My First Days On The South American Continent.

In 1995, I started touring. In 1996, I made first trip south of the border to Mexico City. In 1998, I made my first trip to Europe. In 2000, I made my first trip to Australia. In 2004, I made my first trip to the Middle East, South East Asia, and well, all of Asia really. In 2007, I made my first trip to Africa. In 2008, I hung up my touring shoes and have since then made efforts to stay home, having never toured in South America.

I considered myself lucky. I heard many horror stories about South America. None as bad as my time in Nigeria, but still wore it like a badge, telling other roadies, "Nope, I've never toured South America."

It took me retiring from the road to finally make it to South America. Not really for a tour, but I'm here for work on a concert none the less.

Sao Paulo, Brazil. The new capital of, well, capitalism in South America. I think I read somewhere that Sao Paulo has usurped Mexico City with the number of it's billionaires.

Huh, I remember when to be a millionaire was a position of affluence. Now, billionaire.

I've been in Sao Paulo for 5 days now. We landed on Tuesday after an all night flight from Los Angeles (connecting through Miami). I didn't think I'd be terribly jet lagged since it's only a 5 hour difference to home, but even today I'm a bit foggy and waking up at strange hours. No matter, I'm flying home tomorrow in time to suffer jet lag in reverse. Which is fine, since I have an Xbox game I still need to play and being awake at 4 AM, it may help to put me back to sleep.

I'm here for an Eminem concert. He's the headline act for the Formula 1 Rocks show. I guess on Sunday they have a Formula 1 race somewhere in the city. To bad we fly home tomorrow (Saturday) and miss the event. They've been taking really good care of us here. We're in a decent hotel, the Grand Hyatt, and there always a woman from the local production team sitting in the lobby. She has access to transportation for us if we need to go anywhere, and even if there's no where we really need to go. She also has a clipboard with a list of all of our (the crew) names. She checks it every time one of us leaves and returns to the hotel. Kinda creepy.

Here's some pictures of my adventures so far.


No trip would be complete if I didn't take pictures of my hotel room. Nicole always likes to see what my hotel room looks like. The rooms at the Grand Hyatt are admittedly "cozy", but what they lack in space in the bedroom, the more than make up for in the bathroom.


One day, I'm gonna have a separate tub and shower in my bathroom. But until then, I'm gonna enjoy this one. I love the downpour shower head. What I don't love, is the fact that I can't get a comfortable water temperature to stay. It always seems to run suddenly hot or cold.


The maids at this hotel are very tenacious. I've had my "Do Not Disturb" sign on my room every day and yet they still knock every time and ask if I want service. Yesterday, I was working at the venue, I think the maids took this opportunity to steal my "Do Not Disturb" sign so I can't put it out anymore. And they don't just come once a day, they come, THREE TIMES. The first time they come, I tell them "No Thank You", then they come again later in the afternoon, I've not been home for this visit usually, I've been out doing stuff, and then a third time in the evening for turn down service. On the plus side, they always line up my toiletries nicely on a wash cloth by the sink. I even think they wipe down my tooth paste and deodorant. Not sure how that pack of Extra gum ended up there, But I should check to see if the maids are stealing a stick or two.

This is the view from my hotel room. The building across the way is a local TV station. This means that they land their traffic helicopter on a helipad near by in the morning. I love the sound of chopper blades rattling my window while I try to sleep. I'm assuming the bridge in the background is a landmark of some sort. More importantly, on the other side of the bridge is a Decathlon store. Although I was very disappointed in this one. No cycling clothing!


Here's the view in the other direction from my room. It's a pretty typical view of Sao Paulo. Lots and lots of apartment buildings and sky scrapers every where. It's a very modern (and congested) city in that respect.

There's more pictures to come, but I'll post them in a second blog... Right now, it's time to go to work. It's show day here in Sao Paulo, but we've been delayed because we've just had to waves of a pretty awesome storm blow through. The lighting was orange. I think it's because of the pollution in the air, but that's just me speculating...

More to come...

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Geeking Out...

I've been in Anaheim for the week working on Blizz-con which is being held at the Anaheim Convention Center. Today is the opening day, and it is, as expected, a geek fest.

22,000 people are expected here. The tickets sold out in 11 seconds. DirecTV is doing a pay-per-view of four channels (one for each stage), 300,000 pre-sold subscriptions.

I'm working on the RTS stage. "Real Time Strategy" for those who don't know. And don't worry, up until about 2 days ago, I didn't know what RTS stood for either.

But I'm learning. HP - "Hit Points". GG - "Good Game" (Indicates game is over). TP Out - "Teleport Out". MIHTGTTBHP- "Man I Have To Go To The Bathroom, Hit Pause". Okay, I made that last one up.

This is some serious gaming. The stage I'm working at features two players, going head to head and two or three "Shoutcasters" commentating on the game as it goes on. It's like watching a sporting event mixed with a game show. Each player is in a sound proof booth(that's the game show part) and the commentators have headsets and computers that "observe" the game and they commentate on what's happening.

And the best part? The crowd stands and cheers when big deal things happen. "The Level 6 Beast Master goes down!" What?! Woot woot!

I've got at least 1000 seats in the audience, and yet, they stand, 15 deep all around the perimeter of the room. They sit in the aisle ways. All stare up at the big screens at watch the game unfold.

This is the Star Craft or World of Warcraft geek Superbowl. And they are all here.

I don't get it. But people seem to love it. I've sat here through three matches thus far and I'm beginning to understand it. I'm a little tempted to run out and buy the game.

I guess everyone has what's important in their lives. For these people it's the fantasy world created in the games. It's something else to the guy who's gonna have to sweep the floors in the convention center on Sunday when this all wraps up.

Here's a few more pics:

The view of my stage. "Angular, non blobular gobo's" was my directive.

My little home away from home. The video monitor next to my console would draw a crowd of people when all the seats for the stage were full.

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Roe Vs. Wade Vs. Jimmy Kimmel?

It seems I get all the fun shows at Jimmy Kimmel. Tonight's show was no different. In addition to it being my 30th day, we got protesters in the show! Yeah!

Here's the back story. Last Friday, when we did the Tom Cruise stunt where he zip lined above Hollywood Boulevard, there was an abortion protest group called "The Survivors of Abortion" out on the boulevard as well. Because the stunt was taking place 4 stories above the street, we had to light it with 15k to 20k HMI flood lights. 15k and 20k stand for, you guessed it 15,000 and 20,000 watts. We're talking bright. What we're not talking is hot. Yes, they are hot if you stand in front of them, but it can be done. You won't get a sunburn, you won't get scalded and you certainly won't burst into flames.

Since I wasn't there and the video featured on this website starts when the light is already pointed at the boy, I don't know if they protester stepped into the light, or if the electricians were instructed to point the light in that direction. In any case, as you see in the video a very bright HMI lamp is pointing at someone who happens to be a protester.

I won't go into detail, you can read the article/propaganda yourself and decide if this was an "attack" as they put it, on the boy "exercising his first amendment right".

Flash forward to today, during the interview with Dakota Fanning, 4 people stood up in the audience and started demanding the Jimmy apologize for the actions of his crew and how he was responsible for the "scalding" of an innocent boy. Needless to say, they were arrested and will probably spend a night in jail for trespassing on private property, or some other minor charge. Which will probably inflame them more and cause more protests and action.

Which is fine, they can protest all they want for the next two weeks. (The show is on hiatus).

Here's my take on the whole thing, and then some. First, I believe in every one's first amendment right to free speech. You can stand up and say what ever you want. But I also believe that you should show some measure of decency or, I don't know, manners or something. Theses protesters, the "Survivors of Abortion" were standing outside the line of people waiting to get into the El Capitan Theater to see Toy Story 3. They were standing there waving signs of bloody aborted fetuses and preaching about how abortion is bad. And who is in this line? Families with young children. NOT COOL. Protest all you want, but do not subject my kids to stuff they can't see in a "G" rated movie. The children are innocents in your battle, they have no opinion on the subject your preach. How dare you subject them to something that could cause them great mental harm.

Second, I will admit, I'm a pro-choice guy. I'm not pro abortion. I believe in a woman's right to choose. I cannot force my will onto another person for any reason. And taking the option of abortion off the table because I don't believe it's right, doesn't make sense to me. It's like in Korea, where cars come in three colours, black, white or gray. If you want a red car you have to pay extra, were not saying you can't have the red car because the government only wants you to have black white or grey.

Third, I don't think that anyone pointed this light at the kid intentionally. Yes, it's not pointed in the air, and, again, since I wasn't there, I don't know if they had just turned the light on and the kid happened to be standing there, or if he walked into the bright beam and intentionally tried to stir the pot. Besides, if the light is bright and warm, take two steps to the left, your message can still be seen and heard two feet over. Anyone else standing in front of that light would have moved. And I will also offer that the electricians could have moved the light, pointed it two feet to the left. A good electrician (or any good employee really) would wait for instruction before acting. Here's a possibility, the gaffer was standing on the roof getting a light level reading and told the electricians to pan the light away so he could get level. Because HMI lamps take time to warm up and cool down, you should never douse the lamp after it's struck. The boy happened to be standing there when they panned it away and instead of moving, stood there and enjoyed the warmth it provided.

Besides I didn't see the kid complaining in the video (admittedly I didn't watch it til the end).

Finally, these "Survivors of Abortion" are extremists. It seems as if there is no grey for them. It's all black and white. Abortion is bad and anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong. It seems they have a paranoia that anyone who is around them is also and extremist and will take extreme actions. Like pointing a really bright light at an "innocent" boy. They are no better than other extremist groups because everyone of them thinks their cause is just and their actions justified. No tolerance, under any banner, is a bad thing.

People are just crazy. Especially on Hollywood Boulevard.

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