Evil Dead: The Musical

I went to see Evil Dead: The Musical this weekend. What a wonderful show. The music was upbeat and catching. The actors were great and all looked like they were having fun. Evil Dead is playing at the New world Stage which is an under ground (literally) theater. They seem to have about 5 shows running at once, and the theaters are small which makes the show relatively intimate.

This is one of the better shows I have seen in NYC. The idea is to basically take the first 2 Evil Dead movies and cram them into an musical. Those unfamiliar with Evil Dead may remember Army of Darkness, which was the 3rd installment of the trilogy. Needless to say Evil Dead 1 & 2 while amusing to watch have become popular because of how bad they were not for how good they were. Well Evil Dead: The Musical takes all of that badness and creates something that is amazingly entertaining.

The entertainment value isn't hurt by the ticket price. It is amazing how expensive theater in New York has gotten over the years. With a Play Bill promotion the tickets were only $35. We elected not to sit in the splatter zone(tickets were a bit cheaper).

"Splatter Zone" is a bit of an understatement. At intermission trash bags and ponchos are handed out to audience members who weren't expecting to get moistened. Many of the people in attendance knew exactly what they were getting in to. During act II the blood flowed freely and the first 2 rows got a pretty good dowsing. There were a few people who left the theater completely covered in stage blood. It seemed like everyone there was having a great time. There were some older people in front of us who didn't stay for the second act, I guess the were surprised by the content. Although I have to say it seems like you shouldn't buy tickets for any show without doing at least a little research. But I and the rest of the audience enjoyed the production a great deal.

If you are in New York, before this show closes and this is your type of thing I highly recommend you check it out.

Curling at the mall

Ice skating and curling in the mall!

Below is a closer shot of 2 of the 4 Sheets

Malls in PA, at least around Philly, don't designate this much internal space for non-commercial use. Now I am sure that the rink gets rented out for lessons and events, but I can't imagine that this rink makes as much money as say a Super GAP, or a Cartier.

iPod Vending Machine

An iPod vending machine!

I was on my way back to my hotel from dinner last night and I had to cut through Macy*s to get out of the mall and what do i see at the bottom of the escalator? An iPod Vending machine. At first I thought this was just a fancy case used to prevent theft, you know go get the clerk to unlock the case and walk this to the nearest register for you. But the machine takes care of it all. There is a handy credit card/keypad to the right of the display case. Unfortunately I didn't have occasion to use the machine, but other people walking through the mall seemed to be equally amazed.

Mount Hood At Sun Rise

I was greeted this morning by an awesome site. The sun rising just to the south of Mount Hood in Portland. I was very glad to be on a east coast schedule or I may never have seen this amazing view. Too bad my phone only takes so so pictures. But for anyone who has seen the sun rise, use your imagination to fill in the detail.

As and update this was one of the only sunny mornings I encountered while in Portland so this was truly a rare event for me. The rest of the week was overcast and the clouds blocked the view of the entire mountain let alone the sun rise.

Curling season has begun!

Well curling season officially began last week. Troy, Christa, M, and I wet to the put-in-the-plug party (I wonder what kind of search hits that last phrase will get me). We had a really good time. The people at the club were very welcoming to new members. It seemed like there was always a new face comming over to introduce themselves to us.

It was interesting, after the PITP party we went to a gathering of theater people and they were much more closed. We knew quite a few people at the party and deffinatly got to catch up with some theater friends from the area, but many of the peopl were off in their own circles having what looked like closed conversations.

Of course this thater event was at a bar with live music which was pretty loud so that may have contributed to the smaller conversations.

Anyhow, I guess I got a little off topic. I was intending to report on my first game, sort of. I was up in Albany on business so I missed the game but M went and reported back that she had a really good time. Our team should be fun. The only unfortunate thing is M and I won't play together for another week. M will be out of town this weekend so I will have to hold down the fort.

Now all we need is for our gear to arrive so we can step it up a notch!

Off To Portland

I am currently on my way to Portland, OR. This will be another new city for me, if not a new state. Product training is what brings me to the lovely city. I will have to admit I am looking forward to the trip.

Portland has always been on my short list of places to visit. I have read a great deal about the city and surrounding area. I am looking forward to experiencing the city for my self.

Of couurse this is a work trip. So sight seeing will be limited. Since I will be in training most of the day I may get a chance to experience some of the night life, but not really much else.

I will deffinatly try and post some pictures of the area.

Standing at the bottom of a waterfall

So I got distracted by my new toy and never got to write the last vacation article I had meant to. Before we went to the Volcano we decided that the Waipi'o Valley would be interesting place to check out. When we were at the Big Island for our Honeymoon we had flown through the valley in a Helicopter. The view from above was amazing. The place looked like something from Jurassic park, or any other jungle themed remote location.

M and I decided that we would drive over and check it out. The guide books all say driving to the bottom is a bad idea. We did have a 4x4 Jeep Wrangler and I am certain that the jeep would have made it down and up again. But we decided that the hike would be more worth while. I mean we are on vacation and didn't have anything else to do. So why not attempt to slow things down for a bit.

We get to the top of the Valley and the view from above is amazing! Around 900 feet below us is the incredible black sand beach that looks completely unpopulated. There are a number of small houses visible throughout the valley, but in general it is very unpopulated. The cliff walls are so steep it is almost as is if we have the same view from here as we did from our helicopter 2 years ago. At the top there is a small viewing area where people can just stop and take in the amazing view. It seems that there are a lot of locals driving down and a few ill advised tourists. Then there are the gawkers at the top who have no intention of going to the bottom.

We gather our gear and head down. The first thing we notice is that the guide books are right. We don't think we have ever seen a steeper road. We are used to steep roads along the Hudson Valley but these don't come close to the rode we are walking down. The road follows the edge of the cliff "straight" to the bottom of the valley. It is a 900 foot drop in about a mile. At the bottom you enter a very lush, dense Forrest. The setting is very peaceful, every once in a while you get passed by a 4x4, usually local, some times tourists. From the bottom of the road it is a short hike to the actual beach. Before you get to the beach you can see this amazing waterfall off to the right.

M and I decided to head over to the water fall before we went to the beach. the water coming off the cliff falls almost directly into the ocean. It is really an amazing place to be. You can see the falls behind in this picture.

After checking out the falls M and I decided lunch was in order. We headed over to the beach and grabbed a rock. Amazingly the beach was much larger than we expected. from above it looks like a rather small strip of sand, but being down there the beach is probably a mile to a mile and a half in length. And there were more people than we expected. From above you don't actually see the area where most people use the beach. There were families surfing and playing in the water and a few who had driven down just to sit in their cars.

Mary and I ate then spent a few minutes wading in the water and exploring the beach. After sitting for a few more minutes we decided to head back to the top. While we were enjoying the valley we had discussed how we were glad we hiked down to the bottom. It was much more fulfilling to be standing under the waterfall and waling along a beach that we had hiked down to. We would soon discover that we may have been wrong.

The hike out is, in a word, steep. I have done lots of hiking, much of it in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and I have come across some steep trails. This has to be one of the steepest. Not to mention since it is a rode on the side of a cliff it is very exposed to the Sun. The first hundred feet wasn't too bad because we were still excited about the wonderful valley we had just been in. The last 800 feet were a challenge. We passed a few people walking down with in flip-flops, with out water. We had to wonder how they planned on making it out. M and I had packed water and saved a quart for the hike out. But we quickly finished that and wished we had brought another. It seemed amazing that people were planning on spending time in the valley and getting out with out any hydration.

After about 300 feet or so we were offered a ride to the top from a nice local. We decided that we would be able to make it out no problem, we just needed to take it slow. We thanks the man and up he went. I guess that is how most people get out of the valley.

We finally arrived back at the car a little tired and without water. It turned out that the hike out wasn't as bad as I had imagined. It was steep and exposed, but at one point I told some people that they were almost at the bottom, believing we had made it about half way up. Only to have turned a corner and realized we were very close to the top. (Sorry guys)

When we finished we stopped at the top to look back on the valley one more time. We talked with a few people who were considering going to the bottom. Headed back to the car and downed the remaining quart of water we had saved for the ride home.

My New Toy a Nuvi 660

My new toy arrived yesterday. So far I am impressed with the Nuvi 660. I have yet to use it for navigation, but I was pleasantly surprised with how quickly and easily it paired with my Treo. When I started looking for a GPS device I quickly learned that there are tons out there. Each with pros and cons. There good thing is there seem to be a ton of very good devices on the market.

I had narrowed my choice down before vacation to the Nuvi 360 and the C550 from Garmin and the TomTom 510 or 910. Aside from the navigation features I really wanted something that would work with the Bluetooth on my phone. I have a Bluetooth headset, but I hate driving with it in my ear. It is comfortable enough, I just don't like having on my head the entire time. I was marginally attracted to the mp3 capabilities of the devices.

Fast forward to my return from vacation. I find out that while I was away Garmin had announced a new Nuvi. While away I spent many hours agonizing over which device to get. I finally made my wife to convince me to get the Nuvi. The other devices had similar feature sets, but the nuvi had a better form factor. The nuvi was more portable and I do travel a lot.

I do some more price checking to see if the prices on the 360's have dropped and low and behold, both TomTom and Garmin have announced new devices. TomTom released the ONE, which was interesting, but didn't have the phone capability I was looking for. Garmin had released the Nuvi 660 it had all of the features of the 360, but it included an integrated FM traffic receiver to get live traffic info. This was actually the feature the made it a tough call between the C550 and the Nuvi 360. I had chosen form-factor over traffic. But here was my chance to have my cake and eat it too.

So lets hope my new toy doesn't lead me astray. Now that I have a navigation device telling me how to get places I wonder if I will directions will be come like phone numbers. I can't for the life of me remember the phone numbers of my closest friends. I can barely get out my home and cell phone number when asked. I wonder how long it will be before we all just hop in the card and tell it where we want to go with out any real idea of where we are actually going?

Crazy Shark Water Sports - Inflatable Iceberg

Crazy Shark Water Sports Online Shop - Inflatable Iceberg Wow an inflatable Iceberg.... Titanic watch out. If only I owned a pool or even better a lake. The only downside I can see to this item is being the one stuck blowing it up. That would probably put you out of commission for a week or two.

Standing on top of a Volcano

Mary and I just got back from vacation we had a great time. I will try and update all of the things we did here, but I will start with the most awe inspiring event first. We actually hiked to the back of an erupting volcano!

The above picture is a panoramic view of the Pu'u O'o Vent of The Kiluea Volcano on the Island of Hawaii. It was a truly amazing place to be. The hike is a 4.2 mile stroll through a sort of interesting rain forest. The trail is relatively flat and very wet. It isn't much different than a hike through a wet New Englad forest. While the vegetation is slightly different the ground cover is mostly dense fern type plants.

The thing I found most interesting about the hike was the lava we were walking over. Rather than the hard granite I am used to it was neat to see the relatively new lava flows beneath my feet. There were a few places where the lava looked like tree roots and I had to double take when I stepped on it.

The Back of the Vent was amazing. We didn't dare get much closer then the edge of the forest, which was maybe a mile away from the actual vent. From a distance the 500 foot vent looks rather small, but it was amazing to know that on the other side of a small rock wall was an active volcano.

Mary and I made to the edge of the forest for lunch and spent about an hour just watching the vent steam. We saw a few helicopter tours come by and at least one fixed wing aircraft fly by. We probably could have spent all day watching the vent just pour out clouds of gas.

We have, in the past, watched the lava flow into the ocean which is also an experience not to be missed. But being at the top of the volcano will hold a special place in my memory.

Mango Margaritas on the West side of Oahu

West Virginia Adventure

We went rafting in West Virginia 2 weekends ago. The trip was awesome. A whole bunch of Players from RPI got together and decided to do something fun. At some point it was decided that white water rafting was the right activity for this. Then a little later it was decided that West Virginia was a place most of us haven'[t been and was "close" to everyone.

We all arrived Friday evening hung out had a fire and caught up for a few hours. Saturday we went hiking, which ended up being a swimming adventure in the river. Then Sunday was the big event. I had been rafting a number of times before and this was on par with my other trips. We had a really great time! It is amazing how well the guides can read a group. Of the 3 boast we filled up we were the most energetic group. Our guide, Charlie, picked up on that made sure we had a blast all day. He started by tricking us into flipping the raft after all of 2 minutes on the river. I have a sneaking suspicion that in every rapid he directed us towards an obstacle trying to get one or 2 of us into the water. That didn't end up happening, but he sure did try. It was a great day.

The other rafts were fairly quiet. We tried pulling a few of them into the water in the flat spots, but they were not having any of that. One of the rafts got a pretty good education on the local area/history from their guide, which they enjoyed.

Once we got back to camp the people from our boat decided the water fun wasn't over so we went swimming in the lake a few miles away. The rest of the group hung out at camp.

I bet you are wondering what this picture has to do with rafting.... well one of the cars stopped for gas on the way down and ended up across the street form a strip club with this sign in front. They couldn't resist the urge to take the picture and I couldn't resist the urge to post it. The person who created this sign is either a fool or an advertising genius. I will let you decide.

Gas station show down

So let me start off by apologizing to the lady who I apparently cut off getting gas yesterday. I am afraid we are going to have to agree to disagree on the specifics of who was wrong, but I am sure we both seemed like a$$holes to each other.

The problem centers around a poor design to the gas stations along the mass pike. M, I and the Fishers spent a wonderful weekend in Boston doing touristy things. On the way home we stopped in Sturbridge to get gas before entering the never ending state of Connecticut. After discharging some personal liquids and restocking for the next 4 hours, we stopped to get some gas and encountered the design flaw. In order to get the maximum number of pumps into the already existing space the designers decided to create a long 2 pump deep gas station that runs parallel to the highway. It sort of looks like a starting gate at a horse race. At the end (entrance) they have a sign pointing all travelers to the left. Of course the problem is each pump has 2 sides and most cars (at least most American cars) have the gas tank opening on the left. So there are huge lines for all of the lefties waiting for gas.

Now the design of the station clearly displays to me that the designers intended people to enter at one end (the Front) and exit at the rear. It doesn't seem as if the designers thought about the gas opening bias and they didn't make the hoses long enough to reach around to the other side of the car. So there are vacancies (or at least no lines) at all of the righty pumps. Impatient lefties see no line for the other pump and start doing crazy things like backing into spaces and going against the flow of traffic. This just messes everything up. All of a sudden you have people facing each other at the pumps and backing up into traffic (some of which is trying to bypass fuel altogether) and general confiscate as to who was where and when.

So I travel past all of these middle pumps and spy an opening at the end I pull up and it turns out that the first pump is out of order. The second pump has someone at it but she is clearly almost done. And I happen to be right behind her. After waiting a few minutes I notice someone sitting out to my left on the phone, and she seems to be waiting for something (her location makes it a bit hard to tell if she is waiting for gas or just for one to exit the plaza so she could lead/follow. Besides her gas opening is on the wrong side to be using this pump (at least facing the right direction).

The person in front of me finishes and I start to pull up and at the same time the other lady starts to pull around as well. It is now obvious that she was waiting to get gas and was trying to use "my" pump in the reverse direction. Now I am pretty much at the pump before she tries to move and there is a car behind me so it would be hard to back up as well.

So she gets out as has some words with me. They were fairly civil (she didn't ever take her phone away from her ear), and she ended by calling me rude. I may admit to secretly knowing that she was waiting for gas and that she was there before me, but I can't feel too bad about it because I still believe this could all be avoided by simply putting in longer gas hoses.

I experience this same problem in NJ on the turnpike, except that their gas hoses are long enough to reach both sides of the car. They have to put signs up letting people know it is okay to use both sides. I'm not quite sure why Sunocco can get longer hoses and Exxon can't. Especially since they are making so much money these days. It couldn't cost more than a few hundred thousand dollars to put longer hoses in. And we would all be much better off for it.

No Power since tuesday

So I think I mentioned Tuesday that I didn't have any power.... Well here it is Saturday and we still don't have power.

Now I know the human race survived a pretty long time with out electricity, so it isn't like a few days with out electricity is going to kill me or anything. But it is interesting how much we rely on electricity.

fortunatly T&C have been great friends this week (not to imply there are weeks when they aren't) and they have fed us and hung out with us, keeping us entertained..... It is great to have friends close by to help out.

Of course we have been sleeping here which hasn't been too bad but man do I miss fans an A/C!

Well the PECO truck is doing another lap around the neighborhood. Hopefully we will have power in and hour or so.... It will be interesting to have electric lights lighting up the living room again.

After Dinner Entertainment

And people say TV causes volence... See what happens when after dinner you have no TV to watch.....

Great Grandmother's House

This is my great grandmother's house! It has been vacant for a number of years now, but it is still in surprisingly good condition for being over 100 years old!

Blackout

Well we had a large storm tonight and lost power. It is amazing how much we rely on electricity for entertainment... And also amazing how less important power right now is.

A great example is this message.... Since I am blogging from my Treo I can compose and send this even in a blackout. Pretty cool!

So I have attached a picture to see if blogger will include it. If not it is the painted buffalo (Bison) which I sent a few seconds ago via picture mail.

The bison are pretty cool. They follow the same idea of the cows in NY. Artists psint them in all sorts of different ways they get displayed in the city amd then they are bid on to raise money for charity. A pretty cool idea and it is fun to look at these different bison in a number of different locations throughout the city.

Well it is late (I think M and I are still on mountain time). Besides since there is no power there is nothing else to do :-)

Great Falls. MT

I should be posting pictures soon. But Mary and I spent the weekend in Great Falls, MT. This is where my mom grew up and where I spent many of my summers as a young child. We had a great time, but it was obviously too short.

The reason for the trip was my grandfathers 80th birthday party. My mom, dad, M and I surprised hime by comming out. It was the the first time we had been out to MT in about 18 years.

It was great to get reaquainted with a few of my cousins, and extended family. This was also the first time M had been to MT and was the first time she had met most of my family. I am sure she was surprised.

On Sunday we just toured aorund. We went to Great Falls giant spring, and the Lewis & Clark interperative center. Both places were very interesting. It is hard to believe that the Great Falls area was "discovered" only 200 years ago!

On our way to dinner we stopped by my great grandmothers old house. It is the place my grandfather was raised and where my family had farmed for years when the first arrived to Great Falls.

The place has been abandoned for a few years now, but it was great to see it. Especially since I'm not sure when we will get out there again.

For dinner we went to one of my mom's cousins place. We ate ribs, corn, and water mellon on the banks of the Sun River. After dinner we went up to the Pishkun (I probably spelled that wrong) Buffalo Jump. Aside from the historical interest it has an amazing view of the misouri and Sun river valleys. We walked around the clifs and ended up catching the sun set. It was an amazing evening.

I'm glad M and I could make it out. It was great to re meet my family, and it was great to introduce them to M.

Finishing up the House.... Sort of.

So I got the front 2 windows in. Not too bad it only took me 1 day per window. Now I could have done it faster, but I have found that working slow and methodical is much better, I tend to loose focus and make mistakes if I start working too fast. Now don't get me wrong, I still have lots of interior work to finish, but I spent my "vacation" finishing the porch, and finishing up the last little bit of siding that needed to be completed. So think are moving along. Mary also repainted the kitchen cabinets, I know paint and cabinets?. But this is what the previous owner left us with and a fresh coat of paint on poorly painted cabinets is better than poorly painted cabinets...... We may do the bathroom too... it could really use a coat of paint and there isn't much to paint. We will see if it gets accomplished soon.

4th of July weekend

Well we have had a whirl wind 4th of July weekend. It started with very quick drive from Philly to Boston.... Door to door was on 5 hours, but that included a 30 minute snack and gas stop. So 4.5 hours of driving for what normally take 5.5 to 6 hours. We were very lucky not to hit any 4th of July traffic.

We spent the night in Needham and got up early the next morning to pick up Paul and Megan and drop the ladies off at Rachel's pre wedding brunch.

The boys had to fend for themselves. It was great to have a few hours to our selves..... This makes 2 weekend in as many months, which is more than we have seen each each other in 10 years.

After picking up the ladies we went our separate ways to get ready for the wedding.

Of course the wedding its self was amazing. Rachel was beautiful and Sudir glowing. It was a perfect day for an outdoor wedding! The reception afterward was great and we all had a great time.

Mary and I headed back to the hotel for the evening and got up early for wedding #2. Slightly different setting. Kevin's wedding was more of a celebration since they were actually married in March. It was great to see some old friends from RPI and meet some of Kevin & Amanda's work friends.

After another wonderful day Mary & I headed back to the Parents house where we have been since. Obviously based on the pictures you can see we caught the Needham fire works... Which was a great show!

We head home early tomorrow morning. Let's hope the traffic god are with us.

Mary & Mom at the 4th of July Fireworks

Mom and Mary @ Needham 4th of July Fireworks

Ohhhh... ahhhhhh... ooooooo

The Fireworks were actuallky pretty good despite my treo's lack of a real camera......

Party!

Well it is unofficially summer! And we have spent the last few weekends at some sort of party or another.

2 weekends ago I was at Paul's Bachelor party. We had an awesome time. It was a great excuse to catch up with old friends. I got to see Neeraj for the first time since my wedding. And a few high school friends I haven't seen since I moved from Boston.

It is great to go "home" and catch up with old friends. The great thisng about this summer is since 2 of my HS friends are getting married we will get a chance to see each othe quite frequently.

Technology is great. I know I wouldn't write lettes (my spelling is bad, and my hand writing is worse!) it amazes me we have all been able to keep in relativly close contact over the past 10 years even though we have been spread out across the country (and at times across the world).

We also had a mango margarita party with some of our philly friends. And finally we just finished up a 3 person family graduation party on Long Island. So the summer parties have begun!

Siding Project

So my wife and I decided to do the siding and windows on our house. The project went along very smoothly.

we started in october and I finsished the major work before thanksgiving. I finished almost all of the siding before christmas. Fortunatly for me PA had a warm early winter.

I had to stop after christmas because it just got too cold to work with the vinyl.

Of course just as it got warm I was working on the sound of music and didn't have time to finish the project. But I made some real good progress this weekend. I only haave one small area of siding to finish then some incedental fnish work. Fortunalty I will have the 4th of july week off so what I don't get finished by then should get completed that week.

Let's hope I get the project done before my "vacation".

You have new Picture Mail!

Finished another phase of the siding

BC Graduation

8:30 AM From the picture I posted yesterday you can see that my little sister graduated from Boston College. She has done an amazing job finishing her degree in 6 years while working a full time job.

I can't say this would be the easiest or most fun way to finish school. But I am amazed she was able to do. I know I wouldn't have been able to keep a job and attend classes as well.

So there has been a lot of press about the graduation speaker (Condolezza Rice). I will have to say she gave one of the best graduation speeches I have listened to. She spoke well, which could be expected, and she did a very good job of challenging the graduates as "educated people".

The controversy came, it seems, mostly from the faculty who were upset with BC bestowing an honorary degree on her. Apparently a few faculty members were so opposed to the degree they resigned from their tenured positions. I can respect those faculty members. Obviously their feelings were strong enough that they felt they couldn't support BC any longer.

11:45 PM I don't agree with the faculty who "protested" by making and handing out signs. Then attending the ceremony and standing with their backs toward the stage. If they felt so strongly about this topic I believe they should have chose not to attend rather than disrupt the ceremony. Now of course they weren't loud or anything, it just didn't seems like the right venue for a political statement. The morning is supposed to be about the students, not politics.

I suppose the only good thing about them attending is perhaps they listened to the speech and learned something. Condoleza gave a very good graduation speech. One of the best I have heard.

You have new Picture Mail!

My little sister is graduating from BC today!

The Show Must Go On?

Well we lost power last night and learned a few things. First the auditorium that we put our show up in has no emergency lighting, which seem like a bad idea and is probably illegal. Second, not matter how many updates you give to people, and not matter how little control you have over events, as the person in charge people assume you know what is going on and people want you to fix it (fortunately I'm not in charge). And Finally, of course the old theater line "The Show Must Go On!" well it doesn't apply when the owners of the building deem it unsafe and kick you out. But rather than put on a show, or go home and sulk, or watch Survivor, a few of us decided a good alternative would be to go out and have a few adult beverages and lament over our troubles. It is always therapeutic to get together as a group and forget about your troubles. Well it is a lovely day today so far. Lets hope is stays that way and lets hope we have power for tonight's performance. We are on our way to setting an attendance record for the show and we don't' want to blow it.

Update Virginia

Well I just got to VA. I have a presentation tomorrow. After the meeting I have to head back to Philly for rehearsal. We have to practice pushing the house around for a few hours. It would be a bad thing to forget what we are doing Thursday night.

So I have posted a few pictures of the set we built, but perhaps I should describe it.

We ended up building an 8'x18' 2 story rolling set. The front half acts as the Von Trapp living room and the rear acts as maria's bed room. The living room looks rather impressive when it is all together. In addition to the 2 story piece we have dubbed "The Monster" (unoriginal I know) there is a rotating 8'x12' platform that acts as the living room and the outside terrace.

Finally there are 2 door platforms that bring the set from one side of the 40' stage to the other. What amazes me is we can get the whole living room set up in under 2 minutes and there is no mechanical assistance being used.

I think I would be blown away if I had shown up at this show without knowing the set design. In college I had a reputation for building large complex stationary sets this is definitely the largest mobile set I have worked on.

Sound of Music Picture

Pictures from tonights performance. Best seats in a theater.

The hills are alive

Well the sound of music opened last night. We had about 170 people in the audience which is great for an opening night.

there were a few mishaps (the set ran over my foot) but all in all the show went well.

We have 2 shows today, which will really test everyone stamina.

Blogging from a Treo

Well I am going to try and do this from my Treo. I think these text messages have to be pretty short though.

Lets give this a try

Well, I will see how this goes. I'm not sure I have enough discipline to actually keep this up for a while. I am hoping that I get used to posting here. Of course you are reading about a guy who would forget to put his watch on in the morning if it isn't right next to his car keys. So lets see how it goes.