it's a small world after all

 I’ve been working with a couple lighting companies that do theater and event gigs. It’s such a different universe than I’m accustomed to and I feel completely out of my element most of the time. Not only is the lighting style totally different but learning what they call all the equipment and how they run power, and blah blah blah. It can be a little frustrating: I get a list of orders and don’t really understand the “language”, so then I ask a million questions so I don’t fuck it all up, and by the time I’ve got a grasp of the equipment they’re talking about I’ve forgotten what the hell I’m supposed to be doing with it. But I’m getting there, slowly. And I must not be doing too badly because they keep calling me back.

About 2 months ago my friend back in LA told me that a friend of hers was going on tour and would be playing a few shows in Wellington. She gave me his info and I sent him an email saying I was looking forward to his performance and asked if he needed a place to crash. He wrote me back saying he was getting put up in a hotel but maybe we could grab a cup of coffee or a beer when he got to town. Well, I didn’t hear from him again and lost track of the tour dates and finally I just figured I had missed it.

About a week and a half ago I get hired to rig a stage downtown. I’m going about my business and a guy walks up and watches us work for a minute. “Do you break this stage down and rebuild it every night?” “no,” I say. “We’re just changing stuff and adding lights for the performance tomorrow night.” “oh,” he replies. “That’s me… I’m performing tomorrow night. Hi, I’m Jason Webley.” Hmmmm… that name sounds familiar. “where are you from?” I ask. “Seattle.” “Wait, do you play accordion? ARE YOU KELLY’S FRIEND!?!?!?”

We both stand open jawed for a minute and then giggled at the fate of it all. Wellington is a little city – I run into people all the time -- but to run into someone from the other side of the globe makes the entire world seem small.

I had to work during his first 2 performances but got to see his final show. WHAT AN ACT! And, I know what you’re thinking “accordion… really?!” If you ever get a chance to see this guy, grab it and pay any amount of money to do so. Incredible!

Work slowed substantially last week, giving me a chance to help out some of my friends and see some of their shows that are part of the Fringe Festival. Friday a lot of the acts got together and put on a fundraiser for Christchurch, which was awesome. For such a small place there is some incredible talent.

Saturday night was Fuse Circus’ last performance and we had to remove the rig from the park after the show. There were many people lending hands and we finished relatively quickly, around 1 in the morning. And off to the wrap party we went, where I partied like one of the carnies and we danced around the fire until sun up.

The head of Fuse Circus told me his plans of refining the show over the next few months and hopefully taking it on tour next summer. And he wants me to come along. Which would be awesome, especially if I got paid.

Starting tomorrow I am doing some work for Homegrown music festival. I’m hoping to score a pass to see some of the shows on Saturday, otherwise I may have to break in (it's been sold out for a while). Then on Sunday we tear it all apart again.

I’ve been doing my weekly check in on The Hobbit. Supposedly they are still on "schedule" to start shooting March 21st. Peter Jackson is still ill so production isn't approving anything that costs money, which includes ordering equipment and hiring workers. My roommate is in the construction department and says she's been doing busy work for the last 2 weeks cuz nothing new can be made. My rigging buddies spend a lot of time drinking tea and polishing steel cuz the equipment they need hasn't gotten approved. Which, to me, means one of two things -- either the start date will get pushed again or when the green light is given to spend, they are gonna need a lot of people and a lot of work done really fast.

So, hopefully in the next few weeks, I will begin doing what I came here to do. Maybe. 

flowers from danny

Only 31 more days til Danny gets here. Maybe he can do what I came here to do.

couchsurfing and kiwiburning

Wow. So it’s been a while. And a lot has happened.

The lease went up on my frat house flat with the great view and we all moved our separate ways. We did have one night of roomie bonding the night before -- drank beer, played mahjong, and actually connected on some similar music tastes. Weird how I lived with these guys for 6 weeks and never really knew them.

I moved my stuff into a friend’s garage and had a variety of couches to crash on until my next temporary move. Decided since it had been a week, I hadn’t heard anything from anyone, it was time to crash the hobbit stages again. So tried my old move of just riding my bike through the gates like I owned the place (hey, it worked last time) but got stopped by security. I explained that I had a meeting with Tony Keddy (you know, the key grip who hasn’t returned my calls in the last 2 months) and acted confused when they said he hadn’t called me in a pass. They had me sign a confidentiality contract and just as they were calling up the office, who should walk right past the gate but the key grip Tony Keddy himself. After the security guard said “oh, there he goes now” I called out “hey Tony.” To which he exclaimed “Jeanne Dear?!?” how the hell he knew who I was is beyond me but the timing was impeccable. So I finally got to meet my (hopefully) future boss. We chatted for about 20 minutes, he explained how oddly this show is starting out, the schedule constantly changing, the complete lack of communication, and he told me he should know more about the schedule next week.

I was running a few more errands and ran right into a baliwood film shooting a car crash stunt downtown. I poked around, found the lighting/grip truck and started talking to people. A lot of the crew was from Auckland but a couple were locals and they quickly took me over to meet the key grip. Her name is Melissa, that’s right, HER! Awesome. She said they only had a few shooting days left but there’s another project starting in a few weeks.

So there was nothing left to do but load up my car and head up to kiwiburn a little early. Put the word out to see if anyone in town needed a ride and ended up with two awesome ladies (and one unicycle) to keep me company. Took our time getting up there and made it to camp a little after midnight. The gates were locked but fires were burning, music was blaring, and people were partying so we hopped the fence and joined the festivities.

In the morning I threw my toolbelt over my shoulder (while still wearing my bright pink tutu) and headed in the direction of construction. I walked up to the people scratching their head around “the man” and told them I was a rigger. In about 10 minutes I was the rigger and people were asking me what to do next. We came to a standstill when we realized we needed more than a tractor to erect the man so I climbed up he hill and began assisting in the building of one of the main music camps.

The next morning I climbed out of my hammock, started making some coffee and getting ready for a morning kayak around the lake when a van pulled up next to me. “Are you the rigger from LA? Get in the van… we need your help with the cow!” 

It felt absolutely amazing to have such a big hand in all this.

My camp mates (most of whom I met at kiwiburn two years prior) finally showed up Thursday night. It was like I instantly had a family. The whole weekend we ate together, played together, relaxed together, laughed until we peed together. We did our own individual stuff too but always had a home base to return to. It was the most I have ever felt I belonged. Started off most days with a baileys and coffee, then progressed onto brunch with vodka orange juice, and ending with drinking tequila straight from the bottle. We had a few amazing capoeira lessons (from our german guru who had never done capoeira a day in his life), some cuddle puddles, amazing music performances (not just the reunion tour of the incredible duo One on One, but also the impromptu Sound of Music Sing-Along), collective body painting, the great corn hunt, and even naked interpretive dance. An incredible week with beautiful people and probably my best burn experience yet.

Coming back to “reality” this last week was difficult (it always is) but luckily I got to bring back a piece of my burn family, Sam. We had a couple more nights of couch surfing before moving into the new temporary home – he’s living with me for the month he’s in Wellington. The other people we’re living with haven’t moved in yet but a few of their friends from out of town were crashing here for this giant city-wide party, the rugby 7’s. There is no furniture in the house yet so it was like a slumber party. I was kind of excited to experience the 7’s cuz it turns out it has very little to do with rugby and everything to do with people dressing up in crazy costumes and getting really drunk. But, as luck would have it, I got the call for my first “real” job over the weekend.

So I spent most of Friday night building truss and hanging lights and ALL of Saturday night (until 9am Sunday morning) breaking down truss and taking down lights. It’s incredibly nice to be working again, and even nicer to be makin money. I worked for them again today and they may have a few more days  for me this week.

 

I have progressed beyond my reception duties at the SPCA. I’m now doing the photographs for the pets for adoption and lost animals and putting everything up on the net. I actually enjoy going there now.

Word on The Hobbit is grim. Peter Jackson got sick and was hospitalized (although I think he’s out of the hospital now) and the shoot date has been pushed… AGAIN! If this thing actually ever gets made…

But I did receive a phone call last night from a guy I emailed months ago. He’s the key grip of this Spielberg film called Tintin. He had forgotten to get back to me before and just gave me a call to say he’s going to be needing people soon. Good to hear :)