tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167268522011-09-30T06:27:46.094-04:00I try to live an interesting life. Judge for yourself.Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.comBlogger1101100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-34925374709127249542011-05-05T14:49:00.002-04:002011-05-05T15:21:12.747-04:00

I don't really know much about the news industry, but I have noticed that whenever I meet foreign journalists in Tbilisi, they always seem to be working on multiple articles, usually on totally unrelated topics. Example: today two Swedes stopped by the office to interview my colleague Mathias about some of the work that TI Georgia is doing (for those not in the know already, we're an

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-8072005330055202142011-04-15T13:44:00.005-04:002011-04-15T15:18:33.879-04:00

The north end of Rustaveli Avenue, Tbilisi's most famous street, is fraught with danger for the groups of young Georgians who like to stroll, arm in arm, past its glitzy shops on warm Tbilisi evenings. The danger is a group of beggars, all children, who harass passersby. Some locals tell me that the beggars are Roma, but I don't know where they come from; the point is that they are beggars, and

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-7144462673606373792011-03-29T13:48:00.007-04:002011-03-30T14:13:50.041-04:00

I just got back from an amazing trip to Istanbul, and as you might expect, I took a LOT of pictures (about 500). They're all up on Flickr if you want to see them, but since I know most of you (except my parents) will click through only a page or two before getting bored, here's a short selection of my favorite photos that I took. These aren't necessarily the best ones, but I tried to select shots

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-73419272040584846372011-03-14T14:37:00.003-04:002011-03-14T15:48:38.700-04:00

I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time talking about my bicycling background; if you know me, you know that I cycle practically everywhere, and Tbilisi is not an exception. However, the reaction by Georgians and expats alike when they see me using a bike as transportation is usually something along the lines of "Wow, you're brave! It must be pretty dangerous out there, huh?" This is a common

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-59800756867944043132010-10-24T10:39:00.003-04:002010-10-24T16:20:03.447-04:00

Georgian food sometimes reminds me of The Loch Ness Monster -- everyone has heard of it, but practically no one outside Georgia has ever actually seen or tasted it. In the case of Georgian cheese, that doesn't change even once you get to Georgia, where the most popular type of cheese by far is this: This cheese dominates every supermarket, hole-in-the-wall food shop, and farmers market that

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-70555487776362942882010-10-12T12:11:00.004-04:002010-10-12T12:41:40.135-04:00

Georgian traffic is not exactly lawless, but Georgian drivers give far more expression to their desire to dominate the road than the average American, who settles for buying a pickup truck or SUV with spiked wheels. This is not limited to cars; most bus drivers are loathe to admit that their bus is any different from the BMW 3-series driving next to them. Case in point: many bus stops are located

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-78342826065986672272010-09-25T11:28:00.002-04:002010-09-25T11:45:54.503-04:00

Anyone who is reading this blog probably knows by now that I'm living in the country of Georgia. I have some ideas for longer posts, but right now I'm busy with work and learning a rather difficult new language, so I want to get things started by mentioning that I went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Tbilisi today, and viewed their wonderful treasury, which is mostly Christian iconography. They

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-63176836854706401112010-04-11T21:16:00.005-04:002010-04-11T22:27:00.333-04:00

Have you ever had treacle? Treacle has been a mystery to me for years--it seems to exist as a part of everyday life in practically every British book ever written, and yet I'd never once seen treacle for sale here in the States. That changed today when I spotted a can of Heinz-brand treacle sponge pudding on the shelves of my local Treasure Island grocery store. I immediately bought a can, and

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-31555697262199504152010-02-24T18:32:00.005-05:002010-02-24T18:43:13.254-05:00

Let's say you're walking down the street, and at the corner of a busy intersection, you see a young woman attempting to hand out candy from a big metal bowl perched on top of a wooden box with the words "The It's Okay Box" hand-painted on it. She's not having much luck--most people just walk on by, and the bowl has plenty of candy, mostly Jolly Ranchers and toffee, left in it. "Free candy, no

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-74482763175507129482009-12-10T22:56:00.003-05:002009-12-10T22:58:39.879-05:00

A HUGE thank you to the staff at Lou Conte Dance Studio for letting me keep my bike in their lobby after my bike lock froze (!!) shut.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-90212359847848071652009-10-03T00:54:00.004-04:002009-10-03T15:26:52.149-04:00

I started streaming Carl Sagan's Cosmos from Netflix today, and his voice immediately sounded incredibly familiar, even though I've only heard it once before, when my middle school science teacher showed my class a Cosmos episode. After finishing the first episode (which features a modern introduction by Ann Druyan that is comedic GOLD), I did some googling, and discovered the shocking truth.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-5950143466904202832009-08-21T10:12:00.002-04:002009-08-21T10:17:23.353-04:00

I'm nearing the end of a five-hour layover in Bangkok Airport, en route to Osaka, Japan. Living in India, you don't really notice how rarely people in customer service positions (like wait staff and sales people) smile at you. It's not until someone does it that you think "Wow, that was really friendly," before realizing that back home, it's expected, and anyone who doesn't smile is perceived as

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-9066773126791342832009-08-17T11:14:00.003-04:002009-08-18T13:12:39.936-04:00

I had an unusually difficult time flagging down an auto rickshaw this morning; there seemed to be very few of them passing by, and those that did were all full. I spent fifteen minutes flapping my arms on the side of the road to no avail, and I finally just gave up and took a taxi. When I got to work, I discovered that most of the Delhi auto unions have declared a two-day strike. The reason for

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-75246404342882488232009-08-08T06:58:00.009-04:002009-08-23T22:33:18.341-04:00

Palika Bazaar is advertised as an "Air-Conditioned Underground Mall," but the term "bazaar" is much more accurate--once you step inside, you're immediately lost in the maze of narrow, crowded passageways that is the defining characteristic of every market I've visited in India. I was told that Palika Bazaar was a good place to find DVDs, so I went there in search of an old Indian movie for

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-33937692100563735712009-07-31T13:35:00.003-04:002009-07-31T14:10:07.057-04:00

The Garden of Five Senses is a well-maintained garden and sculpture park on the far south side of Delhi, with a name that makes it sound a lot more exciting than it actually is. Here's how well I thought it titillated each of the five senses: Sight: The Garden is full of beautiful flowers and interesting sculptures, and there is a hill with a great view of South Delhi and the Qutb Minar to enjoy.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-43545870385122634852009-07-25T14:05:00.003-04:002009-07-25T14:14:17.321-04:00

I spent the day at various attractions around Delhi, and I am currently in the middle of uploading all my photos. In the meantime, however, here's a panorama from the Lodhi Gardens that I stitched together. For those of you who know Ann Arbor, the Lodhi Gardens are kind of like the Arb, except with ancient tombs splattered all over the place. In fact, that's a decent way to describe a lot of

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-19793249187002555092009-07-25T13:29:00.002-04:002009-07-25T14:02:37.399-04:00

Mr. Kumar is our landlord. He's an older Indian gentlemen with rapidly thinning hair and a bit of a gut. His blocky features are set in a constant scowl, as if he is always worried about something. The one time I've seen him attempt to smile, he presented Brian and me with a lopsided rictus that lasted for only a split second before he self-consciously reverted to his familiar glower. His

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-86704429875119786212009-07-24T13:42:00.002-04:002009-07-24T13:47:15.030-04:00

I don't know what my rickshaw driver was smoking today, but it must have been some pretty potent stuff. First he started flapping his arms like a chicken and saying unintelligible things to me in Hindi. Then he began singing "lo lo lo lo lo lo" to himself right before almost running into two teens who were trying to cross the street. Good times.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-58578545942227980702009-07-23T11:13:00.004-04:002009-07-23T12:06:37.617-04:00

I really love Indian cash; it's so well designed that I'm going to be a little sad to switch back to American money at the end of the summer. Here's a picture of some common denominations: From top to bottom, the denominations are Rs. 500, 100, 50, 10. The coins, from left to right, are 1, 2, and 5 rupees. There are also notes with values of Rs. 1000, 20 and 5. In the US, we use different

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-34712246682048922682009-07-15T11:14:00.003-04:002009-07-15T11:20:59.887-04:00

If any of you have gone through the hundreds of photos I've taken here in detail (no shame if you haven't), you probably noticed one of the Baha'i Temple that was all purple-tinged. That was my camera's way of telling me that it didn't like the heat. The problem has progressively gotten worse since then, and today, two days before our trip to the Taj Mahal, it crapped out completely. I'll try and

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-64241860791442797842009-07-14T12:44:00.005-04:002009-07-23T12:11:49.932-04:00

Here's a chronicle of all the animals I've seen in India so far (not including insects, of which there are plenty. The cockroaches, thank goodness, are actually smaller than in Chicago). I'll update this post as I see more animals or take pictures of them. BirdsIndian Crow. Acts and sounds exactly like a North American crow, but has a brownish-grey neck and chest. Pigeon: Look exactly like North

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-44421406480901465862009-07-13T12:46:00.008-04:002009-07-13T14:19:26.085-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately; I've had a busy couple of weeks. Also, I want to note that a lot of this blog will be generalizations (i.e. stereotypes) about Indian culture. It's not my intent to be racist or to make baseless generalizations. Rather, I am adjusting to a new culture, and the way to adjust to a new culture is to learn the rules of that culture--that is, how most people of

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-32561254250544556212009-06-22T12:31:00.001-04:002009-06-22T12:33:15.875-04:00

Traffic Many of you have probably seen this video or something like it. That video definitely wasn't shot in Delhi--the rickshaws here are green with yellow canopies, not the other way around. Traffic in Delhi (at least, in south Delhi) never gets quite as crazy as in that video, for a couple reasons. First, there's a lot more traffic here, so there isn't enough space to do the kind of

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-56863370626910302082009-06-20T01:49:00.002-04:002009-06-20T02:19:16.344-04:00

Yep, I'm in India! I'm spending the summer in New Delhi, India, interning with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. I've been here a little over a week, and now that I have internet access and a functioning computer, I'm going to be blogging about my adjustment to a new and different society. I'm not really going to chronicle what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis, because for the most part,

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-35960447474937276652009-05-29T11:28:00.003-04:002009-05-29T11:33:49.073-04:00

I made a quick run to the grocery store this morning, and got a little entertainment on the way back. I'm pretty sure I passed that car on the way to the grocery store. I'm assuming everyone was okay because there were no ambulances and the police were just standing around. Also, from the bike rack outside the grocery store, bike lock FAIL:

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-73831097582940543942009-05-26T16:03:00.002-04:002009-05-26T16:09:59.187-04:00

I always feel bad for the ducks who land in the law school's zero-depth fountain. They clearly think it's a regular pond, because they invariably sit down when they land, as if they're expecting to float. When they instead discover that they're scraping their butts on the granite, they stand up, shake their tail feathers a few times, and then stand dejectedly in the fountain for a few minutes, as

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-77502902915324780442009-05-25T21:49:00.001-04:002009-05-25T21:51:06.190-04:00

I love it when journalists get it so very, very right: The Great Ethanol Scam

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-17166954132786444012009-05-24T19:41:00.001-04:002009-05-24T19:42:32.475-04:00

Even whales.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-52416800419505021112009-05-23T16:46:00.006-04:002009-06-21T13:22:17.555-04:00

Looking for a way to demonstrate just how much of a butthead you are, but not quite certain how to get the message across? Parking your enormous gas-guzzling SUV (with custom rims, no less) in the "Reserved For Alternative Fuel Vehicles" spot at Whole Foods is a pretty good way to start. And yes, I checked--it wasn't an enormous gas-guzzling SUV hybrid. Not that I think hybrids should be allowed

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-51225446879104470242009-05-22T16:58:00.005-04:002009-05-22T21:07:59.168-04:00

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Deborah Seyller, Kane County Circuit Clerk. If you don't see it, look harder (hint: what the heck is on the wall?).

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-52525672417108849582009-04-24T22:10:00.002-04:002009-04-24T22:12:14.822-04:00

Not really. But I was on Chicago Public Radio this morning: Me being famous.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-77857408382613853412009-04-17T23:08:00.008-04:002009-04-17T23:32:07.386-04:00

First off, I've never been a giant fan of Final Fantasy, but Final Fantasy XIII looks like it's going to absolutely reek. From Wired: [The main character, Lightning, is] backed up by her partner, Szah, who has a baby Chocobo living in his afro. Wired asks the appropriate question: [H]ow does Final Fantasy XIII address all the things that make an RPG an RPG, and not just a brief series of simple

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-88557020256004119002009-04-07T00:19:00.002-04:002009-04-07T00:19:43.932-04:00

Is getting home at 10PM and realizing that you still have a couple homemade brownies left.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-23839729678797077512009-04-02T19:43:00.004-04:002009-04-02T19:52:26.769-04:00

There is just too much excellent, wacky stuff out there today for me to not post links to some of it. The best "impromptu" train station dance routine I've seen (via the always-excellent Marisa Wegrzyn). An audaciously and hilariously inappropriate women's razor commercial (via BoingBoing). A Detroit News (yep, they still exist!) article about an urban raccoon hunter who is now my personal hero (

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-62674928321980599832009-03-10T00:02:00.003-04:002009-03-10T00:13:01.178-04:00

Just started playing Mirror's Edge a couple days ago; I'm about a third of the way through. Some initial thoughts: You die a lot, which can be incredibly frustrating. However, it's the kind of frustration that is due to a steep learning curve, rather than seemingly insurmountable difficulties or a game system rigged against the player. Once you accomplish a particularly difficult maneuver, the

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-80665542537536385802009-01-06T13:00:00.003-05:002009-04-02T19:55:38.634-04:00

From the Chicago Sun-Times: Roland Burris says, on the subject of whether his race is relevant to whether he should be seated in the Senate, "I have never in my life, in all my years of being elected to office, thought anything about race." Oh, really?

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-71565984832330423032008-11-27T19:08:00.002-05:002008-11-27T19:22:09.407-05:00

Well, not really--it's a rare species of squid. I know, I know, comparing deep sea critters to space aliens is about as witty and original as a sock, but this squid is freaking creepy: Link via SlashdotNew species of squid, or a sign that Dread Cthulhu will soon rise again? You decide.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-71782919858305713912008-11-11T23:19:00.005-05:002008-11-11T23:22:59.290-05:00

Another excerpt from my fabulous textbook: "Imagine that you are a spy and that your partner is a double-agent. Your innocent conversation reveals that you are both trying to uncover the other's recent whereabouts. Use the preceding two dialogs as models."

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-2814769495191480492008-11-01T21:44:00.003-04:002008-11-11T23:22:11.822-05:00

This is a real assignment. For reference, Kevin is the fictitious American exchange student in the textbook's obligatory accompanying soap opera DVD. "When Kevin can't sleep, he thinks of a Russian noun and combines it with an adjective. He says it works wonders! Do you want to try his method? If you are not asleep by the end of the exercise, think of another dozen Russian nouns and combine them

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-86672887143671561652008-10-28T00:34:00.002-04:002008-10-28T00:39:07.119-04:00

When politicians deliberately drop the "g" off the end of "-ing" words in order to sound folksy? Obama was particularly bad in the last debate: he enunciated everything perfectly except when he was talking about Joe the Plumber, at which point he apparently forgot how to use the letter "g".

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-20113709327640238792008-09-30T22:45:00.003-04:002008-09-30T23:10:05.864-04:00

Forgive me this rant, if you will. The southbound #6 bus was extremely late arriving to the State and Lake stop, and the situation only got worse as we proceeded down State, trying to cram the two or three buses' worth of passengers that had accumulated along State into just one bus. We had to leave not one but two guys in wheelchairs waiting on the sidewalk because there was simply no room for

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-61921013935399951702008-09-10T17:15:00.003-04:002008-09-10T17:17:27.249-04:00

Apparently a girl in India was so afraid that the Large Hadron Collider would destroy the world that she committed suicide. This leads to an interesting question: if you knew for certain that the world was going to end, would you stick around to watch, or would you check out early? Discuss.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-82527524350846969832007-08-15T23:41:00.001-04:002007-08-15T23:41:59.745-04:00

Sorry I haven't posted much recently--I've gotten to that part of the summer where everything has pretty much become routine (Oh, you want us to replace an entire lineset? Yep, been there, done that), so I don't consider as many things interesting enough to write about. At the same time, I'm also tired, so I have less energy to write. However, we're getting close to the end of the summer, and

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-14493321461606872212007-07-26T23:59:00.001-04:002007-07-26T23:59:44.177-04:00

A couple notes of interest: We have a new production coordinator, named John, in the Duke theatre, while Hannah (Rocky) is now the Shawn production coordinator. It's not really my business to say why, but the old production coordinator of the Shawn is no longer at the Pillow. This week's company is the "Bad Boys of Dance". It's a "project company", which means they were assembled for the

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-17653932205965629232007-07-22T00:33:00.000-04:002007-07-22T00:34:06.574-04:00

Inside/Out was actually outside today! Huzzah! I'm glad it was, because today was the performance of the School, and trying to cram all 25 students into the Ruth St. Denis would have sucked. Plus I'm sick and tired of setting up chairs. I met a very friendly (but somewhat shy) Bichon Frise named Dudley, who was coming to his first I/O performance, and I saw a girl avidly reading the 7th Harry

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-26138168268633475952007-07-20T22:02:00.001-04:002007-07-20T22:02:54.874-04:00

We almost managed to have Inside/Out outdoors today, but despite a lovely afternoon, it started to rain at around 5:30PM, so we had to move into the Ruth St. Denis studio again. The only other point of interest is that I almost ran over Paul Taylor today; he was backstage during the second intermission scene change, and I nearly collided with him as I was coming down the stairs from the fly loft

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-54321381720637727662007-07-18T22:41:00.000-04:002007-07-18T22:42:15.202-04:00

Today was our first actual Inside/Out (I/O) performance, but I didn't really do anything--the Chunky Move sound dude did all their sound (even though it was easy and I totally could have done it), and it was raining all day long. That meant I wasn't doing anything during the actual show, and we couldn't do any projects on the I/O space because we would have gotten all our equipment soaking wet.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-61318379517520099442007-07-17T22:26:00.001-04:002007-07-17T22:26:51.126-04:00

This week marks the halfway point for me; it is the sixth out of eleven festival weeks, and not only that, but this is my week to work on Inside/Out or I/O. I/O is our third stage--in addition to selling tickets at the Duke and Shawn theatres, we also provide free performances every night on the I/O stage, which is located outside in a natural amphitheatre. Working I/O is a completely different

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-10418094507365516522007-07-15T01:04:00.000-04:002007-07-15T01:16:04.558-04:00

Today is photography day! I few days ago I sat down with Rose Eichenbaum, a professional dance photographer. We mainly chatted about composition, and today I took a bunch of photos of the Royal Danish Ballet to try and test out some of her tips. I apologize for the slight blurriness of most of these photos--a point-and-shoot camera, even a nice one, simply isn't made for shooting high-speed dance

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-83179425249364310352007-07-12T18:19:00.001-04:002007-07-12T18:19:27.451-04:00

I spent today reading the entire fourth Harry Potter book, since I didn't have call until 6:30PM. It was pretty good; I'm going to be happy when the fifth arrives in the mail, although one of the people here inadvertently told me what happens at the end of it because she thought it was the fourth book. Oops. Anyway, the Royal Danish Ballet is going well; the slang term here is "lights 'n tights"

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-85087607139989978022007-07-10T22:53:00.001-04:002007-07-10T22:53:53.323-04:00

One of the things I love about theatre is the quirky things you are sometimes required to do; today's quirky activity started when the Royal Danish Ballet showed up and immediately asked us to procure a tree stump. Yes, a tree stump. One of their shows is a pastoral piece about a guy dancing with pixies in the forest (kind of like Belladonna, except without him getting eaten at the end), and so

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-12408442246319228812007-07-07T23:50:00.001-04:002007-07-07T23:50:43.969-04:00

I had a long talk with Brian and Mark today about the state of computers in theatre, and it seems that the theatrical world is a strange mix of low and high tech. For instance, ETC, the dominant maker of lighting consoles, still produces and sells DOS-based lighting consoles, long after DOS has ceased to be even a remotely viable operating system. Not only that, but even though all consoles have

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-89319741235964831052007-07-06T22:50:00.000-04:002007-07-06T22:52:12.014-04:00

We had to store the A-frame ladder outside tonight, and because it was wet and raining, when we brought it back in, it was crawling with slugs. Several people got slugs on their clothes, and we had to pick several of them off the floor. Yep, that's pretty much the only interesting thing that happened today. Oh, and there was a bear sighting--but not by me, sadly.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-9404476106799667482007-07-05T22:48:00.001-04:002007-07-05T22:48:34.299-04:00

Guy, of Club Guy and Roni, made a really interesting comment last night during a question and answer session after the Inside/Out performance. An audience member asked what language they use when rehearsing, since they have company members from all over the world. The answer, unsurprisingly, was English, but then Guy commented that he found it interesting to be in the US—because everyone here

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-57196115467769359102007-07-04T22:11:00.001-04:002007-07-04T22:11:58.112-04:00

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! My holiday was marked by lots and lots of rain, but at least I got to see a cool dance concert. Club Guy and Roni did an excerpt of their full piece for Inside/Out, our free outdoor performance (which was today Outside/In because it was raining a lot), and I ran lights. I really liked the piece, at least from what I saw of it. It was humorous, it combined multiple

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-85554073160505761532007-07-03T22:15:00.001-04:002007-07-03T22:15:36.687-04:00

Not much of interest happened today; we mainly just did changeover for Club Guy and Roni, which was just a lot of lighting work. We did lay a giant faux-wood floor, which was kind of cool, and apparently they're using a black light, so I'm excited to see that. Otherwise, the first three Harry Potter books arrived in the mail today, so I'm going to dive in and see if I can get all six finished by

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-51363412443074489202007-07-01T10:48:00.000-04:002007-07-01T10:50:17.356-04:00

Judging by the amount of crap in the Duke right now, I'm probably not going to make it to bed until some ungodly hour of the morning, so this is going to be a combination post for yesterday and today. It seems that Fridays and Saturdays are going to be the least interesting days of my week, since I will have already seen and written about the show at least a couple times by then, so don't

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-20991320325916813612007-06-30T16:41:00.000-04:002007-06-30T16:45:00.398-04:00

Today was a bit slow; Fridays usually are, since we don't really have anything to do until the evening show. I finished Will in the World, which I highly recommend to anyone interested in Shakespeare. I also watched the video of the State Ballet of Georgia, which I had never seen from the front. A nice old lady joined me in the archives to watch it, which was fun. I took a picture that I'm proud

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-28956638417378513802007-06-28T23:43:00.000-04:002007-06-28T23:47:10.887-04:00

I just found a New York Times review of Nina Anananiashvili and the State Ballet of Georgia, which summarizes their pieces better than I could. Enjoy! Check out bugmenot.com if you don't want to register with the Times.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-68483123354109056492007-06-28T23:18:00.000-04:002007-06-28T23:24:34.547-04:00

L'Oratorio d'Aurelia, which is the formal name of Aurélia Thierée's show, is absolutely wonderful. Imagine a circus with the aesthetic sensibilities of Amélie, and you're somewhere in the ballpark of L'Oratorio. It is full of impressive acrobatics drawn straight from a big tent performance, combined with the visual puns and creative twists on familiar activities that I am starting to expect from

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-54949877470603910042007-06-28T00:07:00.001-04:002007-06-28T00:07:43.920-04:00

So, Aurelia is absolutely insane. Not the woman--she's nice. But her show is crazy complex. I have never seen a theatre more jam-packed with stuff than the Duke is right now. There are multiple additional legs, two extra travelers, a mirror ball, dresses, a trapeze, and a number of gizmos whose function I don't really understand, hanging from our grid right now. Not only that, but the floor is

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-68268401751565194032007-06-26T23:44:00.001-04:002007-06-26T23:44:21.739-04:00

Today we began to work on load-in for Aurélia Thiereé, and we have a huge amount of work to do; we're transforming our studio theatre into a proscenium space. We've hung a giant main rag in the front, and we're working on hanging a black curtain in back and several sets of legs. The purpose of all this, as Aurélia's technicians so eloquently put it, is to "hide the magic." In other words,

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-8172848490069922072007-06-25T00:15:00.000-04:002007-06-25T00:16:17.970-04:00

Today was the last performance of the State Ballet of Georgia, and I'm really going to be sad to see them go. I find their culture fascinating; they have an alphabet and language all to themselves, and they are incredibly family-oriented, as I already mentioned. We had a cookout-style dinner after their performance, and although I was shy at first, I finally summoned up enough courage to sit down

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-22318620820291063102007-06-24T00:38:00.000-04:002007-06-24T00:39:07.710-04:00

I'm really going to miss the Georgians after they leave tomorrow. This week started out tense, since neither we nor they were quite sure how to act around each other, but once we got the first few shows out of the way, everyone relaxed and we all began to do what people do best: connecting. They began showing us their newspapers and their money, and teaching us their language. There's something

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-37857565817132179532007-06-23T00:38:00.001-04:002007-06-23T00:38:42.472-04:00

In each run of a show, there is always a night that just doesn't quite go right. Tonight's performance was that night. To start off, the weather today has been capricious at best; without exaggerating, I can say that I have seen blinding sunshine and torrential downpours within 15 minutes of each other. About the only thing constant about the weather today was that it was cold and windy, which

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-71890337318714789592007-06-22T00:45:00.001-04:002007-06-22T00:45:47.615-04:00

Theatrically, today was a slow day; the State Ballet of Georgia is very self-contained, so they don't require much effort from us in order to keep things going. However, today was a bit frightening in another way: as I was walking over to Inside/Out, I saw one of my fellow interns being wheeled into an ambulance. That was frightening; the verdict is that he was suffering from some sort of heat

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-14118408825001741022007-06-21T00:15:00.001-04:002007-06-21T00:15:38.613-04:00

As I mentioned before, the State Ballet of Georgia has a very different way of working, but now that I've gotten to watch the way they work for a while, I really like it. Theatre in America is very impersonal; authority is usually pretty strictly divided, and the emphasis is usually on efficiency. We joke around, but the measure of how good you are is how quickly and perfectly you can accomplish

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-76731524587493045152007-06-18T11:42:00.000-04:002007-06-18T11:50:59.061-04:00

Gala is finally over! We worked from 9AM Saturday to 2:30AM Sunday, and we still had a full day of cleanup to do once we all woke up again on Sunday. That should give you some idea of the magnitude of the event, so you can appreciate that we're all very glad to have made it to the (comparatively) stress-free regular festival season. Also, I am going to skip numbering the days of my posts since I

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-65768287469994211152007-06-15T23:59:00.001-04:002007-06-15T23:59:48.816-04:00

If you know anything about me and theatre, you probably know that I hate projectors. Video projectors have a maddening tendency to be about ten times harder to get working than you anticipate they will be, and I have never worked in a theatre where they worked quickly and easily. The Gala show is no exception, except the thing causing problems was the screen, not the projector itself... The

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-43636015547955065452007-06-13T22:35:00.001-04:002007-06-13T22:35:47.691-04:00

I spent nearly all of today focusing lights; that's pretty much it. Basically, it involves clambering around on really tall objects and pointing lighting fixtures in their proper directions. Either that or you sit on the bottom of the tall object and keep it from falling over (otherwise known as "footing" it). The gimongous tent on the lawn is up; I took pictures, but I forgot to bring my camera

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-84202559406755944752007-06-12T23:25:00.001-04:002007-06-12T23:25:40.362-04:00

Today was the first day of regular season--we're prepping for the Gala on Saturday, which is our giant (and I do mean giant) fundraising party to mark the opening of our season. I'm the crew chief in the Ted Shawn, which means I'm basically second in command. It'll be interesting being in that position for Gala, since there are so many more performers than normal. To give you an overview of the

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-30448964373521443442007-06-10T23:20:00.000-04:002007-06-10T23:21:17.996-04:00

Today was a very short day; we only put in about seven hours of work, mainly because the staff were just as hungover as most of us were, so they didn't want to do much. However, they did tell us that they thought the party last night was the best they had seen, possibly the best in Jacob's Pillow history (the party has only been going on for ten years or so). All the other arts organizations were

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-24818540116405381742007-06-10T13:42:00.000-04:002007-06-10T13:51:11.837-04:00

We had an awesome pirate-themed party last night, and we invited most of the other Berkshires arts organizations. Mark described it best when he said "You know you had a good party when half the staff are unable to help you clean up the next morning." However, I think the best way to show you the party would be to post some photos. It's true--tech people throw the best parties.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-31603380436413326122007-06-08T22:33:00.000-04:002007-06-08T22:35:09.053-04:00

Since the forecast for tonight is not only dark, but also stormy, I think it's time for...a ghost story! WOOOOoooohhhhh! One warm June afternoon, the first after a long cold snap, Derek, Ben, and Rachael were running Ethernet cable out to the sound booth in the Ted Shawn Theatre from backstage. Brad, the sound guy, had been playing music over the newly-installed sound system all afternoon, but

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-13671906884937747102007-06-07T23:54:00.001-04:002007-06-07T23:54:28.839-04:00

I am proud to announce that we are the first intern crew to ever load sound equipment into both the Duke and the Ted Shawn theatres in a single day! Personally, I don't think that's such a tall order, since there wasn't a huge amount of work to do, but since it has never been done, I guess it's harder than it seems. Jin wants a shout-out, so here it is--hi, Jin! My main rant today is about

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-56172643533514816962007-06-06T23:30:00.001-04:002007-06-06T23:30:31.777-04:00

Today was a lot of fun--we hung two freaking enormous speakers way super-high up in the air. As strange as this may sound, I really enjoy clambering around in really high places. My parents would probably have a double heart-attack if they saw how high I was without a harness, but I like it. It can be scary when you're up there, but once you get down, you feel a nice sense of accomplishment. The

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-43055923533724474662007-06-06T13:38:00.000-04:002007-06-06T13:39:06.873-04:00

Yesterday was my day off from work, so I took a day off from posting as well. All we did was go to a laundromat and then eat dinner at a sushi place in Great Barrington. Today we hung most of the lights in the Duke. We didn't quite finish them all, but we got close. I need to get to bed, so I'll be brief, but I learned that lighting a backdrop is much easier if you reflect the light off a second

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-66343681749533843032007-06-03T21:22:00.000-04:002007-06-03T21:23:19.212-04:00

One of the toughest things about working here is adjusting to the weekly work schedule. It's a Sunday night, and I'm looking forward to my day off on Monday. That's standard theatre scheduling, but it's certainly not what I'm used to coming straight out of college. The other interesting piece of news is that we've been kind of screwed by our production company, Limelight Productions. They were

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-22344982512660245582007-06-02T23:09:00.001-04:002007-06-02T23:09:51.090-04:00

The best part of today was probably the rigging class; we got to learn how to run a no-counterweight fly system. For those of you who don't know, there are three major ways to suspend things in a theatre, if you want to be able to adjust their heights above the stage: a simple pulley system, a counterweight system, and a motorized system. Motorized systems are really easy to use--you plunk a

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-74594446836412690092007-06-01T23:07:00.001-04:002007-06-01T23:07:45.918-04:00

We've only been here 10 days, and some people are already starting to wear out. I heard some of the non-production interns talking at breakfast about how they have been so tired the past few days that they've taken to going to bed at 10PM or earlier. I absolutely cannot comprehend that--most of them are working standard 9-5 office jobs. I don't know how they expect to function after they graduate

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-24322347709591477842007-05-31T23:36:00.001-04:002007-05-31T23:36:44.174-04:00

The one thing I wanted to remember to say today is that I heard an unintentional chiasmus-ish thing. A couple of the staff were throwing a football near the tech break room, and at one point, the ball went astray, and I heard the phrase "that ball is headed where your head is", which I thought was a wonderful little play on words. When we weren't spouting witticisms (and believe me, a tech crew

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-63434206975110740892007-05-30T23:09:00.001-04:002007-05-30T23:09:54.609-04:00

I have very little to write about today; we spent the day cabling the Shawn, which is a fairly simple process repeated dozens of times. We have a dimmer room, where all the power for our lights comes from, and we basically run electrical cable from the dimmer room to the various points on stage where we need power for lights. It is very large, very heavy electrical cable which can carry a lot

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-40080584051618553042007-05-29T23:44:00.001-04:002007-05-29T23:44:57.755-04:00

Strange as this may sound, I think that one of the things that is going to be most educational here at the Pillow is how low-tech everything is; we're running a world-renowned dance festival using, in several cases, 1930s theatrical technology. We have better lights, better sound, better electricity, and better lighting boards, but the stage, the rigging system, and the real guts of the theatre

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-91633800185660979952007-05-28T23:01:00.000-04:002007-05-28T23:02:07.411-04:00

I may not be able to play much frisbee this summer, but it sounds like I'll still end up in pretty good shape. Rocky, who was an intern two years ago, and who is now the technical director at the Duke, told us this morning that when she was an intern, she put on 25 pounds of muscle over the summer. If I follow in her footsteps, I'll end up at 160 pounds of pure beefiness. Of course, I never gain

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-75222857325307388492007-05-27T18:41:00.001-04:002007-05-27T18:41:46.010-04:00

I'm going to try and bang out a post in ten minutes before we head out to see Pirates of the Caribbean tonight. Today was the first of our two days off; I went shopping for some work gloves in the morning, hung a clothesline so I can air-dry my t-shirts, and hung around one of the nearby small towns for a bit. After that we worked on renovating the production break area for the rest of the day (

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-89025337320397582492007-05-26T21:45:00.001-04:002007-05-26T21:46:06.514-04:00

We've done a ton of work in the past two days. Yesterday was our first major work day, and we did a bunch of rigging, cleaned out the Duke, and countless other miscellaneous projects. The production staff said they were very happy with the work we did, which I'm actually not too surprised about--it has been pretty clear since the first day that even the least experienced production intern has

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-28595607000387186062007-05-25T23:23:00.000-04:002007-05-25T23:38:53.472-04:00

Pillow Posts -- Day 4 Today is history day! We had a lot of history education yesterday, and I want to pass some of that history along to you all, because the significance of this place to dance is huge. I'm going to quote a few dates and figures--they may not all be precisely correct, but they'll be accurate to within five years or a decade or so. Jacob's Pillow was originally a farm; it was

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-37150098598731069772007-05-24T23:18:00.000-04:002007-05-24T23:22:46.759-04:00

Pillow Posts -- Day 3 We didn't do very much today; we continued to have lots of orientation meetings and tours, but we did no actual work--that starts tomorrow. Apparently there will be bears on campus at some point, and I got bitten by a black fly, which leaves a really annoying red bite mark. The adventure of today (well, last night, actually) was trying to figure out how the shower works.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-13198270768326584152007-05-23T22:36:00.000-04:002007-05-23T22:38:17.079-04:00

Most of the rest of the interns arrived today, and they all seem to be a really cool bunch. There are people from all over, and everyone is very friendly and willing to introduce themselves. I've made a special effort to try and remember names, and I think I've got about 50% by now, which is excellent for me, since I usually only get one or two on the first day at a new place. Luckily, we'll have

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-62541432723194336092007-05-22T22:02:00.000-04:002007-06-06T23:26:35.033-04:00

I am now broadcasting live from Jacob's Pillow in Massachusetts! The trip here, despite being composed of a plane ride, followed by a bus ride from the airport to the regional bus depot, followed by a three-hour layover, followed by another bus ride, followed by a car ride to the actual site, was pretty stress-free. I arrived by about 4:30, and I met a bunch of the staff, who all seem to be

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-82960715576388730762007-05-21T21:46:00.000-04:002007-05-21T21:48:32.738-04:00

I just realized that due to me canceling my .Mac subscription, many photos from my earlier posts have disappeared. If anyone makes a request, I will fix them, but not until after the summer is over. Sorry about that.

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-62381163604968337392007-05-21T21:28:00.000-04:002007-05-21T22:40:02.634-04:00

I'm heading to Jacob's Pillow tomorrow; my flight leaves at 10:18AM EST. I have been reading a brochure about their coming season, and here are some performances I am really looking forward to: Aurélia Thierrée of France, who works using techniques from acrobatics, clowning, and puppetry. The U.S. premieres of two Netherlands-based companies, Nederlands Dans Theatre II, and Club Guy & Roni. The

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-89203373019187375942007-04-22T01:28:00.000-04:002007-04-22T01:33:11.644-04:00

Well, it seems that my attempts at blogging about theatre during this school year have been a miserable failure. The problem with doing theatre is that it's usually so life-consuming that you don't have time to do other things, such as write about it. However, I'm hoping that will change this summer. From May 22 through August 30 I'm going to be doing dance tech up at the Jacob's Pillow dance

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-4396313555295462882006-12-30T19:20:00.000-05:002007-01-28T16:49:47.035-05:00

This is the third in a continuing series of lessons learned during HickoryDickory. The third lesson I learned was that angle affects reflection. We're all taught in middle school science class that light bounces off of objects at the same angle that it hits, but for me at least, I had never really thought about how that rule applied to objects that didn't have a mirror surface. Unsurprisingly, it

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-20783584503148868122006-12-30T19:09:00.000-05:002007-01-10T15:23:04.306-05:00

This is the second post in my sequence of lighting lessons I learned during HickoryDickory. The first lesson was about maintaining the contrast between the actors and their surroundings. The second lesson I learned was about sunlight. There is a convention in theatre lighting that moonlight is blue. You can use blue light, and people agree to believe that it's moonlight, even though it looks

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-1167194869729023322006-12-26T22:52:00.000-05:002007-01-10T15:22:16.442-05:00

Well, it's been a long time since I've posted; I've had a very busy semester (gee, what's new?), so spending hours typing up blog posts wasn't high on my list of priorities. Next semester doesn't seem like it will be any different, since I will be doing three shows (possibly four or five).For now, however, I'm on winter break, and I plan to write all the posts I should have written over the past

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-1159080600575657752006-09-24T02:23:00.000-04:002006-09-24T02:50:00.653-04:00

Today was my first day of doing lights for HickoryDickory with my director. I was petrified that he wasn't going to like my design because it was obvious during the focus process that it wasn't turning out as I expected it to, and that, to me, meant that it wasn't good. However, it became pretty clear throughout the course of the day that my lights were actually in pretty good shape. I was able

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-1158968013678789512006-09-22T19:27:00.000-04:002006-09-22T19:35:51.750-04:00

I mostly finished hanging my lights as of last night, and a lot of things didn't look the way I wanted them to. The blue color I used in my zooms just ended up looking really out of place when mixed in with all the warm colors on the set, and you could see where it was hitting, because there would be these patches of random coolness to the colors. Also, my idea for having fresnels mimic spill

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-1158455549087986942006-09-16T21:04:00.000-04:002006-09-16T21:12:29.106-04:00

I'm currently in the middle of hanging lights for the first drama of the year at my school, HickoryDickory, which is a great new show by Marisa Wegrzyn, who is a WashU alumna currently residing in Chicago. I designed the lights, and with tech week exactly one week away, it's time to get lights in the air. I'll post more on the design process later; right now I'm too busy to give much of an

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16726852.post-1153074625156441942006-07-16T14:03:00.000-04:002006-07-16T14:33:01.353-04:00

Anyone in St. Louis during the summer probably goes to the Muny at least once. It's located in Forest Park, and it is one of the largest and oldest outdoor theatres in the world. During the summer, the Muny puts on a series of musicals, which this summer included Aida, The Wizard of Oz and The King and I. The Muny employs professional actors and technicians, and is probably one of the

Derekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13470560568546288686noreply@blogger.com0