Backstage Rider

  Aol had a story on artists and what they require backstage from the event planners or venue agent.  I have some close up knowledge of just how childish these "entertainers" can be.

I worked for quite a few years as a party planner/wedding planner for a well known caterer in our area.  We used to pick up a lot of work at some of the larger entertainment halls in  our area.

Waning Rock & Roll groups, long past retirement age solo artists, and over night one stop wonders...all wanting to be catered to.

Now it might sound fascinating to the uneducated mind the fact that you would literally rub elbows with "famous" people...but the truth is is a long, hot, demanding job that starts around 5 am in the morning, because someone has to "cook" their breakfast.  That shouldn't be  too hard right? Wrong, these people travel by huge buses, trucks filled with backstage crew, musicians and hanger on support types.  So you are looking at a breakfast of 20 to 35 people and more often than not they want the whole bonanza...individually cooked to order eggs, bacon, toast, butter, coffee, milk, 17 different juices, doughnuts, coffeecake, rolls, etc. Then you get to do that all over again for lunch and don't forget dinner. You get to drag yourself home after putting in a good twelve hours or so. Who can even hear the music after that??

God forbid, something that was on the rider is left off or not enough of it is provided. You would believe you took Christmas away.

Once, for an Australian singer...her stagehands had a total melt down because we ran out of whole milk, now mind you we had three frigging gallons of milk...they devoured it in the morning not the coffee...who knew? We had 2% but that was dismissed as "piss water". Of course, we sent someone out for more milk...but the damage was done. The poor dear didn't get what he wanted, when he wanted it and no amount of apologies could appease him. Believe me I tried.

Another time for Englebert Humperdink we were to prepare a really good T-bone and he wanted it just perfect, medium rare. Now we are not cooking in a kitchen, we have an electric grill with a fry pan on top...we are "making do" in the dressing room.  The rest of his crew and there were maybe forty people were set up dinning room style with banquet tables and had choice of a chicken dish or a beef dish, assorted veggies, salad, rolls, butter...the food was good - that we cooked offsite and brought in. We had a great chef his name was Paul.

Well the girl that was cooking it didn't cook it well enough...it actually was still cold in the center and very raw. So it was returned with an admonishment to "please try to get it right this time".  The next time she did, but they were not as friendly as they were before dinner.

When you get these "riders" they spell out exactly what the artist likes, wants and desires. You best had better get it all too, and extra just in case.

Those of you who know me, know that I am not a ga-ga type of person.  I learned a long time ago that we all put our pants one one leg at a time and no one for the last 2,000 has walked on water either. So I treated the people with a bit of respect for their profession but was not intimidated by them or their "star" status.  Reading that story today made me think of all these times....just have to laugh.

Mother Nature

 

Destruction in any form is not pretty.  Fire pretty much sucks, it destroys everything.  I feel really bad for the folks out in California, I have a lot of cousins who live in the Los Angeles and surrounding areas. I pray that they and their families are alright and safe from harm.

The numbers involved are staggering, I heard tonight that more than 350,000 people are displaced. They also said that over 18,000 homes had been totally destroyed.  It's just staggering.

It is amazing that more people were not killed or injured, thank God for that. I think it's also due to the warnings that they put out and people there don't mess around they get out.  Oh, there's a few diehards who stay behind with the garden hose (my Joe would be one of them). But the majority grab what they can and leave.

In one way we are lucky here in Florida because we normally get days and days of warnings about an approaching hurricane....fire is different, it has a life of its own and moves fast.

Just hoping it will be over soon for those folks out there and they can get some relief.....

 

 

Procrastination

 Now this is an old picture...circa 1959.  We used to have an old fashioned "ice cream" parlor on the Avenue where I lived in Queens New York.  For some reason they, the owners of Winters, decided to put a table in the window and various people would have the honor of eating their "just desserts" in full view of passerby's and whatever roving photographer was around.  Hokey huh?

Hey, at that point we probably thought this was "cutting edge" lunacy! Fast forward to the future...how tame were we?

Most of my childhood places have been torn down, built over or literally "blown up" (not kidding they blew up my Roller coaster park at Oceanview, Va. for a dam movie). 

There was a very special place called Hugo's on Liberty Avenue at the end of the A line.   Hugo did everything by the book, fresh everything...best hamburgers, his BLT's were to die for...along with a side order of olives & pickles (those for complimentary too!)  He even made his own fresh whipped cream for topping off those scrumptious ice creams soda's and hot fudge sundae's.  Many an afternoon I spent in a back booth, enjoying the jukebox, my friends and my youth.  Not for nothing, it was a non generational place too...my Mom and her friends had their special times there too. It had become a ritual for my Mom, her friends Maddie, Phyllis and Big Jo to meet up right after dropping all of their kids off at school.  Great for coffee and a quick breakfast. So Mom had the morning and I had the afternoon...sometimes when I was off from school I joined my Mom as I really liked her friends...

Time marches on, Hugo wanted to retire...he sold out and the new owner immediately sold to that scourge "Off Track Betting".  Soon we had people traveling from all over just to bet and drop losing paper all over the avenue. It also brought in a horrible soulless class of low life's.

The reason I say that is that I had a friend who owned a linen store a few blocks from my house.  He was murdered in cold blood by several of these ghouls.  He was alone when he died, the police said it didn't look like he tried to fight back they just killed him for the fun of it.  His name was Leonard and he was older than I, he also was a survivor of the camps in Germany.  Such a life he led only to be cut down by these low life's.

Small things make the world go round. Hugo sells, another's greed sells out and my friend died.  Yet, they are all intertwined.  What is the saying... "a butterfly flaps it's wings in China and the breeze is felt in Ohio?" I know it's something like this or close to it. Lol.

Anyway, I started this blog with the intention of writing about procrastination and look what I did...the following is my forecast for today...

The best creative inspiration is something that's commonly become known as 'the deadline.' This necessary intimidation is sponsored by the powers that be, prompted by their insatiable urge to get things done on time. Like it or not, you've got one -- and resistance is futile.

See I can resist with the best of them...lol....Sandi

Why??

 

   I heard the story yesterday. I watched the tape today.  I do not see where she is running WILD through the airport.  I do see the police confront her and whatever they are saying to her starts to get her to wave her arms around, gesturing as we New Yorkers tend to do.

Then you see three burly uniformed men take her down and not gently.  Where is it written in a police manual that when faced with one lone female, unarmed...it is alright to use such excessive force?

The take down reminded me of the video that I saw of the famous New Orleans take down where the guy died shortly afterwards...this was right after the disaster there too.

And now this woman dies too. I, for one, wanted to smack the police spokesperson for his little speech. Especially the part where he says, we did everything to bring her back...she even threw up in his mouth and he just spit it out and continued to work on her.  Geez...maybe they think they deserve a friggin medal?

I hope the family sues the pants off of everyone involved.

Next time you are in an airport...be afraid, very afraid.   

 

On a side note, I did get the button on the right hand side to take my store's url...so it is connected, thanks for you kind comments on the jewelry I have some great stuff up for sale...please visit..thanks.