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A Word About Marketable Skills

PLSN Video World Dec 2011

A Word About Marketable Skills

If you’re just starting your career in the biz, please gather round the campfire.  Perhaps more important, if you have children entering high school, college or a university — please read on.  As I climb up on my soapbox, this is a subject that I’ve preached about for years, and in our harsh economic climate, it still rings true.

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Concert Touring 101

I have just finished programming another big rock show, and it got me to thinking about the common programming elements that are present in all concert tours.  Even with different musical genres and unique production requirements, there are some essential processes that every automated lighting programmer should be aware of.   The layout of the show, use of flash keys and palette usage are very important parts of the concert touring experience.

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Transportation Security Takes Center Stage

Anyone who has gotten onto an airplane in the last 10 years knows that it’s not as simple a process as it once was. The Transportation Security Administration has added multiple layers of procedures in that time, from banning liquids to backscatter X-ray scanners, most of little use in the way of actual security. But even as the TSA has made getting people onto airplanes a massive headache, the federal government has made getting materials of all sorts onto airplanes and other forms of transportation a relative breeze. And that’s not necessarily a good thing.

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Paul Simon So Beautiful or So What tour

Designing Paul Simon, Brickman’s Own Lit Wall, Foster the David, Snow in Orlando and Quick Cues

Although Paul Simon’s So Beautiful or So What tour continues on into the New Year, LD Rich Locklin and lighting director Steve Fallon are already designing Simon’s 2012 run, which will celebrate the 25th anniversary of his Graceland album. Musicians who backed him on the album, including Ladysmith Black Mambazo, will be involved.

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Look Solutions Tiny FX Fogger

Look Solutions Tiny FX Fogger

Particulates are always in the air.  They are so tiny we don’t even notice them. But it is these little specs of dust that make beams of light visible.  In the world of staged beam effects, foggers and hazers also play a key role. They help to define shafts of light and provide effects. Germany-based Look Solutions has recently introduced the entertainment world to what has to be one of the smallest foggers I have ever seen. The Tiny FX Fogger is a compact, battery-operated fogger that easy fits in the palm of your hand.  At first glance, the Tiny FX seems as though it was designed to be used primarily as a novelty item. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

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Illustration by Andy Au

Bizarro World

Say you had a bazillion dollars and it was your birthday. And you decided to have a party for, say, 1,000 of your buddies. What exactly would you do? I’d be that guy who hires Van Halen to play at my barbecue. I don’t count on it.  However, I recently got to witness what happens when someone who could throw that type of a shindig actually does.

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