They Might Be Giants Concert in Atlanta 5-3-06

Yeah, yeah! I know that the concert was a month ago. I'm trying to catch up! Which is why I'm going to write very little about the concert itslef, except that it was the best live performance that I have ever been to. If you'd like all of the geeky details, click here for my friend Andrew's insanely detailed review and pictures. I'll post a few of my own picture highlights here and tell you that I met and got a DVD cover signed by John Flansburgh.

This is just some cool grafitti that we saw in Atlanta on our way to the Variety Playhouse. This stuff takes real talent!

Michael Leviton and Leah Hayes, the openers. They earned a new fan in me that night.

BACKLIT!

John Linnell sings!

Flansburgh rips up the guitar!

Celebrate Recovery Designs

I recently (before the Vegas trip) did a design for our newly revamped Celebrate recovery ministy, which is having a kick off evening on this Friday. Celebrate Recovery is a support group focusing on getting people delivered from their hang-ups and vices. Hopefully I will be able to post a commercial I made for this ministry as well at some point. This is a brochure that tells a little about the meetings for advertisement purposes, and it came out really well. I'm proud of the final product.

Restoration Design - Banners!

Well, if you think back, you might remember my last design for work being the Restoration design. This theme is carrying our church all the way to July, which is our Sabbath Month. We decided to use this design as a part of our overall "look" for the series, which involves a 9 week drama that unfolds in a Motorcycle Garage, hence the design. We had giant banners printed up for signage and they are currently hanging up on stage in the Sanctuary of Word Alive. Hopefully, I will be able to take a picture of the set soon to post up here. These 12 foot high banners have become our centerpieces - That's me and one of my employees Caleb Mattox on the top left, and below is my assistant, John Crutchfield, acting like giant roadkill. Yeah, I'm a weirdo, and I work with weirdos.

It's been a while

Man! It has been a while since I could regularly post on this here Blog. Hopefully I will get back into the swing of things over the next couple of days. I spend a lot of my free time working on my bathroom, but I have many things to post about, so hopefully I won't ever get so behind again - but don't count on it.

Vegas part 15 - The Mad Dash

Of course, after our second 2 am breakfast, we all kinda slept late. The problem with that is that we still had to eat, buy our families souvenirs and get to the Las Vegas Airport. We spent the better part of three hours on the town, first eating and then rushing to find those elusive souvenirs. You'd think that in as big a tourist trap as Las Vegas that one would be able to find something for the family, but all I kept seeing were $35 t-shirts that I couldn't bring myself to buy... I ended up buying Cailey a t-shirt and I bought Jessica the cheapest and most generic souvenir this side of a "collectible spoon"... a keychain. I know. I'm a horrible husband and father. It seemed that we were going to make it alright on time, but as we exited NYNY Las Vegas, we realized that, to catch a cab in Vegas, you have to be at a hotel. With a little bit of luck, and after about 20-30 minutes of waiting, we found one. By this time, it was crunch time. We sped to Circus Circus to pick up our luggage and then it was off to the airport. We were at the airport with 40 minutes to spare... we were safe. Or were we? A queue line attendant pompously announced to us that "this is an hour and a half airport everyday boys. Don't forget!" AS if we'd ever been there before. After about 15 minutes, we finally got our tickets and proceeded to the security line which was HUUGGE. It took us about 20 minutes to get through the security, ruching as fast as we could. We had 5 minutes until take off, and we still had to get on the tram to our gate... we finally reached our gate and saw- to our relief - that our plane had not departed yet. WHEW!

It was only after a 30 minute wait to board the plane that we realized that we were never really in danger of being left at all. All that running for nothing is bad on a fat man's feet.

Vegas part 14 - Breakfast at 2 am part 2

Whew! Almost finished with this 3 week long Vegas series. Yikes! After we returned from all of our Thursday show, we decided to cruise around some of the casinos for a while and, after a full night of activities we finally came back to Circus Circus at, you guessed it, around 2 am - only this time it was local time. Yep, that's 4 am Alabama time. Josh, Jonathan and I decided to hit the Pink Pony again for a late night meal while Jeffrey Freeman went to the hotel room to sleep (the wuss). What a weird way to wrap up the trip, back where we started, and accustomed to our new time zone. We ended up talking a lot about our lives and sharing our histories with each other. You know, there is something special about being able to open up about your life to someone else... to share your individual triumphs and failures, your strengths and weaknesses. And there's something about doing it in Vegas, eating breakfast at 2 am that makes it an unforgettable bonding experience. Thanks for the good times, men.

Vegas part 13 - Avenue Q

I expected to go to Vegas and see some great equipment and great shows - to be entertained and informed, but never did I expect to go and see the best broadway musical I've ever seen. It seems i had heard about Avenue Q somewhere before Vegas, as I knew it was "like sesame street for adults", but I'm not exactly sure where I heard it from. I think it was Andrew that had mentioned it to me in passing. The posters of the characters in line at the ticket booths were what piqued our curiosity on the subject. When we were looking for a show for Thursday evening, the best available show was Avenue Q. I was excited when the guys decided to go, because I thought that this show would really only appeal to me.

I was wrong.

As it turns out, Avenue Q was the best show we saw in Vegas. It's humor, originality, irreverence and artistic flare actually appealed to everyone. The entire show was acted out through a mix of humans and puppets, which made for an interesting interpretation of a Broadway musical. There were 3 human actors - Brian, Christmas Eve, and Gary Coleman (yes, THAT Gary Coleman); and the rest were puppets. Not in the traditional sense of the word, though, as each puppet had at least one actor/puppeteer assigned for motion, voice, and expression. This turned out to be a perfectly produced musical. I came to find out that Avenue Q has won 3 Tony Awards for its still ongoing stint on Broadway, and it was so popular that it branched out into Las Vegas.

The story is one that everyone can relate to on some level, despite its wacky overtones. The music was hilarious and yet oftentimes very insightful. I purchased the soundtrack as we exited the theatre, and it has remained in my CD player ever since. Even with the humor involved, the emotion of the play was palpable, culminating in what is, in short, the best production I believe I will ever see.

Vegas part 12 - The magic of Rick Thomas

After that freaky guy freakin' freaked me out, we headed across the street to the Stardust to see the Rick Thomas magic show. I thought that it might be a bit... funny, judging from his picture ads. Apparently the cool thing in magic advertisement is to look as much like Siegfried and Roy as possible. He wears a lot of make up and even has the tigers, but this guy was awesome. He performed magnificent stage illusions that were highlighted with choreography and his show girl assistants. He's really accomplished a lot and has a love for animals and motorcycles, so he uses both in his show. He was named stage magician of the year last year and I found out through his website that he produces other stage shows, designs graphics, produces and edits video, as well as houses a tiger habitat at his home in Las Vegas. Now that's my kind of versatility!! I encourage everyone to go and see his show if you are ever in Las Vegas and check out his website. The man's a phenom!

Vegas part 11 - The man who knew my name (aka, the freakiest moment of my life)

We had just gotten tickets to see Rick Thomas and Avenue Q when a man, who appeared to be homeless, stumbled by muttering to himself, somewhat like an idiot savant would do (you know, Rainman.)

As I passed him he mumbled, "rchrd...Richard... How's it going Richard?"

I answered, "I'm fiiiiiiyayayayaaaaa!" as an uneasy horror flooded over me. He knew my name. He knew MY NAME! How??

I was speechless as I listened to him immediately stumble past the next person and say their name, and they were as horrified as I was!

I was in a bit of a funk for the rest of the day... Who, or what knew my name? More importantly is why?

I'm still speechless...

Vegas part 10 - If I see another Wetzel

At NAB, we ate Wetzel Dogs by the ton. After I returned from Vegas, I thought I was tired of them, but now I could probably eat another! Mmmmmm. Wetzels.

Vegas part 9 - Carrot Top

Wednesday evening we went to see Carrot Top perform at the Luxor Hotel and Casino. What an awesome show it was! There was an opening act by a comedian whose name escapes me, but he was pretty good. Then came the good stuff! Carrot Top has a highly interactive and well produced show that includes TONS of visual and aural cues and accents. He accentuates his comedy with sound effects and clips from songs. He did a lot of things that I haven't seen before and a lot of the comedy was Vegas-centric, including the Vegas theme song of "I Would Walk 500 Miles." Of course he did a few of the jokes he did when he first started in comedy, including his trademark Wendy's jokes, which are always funny. The whole show was spectacular! I was surprised by the fact that Carrot Top is gigantic! He was always kind of skinny on TV and the 1-800-COLLECT commercials, but he has beefed up quite a bit, as you can see in the pictures. You know, it seems to be a fad to make jokes about Carrot Top, to say he isn't funny and to lament his presence, but I find him very funny and amusing. PLUS I wouldn't want to be his enemy now that he has a physique.

Vegas Part 8 - Slow Bus from China

We had decided that the fastest and most economical way to travel (and most foot saving) in Vegas was on the Deuce double decker buses that circulate through the city. I enjoyed riding on the bus some on Tuesday and when we set out for our show with Carrot Top Wednesday evening, we hopped back on the bus. This time, a Chinese man was driving, and he was the most entertaining bus driver I have ever had the pleasure of riding with. He was very dry and monotone, with an obvious Chinese accent, so when the bus would stop at destinations, he would say things like "Frontier. Wednesday night. Cold Beer, Dirty Girls. Woo hoo." Now say that with no tone in your voice, no laughter, and a moderately heavy Chinese accent. If you don't laugh, you have no sense of humor. He went on to say many more hilarious things in this voice, but the other one that stuck out to me was this, "We have no courtesy in Las Vegas. Please be careful. When I get you safely to your destination, please do not walk out in front of my bus. I don't know how to do paperwork." Wotta Card!

Vegas Part 7 - Wednesday with Dick

As you know from my previous ramblings on my Vegas trip, I was very excited to take another Mixed Bag of Tricks class with Dick Reizner. I took a two day seminar from him about 7 or 8 years ago in Birmingham, AL, and it was at that point that I began to realize what a cool profession media can be. There are no sets of rules that you really have to follow, save standards comittee stuff, and you can be as creative as you want to be with media. He's kind of like an encyclopedia of inventive creation. The man can turn anything into a tool, and that is the kind of versatility that more of us need in media. I learned a lot of new tricks from Dick, and was reminded of a few more that I had forgotten. He and I don't know each other, of course, so I considered it an honor when he asked me to assist him demonstrating a few tricks, all of which involved a small strip of gaffer's tape. This was fun to watch him work and get to be a part of it as well. As it so happens, as I was taking notes, I stuck the piece of tape into my note book where it lives today. I know that you might think it weird, but I scanned it to include into this post because of the significant influence Dick has had on my career, even though he doesn't know it. If you would like to read some of Dick's handy hints, they can be found every month in Videography magazine under the title Tips to Clip.

New Audio Bio Posted

I've posted another brief entry into my life's soundtrack over on my audio bio blog. Check it.
Until the next time, here's the Quaker Oats Guy! Oatmeal, Yummy!

Vegas part 6 - I Would Walk 500 Miles.

OK, so I stole this title from a Carrot Top joke. Sue me. Seriously, though. Tuesday night as we walked the strip home from Harley Davidson, we found out just how long of a walk it is. As it turns out, its about 4 miles from where we stayed to where we were walking, but I swear it felt much farther. Maybe its because you have to wait at every road and red light, not to mention that they purposefully redirect foot traffic so that you have to walk by any of the 6 billion stores and casinos there. Another thing about it is that things are so large in Vegas that your perspective gets a little wonky. You can see the Luxor, and it looks close, but its gonna be another 30 minutes before you get there. Its a strange distance/perspective anomaly. Having said that, Tuesday was great because it was cool to see all of the extravagant shops, construction, and lighting, but it was also a curse because it was then that I received the dreaded foot sprain. This made the remainder of the trip a bit... uncomfortable. Top all of the walking we did down the strip off with all of the walking we did at NAB and it seems like we walked 90% of the time, which makes for some serious hurtin'.

Vegas part 5 - Harley Davidson and the Vegas Prophet

I know it has been a while since my last post, but I've been very busy and tired! I do hope to shorten my posts a little so that I can catch up. While we where in Vegas on Tuesday Night, there weren't that many shows on, so we decided to (begrudgingly) take a night off from the shows, and walk the town. While sightseeing, we ate at the Harley Davidson Cafe on the strip. It had a very cool atmosphere and good food.

The fun part came in when Jonathan Tompkins leaned over to me toward the end of the night and said, "Hey, Richard... Our waitress is an artist, and she's supposed to give someone her current piece of art."

Well, being the person I am and knowing how tight Jonathan is with God, the next time I saw her I had the confidence to ask her, "Hey, are you an artist?"

Of course her response was one of bewilderment as she said, "Yeah..."

So I told her what Jonathan told me. She kept coming back and was visibly freaked out, so we talked with her a bit more. Jonathan ended up prophesying to her a lot of things that she had been worried about, including the fact that she had a daughter and that she knew Jesus. By the time we left the restaurant, our waitress was sufficiently freaked and comforted by the words that were given her. I would say that this was a shining moment of the trip and that God always makes a way for his people to get encouragement. I know she knows this now!

Vegas part 4 Sin City, indeed

Whoa. There is a reason that they call Las Vegas "Sin City". Just imagine any type of vice, and you'll find it there - publicly on display. Gambling? Sure. Smoking? Everywhere. Alcoholics? Walking beside you. Drugs? On every corner. Sex and Prostitution? In Spades. All that and more. It's a great city to be in, but it is also depressing at the same time. To see so many people just desperate for an escape from their lives... grasping at the straws that Vegas gives them - whatever they may be. While this is going on, Casinos are being built on every available piece of property so that businessmen and women can capitalize on an Adult's dreams of escapism. It's somewhat depressing.

There are magazine racks every 100 feet or so advertising escorts and prostitution, and at night, people are at every street corner trying to force you to take an escort's ad. Being in Vegas puts a perspective on the perverse nature of the average adult, and it makes you wonder, why do people wallow in depravity when there is meaning for their lives elsewhere? If only someone would tell them...

Vegas part 3 Hypnotic

I went to a show and got hypnotized Monday Night. I don't remember what happened, and I'm too scared to watch the DVD. All I know is that it invloves a stuffed bear and Western Union. Will I ever know? Only time and the DVD player know for sure!

Vegas part 2 The NAB2006 Conference

What a wild show at NAB! Since this was the first time I have ever been to an NAB event, I was really looking forward to it, and I was not disappointed. There were over 150,000 attendees! I was able to enjoy a lot of demo classes and hands on operation of equipment that is not yet available to the public. It was truly a sight to behold. The event was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, which is mammoth! I walked around about as much inside the Convention Center as I did outside it on the strip. The exhibitors were awesome, but it was the same old case of "our product is the BEST" everywhere you looked. And, yes, it is a sales pitch, but I prefer facts, not presentations. Some of the best displays that stick out in my mind are Ikegami, Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Avid, Adobe, Reflecmedia, Marqee, etc.

I had some interesting classes, but some of them were so remedial that they were borderline useless. What I didn't enjoy about it was that since this was a Worship and Technologies conference, I guess some of the teachers immediately thought "ignorant" was the best word to describe us. In a couple of instances, more than half of the alotted class time had passed without really skirting the class subject. BUT, in the classes I benefitted from, I gleaned a lot of knowledge and inspiration. I would like to go back to the NAB conference sometime, but next time I would like to take some of the regular NAB classes, and not the dumbed down Worship Classes. All in all, however, it was an event that all media geeks should go to at least once.

Vegas part 1 Breakfast at 2 am

You know, it takes a long time to get to Vegas, even when you're flying, but especially when you are flying at night and on Southwest Airlines. I had fun on Southwest, as they make a lot of jokes and are generally more cheerful than other airlines, but there are no assigned seats so you usually end up beside a stranger (which makes a flight seem more lengthy). We flew out of Birmingham into Nashville and then on to Vegas. It is quite a sight to behold as you approach Vegas at night - its truly a spectacle. Descending on a sea of black illuminated by the bright lights of the strip. It was beautiful... for something man made. We landed at around 12 am Central time (10 pm pacific) and made our way to the airport shuttle where we waited... and waited... and waited. We stood outside of the airport for about 40 minutes before our shuttle came to pick us up. We thought it would be smooth sailing from there, but when we arrived at Circus Circus, there was a huge line of NAB Convention Nerds such as myself waiting to be checked in. I have never witnessed anything like it. We were in the check in line for about a half an hour and by the time we had checked in, walked to our rooms, unpacked and got situated, we were hungry. At this time it was about 1:45 Central, so we all set out to eat breakfast at the Pink Pony in Circus Circus. We arrived at about 2 am and got in line. Oh, Yes, there's a line at 12am local time to the restaurants. We were in line for about 30 more minutes before we were seated and then 30 MORE minutes were tacked on before we got our food, so a 2 am breakfast stretched into a 3 am breakfast, which led to a bedtime of around 4 am. Oh, yes there was good company and good conversation, but I wrote about this to show you one truth about Vegas - there may be fast living there, but the living definitely isn't fast. And this continued almost everywhere we went over the next 5 days. You don't really realize just how impatient you can get until you go to Vegas!