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Blind Leading the Blind
September 15, 2008 | permalink

I managed to brew beer during Fashion Week.

Well, that's not strictly true, I suppose; I actually brewed it before Fashion Week, and I bottled it just after. But it fermented during Fashion Week, Gentle Readers, which still feels like an accomplishment to me. Productivity by proxy, maybe, but productivity nonetheless. Truly, I cannot remember the last time I accomplished something in my personal life during Fashion Week. There are those who would say that this must mean that I didn't have enough to do; I, however, think it means that perhaps I have grown some, and am not so self-deprivingly single-minded as I once was.

I tried my hand at a Strawberry Wheat this time, a distinct departure from any of the beer that I have made to date, being both my first attempt at a wheat and my first use of fruit. In my typical fashion, I did not avail myself much of the information on the subject of brewing with fruit on the internet, preferring instead to estimate what was needed myself and succeed or fail on my own. Stubbornness? Certainly. And possibly foolish, not to take advantage of the knowledge of others when freely available. But dumb or not, I would rather fail at my own plan than succeed with someone else's.

It turned out pretty tasty, to judge from the sample I tasted when I bottled it yesterday. Wheaty, to be sure. And a sharp front note from the hops. The fruit is subtle; a bit too subtle, actually. I think I need to double, at least, the strawberries next time. But they are there in the finish. So, lesson learned. And I am quite pleased, even if it didn't turn out exactly as I envisioned it.

But then again, what does?

Posted in Fashion Week & Food and Drink
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Walking in the Fields of Mars...
August 21, 2008 | permalink

... is like what Fashion Week feels like, more and more each season. It feels more and more foreign and unnatural every time.

Forgive me if I am repeating myself, but the older I get... the more grown up I get, I guess, the more responsible I want to be about the resources I use and the waste I produce and the impact I have on the world around me. It's actually causing me a fair bit of angst, I realized. Because I love my job, Gentle Readers. Using my brain to solve technical and logistical problems under pressure, doing physical work, leading a team, passing on my knowledge to others... I don't want to have a job where I don't get to do all those things.

And yet, as much as I love doing what I do, the people I do it for I mostly find reprehensible, if not downright despicable; and the sheer waste and frivolity of it all... I have a harder and harder time justifying the mindset. Not that I am ready to walk away; because I do enjoy the work on a deep level; just not some of the people I work with. But I used to think I could do this forever, and now I know I can't.

Posted in Fashion Week & Working
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Overpowered by Funk
September 21, 2007 | permalink

I am having trouble, Gentle Readers, getting back in the habit of writing. I have mentioned how disruptive Fashion can be in the past; how it is, for all intents and purposes, non-time for those of us involved (much like the extra days and weeks that the ancients would insert into their calendars as festivals outside the normal flow of the year). This season was worse than others, as I had a gig right before and right after, which effectively made my normal two weeks of fashion nearly a month long. Nearly all of my routines and habits have been suspended, and I feel a little adrift today, as I try to resume living in real time (as opposed to the Fashion non-time).

Of course, all I really need to do to get back in the swing is to actually do the things I am used to doing. Tonight I will bake bread (for the first time in I can't remember how long... six weeks, at least, which is the longest its been since I started in earnest 20 months ago). I am writing this post (obviously), and it is flowing better than I feared it would. Certainly better than the two or three I have tried to write in the last few days. And I am back in the office, and have done some of the close-of-show paperwork that I need to do, instead of drifting aimlessly around my desk. It's an interesting sensation, though... kind of like coming off of a tour, or returning from Spoleto.

One notable absence of my post-Fashion, though, is my customary serious case of the blues, which is nice, to say the least. There is a touch of them, to be sure... there always is, after a big project. But that's really all it has been- a touch. It's a lot better this way, to actually be able to enjoy the feeling of a job well done (even if it was completely life-disrupting), instead of well, not.

Posted in Blogging & Fashion Week & Musings & Working
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I've Seen the Sun Set the Sea on Fire
September 14, 2007 | permalink

Well that was a hell of a week.

Even now, only a day and a half after I closed the door on my last truck, it seems hazy and indistinct. That might have something to do with how little sleep there was to be had this season (not that I am complaining, mind you- I got less sleep than ever before, and I was getting off easy. There were shows where a lot less sleep was had than on mine), coupled with the large and then gigantic shows I did, back to back. So, yeah, it's all kind of a blur. But there was one notable highlight.

One night, backstage while the first of my events was going on, I had a very stereo-typically male conversation with The Sorta-Rican. Not stereo-typically male in its subject matter; we weren't talking about tits and ass. What I mean is, it was kind of an emotional conversation, but conducted with gigantic under-statement. It really struck me later how much was being left unsaid, though at the time there was never really a question about what we were talking about.

The gist of the spoken conversation was this: He is seriously considering leaving the business and doing something else, and he was saying that he didn't want me to feel like I was being left in a lurch (he is my number one guy, as they say). I assured him that this wasn't the case, and that I would be thrilled for him to find something that he liked better, and that was pretty much the end of it.

What was really going on though, was more like this: He was asking me if we were really and truly friends, or just work friends, and he wanted to know and be prepared if we were going to not see each other socially, because he doesn't really have a lot of people that he feels close too; he counts me as one of them, but if he's wrong, he wanted to know. He's not wrong- I count him as a brother, in every sense of the word, and I made sure that he knew that I loved and respected him and wasn't going to drop him like a hot potato. And all of that happened without any of it being said, and we both knew it.

The vast amount and great subtlety of information that can be contained within a superficially inane conversation between two people who know each other well is truly amazing, isn't it?

Posted in Fashion Week & Musings & Social Life & Working
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Call Me When You're Sober
August 23, 2007 | permalink

I've started this post nine times, I swear... I get halfway through, and then fashion rears is hideous, beautiful head, and I can't find the time or focus to get back here for hours or days, and by then whatever I have started writing about no longer seems interesting or important, so I delete it and start over and then fashion rears its hideous, beautiful head, and... well, you get the idea.

So really, Gentle Readers, I suppose this has now become my bi-annual 'I'm sorry I have no time to write, I don't mean to neglect you, it's just that it's Fashion season' post. I will try to write something more interesting soon, I promise.

Posted in Blogging & Fashion Week & Working


Quiet as a Mouse
August 7, 2007 | permalink

What do you do, Gentle Readers, when you have a knotty problem you need to solve? Do you sit and pick at it, peering for any weakness or chink, searching for the first step and meticulously picking it apart thread by thread until you've unraveled it? Or do you set it down, and circle it from a distance, examining the whole thing, trying to hold the shape of it in your mind and understand it, and wait for it to tell you what the solution is?

I'm thinking about this because it is nearly Fashion season again, which is of course my busiest and most hectic time of year. The entire month of August is pretty much consumed with The Boys (and by The Boys I mean our design staff) designing and re-designing our shows, while Smacktalk and I, in our roles as the production department, try to figure out the least stupid way to implement the aforementioned designs. Sometimes the shows are relatively simple and straightforward, without any major challenges (even the simplest has minor challenges). And sometimes there are major challenges, but they are similar enough to something that one of us has encountered before that it isn't too long until we find an acceptable solution. Every once in a while, though, something comes up that really stumps us.

Which, really, is part of the fun of the job. I like the challenges that come up, a lot. What I find endlessly fascinating (aside from the problems themselves, of course) is how Smacktalk and I will consistently approach these problems in such completely different ways. He is far more methodical than I am, and will worry the problem apart by sheer stubbornness. Sometimes it is almost like the fact that the problem exists is a personal affront to him, and he cannot rest until it is resolved.

I, on the other hand, am content to mull it over and let it percolate in my head for a while. Often, while I am doing something else, the answer (or an answer, at least- I'm not claiming to be the be-all end-all here) become clear to me. I have a lot of Eureka! moments in the shower.

It's funny, too, because his way of doing things will often drive me nuts. And vice-versa- I know that it makes him crazy that I will seemingly ignore the problem that is driving him insane, just as it makes me crazy that he wants to talk the problem to death rather than let it sit for a bit.

So how about you? Are you a picker or a percolator?

Posted in Fashion Week & Musings & Random & Working
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The Echo Factor
February 12, 2007 | permalink

Good morning, Gentle Readers. I'm sorry to have been away for so long, but it was Fashion Week you know. I know I have said this before, but it is basically all-consuming and pretty much trumps everything else. It's not the way I would like it to be, necessarily, but it is the nature of the beast.

It's not just the long hours that make it so, though they are indeed long; for me, what makes Fashion Week my 'one and only' is a bit of a mix of the nature and time frame of the work, the pressure I feel to succeed, and my own predilections for single mindedness. As a result, friends, family, lovers, sleep, meals, and everything else fall to the wayside for two weeks twice a year. I know that I lose perspective during this time, and I know that I should keep a better balance. I just haven't figured out how.

The schedule is difficult, all by itself. Hundred hour weeks are pretty much the norm. In some cases I am installing Broadway-scale shows in one tenth the time that my counterparts on the Great White Way have. This time frame, coupled with absolutely no margin for error, makes me feel a little under the gun, as I am sure you can imagine. While the lighting is not the most important part of a Fashion Show, you can make an argument that in many ways it is the most critical, and it's my job to make sure that it all works perfectly every time. When you are talking about million dollar shows, the pressure can get pretty intense. Add to that the (some have said) unreasonable standards I hold myself to, and I think you can see how everything else can get squeezed out, I think.

But it's all over, now; and here I am, back in the world. Bread making, beer brewing, dinner and drinks; all the little things that make life fun can now resume. Until next time...

Posted in Fashion Week & Working
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Gun Shy
January 27, 2007 | permalink

Fashion Week is once again upon us, Gentle Readers. Shows start on the 2nd of February, and most of next week is taken up by the shop preps and load ins that must precede such undertakings. These next two weeks, and their counterparts in September, are hands down the busiest weeks of the year for those of us in the business. Literally everyone is working, all the time. In addition to the sheer volume of shows that need to be mounted, we are invariably doing some of the largest and most complex shows of the year, all while personnel and materials are in short supply.

Things have been getting increasingly hectic at The Office, of course, for some weeks. Being on this end of it, dealing with clients and changes and budgets, is all kind of new to me still, and the more of the pre-load in craziness I am witness to the more I am amazed than anything gets done at all. I have a new appreciation for what the designers have to go through to make the client happy, and I see now that the inevitable on-site changes, while sometimes extremely frustrating to me and the various other crew chiefs and our crews, are relatively minor compared to the sweeping changes that get dumped on us here while we are trying to work up proposals and budgets. It's been quite educational.

Outside of The Office, I have two big shows that I will be heading up on site this season, both of which ought to be nice and big and stupid and challenging. As much as I am enjoying the new job in The Office, I am very much looking forward to getting on site and making things happen. I think it's what I do best, and it is one of the things that I most enjoy doing.

Posted in Fashion Week & Working


Fashion Nugget
September 14, 2006 | permalink

I started this post ten days ago, but got sidetracked by fashion (shocking, I know...). I don't even remember anymore where I was going with the bit that I had written, though I'm sure it was supposed to be some pithy observation on the then pending Fashion Week. Not that I am saying it would have turned out like that, mind you; only that it was what I intended. But the specifics are long gone, obliterated by lack of sleep and the poor dietary habits that Fashion Week imposes on you.

I only had two shows this season, as opposed to the five of last February. But the shows I did have were the biggest I have put up to date, topping out at over six hundred units- that's more than 400,000 watts of light, and about the same number of units as a small Broadway show. Only we installed it in three days, instead of the typical three weeks or more that a theatrical production of this size might take. My crew, Gentle Readers, kicked ass to acomplish so much in so little time.

My shows are done- the next couple of days are all about providing support for the shows that are still pending for us. So I'm tracking down equipment and perishables for last minute adds and changes, doing my crew's payroll, and working on resuming 'real life' (as opposed to fashion life), which got put on hold about ten days ago.

Posted in Fashion Week & Working
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Setting the Lights Fantastic
February 12, 2006 | permalink

Gentle Readers, Fashion Week is officially over. Not a moment too soon, either; my body has given up on me and I am currently sick as a dog. It's almost like it is punishing me for the 110 hour week I put in. Hmmm...

This season was a great success for me. I headed five shows, which is a new record for me. (Previously I have done five events during Fashion Week, but they were not all fashion shows- the stress factor is a little higher for the shows.) Among them were the two largest shows in the city, a fact that I am particularly proud of.

I don't have any work this week, which is good. Fashion is a wee bit disruptive; everything else tends to go out the window. I have to return emails and phone calls, clean the apartment, do some banking, go to the grocery store, and probably a hundred other things that I can't think of at the moment.

Posted in Fashion Week & Working
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I'm Still Standing
February 9, 2006 | permalink

I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, but Fashion is kicking my ass, to the tune of twenty(plus!) hour days for the last week and a half. Coupled, of course, with the insane demands of unreasonable people. This weekend is the last of it, and then I will have much to say. Stay tuned...

Posted in Fashion Week & Working
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Peace Offerings
January 28, 2006 | permalink

I am about to start Fashion, and this season I have more, larger shows than ever before. In a preemptive apology for what I am about to put them through, I have made- by my own hand, from scratch- donuts for my crew. I think that the donuts, along with the alcohol that I will provide for them at the end of Fashion, will keep me in their good graces.

Posted in Fashion Week & Food and Drink & Working
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Where Else in the World, Besides Here?
September 16, 2005 | permalink

Dressing a Galaxy: The Coustumes of Star Wars

I did my last Fashion show yesterday, a little one day job that technically was every simple and that no one was stressed out about, which is why I didn't mention it the other day. But I was wrong. It was worth mentioning.

Usually, for obvious reasons, I omit the identifying specifics about the shows I'm working on; but you, Gentle Readers, need to know about this, so I am breaking my rule. It was a Star Wars fashion show. There were Wookies and The Emporer, various sundry aliens that I can't name, and about twenty Amidalas. On one hand it was kind of lame; on the other, it was really cool. Viva la dorks!

Posted in Fashion Week & Working
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I'm Going Back to New York City, I Do Believe I've Had Enough
September 13, 2005 | permalink

A runway fashion show.

In spite of the fact that it happens within New York City, Fashion is it's own little separate entity, a kind of subset of real life. Past the surface layer that you see in the magazines, behind the super models and designers, it has it's own celebrities and notables that probably none of you have ever heard of; it has it's own rules and customs, and it's own strange history. Kind of like the Vatican...

Seriously, there is nothing else like it. All the excess of corporate America with the whimsy of the artist thrown in for good measure. I have installed last minute adds that cost thousands in labor and equipment for a 30 second gag, only to have them cut after the powers that be look at it in rehearsal.

I write to you now, Gentle Readers, from the veritable belly of the beast. This is my sixth day of being at actual job sites. In that time, I have had three load ins at three different spaces. One is still ongoing, for a show on Tuesday; one had a show last night and another this afternoon; the last was a party, and it has already been finished, party over, gear packed up on a truck and sent back to the rental house. (For scale: the smallest gig, the party, was on par with a small off broadway show in terms of complexity, equipment, and man hours. The larger jobs are monsters, on par with a fairly large rock show- complete with tracking scenery, fog, moving lights, and confetti cannons.)

Needless to say, my crew and I are a little beat.

Why do we do this to ourselves, you ask? One of my assistants (I have one for each venue), the Sorta-Rican (half Italian, half Puerto Rican, and one of the funniest people I know; the name is his idea), says he thinks people do our line of work because they hate themselves. I can see his point- the schedule is erratic, the income is feast or famine, and we are often asked to push ourselves to our physical limits and beyond. I know that I personally have only had 20 hours of sleep in the six days. He thinks that no one who is right in the head should do that to themselves on purpose.

But on the other hand, it has a lot of perks- the money is good; and the job, in part because of the sheer stupidity of it all, is fun and challenging. And despite how frustrating the process can be, the end result is often really cool. And there is, I confess, a little kick to being at events that most people never see in person, and seeing the sordid underbelly of the glossy magazine covers.

Posted in Fashion Week & Working
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