Yay! An update! ;)
It has been nearly another year between updates. I'm not getting any better in keeping regular journal entries. At least I haven't forgotten about it altogether.
Anyway, this entry is going to be quite lengthy, so I'll hide it behind a cut for those of you brave enough to take a look. ;)
I'll start chronologically from my last entry.
The first most significant thing that happened was working on the Wellington King Kong Premiere. While it wasn't the World Premiere (unlike Lord of the Rings), since this was filmed in Wellington, it was a big event. For one night, there was a huge amount of work involved. I worked everywhere, from the roof of the Embassy Theatre, to the after-party venue, to the red carpet on the night. I really enjoy working on such high profile events, especially when they run so smoothly. I had an awesome time.
My birthday overlapped the pack-out of the King Kong premiere, and while I had to work on my birthday, I had the following day off. I went to dinner and movies with some friends, and then afterwards to a party. Being so busy, I never got chance to arrange something of my own. One of my friends, who also has the same birthday, had a small gathering. We all sat around a bonfire in the back yard, and played gypsy music (yes, there were accordions, brass and woodwind instruments). I'm not a musician, but I had fun banging away on some drums. After that we climbed onto the roof and watched the stars. That part evening was quite surreal.
After that was Christmas and New Year. My family did something different this year. Normally we go to the beach house and have a BBQ (a lot of my northern hemisphere friends still find it odd we have Christmas during summer). Anyway, we decided to go to Chateau Tongariro for Christmas. It was a beautiful setting, and we didn't have to worry about spending the day cooking. The only down side was losing my glasses, but I travel with a spare pair most times. New Years, by comparison, was very quiet. Just me and a friend and several mohitos. ;)
Next was a quick trip back to Wellington. To work on Beauty and the Beast. I managed to see this show in New York, so the chance to work on it in New Zealand was quite exciting. Most shows have their fair share of problems, but this show seemed to have them to excess. From huge set trucks having their castors collapse, to having the Musical Director walk out two days before the opening, and having the Producer constantly interfere with the creative process. It was very stressful, but I just dealt with it when everyone else seemed to be falling apart. As opening loomed, things seemed to get worse, and there were articles in the paper about how the show wasn't going to make it's opening night. Even our final dress rehearsal had to be stopped several time to deal with problems. Somehow, and I don't know how, we managed to make the opening night happen flawlessly. Things would have been fine if the problems had ended there, but the Producer stepped in after the show was up and made more creative changes. Despite our protests he overruled us. I remember having quite a heated discussion with him at one point. While I enjoyed the show, I didn't really enjoy the process of getting there.
After that I worked on a smaller show, where I was lighting designer. As always there were hiccups and some differences between myself and the Director, but that was devised show, so things like that are somewhat normal. One interesting part of this show was the use of shadow puppetry. I had the chance to work with a wonderful lady who designs and creates puppet theatre. We had some very creative discussions, and I'm hoping I get the chance to work with her again soon. The reviews were very good for the technical aspects of the show, but most of them were confused by the content of the show. While physical theatre can be very interesting to light, it can sometimes be hard to decipher the story/meaning, especially if the Director is being deliberately obscure (and he was).
I started to work on the NZ International Festival of the Arts, but I was suddenly called to Auckland. My father has plenty of health problems, and one that developed early in the year was his gall bladder. He had surgery to remove the offending gall bladder, but had complications shortly after. As a result, mum called me up to Auckland. My older sister just happened to be back in the country at the time, and while it was good to see her, it was overshadowed by my father being quite ill. He slowly recovered, but he didn't spend any time in CCU this time. His health still worries me....
Shortly after my father's release from hospital, thevixen arrived in the country. It was her first time traveling internationally, and I think she was quite nervous about the whole thing - especially meeting my parents. I think she quite liked my parents, even though my mother can be a little too talkative at times. Her first night here, my family took her up the Sky Tower for dinner. After spending a couple of days in and around Auckland (including a short stay at my parents beach house), we embarked on a mini-roadtrip down the North Island. We stopped in Rotorua, where we soaked in hot pools (as well as stream in the middle of nowhere fed by a thermal spring). After that we went to Chateau Tongariro, where we had a meal and spent the night. Finally we reached Wellington, where we stayed for a week. I introduced her to my friends, although we didn't really venture out too much. Instead we stayed in a lot and watched anime while eating blue cheese (yes, it is an odd combination). We then returned to Auckland with a only a short time left before thevixen's flight home. We spent most of that snuggling. Our goodbyes at the airport were somewhat teary. It gets harder and harder to say goodbye to her.
I found it quite hard to pull myself back into work, but I eventually made myself busy building sets, rigging lights and just being a casual technician for a while.
One of my best friends is a chef, so we end up chatting about food a lot. One day earlier in the year, I came up with an idea for a dessert. We ended up working on it a lot, and in May we entered it in the Wellington Food Show. It was a dessert bento box:
fruit filled futomaki sushi with sweet coconut rice,
sweet tamago (egg) nigiri on coconut rice,
kumara (NZ sweet potato) balls filled with sweet red bean paste and deep-fried with a coating of almonds,
and finally mango and melon sashimi with lychees.
We also made a soy-looking sauce out of dark chocolate, yuzu juice(similar to a lemon) and umeshu (plum wine). For a garnish, we made ginger pickled in umeshu and wasabi mixed with some green tea and sugar (which actually worked quite well - sweet but with a little zing). We called the dish Oishii, which means tasty. Apparently the judges agreed and we won silver for that.
At the start of the year, my tutor from drama school asked me if I wold be interested in helping out with an Opera. Having never worked on Opera, I said yes. It was around this time that the NBR New Zealand Opera contacted me and asked me if I was still interested. It was only an assistant position and it was supposed to be a secondment for a student, so it wasn't a paid position. Nevertheless I still said yes. I have never worked on an Opera, and the lighting designer undertook to teach me as much as he could (he has lit over 120 Operas). I did far more than anyone expected of me, but I really enjoyed the experience. I will highly recommend The Magic Flute for anyone that has never been to Opera before. Our version was slightly shortened, but was very colourful (after all the set was designed by Gerald Scarfe - the animator for Pink Floyd's The Wall).
It was during the rehearsal period for the Magic Flute that I received an invitation to spaceroo's wedding. I really wanted to travel, and I also wanted an excuse to see thevixen again, so after a couple of weeks thinking about it, I said I would go and started to make arrangements.
I travelled to Auckland, taking Pepper with me, and then worked on the Auckland season of The Magic Flute. Then, the day after the opera opened, I jumped on a plane to San Francisco. There was an odd moment at Auckland Airport where I met up with the Director from The Magic Flute. He was on his way to the US as well (his work was done, so he was heading home). We had a nice chat before heading off on our respective flights (LAX for him, SFO for me).
I had a great time on the trip, but the trip report is quite extensive, so I decided to make a separate journal entry for that. ;)
When I returned, I was a little sad for a while. Pining for a vixen. However work quickly picked up and I found myself in Hamilton a couple of weeks later working on a Masquerade Ball for 3,000 people. That was a fun experience, but a lot of work went into it.
I spent three years at Waikato University, in Hamilton after I finished High School. It was odd to return there for more than a couple of hours. I was struck mostly by how much things had changed. For instance, the theatre department now had it's own performing arts centre. With a fully equipped main theatre space, a concert chamber, two dance studios as well as full rehearsal rooms, dressing rooms and green rooms. When I was there, theatre was done in a done in a fairly small black room hidden away in the Law block, with no other real facilities, and using equipment that barely worked.
I didn't get chance to visit the area of the campus I spent most of my time back then (I was a Science major, not Theatre), but it looked as if there were some changes up there too. As for the city itself, large chunks of it have changed, but there were also a lot of things that were still the same. That brought back memories. One thing I did notice, was there there were a lot more Japanese restaurants in the main part of town. When I was at University, I don't recall any, but now there are 5 or 6 all a couple of blocks away from each other. They were good too... ;)
After the Masquerade Ball finished, I was asked to stay on and work on an opera. The Lighting Designer was the same guy I worked under for The Magic Flute, and everything went really well. There was quite a bit of talk about further work on other shows for him, but that hasn't eventuated yet.
After returning to Wellington, I set about helping my friend for his entry in the NZ Culinary Faire. I was in Wellington for barely two weeks before we drove back up to Auckland (where the competition was being held). Unfortunately, things didn't go very smoothly. Trouble finding the right ingredients, a box of key items being accidentally left in Wellington, time and lack of facilities all took their toll. My friend entered as an independent chef (funding it all himself and cooking in my parents kitchen), but was going up against chefs who were all sponsored by large restaurants and using professional kitchens (as 95% of them were based in Auckland). Things didn't go very well at all, and while I wasn't really that involved (I was just a kitchen-hand this time) I still felt bad. We returned to Wellington tired and demoralized, but having learned several lessons.
Everything seems to have slowed down since I returned. There hasn't been very much work on at all. The entertainment industry can be like that sometimes. It can go from being extremely busy (like earlier in the year when there were two major theatre festivals running at the same time) to being very quiet. Things are looking as if they will pick up very soon, but the lull caused me reevaluate my life. Thevixen* will be arriving here early next year, and I want to make sure everything is set when she gets here. I have been pondering other things as well. I would like to return to school at some point and learn some new skills, although no too unrelated from what I'm doing now.
At this stage, I have been looking at either film school, or multimedia. Both have advantages and disadvantages, and both are only a year long, but at this stage I am leaning towards multimedia. My friend thinks that I should become a chef, but I suspect that he is a little biased. On top of that, I really want to head back to a ship again. It would be a nice chance to earn, and there would be a good possibility I could get thevixen to join me for a cruise or two.
I have some pretty big decisions to make for the future. I don't know why, but I feel as if time is running out. I know it is silly since I'm still fairly young and I have managed to do an awful lot in my life so far. However, there are still many things I want to do, but it is a case of not knowing how to get there.
In the past I have allowed myself to flow with various events around me, sometimes good and sometimes bad. It is not that I haven't had to work for the things I want, but there has always been something tugging me in one direction or another and I have almost always ended up in the right place. Right now it seems as if I have lost that metaphysical compass. When you get lost in the bush, the best thing to do is stay put, and that is what my life is like right now. The problem is getting restless being stuck in the same place too long, although I suspect I am not the only person in that position.
Anyway, I could go on about that, but I think that would be best left for another journal entry....
For those of you that read through all of this, thank you. I hope I didn't bore you. I know I have said this in the past few entries, but I will try to keep this a little more up to date in the future. ;)
Anyway, this entry is going to be quite lengthy, so I'll hide it behind a cut for those of you brave enough to take a look. ;)
I'll start chronologically from my last entry.
The first most significant thing that happened was working on the Wellington King Kong Premiere. While it wasn't the World Premiere (unlike Lord of the Rings), since this was filmed in Wellington, it was a big event. For one night, there was a huge amount of work involved. I worked everywhere, from the roof of the Embassy Theatre, to the after-party venue, to the red carpet on the night. I really enjoy working on such high profile events, especially when they run so smoothly. I had an awesome time.
My birthday overlapped the pack-out of the King Kong premiere, and while I had to work on my birthday, I had the following day off. I went to dinner and movies with some friends, and then afterwards to a party. Being so busy, I never got chance to arrange something of my own. One of my friends, who also has the same birthday, had a small gathering. We all sat around a bonfire in the back yard, and played gypsy music (yes, there were accordions, brass and woodwind instruments). I'm not a musician, but I had fun banging away on some drums. After that we climbed onto the roof and watched the stars. That part evening was quite surreal.
After that was Christmas and New Year. My family did something different this year. Normally we go to the beach house and have a BBQ (a lot of my northern hemisphere friends still find it odd we have Christmas during summer). Anyway, we decided to go to Chateau Tongariro for Christmas. It was a beautiful setting, and we didn't have to worry about spending the day cooking. The only down side was losing my glasses, but I travel with a spare pair most times. New Years, by comparison, was very quiet. Just me and a friend and several mohitos. ;)
Next was a quick trip back to Wellington. To work on Beauty and the Beast. I managed to see this show in New York, so the chance to work on it in New Zealand was quite exciting. Most shows have their fair share of problems, but this show seemed to have them to excess. From huge set trucks having their castors collapse, to having the Musical Director walk out two days before the opening, and having the Producer constantly interfere with the creative process. It was very stressful, but I just dealt with it when everyone else seemed to be falling apart. As opening loomed, things seemed to get worse, and there were articles in the paper about how the show wasn't going to make it's opening night. Even our final dress rehearsal had to be stopped several time to deal with problems. Somehow, and I don't know how, we managed to make the opening night happen flawlessly. Things would have been fine if the problems had ended there, but the Producer stepped in after the show was up and made more creative changes. Despite our protests he overruled us. I remember having quite a heated discussion with him at one point. While I enjoyed the show, I didn't really enjoy the process of getting there.
After that I worked on a smaller show, where I was lighting designer. As always there were hiccups and some differences between myself and the Director, but that was devised show, so things like that are somewhat normal. One interesting part of this show was the use of shadow puppetry. I had the chance to work with a wonderful lady who designs and creates puppet theatre. We had some very creative discussions, and I'm hoping I get the chance to work with her again soon. The reviews were very good for the technical aspects of the show, but most of them were confused by the content of the show. While physical theatre can be very interesting to light, it can sometimes be hard to decipher the story/meaning, especially if the Director is being deliberately obscure (and he was).
I started to work on the NZ International Festival of the Arts, but I was suddenly called to Auckland. My father has plenty of health problems, and one that developed early in the year was his gall bladder. He had surgery to remove the offending gall bladder, but had complications shortly after. As a result, mum called me up to Auckland. My older sister just happened to be back in the country at the time, and while it was good to see her, it was overshadowed by my father being quite ill. He slowly recovered, but he didn't spend any time in CCU this time. His health still worries me....
Shortly after my father's release from hospital, thevixen arrived in the country. It was her first time traveling internationally, and I think she was quite nervous about the whole thing - especially meeting my parents. I think she quite liked my parents, even though my mother can be a little too talkative at times. Her first night here, my family took her up the Sky Tower for dinner. After spending a couple of days in and around Auckland (including a short stay at my parents beach house), we embarked on a mini-roadtrip down the North Island. We stopped in Rotorua, where we soaked in hot pools (as well as stream in the middle of nowhere fed by a thermal spring). After that we went to Chateau Tongariro, where we had a meal and spent the night. Finally we reached Wellington, where we stayed for a week. I introduced her to my friends, although we didn't really venture out too much. Instead we stayed in a lot and watched anime while eating blue cheese (yes, it is an odd combination). We then returned to Auckland with a only a short time left before thevixen's flight home. We spent most of that snuggling. Our goodbyes at the airport were somewhat teary. It gets harder and harder to say goodbye to her.
I found it quite hard to pull myself back into work, but I eventually made myself busy building sets, rigging lights and just being a casual technician for a while.
One of my best friends is a chef, so we end up chatting about food a lot. One day earlier in the year, I came up with an idea for a dessert. We ended up working on it a lot, and in May we entered it in the Wellington Food Show. It was a dessert bento box:
fruit filled futomaki sushi with sweet coconut rice,
sweet tamago (egg) nigiri on coconut rice,
kumara (NZ sweet potato) balls filled with sweet red bean paste and deep-fried with a coating of almonds,
and finally mango and melon sashimi with lychees.
We also made a soy-looking sauce out of dark chocolate, yuzu juice(similar to a lemon) and umeshu (plum wine). For a garnish, we made ginger pickled in umeshu and wasabi mixed with some green tea and sugar (which actually worked quite well - sweet but with a little zing). We called the dish Oishii, which means tasty. Apparently the judges agreed and we won silver for that.
At the start of the year, my tutor from drama school asked me if I wold be interested in helping out with an Opera. Having never worked on Opera, I said yes. It was around this time that the NBR New Zealand Opera contacted me and asked me if I was still interested. It was only an assistant position and it was supposed to be a secondment for a student, so it wasn't a paid position. Nevertheless I still said yes. I have never worked on an Opera, and the lighting designer undertook to teach me as much as he could (he has lit over 120 Operas). I did far more than anyone expected of me, but I really enjoyed the experience. I will highly recommend The Magic Flute for anyone that has never been to Opera before. Our version was slightly shortened, but was very colourful (after all the set was designed by Gerald Scarfe - the animator for Pink Floyd's The Wall).
It was during the rehearsal period for the Magic Flute that I received an invitation to spaceroo's wedding. I really wanted to travel, and I also wanted an excuse to see thevixen again, so after a couple of weeks thinking about it, I said I would go and started to make arrangements.
I travelled to Auckland, taking Pepper with me, and then worked on the Auckland season of The Magic Flute. Then, the day after the opera opened, I jumped on a plane to San Francisco. There was an odd moment at Auckland Airport where I met up with the Director from The Magic Flute. He was on his way to the US as well (his work was done, so he was heading home). We had a nice chat before heading off on our respective flights (LAX for him, SFO for me).
I had a great time on the trip, but the trip report is quite extensive, so I decided to make a separate journal entry for that. ;)
When I returned, I was a little sad for a while. Pining for a vixen. However work quickly picked up and I found myself in Hamilton a couple of weeks later working on a Masquerade Ball for 3,000 people. That was a fun experience, but a lot of work went into it.
I spent three years at Waikato University, in Hamilton after I finished High School. It was odd to return there for more than a couple of hours. I was struck mostly by how much things had changed. For instance, the theatre department now had it's own performing arts centre. With a fully equipped main theatre space, a concert chamber, two dance studios as well as full rehearsal rooms, dressing rooms and green rooms. When I was there, theatre was done in a done in a fairly small black room hidden away in the Law block, with no other real facilities, and using equipment that barely worked.
I didn't get chance to visit the area of the campus I spent most of my time back then (I was a Science major, not Theatre), but it looked as if there were some changes up there too. As for the city itself, large chunks of it have changed, but there were also a lot of things that were still the same. That brought back memories. One thing I did notice, was there there were a lot more Japanese restaurants in the main part of town. When I was at University, I don't recall any, but now there are 5 or 6 all a couple of blocks away from each other. They were good too... ;)
After the Masquerade Ball finished, I was asked to stay on and work on an opera. The Lighting Designer was the same guy I worked under for The Magic Flute, and everything went really well. There was quite a bit of talk about further work on other shows for him, but that hasn't eventuated yet.
After returning to Wellington, I set about helping my friend for his entry in the NZ Culinary Faire. I was in Wellington for barely two weeks before we drove back up to Auckland (where the competition was being held). Unfortunately, things didn't go very smoothly. Trouble finding the right ingredients, a box of key items being accidentally left in Wellington, time and lack of facilities all took their toll. My friend entered as an independent chef (funding it all himself and cooking in my parents kitchen), but was going up against chefs who were all sponsored by large restaurants and using professional kitchens (as 95% of them were based in Auckland). Things didn't go very well at all, and while I wasn't really that involved (I was just a kitchen-hand this time) I still felt bad. We returned to Wellington tired and demoralized, but having learned several lessons.
Everything seems to have slowed down since I returned. There hasn't been very much work on at all. The entertainment industry can be like that sometimes. It can go from being extremely busy (like earlier in the year when there were two major theatre festivals running at the same time) to being very quiet. Things are looking as if they will pick up very soon, but the lull caused me reevaluate my life. Thevixen* will be arriving here early next year, and I want to make sure everything is set when she gets here. I have been pondering other things as well. I would like to return to school at some point and learn some new skills, although no too unrelated from what I'm doing now.
At this stage, I have been looking at either film school, or multimedia. Both have advantages and disadvantages, and both are only a year long, but at this stage I am leaning towards multimedia. My friend thinks that I should become a chef, but I suspect that he is a little biased. On top of that, I really want to head back to a ship again. It would be a nice chance to earn, and there would be a good possibility I could get thevixen to join me for a cruise or two.
I have some pretty big decisions to make for the future. I don't know why, but I feel as if time is running out. I know it is silly since I'm still fairly young and I have managed to do an awful lot in my life so far. However, there are still many things I want to do, but it is a case of not knowing how to get there.
In the past I have allowed myself to flow with various events around me, sometimes good and sometimes bad. It is not that I haven't had to work for the things I want, but there has always been something tugging me in one direction or another and I have almost always ended up in the right place. Right now it seems as if I have lost that metaphysical compass. When you get lost in the bush, the best thing to do is stay put, and that is what my life is like right now. The problem is getting restless being stuck in the same place too long, although I suspect I am not the only person in that position.
Anyway, I could go on about that, but I think that would be best left for another journal entry....
For those of you that read through all of this, thank you. I hope I didn't bore you. I know I have said this in the past few entries, but I will try to keep this a little more up to date in the future. ;)