Man, but we’re getting close to Christmas.
Our second pair of Nutcracker performances is this weekend.
Friday, we loaded in to the second venue. It’s been a couple of years since we performed there, and the last time we were there, we had some problems with the managers. Plus, for whatever reason we weren’t allowed to load in until after 3:00 PM. That’s problematic when you need to have a tech/dress rehearsal that same evening.
We had a 26-foot U-Haul truck to move everything last weekend, which cost us just over $300. I didn’t think that was bad, but apparently others did. They reserved a 15-foot truck for this move. I wasn’t thrilled to find that out Thursday, because I didn’t think it was going to be big enough.
Load-in went very well though. It took us two trips with the smaller truck. By the time I was back with the second load, the floors were rolled out and almost taped; the snow bag was rigged, and half of the backdrops set. The backstage area at the second venue isn’t quite as tall as at the first so we had to roll the backdrops and the tree to make them shorter, but it worked out well.
Here’s my endorsement of Flex-Seal. We have two fog generators, which are really just 55-gallon drums with water heater elements and baskets for dry ice. Drop the dry ice into hot water to get lots of fog. The problem was that both drums developed pinhole leaks that opened up after we filled them at the second venue. They weren’t leaking a ton of water, but any water on the floor in the theater is a bad thing. I expected we’d have to find a mobile welder to fix it. Instead, one of the dance dads picked up a can of Flex-Seal spray. We sprayed a bunch of it around the leaks and let it set up overnight, and it’s worked the treat. In the off-season, to avoid any future issues, we’re going to scrub out the corrosion inside with a wire brush, then coat the inside liberally with more Flex-Seal.
The other thing we’re going to do is come up with a better distribution system for the fog hoses. We’re using five-gallon buckets right now to raise the outlet a little, but the buckets don’t work all that well. We’re thinking of a PVC stand of some sort. If you’ve got suggestions or ideas, drop a comment.
Opening night went very well. We had a decent-sized crowd that was energetic in their applause. That always helps a performer.
Twitter Train-Wreck
Twitter is turning into quite the train wreck this week. Musk is alleging that the ElonJet account is doxing by providing real-time updates of his exact location. (Spoiler: it’s not). He suspended that account, the account of Jack Sweeney, ElonJet’s creator, and the other 30 or so aircraft-tracking accounts Sweeney had created. Sweeney said, “No problem. I’ll just bounce over to Mastodon and tell people what’s happened.” It was news anyway because Musk and Sweeney had gone round and round a couple of times earlier this year. Musk had offered to buy Sweeney’s account (which itself is a violation of Twitter TOS, I think) for $5,000. Sweeney countered at $50,000, but nothing ever came of it.
But as word got out about Sweeney’s Twitter suspension, various reporters started talking about it, then found their own Twitter accounts getting suspended. At one point, Twitter was not allowing any Mastodon links to be posted, going so far as to block new postings of your Mastodon handle in your Twitter profile. Musk posted a couple of polls on Thursday and Friday asking what he should do, and the winning options late Friday were to reinstate all those accounts “now” (as opposed to in 7 days).
I’m half-expecting to get suspended myself because after Sweeney was first suspended, I tweeted links to his Mastodon presence. As of Friday afternoon, I was still live. We’ll see. If I disappear from Twitter, you can find me at bobmueller@mastodon.world. Check my Linktree for current social media accounts.
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