A Little Hawai'i And Some Final Thoughts About Korea.

The tour ended a week ago, and I haven't posted since. I apologize for that, but I was at my dad's house and A) I couldn't figure out how to embed a map of his house. For some reason, Google Maps has lost all my map info. Damn changes.

And B) I was just too lazy and feeling the need for a vacation. So I've been taking one.

So this too, will be a short post. Just some final thoughts on Korea...

- Korea is recycle crazy. Or we think they are recycle crazy. What made me remember this fact was at the airport for my flight home. I was hungry, and there was Burger King, so I ordered a meal, whopper, fries and a drink, and ate my meal. But the cool thing is, when you are finished, there are three garbage cans and a rack. The first garbage can is for all paper. Burger wrapper, fries pack, napkin. The second garbage can is for any unfinished food. The third is really a metal shoot for all unfinished liquid, and the rack is for your empty cup. So no cups are thrown in the garbage, but rather stacked like they are when they are new in the sleeve. Neat.

- Korean men love mesh vests with lots of pockets on the front. They wear baseball hats and these vests with the pockets full of stuff.

- And finally, the written Korean language is pretty straight forward. I was reading in my guide book that there are only 24 actual symbols. Each symbol represents a sound. For words, the syllables are made up of the symbols reading from left to right, top to bottom. So the first sound of a syllable is in the upper right hand corner, then the upper left hand corner, etc. The then the syllables are put together to form a word. Pretty straight forward right?

Happy July everyone, 2008 is halfway done, go figure. I'll write again when I get to L.A.

....

Final Post From Korea.

I'm glad to be heading home. This has been a good two weeks. A pictorial blog to end the trip.

Ah, the Market. A very Asian thing. You can get anything here and haggle for it!

Anyone need a wallet? I'm guessing most are knock offs.

How about some packaged Korean foods? Like Costco without the membership.

This set up socked.

Seafood and meat so fresh, it smelled gross.


Did I mention it was protest season?

Dammit, the theater is on the other side of the barricade!

All Korean men must serve two years of duty, either in the police force or in the military. Here's their helmets and shields in formation.

And the aftermath the next morning.


It doesn't look like much, it was an amazing meal every time we went. This is the family run Italian restaurant.

The second floor was full so the let us sit at the bar facing the kitchen, which was the way to go. The chef and his assistant (we think his son) perform their magic.

Italian wine, spaghetti carbonara, and gnocchi. Heaven on a plate.


A shopping area for the boys. Tools for days. They had everything. All little shops specializing in one thing. Tape man, tool man, tube man, copper wire man, safety man, caster man, audio wire man, water pump man, pneumatic tool man...

And spring man. Here's Maddi posing at spring mans shop.

Two kilometers of street on both sides, and even spooky dark alleys like this one. That's where you got the best deals. Mel bought a cable cutting tool for 80 bucks that runs about 165 in the states.


This picture is for Jade, the other side of the butt.


This picture is for Nicole. Not just a Filipino thing. Even the Koreans don't remove all the packaging from their cars.


This picture is for Matt, guess who has beer and coffee here?


More noodles!?! You know it. This is the food and restaurant near the theater that we all ate at all the time.

As a matter of fact, I'm done with this blog. I'm gonna go get my last bowl of noodles before getting on the plane.

Speak to you all when I'm back on our side of the planet.



...

DMZ, DML, And Rainy Days.

It was raining Tuesday morning as we huddled in the hotel lobby, preparing for our journey onward. I was once again channeling Julie the cruise director. I wanted to go to the DMZ, other people wanted to go to the DMZ, but no one would take the initiative. So I just got a head count, had the nice concierge book the excursion and here we all were.

Again, there was still a bit of a language barrier with the concierge. He told me to just meet in the lobby at 8AM, but didn't tell me where or what to do after that. So we milled about waiting for the 8 o'clock hour to roll around.

"Are you waiting for the DMZ tour?" a timid little voice asked. I responded yes and she introduced herself as Sophie, and she was going to be our guide for the day. We all piled into the "tomato tours" bus and off we went.

I'm sure most of you know what the DMZ is, but for those who don't, here's the scoop. DMZ stands for "DeMilitarized Zone." Technically, the Korean war is not over. All there is a ceasefire of sorts. An armistice was signed setting up a DML (DeMarcation Line), and 2 kilometers on either side of the DML is the DMZ. You can enter the DMZ, but you cannot cross the DML, for that you get shot.

As we bounced down the rain soaked road, Sophie spoke on the microphone telling us what are day was to consist of. There were no real stops in the DMZ, but rather three stops near the DMZ, the 3rd Tunnel, the Dora Observatory, and the Dorasan train station. The rain kept coming down but that didn't really dampen our spirits, we were about to witness history.

We left the city of Seoul and headed North to the DMZ. As we got closer, and the city thinned to rice paddies, we began to notice a tall fence with barbed wire and observation posts every few kilometers. Beyond the fence was a river and the other bank. Were we looking at North Korea? Sadly, no, the origin of the river was in North Korea, so they fenced both sides of the river so that no one could invade without warning. But this was our introduction to the DMZ.

But it was the strangest damn thing, when we approached the entry area there was an amusement park!The ticket booth for crossing into the military controlled area was next to an amusement park! we are probably 5 kilometers from North Korea, and there's an amusement park. I didn't know what to make of it.

Because we came up short on our head count (I booked 25, and only 17 showed up) we were forced to buy tickets and ride on another bus, with other tourists. I guess the rule was, only "approved" buses could enter. If we had 25 people, we would have had our own bus and did the tour in our own time. But since we were only 17 we had to be on the "timed" tour. Kind of a bummer.

But the real bummer was waiting for us at the guard gate. From that point on, no unauthorized photography. You could take pictures at certain designated places (as you'll see below), but that was it, you couldn't just snap away.

An armed South Korean soldier entered our bus and began to check everyone's passport. Of course, Mel, Jason and I were fascinated with his assault rifle, which Sophie told us was a Korean made K1 or K3. They used to use M-16's, but decided they were "too bulky". After we were all check out, off we went across a bridge and into the military controlled zone. The bridge was lined with barriers and tank traps, so the bus driver had to slalom left and right to avoid them. The first stop, the 3rd Infiltration Tunnel.

I won't go into too much detail, this blog is getting long, but I will say this, The 3rd Infiltration Tunnel was dug by the North Koreans as a way to invade South Korea by surprise. It's about 75 meters underground, which is as deep as a 25 story building is high. And to hide the fact that they had dug this tunnel, they rubbed the walls with charcoal, so that if it was ever discovered, they would claim it was an old coal mine. How slick is that?

No pictures were allowed at or in the tunnel. We had to watch a 7 minute "propaganda" film (that's what Sophie called it) about how unification of the two Korea's was just around the corner. And then we walked down a 350 meter tunnel that was at an 11 or 12 degree slope to get to the official 3rd Tunnel. This is the one thing I wanted to see, the tunnel, I've got a little bit of claustrophobia, so this was going to be a real challenge. But I had to do it. It helped to have 16 other people with me, but what sucked was the journey down, the journey to the end of the tunnel (which is blocked 150 meters from the DML), and the journey up.

My legs hurt all the way down. It was damp and I was afraid of slipping down the super steep slope. My back and neck hurt all they way through. The tunnel is 1.6 meters long and only about 5'10" high, so I had to stoop over the entire way down and back. My heart and head hurt all the way up. My legs were already in pain from the trip down, but now my heart was beating like crazy. I breathed heavy and got dizzy from the walk up. Basically 25 stories, on a slope, all uphill. Good times. But this was the only point on the tour where were were officially in the DMZ. Granted it was 75 meters underground...

After I caught my breath, we got back on the bus and headed off to the Dora Observatory. It was situated on top of a hill, which always makes for a good observatory. But on this day, not so much. It was raining so we weren't able to see North Korea and it's barren hillsides immediately. But for a brief moment the showers passed and we were able to see the tallest flagpole in the world (on the North Korean side), and it's counterpart flag on the South Korean side, as well as the hills where the North Koreans had cut down all their trees. Why did they cut down all the trees? So there would be no place for an advancing army to hide. And there would be no place for defectors to hide either.Here's the only picture I could snap during the brief stop of rain. You could only take a picture behind a yellow line painted about 25 feet from the actual edge of the observatory. I had to wait for people with umbrellas to move.

The final official stop was at the Dorasan Train Station, this was a very bizarre place. Here, the South Koreans built an brand new state of the art train station with tracks built right to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. But the station is never used. The tracks are used because South Korea does a fairly active trade with North Korea for goods, but no passenger trains are allowed into the country. Here, you were allowed to take pictures so I snapped away.

The entry gate to Pyongyang. Obviously not open.

The waiting area. Obviously not used.

The arrivals hall from North Korea. You get the idea.

And three handsome gentlemen. The only guards you are allowed to take a photo with.

Our final stop was at the tourist trap, uh, I mean gift shop, where you could purchase barbed wire from the DMZ fence, North Korean bilberry or ginseng wine, and produce from the neighboring Unification Village. The Unification Village is located within the military controlled zone. Less than 500 people live there, most of them farmers. They live tax free because if South Korea was ever invaded, they'd be the first to go. Tax free is a pretty good incentive don't you think?

It was an interesting day. Sort of surreal, like being in Nigeria, but not feeling as helpless. We were technically in a war zone and lived to tell the tale.

FYI, it looked nothing like M*A*S*H.

...

Legs Bar.

It's always nice when you find an unknown treasure in a far away land. In Paris, the panini place around the corner from the hotel provided many terrific sandwiches, incredible coffee, and tasty deserts to Nicole and I during our stay.

Here in Korea, across the street from the hotel is a little hole in the wall with nice furnishings and really great noodles.Similar to the Italian joint I mentioned earlier, this place has maybe 20 seats. There's only 5 tables, and every night after the show, at least Mel and I pile in to have a bowl of noodles. We've been there so much, they greet us like they greeted Norm on the TV shows, "Cheers". Mel and I walk in and there's a loud cheer from behind the counter and the matron of the place comes out and wipes down a table for us and urges us to "Sit, Sit".

Some nights, it's packed with Blue Man people, other nights it's just Mel and I surrounded by the locals. It's unpretentious and cheap. A bowl of noodles and a half liter of beer is 7 bucks. The more expensive thing is the bowl of noodles at 4 bucks. I can take or leave the local brews, Hite or Cass. Both of which rival Budweiser in taste and colour. But at 3 bucks for half a liter (that's 16 oz. or 1 pint to you and me)... I'm not complaining. At one point in Paris, we paid 56 Euros (86 dollars!) for 4 beers. Ridiculous!

I think the official name of the place is "The Corner Cafe", but we've been calling it the "Legs Bar". On the first night here, a few of the sound guys and one of the Blue Men ventured over for dinner. The place appears to be a family run joint and on this night, the daughter was serving. They immediately fell in love with her and began to tell everyone about her, and how she had perfect legs. So, of course, everyone has to stop in to take a look. She reminds me of an Anime character with the long black hair and perfectly cut bangs across her forehead just above her eyebrows. But I don't find her attractive. To each their own I guess.

As long as the noodles and beer are cheap, I'll keep showing up.

...

Shooting in Korea

I am once again, channeling "Julie the cruise director". Yesterday I organized the big shoot for our stay here in Korea. I had done a lot of ground work to get a big shoot while we were in Paris, but I had Nicole, and there's a whole lot of sightseeing in Paris. So shooting in Paris never materialized.

In Korea, there's no real sightseeing to do. No Eiffel Tower, no Louvre. So shooting became a real mission. Better than that, the hotel we're at has a concierge willing to help (there wasn't one in the hotel in Paris). So setting up a big shoot was fairly easy to organize. They called the place, got the rate, and set up a taxi. There was, however, still a bit of a language barrier. They couldn't tell me if there was someone there who could speak english, if it was a sporting clays course, and how many shots we got for the price (40,000 Won or 40 bucks). So it was still a bit of a crap shoot (no pun intended) as to what we were in store for when we arrived.

The hotel arrange for a jumbo taxi, which is basically, a mini van capable of fitting 6 people. The valet suggested that we have the taxi guy wait while we shot, since we were so far out of the city, there was no guarantee we could get a cab back. So for 10,000 Won an hour, the guy was going to wait. We didn't know how long we'd be, but for 10 dollars an hour, we figured better safe than sorry.

It was about a 45 minute drive out of town to the place known as "Eastern Castle". It was rather strange because on the same campus was the South Korean military academy, a number of public shooting ranges, and a children's amusement park. Merry-go-rounds and shotguns, don't mix in my head, but I guess it's all good in South Korea. The driver kept slowing to read different signs and we could figure out most of what was going on. 10 meter pistol range, 25 meter rifle range, we kept driving to the very end of the road and towards the recognizable loud popping of shotguns.

We parked and walked towards the noise. There we found something like a trap field. There was a covered walkway and shooting position. And stretching out before it was a large field with a wide tarp covered trap house. And next door to the entrance was a little booth with a little window and a little Korean woman. The taxi driver had followed us in and poked his head into the window and said something to the lady. She nodded, and he turned to us and made a gesture as if to say, "Belly up to the bar boys and drop some cash." So I stepped up and she held up a calculator with the sum of 40,000 typed in. "I guess is 40,000 Won per person boys," I said, "Fork it over."

I handed the lady 240,000 won, she counted it, nodded, and then a little Korean man wearing an over sized visor and a neckerchief (like a dew rag, but tied around his neck) appeared with a shotgun and six boxes of shells and waved us to the shooting house. He set the gun down on a rack, plopped the boxes of shells down on a table and then motioned to a rack of shooting vest as if to say, "Hey dudes, put those on." I, myself, had my own vest and ear and eye protection, as did a couple of the boys. Maddi and Willy grabbed a vest and modeled it for us. I don't know what it says (anyone reading this read Korean?), but they were definitely well worn vests.

I grabbed a box of shells and stepped to the line. There was already one Korean guy with an instructor shooting, so I set up in the station next to him. Loaded the gun, and said, "Pull". It felt good to have a shotgun in my hands again. Not to mention, I can now say, I've shot a gun in a foreign country. I get the feeling that where we were shooting was the practice range of sorts. Like the children's amusement park next door, this was sort of the adult amusement park. Drop the kids off at the merry-go-round and then come up here and try pistols, rifles or shotguns. At 40,000 Won (about $40.00 U.S.) it was probably the most expensive shooting I've done thus far. But it was still a lot of fun, and rather challenging since I hadn't been shooting in over a month.

The scenery was nice, and the targets should have been easy, but it always takes a while to get used to a different gun. 25 shells was not enough and I went back to the booth and plopped down another 40,000 for another box while the boys took turns. There was 6 of us and only one gun. Although when the Korean fellow next to us finished, they let us shoot that gun as well. So at times there were two people shooting. Here's Maddi and Mel up at the line. Everyone went back for another box and some people went back for a third. The people were super friendly, always smiling. By then end, we all had smiles too. It's nice that there a common bond with us, that we can all go out and relate to something other than the show we're working on. And we all get to say, "I shot a shotgun in Korea and broke clay".

Here's a quick little video of the targets going out. The first two are broken by Wayne, the second two by Maddi.



When we got back to the hotel, the total for the cab ride was less than 100,000, or 100 bucks, divided between the 6 of us, it was 20 bucks each, including tip, which most taxi drivers won't take, but this guy did without question, which was fine because we had a good day.

...

It's Protest Season!

As I have mentioned before, there are lots of protests going on here in Seoul. When we first arrived, it was all about the importing of American beef, which the people feared would be laced with mad cow disease. We all know this to be false. And as you delve deeper into the matter, you discover that it's really about the new right wing government being installed only three short months ago and the left wing getting mad and finding a cause they can get people to rally around.

That all culminated with a huge protest bringing 80,000 people (by some estimates) to demonstrate literally in front of the theater we are performing in. And the day they chose for the big rally? Opening night for us. There were some worries that we wouldn't be able to do the show and that no one would come. But we still had a full house and only had to start the show 15 minutes late. Needless to say, the people enjoyed the show.

We thought that was the end. Our second night was quiet. The theater and surrounding streets we not covered in police and military in riot gear sitting in formation by their riot buses. We were able to get to and from the hotel in a reasonable amount of time. It was all going well.

But that all changed on the third night. In Europe, they have music festival season. The states have concerts in the park and Shakespeare festivals. But here in Seoul, it's protest season. We imagine conversations in the local noodle houses going something like this:

"Hey Hok, what do you feel like doing after dinner?"

"Ugh, I dunno, what's going on?"

"Let me check the newspaper. There are re-runs of Hogan's Hero's on TV, there's some show called 'Blue Man Group' at the Sejong Center... Oh! I forgot it's protest season! Check it out, tonight they're protesting the re-runs of Hogan's Hero's on TV! We should go!"

"Heck yeah dude! I haven't been to a good protest in a while. Should I bring bricks to throw at the police?"

"Nah, it's just about TV, bring water bottles."

"Cool. Finish your noodles and let's go buy some wood and poster boards and make signs. I'll buy some candles too."

The night of our third show, the people were out protesting to celebrate the anniversary of the death of two school girls who were killed by U.S. soldiers. I've not got the full story, but I'm sure it was an accident.

The night of our 4th show, the military, who support the right wing government, were protesting the protests of the week before about the mad cow disease.

And yesterday, I don't know what people were protesting, but the riot buses and police were outside sitting in formation again.

Today, between shows (we had a matinée) we went to Cold Stone Creamery (yes, there have those here, and Baskin and Robins) and while we were in line to get our ice cream, riot buses pulled up and the police poured out with all their gear.

Here's some shots I snapped with my phone-




Who knows what they are protesting today, but I hope it's over by the time we have to leave. I want to get some noodles!

...

Kolea Update.

So I've been in Korea a week now. It was a rough start for the tour, I don't know if I was jet lagged or just plain tired, but I think I've finally caught up with sleep and am functioning fairly normally today. I've been able to explore some of the city around the hotel and the venue the last couple of days, not to mention eat some pretty delishshish foods. So here's some pictures thus far.


Once you're done staring at the bronze male butt, I want you to notice the man in the hat and the bronze woman sitting next to him. Behind the venue is a small sculpture garden that people collect in, including the crew. There is a big long wall that people will sit at during lunch or other points in the day and read, smoke or chat with their friends. After a week, we noticed that, often, the first place anyone will sit down is right next to the bronze statue of the woman reading a book. I thought it was funny to see is little Korean man sitting practically in the same position as the statue and reading. It happens all day long too, the entire wall, and everyone sits next to the bronze woman statue. Okay, you can go back to staring at the butt now.


Yesterday, Wayne, Mel and I went out in search of lunch. Right up the hill from the hotel we found an amazing Italian joint. It's super small, maybe 20 seats on the second floor. The kitchen is on the first floor and you walk up a super small spiral staircase to get to the seating. But it was excellent! I think we're going back there for dinner tonight. After that we walked down the hill to the shopping district pictured above. It's a huge maze of alleyways and tiny streets that are just packed with storefronts, selling mountains of crap. It's no wonder I love Asia.


Last night before the show, we walked across the street from the venue down an alley and found a traditional Korean "barbecue" house. And true to form, not a single person in the joint spoke a lick of English. But that didn't stop them from smiling at us and handing us a menu with pictures on it. We'd point at one thing, they'd shake their head and point at something else. Which we ordered because if they recommend it, it must be good. And it was great. As some of you may know, eating Korean style involves a lot of little plates and lots of kim chee, or pickled whatever. Kim chee is best know for it's pickled cabbage, but these people pickle everything. And then bring it out in a bunch of small dishes. The meat is tossed onto a conic pan sitting on top of a gas stove and it cooks right on the table, you simply take your chopsticks and pull meat off when it's cooked and grab what ever kim chee stuffs you like. The only thing you don't really share is the little metal bowl of purple rice (bottom of the picture) you sort of use that to catch all the little bits that fall off your chopsticks.


And finally, no Asia trip would be complete without a bowl of noodles. Next to the Korean barbecue place we ate at yesterday, is a small hole in the wall joint that just serves noodles. You've got 4 choices: Not spicy vegetable noodles, spicy vegetable noodles, spicy vegetable noodles with seafood, or spicy vegetable noodles with sausages. We had it for dinner two nights ago and we went back for lunch today. On both occasions I ordered the not spicy vegetable noodles which was still spicy. Mel ordered the spicy noodles on the first visit and spent as much time drinking water as he did soup. Spi-cee! The only thing I didn't like about the place is that everything came doused with nori, or seaweed flakes. yeeech. So when we went for lunch today, I asked the guy who didn't speak a word of English to not put nori on mine. I pointed at the nori in the picture on the menu and waved off a touchdown with my arms. He got the message and you can see above the result. Not spicy noodles without nori. Needless to say, Mel and I will be going back.

Food in Korea so far has been hit or miss. I love Asian inspired foods and while I'm here, I want to eat as much of the local foods as I can. However, I'm no Andrew Zimmern, and this is not an episode of Bizarre Foods. I'm not going to be eating beetles or eels anytime soon. I can't even stomach nori. But it just doesn't feel right to me to be in Korea and spend my time trying to search out American foods and restaurants. Granted, the Italian place and this German sausage house near the hotel have been great stops for after show foods. But I'm not like some of the folks on this tour who only eat what they recognize. They're missing out if you ask me.

More updates to come. I'm trying to remember to bring my camera everyday. Monday we are attempting to find a sporting clays course, an adventure I think I've been successful in sorting out. And on Wednesday of next week a bunch of us are going on the tour of the DMZ. We were trying to get on a tour into North Korea, but it looks like you have to apply for a permit 20 days before going. We just aren't here long enough. Damn.

...

I Know Nothing About Power.

Interesting couple of days thus far here in Seoul. Load-in, which started on Sunday, lasted through most of yesterday (Monday). Last night we had our first (and only) full run-thru/rehearsal before jumping into doing a press event this afternoon, and our first show in just under two hours.

During yesterdays run through, I was running the lights when all of a sudden, the lighting console popped up and error message in the screens, "The console has lost power, do you want to save and shut down or continue?"

Oh crap, where did the power go? I looked down at the rack, the power lights were still on. What just happened? I chose to continue, the console has an emergency back up of about 4 minutes. Just enough time to find out what most problems are. I couldn't figure it out. So I hit the power switch, and turned it on (the technical term for turning something off and then on again is "cycling power". You can use that to impress your friends.) and then the console came back.

So we kept going with the show until all of a sudden the same thing happened again. Once again I chose to continue and then cycled power, and everything was fine.

I was getting frustrated when Mel told me they had the same problem in South America.

I know nothing about power, so Wayne and Mel had to dumb down the explanation for me. Basically the generator that we are running off of (Our rig is 120 volts the U.S. standard, while most of Korea is on 220 volts) was seeing power spikes and dips every time there was a big hit with the strobe lights. The console and other delicate things (some moving lights) cannot adapt quickly enough to the spikes and dips and thus, turn themselves off.

This is not a good thing, if you haven't seen this show, it's all about whacking on the strobes.

The sad thing is, nothing much can be done to fix it, short of getting a new generator. And since Korea is 22o volts, they had to ship our current generator in from Japan (who is also 120 volts).

We are making on final attempt tomorrow to correct the problem, they are running extra power cables to hopefully increase the amount of wire used and thus lessen the spikes and dips. Fingers crossed.

So for tonights show, I've had to turn off a bunch of strobes and set a limit of 70% on the rest of them. It sucks because this show is all about the big strobe hit. But you gotta do what you gotta do to get most of the show online.

I guess my point is, nothing much is happening in Seoul for me... yet. Once this show is rolling, I'll have more time off and hopefully more to report.

In the mean time, they've gotten the interwebs working. Which is nice. Of course, when the band shows up, and everyone gets on, it slows to a crawl. Although I hear they just set up a second wireless network down in the dressing rooms, to keep the kids separated.

Oh, and Jade, thank you for the suggestion, but I don't think I had anything to say really (sort of like today).

Finally, opening night is tonight. Of course, it is also the biggest night for the beef riots to happen. And thankfully, the government buildings are in the same neighborhoods as the theater is! Awesome. We get to see lots of police and lots of riot gear.

I hope people show up for the show...

...

You've Got 5 Minutes, Talk Fast.

One would think in a fairly developed nation like Korea, it would be easy to get internet in a theater. That is not the case. There are major issues and we don't carry an I.T. guy so no one can seem to make the interweb work for everyone.

So I get my 5 minutes of free internet to tell you all... Don't worry, I'm not involved in the beef riots. They may just be right outside the stage door. And they may have burned down one of the police buses, but inside, we're all fine. Just bored. We need to get this show rolling so we can start doing the touristy things.

And while we're at it, hopefully, we'll get the interweb working for everyone. Granted, I could go sit outside in the park because all public spaces in Seoul have free wireless. But then I have to go sit outside and miss rehearsal call. Plus, it's raining. I could get the interweb in my hotel room, but at 28 bucks a pop, I think I'll pass on most days. Call me cheap.

That's all, times up.

Random Thoughts and Rants...

So the European/French tour is over. At present, Geneva was the last time I got to hear the Blue Man Group show in French. Prets? Partez! The rumour is that they are back in Paris for a month, next February. If all goes according to plan, I won't be there. But I'm not ruling it out yet.

...

As a lesson to all who travel, make sure you have more than 1 hour and 15 minutes to make a connection from an international flight to a domestic flight when flying into Newark Liberty Airport on Continental. Why? Because you land at Terminal B, then you have to clear immigration and customs, and then catch a bus with your checked in luggage to Terminal C. Once in Terminal C, you must clear security again, and then get to your plane at one of over 125 different gates. The trick is... When you get on the bus to connect to C, you have to get on with your bag. BUT, you are not allowed to put your bag on, there is luggage handlers to do that. BUT, you can't leave your bag until it's taken and placed on the bus. BUT if you get on the bus and leave your bag, it will show up at some point on one of the next buses, when ever there is room for it. AND when you get to Terminal C, you have to collect your bag and move it 4 feet to another baggage handler who's there with a cart and will take your bag to security and then onto your connecting flight.

...

I've flown so much, I know a few ins and outs for getting onto a plane and getting overhead bin space.

If you are flying Northwest domestic or any plane in Europe, Eurobarging in a legal tactic. What is Eurobarging? It's when there are no row numbers called, no "zones" to board in, they just announce, "Okay everybody, the plane is ready, get on," And no line forms, but rather, everyone just barges for the gate and push their way onto the plane. It's a real mess, but it seems to work, because the plane still takes off on time. So, if you are flying Northwest domestic, watch for other people slowly making their way to the gate before boarding starts, and follow them in. That way, you're not first, and people aren't giving you the stink eye, but rather they stand up and join you because they realize, it's time to Eurobarge.

Most other airlines board by row or "zone" numbers. So when you have your choice of seat when booking the ticket or checking in online, first check seatguru.com, and confirm the seat you are about to choose is not yellow or red (see the website, you'll understand), then get your seat in a row that's close to a value of 5 or 10. Why? Because they usually call rows by the 5's or 10's. "We are now ready to board rows, 20 thru 25," etc. So if you are in say, row 19, you can usually squeeze onto the flight when they call 20. Just wait until the line thins out, and you can see the gate agent is about to make for the microphone to call, "15 thru 19". If your flight is boarding by zones, you can usually, sneak in one or two zones early, with the same tactic of waiting until the line has thinned.

In the past, I've tried the tactic of running up to the gate just after they called first class and trying to get in saying, "I just got here from my connector flight, I didn't miss boarding did I?" It used to work, but lately they've sent me to the back of the line.

All these tactics are really important if you need overhead bin space. With American Airlines now charging for the first bag you check, people will be buying bigger carry-on bags and trying to stuff a weeks worth of crap into them so they don't have to check a bag and pay the fee. Which means, overhead space, which is already at a premium will become even more valuable. Nice going American. I used to be a platinum member with you, but now I'm just not going to even ask to be put on your plane. If I'm flying for business, I'm getting on Continental first. They, at least, still serve food. Why didn't they just up the price of the ticket by 15 bucks if they needed the money?

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It was my turn for flying karma to punish me. With my short connector flight after Geneva, I had to run to my Newark to LAX flight. When I got to the gate, there was an agent standing on the jet way, taking everyone's carry-on and checking them in, because, there was no overhead bin space left. So I had to hastily pull out my computer because I didn't want that checked in, and grabbed my sudoku book and that's all I was able to carry onto the plane. I had to put my computer under the seat in front of me and fold up my traveling jacket and place that on top of my computer because there truly was, no overhead bin space. Everyone had brought on the maximum size roll-aboard carry-on. Karma was taking it out on me for my, not really illegal, but not really legal shortcuts to getting on a plane. Next time...

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Why can't most masseuses do a good job on legs?

In Europe, the tour buses are very low. The worst are double decker buses where the height on each deck is about 5'6". I was on a single deck bus this last run with Blue Man, but even then, the height was only about 5'10". I'm 6' tall so I have to lean my head over to walk up and down the aisle. Which, by the end of about 3 days, I've got a monstrous knot in my neck and between my shoulder blades.

So I had Nicole schedule me a massage when I was in L.A. for two days. The place is called Healing Hands Wellness Center, and I've been there once before. I wasn't impressed the first time I was there, but at 80 dollars for a 90 minute massage, it was hard to pass up. I thought, the second time, I'll get a better massage.

And I did, the lady, who also massaged me the first time, really worked me over good. I mentioned to her that I had pain in my neck and shoulders, but I failed to mention that I had sore legs (due mostly to the 2nd to last show in France the buses and catering were a good distance away from the venue), so she didn't do to much work on them. But here was the problem, the massage to me was formulaic. Right back, left back, neck, left leg, right leg, feet. I felt good, but I didn't feel any personal connection to the masseuse. She never asked me if the pressure was good, if there were areas she should concentrate on. She just walked me into the room, told me to get into my birthday suit while she left the room and then rubbed me down for 90 minutes. She chit chatted a little and that's when I told her I had just flown in from France and my shoulders hurt. She never asked about anything else. And when the massage was done, there was no, "Take your time getting up, I'll step outside now, remember to drink lots of fluids," She just stopped massaging me and said, "Ok, we're done," And left the room. Maybe I need to try a different masseuse there.

In any case, my legs are still a little sore, even today. I've seen a lot of masseuses, because on Blue Man, they get one in every city. And I've asked a number of them to work on my legs, and they all can't seem to get the knots out. Why is that? I guess I need a sports masseuse who works on athletes. They seem to have lots of leg trauma.

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But now I'm in Hawai'i. Here for two days before onto Seoul, South Korea. I figure it was better to break up the 14 hour flight into 2 segments, granted, travel time is longer, but I can stop and run around after 5 hours of flying. When traveling, the day is pretty much shot whether you have a direct flight or have to make connections.

Not to mention, the food in Hawai'i is sooooo ONO!

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