November is here, and a lot of you readers will be headed off to LDI this month. Since it’s a “November” LDI year, we have the absolute certainty of fewer daylight hours along with the iffy possibility of inclement weather. As a result, the annual Parnelli Golf Tournament is taking a year off. (It’s happened before, on a “November” LDI year with a particularly rainy Thursday.) While that “year off” proved prudent, I’ll still miss this event full of camaraderie and golf slagging with friends. I’m sure it will return in 2020, when LDI returns to an October schedule.
Speaking of camaraderie, this year’s Parnelli Award Nominations are in and the voting is well under way. If you haven’t already done so, go to parnelliawards.com and follow the link to the ballot. There you’ll see the full list of nominees for each of the awards categories, culled from a staggering volume of nominations we received this year in every category — almost four times the usual nominations we have gotten in the past. There were 80 different names submitted for the Lighting Designer of the Year Award category alone. Turns out our readers have a lot of love for their favorite production managers as well, with 60 names coming in. The Parnelli Board of Advisors had one heck of a time whittling the list down to a manageable half dozen per category.
Time Rolls On
I am personally celebrating knocking out my fifth year as the editor of this magazine. Over the years, I have seen all the large bands reinvent and recycle themselves with new products for our ears and eyes. While PLSN has always been looking into cutting edge designers and reporting the latest touring news on the big players, we hadn’t always allocated enough ink to the younger audiences and the current music that’s driving the charts. We have surveys that show us who and how people read our news, including age groups, interests, categories they’d like to read about, and we have adapted to these changes. People wanted to read about festivals. Readers requested more diversity in the acts being covered, including more Indie bands. While we still may feature the Rolling Stones or U2 on our cover at times, we are more apt to highlight tours by Post Malone, Billie Eilish and Tyler the Creator these days. I love speaking to legendary designers, but they are often as tired of talking as we are in rehashing comments. It’s the youths in our business that are thrilling me these days.
There’s no doubt that our recurring theme of interviewing legendary designers has been a huge success, as indicated by the thousands of hits we get on social media whenever we cover the life of an artist here. But gaining traction are two columns we have been running that highlight more of the younger people behind the scenes. Michael Eddy, editor of our sister magazine, Stage Directions, has been running a column entitled “1000 Words with…” that brings to light some short conversations with people behind the scenes in all aspects of our business (See page 108). As for myself, I have been writing a column every month that focuses on people in our business who deserve to have a spotlight on them (or at least 15 minutes of fame) as Parnelli NextGen nominees (see page 42). I have been bombarded with emails from people suggesting someone they know would be an amazing candidate. Technicians, designers, heck — this month we feature a production manager/audio guy that you oughtta know. These stories have boosted the next generation of readers at PLSN and we recognize this, and thank you.
The November issue is packed with tons of info that covers the whole gamut of the entertainment world. From concert touring to corporate theater, and from lectures on lasers to installs to bouncing lights off mirrors — we cover everything.
Product-wise, we give you the lowdown on everything from the giant VL6500 Wash (page 128) to the mid-sized Claypaky Sharpy Plus (page 130) to the Luxium PR-60 house light and Par bulb replacement (page 131) and LightShark LS-1 (page 132).
The Hometown Heroes regional winners have also been announced this month, and with all of the regional winners on the Parnelli ballot, voting has commenced again. They include old stalwarts of the industry such as ECLPS and Eggshell, who have returned after several years of absence to vie for the title of Hometown Hero Lighting Company of the Year for all of North America. We’re glad to have you back, and may the best team win.
