1000 Cats, 1000 Stories, 9000 Lives...

That damn lyric keeps running through my head. But I guess when you hear it 25 times in a row, it's bound to stick.

On Wednesday of last week, I got a call for a last minute gig on Saturday called, "1000 Cats". It was going to be a simple day, bring up some lights on stage, key and fill the actor portraying 1000 cats, and call it a day. But by Thursday afternoon, it was turning into more than just a one look wonder.

The LD sent me a 15 minute song and three page document detailing each lighting cue that the performer and director wanted. 3 pages is a lot of cues. And we had about 3 hours to program it all in.

They were doing this shoot on the cheap. They were stuffing it all into one 10 hour workday, from set up to shoot to strike, all in 10 hours. Which means, once the lights were up, I was programming until they started blocking and camera testing, and even then I was programming up until they started shooting.

And then they ran it at least 25 times. Because it was on they cheap, they had two cameras and 150 hired extra's as audience. They set up the cameras in one position, run the scene three times and shoot it, then reposition the cameras and run it again, three more times and shoot it. And so went the afternoon, a constant repeat of "1000 Cats, 1000 stories, 9000 lives." The nice thing, is that I couldn't change lighting cues between takes for continuity sake. I pointed out to Nicole a few nights back a major continuity mistake on American Idol. In once scene there was one gobo rotating on the floor and when they cut to the next scene, it was a completely different gobo. We'll have none of that for 1000 cats.

Here's so it sticks in your head, here's a one minute sample of the 15 minute opus. Hopefully enough to stick the lyric in your head too...




And that's just one minute...

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Take Two, They're Small

I haven't posted in at least two weeks. I apologize. I don't know where the time went really. I was in Seattle one week, then last week, I was busy around the house when I wasn't feverish and laying out on the couch. I started at least two blog entries in that time, and didn't finish either. So I'll just write this one, and hopefully keep it short.

Seattle. Love that city. I'd move there in a heartbeat. I don't know if Nicole could handle the rain and dreariness they have there for most of the winter. I was joking with my friend Lindsay while I was up there that Seattle has two seasons; Winter and July. Yes, it was rainy while I was there, and yes, it did snow. But that wasn't all the fun I had.
Why yes, we did have to evacuate the ballrooms at the hotel, thank you for asking. I was there for the Microsoft Start! conference, which I signed a confidentiality agreement for so I can't really talk about it. But on the third day of the conference, the fire alarms went off and we had to evacuate the ballrooms on two levels. I've been in many buildings where the fire alarms have gone off. Most of the time, people look around at each other and continue on their merry way until someone tells them otherwise. The first time I was force to evacuate a hotel was in England on tour, but that's another story. This time, we all stood around looking at each other until the production manager got a call on his radio tell him it was a real fire and we all had to leave.
I took the above pictures standing outside in the valet area waiting for the all clear to re-enter the building. Just so you all know, I was supposed to be across the street because that's what you're supposed to do an evacuation. But since people were still pulling their cars in and walking in and out of the lobby, I wasn't too concerned.

My big concern was that the fire was caused by lighting. We had several rooms with a couple of lekos (theater lights for those who don't know) pointed at the podiums that no one managed. Maybe one of them melted a ceiling tile and there was a little smoke.

Thankfully, it wasn't us. It was the HVAC system in one of the smaller rooms that burned up. After about 1/2 hour of milling about we were finally let back into the building to continue on our merry way.

As I said before, I signed a confidentiality agreement, so I can really talk about the conference, nor was I allowed to take pictures. But I did anyway...Nothing incriminating. It's a picture of the "Green Hippo - Hippotizer" media server I was running for the general session. For those who don't know, now days, video is so integrated into lighting you can actually run video clips from a lighting console using a "media server". Basically, a PC with a special program for the video and all the video clips money can buy. It was another "monitor city" for me. I had 6 flat screen monitors surrounding me. Lots of information to keep track of when you are programming both lights and video. Please note the apple and bag of beef jerky next to the mouse. We were so short on time, and it was so chaotic that the only breakfast I normally got was what I could scrounge from the catering table. What it also translated to was a couple of "turnaround penalties", which is when work starts the next day less than 8 hours from the finish of the previous day. $$$.

It wasn't all work in Seattle. I did get one evening off before my flight home and I spent it with my friends Lindsay and her husband Creighton. Lindsay is the event manager at ShoWare arena in Kent. It's a brand spanking new arena, built for the local minor league hockey team, the Seattle Thunderbirds. And since they have a big sheet of ice, I asked Lindsay if we could go skate. She was able to arrange for some rental skates and got a bunch of people who work at the arena interested in joining us. I haven't been on ice in a long time, so it took me a while to get used to standing on the blades. I found a goalie stick sitting in one of the team benches and as luck would have it, it bent the right way for me to shoot with it.
One of Lindsay's co-workers plays in the local club league so he brought out some pucks. Don't I just look so professional? Gliding on the ice like a gazelle prancing the African safari. Shoot that puck!



Well, it ain't hockey if you don't fall down.

And finally, here's the reason leaving home for shows is tough.

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Oh Crap, It's Snowing...

As you can tell by the map above, I'm not in Altadena anymore. I'm in Seattle for the week on a show, which I'll get into later. I flew in yesterday (Saturday) and I start work this afternoon and pretty much work non-stop until Thursday night, then fly home Friday morning. I'll blog about the gig later, when it starts and we'll see if it's interesting...

I pulled open my curtain in the hotel room to get a gauge on the day, I'm meeting friends for breakfast in 20 minutes... Oh crap, it's snowing. I did not pack for this. I was figuring, I'm going to be working non-stop, no need for a winter coat to take up suitcase space.

If anything, I knew I'd be going out last night for a meal, so I packed a hoodie sweatshirt, which I can also wear at the gig if I get cold there too.

That was enough for last nights dinner adventure, which included a trip to a place called, "The Tap House Grill" for a meal and then midnight snack at "Dragonfish" with my friends. Walking distance.

But today, it's snowing, and I'm supposed to go with my friends to a cafe on the water for brunch... Hmmm... We'll see what happens...

In the meantime, I just have to say this about my restaurant choices of last night... "The Tap House Grill" has 160 beers on tap, impressive to say the least, it's got a contemporary vibe in it's design and decor, which is really nice. Beer, good. Atmosphere, good. Food, well, let's just say a contemporary place, in my opinion, shouldn't put a contemporary spin on traditional pub food. Namely, Guinness stew. I'm not saying I'm an expert on the subject of stew, I'm still trying to perfect my own recipe. I will say that making traditional Irish Guinness beef stew should not have a spicy twist to it. Yes, it makes you drink more beer, but I couldn't taste the bready deliciousness you usually get when mixing Guinness into anything. Next time, I'll get something contemporary off the menu.

And "Dragonfish", oh how I love your Portland Oregon branch. Contemporary Asian vibe, traditional Asian foods. Sake. All good. I just wish the menu in Seattle is as extensive as the one in Portland. Perhaps it's because it's a smaller restaurant, or perhaps I was with my wife in Portland, and company can make all the difference, but where the heck are the pork bows?

I brought my camera here to Seattle so I can post pictures... but alas, I left my sync cable in Altadena, you'll just have to wait for the photos.

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Because Everyone Should Have A Blog.

I know some stuff about the interwebs and computers. But I'm definitely not the smartest guy, nor do I claim to know everything. So if someone knows a better way to do this, let me know...

As I said before here, I'm going to try to limit the posts about Sean Patrick here... Although as a parent, not much else happens in my life these days...

So I started a blog for Sean Patrick, the bonus is, now Nicole can post there too if she has stories about our handsome son.

I'll still post stuff about him here. And I may even cross over a story or two, if it involves more than just cute stuff about the boy.

So add this link to your bookmarks, it's also in the column on my blog so you can always click over.

http://spboland08.blogspot.com/

Click over now! I just put up a video of him eating his first solid food.

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Everything I Learned, I Learned From Watching Iron Chef.

I've been on a cooking trip lately. I really enjoy cooking, and lately, I've been trying to make things I've never made before. Last week I had a bit of success making my first stew. I'm sure most people would think stew is actually easy to make, but hadn't tried before so this was a first. Guinness Irish Stew. I ran with the Guinness idea and also made a Guinness chili which also wasn't bad.

Tonight, I made a second attempt at baked pork chops with apples. Again, probably an easy dish to make, but I hadn't tried before, so a couple of weeks ago I made an attempt that was good. But tonight I went a step further (no, I didn't add Guinness), and created what I call "Dan's apple pie pork chops". Probably not a very appetizing name, but it did turn out quite nice, and the only critic I try to please, my wife, seem to really like the blend of flavors.

After the meal she asked me, "Where did you learn to cook?" and I told her the truth.

Everything I learned, I learned from watching Iron Chef.
Ok, maybe not everything. I did get the basic from the best cook I knew, my mother (God rest her soul). She gave me some recipes of stuff I really like that she made, along with the basics of how to make mashed potatoes and what not.

When I first moved to L.A., I was in school and didn't have much call to learn how to cook. I had a cafeteria pass and if I was hungry late at night, I knew where the closest Taco Bell was. If I did cook, it wasn't beyond ramen noodles or popcorn. When I graduated and moved into the house in Granada Hills with 3 roommates, I really started my hand at trying to cook.

Every recipe my mom gave me was a success. Every recipe I attempted out of a book or tried to get creative on, was a complete disaster.

I bounced around between different living arrangements, and I was trying recipes and most of the time failing. My first tip came from a French Canadian roommate I had while I was living in Santa Monica, "Coat the chicken in honey mustard," he said, "And then bake it. It will be fine." My date didn't die that night, so I guess it was a success.

It wasn't until I settled in Hollywood on Primrose Avenue and got satellite TV, that the cooking really started to take off. Sitting on my futon one day I was introduced to the original Japanese Iron Chef program on the Food Network. To this day, it's still one of my favorite shows to watch, even though I've seen every episode, sort of like the original Star Trek, (William Shatner cracks me up) I can still put in on in the background or watch it intently.

The Iron Chef was different from any other cooking show that I had seen in that, it wasn't a recipe based show where the host would pop on and say, "Today we'll learn how to make Chicken a la King." Iron Chef was a one hour look at how master chefs come up with creative dishes using the basic knowledge that I hadn't learned, what pairs with what, sweet vs. savory, and then combines it all to make something spectacular (most of the time).

From the Iron Chef, I learned basic stuff I hadn't known before, like knife skills, how to bone a fish (which I'll never do, fish=blecch), different spices, basic stuff. I stopped looking at recipes as instructions, but rather as guides. You don't need to measure out a tablespoon of cinnamon, add until it tastes right to you. Iron Chef taught me to learn what flavors I like and from there, I can transition the blends into something delicious. Well, usually delicious.

I'm not creating fancy dishes. I didn't serve tonight's pork chops with a gravy foam, or form the mashed potatoes into nice scoops. It was just a pork chop on a plate with mashed potatoes and baked apples.

Basic.

As a matter of fact, at some point this week, I'm going to make my first attempt at macaroni and cheese from scratch. I've never made it from scratch, and doing it that way will allow me to add flavors I like, and make it all my own, "Dan's macaroni and cheese with cubed ham and onions", or something. It could be a miss, but those have become fewer and far between.

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Not A Total Bust At The Zoo.

On Saturday, we took advantage of our zoo passes that we got as part of a discount deal when we went to the aquarium last week. We had fun at the aquarium and thought the zoo couldn't be any different.
We arrived a little after the zoo opened at 10AM. From the front, it looked like it was going to be a busy day with the snaking line to the ticket window 5 rows deep. Note to anyone who plans on going to the zoo in L.A., do the deal w/ the Aquarium of the Pacific and go there first because: A.- the line at the aquarium is shorter (first thing in the morning) and B.- You can bypass the ticket window at the zoo and walk straight in. Thankfully it wasn't busy (yet) so we took the obligatory "Three's Company" picture in front of the stinky flamingo exhibit.
That picture is for Nicole's mom... a fan of that show from the 70's...

From there we started looking at the animals
Here's a kangaroo sunning herself in a pile of fresh sawdust.

A hippo sunning himself and doing his best impression of me at the beach (except he's got colour and I'm pretty pale these days).

Future parents, we highly recommend Sophie the Giraffe for any teething child. It's an all natural rubber squeaky toy (that drives the dog crazy) coloured with vegetable dyes. It's made in France and a bit pricey, but of all the teething toys we've bought Sean Patrick, this is the only one he puts in his mouth and chews for a good amount of time.
Then he throws it on the ground. But we finger he likes Sophie, maybe he'll like the giraffes
And he did, for a bit.

Here's a shot of the rhino
And here are the gorillas
Hmmm.... it's getting a little crowded at the zoo, let's go look at boring animals...
Here's my view of one of them mountain goats defying gravity

And here's Sean Patrick's
I won't say the zoo was a total bust, but Sean Patrick probably missed out on a bunch of stuff sitting in his stroller. We took him out and put him in the Baby Bjorn carrier for a while, but even then he seemed a little uninterested in the animals. I think mostly because land animals don't constantly move like fish do. As a matter of fact, most of the animals were sitting around eating.
Speaking of animals eating...

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I'm 5010!

Everyone give a shout out to Jade R.! She was lucky number 5000 to visit my blog! Hooray for Jade! Woot! Woot! Seems rather fitting that it's you. I'm glad you are a loyal reader, and you probably are 2000 of the 5000 hits here. Jade always leaves a comment and I appreciate that. Sorry I don't answer most of the questions you ask. I never remember too.

But here's a few of the other people who've come close to lucky 5000:

5001 - ?
5002 - ?
5003 - My Dad! Your prize dad, is to help up celebrate Sean Patrick's 1st birthday in Hawai'i. Seems fitting my son should have a traditional 1st birthday luau.
5004 - Carla L. Oh Carla, thank you for also being a loyal reader. You guys are the reason I keep writing.
5005 - ?
5006 - ?
5007 - ?
5008 - Brian M. Brian, you win for most clever comment:

"Here I sit,
broken hearted and late;
tried to be #5000,
but was #5008. "

5009 - ?
5010 - This was me, spell checking my latest post on the Aquarium. I don't think I missed any misspelled words...

Feel free to leave your name if you're 5011 and beyond. See you in a few days, when I have something else to say...

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It's Never Too Early To Train A Baby.

One would think, after a week in the spooky part of Long Beach, why would I want to return? Well, because in the non-spooky part of Long Beach lies the Aquarium of the Pacific, and Nicole thought it would be fun to take Sean Patrick to look at the fishes. We've notice lately that he likes to track things with his eyes, and a bunch of fish swimming around might be fun for him to track. Not to mention, we can get a deal where you get a discount for the L.A. Zoo. Which will be another blog, when ever we get there.

I think my dad is a really smart guy. So I attribute a lot of what I think are better ideas to him. And I think one of the best idea he's implanted in me is, get there early, get out before the crowd shows up. So that's what we did Sunday morning, we left the house early (although 1/2 hour late by my watch) at 8:30AM to arrive at the opening bell of the Aquarium at 9:00AM. We walked in the the front door and proceeded to the first tank. Here's a thing to note about taking a baby to the aquarium, it's probably best to take them out of the stroller and strap them on you with a carrier of some sort. The stroller can take up a lot of room, while this is good for shopping malls, it's not so good for aquariums. Also, because the kid sits so low, he/she can't often get a good look in the tank. So we strapped Sean Patrick to me so he could enjoy more.For the most part, he did. I think he's going to be quite a lighting designer when he grows up because he seemed more interested in the fish in the brighter tanks than some of the darker tanks. Fish the moved fast keep him interested, while slower fish usually resulted in a few kicks to my stomach and a whine of some sort.But the highlight of the day (for me at least) was the tourist trap called the "Lorikeet Forest". I say tourist trap because I'm not sure what a "forest" of Lorikeet birds have to do with an Aquarium. I could understand an aviary with shore birds in it, or penguins, not a tropical jungle bird. And to highlight the trap, for 3 dollars you could buy a thimble full of Lorikeet food and feed the birds. Trap. Well, we spent the 3 bucks thinking it would be fun for Sean Patrick to get a close up look at a bird.But as you can see, he didn't care. I, on the other hand, had fun. I was watching these parents and children chase around birds, trying to get them to land on their hands an eat from the thimble. One of the caretakers had to go and get a bird and put it on one of the ladies hands so it would eat. I just walked up to four birds hanging on the fence, held out my cup and one came ate, then walked up my arm to my shoulder, while another bird polished off the thimble.All the while, Sean Patrick staring into space, paying not one single ounce of time to any of the bird. A couple of kicks to the stomach and we were off.

It paid off to get there early (thanks Dad!), because by the time we were walking out the door at 11:15AM, the place was packed, and I mean packed. 6 people deep looking into every tank. Where's the fun in that?

Sean Patrick, there's an Irish name if I've ever heard one. So I thought, why not start him on understanding his Irish heritage. To do this, we took him to an Irish pub near the Aquarium. I had eaten at this pub a few times during the week since it is also near the venue, and I knew the Guinness flowed smooth, and the shepherds pie was heaven.So we introduced Sean Patrick to both. Oh, and HP Sauce. Love me some HP on fries and shepherds pie. Don't worry we didn't feed Sean Patrick any solid foods or let him sip the Guinness. But Nicole had a Guinness since the rumour is that it's good for breast feeding.Hmmmm.... Maybe I shouldn't have had a sip. My breasts are pretty big as it is...

So we stuffed ourselves until our stomach were so full, we had to undo the top button on our pants and let the belly button watch TV. I felt the need to do a little exercise to work off the meal, so I did baby curls.One!

Two!

One!

Two!One!

Two!

Okay, enough of that, let's go home.

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Coming Up on 5000!!!

If you hadn't noticed, at the bottom of my blog page is a counter of how many visits the blog gets. It's a little in accurate, because every time you come to the blog, it counts. So when I finish writing a blog and post it, then check for spelling errors and post again, that counts as three hits. Anyway, I'd like to ask a favor, if you are reading this, scroll down to the bottom and tell me if you are hit number 5000. And if you are, post a comment on this blog entry or email me and let me know, I'd like to say hi!

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Fakers!!!

Asia 61. 4 days of non-stop, whirlwind rehearsals, with no time to program, followed by 1 day of two 4 1/2 hour performances. How long was this show? This show was so long, I actually saw one of the audience members show up with an inflatable neck pillow around his neck. How long was this show? I can fly to most cities in the U.S. faster than I could have run this show. The bonus of flying? I can get up and go to the restroom if needed.

Yes, Asia 61 is a marathon. I don't mind the work, and 4 1/2 hours of "backing over a cat" music is not all that bad. I've had a couple of songs stuck in my head for the last couple of days. But since I don't speak Vietnamese, I can sing it. But the tunes were catchy.

So here's the gist of it... As I said before, the theme of the show is the Vietnam War, with all these different people singing love songs in front of a set that looks like bombed out Saigon.This photo was taken during rehearsals, I have to apologize for the camera position in front of me. But I couldn't walk away from the console to get a better angle.Here's a shot from the show with the camera operator in my way. On stage is one of those wonderful ballads, from the inside of a bombed out church (hence the candles).

During the rehearsals, they played videos with tags (you can see in the center screen in the above picture) at the beginning so we could program looks to match the colour of the video. So the sound guy would push play on the DVD, the images would come up and he'd be piping the music and vocals through the house sound system. The singers and actors would come out on stage and lip sync along with the vocal track and the director would give them blocking notes. I didn't think too much of this, I assumed that either the singers were just "stand ins" for the real singers who would come for the actual show, or they were just lip syncing to save their voices for the performances. After all, two 4 1/2 hour shows in one day is a lot of singing.

On show day, the crowd piled in for the first show (1PM in the afternoon), I sat at my console ready to run lighting cues and make adjustments, as this was the first time we were really going to see it on camera. The house lights dimmed, the curtain went up, the opening voice over boomed in the hall. Then the music started and the first singer stepped out on stage and the crowd applauded wildly, I brought up the first look of the show, the singer stepped center stage and the vocals came out. But her lips didn't move.

It was only a brief second, but I had a monitor with a close up shot, and her lips didn't move. When they finally did move, it was obvious, she was lip syncing.

Fakers!!! This entire 4 1/2 hour show, twice, was going to be lip synced. Not a single one of the people in the 21 songs they performed sang a single note! And the crowded didn't seem to care. They applauded each number heartily and waited for patiently for the next number to start. Were all 60 previous Asia shows lip synced? Is this just a cultural thing that I don't understand?

I'll never know, nor will I understand, but here's a quick video clip I shot of one of the big dance numbers. Nothing like the male "fake" vocalist in camouflage and all the dancers dancing with M-16 assault rifles. Hot. Careful of the sound, it's a little loud...


The lighting is very cheeseball. Not arty in any way, shape, or form. Just "flash and trash", but the people love it.


So when Asia 62 rolls around, I'll have another story to tell I hope.

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Blog Clog.

This last week at the Asia 61 show has caused a bit of a backlog of stuff to post here. A "Blog Clog" if you will. So hopefully in the next couple of days, I can work it out and post post post, until there's nothing left.

So we'll go back a ways to what's been sitting in the pipe the longest... The first date Nicole and I had since Sean Patrick came along.

As everyone knows, Valentines Day is on the 14th of February. I like the idea of getting Nicole something to show her how much I love her, but I'm against the idea of a manufactured holiday that I have to do it on. So as a compromise, we got the baby sitter to come and we went to a fancy dinner on the 20th of February. Almost a week later.

Here's the evidence.
We chose one of our favorite restaurants... Ruth's Chris Steak House. Kinda spendy, but what the heck, it was Valentines day (sorta)! I was in the mood for a good piece of meat, as was Nicole, and Ruth's Chris is a good piece of meat.


Dan Boland is not a salad fan, and especially not a tomato fan. Can't explain it, flavors go in and out of my palate. Right now, I'm not digging the flavor of mushrooms. But at Ruth's Chris, there's a tomato salad I can eat. Maybe it's because it's covered with delicious onions and bleu cheese. But it also helps that the tomatoes are crisp and sliceable. Nah, it's the onions and bleu cheese.

Why waste valuable stomach space on a salad when I can eat something like this? My stomach is big enough for both. I think this is my favorite cut of beef, the rib eye. Most people think the fillet is the best cut. And that may be true for most people, but for me, a rib eye with perfect marbling and cooked to perfection is the way to go. It may be a tougher cut of meat, but I love the flavor you get from the marbling.


Nicole went out on a limb and got the petite fillet "Oscar" style. If you don't know, that's a petite fillet topped with asparagus and crab meat. Looks a little strange with such a small cut of meat, but it works out perfectly that you have enough crab for every bite.


I've said before, and I'll say it again, for Nicole, the steak is just the rest period between the lobster bisque soup and the dessert. The waiter was kind enough to buy us dessert. I wanted to tell him it was for Valentines day, but Nicole told him it was our first date in months. Even before Sean Patrick was born. The downside, they had changed their dessert menu and got rid of one of Nicole's favorites, the apple crumble, so we had to settle on a cheesecake, that wasn't half bad.

Fat and happy we left, our wallets a little lighter, but worth it to say, "Honey, I don't need a manufactured holiday to show you I care."

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