Sadly, my run out to Pennsylvania had to end... It was by far the most relaxing 4 days I have had if not only months, but years... It was the kind of trip that reminds you that now and again you really need to just sit around, and watch the clouds, or the grass grow, or a happy dog swimming in a lake...
Within 15 minutes of getting out of my truck at the end of the trip, my phone rang... How bloody annoying is that?... Anyway, it was one of my clients asking about a quote that should have gone out from my partner last Friday... Talk about managing to ruin my pleasant mood... Well I decided to ignore it, and deal with it today, technically I was still on vacation... This morning, after I got up, minus an alarm clock, my partner called with questions... I answered them, and supposedly, the quote went out... I'm not going in until tomorrow to make sure... Sooner or later I'm going to have to go back to being a business owner, but for the moment, I'm still hiding from that aspect of life...
Thanks for the well wishes and happy thoughts on my previous post!
Well tommorow morning, I'm doing just that... After an insane first half of the year, work ended last night, on a typically annoying note... I figured I had that damn show beat, but it came back and bit me again in its death throws... Of course, that's not important now, since its dead, and quite honestly I just don't give a damn now...
In the morning, after waking up whenever I feel like it (read that as no alarm for once), I'm jumping in my truck with the woman I love, her dog, and driving out to my family farm in Pennsylvania for a few days... The farm is great just on its own merits, but in the last few years, a subtle thing has become almost my favorite part about going out there... Cell Phones Don't Receive Any Signal!!!! Its not even an issue of turning the damn thing off... Go ahead, leave it on, and it still won't work... Nobody can find me out there since only family knows the land line number, and they'll be out there already... Talk about bliss... I love NJ and the insane pace we live in here... I wouldn't want to change my life one bit... I do however relish these little trips out there where I can just stop, and relax for a bit...
Enjoy your weekend folks... I sure as hell know I'm going to enjoy mine!..
My biggest client is a multi-national conglomerate. They do lots of meetings and shows, but we have traditionally only done the really high end ones. Things like their shareowners meeting, and their big awards dinners... They decided that perhaps we should do some of the slightly smaller meetings that they spend less money on... To this I say, great!... Problem is, they want the same end result they get for lots of money... So we do what we do, and work things out so we can get the prices down, through recycling other shows scenery, and using only in stock lighting, etc... This is where the insanity begins...
They decide at the last second, that they need another room... That's another ball room folks... That means another show basically... But hey, we can deal with that, it was the ballroom right next to where we were, and we could get it at the same time...So I worked out a crew, and a rough schedule in my mind, so we could do it all in one 10 hour day... Possibly 11, but most likely 10... Now get this... They didn't just add the room, they added intelligent lighting... We don't really do that, but no problem, I can get the gear, and a programmer, and all will be well... Oh, and they want custom gobos for the moving lights... Ok... I'll have them produced overnight, and fed-ex them in from Texas for an insane amount of money....
So we roll in with two trucks, plus a truck of subrental gear, and... oh wait, they forgot to mention, we can't get in the second ballroom until 6pm... It is now 8am on load in day when they remember to tell me this... What the hell are these people thinking?... They wanted it cheaper... Then they added an entire extra event room, plus some expensive lighting, and then they screw my schedule... They are going to scream bloody murder when they get the labor bill for me having to keep half the crew for an additional 6 hours to do the second room... Somehow I am not going to feel too bad... I don't know if they'll use me on their "smaller" events in the future... While I'd love to say I don't care, they do a lot of them, and they could be made nicely profitable, but I have to wonder if it would really be worth the headache that those events seems to produce...
Ugh... Its Sunday... I have a load in tommorow in the morning, so I was here at the shop packing trucks today... We wrapped up a pretty easy day, and all headed home... Only I never managed to make it... The labor company I had contracted with to provide 4 crew members called when I was almost home... Two of their people just bailed... So here it is, almost 5pm, and I have an 8am load in, and I'm 2 people short... That's just great... Now I get the overwhelming joy of trying to fill two holes in my crew list when I know damn well everyone is already booked... So much for a nice relaxing evening...
Ok... I don't do movie reviews here... I simply don't see enough to bother, nor do I take them very seriously when I do... However, (and you knew this was coming) I simply must try to prevent anyone else from wasting boh the cost of admission, and the time in going to see The Day After Tommorow... This has simply got to be one of the worst movies I may have ever seen... Don't get me wrong, I didn't expect a flawless plot, or great dialogue, or even spectacular acting... I went to see this tripe because I thought that the effects should be great... I can forgive almost anything if the effects and camera work are interesting... This was not to be... Since the effects and CGI work were terrible, I was forced to take notice of the plot... Folks, they used every single cliche available to them... Broken family, estranged son, kids falling in love, kid with cancer, dismissed scientific evidence of disaster, out running explosion/tidal wave/ deadly wind, the rival guy turning out to be ok... I could go on... I'm not going to, its too painfull to think about... I can't even rate this as wonderfully bad like a B movie... (though I swear I can't beleave it isn't a B)
Needless to say, if you haven't seen it yet, don't... Don't give it another thought... Don't let your friends see it... Hell don't let your worst nemisis see it... Its just that bad...
And now the continuing story of a quack, that’s gone to the dogs first part in a series discussing tools, and their upkeep… (full points to those who get the reference)
Blades:
Let’s start out simple, and then I’ll go into some detail in the extended entry, to save you nice folks who have no interest in this from having to scroll past everything… Blades are the business end of many wood and metal working tools… They’re the sharp end of the stick if you will… Most people in the shops I’ve worked in over the years have taken this for granted… Most of them have been wrong… Some dangerously so… What it comes down to is keep the damn things sharp, and know what each type is made for… Today will be a bit about when to change them due to dullness… Next time, I’ll ramble about types… I’m sure you’re all asleep by now already, but for those insomniacs…
The worst thing in the world is a dull tool… (well perhaps not the worst, paper cuts and lemon juice… nuclear detonations… paying taxes… they’re worse… but just work with me here…) When the blade on the tool you are using gets dull, you are going to have to push harder in general… You have stopped cutting with the blade, and now you are grinding through the work… The material may be pinching in on the blade too since there will be less clearance around the blade… You are creating more heat which can warp the blade at worst, or just blow the temper at best… If you are working with a power tool, you should not have to push hard, let the blade do the work at its own pace… The sawdust should be as coarse as possible, indicating a slice of wood, rather than powder like you get from a sander… The two worst cases I run across are table saws, and band saws…
People will use a table saw blade for months in some places… By the time anyone thinks to change it, you could use the saw dust as talcum powder… They’ll let it go so long some times that it will start smoking as it cuts… Don’t feel bad if you don’t know this, these people are supposed to be professional woodworkers and they don’t seem to get it… Easy ways to tell the blade is dull… 1) fine sawdust. 2) burn marks along the cut edge of the wood. 3) the saw bogs down as you are cutting. 4) you can’t remember the last time you changed the blade. 5) the cut seems to want to bend on way (caused by one side of the blade losing the edge of the teeth, usually from hitting a screw or nail in a old board) 6) you are straining to push the wood through the saw
Yea, those seem pretty obvious don’t they… So why don’t people change the blades?... The world may never know…
Band saws are a slightly different breed… In most theatrical shops, they get used for a number of strange materials that tend to gum them up, so what you think might be a blade problem could be something else… The same basic indications work for the band saw as the table saw… Finer sawdust, having to push hard, burning/smoke they’re all indicators… Band saw blades are particularly susceptible to getting their set ruined… The set is how much each alternate tooth on the blade is bent outward… It makes the blade cut a little wider than the actual blade is, so the material doesn’t bind on the blade, and you can make turns in your cut more easily… Usually, most shops will run a band saw blade until it breaks… There isn’t a lot of danger in that, but it will scare the hell out of you every time you go through it… If you can’t maintain a straight cut, you’ve got a bad blade… (If you change the blade, and it still won’t cut straight, you’ll need to wait until I get to tweaking the setup on these tools, further along in the series) Smoke and burning cuts may just be that you are pushing too hard through very thick material, try backing off a bit, and see how things go… You may also just have the wrong blade, check out the next entry for more on that…
Most of the other tools use either a circular blade, which follows the table saw rules, or straight blades, which follow the band saw guides… The real secret is, that if you think it might be dull, change the bloody thing… Odds are, you’re right since nobody else ever thinks to change blades…
Next time, Blades: Part 2…
I frequently have to run to Home Depot, or Lowes for one thing or another… Personally I hate going to either one, but they are the best option for getting everything in one spot, plus they’re closer than any of the decent hardware stores… In general, they can be counted on to annoy me at the least, and piss me off at best… The only thing I enjoy about going to either place is the parking lot… Yes, you read that right… The parking lot…
The things you can see people do in the parking lot never ceases to make me laugh… I swear they’re all cliché at this point… There’s the guy holding plywood/fencing/paneling on his roof with his left hand while he drives… Like he could do a thing about it if the slightest breeze caught the load… There’s the guys stacking cement bags in the back of some tiny rice-burner pickup truck… Not one or two, but like 30 or 40… They proceed to drive uphill the whole way home… There’s the guy buying a length of pipe, and its sticking out the passenger window of his sedan, like he’s going jousting on the highways…
I swear that those places must be responsible for more automotive damage, and junk on the side of the road than any other culprit… But hey, it gives me a good laugh every single time I have to go, so I guess that makes it ok…
The humidity in your shop will be in direct proportion to the amount of painting you must get done, and inversly proportional to the amount of staining you must accomplish...
Somehow, the humidity will change dynamically if you attempt to change processes in the middle of the day.
So I'm thinking about a series of posts... The problem is, that I can't for the life of me, see anyone except perhaps another nutcae such as myself enjoying them... Of course, this is my blog, so I can bloody well post what I like, but then if nobody will get past the first paragraph, what would the point be?... I can tell myself that this is really a simple way to archive some thoughts I want to put down in a text book some day... Of course, that would mean I actually planned on writing that text... Do I?... I dunno, but there isn't anything else out there that I've found for technical directors... All my texts were taken from a mismash of sources... Ah well, I suppose I'll simply write it, and let the 'sphere decide based on how fast people run away from the post...
So today, amongst other things, I had to drive to another rental company to return some of their gear that got mixed in with mine on the last show... Not really a big deal, but this is New Jersey, and driving 40 miles is quite often a pain... Not today apparently... I hit the Turnpike just right, and before I knew it, I was rolling north at 80, with the windows down, the stereo up, and simply keeping with the truck traffic, so not much worry about being pulled over... I drive a large truck, with a diesel engine, and there is something terribly satisfying about opening it up and letting it roar... Its not that pathetic scream that comes from 4 cylander cars with resonators, nor is it even the same as a healthy v-8 turning over... That straight 6 diesel is just music to my ears... After doing the return, and having lunch with family up there, I managed to hit the return leg just right, before rush hour on the Garden State Parkway... The Parkway isn't nearly as nice to run as the Turnpike to me, but still it was a nice day to just relax and enjoy the sun, and the wind, and no talking to annoying clients...
Now that I've recovered from last week, I've been in the shop, trying to get it back in to some kind of acceptable shape. Personally, I hate cleaning... My apartment is usually a disaster... My desk is chaotic (though ?I know where everything is)... My shop however is usually pretty neat... That is for three main reasons... 1) my partner is a neat freak (he even vacuums the walls in here occasionally) 2) I have a small amount of space, so it needs to be neat to be able to do some of the projects we do (mostly fabric coverings requires the cleanliness) 3) I hate, Hate, HATE disorder in my tools and hardware area... (I'll slog through 3 inches of sawdust on the shop floor, but there better not be a single bolt out of place in the bins)
So, with my partner still down with medical issues, that leaves me to deal with the cleaning... I did bring in a couple guys to help me sort through the vast majority of the pile last week, but the small stuff, and actual cleaning is my issue to deal with... So, in I came today, made a nice fresh pot of coffee, dealt with a little paperwork, and then started in on the cleaning... I managed to get everything away, and then comes the sweeping... You'd think that a 30 x 60 space would be a breeze to sweep... You'd be wrong... Apart from the tables and tools that need to be moved (I left the table saw alone this time, I'm not that motivated), you end up stirring up all the dust on the floor you're trying to sweep up... So it just settles back down after you've passed by... This is where something called sweeping compound comes in... Sweeping compound is this great stuff that comes in drums... You scatter it out on the floor (its sorta like thick sand) and it holds down the dust while you sweep... Neat trick... Problem is, I'm too cheap to buy it... So what I've found is that you can get the same result by taking coarse sawdust, and soaking it with water... Talk about your low tech solution to the problem... Part of the problem becomes the solution... At any rate, the shop now stands in readiness for the next project... That one goes in next week, and I have no more information on it than simply the title of the show... I can't wait...
This is one of those posts that has nothing to do with my usual thread... I don't do too many that are really personal, as that's just not who I am...
This morning at 8am, a woman I used to date for a few years called. She let me know that our cat had passed away... Now, since she moved south and got married, I haven't seen the cat, but he was always a part of me... He was a huge cat, that topped the scales at 23 pounds for a while, but he was never one of those cats that looks fat. Now I've been going through the mental slide show of memories of him, and while I'm a mess, the memories make me smile... If there's a heaven for cats, I know KC made the list, and he's now out there curled up on a window sill enjoying the sun...
Rest in peace furball... I'm gonna miss you...
So I have just recovered from an obnoxious week... Sleep is a wonderfull thing, and when you just don't get any, you appreciate it even more...
The thing that made this show miserable for me, was that I was missing a number of people... This time it wasn't just missing some of my crew, it was my partner that is down with an injury, and my client had to bail out at the last second due to a family loss... So that left me with two crews to run, as well as having to deal with my client's client (aka the big money people). The scenery that I had control over, and the lighting aspects were a snap, because I was able to plan that stuff out... The "artsy" decoration type stuff was a different story... All we had to go on was a computer rendering from a graphic artist who knows nothing about reality... He's good with pixels, but gravity tends to make things he draws a tad difficult...
Fortunatly, since my immeadiate client was gone, I could get away with a little more... That's not to say we didn't do a great job, but there are things that no normal person will notice, that someone in the field will... Things like a couple wrinkles in a drape, or the podium not being in the exact center of the stage, or a cable that is hanging down a couple inches from a lighting position... Since we were messing around with the "artsy" stuff for a while, I just let some of that detail crap go... There are times when we make more work for ourselves doing details that the world won't notice... Usually pride will make me do them, but after you've been up almost 24 hours, you manage to be able to get over your pride in the intrest of getting out the door for a couple hours sleep...
With my partner out, there I run in to the issue of trying to direct a sizeable crew, which is not problem usually... The stress comes when we're loading or unloading trucks mostly... I find it difficult to be both out on the trucks, and inside telling people where to put things, or what to send out next... I really must learn to delegate more, but then, I'm a control freak... Such is life...
And now, I've got two more strikes, and one load in to deal with before July... I'm taking July off since there really isn't any business then... I imagine I'll get bored and deal with some shop projects, but no outside clients!! I can't wait!
Oh boy... Its been one hell of a week... I'm out the door again in a few minutes to a 26 hour day, and then its the weekend as far as I'm concerned... I've been accumulating material... Actual posts to follow this show...
Until then, go read some of the sites on the right, they're usually far more prolific, and interesting than my complaints anyhow...
Ok... I just don't like how the post I've been working on is coming out, so I'm going to put it on the back burner and let it simmer for a while, then perhaps re-visit it later... Fortunatly, as I was pulling in to my apartment complex today, something struck me as odd... I couldn't put my finger on it untill I had parked and shut my truck off... There was an ice cream truck up the hill a bit, and it was playing music as they all do... I've heard lots of different songs over the years from them, and I've heard warped tapes, so it sounded like the evil ice cream truck too... This guy however picked perhaps the strangest one I've ever heard... Joy To The World... Yea... The christmas carol... Correct me if I'm wrong, but it is June is it not?... Hey, I love christmas carols, but I tend to prefer them in December... I can even tollerate November a bit... June is right out...
So I guess this means I'm back to my typical posts... Damn if I didn't want that one to come out better, and I suspect it shall eventually... Its been way too long since I had anything really good here...
Thanks for stopping by!
Ok... I know... There has been little to no content worth reading at my humble corner of the 'sphere for some time... I have two excuses... One is that life interupted me, rather than the usual work interupting me... Now, the other is that I have been thinking through a post... It could get long... It might be a multiple part issue... Hell it might not happen at all if I am not happy with how it starts working out... So my brain is just perculateing at the moment... I'll be back ass soon as that is done... Untill then, you should be reading some of the blogs over on the right, who generally, have far more to say, and its usually more interesting anyway... (but I digress, as usual)
Thanks for stopping by... This is yet another boring intermission backstage...