Fast Fashion Plays The Boulevard.

Last week was a rough week for me. I'm mostly recovered now, but I'm still foggy most of the day. Soon I'll be back on a proper sleep schedule.

And what took me out of my routine? Depeche Mode. That iconic band from the 1980's played a concert a free concert on Hollywood Boulevard Thursday night. But the week of work began Monday night for me.

Since the concert was going to be outdoors, the only time we could really program the lighting was going to be at night, and Monday night was our first chance. The electricians set the rig up on road cases and fork lifts so we could program them.We weren't going to get set up on the street until the night before the concert (Wednesday) so as much work as we could get done before hand was going to be beneficial.

Monday was a 4PM until 3AM call. I hadn't seen the 3AM in a long time. Lately if I'd seen it, it was because Sean Patrick had woken up and Nicole or I had to go soothe him back to sleep. Now, I'm awake for work. Tuesday night was a little easier since we slammed in most of the programming for the show (they were only doing 6 songs) and we only worked 7PM until 1AM.

Wednesday was going to be the long night. My call wasn't until 10PM. I thought I'd be able to walk in, set up my console on the street, and then wait a couple of hours for the rig to get in the air. Not so lucky. The street wasn't even closed off until 11PM, then the waiting began. Here's little pictorial history of the night:
Midnight. The grips are still coming to grips with getting up the truss towers so we can hang the truss and lights.Almost 2AM, finally all 4 towers are up. Now they just need to raise our truss. We wait for another 1/2 hour and still nothing moves. So we ask the head grip how soon before the truss goes up. "At least 45 minutes to an hour," So we sent the electricians on dinner break.

No sooner do the electricians leave, than the head grip comes over and tells us, "We'll have the truss up in 10 minutes and the stage built in an hour so you can hang your lights," Of course, building the stage would make it much harder to hang the lights, it's easier to do it from the ground. As soon as the truss was in the air, the LD (my buddy Christian), the Gaffer Scott, and myself slapped all the lights on the truss.By 3:30AM, the truss was up, the grips were building the stage, and the electricians had returned from dinner break.

By 4:30AM we had the rig powered up and I was testing fixtures and focusing.

6:00AM, quitting time, 8 hour turn around, back at 2PM to continue with the floor lights.
4PM, sound check. I like this photo I took of M.L. Gore and the video screen behind him.
8:30PM Show go.

This video would be longer if the batter wasn't dying on my camera...




Here's the set list for you fanatics who didn't show up:

Wrong (new album)
Personal Jesus
Walking In My Shoes
Come Back (new album)
Peace (new album)
Enjoy The Silence
Never Let Me Down Again

First two songs were on Jimmy Kimmel:




And now back to bed with me.

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Too Much Regulation.

When I first started in this lighting business here in Los Angeles, I worked for a great company, Light and Sound Design. I loved it. The atmosphere was sort of laid back. Like a group of friends who owned a bunch of lighting gear and were lucky enough to rent it out on big shows. There was enough regulation and people to keep the business a float, but it never felt "corporate".

A few years later, there were rumours that the business was going to be sold. When the rumours became fact, and Light and Sound Design was going to become Fourth Phase, a division of Production Resource Group, all us old hands were given the rousing speech, "Nothings going to change. We're still the same shop, just new people in the offices."

But it did change. Regulation began to creep into places you weren't used to. The best example; In the old days, you used to be able to walk up to the supply area and grab a couple of Sharpie and Marks-a-lot pens, then walk down to the tape cabinet, have the warehouse manager unlock it, and grab a roll or two of gaff or electrical tape then go label up your cables. When ownership changed, someone decided everything needed to be requisitioned. Suddenly, you had to know how many pens and tape you needed, you had to fill out a requisition form, submit form, wait for people to approve said form (salesman, account manager, expendables manager), have person pull requested items from stock and then you can pick them up at the counter. Is that regulation or what?

I understand why they did it. It was sort of loose and fast, and I'm sure many people took more pens and tape then they needed.

In the old days, most of those items would find their way back. Half rolls of gaff tape in the cabinet, a blunt Sharpie in the supply.

If you have an exact count of pens and tape, you can charge your client an exact amount. Pens and tape (and all expendables for that matter) are no longer complimentary with your million dollar tour.

Then, without warning, Fourth Phase just became Production Resource Group. And corporate sunk in. How corporate? How regulated? Hows this for an example. Here's a bar code from an item on a show I'm doing now.
LSD (Light and Sound Design) like PRG (Production Resource Group) had bar codes on all their lights, their dimmer racks, anything large and valuable. But this bar code I took a photo of? Here's what it was on.A desk chair. PRG has bar codes for desk chairs. It's a $100 desk chair. Who knows how much they charge for it. Some how I get the feeling they didn't even buy the chair. I think at some point, gear came back from a tour, and the lighting director out on the tour spent $100 of his per diem to have a comfortable chair at the console. At the end of the tour, he had no way to get it home so he just threw it on the truck like always. It's just a $100, he'll get another one for the next tour.

The chair gets back to the shop, someone slaps a bar code on it, enters it into the system, and bam! PRG has a new desk chair. Somewhere, there's a line item that says, "desk chair" and with that line item comes a cost, and that cost can now be transferred onto the final bill to the client.

Again, I understand why these things happen. When I started in the business it was still sort of a fledgling. If you think about it, big concert touring has only been around since the late 1960's early 1970's. Sure bands toured before that (The Beatles did shows in arena's everywhere), but no one carried a lighting rig. There were no lighting designers or art directors way back when. It was just a band on stage with some speakers and the sun or the stadium lights for illumination.

Today, lighting is big business. If we continued to play fast and loose like the old days, money would be lost in large amounts.

I've adapted to the new lifestyle of regulation and corporation. But it doesn't change the fact that I miss the ability to go get a pen.

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Denied.

Last Thursday, cabin fever finally caught up with us, so Nicole and I decided it would be a nice day to take Sean Patrick to Disneyland. He's older than the first time we went. A little more aware of his surroundings. So we thought he'd enjoy looking at all the people and perhaps squeezing onto a few of the kiddie rides like Peter Pan and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

So we packed up the car; stroller, check. Car seat, check. Diaper bag, check. Baby, check. Off we went. It's a long drive down to Disneyland from where we live, about 48 miles or so. But we were leaving mid afternoon, so traffic was light. Of course, a 45 minute drive is still a 45 minute drive and off to dreamland went Sean Patrick.
As we neared the parking entrance, we discussed when would be the best time to wake the boy. Or should we just leave him in the car seat and take that with us. Disneyland is always busy, and there were a few cars ahead of us for the pay gate. That's something we didn't need to worry about, we have SoCal season passes, and mine has parking on it. We just show my pass and in we go. But as we sat in line, the conversation turned to, "I wonder if today is a blackout date?" As we pulled up to the gate, our nightmare was confirmed, it is a blackout date, due to spring break for schools. Dammit. Well, we'll just turn around and go home. "How do we do that?" We inquired with the ticket agent.

Now, I've never had a "walk of shame", but I will say this, we had a "drive of shame". I understand why they do this, I'm sure people often try to not pay the ridiculous fee to park the car by pretending to just, "drop someone off", or "Ooops, we missed our turn." But for people like us, it's like a pink badge of shame.

The dollar is there so you know how big this sign was.

He grabbed the above pink paper sign, shoved it under the windshield wiper, and told us to follow the directions from the parking attendants. Everyone turned right, we were told to turn left, a few turns later and we were heading out onto the public street again.

Before we even got there, Nicole had had enough, this pink sign was a nuisance flapping in the breeze. She tried to reach out the window and couldn't get it, so she pulled over into a little nook under the parking structure to get out of the car and pull off the sign. Immediately, security swooped in on his Segway to ask if we were okay. "Just removing the badge of shame!" I yelled at him (in my head). And off we went, 45 minutes back home, with nothing to show but 100 miles ticked off on the car and a baby rested from a nice long nap.

I guess a rested baby is a good thing.

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Sunday Night Drinkin.

There's not much I miss about living in Hollywood. When we first moved to Altadena, I was afraid I'd hate it and want to move back into the thick of it. But now that we've been here for a few years, I like it. I won't say "I love it" because there's only one place I'll "love" living... That's back home in Hawai'i.

The one thing I did miss about Hollywood was the local bar. Not that I had a favorite local bar (okay, Smog Cutter) but I did like quiet evenings sitting at a bar with friends chatting over a few beers. Recently, my friend Shawn introduced me to a really nice bar close to his house, the Verdugo Bar. Now, every Sunday night, we meet for a couple of beers and recap the weeks happenings.

It's a really nice bar in what appears to be a shady part of town. It's not well lit outside, The door to the place is only marked with a nondescript white "cocktails" sign. Inside you'll find a nice wavy bar and dark wood.Part of the draw for me is the selection of tap beers they have. Every week it's a little different. I think Shawn explained it to me the first time were went. They have a deal with a distributor and he brings different and unique kegs for them to try. Or something like that.Last week, I noticed quite a collection of single malt scotches behind the bar. Shawn tells me they also do scotch tasting every now and again. I may have to try that next week at the Verdugo Bar.It's nice to have this bit of "Hollywood" back in my life. It's a chance to catch up with friends (albeit just Shawn at the moment) about all the goings on in our lives and the world. And it's a quiet bar. It's not full of loud obnoxious "Hollywood punks", who are there to get drunk, pick up girls, and generally ooze testosterone every where. Then again, I'm usually out the door by 9:30 on a Sunday night, who knows what happens later...

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Is This Supposed To Happen?

Some of you knew, and most of you didn't, but over the last couple of weeks, I was dealing with a pretty intense abdominal pain.

I woke up one Saturday morning and I couldn't get out of the fetal position without pain. Not to go into detail, The pain felt like I need to go drop a deuce, but every time I went, nothing came out. That afternoon I headed to urgent care at my hospital (Kaiser).

The doctor who saw me, took X-rays of my mid section, and did blood and urine tests. All came tests came back normal, but the X-ray showed what she thought was a "blockage" in my colon. Although it didn't make sense (the blockage was on my right side, but the pain was on my left) she suggested it was constipation and that the colon was having spasms (thus the pain on the left). She recommended a laxative and sent me home with the instructions of, "If it doesn't get better in a three days, come back."

On Tuesday I wasn't any better, so I returned that afternoon to the urgent care clinic, this time to be seen by a different doctor (the one who saw me originally wasn't on call). The new doctor discounted the constipation theory, noting the pain was in a different place from the colon (below and to the left of my belly button), he wasn't sure what it was and suggested a few possibilities, one being diverticulitis and the other a hernia. He ordered a CT scan with contrast, and for me to have blood and urine tests again.

Long story short, the took blood and urine, and for the CT scan they gave me an IV to deliver the "contrast". All tests... Negative. CT scan was clean, I have blood and urine. The best the doctor could come up with was, "Possibly muscle strain, do you lift a lot of heavy objects?" Just one, my 20 lbs. son. He recommended I take it easy for a few days and see if the pain goes away.

By Thursday, the pain was gone. But this showed up:
Where the IV was and the blood sample taken, I bruised up like a banana. There was a little bruising after my first visit, the blood sample was taken from my left arm. But this much bruising... Is this supposed to happen?

Maybe I'm just a dainty flower and can't handle needles in the arms. Or maybe they did something wrong. Even today (Tuesday) the bruising is still there, not as bad as before, slowly going away.

But it has been fun to tell people who notice that I've taken up heroin to combat the pain, or that my wife beats me.

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After 15 Years, The End Comes...

I found something interesting in my mailbox a couple of days ago.
I've paid off my student loans for CalArts, and got a modest refund check for overpaying.

Nicole had told me last month that she'd paid the last of my student loan and how good it felt for her to finally get at least one of our debts paid off (next one up - Nicole's car). It didn't really sink in for me until I tore open the envelope and saw the above check.

That 5 dollar and 11 cent check brings an end to a 15 year journey. 2 years of schooling followed by 13 years of monthly reminders of how much my schooling cost me (and my father).

Granted, the loan was meant to be paid in 10 years, and some where along the line, I deferred my payments for a total of three years (I think in 6 month increments). Most of that was in early 90's right after graduation. Bills and payments weren't interesting to me, and if someone said, "you can wait to pay this back," I'm sure I said, "YES."

Shout out and props to Nicole for making sure this debt came to an end. She's the one who pays the bills each month. She is the one that keeps me honest.

It's hard to believe that 13 years ago, I received a Bachelors in Fine Arts diploma wearing a hula skirt and coconut bra, but I did. And in those 13 years, I've put that degree to work, and gotten to the point I am today.

Let's see if I can keep it going at least another 13 years, this time, without a student loan payment.

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Kitty Bootcamp.

So there...

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For Emergency Use Only?

Oh that darn Costco place. You can never walk in and just buy gum. You can go in, with every intention of just getting laundry soap and toilet paper, and leave with over 200 bucks of crap you didn't intend to get.

That's what happened on our last trip to Costco.

The shopping list:

Gum
Facial Tissue
Batteries

What we actually bought:

Gum
Facial Tissue
Batteries
DVD
Books
Bread
and this:

Yes, we bought an 8 person tent. This huge thing was a "steal" at $115. And check it out, I can actually stand up in it.


It's sort or like a two room tent, one side is more of a screened in "porch" for either 3 more people to sleep (5 in the main part), or you can store gear in it, or you can set some chairs in it and actually use it as a porch.

It's called a Ridgeway by Kelty. I've heard of Kelty, they make a backpack I swear by for touring, so I thought this tent must be good. And at $115, it's just that much better. After some research on the ol' interwebs, this tent is not made by Kelty, but by Ridgeway, they just use the name, and the tent only seems to be sold at Costco.

No matter, we bought this thing for emergency use only. We do live in an earthquake zone, and if the big one hits and the house falls down, at least we have this fine tent to sleep in until help arrives. And there's enough room for the dog and cats.

Although Nicole surprised me with something this afternoon after I had set the tent up (had to make sure all the parts were there). She said, "Now I want to go camping!" That's surprising considering how much I enjoyed what little camping I've done in my life and want to do again. Now we have a suitable tent for us to go out in. Maybe we will...

So Matt and Sue, something to consider once you settle here in the Southland... It's an earthquake zone. You're going to need a tent. Costco has one. So if you need gum and detergent, you also need a tent.

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