More babble

Other things you don't get to do at your job.

"Scott, take this bottle and run hot water over it, but don't get any inside. As soon as it is fully liquid, bring it back"

OK, so that really doesn't seem that cool. Add this however: "OK, now get just each of the four corners and the center of this cloth nice and wet with the solution. It will spread out on it's own" (uhm, then why am I doing such an OCD thing as folding all the corners to the center, and wetting only the center? Whatever.) "OK, now take one corner for each of these black neoprene divers suits we have cut open and sewn velcro closures on, and covered with luminous wire attached to mesh. Get all the blue and yellow greasepaint off, anywhere you find it. Once you have done the outside, do the inside. Then use the middle to do the dress."

This was an hours work on Blue Man Group. Cleaning a set of the effect suits. Very Zen. Not like the often frantic rushing/toting/lifting/attaching. Two hours all together working on the various props for the show, like the sound tubes (PVC pipe) the wands (won't tell ya how it's done) the figures they use in cutout, etc. Then home! Wheee! Back in time to see the Chargers finish losing, dammit, and the Giants take out the Packers, in a moment that was eerily predicted by Eddie Murphy in "Coming to America" about ten years ago.

Back to BMG, which oddly took almost as long to take down as it did to set up. Usually its about a two-to-one ratio. Standing backstage to catch cables and wands as the show ended was not quite as fun as watching from the front... since I had no clue what they were actually doing half the time. Oh well. I can say I was onstage with them, and not really be lying.

If this job is cool, how much cooler would it be to have the job of sitting around a shop asking "What would happen if we took a whole bunch of 3" PVC pipes, twisted them about in a convoluted mess, and capped each one with a small rubber head at one end, and a mic pickup at the other? What could we possibly do with a thousand latex condoms, and some tempera paint? What would it look like if we put really bright lights shining upwards through Conga-type drums, and then sprayed water across the heads while we played them?"