Schooled by Bugs

I wish I'd thought of this

2010-01-17T11:54:00.000-08:00

I'm amazed by this "Text Haiti" campaign. Maybe it's because I sit in class and talk about how difficult it is for nonprofits to successfully fundraise...especially now. This isn't the first "mobile giving" campaign, but it's the first I've been aware of. It's so brilliant. I don't even have to get up, go find my purse, dig out my credit card, log on to a website, type in the numbers and hit submit. All I have to do is grab my phone, which is probably right next to me or in my pocket, send a text message, and boom! There it is on my bill.

Brilliant! I'm not kidding. I really think this is one of the smartest ideas I've ever seen.

So, I had to do some digging about the company behind this. The Text Haiti campaign is being run through a company called mGive. mGive has it's own 501(c)3 foundation attached to it, but I can't actually figure that part out. So, mGive charges charities a monthly fee between $399 and $1,499 to set up the technical stuff, negotiate with cell phone carriers, get the text number and word, and basically handle all of the logistics. mGive also takes between $0.30 - $0.35 plus 3.5% of each successful transaction.

Alright, so, a large organization like the Red Cross contracts with mGive. They pay $1500/month (you have to sign a 12 month contract) for the service. An earthquake happens in Haiti. $10 million dollars is raised by $10 text messages in less than a week. That's approximately one million people texting. mGive gets a little less than a dollar for each transaction. mGive just made almost a million dollars for itself in one week.

What's even better than this, is the money that goes to the charity, doesn't even come from mGive. It comes from the cell phone carriers who collect the money from the bill and pass it on to the charity. And you can't even really fault mGive for charging the charity for the service considering that they enabled the Red Cross to raise $10 million dollars in less than 7 days. That doesn't happen unless Bill Gates or Warren Buffett decides to give you money.

It's utterly brilliant.

2009-11-08T08:24:00.001-08:00

It's official. I've changed my major. As of the Winter Quarter I will be working towards and MFA in Arts Leadership. I finally just figured I might as well stop fighting the fact that no matter what I do I'm going to end up in the Arts and just embrace it!

2009-11-04T08:01:00.000-08:00

"Tom," said Douglas, "just promise me one thing, okay?"

"It's a promise. What?"

"You may be my brother and maybe I hate you sometimes, but stick around, all right?"

"You mean you'll let me follow you and the older guys when you go on hikes?"

"Well...sure...even that. What I mean is, don't go away, huh? Don't let any cars run over you or fall off a cliff."

"I should say no! Whatta you think I am, anyway?"

"'Cause if worst comes to worst, and both of us are real old - say forty or forty-five some day - we can own a gold mine out West and sit there smoking corn silk and growing beards."

"Growing beards! Boy!"

"Like I say, you stick around and don't let nothing happen."

"You can depend on me," said Tom.

"It's not you I worry about," said Douglas. "It's the way God runs the world."
Tom thought about that for a moment.
"He's all right, Doug," said Tom. "He tries."

-Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

2009-11-02T14:57:00.000-08:00

I might be changing my major. From this to this.

2009-10-21T11:52:00.001-07:00

I found this job posted on craigslist a few weeks ago. It sounds perfect and EXACTLY like what I'm looking for...part time for now that could morph into something else later. It's with a very small start-up nonprofit called Vittana Foundation. They're a microlending firm that works with people in Latin and Central America who want to go to school, but can't afford it.

Anyway, I sent a resume/cover letter about two weeks ago and haven't heard anything. The posting said, "no calls," so I started looking into how to followup without calling. I stalked the CEO on LinkedIn and Facebook and found a couple of people I used to work with who were connected to him. I contacted them and they sent him messages mentioning my name. Another person I used to work with is friends with one of the guys who is listed as an "advisor" to their organization on their website. She sent him a message and he passed my name along as well. I still haven't heard anything!

What do you have to do to get someone to call you?!

2009-09-02T06:36:00.000-07:00

This week has been a waiting game and I'm now terrified about the next two and a half days. The first show at our theatre is a patron/press screening on Friday at 2:30pm. That means everything needs to be perfect by then. So far, we've been waiting on artwork, we've been waiting on hardware and construction projects, we've been waiting on ladders. Now, we have two and a half days to finish everything...and we're still waiting on a few things. I can see Friday morning being insane. Keep your fingers crossed that I'm wrong.

Pictures!

2009-08-29T20:08:00.001-07:00

The Mushroom Parade has to be one of my very favorite Telluride traditions. There's a Mushroom Festival the weekend before the film festival and the parade is the best part. It lasts about a minute and usually involves a bunch of people in funny costumes just wandering down the street.

This guy is not a lost member of the Grateful Dead, but a San Miguel County Commissioner.
The annual Schlep/Production soccer game was Friday. Production won for the second year in a row. This is the view you get when you play soccer in Telluride.

2009-08-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

I know. I know. I've been bad about updating. We've been doing really well. We're right where we need to be to get everything done by Friday. The seats moved in this morning. The theatre seats that we use go from Telluride to Sundance and are used at their festival. They usually come back a little beat up, but this is the worst I've ever seen them. It looked like Sundance had decided to set up a theatre in the snow and left these seats out in the weather for a while. We spent about two hours cleaning them. There are always a bunch of broken seats and, no matter how hard I've tried, I can't fix them. Last year I tried super strong epoxy glue and zip ties to fix the broken arm rests. Nothing worked until one of the very handy guys that works with us came up with a drill and a bunch of nuts and bolts.

Moving the seats in went relatively smoothly except they brought the wrong truck first. The seats are loaded into two separate trailers that go to Utah and then are stored at the Telluride Airport. The seats should unload so that the theatre fills from back to front. This morning, they brought the wrong truck first so the room basically filled from front to back. It caused a few traffic jams, but it worked out.

I'm taking the night off and hanging out in an empty condo by myself. It's great!

Day 1 Done

2009-08-25T20:42:00.000-07:00

Curtains hung along the windows to block the light.

The screen frame being put together.

The screen going up.

The artwork being hung. The artwork created for this theatre was specially painted/designed by Chuck Jones. They're all rip-offs of famous paintings using the Looney Tunes characters.

We actually got everything done that I wanted to today. The good news is that most of the other theatres are done so I get LOTS of help. The bad news is that sometimes they won't freakin' leave. The entire rigging department came up today to help put up the screen. The rigging department is in charge of putting up every screen and curtain at the festival and, more importantly, making sure they don't come tumbling from the sky and clunking someone on the head. They came this morning to put up our screen. It was super crowded in the ballroom for a while. Then, the concessions guys came to set up the concessions stands. Then, the art department came to decide how to completely redesign the concessions banners and paint. There were probably 20 people running around the ballroom and lobby for a little while. The best part for me was running from one person to the other making sure everyone had what they needed and answering any questions. It went well though and we got everything done I had on the list today...except for not being able to hang one set of curtains because we still can't find the cables we need to hang it. I'll either find it tomorrow or have more made.

Here we go!

2009-08-24T16:14:00.001-07:00

It's raining in Telluride. It is supposed to rain all week. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the rain will move out this week because we're scheduled to do a bunch of outside work next week. I'll be buying a raincoat if this mess keeps up.

This was my one slow day before the madness starts tomorrow. We have approximately 10 days to get the theatre together. Our first show is Thursday, September 3rd at 2:30pm. Thankfully, every other major theatre is pretty much done so we'll be getting a lot of help. It'll happen. It always does, even though it's always a mad dash to the very end. All I gotta do is make it until September 5th and I'll get a day off!

I should be packing...

2009-08-20T09:41:00.001-07:00

...but I'm not. I've always been a last minute packer. At the moment, I'm doing laundry. I should also be cleaning the house to leave it all nice and shiny for the boys. But I'm not. I'm watching the Golden Girls. I have to say, daytime tv never really changes all that much. It's off to Atlanta tonight (red-eye) and off to Telluride on Sunday. So, here we go!

between receptionist friends

2009-07-22T12:19:00.000-07:00

J: i just feel like it's such a waste of my life sitting here
me: I feel the same way! The only thing I've gained is an amazing knowledge of popular culture.
J: at least you gained something
me: haha! oh yeah. it's been great.

17 days and counting!

Is this a Southern song?

2009-05-06T17:20:00.000-07:00

I really don't think so, but Anders says he's never heard it.

Do your ears hang low?
Do they wobble to and fro?
Can you tie 'em in a knot?
Can you tie 'em in a bow?
Can you throw 'em over your shoulder
Like a Continental soldier?
Do your ears hang low?

Writer's Block Topics from my good friend Amanda

2009-02-24T16:57:00.000-08:00

Your job: I go from feeling confident that my job/company are okay to being completely freaked out that I will come to work tomorrow morning and find a boarded up office. I don't even have to watch the news to find out about layoffs and cutbacks because information about this stuff hits my email before it even hits the newspapers. I am sick and tired of being a receptionist, but I think I've resigned myself to weathering this storm as best I can from behind this desk.

Your ideal vacation: My ideal vacation is not the one I just had in Hawaii. While it was great to lie on the beach and read silly books for a straight week, I feel like I saw a resort and not Hawaii. I like to stay in cheap hotels and make the locals tell you where they would go to eat and drink. Actually, my ideal vacation is the one I had in Cinque Terre, Italy. I met some great people who were travelling alone. The hostel was full so we asked one of the guys at the desk where we could stay and went and talked to some old woman in a restaurant. We ended up in a beautiful apartment, ate dinner in the same restaurant and ended up drinking wine with the cook until 4am. The next day we went hiking along sea cliffs and drank beer in every town we came to. That is the kind of vacation I love.

Favorite movie (mwahhahahahah!): This is an evil topic! A few, in no particular order:

Casablanca - I truly believe this is one of the best scripts ever written. How do you get so many memorable scenes and great one liners in one movie?

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Both for the beauty of the film and the way it made me cry for 20 minutes in the corner of the theatre when it was over. The scenes between the old dad and the son killed me.

Rope - My favorite Hitchcock. I love the psychology of this movie and I get to reference it a lot in conversation!

There are more, but I can't think of any!

On living FAR from "home" (discuss): To tell you the truth, living so far from home is not as hard as I thought it would be (given the situations that arise from time to time and make my family nutty). I don't like talking to my parents and hearing how tired and depressed they sound and knowing that I can't even be there to make sure they're eating. I love Seattle and I don't plan on leaving in the forseeable future. That being said, as my parents get older and, depending on where my brother's life takes him, it will be harder and harder to be so far away. I do see myself moving back towards the southeast at some point. I figure I have a good 10 - 15 years to do my own thing before the task of taking care of my brother gets passed on to me. As I told Scott, "when my parents die, I will suddenly have a kid who's only 3 years younger than me."

Ha!

2009-02-03T15:13:00.001-08:00

The Director of Photography who was the focus of Christian Bale's freak out on the set of the new Terminator movie is the guy who was the DP on Drumline (which I worked on a lifetime ago). He's kind of a douchebag. This story just got even more hilarious!

2009-01-16T11:35:00.001-08:00

I don't think that I'm going to wake up on Tuesday morning and suddenly, all of this nation's problems will have magically evaporated. Although I am proud that this country finally managed to elect a president regardless of the color of his skin, I don't see Barack Obama as the superhero that a lot of people seem to. When it comes down to it, he's still just a human being and, maybe more importantly, he's still just a politician. That being said, eight years of the last administration is definitely enough. It's time to get some new blood in the White House and see if they have any new ideas to get us out of this mess. So, as a goodbye to Mr. Bush, I give you, W's Greatest Hits.

New Year's Eve

2008-12-31T16:57:00.000-08:00

I just had a flashback to Athens. I'm currently sitting in my house all alone. It's hardly ever empty (basically because Scott and I are pretty much always here at the same time). I'm listening to music, playing around in the kitchen, and waiting for a party to start. A party that I didn't plan or really know about, but I'm excited about. That used to happen all the time when I lived in Athens. I lived in a house with three other people. We never locked the door (the lock didn't work anyway and no one could find their keys). I'd always come home to find someone there, whether they actually lived there or not. We all worked at Borders. I usually worked in the mornings while everyone else worked at night. I'd get home around 5 and they'd be heading to work. There were a few times when someone would call from their shift and say, "We're having a party tonight at the house. So-and-So is coming over to help you pick up the keg and bring you some money." So, So-and-So would show up at the door and we'd be off gathering party supplies. I'd get dropped off later and have a few hours in the strangely empty house to listen to music, make some snacks, and wait for a party.

This is pretty accurate!

2008-12-31T08:38:00.001-08:00

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are a Katharine!

You are a Katharine -- "I am happy and open to new things"

Katharines are energetic, lively, and optimistic. They want to contribute to the world.

How to Get Along with Me

* Give me companionship, affection, and freedom.

* Engage with me in stimulating conversation and laughter.

* Appreciate my grand visions and listen to my stories.

* Don't try to change my style. Accept me the way I am.

* Be responsible for youself. I dislike clingy or needy people.

* Don't tell me what to do.

What I Like About Being a Katharine

* being optimistic and not letting life's troubles get me down

* being spontaneous and free-spirited

* being outspoken and outrageous. It's part of the fun.

* being generous and trying to make the world a better place

* having the guts to take risks and to try exciting adventures

* having such varied interests and abilities

What's Hard About Being a Katharine

* not having enough time to do all the things I want

* not completing things I start

* not being able to profit from the benefits that come from specializing; not making a commitment to a career

* having a tendency to be ungrounded; getting lost in plans or fantasies

* feeling confined when I'm in a one-to-one relationship

Katharines as Children Often

* are action oriented and adventuresome

* drum up excitement

* prefer being with other children to being alone

* finesse their way around adults

* dream of the freedom they'll have when they grow up

Katharines as Parents

* are often enthusiastic and generous

* want their children to be exposed to many adventures in life

* may be too busy with their own activities to be attentive

Take Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz at HelloQuizzy

No way!

2008-11-12T14:38:00.001-08:00

Laser Portraits!

This makes me proud to be from Atlanta

2008-10-30T13:49:00.000-07:00

Lyrics:

Obama on the left
McCain on the right
We can talk politics all night
And you can vote however you like
You can vote however you like, yeah

Democratic left
Republican right
November 4th we decide
And you can vote however you like
You can vote however you like, yeah

(McCain supporters)
McCain is the man
Fought for us in Vietnam
You know if anyone can
Help our country he can
Taxes droppin low
Dont you know oils gonna flow
Drill it low
I'll show our economy will grow

McCain's the best candidate
With Palin as his running mate
They'll fight for gun rights, pro life,
The conservative right
Our future is bright
Better economy in site
And all the world will feel our military might

(Obama supporters)
But McCain and Bush are real close right
They vote alike and keep it tight
Obama's new, he's younger too
The Middle Class he will help you
He'll bring a change, he's got the brains
McCain and Bush are just the same
You are to blame, Iraq's a shame
Four more years would be insane

Lower your Taxes - you know Obama Won't
PROTECT THE LOWER CLASS - You know McCain won't!
Have enough experience - you know that they don't
STOP GLOBAL WARMING - you know that you won't

I want Obama
FORGET OBAMA
Stick with McCain and you're going to have some drama
We need it
HE'LL BRING IT
He'll be it
YOU'LL SEE IT
We'll do it
GET TO IT
Let's move it
DO IT!

Obama on the left
McCain on the right
We can talk politics all night
And you can vote however you like
You can vote however you like, yeah

Democratic left
Republican right
November 4th we decide
And you can vote however you like, I said
You can vote however you like, yeah

I'm talking big pipe lines, and low gas prices
Below $2.00 that would be nice

But to do it right we gotta start today
Finding renewable ways that are here to stay

I want Obama
FORGET OBAMA,
Stick wit McCain you gone have some drama
MORE WAR IN IRAQ
Iran he will attack
CAN'T BRING OUR TROOPS BACK
We gotta vote Barack!

Obama on the left
McCain on the right
We can talk politics all night
And you can vote however you like, I said
You can vote however you like, yeah

Democratic left
Republican right
November 4th we decide
And you can vote however you like, I said
You can vote however you like, yeah

Teams I'm supporting this weekend

2008-10-08T14:28:00.001-07:00

Texas against Oklahoma. The number 1 team has to go down.

Florida against LSU. This is a really tough one. I hate Florida...with a passion...and most of my dad's family went to LSU. The thing is, LSU is ranked #4 and Florida is ranked #11 so it's better for my team if Florida wins).

And then, of course, there is Georgia against Tennessee. After our horrible performance against Alabama, we absolutely have to win this one. Plus, Tennessee isn't even ranked. If we lose, it's all over...and I'll cry. And do a lot of tequila shots.

Winding Down

2008-09-09T11:31:00.000-07:00

This week is just a lot of packing up and shoving things into deep dark corners to be lost until next year when we try to find them again and can't. I've spent a lot of time playing real life Tetris and trying to fit a lot of things into spaces that are way too small. We also helped out the Schlep guys this morning because half of their crew is hurt or sick. So, I've spent a lot of the morning lugging things around. Now, I'm headed over to do some paperwork. Hooray!

Lazy Sunday

2008-09-07T19:39:00.000-07:00

Today I wandered down to the end of town to take a look at Bridal Veil Falls. It was only about a fifteen minute walk past the end of the business district, but I hadn't walked down there since my first year out here. It was such a beautiful day and when you get past Town Park, it gets so quiet and you really feel like you're in the middle of nowhere. There are a few houses and I saw one or two cars, but it's pretty uninhabited. I saw about a million chipmunks. They were very, very cute and chubby. The building at the top of the falls was once a power plant and is now a house. If you saw the movie The Prestige they did a really crazy shot running up the waterfall to this house. I can't imagine living up there. And, apparently, the people who live there have small children. What a weird place to grow up. From time to time, when it snows a lot, these people get completely stuck in their house. They did install some sort of zip line like escape chair to get out, but it just seems like a really odd place to live. I think it actually might be for sale. Can you blame them?

2008-09-06T08:38:00.001-07:00

Last night was the annual Schlep Wedding. This is the fourth year in a row that the guy that runs the Schlep Crew, Timmy, has gotten married...to a woman. Timmy's gay and will not hire anyone to his crew sight unseen, therefore, he has this crew made up of amazingly good-looking 20 to 30 year old guys. The Schlep Wedding is always the best party of the year and this one didn't disappoint. It was a really good end to a very stressful week.

Now I'm off to our 10am Meeting...otherwise known and the Guiness Breakfast. (Yes, there is a bar here that opens at 10am).

2008-09-05T17:37:00.000-07:00

There is a major communication gap in this festival and it completely messed me up this morning. As I walked over to breakfast at 8am, I got a phone call from one of the guys at the Conference Center. It went like this:

Him: I'm sorry to bother you so early, but I just got here and I'm a little concerned that no one is here yet.
Me: Confused pause
Him: You know you need to be completely cleared out of here by 11am, right?
Me: No, I didn't know that.
Him: Well, your boss knew.
Me: Well he didn't tell me.

So, I go to breakfast completely annoyed, scarf down a bagel, tell the guy who distributes the labor pool that I need a ton of people and run to the Gondola to head up the mountain. We were completely cleared out at 10:53am. The wonderfully helpful Tami and I carried 1500 pounds worth of sandbags up a staircase and into the booth where they get stored in about 20 minutes. It was an incredibly crazy few hours and I was so exhausted when we were done. This all could have been avoided with just a phone call from my boss or someone at the Conference Center, where I've been working all week, saying, "by the way, did you know you need to be out of here by 11am on Friday?" I'm not quite sure where the communication breakdown occurred, but it made my morning pretty hellish.

In other news, tonight is the biggest party of the film festival year so all of this will be forgotten very soon!

Apparently

2008-09-05T06:24:00.000-07:00

People really like us around here until this thing actually starts coming apart. Then, they just want us out of the way. We've had a pretty icy reception at the Conference Center all week. I don't know what the change was, but all of a sudden, they just seem to want us gone. So much so that they called my boss yesterday to ask when we would be done even though I gave them a schedule three weeks ago that said we'd be out by today (Friday). I was also at the Conference Center all day yesterday and talked to every person that works there and no one ever asked me...they just called my boss. It wasn't that I got in trouble (in any way, shape, or form), it was just incredibly annoying.

So, today, about ten of us are going up to just rip the thing apart. There are actually only three things left to do and we should be done by early afternoon. I'm so ready to be out of that place and not have to deal with these people anymore.

Tonight is also the big party of the year. It's a wedding where a gay man will be marrying his fourth wife. It's a tradition that started a while ago and it always turns out to be the most fun party of the year. Sorry I've been so lazy about posting lately, but we've just been so busy and I've been so tired! I'll get better about it...and then I'll be home and I'll have nothing to write about anymore!

Alright kids

2008-09-03T19:25:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've updated, but the weekend was pretty insane so I haven't really had a chance to sit down and process the whole thing. I saw some really great movies. The absolute best I saw was one called Slumdog Millionaire. There is no way this film won't come out into wide release, but I highly recommend it when it does! It was easily the best thing I saw at the festival. A lits of the other great things I saw:

The Good, The Bad, and The Weird.

and

Happy Go Lucky.

Yesterday and today have been a whirlwind of breakdown. It's amazing how quickly these things go up and then how incredibly quickly they come down. We learned from the Conference Center today that we couldn't use the lift this afternoon or at all tomorrow. That serioulsy screwed up my schedule, but it turns out that the entire rigging crew is scheduled to be in Mountain Village on Friday so we'll be okay. That means we should be able to get a lot done on Friday that I would have spread out over two days. If I'm lucky, we'll be pretty done by Friday and I can spend next week catching up on the paperwork I haven't come anywhere close to updating in the past three weeks!

And now the part I'm really worried about

2008-08-28T05:43:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-08-26T23:15:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-08-26T06:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-24T12:13:00.000-07:00

Hilarious article.

Well, it looks like a theatre

2008-08-23T13:40:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-22T22:06:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-20T16:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-19T16:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-18T16:41:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-16T09:16:00.001-07:00

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

2008-08-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-12T16:11:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-11T16:08:00.000-07:00

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:

2008-08-10T18:46:00.000-07:00

-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?

2008-08-10T12:37:00.000-07:00

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