7 posts tagged “orlando”
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.
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.
Spent the weekend at Screamfest. They bill it as Florida's largest horror convention. It may be the largest, but only by default. I'm not aware of any other horror cons in the state.
The event was disorganized chaos. Poor queue management. Poor communication between the staff and the guests. The location was way short on parking. I'd have a hard time recommending the event to anyone who wasn't local based on this year's experience.
Todd and I had a good time outside of the poor running of the event. We were able to get our Crystal Lake Memories book signed by Richard Brooker (Part 3), Kane Hodder (Parts 7, 8, 9, 10), Betsy Palmer (Jason's mother in Part 1), and Harry Manfedini (the composer- the guy who did the 'Ki...Ki...Ki...Ma...Ma...Ma'). Picked up 2 more signatures on my Devil's Rejects Poster and started a Halloween Poster (damn Rob Zombie for putting the same people in his movies and forcing me to get their signatures on everything).
David Arquette was there and screened his movie "The Tripper" and signed autographs. The Tripper is a mix of comedy and horror and was a lot better than I expected. That is to say, I didn't expect much and was surprised. The cast kicks ass - Jason Mewes, Paul Reubens, Balthazar Getty, Lukas Haas, Marsha Thomason. My head was pounding from not eating or drinking anything all day, so I left during the signing. Todd got an autograph for me, though.
Here are a few pics
Betsy Palmer was extremely nice and had Todd and I in stitches. While most people would only sign a small area of our Crystal Lake book, she decided to sign the entire inside cover. I guess when you are #1, you can do that.
Danielle Harris was tiny. She was also extremely polite to the guys in front of her that were just drooling all over themselves. They were making me uncomfortable. Can't imagine how she dealt with that for 3 days.
William Forsythe really surprised me. I guess because he plays rough and seedy people so well that I expected that from him. He was great. We talked about his character in Rob Zombie's Halloween. Mainly that there wasn't a single thing that he said in the first 10 minutes of the movie that he could quote on my poster and not be offensive. I think his daughter was with him. That tickled her. Oh yeah, I don't know about the bare feet either, but he was cool.
So was anyone there who was not cool? A few. But that comes with the territory. I just don't understand why those guys even go to things like this if they aren't going to be nice to the fans. I know some fans are a little bit overboard on everything, but most of us just enjoy the work. In some cases, have admired their work for a long time. No reason to be a dick about anything.
I don't like it when people are shot outside of places I drink.
Although I love living in Central Florida for a number of reasons, one of the things that I do not like is that there isn't a change of season. Most of the time it is extremely hot and humid. So much so that one really doesn't want to be outside. Misery is 95 degrees with 98% humidity at 10am.
I love it when we get "cooler" weather. It doesn't happen often or last very long, but when it comes, it is wonderful. For whatever reason, we are getting a blast of this type of weather right now. It is great.
With Thanksgiving coming up this week and not being able to spend it with my parents and sister, this weather is a nice little bit of "home" that I normally do not get to experience. I just wish it would last until March.
One of the area's oldest attractions had a major fire this morning. This thing was around way before Walt scouted the area for his World.
A dolphin a Sea World decided to grab on to a kid's arm. (Story)
I'm sure the kid was completely innocent and wasn't doing anything to aggravate the dolphin. Many times when incidents like this happen, the "victim" is completely innocent of any wrongdoing.
