During the week, I run this magazine for a living. But on weekends, I still dabble in my other craft, lighting bands doing one-offs. I generally like to use about 60 movers and some key lights on a show. I’m not picky on what lights I get, because I’m playing mostly festivals with these acts during the summer. I take what I get. The beauty is, I get to test about every fixture made over the summer.
Not too many days go by when we all wish we could clone ourselves, to take some of the workload off our shoulders. We wish we had a partner that we could turn to in order to help sort through the mess on your desk, before you lose your sanity and a certain job altogether. Partnerships reinforce ideas within some companies. Like-minded people who can work, act and discuss business with clients in the same manner as ourselves are an important commodity. Just take a look at the current Presidential race.
I spent the last month filling my brain with information. As is my custom at trade shows I try and stop in at as many booths as possible to see what pops out at me. InfoComm 2016 took place in June, and I strolled the aisles looking for new cool stuff and people to chat with.
I had the privilege of attending a road show last month. Not a traveling theatrical spectacle, but one put on by a popular lighting manufacturer that enabled quite a lot of people to get hands on experience with the latest technology. Harman’s Martin Lighting division took their gear to the people and extended me an invitation. With my schedule, I chose to take a trip to their stop in Dallas, Texas in May, one of the first destinations on their nationwide trek.
Last month, I went to a couple different lighting conventions. The USITT show in Salt Lake City is a show that is designed to teach todays’ college students who major in theater a thing or two. It’s a place where I see all sorts of great people who now teach or demo gear for companies as opposed to running shows themselves. I get quite an education at this show because it’s not as crowded as LDI and folks have more time to teach you. The other show was the Prolight + Sound show in Frankfurt. For those who have never been, let’s just say it’s several times the size of LDI.
I’m proud of the diversity of our articles because we cover so many different stories, from so many different angles. With every story I read, I usually get a spark of info that leads me to think along another tangent. If the spark is big enough, I may expand on it and offer an opinion on something. Such a thing happened in the article we publish this month featuring Don Holder lighting the revamped Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway (see “Inside Theatre“).
Hello readers, this month the word “BIG” springs to mind when I think of this issue. It seems that every week, we here at PLSN get a new piece of news across our desk that utters the word’s “Largest” or “Biggest Ever” in the headline.
Of course, this draws my eye every time to see what they are announcing. Half the time it’s a con job, 25 percent of the time the writer actually thought they were really the biggest, and well — sometimes it actually is.
In this current world of hate, it’s really nice to be able to put out an issue that’s taking a month to focus on Nashville. That’s because nowhere else in the world do I see so many people smiling all day as in Music City. Whether people are working the scene or just hanging at a honkytonk, the folks from this town always smile and greet me with open arms.
It’s the start of a new year, and I wish you all a great upcoming one. I will always be a lighting designer foremost, even if I don’t practice the craft as often as I did before becoming an editor. So my Christmas wish list is always for new lighting toys. I’m glad to see the birth of some new lighting products in the last year as well as the retooling of some old fixtures that have come back from the dead. I took a few minutes to list some of the new tools in my toy box that I personally would love to get my hands on.
Nook Schoenfeld, Editor, PLSN[/caption]
We are wrapping up the year here at PLSN. Our gift to our readers during this festive season is an updated website that we are sure you will enjoy.
I have unwittingly found myself among the people who when bored, search for interesting online news, on my phone. And to be honest, I was a bit peeved at how the majority of these sites I was visiting were slowed down because I had to constantly navigate through banners, ads and leads to other stories. We at PLSN were just as guilty as the rest of the people in the world, because we didn’t keep up with technology.
I’m going on record here to say that I really like that LDI is during October and still in Vegas. November was always too close to Thanksgiving. It meant spending two different weeks every month away from home. As far as the town, well, it’s Vegas baby. There’s always plenty to see and plenty to eat, and you can hang out with adults. When I’m at LDI, I want to be the kid in the candy store. I don’t want to be Dad. I go to Orlando and California with my kids when I want to be an adult.
