LDI via ETC for JSR

I've just been informed that I'll be attending LDI this year courtesy of Electronic Theatre Controls, Inc. For those of you who aren't lighting dorks, LDI is the largest convention the lighting industry has and is held every year in Las Vegas or Orlando (it's an Orlando year this time around). I applied for the scholarship way back in March and had completely forgotten about it, so it was certainly a pleasant surprise to find out I had received it yesterday. It includes airfare, meals, hotel, passes, and of course, SWAG. Also really cool is that ETC heavily promotes the scholarship winners online and in national media (Live Design, PLSN, etc...), so just maybe I'll get my name in one of those :-) Also, everyone be sure to support ETC for their generosity, perhaps by purchasing a lovely new Eos:


Trust me, it's way more fun than the BMW you were gonna purchase with that $40k you had lying around. Random thought of the day: while Broadway is busy gushing over a musical about Puberty (Spring Awakening Box Office Ignites Post-Tonys). Here in upstate New York everyone is standing in line to get tickets to a show about the other change, as Menopause: The Musical returns for another smash engagement at Syracuse Stage. What a difference a couple hundred miles can make.

Don't Hassle the HOF

Yesterday, I went to the Baseball Hall of Fame (HOF) with Ellen from the costume shop. First let me say that as a New Englander/New Yorker/Pittsburghhher I couldn't stand being so far from civilization on the two hour drive-- and its only 80 miles away, yeah, THAT rural. Cortland is tha largest town on the trip, we went through towns that in their center had one restaurant and a church.

Anyway, back to the Hall. For the most part it was very well put together. The only weak parts were the "The Art of Baseball" and the multi-media presentation which could be described as "Disney's Epcot presents the Wonder and History of Baseball," the best line from the movie was, I shit you not, "There will always be baseball, because baseball celebrates life." Wow.

The best exhibit, by far, was the collection of materials from the Negro Leagues and the integration of African Americans into baseball. And I say that with no intent to seem politically correct. The exhibit itself was very well set up, with a timeline showing US history above a line showing baseball history, and appropraite artifacts on the wall above the timelines. It had several multimedia kiosks where you could learn more about specific items in the exhibit as well.

Not nearly as groundbreaking, but also interesting were the Babe Ruth section (I never knew that he only ever pitched 5 games for the NY Yankees) and the section on the ballparks and the fans. I didn't get to see Curt Schilling's bloody sock from the 2004 ALCS, don't know if I missed it or if it's no longer there. I would encourage anyone near the area to check it out, even if it means a few hour drive. Next on the agenda is the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH-- only 2 short hours away once I get back to Pittsburgh.

I Dream of Genie

So, I don't know if it was all the wine and cheese I consumed last night at "Dip Night" (which was amazing by the way). But I had quite the collection of odd dreams, including being questioned by police for haning outside a house the didn't belong to me, and being the architect of a luxy home.

But the prizewinner was about driving around in a fully extended (~35ft.) Genie Lift at night. The dream was a repetition of the same path three times, some of which included roads from my hometown in Somerset, MA, while others were from the dream "backlot" I've developed-- that's right, I've got a whole cache of falsefronts and flats available just for use in crazy dreams. Other highlights from this dream were forgetting to turn the lights on while driving the Genie (yep, it had headlights) and at the finale crashing into a large tree.

Off to Cooperstown later today to check out the Baseball Hall of Fame, full report tomorrow!

Wine Country

Yesterday I went along the Cayuga Wine Trail (in the Finger Lakes region of central New York) with my Mom, up to visit and see one of my shows at Cortand Rep, and her best friend Sue. Most of the vineyards are solid and the scenery is gorgeous.... Speaking of gorges (nice segue, hunh?) we also took some time out for the short hike to Taughannock Falls. First of all, Taughannock has to be my absolute favorite word... Taw-gaaan-ook. If I ever direct a Cirque du Soleil show, this is what it will be called. Not only is it a beautiful waterfall, but it also reminded me of being there with my Syracuse pals just before we graduated, almost exactly a year ago, and all the things that have happened to me since then. I got a little nostalgic/sad at the thought of it, but there've been some really great times since then, and with luck there'll be some great stuff just over the horizon. It was a beautiful day for it, cool without a breeze so walking was fun. Overall it was a great day.

As for the vineyards, in order from worst to best, they were Thirsty Owl (1 star), Lucas Vineyards (1 star), Bellweather Hard Cider (2 stars), Six Mile Creek (2.5 stars), Goose Watch (2.5 stars), Hosmer Winery (3 stars), Americana (4 stars), and the absolute favorite, Buttonwood Grove (5 stars).

The region definitely does best with white wines and wines that are very sweet or very dry. I found the desert wines and chardonnays to be particularly good throughout the day, with honorable mention going to the "Cayuga Whites" which are made by a special grape bred at Cornell University, specifically for the region. With that said, drum roll please, and the 2007 Wine Tour picks are (fumbles around with envelope)...........

Buttonwood Miss Kassie
Buttonwood Reserve Chardonney
Goose Watch Classic Cream Sherry
Six Mile Creek Reserve Chardonnay

Honorable Mention:
Americana Sweet Rosie and Americana Cayuga White

Industry News

Color Kinetics, innovator in the LED products market, has been purchased by Philips. I am not surprised at all by the transaction, I fully expected it to happen, but I am surprised by the timing... I thought we were still two years away from seeing this company swallowed up. My guess is that the recent legislation in Europe and Australia to eliminate the use of incandescent fixtures helped push the time frame on this one. It also makes sense that Philips wanted to get a jump on this before the industry heavyweight General Electric got into the mix (for the record, GE's market capitalization is $400 Billion... yep, that's a B).

MORE: http://livedesignonline.com/news/color_kinetics_acuisition_philips/

There Goes the Neighborhood

The Tony's are going to the dogs. That's right, those slovenly half-wit technicians commonly referred to as "Sound Designers" are now eligible for not one, but two Tony Awards (best play and best musical). Clearly we simply need to placate the poor folks' inferiority complex by making them feel equal to the big boys. I guess I can stomache Sound Design as a category, I have seen a solid half-dozen productions where it actually felt like design (KA, LOVE, and Lestat come to mind). I do think it would have been better to have one Tony for Sound Design (musical/ non-musical together) and the other for Music Composition for a Straight Play, but that's splitting hairs. Let's just pray that Projections Design and Hair/Make-up Design aren't next-- it's getting crowded in the TONY row at tech meetings.

Live Design Article on the Inclusion of Sound Design

In all seriousness, here's hoping that recognition of sounds helps further the area, much as it did for lighting design which also started being recognized (1970) before it fully found itself.

1 out of 3 Ain't Bad

I get to recue How the Other Half Loves todaybecause of the electrical storm we had yesterday. For most of the day we were down to one phase of our three phase power. We got the rest back just in time to run the preview, only to discover that two of the four dimmers are seriously pissed off. After some repatching we at least had a show with frontlight. I'm more over than I can tell you. And that's before we lost a phase again during a second lightning storm at the end of the show.

To make it worse the important phone call I alluded to earlier got pushed back some indefinite length of time... sad. Starting to wonder if it might not actually happen. Today's agenda includes bringing the two cranky dimmers in for diagnostics/repair and recueing the show collapsed into two dimmers. Where's the booze?

Your... Ghost Host

Your Cadaverous Palor Betrays and Aura of Foreboding.

Look familiar? All I could think to myself when I walked in to the 1890s house in Cortland, New York was the Haunted Mansion at Disney World. Sadly, the staff had no sense of theatricality and denied up and down that not only was the place not haunted, but they lived on the third floor and nothing creepy ever happens there. What a bummer. All I can say is that with a little flair they could make way more then $3 for students and $5 for adults when their open between 1-4pm on weekdays. So what exactly were we paying for if not a creepy haunted house? A house built by the inventor of screens.... that's right, metal screens. The house did have some intriguing architecture and would be incredibly lavish is built today.
In other news, I've got an extremely important phone call to make soon... Am I Ready?