The Play of Light and Shadow

Sexy Unicycle

2008-06-26T01:52:00.003-05:00

I just got back from seeing the last preview of the new Cirque du Soleil show, Kooza.

OH. MY. GOD.

I don't even know where to begin. It was so amazing; words cannot describe the excitement and rush from that show. The technical aspects are stunning (come on, you knew I'd start there) and I went with a few other techie friends and we had fun dorking out together. We generally came to the conclusion that working for Cirque, while cool, would give us endless heart-attacks. And there is not enough money on this earth to make me a part of their rigging crew. Good God.

The acts were astounding. The clowns were funny and had some good running gags (literally). Lots of audience participation. There was a contortionist act where one of the girls Ran Around Her Own Head. As in, lying on her stomach, feet come up and over her head and run in Multiple Circles around her own head. There was a trapeze act to hard rock music. A high wire act where they had all sorts of shenanigans, including fencing and bicycle riding. And one of the guys nearly fell. And when I say nearly fell, I mean he was doing a trick involving jumping over another performer and didn't land on the wire right, slipped and caught the wire in his hands. He managed to swing himself back up onto the wire and finish the act. They re-tried the trick and he landed perfectly.

In the second act was the Wheel of Death (in my opinion aptly named), which opened the act. It was well-timed as one of my friends and I had just finished discussing the reasons neither of us want to ever be a part of the rigging crew. Way too many people's lives depend on getting it just right. Then, of course, Giant Metal Apparatus That Spins with two guys doing gravity-defying stunts comes flying in. I spent half their act watching them and the other watching the chains holding the structure up, praying the motors or whatever was holding them was functioning properly.

Oh, and I almost forgot the unicycle dance. Yes, the unicycle dance. Think pairs figure skating crossed with a tango and you get the unicycle dance. It was silly until the guy riding the unicycle started to use it to dance, in a very latin inspired fashion. Then it became rather, captivating.

My brain is still reeling from sensory overload. Shows like this remind me why I love doing what I do for a living. I think I want to run away and join the circus now.

Done Now

2008-03-21T22:55:00.002-05:00

It should not be snowing on Good Friday/Passover/Spring Equinox.

It's SPRING for f*@#'s sake!

Bah.

Girls in Science

2008-03-17T02:39:00.003-05:00

Ok, just looked at the comics for today, and I have a new reason to love Non Sequitur.

(That's a really hard word to spell when you're still tipsy. And for the record, I also almost wrote "read" instead of "spell". And took 3 tries to spell "Sequitur" despite it being in front of me. What was that I said about Celts and alcohol? Sigh.)

Happy St Patty's Day!

2008-03-17T02:25:00.004-05:00

I just got back from a Gaelic Storm concert at the House of Blues. It was

AMAZING!!!!!!!!

They had a countdown to midnight when we all (band included) would have a reason to be drinking. The opening band kept buying GS rounds of whiskey for while they were performing. And the piper (almost) took off his pants. A good evening all around.

Have a great day everyone and take care. The Celts will use any excuse to lower their IQ by drowning it in alcohol. (To support that statement, you have no idea how long it took me to write this legibly and spelled correctly.)

Oh, and if you haven't seen it yet, watch this video on Youtube.

Shaking the Snow Globe

2008-03-09T16:42:00.002-05:00

I'm so sick of snow. I want it to stop. Now please.

More "News"

2008-03-04T21:50:00.003-06:00

In a continuing theme, the Chicago Trib today reported that O'Hare airport ranks last in on-time departures and almost last in on-time arrivals. While I'll grant I didn't know we were that bad, I'm not surprised. My initial reaction was the same as to the flu shot article, "um, duh?"

It reminded me of a moment during "the show from h*ll" in Scotland when the lead had gone home to Chicago for the weekend before tech week and flew back that Monday night. Or he was supposed to. As he was flying out of O'Hare, his plane was delayed. The director came rushing over to me in almost hysteria to explain that the evening's rehearsal schedule was changing and why. I started laughing (not the proper response apparently) and explained that the actor should have known better as pretty much every flight through O'Hare is delayed. Rehearsal went on without the actor (turned out to be good practice for later in the week) and he arrived the next day.

This is why we bring a book to the airport.

In Other News...

2008-02-29T23:30:00.002-06:00

Had to share this. On my Google homepage, under headlines for the Chicago Tribune:

"Flu shots not foolproof"

Um, duh?

101 Things to do with Gaff Tape

2008-02-29T17:18:00.003-06:00

This one requires a little background. I'm currently assistant stage managing (ASMing) a children's show. In this show, they perform a flower dance where the actors are flowers having a midnight ball. The costumes for this piece are fake flowers that are coiled into crowns, necklaces, belts, and bracelets. The necklaces, actually, are plastic leis. The string of one of said leis decided to fail spectacularly last show, sending small plastic flowers EVERYWHERE.

Today the stage manager and I tried to fix said lei. Let us say that the first attempt was...not aesthetically pleasing. The second attempt was us taking one of the flower belts (which most of the actors had given up on) and attaching extra flowers to it using black gaff tape. It is slightly more aesthetically pleasing than attempt #1, but...

This one may need to immortalized in a picture.

Older and Wiser (?)

2007-12-04T17:53:00.000-06:00

Hi again

So, today's my birthday. 24 today. I feel like I should do or have 2 dozen of something, or do something involving 2 bottles of 12 year old scotch. Or watch lots of 24 . But instead I'm going to have a Thai food and movie night with a friend of mine. Which will probably turn into an all-night affair as there is an ice storm headed our way. Yep, it's my birthday all right, wouldn't be without crazy weather.

Off to make some tea.

Huzzah!

2007-11-15T14:52:00.000-06:00

I now have internet in my new apartment! Yay!!!!!

But, of course, I have nothing else to say.

But I'm a Grownup

2007-11-03T14:09:00.000-05:00

Hi folks

Nope, haven't fallen off the face of the planet. Have been busy-ish. First thing, I've moved! I'm out on my own now, living in the big city. Very exciting, slightly scary as this is the most on my own I've been in a long while. Also, my internet isn't on in my new apartment yet, so I'm coming to you from a local cafe with wifi, so this will be short.

Second thing: Many of my jobs and other activities lately have reminded me of Smith and being a student. For example, I worked a call at one of the universities a couple weeks ago where they hire professionals (that's where I came in) to oversee the students (actors) and make sure all the work gets done as the students don't have to be there all the time. The students were incredibly obnoxious. And I couldn't help wondering if I and my friends were just as rude and obnoxious when we were students. I know in some respects we were, but wow.

I also keep getting asked if I'm a student (at the uni call and elsewhere). I want to respond to these people, "No, I'm an adult, dammit!" but I know that won't help matters.

The cafe I'm in currently also reminds me a lot of Noho. When I walked in it was like I was transported back to Main St, complete with girls with mohawks and being chatted up by the waitress. It's very artsy and wonderful.

Anyway, I should go as they are closing soon. More when I have internet of my own.

Terra Diablo

2007-10-05T23:14:00.000-05:00

So I just saw a TV ad for Terra Diablo's new album.

1. I didn't know they had a new album.
2. I didn't know they made it to the U.S.

This is amazing! I got hooked on this band while I was in Scotland 3 years ago. I am so happy! Off to buy the album. You should buy it, too. Go here and listen to songs: terradiablo.com . The album is also sold on itunes and Amazon. Slightly annoyed with myself because they played Chicago a month ago and I didn't know, but that's ok. There'll be other gigs.

Boys and Toys

2007-10-03T18:45:00.000-05:00

As some of you may know, last week was due to be an interesting experiment for me work-wise. I was in a space that uses gridwalking (tightrope walking along pipes in the air, in this location about 40 feet in the air). However, the space put a catwalk system in over the pipes (yay), but you still needed to clip in to a lifeline/fall arrest system as there were no handrails (boo). Also, many of the lights were under the catwalks, so you had to lean all the way under them or sit on the pipes anyway. More fun was that the grate was installed upside down, resulting in various people cutting themselves pretty badly. I was not one of them as I was ground crew for the week except for 5 minutes of a notes call, wherein I decided that in future I am definitely ground crew. Otherwise, uneventful in the work sphere.

Yesterday I got to help take my brother back to school. For the record, he is perfectly capable of handling this on his own normally. Except this summer he bought himself a new toy: a motorcycle. He realized that he could not ride it and drive his car back to school at the same time, so... He rode his bike, my father drove his car, and I drove my car to be able to take my dad back home. People have emailed me things about "What's your carbon footprint?" I laugh at them and hit delete.

In other news, I need books to read. Any subject or genre is fair game. Suggest some.

Hello World

2007-09-27T01:16:00.000-05:00

Hello folks

This is the start of my new, and first ever, blog. I'm still getting used to this, so the format and styling are probably going to change a bit. Anyway.

A little bit about the title of the blog (which might change shortly, too). I'm a theatre electrician and lighting designer. That's my thing. Light is fascinating to me: its shape, color, texture, the way it moves, and most importantly, the lack of it in specific places also known as shadows.

I once was told, when I was a tap dancer, that the sounds we made were not important. It was the silence and the anticipation between the sounds that was. The silence was what we should play with, not the sound. To me, this is the same for lighting. As silence is to sound, shadow is to light.

That's all for now; I need some sleep.