And now the part I'm really worried about

I have about two hours today before I have to go jump on a plane and head to my cousin's wedding. Things are about as done as they're going to be but there are a few more finishing touches that, unless I actually get some help today, aren't going to happen. Everything is definitely passable at this point and probably very few people would notice the things that aren't done, so it's all good. I didn't get home last night until about 10:15 and I ate Lunchables for dinner, but I got a lot done!

The festival starts tomorrow so these next two days are always a mad crunch to get everything done. I'm getting out of the worst of it by running away today! No working until 2am for me!

I am now dealing with the crap that I've never wanted to deal with. Basically, the crew that I work on is the Production crew. We put everything together and take it apart. The crew that actually runs the theatres for the weekend is the Operations crew. They came into town this past weekend and they, notoriously, show up at the theatres and tell you that everything you've done is wrong...while you know that everything you've done is right. It's just a constant struggle between those of us who look at it all and go, "um, I've been here getting dirty and bruised and stressed out for the past three weeks while you've been at home watching tv" and those guys who seem to come in with a sense of entitlement about it all. I learned this my first year of the festival and I've escaped it for the past three years. This year, I'm right in the thick of it all and having to bite my tongue on an hourly basis. I just smile and nod and say, "I'll see what I can do" a lot.

And I will. But I make no promises.

We got a lot more done yesterday than I expected us to! I knew, since all we have left to do is stuff outside, that it would rain all week and we ended up putting up this 50 foot awning in a thunderstorm. Luckily, we got the thing tied down before it really started raining, but the wind was so strong that there were a few time where I thought we were all going to take flight. But, it's done so now the passholders have something to stand under in case it starts raining while they're here. Just keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't snow. That's when everything starts falling apart.

Famous people are starting to roll into town. I saw Ken Burns (you know, the documentary guy) wandering around town on Sunday with his daughter. He's here every year...and has a house here somewhere. Laura Linney and her fiance were also spotted on Main Street yesterday. She came to the festival four years ago as a guest and is now engaged to the guy who was assigned to show her around town and make sure she had everything she needed. So, she comes back to the festival every single year. She's very nice. We hear Gary Oldman bought a house in town over the past year so there's a contingent of us who have our fingers crossed that he'll show up too. He probably won't, but I'd stalk him if he did!

Okay, back to work I go!

Cookie Boy always makes the paper

Hilarious article.

Well, it looks like a theatre

And we have seats. And I'm dirty and frustrated and I'm going to sit here and watch Harry Potter for a while.

So far we're exactly on schedule. Today, we managed to use three girls to get this super heavy fiber optic artwork hung. They said it couldn't be done, but we did it...and, actually, it wasn't that bad.

After work, I went to a Mushroom Festival chef cookoff. There were four chefs and they all made a dish that featured locally picked mushrooms. The guy that won was the one amatuer of the bunch. He made a curry with lobster mushrooms. It was actually a really intersting dinner because the guy sitting next to me was one of the mushroom festival presenters. I told him I didn't like one of the dishes and he said, "Oh, that's because the whatever kind of mushroom it was completely overpowers the dish." I had no idea what he was talking about, but I took his word for it. I'll post pictures of the Mushroom Parade tomorrow. It's probably my favorite parade ever because it's basically just a bunch of people who dress up in funny costumes and wander down the street. It feels very Telluride.

Tomorrow, the seats move into the theatre so it's a very big day for me. It'll be fine, but I'd like to be very well rested so I'm going to bed. Just keep your fingers crossed that everyone that is supposed to show up acutally shows!

I'm so tired

We pulled just barely ahead of schedule today. We got the art in the theatre hung in no time. The theatre art is actually pretty neat. It's all Looney Tunes characters in famous paintings. There's one of The Scream that has Elmer Fudd and then Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny in the background holding signs that say Duck Season and Rabbit Season. When they're lit they kind of glow and look like real paintings and not just printed vinyl. After hanging the theatre artwork we spent about an hour trying to figure out what was going on with all of the art for the lobby. It all comes down to things not being labeled well at all. Plus, there aren't really any pictures of what the lobby is supposed to look like when it's done so we were just looking at the ceiling and matching eyebolts in the ceiling with cables on the poles to figure out what might go where. We spent most of the afternoon puzzling over a pole labeled "Horses' Butt" that seemed to go to a print that was totally lost. I finally figured out that the "Horses' Butt" print hasn't been used in that venue for years and actually now resides in the Press Tent (where I've hung it for the last four years). We managed to get few pieces up in the lobby before we had to give the lift back to the Conference Center guy so that they could start setting up for the Mushroom Festival Banquet tonight. We're doing okay, but we have to share the lift with the lighting crew tomorrow so there's not too much we can do until after lunch. I'm actually going to go to the hardware store tomorrow and get batteries for my camera so I can post some more pictures.

I'm covered in dust

Today we actually got to do some work in the venue. We blacked out the windows with huge black curtains made of this lovely velvet type material called duvateen. If you've ever been in a theatre and seen a black curtain, it's made out of duvateen. I'm pretty sure that one day I'm going to come down with some horrible disease and it's going to be caused by the dust that rises off of duvateen the minute you move it. The stuff is heavy and just holds whatever hits it. We hung the curtains, put the screen together and right before we got the screen in the air we realized that the actually screen was on the frame upsidedown. It took ten people to pull it off and turn it around, but we got it straight and got the screen in the air. (By the way, it wasn't my fault that it was upsidedown...I have nothing to do with putting the screen together! I just help)! We did everything today that I had planned which was very good. We're not ahead, but we're right on schedule. It got a little confusing for a while because we had a bunch of curtains and poles that weren't labeled in any way so we really had no idea where they went. We ended up just having to guess, but it looks like it's supposed to so it's all good. No matter how many times I read through those manuals I think it just ends up that they were written by people who thought they'd be doing this job forever so they just wrote some stuff down because they were supposed to. I also had a bunch of meetings with the Conference Center people and I think I'm just going to have to bypass the booker girl and deal with the guys who are actually on the crew. It seems like it's going to work out better that way. Tomorrow we start hanging artwork while they set up for the Mushroom banquet. It'll be interesting!

Tonight, they're showing a film by one of the guys that has worked for this festival for a while. He made a movie and it's premiering at the Toronto Film Festival (which is huge)! He was also named one of the Top 25 Young Filmmakers to Watch by Filmmaker Magazine. It's good to see someone getting some recognition. Yay!

And we've already made them mad

It's always been kind of a sticky situation dealing with the town. There are obviously good and bad sides to this festival. The good is that we bring in a ton of money in the off-season of this town. The bad is that we pretty much take over and make things kind of difficult for a few months. I've been dealing with the Conference Center since I got here and, so far, have had a very good relationship with the girl that is the booker there. The whole staff has changed from last year so she's as new to this job as I am. She asked for a schedule of when we thought we'd be in the building and what we thought we'd be doing each day so I sent her my schedule on Friday with each day mapped out until September 5th. The Conference Center has a couple of events next week that I knew we'd need to work around so I kept next week pretty light so that we'd be pretty flexible. Well, all hell broke loose this afternoon when I had a meeting with a guy from the Telluride local access TV station, the film festival's lighting guy, and the TV station's sound guy. It was just a simple meeting so that we could all coordinate how to work around each other for benefit concert the TV station is throwing on Friday. Our lighting guy is going to do their lighting and they're going to install a stage that we'll have to break down the next day. We were all just talking about when the stage was going to go in since the lighting needs to be done before the stage and the TV guy called the Conference Center to ask them if they could hold off on building the stage until Friday morning. In the Conference Center's exact words, "How about I find out when my crew can work and not let the film festival dictate when they work?" What it all comes down to is this poor girl has very little crew to pull from and they're already going to have to work late Friday night so she doesn't want to bring them in early on Friday. You can also tell from talking to her that she's just really overwhelmed with all of the things going on in the next two weeks, but there's not a lot that can be done. I've done what I can to our schedule to make it as flexible as possible, but the film festival starts less than two weeks from today so if I have to get in there at midnight and work, I will. (Well, not really, but I'd like to)! She called me later and explained everything and we worked it out as best we could, but I have a feeling that this week is going to be more difficult than I had originally thought. I don't think we're going to get the undisturbed access I thought we were. I think I'm going to have to be fighting with her crew for ladders and space.

The end of Week 1

There is a tradition within the Production Crew at the Film Festival that every year one of the Dogs (they're basically interns) dresses up like a superhero of sorts and rides around town to deliver cookies to everyone. He's called Cookie Boy and the entire town knows about him. Each Cookie Boy gets to design his own costume, but it usually involves tights and a cape. This year's poor Cookie Boy has had a bit of a rough time. He was questioned by the police one day last week after a concerned parent called to report some strangely dressed guy handing out cookies to kids (he wasn't actually giving them cookies, they just happened to be a bunch of kids around). Then, yesterday, his cape got caught in the wheel of his bike and he went flying over the handle bars...and broke his arm.

So, other than the Cookie Boy happenings, this week was pretty boring. I spent a lot of time in front of a computer and running around town trying to find things. We can't get into the Conference Center (where the theatre will be) until Tuesday so I kind of hit a point on Thursday where there wasn't anything else I could do. This is our one weekend off before the Festival so I'm pretty much just laying around all day. Last night, there was a free Taj Mahal concert in Mountain Village. It was completely packed with just about the entire town of Telluride. I stayed until it started hailing, but I got a really good view of the sunset on the way back down the Gondola. I ran into some co-workers when I got off the Gondola and we went to this really amazing french restaurant for cocktails and appetizers. My friend Ehren called me at about 11:30 and I met up with him to play some pinball...which I'm apparently really bad at. It was good fun and I got to spend some good, quality time with some old friends. My plan is to do absolutely nothing today and then head to a barbeque and party this evening.

Basics

Another thing I forgot about Telluride: You can see the galaxy here. We were walking back from the movie last night and I looked up at the sky and suddenly remembered how beautiful the stars are here. I keep going to bed so early that I'd hardly been out after dark! The stars are so bright and the galaxy cuts this swath across the sky. If you've never had the chance to see it, get out somewhere really dark and far away from city lights and look up. Actually, I've only ever seen it when I've been in the mountains (once in Virginia and everytime I've been here) so I don't know if altitude has something to do with it as well.

Today, I spent most of the day outside in the sun painting. We just had to repaint a ticket booth of sorts to clean it up a little. It was nice to not be in the office today, but it was certainly hot. My temperature gauge is all thrown off. I'm used to coming out here from Atlanta and thinking that Telluride is nice and cool, but I swear it's hotter here than it is in Seattle.

Tomorrow is a day of meetings, but I'm going to escape the office for the afternoon if I just have to disappear to do it. I hate spending all day inside in a place like this! Although, I guess I should enjoy these really slow days while it lasts because next week is going to start the crazy push to the end. I'm already scared of the calendar I've drawn up!

The World's Best Commute

Today I spent the morning on the computer moving things around that I realized during the night weren't going to work in the order I had them. I had a confidence boosting moment when one of the big managers said, "You'll be alright" and then we proceeded to have a conversation about what exactly was happening when and how many people it would take to do it and I never had to go back and look at my notes. Apparently, this stuff really is sticking in my brain and getting organized.

I took the free Gondola today to Mountain Village to take a look around. I was going through the notes from last year and kept finding references to landmarks in Mountain Village that I couldn't picture in my head. So, I decided I needed to go see it. The Gondola takes about 12 minutes to go from Telluride to MV and it's a beautiful ride. I took it once last year, very early in the morning, and thought that it would be the best way to commute to work everyday. You just slowly glide along and get an amazing view of the mountains. It only gets annoying when you're stuck in it with a little kid that won't shut up. It's cute for about two minutes, but then you have ten more to listen to them scream about the trees.

Tonight, I'm going to see a movie called Black Book. The festival apparently likes to educate us on film history and will show movies about twice a week. Most of them are old and things you've never heard of or things that you'd never get a chance to see because they're not on DVD. Sometimes though, they throw in something random and fun like The Big Lebowski...then we just all bring white russians to the screening and it gets pretty interesting.

Day 1

I spent today reading through the manual that tells me exactly what I need to do to set up the theatre that I'm in charge of putting together. My brain got very squishy, but I think I got it into some order that makes sense. I spent hours working on a very detailed calendar only to find out that the access dates we have to the venue may be different than what I was told this morning. Oh well, I cleared out the first couple of iffy days and just made the weekend super heavy so everyone will hate me. But, I really had no choice. Apparently, the government of the town of Mountain Village (which is just over the hill from Telluride) has split into two parts: the actual city government that provides all of the services and the Homeowners Association that collects all of the property taxes and therefore has all of the money. This is a new development from last year so now we're dealing with two systems that don't exactly get along. They've each scheduled all kinds of events for the conference center (where my theatre is) so we have to just kind of set up around them. It's going to be a mad dash, but I think it'll work.

My favorite calendar entry I made today: Check on the status of Chuck's brain.

I'm going to actually go walk into town now and see if things have changed much from last year. It seems that businesses don't normally close in this town, they just swap buildings. It's really odd.

Things I forgot about Telluride:

-The clouds here are crazy. Layers of puffy white stuff that seem so low to the ground...but maybe that's just because the ground is actually closer to them.

-How wild the landscape is as you fly from Denver to Montrose. Just outside of Montrose there's a canyon that just seems to come out of nowhere as this big slashing scar in the earth. Just after that, you pass over what looks like a desert, with sand colored rolling hills. And then you're at the airport.

-How hard it is to breathe here for the first couple of days. 9000 feet up ain't no joke!

Am I there yet?

At the request of a great many people I'm starting this blog to keep everyone updated on what I'm doing in this small mountain town. I can't promise anything you read here will be all that interesting, but I'll try my hardest to make it so!

I am currently in the Denver airport (the only airport I know of that has free wireless!) waiting for my flight to Montrose where I'll catch a shuttle to Telluride. It's been a long day already and I really just can't wait to fall into a bed and be asleep as early as I can.

To give everyone a little better idea of what I mean when I say, "we build theatres" in Telluride, here's a time-lapse video someone shot of one of the theatres we build. This isn't the one that I'll be in charge of, but it still gives you a pretty good idea of what goes into these things. I couldn't figure out how to embed the video so you'll just have to follow the link.

The Galaxy Theater