Editor’s Note

A few weeks ago, I received a phone call from a friend that I haven’t heard from in months. I was excited to hear from him since we’ve been trying to find time to head down to the Potomac River and do some fly fishing together. This wasn’t that call. He was in a “panic” to find a programmer for a show he had coming up in less than a week and asked if I could do it. Quickly looking over my schedule, I could fit it in. “PERFECT!” he said. Before I knew it, I committed to the gig. For this particular friend, I would walk through hell and back. I didn’t realize until later that I’d signed up for 14-hour days — after a week’s worth of travel.

I’m addicted to technology. I love technology; overall it is a wonderful thing, both in our personal and professional lives. But is technology making us lazy? Not physically lazy, though technology could be blamed for my extra pounds; I’m talking about being lazy with our communication and designing habits.

Are we still in an economic recession? I have asked that question to a number of people within the industry. Answers have been running the spectrum from “Yes” to “What recession?” We can sit here and debate whether or not we are, but the fact is, people are starting to spend money again. Tours and productions are going full tilt and requesting more and more production technology.

Thank you to everyone for the warm welcome to PLSN. It is an honor to take the helm of one of the industry's most respected magazines and news sites. As the new editor, I want to introduce myself and tell you a little about what we have in store for you.

Let me tell you about my friend Justin Lang. Like a lot of us, I knew Justin’s work before I knew him. A few years ago, he started a blog called iSquint and he gained a huge following by following the live event industry. But he did it surreptitiously without telling anyone who he was. I kid him that he did this on purpose so that his reputation actually would precede him. It’s been said about a lot of people but in Justin’s case, it’s really true.

What can one say about a man like David Taylor, who was so gifted and talented, so full of humor and kindness, and so giving of himself to the industry and to his loving family, when his life is taken in a tragic accident? David was a lighting consultant, most recently with Arup as the leader of their Theatre Consulting division and with Theatre Projects before that. He died on January 16 at the young age of 48 when he accidentally fell from the roof of a 14-story building in Taipei.

There's a small island in the Pacific Ocean called Yap, where very large discs carved out of stone represent a form of currency. Some are six or eight feet across and weigh several thousand pounds. You should see the size of the wallets on Yap.

Every year, the "lumenati" (the enlightened members of the lighting industry) come to the Big Trade Show (the BTS), hungering for a taste of the latest technology, thirsting for a long drink from the well of new products, and they go home with aching heads and sore feet. Next year, we all promise, we'll all sing the praises of the BTS, but this year we've had our fill. Then we all beat a hasty retreat to the comfort of our stacks of virtual paper and our grand To-Do lists.

"I have six locks on my door, all in a row," George Carlin said. "When I go out, I lock every other one. I figure no matter how long somebody stands there picking the locks, they are always locking three of them."

Once, in a moment of apparent weakness, the dean of the college of engineering invited me and some other students to his house for dinner. We were all sitting in the study talking about school when I said something that, in retrospect, seemed to be the dumbest comment ever.

"Learning is painful," I said.

The good news is that no one was seriously injured…as far as we know…and we don't know much. The bad news is that it happened again.

What is the secret to success and why is it such a big secret? It's been thousands of years since it was first tasted; you would think that it's in the public domain by now. Volumes have been written about it, you can buy DVDs, attend seminars, and find a variety of materials purporting to reveal it, yet the true formula can't be bought, sold, or traded. You have a better chance of stealing Mr. Krab's secret formula for the Krabby Patty than getting your fins on the secret formula for success.