On the other side of the pastel green planet...

My philosophy is that modern educational systems are flawed.  Back in the "good ol' days", not everyone went to college.  Someone who had a college education was considered quite special.  In my opinion, these days, college, even public ones, are less about education and more about profit.  Consider this quote from Aristotle - "All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth." So what do we do, we standardize tests so that we can make sure that our children can pass the same Jeopardy challenges, but what does that really get them?  How far in your career has trivia taken you?  Probably not far.  But as Stobaeus says: "What use is knowledge if there is no understanding?" Honestly not much.  Where we fail our children most often is not teaching them how to use the knowledge at their fingertips.  So, why the quotes?  I hope for you to understand that edu...

Hey, we all mess around, right?  I mean, come on, admit it.  You can't?  That just makes it worse.  So, when we were kids (oh look, I turned into my dad), we were told to tell the truth. We would be advised that if we told the truth that we wouldn't get into as much trouble as if we didn't fess up and were caught.  Heck, our legal system ended up being built on this principle.  Unfortunately, we learn that as long as we don't get caught, then it's alright.  OK, I'm not going to really argue with that.  I mean, I've done it.  I know that when I get caught, my gut reaction is to lie.  Heck, who wants to get busted?  Do we really believe what our parents said?  Since there's the possibility that you won't get in trouble when something goes wrong, why confess, right?  How are you to know if the punishment might really be more lenient.  It's not like you can see the future and know both possible outcomes.  There's...

When you are at work, do you bother to find out what OSHA regulations you might need to follow?  While there are many regulations that are the responsibility of the employer, the employee also has certain things to do.  Unfortunately, ignorance is no excuse.  The information is widely available, as long as you know where to look (start at http://www.osha.gov/ ).  Let's start with the little things.  Power strips are common place in our homes and at work.  Do you use them?  I'm sure that you have them at your computer station, and probably in your break room.  Did you know that there are limitations as to what you can plug in?  Does yours have a long enough cord to get to your work station without an extension cord?  Here's a nice primer for you: http://www.oshazone.com/downloads/RPTmonograph_11_08.pdf How serious is this?  That's not for me to say, I'm not an inspector.  I can't even say what kind of fines that you might incu...

One of the joys of doing live theater is that you get one chance to get it right, over and over again.  Over in Hollywood, they get one chance (generally speaking) to get a final product right (ahem, Mr. Lucas, it was better if you'd have left it alone).  So, when I was in school or was working  a roadhouse, it was considerably different for me, since the length of a production was quite shorter than what I work now.  If something were to go wrong, we would figure out what was wrong and there was little in the way of a contingent plan.  Now, working in corporate theater, there is a plan for most anything that could disrupt the flow of the show.  Often times, we can have a malfunction and keep the show going without the audience suspecting that there was a problem unless they had seen the show previously.  This gets me to thinking, what would I have done different in the past?  Most likely a failure would stop the show and a lot of mahem would en...

It's sad to say that shortly after I was posting about another blog regarding safety procedures, that I am now sharing a costly mishap.  According to the Oakland Press ( http://theoaklandpress.com/articles/2010/06/22/news/local_news/doc4c1fd417969fc357332898.txt ), "The local stagehands were [setting up] for the Jai Ho concert featuring A.R. Rahman," when the stage collapsed.  Fortunately no one was killed during this accident, but there have been reports of some fairly serious injuries including broken bones.  So, what are we as a community to do about this kind of incident?  First thing that I suggest is not being afraid to share our experiences with younger technicians.  I think that some of the problem lies with the "old dogs" being concerned that the young ones learning the trade and taking away jobs.  Frankly, I would ask that everyone help each other out.  Why, well we don't heal as fast when we get older and so if the younger tech doesn't do ...

Recently I received in the mail some DVDs containing dance concerts that I was in while in college (thanks to my wonderful dance instructor).  I popped in the first one to watch with my daughter who had expressed interest in dance and was the reason that I requested the DVDs.  The video was raw footage since it was taken as archival footage.  So, anyhow, we watched the first piece and when it was done we sat and watched a blank screen for a couple of minutes before the next piece came on.  When she asked why it was taking so long, it brought back the memories of how we had to do things back then.  Since I went to a smaller state college, the funding for technical theater was quite limited (though considerably more than my high school's budget of $0) and so we had to get creative in making each piece more individualized.  Some of the dances had more than basic costumes, and a couple even had props or set pieces, but the lighting was alwa...

Here's a useful blog highlighting many safety concerns in the theater. I recommend adding this blog to your regular feed. Theatre Safety