The light and sound systems at the local college are pretty state of the art. I mean it they should be with a one hundred thousand dollar grant. So if something goes wrong, technology fails us.

Tonight was one of those nights. James Templin was operating the light board in the second act of Glass Menagarie, in the scene between Amanda and Laura just before Amanda goes to get changed before teh Gentleman Caller and Tom arrive. I look over from my seat at the sound board to see the display monitor for the light board show the load screen. I knew in a flash what it meant.. The light board was rebooting. James had never had that happen, but I had. I quickly asked him what cue (lighting scene number) we were in, he told me (matter of fact, he told me a few cues later, but it still worked). As soon as the board finished the boot it went back to the default of no lights on at all. I quickly hit the correct buttons to load the right cue. Luckily, I had had something similar happen to me just over a hear and a half before.

Back in the summer of 06, one of the local theatre guild’s was presenting a show called “UnrineTown” (say it as ‘You’re In Town’) , and one Sunday afternoon we had bad storms where the power was reset. So here comes the board up, but unluckily for me the lights went out on the boot (for james, since power didn’t go out, the board kept all light up till last moments). I mean good thing is in the scene where it went out for me it was in a dialogue scene where everyone stood pretty still for the scene. Also my baclout (the term used for all lights being out) lasted about 60-70 seconds, whereas James’s only lasted like 10 seconds top.

As far as I know, the computer on the lightboard wither crashed for a moment and rebooted, a power surge, or just got some sort of whacky signal that made it reboot. I saw the sound board do something similar back this past November for Shenandoah. Bill Strader was operating the sound board when i looked over and the entire thing shut off and then came back. While it would have been more timely to have done that rebooting like 45 seconds later, it happened during the reprise of “Papa’s gonna make it all right”, where Jenny is singing to the baby. The actress playing Jenny has a right pretty voice, just not really loud without amplification. However, Lindsey being a trooper went on, and then the sound came back..

So yeah, no matter how advanced your stage tech systems are, they can fail you. Luckily for us, it was just a minor hiccup and no hardware was damaged.

Birthdays are supposed to be days that you feel good… you have your friends and family wish you a happy birthday, and you get something. It makes you feel special for one day. At least, it was supposed to.

My birthday was yesterday. So far only my mom, my dad, Daniel who is one of my theatre friends, and Tracey who is a Facebook friend from England wished me a happy birthday. Presents. Hell, I got a pillow and $50 dollars. Yeah, makes one feel all warm there.

So, what about my so called friends in the theatre? They can’t say they didn’t know. I made a remark at the cast part this past Friday.. Well, one thing is clear. I know Daniel is the only true theatre friend I actually have. To the rest of them, sussical will most likely be my last show with the “volunteer company” of Encore. There is a group of us, who we call the clunks.. why the clunks, because Michele jokingly said we weren’t too cool to be a “clique”. Bullshit! I wonder if Adam will tell me last on today when I see him while he plays Tom in Glass Menagarie.

Most of the people I know online never knew.. tho the ones I am friends with on Facebook would have known. It just sucks ass and really makes you feel bad when only two friends even tell you. It’s even worse when your own sister forgets. I better stop with this post before I depress myself even further.

Why am I linking to a video from G4, the most hated TV station known to geeks? It’s ultra simple.

Kim Davis, one of my old theatre friends from here in Morristown, Tennessee, was recently on G4’s Attack of the Show. She is the one singing Danny boy.

From Morristown, Tennessee, to G4 TV. Kinda hard to fathom.

Tomorrow the local college, Walter’s State Community College, will be opening the Tennessee Williams classic, The Glass Menagerie. This production stars Kathy Garver, who is best known as “Cissy” from the TV classic “Family Affair.”

The director of the show has done something that I really don’t like with plays. He has two separate casts. In both cast Amanda (Mrs. Garver) and the Gentleman Caller a.k.a. Jim D. O’Conner are the same. Tom and Laura change out each show. I know why he did it, as he really respects both people cast as Tom. I am really glad that I am working sound for this show as I don’t have to choose between which cast I want to see do the show.

In the first cast we have actor Jonathan Stephens as Tom and Rebecca Perinaz as Laura. The second cast has Adam Malonem as Tom with Kendra Haynes as Laura.

Both cast are amazing. However, there are some differences between the way the actors portray the character they are playing. For instance Jonathan Stephens as Tom is loud and at times a bit sarcastic, which work with perfectly well with the feel of the show and character. On the other hand, Adam Malone plays the part very reserved, without giving the feeling that his character might leave until he does. Along with Malone’s more reserved character also comes a more reserved projection of his voice. I heard it harder to hear Adam more than it has been to hear Jonathan. That is not a bad thing, as Adam has good projection on that stage.

On the flip side we have the two Lauras. Kendra’s Laura is still meek, but not as painfully as Rebecca’s. Rebecca is normally a very timid and shy person, and it has been hard for her to project on that stage until last night. I heard her say most of her lines without straining to hear. Rebecca also doesn’t play up the “physical defect” that Laura has as much as Kendra. Kendra’s Laura has a small limp when she walks around the stage, whereas Rebecca doesn’t carry it on with the limp. Also in the dance with Jim in the final scenes of the play, Rebecca seems to be more “rigid” than Kendra. However, it’s not a bad thing. Rebecca’s version of the character has all the shy qualities that Laura is supposed to have. Kendra does a good job, but it seems she has to work harder to get the shyness of the character as well as Rebecca does.

All in all, both casts are amazing. I am glad I don’t have to pick which actors I will see, as being the sound tech for the show, I am there for all performances. So, if you are in the Lakeway area of Tennessee, please call the humanities division of Walter’s State and make reservations. Performances are Febuary 21-March 2, with Thursday Friday and Saturday nights starting at 8 pm, and Sunday matinees at 2 pm.

I had to take my mother to her doctor’s office this morning, and i was listening to the local “news talk” radio station, WNOX NewsTalk 100 out of Knoxville, TN. I was listening to their local morning man, Hallerin Hilton Hill. A caller was talking about Barrack Obama and his issues on the pledge of Aligence. Later on, an older man called in and was critizing H.H.H. for “defending Obama”… Hallerin did no such thing. All he told the first caller to do was go to  60 minutes’s website and search for Obama, or search google for “Obama 60 minutes” so that they could hear the reason that Obama doesn’t really put his hand to his heart. It was as simple as that. however the other caller was saying how Hal was defending.. The caller closed in saying as “I thought you had more intellegence than that.”

Sorry, but who was the moronic idiot? it was not Mr. Hill. It was you sir. you seem to think that just because you give out information for someone to form their own opinion that they are “defending the position”. Damn, i hope this idiot never calles Neal Boortz. Boortz would just tell the man how stupid he was, and he not been so tollerent like Hal.

Need any proof that Comcast does traffic shape and throttles bandwidth.

Here is a speed test from speedtest.net after a download a file last night and had it uploading.

And here is one just after I closed utorrent.

*In a Sarcastic voice* No, I don’t see any change there, do you? I wonder if enough people see this who are on Comcast will see what a horrible ISP they truly are. I mean they are bad if you do anything that uses “too much bandwidth.” I know that if i had been streaming here and had plenty of viewers it would have plumited. However, I wanted to see the change myself. So yeah, when Morristown Utility Systems fibernet, http://musfiber.net gets out to the county, I will make the switch and tell comcast to stick their traffic shaping where the sun don’t shine.