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How to Wow an Architect

How to Wow an Architect

San Diego’s U.S. Grant Hotel’s $52M Renovation left the architects asking for more.

It’s an unusually cold, nasty winter night in San Diego, and Tony Hansen is 11 stories up on the roof of the historic U.S. Grant hotel. He’s with the architects spearheading a $52 million renovation, and he is showing them some possible solutions to lighting the exterior of the building. All he has to do is flip the right switch on his computer to turn on the LEDs hung on the outside of the building to produce the right color of amber as specified. His fingers slip, and the lights come up a different color.

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Chauvet Q-Wash LED: LEDs Lead Changing Times

When the editor of PLSN asked me if I would be interested in writing a review for the new Chauvet QWash LED, my mind raced back to my days backstage, when my crew and I would take advantage of slow moments between shows to give our flashlights the Pepsi Challenge. I would pit my Mag-Lite against anyone else’s flashlight to see which was stronger and at what distances. On one occasion, a board op came up with his LED flashlight, swearing that his could finally dethrone the hoss, and it did…at short range. But the Mag stood strong at longer distances, such as from the floor to the grid 60 feet above. Even at that distance, I could easily make out the details in the cables suspending the rigging. His LED didn’t even provide a light pool at that range.

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Dive in the Desert: Find a Pearl

The high stakes game of Vegas entertainment takes on another player in the Palms.

Las Vegas suffers from no shortage of performance venues. Throughout its history as a resort destination, performers have made their way to Vegas to play any one of the many hotels and casinos that call Sin City home, but the Palms hotel and casino has upped the ante with the addition of their new venue, the Pearl.

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Slow Hand, Wide Reach

Eric Clapton hits the road and fills up arenas in his most comprehensive, elaborate show to date

Let’s face it: Eric Clapton could enrapture an arena-sized audience with three PAR cans and a lava lamp for lighting and scenery. His tasteful chops and song catalog pre-date modern-day production as we know it, but his penchant for entertaining keeps him consistently in the spotlight on stages across the globe. This time around he’s packing two hours of classic Clapton hits, and he’s got two powerhouse guitar slingers in tow; Derek Trucks, son of Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks, and Doyle Bramhall II, son of the legendary songwriter and blues drummer Doyle Bramhall. 

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Who Wants To Be a Programmer?

Steve Garner explains the passion behind his position.

Work to live or live to work? When is it time to take that chance? As console programmer Steve Garner explains, he fell in love with the industry as a kid and then left it all behind. But, as fate would have it, the Siren of the Theatre, Lor-tel, kept calling him, so he packed his bags and moved to New York. Twenty-plus years later, he has found his niche and he’s back in the theatre doing what he loves most. Life is funny like that… sometimes, if we’re lucky, we can get back to where we started. 

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Finding the right guys

I ran out of guys to run shows last week. Again. I can see a legion of kids out there waving their hands “What about me, I’m sitting here looking for a gig”. But I don’t know all of you and cannot vouch one way or another for you until I do know ya. Been bitten on the ass for trying to have people I don’t know run one of my bands.

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EastonAshe in Californ-I-A and beyond

 Well we just got done with the California tour and it’s our last night in town to hang loose. OK now before I walk out the door to do just that I’ll recap the California tour and a few loose ends from the other legs of the tour along the way. As soon as we got home for a few days to kick it after our Midwest tour it was to time to leave again for California. Fortunately for this leg it wasn’t too much of a hellacious drive as much as the others have been. It was roughly a 12-14 hour drive and we pulled into Livermore where we’d be staying for the week. Livermore is a great jump off point to hit big cities like San Francisco and Oakland. We’ll def. have to hit some more clubs in the cities next time we stop through for sure.

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Deconstructing Grey Gardens

Some works of theatre attempt to overturn conventionality by completely subverting it. Other shows turn convention on its head by playing into it before twisting it into something unexpected. The latter case is true with Grey Gardens, the real-life tale of two women who led nonconformist lives and who engaged in an emotional tug-of-war.

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