I’ve been on Maui for a long time. I’ve seen some crazy stuff – I’ve seen some stupid stuff. I’ve been rigger on many circus acts. I’ve never seen anything so blatantly unsafe in my life…

I looked above my op station this morning and saw this:

Two narrow scaffolding sides spot welded together with some type of ladder spot welded to the top of it.  The scariest thing is that those are moving lights, not conventionals.  They are heavy and they move, so this thing must swing crazy…

The funniest thing of all, about 50 steps from this area are three 10 foot pieces of real truss not being used at all – and plenty of rigging gear…

Last Sunday…

It was a blast – everyone threw all kinds of balls in the air.  Most of the switchouts were suppose to be one musician (1 SM58 and 1 DI), but they kept adding their buddies in – so most of it was just made up on the spot…

Really fun day – lots of great music.  All the musicians were great!

Quite funny…

Not sure what to think about it yet…

Probably should actually get there first…

Not looking forward to the bumpy plane ride – there’s a high-wind advisory tomorrow (50 mi/hr winds) so we may not be going anywhere…

Whatever…

I saw the about half the local A/V talent in the GW ballroom yesterday.  It was strange to be in the same room with all of them and not have a ton of stuff to do (I really wanted to jump up and start working).  It was a two stage setup with one in Hale II & III and the other in Hale IV and V, both stages facing Hale I.  It’s only been about a month, but I already miss doing shows like that (a “real” show).

Funny thing happened midday in the office.  We were going through a coming breakout in Hale IV and the tech team was calling it a GS (General Session), but as I looked at the gear and size of the show I just called it a breakout.  They kept calling it GS, and I know that’s what it was, but my brain works by gear – and the gear in that room is just a breakout.  I know it’s a GS to the client, but for setup and strike purposes it’s just a breakout.  I didn’t want to get in a semantic argument, so I just said, “anything smaller than Hale I, II, III, IV, and V put together is just a breakout in my brain.”  Just wanted to end it, ya know?

Then my A/V Coordinator said something funny (I like her, she’s quick) to make sure it ended.  She said, “man! your hardcore about a few things! this is called this cause I’m Dave!”.  Anyway, it was funnier to be there…

The whole thing left my brain until I was going around talking to “da boys” in the ballroom, on my way out for the day;  I realized that if you ask any one of them they would have called it a breakout too…  

Although, I am probably the breakout king of Maui, I love doing “shows.”  They’re in my blood.  I hope I get to jump on some (or hope my team sells some) soon – I don’t wanna lose “it” for lack of using “it”, ya know?

Well, it’s done. I’m finally free to work at the GW full-time…

I guess it is now official: I’m the Technical Director for Swank at the Grand Wailea…

I had to take down all the links to the local A/V companies, but I still love you guys. As a matter of fact, I need you all to send me equipment and pricing lists so when the need arises I can rent your stuff…