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Changing Priorities Through Life

PLSN editor Justin Lang

Changing Priorities Through Life

What is the most important thing in your life? Depending on your age, position in the industry and your family life, everyone will have varying answers. Early in a career, it might be friends and your career. But in the thirty-something to forties, your values might change, and it might be your family. Then in your fifties and sixties, you might start to be thinking more about your legacy and how you can pass everything important that you’ve learned about anything on to the next generation coming up.

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David S. Goldstein's set design for Stalking the Bogeyman. Photo by Jeremy Daniel.

Lighting and Set Designer David S. Goldstein: Sculpting the Story

New York-based scenic and lighting designer David S. Goldstein possesses a powerful passion for theater, and for him, his disciplines are perpetually married as he feels that they help to tell and sculpt the story that actors are portraying onstage, be it a musical or a straight play. “It’s not a prevalent practice in the United State, for a single designer to do lighting and sets,” observes Goldstein. “It is very prevalent for one designer to do set and costumes. In the United Kingdom, it’s the opposite — it’s very prevalent for one designer to do sets and lights and one to do costumes. ”

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Queen + Adam Lambert 2014 tour photo by Steve Jennings

Queen + Adam Lambert LD Rob Sinclair

Designer Rob Sinclair has just completed a tour leg for Queen + Adam Lambert that finished in New Zealand Sept. 3. We caught the show while the band was touring the U.S. and spoke with Sinclair about the tour he directed as well. Among some of Sinclair’s credits — Miley Cyrus, Peter Gabriel, Pet Shop Boys and Keane (all covered in past PLSN issues). He’s also designed for Adele, Vampire Weekend, Goldfrapp and many more. Here’s what Sinclair had to say about the Queen + Adam Lambert tour.

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The main Mountain View Stage, sheltered by GuildWorks’ stretch canopy. Photo by Liz Devine

Sharing Pickathon with the World

Video Production Helps Bring a Locally-Grown Festival in Oregon to a Wider Audience

Over a 16-year span, the annual Pickathon Music Festival —so-named, according to executive producer Zale Schoenborn, for the “hand-picked” assortment of artists across a wide range of genres — has grown from a modest shindig at Horning’s Hideout in Portland, OR to a three-day music festival with seven unique stages on Pendarvis Farm, an 88-acre horse farm framed by the forests and mountains near Happy Valley, OR, a half-hour outside of the big city.

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Gathering of the Vibes Festival 2014 photo by Mike Thut.

Gathering of the Vibes Festival

It’s been 19 years since Jerry Garcia died, but the Grateful Dead frontman’s “vibes” are alive and well, floating though the crowd of 25,000-plus who gather in his honor every summer for four days of music and camping — with a little ‘60s-style peace and love thrown in. Gathering of the Vibes, a modern-era, well-behaved version of Woodstock, was started in 1996 by Connecticut businessman/Deadhead Ken Hays to fill the void created by Garcia’s untimely passing from a heart attack at 53. GOTV has since become one of the Northeast’s pre-eminent festivals; over the years it has featured not only the remaining members of the Grateful Dead and various tribute bands, but world-class artists from an eclectic mix of genres: Crosby, Stills and Nash; James Brown; Allman Brothers Band; Elvis Costello; Black Crowes; Nas; Bruce Hornsby, to name a few.

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Cory FitzGerald played a key role on the creative team that came up with the looks for Demi Lovato's Neon Lights tour. Photo courtesy of Seven. Design. Works LLC

A Conversation with Designer Cory FitzGerald

It has been a very busy 2014 for lighting designer Cory FitzGerald. Starting off the year working with his Seven Design Works’ partner LeRoy Bennett on the Bruno Mars New Years Eve Show at the Cosmopolitan hotel in Vegas, all the way through to the taping of the Beyoncé/Jay-Z On The Run performances in Paris for HBO. In between, FitzGerald provided designs for Skrillex — both the Mothership Tour and the San Francisco Takeover shows, Demi Lovato’s Neon Lights and current world tour, Beyoncé’s performances at the Grammys and MTV Music Awards shows and many more one-offs and special events.

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Pasquale

In Memoriam: Pasquale “Paky” Quadri, 1947-2014

Clay Paky Founder Leaves a Legacy of Innovation

Pasquale “Paky” Quadri, founder and chairman of Clay Paky SpA, died at his home in Torre de’ Roveri, Italy shortly before midnight on Sept. 6. He was 67. In the years since founding the company in 1976 with fellow musician Claudio Paredi — the company name is formed by their two nicknames — Quadri and his company have amassed close to 80 patents and 50 major industry awards for a raft of fixtures combining design innovation with optical excellence and reliable operation.

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Pyro at Ultimate Music Experience 2014, South Padre Island, TX. Photo by Drew Ressler - Rukes.com

Pyrotecnico FX: The Special Effects Dynasty Continues

Historians believe fireworks first exploded onto the scene in seventh century China and reached widespread use during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). A new dynasty began in 1889 when Constantino Vitale founded his fireworks company in Pietramelara, Italy. In 1920, he moved his firm and family to New Castle, PA, whose official slogan would become “The Fireworks Capital of America.” In its first century, the business that would emerge as Pyrotecnico grew to become one of the country’s largest fireworks companies. It now creates many of the world’s most dazzling displays.

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2014 Parnelli Visionary Award Honoree Howard Ungerleider

2014 Parnelli Visionary Award Honoree Howard Ungerleider

You are the architect of your own future, and you get out of it what you put into it,” Howard Ungerleider says. Ungerleider is, himself, a helluva architect, and he has put his heart, soul, sweat and passion into a remarkable career that continues to inspire and influence not only the work of other lighting designers, but the manufacturers who create lighting tools. For all that and more, he will be honored with the Parnelli Visionary Award at the 14th annual Parnelli Awards ceremony, set for Nov. 22 in Las Vegas.

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2014 Hometown Hero Finalists Announced

The 2014 Hometown Hero Finalists

Companies driven by people doing what they love to do most are what make a “hometown hero.” There’s a lot of passion in this eclectic collection chosen by the readers of PLSN. And while this can be, as one honoree described it, a “dog eat dog” world, there’s a lot of good people doing good work out there. Here are the six best lighting companies in North America for 2014. One of these companies will be honored with a Parnelli Award for Hometown Hero Lighting Company of the Year at the annual awards ceremony, set this year for Nov. 22 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

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