a little car ride to the office

1st failllll

hahahahaha

To piss or not to piss

so, lets call him caveman.

caveman started to feel pain in the lower back, kidney side and the pain worked up towards his chest.

this pain has been around a while now, maybe 2 months.

caveman also complains of pissing blood.

he eats a lot. he DON’T drink a lot. plain water. he eats fatty food. oily. fried.

ok. fine.

he gets tired easily. set ups. teardowns. loading. tires real fast.

he cant carry. cant be that difficult ya? bringing a M7CL down from a table on top of a 1foot hotel riser.

so one show, we were outside smoking. I saw him waiting by the road. hmmm. that’s funny.

a car pulls up. a guy passes him a plastic bag with what looks like takeaway.

he comes up, and poked him saying, waaa buy your own.

he says wad? u want durian? 

im simi lan? wtf? rehearsal time u order take away durian??????????

turns out he eats a pack everyday. durians! knn. how un healthy is that than?

like I said, he don’t drink much water. I see it.

“ eating durian will help me have a baby”

I simi lan again. this time scratch head hard hard.

he has been trying for a kid for bout 4 years. his wife has been for a fertility check. shes good.

wad about you? u had one?

“nope”. it might be me. I might be having a low sperm count. so I am eating durian. I heard it will make the chances of me having  kid higher.

I again, simi lan this guy toking?  durians can do that????? fuk la.

told him why don’t try tongkat ali? make u strong and horny. make cock stand sure can get baby one.

he say Singapore cant buy. hmmm. not true.

or have you gone for a fertility check too? nope he has not.

so a few days later his pain got worse. is it due to too much durians?

he went to the clinic. checked. was told he might have kidney stones.

kidney stones. time lapse formation of stones in your kidneys. not enough liquid input and output. certain chemicals will collage and form crystals. larger and larger. a stone is formed. or a few.

doctor told him that. so come Monday, hes going for a colored test. inject colored shit into him and than scan.

totally don’t get him.

wads durians gota do with having kids and pain in your lower right side back and your sperm count?

now his eating only steam fish at home, with a side plate of vegs. his wife says that’s good for him. healty food intake.

I hope caveman is drinking shit lots of water.

ps. im going to eat durians, 2-3 fruits a day from now on.

A day in Plymouth

Can't remember when the bus got in. 5? 6? Don't matter. Slept till 7 plus.

 Them bunks are tiny. For a large person that is. 2-3 inch " above" you is the headboard. Someone's feet is on the other side of it. Or their head depending which way they lie. If you really stretch out, your feet touches the other end of the bunk. Small, but comfy. Warm too. Each bunk has a ventalation system. Or fan. You chose. Each bunk has draw curtains for that few hours of privacy. This is the only area on the bus that is off limits to all but yourself. Written or unwritten rule, no one has the right to that space once you draw the curtain.

 On a tour bus, you do not have number twos. Only number ones. Number twos are a no no. We don't want the system stuck with shit do we?

 You have your shit at the venue before you get on the bus for that nights journey. You bath, shower, shit, piss, wash, clean your mouth, do your hair all before you get on the tour bus.

 Ok.. So woke up at Plymouth. Load in starts at 8am. You get outa bus, still sleepy or hung over and groggy, feeling a bit lost wondering wad the hell city you are in today. And you find the stage door. Hopefully the truck(s) are parked up against the dock doors. No point being there if the truck is stuck somewhere on the M2 near Huddersfield.

 Local crew, touring crew, show call crew. All there ready for the in. Normal set up. System up. All depts up. Everyone up and running by dinner time (lunch). Hmmmmm. Guess its off to the pub hey. The Bank it's called. Just off to the side of the stage door. Nice meal of sausages and mash maybe with extra chips. No bloody mushy peas!

 Band call at 1pm. Done by half one. Some movement of the mons. Some movement of the keyboards. Next, the dancers. They got 30 mins. Than the full run, total 30 mins. All in all, one and a half hours.

Doors open at 730pm. Oh dear, wad to do for 4-5 hours.

Explore the city/town.
Go back to sleep on the bus.
Chit chat with the band and cast in their rooms.
Go watch a movie in the bus.
Can't go to the pub to haves beers.
Go have a long "dinner" , tea in some fancy eatery.
Go do your shopping for your stuff for the bus.

Since its Plymouth in summer, almost everyone ended on the Hoe. Nice view of the harbour. Nice sun out. Hopefully see some hot Plymouth chick jogging along the roads.

 Last min checks. Ppl in. Curtain up. Show starts on time. Maybe 3-4 mins late. No longer, unlike some countries.

Show over in one and a half.

 Load out starts. Truck doors closed by 1030pm. Than it's time for the ppl on the bus to wash up. Up the bus we go. Head count. And away we go, to the next city or town,could be far, could be near.

 Anyways, this is the fun time. The bus has, the main sitting area. DVD, play station, videos, tv, radio. Sofas nice and large. Forward of the bus,top floor, is another sitting area with 4 large chairs. You can spend your time here working. This is the quite area. Or you can stare out the front of the bus if you want. The lower deck, the kitchen. Large table for 8. This is an important area. It's where you keep your beers cold.
Some drink.
Some sleep.
Some work.
Some watch tv.
Some read.
 All types. As the bus is your home for however long the tour is, you must and will respect other people's doings.
Every one goes home after work. On that bus, it needs to be that. Home.

Well, that was our day in Plymouth.
On that tour, we did 16 cities. I think. Can't recall.

Longest ride was Newcastle to Cardiff. Beer well drank I'd say.

Cheers.

Project " carry 2 NL4 cables "

 The Demag / Terex CC2600 SWSL

Superlift Options Avaliable.

Super lift setup = 125t @ 16m from radius, @ 66m Height

                         = 26t @ 98m radius,

@ 100m Height

Shall attempt to make one out of wood, plastic pulleys, steel wires, nuts, bolts, nails and red paint.

and of course lead from the fish shop.

Aim - to be able to carry to scale, maybe not, x02 NL4 speaker cables. 

Technical drawings has started. But shopping list not complied yet. 

Subjected to approval from some engineer somewhere.

kk. back to the drawing board.  

regards.

 

Fantastic Bus Number 183

Bus 183. Only bus that goes from either Clementi Mrt or Jurong Int to Toh Guan Road East. Kk. No issue.  But, why can't they have more running at from like, 1730 to 1900?  This is the time that more buses are needed! Knn!  Walk down after work, reaching the bus stop at 1804, can cb wait till 1845 for one single bus. Pui.  Send more from the other end, and reaching that area at around 1745 can't be that hard right? One year taking this route and seems the same.  No additional buses.  Packed. And yet people also get left behind at the stop. Can't fit in. Oh well.  Put more cb bus lor at that timing.  Than get to the tube. Same shit all over again lol. Packed all the way to city hall.  Arrrr the finer points of public transport.  Car. Worse? Cte and aye jam all the way towards the east. 

Radio Running Part 2

Nick has spent the last 19 years working in the sound industry. He began his formal education in sound from the bottom - learning to coiling and cleaning speaker cables. He has since come a long way and has worked on many big name concerts and tours in Asia and in the UK. Nick is currently employed as the Head of Sound of a major production rental house based in Singapore.

Radio Runners have a pretty hard job to do. Running of radios, radio running, the mic guy, the mic girl, the mic person. They are called many things, but the job is really about one thing and one thing only - to get a good input into the mic. In Part One I covered the basics of the runner’s role and coordinating with the speakers. In Part Two I will elaborate on batteries and communication.

The changing of batteries.

If done wrongly, old ‘used’ batteries might just end up in the transmitters again. Many runners have their own individual method when it comes to changing the batts (batteries). Some are very comfortable with keeping to their own formula... which work. However runners should also learn from one another .

Try not to change the transmitters one by one. The batts you take out might end up mixed with new batts. If you have, let’s say, 20 to change, and if you have someone to assist you, you both might forget which are the ones that have fresh batts, which ones have not. A simple method a runner could follow is to take out ALL the batteries from the transmitters. Get rid of them. Then get out the new batts and put them in. In this way there is no confusion of which batts are old or new.

Contact with the Snd Op.

If all goes according to the plan/rundown, then all is fine. If it does not, then instant contact between runner(s) and Snd Op is needed. While the show is going on, runners should also be pre fading the inputs at the radio racks. Every now and then, before handing the mics out, a runner must listen.

This section is based on ballroom type shows, e.g., conferences. I will deal with the subject of theatre scenarios in a later article.

Now, If things don’t go to plan, it could be for a few reasons: 

A: An extra mic is needed on stage.

B: A mic dies suddenly on/off stage.

C: Frequency problems arising out of the blue.

D: Transmitter being damaged.

E: Transmitter not turned On.

All the five reasons requires a change of sorts which the Snd Op needs to know ASAP. Your best bet is for both to carry a set of walkie-talkies. The Runner and Snd Op has to turn on their sets at all times.

If A happens, get a new mic onstage while letting the Snd Op know which one it is. All the op needs to do is to make it “live”. In the general run down of things, you should have one dedicated mic for this type of emergency. If it is that one mic being pushed up onstage, its easy. If there are more than one, the Snd Op just needs to know which is the other extra mic.

If B crops up, and the speaker is using a clip-on mic, immediately pass the speaker a handheld. There isn’t any time to put a new clip-on mic on them. Usually there is no other way than going onstage to pass the mic because there might not even be time to pass the mic to the speaker’s assistant - you have to do it. If it’s offstage, change it fast to a new mic and inform the Snd Op. Once the change is done onstage, check the faulty mic out at the racks and try to fix the mic as fast as possible.

If C happens, change the mic onstage if need be. Also check the frequencies again at the rack.

If D happens, which is rarely, however in such cases its likely the unit was dropped or liquid entered into it.

If E happens, shout at the MC. Turning Off and turning On a transmitter is not a good thing. When a unit is turned On, the receiver will be actively looking for that unit through the whole frequency spectrum. If the fader to this mic is up (live receiver), the receiver might pick something up on its way to finding the allocated frequency. This “something” will be heard live. Rule of thumb: During show times, always leave units turned On or Off. Try not to On/Off any of your transmitters.

Runners also have to be fast on their feet. Know where the location of the speakers are. Approach them in rehearsals and tie down where they are seating. I always do this with my speakers. Meet and greet them. It’s faster than going through 3 layers of their personal assistants. You need to know where they sit. You need to know where they get off the stage. Don’t forget, you need that particular transmitter back for the next speaker and while all this is happening, another speaker is going onstage and you need to be around too. A speaker might come down stage right instead of stage left. You need to be there before they walk away with your transmitter. If they do, let them go. You have things to do in the stage area. Take note: That mic is “out of action” until you get it back. Plan your mics. Where are your spares? If a new transmitter needs to be used, Snd Op must know the deviation from the plan.

What happens if there is a clip-on and a handheld used in the “dual role” format? As mentioned above, try not to On/Off any transmitters during a show. In this case, if this dual role format is being used, its a high chance that very few transmitters/receivers are being used. The frequency finding issue won’t be that great. The Snd Op does not have time to deal with things going on backstage, and that job will fall solely to the radio runner (from a mic input point of view), and if the runner is also the system person backstage, than that too.

Simply put

The Radio Runner is the Snd Op’s main person backstage. The job of the runner is to get a good input into the correct transmitter receiver into the correct channel strip up FOH way in order for the Snd Op to produce a good output.

You can reach Nicholas at:

nicholas@glorious.com.sg