Blah-ditty-blah

the difference between night and day. . .

this would be a good way to describe the past two evenings for me. the first started on monday. . . the day lyle lovett was playing at the santa fe opera. my boss had left all the pertenant information with me, and lesley and i being the only electricians really left had planned on coming in and doing all the necessary work like pulling and preping color, patching the correct channels and then getting to focus with the lighting guy. well. . . all did not go as smoothly. first of lesley was about an hour late. .. and the lighting guy, 'jack' came in pitching a fit to the technical director. i was pulling color in the shop when paul, the technical director asked if i was ready to deal with this guy, being that he was fuming at the ears. i said sure. . . i actually have dealt with these types of guys before, but i did feel slightly unprepared, only in that i didn't do all the prep work that my boss had taken care of. so i met jack. . . . this is close to how our first conversation went. . .

after a goodmorning or two. .

jack: so, i really don't see my lights

me: well, your lights are there, chris has made the translation between your needs and our plot

jack: where are they?

me: in the coves (i'm pointing up)

jack: i see lights up there, but they won't work, and where's my color?

me: we;re dropping color as part of focus, we can't leave it in all night due to the wind.

jack: i don't see how this is going to work.

me: well, when my board op gets here and patches the show, she'd very quick, you and i can take a look together.

jack; ok

so i went down and continued to pull color. . . then jack had another cow.

jack; i just don't see how these lights are gonna work, is it too late to look at a different venue or rent something?

me: our rig is rather surprising, i think you should wait until you see it.

jack: when's chris getting here?

me: he's left for the season

jack: oh so he left you to deal with all this. so he wouldn't have to deal with these problems.

me: no, i'm sure that he left things in such a way that i can handle them competantly.

jack: fine

i continue to prep different things and lesley finally arrives and shortly into her patching jack throws his third fit. .

jack: these won't do how am i supposed to hit the band down here. . .

me: well in the agreement you weren't supposed to cross plaster line, so it will be more difficult to hit anything downstage of that. . . but he can hit a little down there.

jack: is the board op here?

me: yes and she's working, so in a little while we can send turn on some lights and do a rough focus so you can see how it will work.

jack: well what is supposed to hit here. . . (now the frustrating point here is that i have a translation of numbers in front of me that lesley is making clear, but for the time being he just needs to have me turn things on so while she's working i start calling for random numbers)

jack: well how is this supposed to reach anything. . . .

me: we can move it down the pipe or yoke it out and focus it there. . .

more numbers and stuff. . and i'm getting really frustrated.

me: how about you give us another ten minutes for lesley to complete the patch and i will go up and focus things so you can see them. ( i did know that there were a few more notes to do before hand but getting him to stop blowing steam was more important)

jack: fine. . . you finish and i won't react just yet.

WON"T REACT! WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN DOING ALL FUCKING MORNING ASSHOLE! -ok, i didn't really get to say that, execpt downstairs with lesley when i relayed the story. ARGGGGGGGG

paul kept checking in with me. . . i assured him that jack would be just fine, he just didn't know it yet. i have a lot of faith in our rig, in the paperwork that chris created, and my and lesley's abilities.

however, jack was really frazzling me. and about that time, dave and charlie (two of my other bosses who were supposed to have left) walked in and caught wind of what was going on. finally i conceeded to let them get me through the rough part of focus. . . lesley on board and me talking down jack adn dave and charlie in the roof focusing. suddenly, lights were focused exactly where jack needed them and in the correct color. . . . and after getting through the rough patch me and another crew member took over for dave and charlie. . . and without a break or notification that we were actually going through a complete focus call. . . . that's exactly what we did. we then completed some notes on stage and we were done WAY before necessary. sadly jack rolled his eyes often at the focus since they were instruments he wasn't used to. . . to which i say, SUCK IT UP! this is a fucking opera house, not some shitty rock and roll rig!

anyway, the rest of the lovett crew couldn't stop thanking and complimenting me and lesley. . . how fast and efficient we were, and how we were able to make jack happy, though he himself never thanked. . . or APOLOGIZED to us. . . .

and all night and the next day it was praise from the lovett crew and our own technical director. ahhhhhhh. . . . *sigh*

now i don't know which is supposed to be bad and good. . . night or day, but the next morning was such a wonderous relief. lesley and i actually decided to come in early and put all the color in the lights and make sure the channel numbers were all right before the crew for david byrne's tour even got there. we were tired and sore, but we wanted to avoid another battle with a stupid lighting director. however, jon, the lighting guy for david byrne was a complete 180. after several morning pleasantries. . . we explained where we were in our process, and he seemed stunned at our 'overpreparedness.' he then said that we should take care of anything else on our agenda while he set up the stage stuff. we look bewildered. our purpose was to be there and help him set up. . . and he seemed glad for it, and for having true electricians on his call. maybe that was parrt of the problem. . . jack assumed that we would be stupid non electricians who couldn't handle the demands of a rig a third the size that we are normally used to working with. . . ASS!

lesley and i helped set up the deck and jon broke us till after lunch, when we would focus. . . . a real schedule. . . unbelievable! lesley stayed on the board and worked with jon while i and two other crew members focused. jon was quick, and pleasant, and knew exactly what he needed. . . and was impressed at our quickness. . . "wow, it's like having a crew of 35 up there.". . .. the other guy was a poor focuser. . . he could never tell when the light was on him and he was very bad at giving directions.

we finished the focus and jon and lesley programmed. . . and the show went fantastically. . . and again, lesley and i were surrounded with praise from both the tour crew and our technical director who was so pleased that we kept the tours happy.

i have to say. . . .even with the ASS encounter. . . i drove home each night, really tired, kinda sore. . . but with a huge smile on my face. both lesley and i worked really hard. . . . and we totally pulled it off and made it look easy. . . . made it look cool to be an electrician. . . . all ninja style or whatever. . .. our kung-fu rocked! so 'the difference between night and day' can also describe the difference in how i felt. . . these past two nights as opposed to the past summer. even when i, personally was doing good work and getting flattery on it from designers and co-workers. . . . i went home knowing that overall. . the electrics crew was nothing to be envious of. . . . . and just me and lesley working on these touring shows totally obliterated that. so sad that this past crew has no idea what it's like to feel how i and lesley felt the past couple of days. . .and how i've felt in the past when on a good crew. god it felt good.

:)

hope everyone is well.