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The Pirate Queen Takes on the Virgin Queen

It’s a fiery struggle set on a simple stage in the latest big-budget musical to hit Broadway

There are many large-scale productions on Broadway, but none quite like The Pirate Queen, an epic adventure that chronicles a unique time in history when two powerful women clashed over the fate of a country. It presents the true-life story of Grace O’Malley, an Irish pirate who defied the attempts of Queen Elizabeth I to subjugate her country and her people. The stage was set, so to speak, for the Pirate Queen to take on the Virgin Queen, and the musical interprets that famous struggle with a lively mixture of action scenes, Irish dance numbers and dramatic showdowns.

40 Days in the Dirt

There’s as many headliners as cowboys at the Houston Livestock Show.

Well it’s bulls and blood
It’s dust and mud
It’s the roar of a Sunday crowd
It’s the white in his knuckles
The gold in the buckle
 He’ll win the next go ‘round
— Garth Brooks, “Rodeo”

Almost everyone has a picture in their head of what a rodeo looks like. For most, an image of a bull-rider probably comes to mind. But be they death-defying clowns or hairpin chuck-wagon turns, your image of rodeo is about to change.

Promo tours

Often a band will go on a worldwide "promotional" tour. This happens when they have released a new album and they wish to get some publicity generated before they embark on an actual headlining tour.

So for the last month I have been lighting a young girl named Rihanna. She has appeared on countless TV shows from Good Morning America to the Late Show with Letterman. In between TV gigs, we are doing some corporate shows as the guest entertainment, DVD shoots for Sprint phones, Radio shows in scattered cities etc.

Christmas comes more than once a year for me!

I like the heading of this particular blog. I say this because for me demoing products is like Christmas for me! I’ll know what I’m getting one time and then I won’t the next. Well let’s start with what I know I have gotten and that is five- Color Block DB4’s from A.C. Lighting and the Viper NT fogger from Look Solutions. I had the privilege to establish these two contacts at the USITT in Phoenix this year. Everyone was really cool and helpful talking to me about their products. They also were kind enough to extend their hand out further to let me demo them! So here we go…

       

Clearwing gear part II

Rigging

 

Steel Spansets are wired cable used to secure indoor rigs when flying truss and lighting. There are Nylon spansets used also but are meant for outdoor use to safely hold flown truss in place. Other appliances are shackles that connect to the spansets to hold them in place, motor cables to power your truss motors to help lift your truss from the ground, locking carabineers are used for lock points in a safety kit, life lines are used to tie onto the truss with a sling so the truss doesn’t fall and potentially injure of kill someone, 'O' and 'D' ring are extenders to put rope through the rigging points of truss and motor to connect. For your truss points I learned that you need to chalk out the particular points to mark as drop points so the guy suspended above knows where to drop safety cables to the stage.

MELLLLLLLON!!!!!!

 

Clearwing – Where it all begins…

"Back To School" Super Prepping for concerts and corporate is very organized at Clearwing Productions. Everything is labeled properly for who, what, when, where, why, how much aspects of the packing and shipment for the clients. A very dedicated and knowledgeable staff has helped me learn so much in the past few weeks. So here’s what I came up with from all the note and picture taking I’ve done.

Ass Time

I just spent a couple days lighting some scenes for an upcoming action movie. I forgot how boring it is to work on these things. Everyone works at a frantic running pace for 15 minutes to set up a scene, then sit on your ass for 2 – 3 hours while they film it.

Daylight Lighting

      I am the self proclaimed king of Daylight Lighting. Every year I get a call for my expertise in lighting outdoor concerts while the sun is still up. I realize you are either laughing or shaking your head in wonder, but I am serious.

CCR not Creedence but Cross Canadian Ragweed

I recently attended a Cross Canadian Ragweed show with a lady friend of mine. I heard of the band once while I was on tour with EastonAshe in Indiana. We were at load in and a song came on talking about “folks in Oklahoma roll their joints all wrong.” The lyrics began to humor me and the rest of the song is a riot to boot.

I just Love par cans

I love doing shows with no moving lights on occasion. Nowadays it seems like such a rarity that I get to do this.

Paying Homage

Hey everyone I'm back with a couple blogs this week. I'm going to be playing catch up on some stuff for awhile because a lot has been going on! For this week I'm leaving a two part blog to pay homage to everyone I've meet near and far along the way in my career so far that I owe a definite thanks to for being such great influences, family, friends, and mentors. Enjoy!