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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