CONTENTS

With three venues, including a lavish pool party one night, out of the way, we had a couple of side events we had to set up and strike in addition to the Big Three Events.  The team fought frustration, disorder at the home base, simmering tempers and exhaustion to pull together and get the job done.

My personal height of frustration occurred when I was hanging some pipe and drape to effectively cordone off the 'Green Room' for the celebrity performers.  With fifteen minutes to go, I had about twenty feet of drapes to hang, while two sound check guys, one who was a dead ringer for Rod Stewart, the other a grown up Spicoli, laid down with some beers and snacks on the couches already set up.  Earlier, these were the same men who chose a live version of the Eagles' dreaded 'Hotel California' as the song they would run their sound check to.  I was already cursing vividly when I was teamed with the shortest team member to raise the drapes 12 feet in the air.  Grabbing eight foot poles, a storm of uproarious 'handling long pole' jokes rained down on me from the Scooby and Shaggy.  As the clock ticked away, and nothing seemed to be going right, I somehow ignored their barbs, got the job done and fumed the rest of the evening. 

The lighting and design of the Ballroom Events looked superb - sponsors named were lit up well, and a shimmering collection of cascading gobos filled the faceless ballroom with a cool decor that was helped out with hundreds and hundreds of covered seats and floral arrangements throughout the tables. 

One of the highlights that put a spring in the step of many a team member was the themed locales set up outside the entrance that served as a slick corporate photo op.  Brazil night featured some nearly invisibly clad Brazillian dancers, while London night featured a couple of disappointing male guards, followed up by a respectable showing of black geishas for the Japanese night. 

Another one of the highlights was the crack team of local hired hands that helped us get all of our work done - the team of locals consisted of some of LA's finest workers, who emphasized the white bread nature of the rest of the team.  Michaelanthony, ('two names, one word') was the ringleader, who along with his brother were tireless, heavy lifting crew members who injected a hip, street beat to the proceedings and helped immensely.

The team finished strong, and early, on the final day.  In a moment that was almost shot straight out of Shawshank Redemption, DMac, on his last tour with the group before starting a new job, had me run to the market to pick up a few cases of beer.  I snuck them through the grounds in an industrial crate, and unveiled the cold ones inside to a relieved and overjoyed crew that finally was able to sit down, relax and feel normal again. 

After the week that was, a few minutes off the feet and a cold one in your hand makes all the difference. 

All the hard work culminated in a couple cases of beer and a few minutes of rest.

The pool party: a day of tight deadlines in the sun

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