72oz Steak

almost 42,000 people from around the world have traveled to Amarillo and attempted to eat the specially cut 72-oz. top sirloin steak, a baked potato, salad, dinner roll and shrimp cocktail.

Well, this has been the funnest Feb. 14th I have ever had. The most memorable too. Steven decided to take the Big Texan 72oz Steak challenge and try to eat 4 1/2 lbs of steak in under an hour. It was a techie's night out as Mark, Steven, and I left the touring group, took a free limo to Big Texan (bigtexan.com), and spent almost two hours eatin at this restaurant. Well, Steven spent 40 minutes trying to eat that huge steak, but had to give up after eatin 40oz. Not too bad for a 22yr old, 6'1", 175lbs man. It was a good ol' time! There is a way to spend an evenin' in Texas!

Today, I also spent an afternoon at an old ranch and participated in a ballet class. It was a nice free day before we begin with a show in Roswell, NM tomorrow and a show in Alamogordo, NM on Saturday. It will be home sweet home on Sunday night, and I can't wait.

The past few shows, Mark has been with us, but I'm still in charge of all the lighting since he is better known for workin sound - although he is the most knowledgeable on the Wholehog (light board). He sits out in the audience during the performance while I continue with stage-managing and making sure the board is running right - adding some lighting here and there when it appears to be lacking. I also have had fun running up and down from the catwalk to focus and color lights for FOH (front of house). At one venue, I took over their lift and drove it all around stage while 20ft in the air trying to hang, color, and focus the top light. I love working lighting. I am tempted to get a masters in technical direction like Mark did and work with a touring team as the technical director. I've gotta start looking into my options and decide what I want for the future. I really want to keep doing what I am, but I am sure there is a lot more I can learn if I will expand my horizons. I can't wait to see what is out there for me.

Continuing on . . .

Well, it was a great day today! On our way to El Paso, we stopped at Historic Old Mesilla in New Mexico and spent two hours wandering the streets. I couldn't help buying a beautiful sculpture of a Native American Woman and Child. I just fell in love with it and it was a good price so I got it. After that, we headed to the White Sands and spent 45 minutes walking around, taking pictures and sliding down on disks. It was simply beautiful to see everything in white. What an amazing work of nature.

In El Paso, we headed to the church building to set up and prepare for our fireside. We decided to dance a few numbers so I had to figure out what tech equipment to use. It was easy enough. Then, I was needed to go to the venue and check out the space for tomorrow so Pat and I went over - waited for the rehearsal to finish - and I took notes of the venue and talked to the drama teacher to be better prepared. It will be an interesting show because it is a very wide, shallow stage with a foot or two crossover - one dance needs a good crossover to run across. Mark flew in tonight so we will see him tomorrow at the venue. It is an amazing feeling to being a technical director. Maybe I should look into that kind of career. Of course, if I want to do that for a college, I'd have to go to graduate school and get a masters. I'm not sure if I can survive that. Only the future can tell . . .

Sent Home

Well, our first performance in Farmington went well enough and I had fun recognizing the venue from a year and a half ago. Troubles occurred while we were in Deming, though. An hour into set-up, a cable snapped while lowering an electric and the whole electric fell to the stage floor, barely clipping Benjamin in the head and shoulder. He dived forward to avoid it and was unable to move his arms. After taking a ride to the hospital - transfered to El Paso - we hear that he just got a huge bruise on his shoulder. He was sent back to Provo on Sunday morning. It is believed that Mark will be flying to El Paso on Tuesday morning to be here for our next performance. On Saturday night, I became "technical director" and had to figure out a lot of lighting problems without any help. It did eventually turn out well. Very stressful, but the "show must go on".

I am with a great host family right now as eight dancers are hanging out. The Fireside was wonderful and we had a great spirit while singing the EFY Medley together as a company. I've gotta go! This will be an interesting week . . .

Official Notice

It is now official.

I, Kris, will not longer celebrate Valentines Day. February 14th is now only known as Arizona Statehood Day. I have converted to my sister's views of the holiday. I will not keep others from celebrating, but I will no longer participate.

The only exception to this statement is if my future "man" can convert me back to the "holiday of love". Good Luck.

Sick Season

Well, all of my roommates have now come down with a virus. It all started when Andrea and I went to visit our FHE brother that was sick. We brought him soup, cookies, and a movie. Apparently, Andrea caught the virus (we visited the doctor, so it is the two/three week virus going around) who then gave it to Sariah, then sent it on to Krista. I am the only one left with good health. Good thing I usually have a strong immune system. I'm feeling pretty good, but who knows what may happen in the next week.

Closing Night

The matinee went well with no problems. I would not call it a perfect show, for there were timing cues I needed to fix, but it was a very good run-through. That evening, we had another smooth run-through with very little to say negative about it. Strike lasted until 10:45 as we returned to the RB to unload all of our equipment. I'm glad to be done with this production. Of course, it will all begin again on Friday as we leave on mid-semester tour.

My next task is to make four more scroller gel strings - which needs to be done before Wednesday as Mark and the Folk team prepares for a pre-tour performance in the Conference Center. Before Fall semester began, I had completed 28 scroller gel strings. Then, before Winter, I made eight more. Now, I must make four more. Hopefully, this will be the last time I must make scrollers - at least for the next year. I didn't even know we owned so many scrollers. Oh well. It gives me a lot of experience and now it is easy to do.

FYI: A scroller is a color changing device placed on a lighting instrument that holds twelve to eighteen different gels (colors) and is able to scroll between them from the lightboard through the use of data cables. Therefore, the gel string is - in my case - fifteen 10"x7" gel pieces taped together with metal tabs placed at each end to connect to the scroller.

Second Night

This afternoon, Mark worked with the SFX software programmers and got a new update (SFX 6.0.1.20) that fixes the audio problem we kept running into. But I never had the luck of running a perfect show. With the audio fixed, lighting decided to make its presence known. This morning, DAP (Department of Arts and Performances) had to take their DMX lighting control back to run a show for a UTA conference show. Unfortunately, they did not give it back so we had to find out before the house opened. And then the DMX for our moving lights was not replaced into the correct universe. After about three numbers, Benjamin and Amanda had to figure out how to get them working. After that, everything went very well. The problem was nothing to be noticed by the audience or dancers, but it is another thing that us techs apply to how the show has gone - at least in our aspect. With both lighting and sound now fixed, tomorrow should have no problems as long as I am focusing on my cues and Joe, the sound guy, keeps up the great work.