Among other things, I miss my shower.

We've had a rash of bad showers on this leg of the tour. They really like their hockey up here in Canada, but they don't seem to be too big on taking care of the showers in the locker rooms. I'm assuming minor league players aren't interviewed as much as the NHLers, so they don't need to shower until they get back to their homes or hotel rooms. I'd take pictures of the situation, but I think it would cause some of you to go and hug your own shower and tub, and say, "Thank you, thank you for being clean."

The worst ones, and it's been three venues in a row, hence todays blog, are the push button ones. There's no hot or cold nob, no pressure adjust. Just a button in the wall that you press, and water comes out, hot or cold (it's always a gamble), from the sand blaster shower head above. Then it's a new guessing game as to how long the water will stay on before it turns itself off and you have to push the button again. I'm pretty convinced there's some sort of sensor that knows when it's the least opportune moment, which is when your eyes have shampoo in them.

The best one so far was last night, in locker room 3 at the Prospera Place arena in Kelowna, BC. Push button shower, with a mister for a shower head. There was no stream of water, just a cloud of tepid humidity. I swear I had to run around, arms spread wide just to catch some water to wet myself. Sucks.

Today, happily, we are in a real venue, GM Place, in Vancouver, home of the Canucks hockey franchise. I was here back in 1996 for it's grand opening. I was just a tech then. But you could tell, a lot of thought went into this place. And they have nice showers. Shower heads high on the wall for the old basketball team (moved to Memphis I think) Real hot and cold knobs and pressure adjust. I can't wait. Although We've only got one shower in the crew room. Better get in here quick tonight. Don't want to stand in line.

When I get home in two days, I'm going to kiss my wife, kiss my pets, kiss my bed and then kiss my shower.

Quick aside... I'm sitting in the crew room this morning because it's next to the production office where the wireless internet originates. Normally I can get signal at the lighting console, but there's too much brick and mortar today. One of the backline guys came in to shower when I started typing, and he's been in there the entire time. So far, 9 crew members have come in looking to use the toilet, to no avail. Next complaint, putting the crew room in a dressing room with only one bathroom...



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As long as we're talking about the GM Place and my first trip here for it's opening, I should regale you with one of my not so funny road stories.

It was 1996, I had just started working at Light and Sound Design a year earlier and had been on one tour. To fill in time during the off season, I was sent up to Vancouver as a tech for the grand opening of this building. Bryan Adams was the head line act, with a nice under card of Cirque du Soleil, famous figure skaters, and introductions of the NHL and NBA franchises that will call it home.

We had the lighting trusses flown and the Cirque riggers were starting to hang their flying gags while we were sussing out problems in our rig. We had a bad light on one of the trusses that was 75' off the deck. So I put on my climbing harness and got ready to go.

Now keep in mind, this is 1996 before people even thought about safety. There are no inertia wheels as safety for climbing up the ladder, no horizontal life lines on the trusses. The only reason I had put on my harness was because in order to fix the lights, you had to hang underneath the truss by your butt. I had only been on one tour, and those trusses only trimmed at 30'.

I've never been a lithe sort of gentlemen, but climbing 30' wasn't too hard. But this day, at about 65' up this wire ladder, my forearms cramped. I literally could not un-grip my hands from the rungs I was on. My forearms had cramped so tight, I was in visible pain.

One of the riggers for Cirque was watching me and could tell I was in trouble, he yelled at me to hang on he'd come help me down. He started to put on his harness and get ready to climb the ladder, when my forearms began to relax slightly. I was able to peel my hands off the rungs I was on, and hand under hand, climb back down the ladder by basically slapping my palm on the next rung and letting the cramps squish my fingers back around it.

I got back to the floor and had to sit there a moment while the cramps undid themselves. But the problem being, the broken light was still up there and the programmer was becoming impatient. As another evidence of how nice these darn Canucks are, the Cirque rigger offered to climb up to the truss and lower the light for me to replace.

The next day of load in, we had a similar problem, on a different truss trimmed at 75'. But this time, I was determined to get up there, and I did. Just barely avoiding cramps this time.

Not fun, and I'm damn glad all I do is sit behind a lighting console now. What is has done is given me an appreciation for what I, as a lighting designer, can do for a crew. I do my best not to make it difficult. Sometimes sacrificing the "cool" look for the economical, safe rig.

And that's all I have to say about that.


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