Wow, as of yesterday I have been affiliated with the Broadway show Mamma Mia for exactly one year. One year ago, I got a phone call asking me if I could be in Lexington, Kentucky by 9pm. Since then, a ton has happened to me. It is interesting that so much can happen and it seem like it all happened yesterday.
In the past year, I;
Was let go from my first job out of college due to budget cuts
Started my own Free-lance Lighting Design Career
Learned how to run a Spot-Light for a Major Broadway Production
Took a test that could have defined the rest (or at least the next five years) of my career
Passed that test in the top 40 out of about 700 people
Bought a Harley
Have spent more time in Hotels than I have at home
Re-aligned what I thought was important to me as a person
Have been able to actually make enough money to not feel like I am still a broke, College kid
Have spent more time in Airports and on Airplanes than in Cars
Had a very important, personal relationship end a lot sooner than I ever hoped or even thought it would
Have visited a good portion of the country, including towns that I have never heard of
Have made a ton of new friends from all over the country
Learned I can live out of one suitcase
Have actually start to feel like I know what the Heck I am doing
Gave my first lecture as a guest at a university
Been to more opening night parties than I ever thought I would go to
Been to more bars in more cities with great people than I ever thought I would
Celebrated New Year's Eve in Canada
Celebrated my Birthday in Wisconsin
Celebrated Mardi Gras on Bourbon Street in New Orleans
Saw the Saints win the Super Bowl while in New Orleans
Hired my first accountant to take of my Taxes
Opened a retirement fund
Made a huge dent in my School-Loan Debt
Have employer-provided health care
Became a 'grown-up' with a 'real job'
these are just a few of the highlights. I bet I can look back on the past year and find a ton more. The most important thing to happen to me is the fact that I have had the time to look back and reflect on who I am as a person. I saw some things that I liked, and some things that I didn't like about myself. I have been able to really work on the things that bothered me. I have started to adventure out of my comfort zone more. I have really tried harder to stay in better touch with those that are important to me. Communication while away was not my strong suit a year ago, I like to believe that I am getting better at it and it is helping me enjoy things more.
Anyways, the first year is complete. Let's see where the next one goes...
Thanks for reading
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
Quick Update before heading to Work
Hello All!
I just wanted to do a quick update before I have to head into the theatre today. We are spending the week in New Orleans, LA. It has been a blast so far! As soon as I sift through the photos I have taken, I will make sure I post some. There are a lot of really cool historic neighborhoods I have been able to visit this week. Each day, I have been trying to pick a different direction and start to walk and see where I end up. I have been all through the French Quarter, the Garden District, Uptown, Downtown, the Business District... It has been really cool to be in a place with this much history. It is definatly a party town with Mardi Gras and the Super Bowl happening this weekend, but if you look a little deeper you can find a really cool city that isn't all about booze and beads. The Garden district is full of awesome, old-school houses and some great food! I had lunch the other day at Commander's Palace. It was probably one of the best meals I have ever had. I had turtle soup as an appetizer and then some duck over some beans for the entree. It was really good. I learned later on that in addition to being a landmark in New Orleans, Commander's Palace is where many world class chefs worked early on in their careers. I ate at a restaurant where Emeril Lagassi once cooked! BAM!
New Orleans is still a party town though. Last night we celebrated a couple birthdays on the balcony of an apartment over looking Bourbon Street. It was a lot of fun to see all of the people walking by underneath. Hopefully we can go back for the parades that are supposed to start today. As of last night, I have officially thrown beads off of a balcony during Mardi Gras. We can cross that off the list of things to do during a life-time...
Another little side note. There is a company that is in the process of making a Documentary about my job. Well, not the electrician side so much as the whole production. Anyways, they are starting to release little Internet versions to get the word out before the entire documentary releases on TV. Here is the link for the first one:
http://www.broadwayworld.com/videoplay.cfm?colid=101406
Enjoy! I will make sure I post more addresses as they are released and let you know when the documentary is going to air on TV.
Thanks for reading...
I just wanted to do a quick update before I have to head into the theatre today. We are spending the week in New Orleans, LA. It has been a blast so far! As soon as I sift through the photos I have taken, I will make sure I post some. There are a lot of really cool historic neighborhoods I have been able to visit this week. Each day, I have been trying to pick a different direction and start to walk and see where I end up. I have been all through the French Quarter, the Garden District, Uptown, Downtown, the Business District... It has been really cool to be in a place with this much history. It is definatly a party town with Mardi Gras and the Super Bowl happening this weekend, but if you look a little deeper you can find a really cool city that isn't all about booze and beads. The Garden district is full of awesome, old-school houses and some great food! I had lunch the other day at Commander's Palace. It was probably one of the best meals I have ever had. I had turtle soup as an appetizer and then some duck over some beans for the entree. It was really good. I learned later on that in addition to being a landmark in New Orleans, Commander's Palace is where many world class chefs worked early on in their careers. I ate at a restaurant where Emeril Lagassi once cooked! BAM!
New Orleans is still a party town though. Last night we celebrated a couple birthdays on the balcony of an apartment over looking Bourbon Street. It was a lot of fun to see all of the people walking by underneath. Hopefully we can go back for the parades that are supposed to start today. As of last night, I have officially thrown beads off of a balcony during Mardi Gras. We can cross that off the list of things to do during a life-time...
Another little side note. There is a company that is in the process of making a Documentary about my job. Well, not the electrician side so much as the whole production. Anyways, they are starting to release little Internet versions to get the word out before the entire documentary releases on TV. Here is the link for the first one:
http://www.broadwayworld.com/videoplay.cfm?colid=101406
Enjoy! I will make sure I post more addresses as they are released and let you know when the documentary is going to air on TV.
Thanks for reading...
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Another Couple Weeks
So, another couple weeks have gone by. We had a couple weird schedules the past two weeks. In Appleton, WI, we didn't load-in until Wednesday. That was nice to get a day off but it meant we had to load in Wednesday, and then do two shows a day every day except Friday to fulfill our 8 show a week contract. Appleton, WI was a neat town. It was nice to be back in the states. The crew was really good and made our week really easy. There wasn't much to do in the town though. It was just a cozy little midwest city outside of Green Bay.
After Appleton, we went to Rosemont, IL. Rosemont was neat because I stayed with Family while there. It was good to sleep somewhere where I did not have to go through a lobby to get to my room. Plus, I got to see my family all week. I got beat up by my cousins when they weren't in school, I got to go to lunch at the elementary school with a second grader and talked about video games with the fourth grader. All in all, it was a pretty good week. I also got to go snow shoeing and work out with my Uncle. I really enjoyed spending time with everyone. It was well worth the Commute. Now we are in Durham, North Carolina and it is between 50 and 60 degrees during the day. This is weather that I enjoy much better than the stuff we have had lately on the tour. We are in a almost brand new theatre with a good crew. It is going to be another good week out here. The weather is going to keep getting warmer for us as we move farther south. Next week we are in New Orleans. It should be fun with the combination of Mardi Gras and the Saints being in the Super Bowl. I also think some of us are going on a ghost tour of New Orleans. I have only been on one of those before in Florida. It should be interesting.
Anyways, the show is ending so I have to pack up for the night. Thanks for reading!
After Appleton, we went to Rosemont, IL. Rosemont was neat because I stayed with Family while there. It was good to sleep somewhere where I did not have to go through a lobby to get to my room. Plus, I got to see my family all week. I got beat up by my cousins when they weren't in school, I got to go to lunch at the elementary school with a second grader and talked about video games with the fourth grader. All in all, it was a pretty good week. I also got to go snow shoeing and work out with my Uncle. I really enjoyed spending time with everyone. It was well worth the Commute. Now we are in Durham, North Carolina and it is between 50 and 60 degrees during the day. This is weather that I enjoy much better than the stuff we have had lately on the tour. We are in a almost brand new theatre with a good crew. It is going to be another good week out here. The weather is going to keep getting warmer for us as we move farther south. Next week we are in New Orleans. It should be fun with the combination of Mardi Gras and the Saints being in the Super Bowl. I also think some of us are going on a ghost tour of New Orleans. I have only been on one of those before in Florida. It should be interesting.
Anyways, the show is ending so I have to pack up for the night. Thanks for reading!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Wednesday is the New Monday
For future reference, I will be updating on Wednesdays now instead of Mondays. That will allow me to settle down into the new city and actually get to see some of it rather than just reminiscing about the load-out that just happened. Should be better that way...
So, we are in Montreal now and I wish that I knew more French. This is the second largest French speaking city in the world and the only five phrases that I know are; Hello, Good Evening, Very good, Thank you and shut your mouth. Not very useful when the entire city is in French. I mean everything, the street signs, the newspapers, the TV, the restaurant menus, everything. I feel that Montreal has at least two sides to it. There is the really neat, cultural side that you see during the day that I am looking forward to exploring this week. And then there is the seedy underworld filled with strip clubs and sex shops. Kind of a surprise when we first got into town. It varies on the block that you are on within the city. One street is full of fantastic architecture and old churches until you get to the next block, then it is full of strip clubs. I wonder if people go to church before or after...
The theatre is very nice and spacious which is a good treat to us after being in so many small theatres lately. It gives us the room we need to reorganize everything that has gotten packed incorrectly in the past couple weeks. The crew is nice, even though it is sometimes difficult to communicate with them because of the language barrier.
There haven't been to many adventures for me lately. I went rock climbig a couple times last week in Ottawa. We spent News Year Eve on the roof of the theatre overlooking Parliament. That was pretty neat and it was good to spend it with a lot of the people that are close to me and that I work with everyday. I went grocery shopping on Monday in a store that was all French and I couldn't read the signs so I just went up and down every aisle looking for what I needed. They sell milk in a bag here, which is neat. There is also Mayonaise served with everything. You name it and the Canadians will put mayonaise on it. I don't understand why, and I am not going to ask. If they like it on everything including french fries, then go ahead but don't bother giving it to me. I also went to Pita Pit yesterday thinking that would be an easy meal to order but guess what, It was also in French. It is sometimes hard to believe that I am still in North America. I have really enjoyed it and this experience has made me want to travel overseas. Maybe I will do it when I retire at the age of 28. Who knows, we will see what happens.
More Next Week, Thanks for reading.
So, we are in Montreal now and I wish that I knew more French. This is the second largest French speaking city in the world and the only five phrases that I know are; Hello, Good Evening, Very good, Thank you and shut your mouth. Not very useful when the entire city is in French. I mean everything, the street signs, the newspapers, the TV, the restaurant menus, everything. I feel that Montreal has at least two sides to it. There is the really neat, cultural side that you see during the day that I am looking forward to exploring this week. And then there is the seedy underworld filled with strip clubs and sex shops. Kind of a surprise when we first got into town. It varies on the block that you are on within the city. One street is full of fantastic architecture and old churches until you get to the next block, then it is full of strip clubs. I wonder if people go to church before or after...
The theatre is very nice and spacious which is a good treat to us after being in so many small theatres lately. It gives us the room we need to reorganize everything that has gotten packed incorrectly in the past couple weeks. The crew is nice, even though it is sometimes difficult to communicate with them because of the language barrier.
There haven't been to many adventures for me lately. I went rock climbig a couple times last week in Ottawa. We spent News Year Eve on the roof of the theatre overlooking Parliament. That was pretty neat and it was good to spend it with a lot of the people that are close to me and that I work with everyday. I went grocery shopping on Monday in a store that was all French and I couldn't read the signs so I just went up and down every aisle looking for what I needed. They sell milk in a bag here, which is neat. There is also Mayonaise served with everything. You name it and the Canadians will put mayonaise on it. I don't understand why, and I am not going to ask. If they like it on everything including french fries, then go ahead but don't bother giving it to me. I also went to Pita Pit yesterday thinking that would be an easy meal to order but guess what, It was also in French. It is sometimes hard to believe that I am still in North America. I have really enjoyed it and this experience has made me want to travel overseas. Maybe I will do it when I retire at the age of 28. Who knows, we will see what happens.
More Next Week, Thanks for reading.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Long Time, No Update = Many Apologies...
First thing First, I am sorry Busia that I have not Updated. I will be better in the future...
I can't believe a whole month has passed since I wrote in this. Time has been going by really fast lately out here for some reason. Baltimore and Hartford were great towns. Fantastic theatres and Stagehands. The weather started to get cold for in Hartford. I saw my first snow of the season there. After Hartford, we went back into the dark world of a split week with two towns in one week. We ventured into Utica, New York and Binghamton, New York. Utica was a very boring town but we were only there a couple days. Binghamton was a very interesting theatre. The theatre was way to small for us to fit. We ended up cutting out part of the set and moving all of the dimming systems around to make it fit. It was a theatre that we should not have played with the show in the current configuration. We somehow got the giant show shoe horn out and squeezed the show into one of the smallest theatre I have ever been in.
The flip side to Binghamton was that the people were really nice. We were the first Broadway show our size they had ever had in their theatre and they threw a huge party for us after opening night. All of the people working the show were very nice people. The town was also very nice. They had a lot of decent restaurants as well as a CVS (which is a big deal on the road).
We also started a Secret Santa while in Binghampton that went for a couple weeks and ended at our company dinner on Christmas. I got some pretty awesome gifts and my secret santa ended up being one of my closest friends out here. So, it was a really fun game that I think everyone enjoyed.
After our split week, we spent two weeks in Boston. I loved Boston. It was a really interesting town with plenty of history and plenty of things to do. The family came in for the second week and it was great to see everyone. I hope they had fun while they were out here. I know that I really enjoyed seeing and spending the time with them that I did.
Now we are in Ottawa for a week. It should be a fun and interesting experience. We made it through customs very easily. The only part about today that was tough was our first flight getting canceled and getting re-routed and then missing our connecting flight due to the weather and delays. We ended up flying from Boston to Montreal and then taking a bus from Montreal to Ottawa. It ended up being a really long day, but when we got into Ottawa, I found a climbing gym and spent a couple hours there, so it was worth it. Well, time to call it a night before our load-in tomorrow morning.
Thanks for reading
I can't believe a whole month has passed since I wrote in this. Time has been going by really fast lately out here for some reason. Baltimore and Hartford were great towns. Fantastic theatres and Stagehands. The weather started to get cold for in Hartford. I saw my first snow of the season there. After Hartford, we went back into the dark world of a split week with two towns in one week. We ventured into Utica, New York and Binghamton, New York. Utica was a very boring town but we were only there a couple days. Binghamton was a very interesting theatre. The theatre was way to small for us to fit. We ended up cutting out part of the set and moving all of the dimming systems around to make it fit. It was a theatre that we should not have played with the show in the current configuration. We somehow got the giant show shoe horn out and squeezed the show into one of the smallest theatre I have ever been in.
The flip side to Binghamton was that the people were really nice. We were the first Broadway show our size they had ever had in their theatre and they threw a huge party for us after opening night. All of the people working the show were very nice people. The town was also very nice. They had a lot of decent restaurants as well as a CVS (which is a big deal on the road).
We also started a Secret Santa while in Binghampton that went for a couple weeks and ended at our company dinner on Christmas. I got some pretty awesome gifts and my secret santa ended up being one of my closest friends out here. So, it was a really fun game that I think everyone enjoyed.
After our split week, we spent two weeks in Boston. I loved Boston. It was a really interesting town with plenty of history and plenty of things to do. The family came in for the second week and it was great to see everyone. I hope they had fun while they were out here. I know that I really enjoyed seeing and spending the time with them that I did.
Now we are in Ottawa for a week. It should be a fun and interesting experience. We made it through customs very easily. The only part about today that was tough was our first flight getting canceled and getting re-routed and then missing our connecting flight due to the weather and delays. We ended up flying from Boston to Montreal and then taking a bus from Montreal to Ottawa. It ended up being a really long day, but when we got into Ottawa, I found a climbing gym and spent a couple hours there, so it was worth it. Well, time to call it a night before our load-in tomorrow morning.
Thanks for reading
Monday, November 23, 2009
ABC...
Out of Alabama! Into Baltimore! Next Week, Connecticut! At least we are going in alphabetical order.
Huntsville was a good city for us. The people were nice and somewhat intelligent. Most of the crew had at least a little bit of knowledge about what we were doing. It still boggles my mind how it is okay in this business to employ someone that has had zero training in the craft and just ignore the fact that the person has no particular skills that are useful to the show. I cannot think of many other business where a major client would come into an office and the office would let someone with no skills try and work with the major client. That is what we run into week after week. We are the major client that has limited time and resources to install a show into a theatre and we constantly get labor help that does not have a clue what we are doing. Huntsville was much better in this department that Montgomery. Montgomery is on the list of places that I have been that I will perfectly happy never returning to. I did not have a lot of time to explore the town of Huntsville (I spent so little time in my room that I did not even know I had a refrigerator until the last night I was there). The shows sold well there and the local crew was nice and fun to work with. The only downside is that there was a notice posted that Mamma Mia will be taking a 9 week layoff in mid July. They will be taking this time to negotiate and decide where the show is heading. I might be moving to New York sooner than I thought...
We had a 6:30am flight into Baltimore this morning. We arrived just before noon. I had the coolest cab driver I have had in awhile. He was this older Greek guy that knew just enough English to make awkward conversation. But at the end of the 20 minute ride, he told me that he could tell that I was mature and would make the right decisions in life. We hadn't even talked about life situations! He was like a Cabbie Fortune Cookie. I haven't had much time to explore Baltimore but I am looking forward to it. I am hoping to get at least one good photo shoot in so hopefully I can share some photos with you later this week!
Thanks For Reading...
Huntsville was a good city for us. The people were nice and somewhat intelligent. Most of the crew had at least a little bit of knowledge about what we were doing. It still boggles my mind how it is okay in this business to employ someone that has had zero training in the craft and just ignore the fact that the person has no particular skills that are useful to the show. I cannot think of many other business where a major client would come into an office and the office would let someone with no skills try and work with the major client. That is what we run into week after week. We are the major client that has limited time and resources to install a show into a theatre and we constantly get labor help that does not have a clue what we are doing. Huntsville was much better in this department that Montgomery. Montgomery is on the list of places that I have been that I will perfectly happy never returning to. I did not have a lot of time to explore the town of Huntsville (I spent so little time in my room that I did not even know I had a refrigerator until the last night I was there). The shows sold well there and the local crew was nice and fun to work with. The only downside is that there was a notice posted that Mamma Mia will be taking a 9 week layoff in mid July. They will be taking this time to negotiate and decide where the show is heading. I might be moving to New York sooner than I thought...
We had a 6:30am flight into Baltimore this morning. We arrived just before noon. I had the coolest cab driver I have had in awhile. He was this older Greek guy that knew just enough English to make awkward conversation. But at the end of the 20 minute ride, he told me that he could tell that I was mature and would make the right decisions in life. We hadn't even talked about life situations! He was like a Cabbie Fortune Cookie. I haven't had much time to explore Baltimore but I am looking forward to it. I am hoping to get at least one good photo shoot in so hopefully I can share some photos with you later this week!
Thanks For Reading...
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