Sometimes I get to a one off gig and see a way I can be lazy and get away with a short programming day. But to be honest, anytime I think I’ll luck out in one of these scenarios, it usually bites me in the ass.

    Well I’m back at the old Sound Stage TV studio at WTTW in Chicago. Familiar building, but boy has the look changed. This is my fifth year doing shows down here, with 3 different directors. This time Bob Peterson is at the helm and the difference is quite noticeable.

It's been 10 years since I went to Russia to light a gig. Last time I was there, I had one of those gigs from hell, where it took 2 days to set everything up and it still didn't work correctly. I'm here to say they've come a long way.

     Every year I design the set and lighting for a traveling rock show called “A Taste of Chaos”. Ten bands will perform on 2 stages every night. Each year I take a few young kids and try to school them in the art of setting up and lighting a rock show. Some pass with flying colors while others flounder miserably.

     I light business meetings every now and then. Those boring conferences where people in the same line of work gather to get worked into a frenzy in order to sell sell sell whatever it is their company hawks. They always seem to have a motivational speaker. And I hate these bastards.

I basically bounce between the Hog 3, the Grand MA and the Maxxyz console these days. Why? Because they get the job done. And they all suck equally.

       Faders. I’m sitting here thinking about them. Who invented them in the first place?

And why do they only go up and down?

So I get this call from Upstaging Lighting last week. They want to do a demo of their vast array of equipment to their clients during the Christmas time. They have asked me to put together a system that shows off the latest lighting and video toys they own.