my little corner...

From now on, this blog has a new home HERE at whitt.ca. Come on over to visit! Family fun, excitement for everyone, door prizes and more!!

I've been procrastinating on this announcement, because I wanted to have time to overhaul the website and relaunch it with a big splash. Over the last two months it's become obvious that I'll be waiting forever if I wait until I can redo the whole site. Back in the spring Steve Clarke offered to host my blog on his server with Movable Type which provides RSS feeds, comments, pingbacks and other goodies. I registered the domain and had the site up and running, but Steve still hasn't been able to read my blog via the RSS feed since I've been procrasting on the permanent switch-over.

Well, here it is. I've transferred my blog archives, and all future blog entries will occur at whitt.ca/mycorner/ and over time I'll move over all the other content and update it as appropriate.

Cue the confetti parade and balloons...

Posted by Christopher at 08:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In case I didn't already post this before, my new address is 401-1338 Hollis St, Halifax NS, B3J 1T9. I'll get around to updating that in a few places on the site soon, honest.

Kerry and I leave in a couple of hours for the marathon drive to St. John's NL. We're taking the midnight ferry and then doing the cross-island drive tomorrow. We'll probably stop in Corner Brook so that I can sate my curiousity about a few technical details of the Canada Games Centre arena, for YC Newfoundland this October. Kerry's grandparents are making cooked dinner for us in Norris Arm, so I should have enough breaks to stay awake.

I worked 'til 4 am last night doing lights for the Brookfield truck lotto draw in Brookfield. It was ok, though I had to learn a new board: the ETC Insight 2x (with the Moving Light Controller add-on, but still). Sigh, one of these days, I'll get to use Grand MAs all the time, but until then...

Must go and finish packing... oh, remind me to post about Eastlink Cable - I was really impressed with their customer service this week. If you need to reach me, I'll be able to check phone messages, but email is almost always the most convenient.

Posted by Christopher at 02:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So that brings us to the long weekend. One of the big weekends for production work, and I think I made the most of it. I worked about 10 hours Wednesday for the IATSE local building the roof system and stage for the concert on the hill (Nickelback, Sum 41, Default, Crush etc). On Thursday I was supposed to light Snow at the Forum. It was a small system (24k PARs and 6 ProSpot 250s) but it would have been fun enough. Instead it was cancelled, and I spent the day in the shop prepping for the HarborFest setup. The HarborFest setup was Friday. It was supposed to be 3 or 4 hours in the shop and then 4 or 5 hours on site, but because of a long delay by the stage people, I didn't get out of there until 11:30 pm.

HarborFest is a cute little Canada Day weekend, right down on Queen's Landing just down from the historic properties and right on the harbor. The stage was covered with this really small tent, though. I could only put in a bit of VersaTruss on Manfrottoe stands, and even then my trim was only about 5 feet. I had 18 narrow PARs upstage with scrollers, 4 blinders, 4 ACLs, and 12 medium PARs on stands for front wash.

Saturday I lit Colin James and Charlie A'Court with that rig, but between finishing wiring and fighting with the scrollers, I didn't really get much programming prepared, so it wasn't my best work. Sunday I did 14 hours taking down the scaffolding and stage on the hill with the IATSE again, then Monday I was back at HarborFest for The Mahones and Bif Naked. I started from scratch and reprogrammed my show, and I had a much better time of it. Bif is a pretty loud rockish show anyway, which made it easy to just pound away with the lights, too, and I think that show came off much better than the first night.

So that brings us to now. I slept in this morning, then emptied and reloaded the dishwasher. Read a bit of stuff on the net and did this blog. Gotta put in a load of laundry and grab a quick shower, so I can go spend some time with Kerry (before she kills me) and enjoy some of the nice Canada Day weather.

Posted by Christopher at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Happy Birthday, Canada!

Hard to believe that I actually have the day off. I guess with lighting techs not being needed so much for outdoor events in the daytime... but boy was it a busy weekend. I think I worked mostly 12 or 14 hour days since last Tuesday. The hectic schedule started before that, though.

Posted by Christopher at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last Friday, when Kerry and I were coming out of my old apartment, we saw some teenage hooligans vandalizing the construction project underway at the Salvation Army citadel across the road. We decided to report it to the police. We went back inside and dialed 911, and much to our shock, it took about 3 minutes on hold before we even spoke to a human! Granted it was a Friday night, but still! Once we talked with the operator and were transferred to the police, it took another 10 minutes or so for a police car to arrive.

Posted by Christopher at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There have been a few adventures in moving this week, but I'm mostly there now. Last Saturday I rented a UHaul truck and in 6 hours Kerry and I loaded it at my old place and unloaded it at my new place. My new superintendants are very helpful and since the apartment was vacant they let me move my stuff in before the lease officially started. That was essential in order for me to work through this weekend.

On Monday, I had my power, cable, phone and internet transferred. On Tuesday, I worked at the Christie shop, finishing the cleanup from Drum the previous weekend. Christie did the lighting for the concert on the hill, but that was Nickelback's touring rig out of the Toronto shop. The Halifax shop did the Casino Nova Scotia Canada Day weekend lighting, with TTE on audio. That was Trooper, Tom Cochrane and Red Rider, Farmer's Daughter and maybe some other acts that I don't know. After finishing at the shop, I took Kerry to meet some girls from the church for a girl's night at the movies. I think they sawAlex and Emma. Kerry saw The Italian Job while in St. John's, so now that's two movies I haven't seen. Anyway, while she was at the movies, I packed up my refridgerated goods, the last odds and ends, and then I cleaned the old apartment. Wash the shower, toilet, fridge, walls, and all that other fun. Ugh.

Posted by Christopher at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)