Fun with Airplanes

Sunday, September 14th – Monday, September 15th: Carrie and Brian V. picked me up at Susan’s around 2:30pm to go to the airport. There were some high winds and we were pushed around a bit on the way there. The computers were down at Enterprise Car Rental and the employees were watching the shingles being blow off some of the other buildings in the area. It was strange because there was no rain or storm, it was just high winds. We got over to the airport and checked in for our flights. When I got to my terminal, most of the stores and restaurants were closed because they had no electricity. A lot of the afternoon flights had been cancelled and those later in the day were delayed, including mine. Around 3:30pm, they had to shut down the FAA tower because they were getting 65mph winds, which meant that no flights could go in or out of Cincinnati. Around 4:00pm, just 30 minutes before my flight was originally suppose to take off, I got a message from Orbitz saying my flight was cancelled! So I went up to the counter where everyone else was standing in line and got a ticket for the 7:30pm flight. I went over to where Carrie and Brian V. were waiting for their flight, which was delayed. On the way, I checked one of the departure boards and noticed that my 7:30pm flight had also been cancelled! At the check in booth near Carrie’s gate, they told me first that I had to go to gate 14 and second that there was a 2 hour line there and I should probably go back out to the front of the terminal. By the time I got out there, there was a huge line and I ended up waiting about an hour and a half before getting to the counter. The woman put me on stand-by for the Monday at 10:30am flight to DC and got me a regular ticket for the 7:30pm flight. I called Susan who came to pick me up. On the way home, we went by Surrey Square in Norwood and Hyde Park Plaza, looking for food and movies, and neither had power. Luckily, Rookwood Pavilion had power. There were also long lines at the gas stations that were open. Brekky picked me up from Susan’s and we went back to his place, which had no power. He then took me to my Dad’s who also had no power. I woke up early and we left my Dad’s around 8am, still without power. We stopped in Norwood to get gas at a gas station that was almost completely packed with cars. They dropped me off at the airport and I luckily got on my 10:30am stand-by flight back to DC!
The wedding weekend went well. I will post a link soon for the pictures.

Hope all is well!

Brian

Desk Work Again

Tuesday, September 9th - Friday, September 12th: Work is going well. It’s mostly paperwork at this point. I’ve been looking up contact information on all of the Technical Director for all the venues we’ll be visiting. I also have to find, or ask for, Technical Specifications for all the venues so that I can plan out how our show will fit in their space. There is a lot of running around The Kennedy Center looking for props or other things that would be helpful in rehearsal. I watched a video of the original production when it was performed here at The Kennedy Center. The show is about an hour long and is really cute and funny. My boss, David Paige, found a copy of the book “The Phantom Tollbooth” so I’ve started to read it as well. The book is about 250 pages and goes into much more detail than the Musical. Apparently, Delaware Opera wanted to do an opera version of the book, but I doubt that would have gone over very well.

On Thursday, 9/11, there was a lot of traffic around the area and there was a really beautiful memorial service at the Pentagon. They took this day to open a new memorial at the Pentagon. They are these really interesting benches that slope from one side to a flat surface and have a small pool of water underneath. On each bench is the name of one person who was killed on 9/11. Here is a link to some pictures from the Memorial: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/11/pentagon.memorial/index.html#cnnSTCPhoto

I’ve met most of the cast and they are all very nice. The Stage Manager and I seem to get along great and my boss is pretty nice. A lot of the technicians who go on these tours come back for multiple years. My boss went out for 3 tours and two of our technicians are going out for their second tour. I spend most of my time right now sitting at my desk, staring at my computer. Next week looks to be similar, but I’ll actually get to talk to some venues on the phone. And the week after that is when we start tech rehearsals.

Hope all is well!

The Work Begins!

I’ve finally made it to DC! I’m more or less settled in my studio apartment(provided by The Kennedy Center) and have worked a couple of days.

Sunday, September 7th: I got to the airport on Sunday night and the first thing I learned was that my flight had been delayed. Unfortunately, it was delayed enough that I would have missed my connection flight to DC. So, JetBlue put me on a different flight, from San Jose to New York and New York to DC. It was kind of a rough flight because my stomach was a little upset, possibly because I’ve been waiting so long to start this new job. I only slept for about an hour and a half. The plane landed in New York and I took a shuttle to my next boarding gate. I sat down and went to take my book out(The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien) and realized that it wasn’t in my bag. I immediately knew that I had left it on the plan and bolted back to the gate I had just came out of. There was a security woman who helped me track down someone who could go back onto the plane and get my book. As we were standing there, the gate supervisor came out with a couple of books and a magazine. He asked me what my book was called and I said “The Hobbit” and there it was on the top of his stack! The flight from New York to DC was pretty uneventful. It was only about 45 min in the air and my stomach was feeling better so I slept for most of it.

Monday, September 8th: I flew into Dulles Airport which is just west of Washington, DC. I took a shuttle to the light rail(which is called the Metro) and took it to the Foggy Bottom-George Washington University stop. The Metro here is exactly like the BART in the Bay Area. Same turnstiles, same tickets, same trains except for the brown/orange/yellow colors that look like they’re from the 70’s. Even the Foggy Bottom-GWU stop looks like one of the Berkeley stops! It’s about a 2 ½ block walk from the station to the apartment. I dropped off my stuff and walked 3 blocks north to the Trader Joes to get some food. After that I called my boss, David Paige, and walked the 3 blocks south The Kennedy Center. David and I took the 26’ box truck and drove to the warehouse to pick up the set. It’s funny to drive a truck in DC because there are so many road restrictions that it takes a long time to get to a highway. Mostly this is because they don’t want you driving past some important buildings. So we picked up the set and took it to the shop that is going to do a little refurb on it then headed back to The Kennedy Center and finished off the day.

Tuesday, September 9th: The performers arrived today and we had a small meet and greet. Then the performers started rehearsal and I got down to work. Right now it’s a bunch of paper work and contacting people. Nothing too exciting for this first week, that’s for sure.

Overall things are going well. I’ve just about adjusted to Eastern Time mostly because of my red eye flight.

Hope all is well! Take care!