Posts (page 2)

Went to a going away lunch for my co-worker and friend, Aaron, at the Kona Cafe at the Polynesian Resort.

For some reason, we only go to 2 different places for going away or welcome lunches.  Awhile back I decided that I was just going to go down the menu.  The last entree that I had on the list was today's entree.  There was a reason I was leaving it for the end and I didn't care for it.

So I had room for dessert and played dessert roulette with that menu.  The Kona Cone came up and this was it.  The person across from me heard me order it and got one too.  She foolishly thought that I knew what it was.

A waffle cone with chocolate and vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, suger mickey sprinkles, a dark chocolate mickey head emerging from the top, surrounded by a cloud of blueberry cotton candy, and a handful of M&M's.

Way too much sugar for any one person... my stomach is aching now.  Good, though.

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I'm still pretty tired from Sunday and haven't had much time outside of work to write an update about this until now.

I wasn't around the firework accident Sunday night, but saw the whole thing.  What is weird is that Doug, Todd, Lipman and I kept mentioning all night that some of the pyro was awfully close to the crowd when it was going off and that the winds were blowing debris towards the crowd as well.

Anyway, at the end of the entire event, there was a huge pyro display.  Large fireworks were being set off from right outside of the bowl behind the entrance/exit stage.  There were also fountains around the perimeter of the bowl (these weren't very far from people who were sitting in the tip-top rows).

They also had cables strung from the stage to the lighting rigs at the top of the bowl at the other end of the bowl.  Basically, these ran the length of the stadium and went over the crowd.  The cables had rocket type fireworks on them that were supposed to shoot down the length of the cables starting at the lighting rigs and ending on the sides of the stage.

We were in the 2nd tier of the stadium not quite in the end zone and not quite on the side of the field.  We were in that little corner area.  We were also on the opposite side of where the accident happened.

After the 3 count, we got up and left our seats and slowly made our way down to the little landing that separates the 2nd tier from the 1st tier.  Doug and I made it down there first.  Lip and Todd were still navigating the crowd.  Doug and I just watched all of the pyro.  Stuff was going off all around and then the rockets started.  I immediately saw one go straight down into the 3rd tier underneath the lighting rig where the cable was anchored.  I then saw another one almost make it the entire length, but then it dropped down into the 1st tier.  The third tier area was more of less clear of people, but the first tier was not.  That one hit right in the middle of people who were jammed together trying to leave.  Doug and I both looked at each other and remarked that we just saw several people get hurt.

Based on the news reports, the cables failed and that is what caused the fireworks to go into the crowd.  With the tension that cables are under it would have been like a whip going through the crowd too.  Some of the news reports are saying that the cables were hot and they burned people.  That may be true, but I'm betting that the cable marks on people weren't due to a burn as much as being lashed by the thing.

We were all OK.  It is a shame that the accident happened, but it also could have been a lot worse.

Wrestlemania

Show us a beverage you absolutely can't stand the taste of.

That would be wine.  I can drink it.  I can pick up on the notes.  I can do all of that and appreciate it. I just don't like it.  I really dislike reds.

What do you think is too serious to joke around about?

I don't think there is a single subject that fits that.  George Carlin did a bit where be addressed this topic.

I believe you can joke about anything.   It all depends on how you construct the joke. What the exaggeration is.  Because every joke needs one exaggeration. Every joke needs one thing to be way out of proportion.

If I was to add anything to this, it would have to be timing.  There has to be a little time between when an event happens and when people are OK to joke about it.  Of course, this varies with individuals, but there always has to be a little time.

Here's an example- at the Hugh Hefner Friar's Club Roast in late 2001, Gilbert Gottfried started his bit off with a joke about 9/11.  As he started, the crowd started to grumble and someone out in the audience yelled "too soon".  So here you have a room full of the funniest people in the world and they aren't too keen on a 9/11 joke that close to when the event happened.

Fortunately, Gilbert changed directions and went into a telling of The Aristocrats that was not only cathartic to the crowd, but also is now regarded as one of the best renditions of that joke ever.

The wife scored 4 comp tix to the Blue Man Group show at Universal.  She wasn't able to go, so I went with Doug, Bekki, and Colleen.

I picked the kid up after work, drove to the wife's office and traded him for the tickets.  Then I headed over to Universal and made my way into their wonderfully designed and organized parking structures.

Heading into City Walk, I ran into tons and tons of people.  Kinda odd for this time of year.  Then I saw production trailers set up off to the side and stage scaffolding down by the water.  Evidently Ellen had set up shop for the week.  I looked across the lake at Hard Rock and there were tons of people over there too.  I guess they were hoping to be seen in long shots or to catch a glimpse of Ellen or some other celeb.

Fortunately, there weren't tons of people inside Hard Rock at the bar and I was able to go in and grab a seat to wait for the others to show.

Doug called about 15 minutes later and they were stuck in the parking garage mess.  I suggested that he take the option I did to avoid it, but he was scared of a security guard (one that I just waved at as I went on) and followed the masses.

About 15 minutes later, I went outside and called to see where he was.  They were just rounding the bend and we all went back into Hard Rock for a shot.

The Blue Man theater is right next door.  We walked over and went right in about 7 minutes before curtain.  Another crowd of people had gathered outside waiting to get into one of the other soundstages for a live broadcast of TNA Wrestling.... which was 3 hours later.

In Sept. 06, Eileen and I saw their show at the Venetian in Vegas.  I really enjoyed the show there and had high expectations for the show here.  While I did enjoy the show last night, it wasn't as good as the Vegas show.

The Blue Man theater is in what used to be the Nickelodeon soundstage (GUTS and a bunch of those other Nick game shows from the 90's were filmed there).  The theater was a bit smaller than the one in Vegas.  I noticed that the stage was smaller as well... and I think that this was my source of dissapointment (that's not really the right word because I did like the show).

The backing band only consisted of 4 people.  I think the Vegas show had 10 or more people.  More people = more sound. 

The smaller stage seemed to also limit the multimedia effects that they used in Vegas.  There weren't as many projections on different screens or on set pieces.

It also seemed that this show contained more of the comedy bits than actual percussion performance.  Drumming with paint splattering everywhere was there.  Their PVC instrument was there.  The drumbone was there.  But overall there was less music (with a smaller band, that may be why)

I'd reccomend this show to those who aren't able to make it out to Vegas (haven't seen any of the other shows in other cities).  I'd totally go see it here again, but probably would only do so if the wife scores comp tix again.