This trip has been pretty great so far. I'm so glad that The Logger is here with me because I was so frustrated by not having him around the last time I came here. This time everything is 100% better. The guy who hired my crew for this show got me actual experienced electricians and got himself some real carpenters. This time around we were able to get the whole light plot hung in a day, partly because I had four experienced people in the air(plus the Logger working from the ground) and partly because I didn't need to share my crew with the scenic department. I also didn't need to run around and babysit everyone, I could give them a project and trust that it would get done. This worked for the most part and there were only a few minor things that needed to get fixed on Tuesday. We got out of there at 8pm! This is unheard of! Normally my work days in NY start at 9:30am and I don't leave until about 10:30 or 11pm all week. I also had one electrician come in on Tuesday to help me out with all the little things that needed to get done and we left at 6pm. Today was focus and I had another set of four experienced electricians. We had the whole plot focused in five hours and I was out of there before 4pm. This is crazy! I have now resolved to never have another half-assed crew. I love to teach people about lighting and I'm patient enough to help anyone who has questions, but I don't like slowing down the whole process and then having to stay in the theatre until 11pm fixing things myself because it's the only way I know they'll get done properly. It feels so nice to really love my job this time around. This has been the most successful and well-run hang that I've ever had and I finally found a way to love being the master electrician, instead of being the one on the ladder (although I still miss that).
It was also great to have The Logger there. I asked him if he'd be interested in getting a day or two of work and he never really made up his mind. So I called around and figured out what his pay rate would be and when he would be needed and what he could do and he still didn't make up his mind, so I just booked him. He did not want to get out of bed to come in, but after an unsure hour he settled in and was extremely helpful. If I'm going to have someone there who doesn't know lights, I at least like to have someone I can trust. We always need one or two people on the ground to help the people hanging lights in the air, normally the people we get are not usually the manual labor types, but The Logger obviously is a manual labor type, so I was relieved to have him. Plus it was nice that he got to see what I do, so that he has a picture in his mind when I blab about it. However, I couldn't convince him to come in for another day of work because he didn't want to get up early and he couldn't come in later because he won't get on the train my himself. I offered to give him good walking directions, but he didn't seem very interested in that either. Oh well, at least I know he's not lost in the subway somewhere.
Because I got out so early today I went all the way down to 8th St and 1st Ave to get Dumpling Man and bring it back up for dinner. I have been going on about Dumpling Man since The Logger first told me he would come to NY. I couldn't wait to have dumplings with him. He did not understand why anyone would go so far out of the way just for dumplings. Anyone who has ever had the Dumpling Man dumplings would understand. We had an amazing dinner and The Logger has been successfully assimilated into a Dumpling Man lover. He has looked up suddenly several times tonight to say "mmm, dumplings..." and then rub his belly. Yes.
Tech doesn't start until Friday and I have very little left to do, which means I can go in and work for a few hours tomorrow morning and then I have the rest of the day to get The Logger out of the apartment and out to see the nicer parts of New York. He hates this city, but I think it's because he's gotten into so much trouble here in the past. There are nice, calm, beautiful places in New York, the trick is to not compare it to Vermont, but to appreciate it for what it is. And then later on I'm taking him up to the SoBro house. That should be mildly entertaining: a house full of theatre people, plus one logger.
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