Sometimes you weep, sometimes you dance.

A few saturday's ago i had the oppertunity to work a 21 hour day. Yep. how exciting you are asking yourself. Well it wasn't so much the hours that made it an eventful day, but believe me with as horrible as the Las Vegas entertainment world is right now, i wasn't complaining about that. It was the event i was working. There was one reason that i pushed my self through a 21 hour day. That reason is none other than the Piano Man himself. Yep, Billy Joel.

So at 6am I began my day loading in for Billy Joel. The load in ran until 3pm. I then jetted to my 2nd job which went from 3pm-10pm. And to finish off the day i loaded Billy out from 10pm to 3am. Fun right? So if you are a young, aspiring stagehand the answer is. JUST SAY NO!

Anyways, the reason i was able to get through this day is because i love BIlly Joel. I think he is by fare the best live entertainer and am just blown away by how well he can entertain crowds of 20,000 all by himself.

Often times when we take on a "load out" call, it means showing up to a still performing act. You have the Jonas Brothers, Blues Travelers, and such that you could really give 2 shits about. But Billy Joel!!!! As a side note, i have to just say here that I am cool as a cucumber when it comes to working backstage. I would never step out of line, take a photo, or shot someones name. In fact, about 3 years ago i was working a Rolling Stones concert, just hangin backstage waiting for the show to end. We had about 30 mins before the show was over, and i was asked to stand by the loading docks. It just so happens that the loading docks are right next to 3 limo's, so i sit tight and enjoy the rest of the show backstage. ... Can't Get No Satisfaction...Can't Always Get What you Want....Jumpin' Jack Flash... It's great. Well the show ends and out walk the Stones. They all walk to seperate limo's, mind you. And right as Mick Jagger is getting into his limo, out of nowhere this dude sitting right next to me that i had shared maybe 10 words with shouts out "Mick, YOU ROCK MAN!!!" I wanted to murder the dude. Anyways, you don't pull stupid shit like that when you are waiting to work for the band.

So back to my 21 hour work day, I am racing back at 945 pm to get to the load out of Billy Joel. As i had said i was so excited to do this load out. I get there and check in and am assigned to my local roadie for lighting. He walks us backstage and tells us to hang tight before the show is over. And begins to explain to us what he is wanting us to do when loadout startes. Now i can tear a rig down without instruction. Here is what I recall...

alright guys A bottle of red, a bottle of white It all depends upon your appetite so we have about 30 mins Cold beer, hot lights My sweet romantic teenage nights before the band is going to be Brenda and Eddie were thePopular steadys And the king and the queen Of the prom done and exit the stage. Brenda and Eddy were still going Steady in the summer of '75. They have about 5 songs to go. But there we were wavin' Brenda andEddie goodbye. You guys hang here They couldn't go back to The greasers The best they could do was Pick up the pieces and then we will hit the stage the second that Billy walks past. That's all I heard about Brend and Eddie Can't tell you more than I Told you already He will walk right past you here and get in his limo. A bottle of red, a bottle of white Whatever kind of mood you're in tonight. I'll meet you anytime you want In our Italian Restaurant Cool? Alright i am going to step outside and grab a smoke. Its nine oclock on a saturday. The regular crowd shuffles in Ill be right back. Alright, so why don't we go over a few things for load out.Theres an old man sitting next to me, Makin love to his tonic and gin Moving Lights go upstage He says, son, can you play me a memory? Im not really sure how it goes But its sad and its sweet and I knew it complete, when I wore a younger mans clothes place the truss Sing us a song, youre the piano man, Sing us a song tonight. Well, were all in the mood for a melody And youve got us feelin alright source four pars will be hot Now john at the bar is a friend of mine. He gets me my drinks for free. And hes quick with a joke or a light of your smoke, But theres someplace that hed rather I want you guys to grab the boxes over there with the carpet in them and take them upstage. Now paul is a real estate novelist. Who never had time for a wife And hes talkin with davy whos still in the navy And probably will be for life. And the waitress is practicing politics As the businessmen slowly get stoned. Yes, theyre sharing a drink they call loneliness. But its better than drinkin alone Then we are going to put the lights in the crates and place them back where you got them at outside.And the piano, it sounds like a carnivalAnd the microphone smells like a beer. And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar. And say, man, what are you doin here?


As you can imagine. I didn't catch a single word of what i was suppose to be doing, come load-out. But i guarantee i was singing every lyric of Piano Man. Yes, sometimes my job rocks!!!

And to top it off, when the concert was over and 20,000 fans are screaming for "Mooooooooore" and "Encoooore", who is standing next to his car, waiting for him to get in and drive away. Hell fuckin' yea!

And yes load out went great and i had caught everything i was suppose to be doing.

Beating the Status Quo

So recently if you haven't heard, i have been without a job. Not totally without a job, but definantly without a full time job. I was working full time at Danny Ganns, when they decided they only wanted or could afford 1 lighting guy. Thus, i was number 2, and had to be released. Now prior to this I had just started to think that things were looking up becuase i no longer had to depend on the part time- on call stagehand work i had begun to do in Vegas. Well having felt i was secure in my job at Danny Ganns, i would then turn down the on-call work i still got phone calls for.

Now that i am no longer full time at Danny Ganns, i have spent the last week calling all my previous employers to tell them i am still in need of the on-call work. It has been a hard adapting process, cause you never know when your next day of work is going to come. Thank god Amelia got put on a 5 day run at the MGM Grand and a 4 day sit down run of Thomas the Tank Engine.

So anyways, waiting for the on call work to start picking back up, has left me with alot of free time on my hands. It really gives you the amount of time to reconsider where it is you want your life to go and what is next for you. I have spent alot of afternoons in the Panera around the corner of our house (because the internet is free) surfing and searching for what might be next in my life.

I know it may seem odd for those i last toured with to understand that i am seriously considering touring again, but really it is the life i know. As much as i am enjoying being off the road, having moved to Vegas has just added alot of uncertainty and frustration into the picture. So alas, i sit and try and reevaluate my lifes worth in Panera.

Its hard tring to pick up on call work and be told that you are the most qualified or perhaps overqualified stagehand that Vegas has ever seen. And i am not one to be cocky, but it is so frustrating to be told that there just arn't any current positions open other than on-call positions.

At any rate, i try to get up every day and be positive. One day a door will open.

I've seen the look of a heart-shaped turtle dove.

So i know i haven't posted much lately, thought i would take a few minutes now to put up a new post. Alot has been going on in my life and out in Vegas.

For one i now have a fulltime job at the Wynn on the new show -Danny Ganns. So i have been putting in shit tons of hours getting the show up and ready for production. We did almost 2 months of install work and are just now getting into the technical rehersals. The show opens February 6th, so if you make it out you should totally check it out. It is a great production and Danny is great at what he does. If you arn't familar with him, wiki- him. It is a combination of musical numbers with comedy and vocal imatations of 100's of musical artists and celebrity's. Having sat through about 100 hours of the show thus far i can tell you it is worth checking out.

So there are pro's and con's to this new job at the Wynn. It doesn't pay the best and provides no health insurance, but the fun things are that on the 3 days that Danny is not performing we bring in various musical artist.

The reason I have the time to write to you now is because i am currently in the middle of Harry Connick Jr performing onstage. It is nice cause I am basically here to make sure the system doesn't go down, and yet i find myself in the best seat in the house enjoying Harry and listening to his sillyness. Seems to be a nice guy, very on point and always about business. So along with sitting closer to the stage then Harry's security guard.

In the house tonight is Donald Trump, Steve Wynn and wife, Siegfried and Roy, and various other Vegas entertainers. The dogs came in around 4 pm to sniff out the place and make sure no bombs were on site.

One of Harry's jokes to the audiance.

Harry: Steve, can't i play in this theatre when Danny isn't on stage and then i will go serve sandwichs when i am done to make some extra cash. I mean, you have all these beautiful restaurants here, but you also need a little white trash place for a man to grab a sandwich. I already turned down Donald Trumps request to come serve white trash food in his casino, cause he is into that stuff. But you Steve, i would do it for you. What ever you want, just give me a job!!!!


So thats about all i got. I am awaiting to here back on some other future jobs, and i am crossing my fingers for a few in paticular. Just have to be patient

Reunited and It Feels so Good!!!

So this was the scene, when my friend Michelle and I flew back into Macau after our vacation in Thailand. We had to take a shuttle that was at 6pm... only to sit in the Hong Kong airport for 14 hours before our flight back to the States at 9am the next morning. So we were lucky to find some cushie seats and a lounge that gave us free internet.

They also had a popeyes, which tasted delicious after spending 3 months in Asia.. So tasty!

Chloride, Az

So Amelia and I are both fascinated with "Ghost Towns" of the west. We did a little research and found some around Vegas. Chloride, AZ is just that. It was one of the first major boom towns due to the silver found in the mines up in the hills from the little town. They had a couple decades of mining silver and then it ended before like 1900. So we did a little exploring of our own and ate in the old-fashioned restaurant in town.

The place was a little touristy, with its "old west" false-front town and weekend gun shooting competitions. The town is also very famous because of a western known artist that did alot of rock paintings up in the hillside.

Lake Mead and Grand Canyon

REALLLLY!

So living the domestic life has proven to be challenging, fun, exciting, busy, boring, and new to me all at the same time. Amelia and I are trying really hard to eat out as little as possible and cook fresh and healthy meals for ourselves. It works some of the time, other times we are so bored in our apartment we consider it a luxury to get out of the house and try a new restaurant around Vegas. And still sometimes Amelia and I just have difference of taste buds and decide to eat our own meal.

On one such occasion, Amelia decides she is going to have peanut butter sandwiches and bean soup. We'll, separately, i wouldn't mind either of these. But my lovely girlfriend has come up with her own way of eating them. She enjoys dipping the sandwich in the soup. Well, as much as i love her, i think this is disgusting. Oh well, to each there own. Love you baby!