn’t even know that.

Ariel Landrum 21:51
I did that. Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 21:52
At 3?

Ariel Landrum 21:53
I started getting ready at 3. I already had the outfit picked out so there was no way. I was like..

Stefanie Bautista 21:56
Yeah you had the outfit picked out like maybe maybe even months before I did, I literally found my outfit that day.

Ariel Landrum 22:04
And yet, still late. So I’ve I’ve come to realize there are a few things that will definitely make me late. I need to put my phone on ‘Do Not Disturb’ if I’m getting ready. Because I will get you know like emails or notifications or messages that I think that I can respond to quickly but even in those few seconds it’s just taking time away. The other thing is.. I in this case, I was trying something new and that’s what that’s what I should not have done.

Stefanie Bautista 22:33
Oh, yes. That’s another thing that I don’t do when I’m getting ready to go somewhere I’ve never been before don’t ever try something new.

Ariel Landrum 22:41
I did not take that advice. And so I I bought this dress on Amazon. And one of the reasons I actually like buying dresses on Amazon despite it being you know, sort of the mega corporate…

Stefanie Bautista 22:56
Conglomerate. The man.

Ariel Landrum 22:57
Conglomerate. The man Yeah. Is that a lot of the people who write their reviews will put how tall they are how much they weigh.

Stefanie Bautista 23:04
Yes. Very helpful.

Ariel Landrum 23:05
And again I am 4’11” there are not many new long dresses that don’t look like I was put in a hand me down from like a big sister.

Stefanie Bautista 23:14
Yeah. Agreed.

Ariel Landrum 23:15
And so to find a dress that was at the right length, it hit my ankles that I can wear sandals because I didn’t want to wear heels on the beach. I’m not that I’m not that kind. I’m not that girl.

Stefanie Bautista 23:26
I don’t think anybody should be that girl, but anyway.

Ariel Landrum 23:30
I don’t think they should but there are some people who are you know, power to you. Not me.

Stefanie Bautista 23:34
Not me.

Ariel Landrum 23:36
And then the other thing was it was really low cut. Very, very low cut. So the new thing that I tried was I got the dreaded chicken cutlets. And so for those who do not know, they are these sticky, rubbery, plasticky. Yeah, rubbery thing that you stick on your breasts.

Stefanie Bautista 23:57
Literally think of a chicken cutlet. I don’t know how much more you could…

Ariel Landrum 24:01
Like chicken cutlet. If you if you open up a package of chicken breasts, just like imagine sticking that to your chest.

Stefanie Bautista 24:08
To your chest.

Ariel Landrum 24:09
And that is that’s it. That’s that. And I wanted to do that because it was so low cut, I couldn’t wear any of my strapless bras. I even considered going braless. But that is something that like for so much cleavage, cleavage I’m uncomfortable with. I don’t want like any of my girls to say hello to anybody.

Stefanie Bautista 24:28
Especially on the beach when you know there’s movement happening.

Ariel Landrum 24:30
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 24:31
Anything could happen. You could fall. Anything could happen.

Ariel Landrum 24:34
So I hadn’t tested these out because I was afraid that the sticky would like be no longer sticky if I kept like reapplying and applying them so I applied them that day and it took forever to figure out exactly where they were supposed to go. Which sounds odd because it’s just on the boob right but no, I had to have a certain under way of doing it so that it wouldn’t be seen in my dress and there’s a front hook and I had to try and like put in angles and both the front hooks would meet. It was disaster. That took forever.

Stefanie Bautista 25:01
My gawd. So if you guys don’t I this is the first time I’m hearing this behind story I jumped in when she picks me up literally when I jumped in the car so… I’m… keep going. I’m enthralled.

Ariel Landrum 25:15
So I don’t know if I’ll use these chicken cutlets again. They definitely had smaller ones that were like pasties. I thought of that too. But I did it. I figured it out. It took like 20, 30 minutes, I swear.

Stefanie Bautista 25:28
Dang.

Ariel Landrum 25:28
To get this thing to stick on me in the right way and be hidden enough that like you didn’t see my bra. So I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ll use it again. But I mean, I have to because I bought the dress. I want to use the dress again. Anyways.

Stefanie Bautista 25:40
Dapper Day.

Ariel Landrum 25:40
Dapper Day. So I so that happened. That took a while me like responding notifications. And then the third thing that like kind of kind of got me kind of got me for this round at least was that I kept skipping music because I wanted to listen to the right song to like, get ready. I don’t have like a get ready playlist. If anybody has one that you think is good. Like I will I would love to have one that’s curated because I just need one for listening.

Stefanie Bautista 26:07
I have one. I have one for the mood, which is not really a get ready playlist. It’s more than just the playlist.

Ariel Landrum 26:15
I will take a mood one. I will take anything that isn’t me like skipping songs that I don’t want to listen to.

Stefanie Bautista 26:20
No don’t do that. Do that on the car ride.

Ariel Landrum 26:23
Right?

Stefanie Bautista 26:23
Don’t do that while you’re getting ready.

Ariel Landrum 26:25
So with, I finally get ready, my partner has been ready ages ago, and we get in the car and it we get in the car at 5. So you can tell we’re already late, right? And we’re gonna pick stuff up at 5:20 says the GPS because we of course hit every red light that ever existed.

Stefanie Bautista 26:42
And it’s rush hour. The world is back.

Ariel Landrum 26:46
We should also remind you that this event was on a Thursday.

Stefanie Bautista 26:50
It was on a Thursday afternoon in Huntington Beach. Huntington Beach is not in LA County. It is past Disneyland. So where we live in The Valley, in the San Fernando Valley, it already takes on a good day to get to Disneyland 45 minutes.

Ariel Landrum 27:06
Yup.

Stefanie Bautista 27:06
That’s like if you leave at 8 o’clock on a Saturday morning. This is Thursday.

Ariel Landrum 27:11
Yes. And so the GPS said we would get there at 7:02.

Stefanie Bautista 27:17
The concert. When does the concert start? When did it?

Ariel Landrum 27:19
6:30.

Stefanie Bautista 27:20
6:30.

Ariel Landrum 27:21
So um, I read the info because I wanted to call someone and say like, “Oh, we’re running late. I apologize.” Because I reread the information. This is another tip on what not to do. I didn’t look at all of the rules, like ahead of time this would have made for planning better. But it said 1., it even though you have a specific zone, it’s come as you are seating and 2. even, it starts at 6:30 they will not let anybody in after 6:30. It said no late admission. In a realm of coincidence that always happens with Stef and I her husband just happened to be in Huntington Beach that day.

Stefanie Bautista 28:04
Yes. So he works out there in his base is actually out in near Long Beach but they were holding an event for his work at the beach. They decided to have a barbecue that day. And it happened to be at Huntington Beach, Seal Beach because next to Seal Beach is a Naval Training Facility. And it’s a beach that they’re familiar with it has barbecue pits. And like I said it had a… What do you call it? Fire pits. And he I asked him because now now Ariel’s telling me all of these things through text. Like “Oh crap, like, you know, how are we gonna make it? This and this.” We had the reason why she picked me up is because he was already out there working. And then so when I had told him about where it was, I was on the phone and I was like “Hey, oh, it’s at this place called Sea Legs at the Beach.” And she’s, he’s like, “Sea Legs at the Beach. Is it that building right there?” I’m like, “What do you mean? I’m on the phone with you what building right there.” He’s like, “I can see it here from where I’m barbecuing right now.” “What you’re there?” So he had been there the entire time. He had been running errands, you know, finding things to do. So he had already kind of mapped out the area even though we’ve never been there before, which actually proved to be helpful on our way there.

Ariel Landrum 28:31
Absolutely.

Stefanie Bautista 29:12
Because it helps Ariel’s partner navigate where we were actually supposed to go because the the directions are a little confusing. And if you’ve never been there before, you definitely would have had to allow time to get lost.

Ariel Landrum 29:25
Yes, yes. Because one of the entrance gates was closed and AJ already knew this. He was able to tell us to bypass and turn and go to a specific area. It also helped him that there was a, there was another ‘Sea Something’. Was it ‘Sea Shanti.’ ‘Sea Meals’?

Stefanie Bautista 29:48
Yeah, another another thing that had nothing to do with here we supposed to be.

Ariel Landrum 29:51
There was another restaurant that was 2 named and start with ‘Sea.’

Stefanie Bautista 29:54
Yeah, and we didn’t we didn’t get confused on where we were supposed to go which is great.

Ariel Landrum 30:00
So we are attempting to play beat the GPS.

Stefanie Bautista 30:04
We were literally play ‘Traffic God.’

Ariel Landrum 30:08
Yes, yes. Yes, we thought that we could out outdo it outsmart it, and the… I’m now sweating because it is it is 5, 6 o’clock 6:10. And we are still not there. And there were points where the GPS time would go down and then somehow it would just shoot back up to let’s say frickin number even though we went, we like shaved off 7 minutes, 8 minutes. Somehow in like a span of a second that would come back. And my partner was doing all kinds of questionable driving. That’s all I’m gonna say about that.

Stefanie Bautista 30:45
Questionable. We got there safely.

Ariel Landrum 30:47
We did get there safely. And now it is 6:30. And I’m like, “Okay, I think that AJ,” I was like “Stef, Aj can just enjoy the concert. You me and my partner will go…”

Stefanie Bautista 30:59
She was already thinking about an end game. Like, “We could just have dinner.”

Ariel Landrum 31:02
“We can go to this bar. We can just have dinner and drinks and then meet him later. And he can tell if we can interview him on the podcast.” Like, “We’ll just do that.” So then Stef gets a call from Aj. And he goes “Oh, yeah, they still haven’t they haven’t started yet. What do you want to eat? I’ve already checked us all in.” We had sent him the tickets hoping he could. He’d already checked everyone in had already gotten a table and he was now in the ordering stage.

Stefanie Bautista 31:28
In the ordering stage. He got our table. Everything was good. They were just like, “Oh yeah, just like tell us when your party gets here.” And if you if like any of you have met AJ, he’s like, pretty chill.

Ariel Landrum 31:36
Super chill.

Stefanie Bautista 31:37
And like, it’s funny like with the dichotomy of like, Ariel’s anxiety, sometimes that like, rises and rises and rises and then like, Aj’s always pretty even keel about things. And this has happened at Disneyland to where we’re supposed to like get somewhere we have this plan set out and it just like it’s gonna be fine. Like it’s okay. So, it’s always fun watching the two Ariel’s because Aj is an Ariel too.

Ariel Landrum 32:02
So this I don’t think our podcasters, listeners know this but my name is Ariel and Stef’s husband’s name is Ariel, because Ariel is actually a male’s name in the Filipino culture. And my apparently my dad was watching a French film on the the naval ship and there was a woman named Arielle that was either the actress or the act, or the name of the character he cannot remember. He just knows her name. So that’s that’s how important My name was, he was like, “I saw this this movie and it was a French lady and I liked the name.” So he tell’s my mom..L

Stefanie Bautista 32:36
It’s okay, ours, ours was actually, Ariel’s name. Well, so yeah, like ‘Are-yell’ is how you pronounce it.

Ariel Landrum 32:44
Yeah, ‘Are-yell’.

Stefanie Bautista 32:44
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 32:45
It’s Sebastian.

Stefanie Bautista 32:46
Yeah, like that. But you know, they they pronounce it that way. But anyway, go ahead and finish before I…

Ariel Landrum 32:52
Yeah. So. So the so my my full name is 4 names on the birth certificate and there wasn’t enough room to put Arielle so then they shortened it to Ariel and my mom was to my dad “Are you sure you want to name her Ariel” and he was like, “Yeah, I mean if that’s fine that’s just as pretty.” Come then he like comes to find out that “Oh, that’s a boy’s name.” Because everybody kept saying, “What a cute little boy you have. What a cute little boy you have.” And he had to keep correcting them. Also, both for me and my brother my dad did not meet us until we were 5 days old cuz he was on the naval ship. It happens when you’re a military bear and sometimes you don’t meet your kid when they’re moving born.

Stefanie Bautista 33:32
It’s a miracle that you’re even there together in the birthing room. But with my with AJ Ariel (‘Are-yell’), his dad is Ariel (‘Are-yell’). And now our son is also Ariel (‘Are-yell’), but he is. So he’s the third, AJ is the second and Dad is the first. So I have 4 Ariels in my life all super special and wonderful to me.

Ariel Landrum 33:55
And one with high anxiety like her dog.

Stefanie Bautista 33:57
High anxiety, like her her dog and one that’s super chill, just like his son. So the name doesn’t define you. That’s what we’re trying to say here.

Ariel Landrum 34:10
And also his dog ’cause I think your dog is very chill.

Stefanie Bautista 34:12
Oh, yeah. Chance is pretty chill until like you, you take us food or I don’t know he just…

Ariel Landrum 34:18
Same with Aj.

Stefanie Bautista 34:19
Or just get on his, yeah, if you take his food or get on his property, then he’s like attack mode. But anyway, um, so we finally get there. And I don’t even see AJ at this point because like the sun is setting and like where he is sitting is like where the sun is. So I’m like trying to look for him. And then they’re like, “Oh, can we see your ID and can we you know, see your tickets? And there was like a QR code and I didn’t have them Ariel had them…

Ariel Landrum 34:45
And I’m like, trying to like pull them out of my bag of bags ’cause I just shoved everything. So so my partner literally parked right by the venue.

Stefanie Bautista 34:53
Oh no, we just rolled out.

Ariel Landrum 34:54
Yeah, he was like, “Just get out.” So we duck and rolled and you just kept driving to find a parking space.

Stefanie Bautista 35:00
Yeah. There was plenty of parking.

Ariel Landrum 35:01
So that was what do you miss any any music? We were lucky in that they didn’t start until 7, like.

Stefanie Bautista 35:07
No, they didn’t start till 6:50.

Ariel Landrum 35:09
Till 6:50, and we got in at 7:02. Faithful GPS. So we only missed like what 2 songs? 3 songs.

Stefanie Bautista 35:15
So we missed like three songs and AJ being the great person he is as he was texting me the setlist as they were going so that A. he would tell us you know, for the podcast what they played, and B. give us a little more anxiety because we are missing these certain songs.

Ariel Landrum 35:28
That we actually love.

Stefanie Bautista 35:30
That we loved.

Ariel Landrum 35:32
Um, so yeah, so we do a tuck and roll I’m I’m we’re at the front. I’m digging through my person. I’m like, “Our party’s already here. They’re at a table let me find my phone.” And their like, “Where’s your mask? And I’m like, “It’s under these mouse ears I brought.”

Stefanie Bautista 35:48
And like Ariel here brings like this large tote. And I’m like “What are you doing? Are you picnicking? There’s food here.”

Ariel Landrum 35:54
They had to check the bags because we weren’t allowed to bring food or drinks. So that took like an extra bit and I’m like, “I’m missing everything even though I’m right here and I can hear everything.” Finally, we get in. And Stef’s like, “Oh I found AJ he’s over there.” Trying to follow her.

Stefanie Bautista 36:10
Hobble over.

Ariel Landrum 36:11
Hobble over.

Stefanie Bautista 36:12
Not like disturb the music.

Ariel Landrum 36:15
Not being in anybody’s away or be inconveniencing anybody.

Stefanie Bautista 36:18
Sorry. So sorry. But you know what, this is not a uncommon thing for it to happen to us.

Ariel Landrum 36:26
Not uncommon.

Stefanie Bautista 36:28
I’m sure you will hear in future episodes, especially when it’s not like something we’ve gone to like a million times like the Dapper Day Expo or if it’s like, you know, if we ever go back to like a comic book convention, like we already know how to plan for those things, because we’ve gone to them for so so many times. If you’re going to a movie at you know, AMC or El Capitan, we know the routine.

Ariel Landrum 36:47
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 36:47
This we did not know because like I said earlier, it’s not an official Disney event. So you kind of have to navigate where it is and use your, I guess savviness of the area to determine what you you know what you need to prepare for? I think living in Los Angeles, we have a threshold of how early we need to leave for certain things. However, we are working individuals, we have lives of our own with. If this was probably 10 years ago, we would have maybe made it on time because of the lesser responsibilities that we have. But as 30 somethings with a million things on our mind. I think even though Ariel you are not a mother, you are a pet mom and you are a business owner. So you have just as many things to care about. And we also want it to look cute like…

Ariel Landrum 37:37
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 37:37
I get it was on the beach. Oh, I guess this is a good segue into what to wear. If you’re going to a beach concert. Don’t overdo it. You’re at the beach. Like think of it you are going to the beach. Like if you if you look up the venue it is literally on the beach, so whatever you would wear to the beach, do it. I wish. So both Ariel and I were wearing dresses, with sandals because we knew we were going to be on the sand. Ariel had a beach dress on long gray flowly. You’ll see them on the pictures on our Instagram. And I was wearing a retro dress but it was like a Hawaiian retro dress something you could wear to a luau. This dress in particular and I will I think we can link what we wore to…

Ariel Landrum 38:14
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 38:14
And where we got it.

Ariel Landrum 38:15
Yeah

Stefanie Bautista 38:16
I bought this dress originally for a Spring Dapper Day. And our Spring Dapper Day it didn’t happen this year.

Ariel Landrum 38:22
No.

Stefanie Bautista 38:22
So I didn’t get to wear it. However, it was a perfect way to use it because we were going to be on the beach and I brought a cardigan to go with it. Thank God I did because it was cold.

Ariel Landrum 38:34
I brought a cardigan and a shawl. Trying to decide which one would be better. And I figured it was just going to be cold. The the one thing is that the event didn’t say if we could bring blankets otherwise I would have. And then we saw that people did.

Stefanie Bautista 38:49
Yeah, and towels.

Ariel Landrum 38:50
It’s, and towels. Blankets and towels. Some people already spent the whole day at the beach before ending at the concert. So just being…

Stefanie Bautista 38:58
Yeah we should have done that.

Ariel Landrum 39:00
You know, well I had worked and you had work.

Stefanie Bautista 39:04
I’m talking like I wasn’t working like 5 minutes before she picked me up. I was working. But yeah…

Ariel Landrum 39:11
AJ did that. He did that for us.

Stefanie Bautista 39:17
Um, I wish that I had pulled my hair back because I get crazy beach hair. My hair gets frizzy. And like because I have dyed hair. It just looks like a sort of mess. And if I don’t tame it like it’s kind of everywhere. Ariel has long long hair, and it didn’t affect her as much because the weight of her hair kind of brings everything down.

Ariel Landrum 39:39
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 39:39
It’s beautifully curly.

Ariel Landrum 39:41
I do get frizz I do get the ocean frizz that does happen. But I would say that it wasn’t as bad this time because I did put an I feel like enough product in my hair to be satisfied with it. And it wasn’t straight. So for anybody who has textured hair, do not try to wear to the beach straight.

Stefanie Bautista 40:04
No, no.

Ariel Landrum 40:04
It will not last.

Stefanie Bautista 40:05
It will not last. I think next time if I do wear something retro, I’ll pull it back and do like a roll or something for my bangs. That would be I’ve seen somebody do that at a beach party. So that would be definitely something that I would consider next time. For the guysm, we had two different styles because I forgot Aj’s actual going out clothes. But it was okay because everybody was wearing something different. Some peopler were super casual, like just came from the beach, like Ariel said, and some people were a little bit dressed up for this event, which is also acceptable because it was, you know, quartet on the beach. So Ariel’s partner, James, he was wearing all linen, I think. He was wearing linen pants and linen long sleeve.

Ariel Landrum 40:46
Yes. Yeah, I was going for a linen look. I bought him the shirt. The pants he already own which apparently I’ve gotten a lot of hits on Facebook in regards to because they are salmon.

Stefanie Bautista 40:57
It’s a great color.

Ariel Landrum 40:58
And some people feel some type of way about dudes wearing salmon, but he loved it and I loved it. So you know haters.

Stefanie Bautista 41:03
Salmon is great. He owns a pair of salmon colored swimming shorts. And they are either swimming short, ah swim shorts and regular shorts. So no guys guys can do that. Tell the haters to go away.

Ariel Landrum 41:16
But the the linen shirt I also bought from Amazon, I will I will link that as well. He was a little unsure of it. The color and the length and the tunic type of style made him think like cult.

Stefanie Bautista 41:27
Yoga guru?

Ariel Landrum 41:29
Or yoga guru.

Stefanie Bautista 41:31
Definitely, if you saw him, especially barefooted, just like cross legged on the beach. You could ask him for advice or like, you know, to see into your future.

Ariel Landrum 41:39
He’s Guru Kid.

Stefanie Bautista 41:40
He’s The Guru Kid. Like all grown up. But um, yeah, AJ was wearing just his regular tank top you’d wear at the beach in swimming shorts, and he looked totally appropriate. It did get cold for him looking at her cardigan. Her oversized cardigan that he wore later on. But yeah, for concerts like this and I don’t think and remind me if they did was there a dress code noted anywhere?

Ariel Landrum 42:05
There didn’t seem to be a dress code noted anywhere. It did it didn’t even say dress warm or dress cool. That I remember. Most of the information was in regards to, “Don’t bring food or drink.”

Stefanie Bautista 42:18
Yeah, yeah, they wanted to make money off of this which is fine. I get that. And that’s what we’re going there for so we’re there we finally listen or we’re there enjoying the music. Everything is good. I I think… I don’t know Ariel, do you want to kind of give a little bit of backstory on the performers? Our quartet that was so talented.

Ariel Landrum 42:41
Yes. So quartet meaning 4 and it was a string quartet. So 4 women playing different stringed instruments. There was a Molly Rogers she plays the violin and she’s featured in a Kelly green in one of the photos and in in actual in person they were wearing similar color scheme to this promo photo. Desiree Hazley or Hazley apologies if I’m saying this wrong, anybody please correct us. She was featured in a mustard yellow and she plays the violin. Kiara Ana Perico. She was featured in a glacier blue and plays the viola. Viola slightly bigger than a violin. And so that’s how you’d be able to visually tell the difference. And then, Leah Metzler she was featured in the lemonade pink and she plays the cello. I was very specific in explaining these colors because I think that specificity in colors is important. So Kelly green, mustard yellow, glacier blue, lemonade pink.

Stefanie Bautista 43:41
Yeah. And visually, they looked wonderful. They were bright colors, but very muted. So it like totally was Disney feel, but calming at the same time. They were so talented and sweet. I remind me who was the one who was speaking a lot during the concert?

Ariel Landrum 44:00
So that was a thing was we, because it was come as common as the tables are available.

Stefanie Bautista 44:06
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 44:06
I was under the assumption we were in a specific area in our zone. And when we weren’t, I was confused. I really looked at the map and it was like spread out. So the way the map makes it look like you get to sit up front. But in reality, you get to sit up front if you get there sooner, otherwise, you’re at this other area of the zone. So I believe it was Molly talking but…

Stefanie Bautista 44:26
Correct us if we’re wrong. But she was fantastic in kind of guiding everybody and actually crowd participation. If you’ve ever gone to a arc, an orchestral performance or Philharmonic performance, there’s no crowd participation at all.

Ariel Landrum 44:41
None.

Stefanie Bautista 44:41
Like you just sit there Listen, wait for intermission. You can’t and that’s why I was actually thinking the, ‘No In and Out Policy,’ or ‘No Late Policy’ was like a hard ‘No Late Policy,’ because that is how it is in classical performances because you don’t want to disturb the performers. So that’s why we have such a high anxiety. But because it’s at the beach, we have to remember that it’s a little bit more relaxed. And yeah, she was great in you know, setting up the songs, putting in little Disney tidbits during those certain songs. You could tell that they are Disney fans too, which I loved because you not only heard it in their music, but you also heard it in their commentary and when they were talking about themselves. It was great.

Yeah and and even really curating some of the songs and specific sets. And even talking about like an ‘Oscars Awards Section.’ Sometimes we forget because we think of really Disney songs in regards to the songs we sing. We forget that a lot of the movie has like an orchestra it has the the sound scores are just so lovely. And…

Award winning.

Ariel Landrum 45:50
Award winning.

Stefanie Bautista 45:51
Iconic.

Ariel Landrum 45:52
Iconic. So having her like mentioned that they were curating even to that level was was so there was not only some very beautiful but just showed that their their precision and the way that they had made a decision. Now the thing about the event was again because it’s unofficial the advertising mentioned really just movie music scores. It listed some Disney movies some Star Wars movies, some like even Pirates of the Caribbean. But it listed LA LA Land, Harry Potter, and and just many movies.

Stefanie Bautista 46:25
We did not know.

Ariel Landrum 46:27
Did not know. We thought we would hear a few Disney songs talk about those little did we know it was an entire Disney franchise focused set.

Stefanie Bautista 46:35
We lucked out so much. As they kept playing, I was like, “Wait, this is all Disney. Oh my gosh!” Like I was ready because even though we are both movie lovers, we watch plenty of movies. And you know, it was just icing on the cake for it all to be Disney and to be so nicely curated. It was it was so great. I loved it so much.

Ariel Landrum 46:57
Yeah, the interesting thing about the these specific performers, LA based freelance musicians, and they actually became essentially besties after a tour with a Japanese metal band, a specific rockstar from a Japanese metal band which Stef and AJ’s eyes, just like sparkled and shined when they heard this. So yeah

Stefanie Bautista 47:20
Like they, they were on tour because of X Japan which is like an iconic Visual Kei metal band from Japan. Visual Kei, it refers to the style of clothes that they wear, it’s very comparable to glam rock in the 80’s. But because in Japan metal is a whole movement out there that has to do with your style, the way you do your hair. The romanticism of the music. It’s very different when you’re comparing it to American metal. Which is why they probably worked with these ladies is because their music incorporates so many symphonic elements to it, that it it was just perfect for them to go on tour with. So they…

Ariel Landrum 48:09
So they went on tour with specifically the I guess the one of the lead singers?

Stefanie Bautista 48:14
Yeah, his name is Yoshiki he is the pretty much the leader of the band. There is a whole story about this band. It is fascinating. There’s a movie called We Are X. I think I saw it on Netflix. But I remember it coming out at the Sundance Festival like in 2015 which is when you know watching anime a lot you already are familiar with bands like X Japan because of certain enemies just like call for a big epic like metals, symphonic score, and that’s what it did like animes such as Attack on Titan is one of the ones that they have done music for. And that is a huge, huge anime and manga. So if you want to do a little bit more research on that X Japan is who they were introduced to and that’s how they got together. And I think because of the way that they perform together, they kind of just decided after the tour to stay together and tour right?

Ariel Landrum 49:09
Yeah, yeah. And that allowed them to be able to tour with a variety of bands they they’ve toured with the Chainsmokers, Alien Ant Farm, Frank Ocean, Stevie Nicks, Alicia Keys, Kendrick Lamar. Yeah, they and that isn’t even all the people but like that’s such a variety of music genres. And then they themselves actually went on a 15 concert hall tour in China and spent essentially a month long there and have even now been featured on Motion Picture soundtracks. They were on Bad Boys II. And then to live action Disney’s: The Jungle Book in the Lion King. So the Orchid Quartet they are some some bomb ass ladies.

Stefanie Bautista 49:58
Yes. And they play such a beautiful, beautiful music. You could tell as seasoned as they are. I loved the fact that we could, we’re able to see them in such an intimate setting, playing our favorite music, and we were able to curate a list for you. Maybe you know what I might make a playlist on Spotify with these songs specifically. And because not only are they songs that we are familiar with, because they have words to them, but a lot of them are soundtrack songs, and you don’t see that quite often on Spotify playlists. So they started off…

Ariel Landrum 50:36
Maybe this could be my getting ready msic?

Stefanie Bautista 50:38
Maybe this could be returning ready music and you could be reminded of the anxiety that you had. So maybe it’s not so much getting ready? So they open up their set with First Start on the Fight from Peter Pan, which is so dreamy, like every time I hear that song, I mean, even when I go to the Peter Pan, right? It’s just so magical and lovely. And you feel like you’re floating. Like it gives you such a feeling of like movement because you’re like flying with Peter Pan. And then they go on to play a Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes from Cinderella. And then when we got there, that’s a when they were playing How Far I’ll Go from Moana I was so so excited that I did not miss that I would have cried. All of these. I mean, I did cry a little bit inside that we missed the first 2 but we can do? And then they did, Colors of the wWnd for Pocahontas. A Whole New World from Aladdin. A Spoonful of Sugar from Mary Poppins. Can You Feel the Love Tonight from The Lion King. Let It Go from Frozen, which they asked everybody to sing. And literally it was just me and Ariel singing.

Ariel Landrum 51:44
Yeah, yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 51:45
Really loudly and I was like, “Maybe we should.” Nobody complained.

Ariel Landrum 51:50
Nobody complained.

Stefanie Bautista 51:51
Nobody complained. And then they did a Pixar Medley and I love this Pixar Medley so much. They started off with Inside Out. And if you guys have ever stopped to listen to the soundtrack of Inside Out, it is beautiful. Like, because it goes through all of the emotions.

Ariel Landrum 52:06
So lovely.

Stefanie Bautista 52:06
Yeah, like it the way that they play with the tempo and the way that they play with the tone is so amazing. And you don’t really realize it until you isolate the music like it’s really it’s really cool. And then they did, You Got A Friend In Me from Toy Story. Then they did Up and everyone’s shed a tear.

Ariel Landrum 52:23
Everybody cried.

Stefanie Bautista 52:23
I shed a tear.

Ariel Landrum 52:23
I cried. You cried.

Stefanie Bautista 52:27
And then they move into Monsters, Inc. and then they did The Incredibles which was amazing to see.

Ariel Landrum 52:32
Oh, that was a I was not expecting that one at all. And it was it was so lovely to hear it like..

Stefanie Bautista 52:39
Yeah…

Ariel Landrum 52:39
Played in with these 4 strings and stuff.

Stefanie Bautista 52:42
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 52:42
I don’t I don’t know. I was not expecting the beat to sound like that.

Stefanie Bautista 52:46
That was beauty. Especially because the incredible soundtrack is very horns heavy.

Ariel Landrum 52:50
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 52:51
It’s very wind instrument heavy because it is like a superhero movie. So it’s a lot more than that. But the way that they played with the tempo with their string instruments and tapping on their instruments really, like drove that beat, which was great. And then they ended the Pixar Medley with Coco, which was of course lovely. All the music in Coco was great.

Ariel Landrum 53:10
And everyone cried again.

Stefanie Bautista 53:11
Everyone cried again. Like we always do. And then after that they did Under the Sea. And then the Ariels freaked out. It was great.

Ariel Landrum 53:19
I got a really close for that.

Stefanie Bautista 53:21
Yes. And then I cried again, because they played the Black Panther score. The Black Patnerh score was one of my friends.

Ariel Landrum 53:28
Oh that was amazing. I…

Stefanie Bautista 53:29
Oh my gosh…

Ariel Landrum 53:30
I again, something I wasn’t expecting. But that that score is so iconic of even the Marvel scores.

Stefanie Bautista 53:37
Yeah, of the Marvel scores.

Ariel Landrum 53:38
Like that one comes to mind for me.

Stefanie Bautista 53:42
Especially because it was so influenced by African sounds and like they really use a lot of the instruments that they also use in African music. It was just so great. The oh, I can’t wait. If they ever do this at the Hollywood Bowl, I would love to go and just cry my eyes out again. Because you know, that’s just what I like to do for myself. It’s a release. And then they did the Mandalorian which was out of nowhere. I think it was super left field for me. And I love it.

Ariel Landrum 54:11
Yeah I, they did Mandalorian and I was that that iconic recorder sound that like 1. who knew a recorder could be so cool. Because I remember playing Hot Cross Buns and driving everybody nuts with that. It was not cool. But I think it was like Leah was was doing a tapping on her cello. That was sort of replicating that wah-wah-wah sound. It was an it sounded just like I was like when I turn on the show and listen to the intro. The way that they were able to mimic that sound with their instruments I again just ingenious and shows the the level that they’re playing at. The amount of music compensation and understanding

Stefanie Bautista 55:00
And you forget that the Mandalorian is based on a lot of Westerns. So the style of the music that they were playing is very reminiscent of that clopping that you would hear of the hooves because of Westerns and the driving beat of you know, being on a horse and traveling somewhere.

Ariel Landrum 55:14
Yeah

Stefanie Bautista 55:15
That was a major influence for the soundtrack of the Mandalorian. And that’s what makes it so unique. And to hear that isolated was just fantastic to me. I loved it.

Ariel Landrum 55:24
So beatiful.

Stefanie Bautista 55:25
And then and then they did Star Wars, which is, you know, iconic John Williams.

Ariel Landrum 55:28
sings Star Wars theme song

Stefanie Bautista 55:30
And the swelling of you know, because the Mandalorian is such a driving beat it like really introduce to the Star Wars soundtrack very beautifully. And then…

Ariel Landrum 55:41
They melded it together wonderfully, which, you know, what, franchise wise, it’s it, that’s all part of the same universe. So the fact that it bled into each other just so lovely listening to it, it felt good. It felt like an honoring of that franchise.

Stefanie Bautista 55:56
Yeah, definitely. And then the surprise of the night was, of course they did Pirates of the Caribbean, which is, again, iconic. And Hans Zimmer is one of my favorite composers, and he did Pirates of the Caribbean. And being as we were at the beach, it was, we thought, “Oh okay, this makes sense.” And then as we’re sitting there, who pops up from the back with an umbrella? Jack Sparrow?

Ariel Landrum 56:22
Captain Jack Sparrow.

Stefanie Bautista 56:23
Captain Jack Sparrow.

Ariel Landrum 56:25
Which by then, this was the end of the night.

Stefanie Bautista 56:28
Yeah, this is the end of the night.

Ariel Landrum 56:29
And Stef and I were like, “Well, let’s see if we can sort of take a selfie with the girls playing in the background.” The women. “The women playing back in the background.” And we look up and there’s there’s there’s Capin Jack, and we’re now really close because we were allowed to move because it was the final, you know, score for the night.

Stefanie Bautista 56:47
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 56:47
And he saw us looking at him and posed. He posed for us. He was a poser.

Stefanie Bautista 56:52
He’s a poser. Yes, and he was like, okay, we living in LA, we see a lot of impersonators. This guy was pretty legit. He was pretty legit. And a lot of my friends who saw it on my stories on Instagram were like, “Dang, that guy’s legit. He’s super looks like him.” And I’m like, “I know, it’s like crazy?” And yeah, like he was prancing around the stage with his umbrella, his lace umbrella.

Ariel Landrum 57:18
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 57:19
And you know, vibing to the music, and everybody pulls their phones out, starts taking pictures, it was it was such a funny and wonderful way to end the event and very, so very Disney.

Ariel Landrum 57:30
Very Disney.

Stefanie Bautista 57:31
And duh you’re in Orange County.

Ariel Landrum 57:33
And like to have like, again, like a character come out. Like I would expect that I would hope for that. I didn’t expect that for this non sanctioned Disney event, which may or may not play with Disney music.

Stefanie Bautista 57:45
It was a toss up.

Ariel Landrum 57:46
And the fact that the whole night that we had this character was such the icing on the cake. And for, for me specifically, the reason I wanted to do this event is that my partner was going to be working away for out of town and then out of state for a while on a few different projects, industry projects. And our anniversary is coming up and I wanted to have some sort of anniversary event and I definitely wanted to do it with Stef AJ the couple to identify…

Stefanie Bautista 58:16
I told her not to, I was like “No we’re you gonna leave.”

Ariel Landrum 58:20
No. Yes. No. No.

Stefanie Bautista 58:21
And I was like, “This is your thing, you need it.” And then she would refused.

Ariel Landrum 58:25
I refused.

Stefanie Bautista 58:26
I conceded.

Ariel Landrum 58:26
They had to come simply because if you if you want couples goals, that’s who you look up too. And I needed that in my anniversary.

Stefanie Bautista 58:34
Thank you.

Ariel Landrum 58:35
And it was so it was fun, in that sense, is fun to share with my bestie. It was fun to share it with my name counterpart. I loved it.

Stefanie Bautista 58:44
Yeah, it was so fun, despite all of the obstacles we had to overcome to get there. It was worth it. Um, I think because of the level of musicality just presented by the quartet. The fact that I mean even if it wasn’t all Disney, we would have found that it was just as entertaining because they were so great as musicians.

Ariel Landrum 59:07
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 59:07
Just being out there the feel of being on the beach listening to music. Now it says candlelight, but guys we’re on the beach so any candle would have died in two seconds in that wind so they were fake candles.

Ariel Landrum 59:20
They were candles and there was we went to the first show not the second one. sSo the 9 o’clock showing definitely had candle light. We had the sun setting which is very gorgeous on the beach but isn’t candlelight. And, and I knew that going in. But I also knew that this was a Thursday and everyone had to work the next day. So I don’t think the 9 o’clock being out that late listening to all of the music and then yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 59:48
If you want to do this, um, depending on your comfort level. If you’re like me, you have kids and you have things to do at night. Also, we were leaving for a trip the next day so it would have been better for us to do the earlier showing. It was still like Ariel said very, very lovely and beautiful with the sunset. I liked it. It wasn’t as cold as it could have been. If we did do the second show, I definitely would have brought a blanket and something warm. The great thing about it was that because we had gotten there kind of the first show early enough, we were able to eat dinner. I think if we did the 9 o’clock it would have been a little too late. And also we the 3 of us, not Ariel just pounded all of this alcohol AJ bought because AJ is you know, he loves to cater, even though he’s not doing food. And he was doing it already the whole entire day. So he bought all the food for us. And AJ wanted to actually commend you, Ariel for scarfing down all that food because apparently you were hungry due to all that stress.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:50
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:51
He was like “Tee hee.” Later, he was like, “Did she not eat?”

Ariel Landrum 1:00:55
I thought I ate. Apparently…

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:58
Nope. All that anxiety just ate up everything that was in her stomach.

Ariel Landrum 1:01:02
It ate it all up. It was all gone.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:03
Luckily they had a burger there that she… The food was actually quite good. The only thing that I didn’t expect were tortilla chips to get so stale right away because of the humidity.

Ariel Landrum 1:01:14
Yeah, do not buy tortilla chips in regards to this weather, because yeah, they were crunchy. Then Stef and I went to take pictures of Captain Jack Sparrow. And then we came back and they were not crunchy anymore.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:31
They were soggy.

Ariel Landrum 1:01:31
In the span of one pirate song the ocean had taken over.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:37
Yeah, and I guess like to kind of wind it down. Also like at the end of the show. If you didn’t finish your drinks, you can go to the side and finish them before the next show starts. You could take we were able to take pictures with Captain Jack Sparrow. He was very funny and lovely. And I liked that because it wasn’t an official Disney setting, he didn’t have to be in character the whole time. Like they had at the parks. So we got to talk to him a little bit and got to know him which is really hilarious. Talking to a Jack Sparrow that is not Johnny Depp, but is a human being that has known places in and around Los Ang.. It was just weird. It was very like a mind. A mind F.

Ariel Landrum 1:02:15
Surreal for sure.

Stefanie Bautista 1:02:15
If you really took yourself out of it. But we got to meet the ladies in the or in the quartet. They were so nice.

Ariel Landrum 1:02:22
Yes, the Orchid Wuartet and their logo…

Stefanie Bautista 1:02:24
Shout out.

Ariel Landrum 1:02:25
It’s the most beautiful, simplified logo I’ve ever seen. It’s a Q and O inside with a little orchid and I bought a sweater. And then the best thing about me buying that sweater is it made it easier for me to give the cardigan away. I was not cold.

Stefanie Bautista 1:02:40
Exactly. And also, if you go to small events like this, make sure to buy some merge, like whether it be a sticker or anything. It really helps to musicians. And it helps them keep their music alive. So please support any sort of you know, small events that you can. They are going to be performing, I think next in Koreatown, which is so much closer than Huntington Beach.

Ariel Landrum 1:03:03
Anaheim Marriott then Korea Trown.

Stefanie Bautista 1:03:05
Oh, Anaheim Marriott.

Ariel Landrum 1:03:06
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:03:07
Thank you. yes. Which is a little bit closer, so they’re going to inch their way back to Los Angeles. So I think by the time this podcast is published, they might have already had these tickets on Fever for the Anaheim concert. But if you missed that one, please go watch them in Koreatown.

Ariel Landrum 1:03:22
Yeah K-Town.

Stefanie Bautista 1:03:22
I think I know the venue that they’re gonna be in. It’s gonna it’s an old church, right in the heart of on Wilshire, and it’ll be really nice if you can go and support them.

Ariel Landrum 1:03:32
Yeah. And you can also go on Twitter and Instagram and support us @happiestpodGT. Thank you.

Stefanie Bautista 1:03:41
Yes, you will see the pictures. We will link all of the things that, all of the people and things it took us to get ready for…

Ariel Landrum 1:03:50
Yes, yes, we’ll link this style, we’ll link food, we’ll link the event. We’ll even link Captain Jack Sparrowed.

Stefanie Bautista 1:03:57
Yes. If you have any questions, feel free to comment or shoot us a DM on Twitter, Instagram, and we are more than happy to help you navigate and maybe even find some other Disney events, whether it be official or not official for you to partake in safely with your loved ones. As we all know that things are a little sticky now when it comes to going out. So we want to make sure that everybody’s still stays safe throughout all of this.

Ariel Landrum 1:04:24
Yeah, everybody. Thank you for joining us and we hope you support some live music.

Stefanie Bautista 1:04:29
Yep, we’ll see you next time.

Ariel Landrum 1:04:31
Bye.

Stefanie Bautista 1:04:32
Bye.

Media/Characters Mentioned

Peter Pan
Cinderella
Moana
Pocahontas
Mary Poppins
The Lion King
Frozen
Inside Out
Toy Story
Monsters, Inc.
The Incredibles
Coco
The Little Mermaid
Black Panther
Mandilorian
Star Wars
The Pirates of the Carribbean
Captain Jack Sparrow
Music
Soundtracks
Soundscores
Sing-A-Longs

Topics/Themes Mentioned

Music Therapy
Healing powers of music
Self-care through enviornment
Self-care throught lifestyle
Time management
Style
Events
Live music

Questions? Comments? Discuss this episode on the GT Forum.

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Geek Therapy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit with the mission of advocating for the effective and meaningful use of popular media in therapeutic, educational, and community practice.
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