#274 - Ellen Lampert-Greaux

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Today's podcast episode #274
with Ellen Lampert.

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Griot is a good one.
And so Ellen's somebody I've

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known for, God, I don't know, 30
years probably, I think.

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And she's always been with LDI
as long as I've known her.

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She's still with LDI today, Have
so many memories of LDI.

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This podcast could have gone on
for three hours just talking

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about those memories.
And I didn't know much about her

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background prior to LDI, so it
was really fun to learn that.

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And one of the interesting
things was Sarah reminded me

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right before recording this that
Ellen had never been on the

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show.
And I was shocked by that

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because she had been on other
discussions that were not part

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of Geezers of Gear, but never on
Geezers of Gear.

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One more thing, we have free
guest passes for LDI for the

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convention floor.
Geezers of Gear is the code.

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Use our promo code.
It's free, doesn't cost you

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anything, gets you on to the
show floor free of charge.

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Again, one word, Geezers of
Gear.

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Thank you.
Hello and thanks for joining us

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today on Geezers of Gear episode
#274.

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today.

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It is a good day today and
welcome back.

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SO I want to cover a little bit
of AI stuff.

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Shocking, I know.
So first of all, Claude, if you

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haven't seen Claude, it is an AI
model from a company called

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Anthropic and they have recently
released, I think it was

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recently.
Anyways, 3.5 Sonnet is the

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version and what they've done in
this new version is they've

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successfully built a mansion in
Minecraft and so they're

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showcating this AI versions
creativity despite not being

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specifically trained for
Minecraft and not knowing

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anything about the game.
And so it's a pretty interesting

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idea that obviously will get the
attention especially of young

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folks like my son who have
always liked Minecraft.

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So that's pretty cool.
Secondly, another thing that I'm

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seeing introduced by a couple of
companies right now, Elon Musk

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one of them and ChatGPT 4 being
the other one is the ability to

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input anything medical related,
including lab results, MRI

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scans, CAT scans, X-rays, and
then have that information

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analyzed and explained to you.
And so this sort of

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functionality can basically help
medical diagnostics, identifying

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patterns, anomalies and even
suggesting possible diagnosis.

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And so of course, one of the
areas this is targeting is is

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parts of the world that have
less medical care available to

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people will now basically allow
you to self diagnose and a

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little bit better than Google
doctor.

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But still all of the companies
of course, are doing the CYA

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cover your ass and saying, you
know, but make sure you check

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the results with your doctor.
Don't just listen to them.

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So that's pretty promising and
pretty exciting, I think.

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And of course, with the podcast,
it's a big week for launches

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this week.
If you haven't already heard the

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Brickman episode, it was amazing
as that man is.

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He's one of my favorite
designers out there.

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I've looked up to this guy
forever, having been a Pink

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Floyd fan when I was younger and
seeing some of those incredible,

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iconic, memorable looks that he
produced, including the ring of

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Lights.
And but yeah, the the podcast

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has done very well.
It's obviously one of the

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biggest on Spotify for us.
It's climbing up on YouTube

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where we're still building,
building an audience on YouTube,

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of course.
So it's still small on YouTube,

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but it's bigger than most of the
small podcasts on YouTube and

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doing quite well.
And we're actually, we're seeing

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this new phenomenon basically
where some of our podcasts are

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starting to break out of our
industry.

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So they're not just stuck with
sound and lighting and

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production concert live event
business people, but actually

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breaking out into the core
audience of concert going fans.

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And that's given us some ideas
and some thoughts.

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And it's given you, our guests
especially some reach for new

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audience and new, new victims
basically for your skill set.

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So really an interesting
phenomenon and one that we are

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going to pursue some more.
But in addition to Mark this

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week, we also, as I'm recording
this, I believe the Mark Fetto

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episode launched this morning.
Mark is an amazing guy with a

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really great history in the
business and is doing some

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really cool things.
So we had a great talk and of

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course, Cosmo.
So Cosmo, it's so appropriate

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that he's launching on Halloween
day.

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By the time you hear this, that
will have passed.

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But as I sit here, Halloween is
tomorrow and so Cosmos episode

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launches tomorrow.
Of course, Cosmo's been on the

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show two or three times before.
It's always a blast.

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He had a very busy 1st 2/3 of
the year and was expecting a

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full year.
And then of course, Aerosmith

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canceled and pretty much retired
from touring.

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And so we talked about that a
bunch too.

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So definitely a fun episode and
and an exciting week for geezers

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of gear.
Probably, I would venture to

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guess our biggest week ever with
three podcast launching that are

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all just knock them out of the
park home run wonderful

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discussions.
And so please listen to all of

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those.
I hope you enjoy them.

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And I'm very grateful to be
where we're at right now.

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We're, we're growing quickly and
we're quite happy.

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And Speaking of growing, please
subscribe and share and click

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like and anywhere you can
basically connect with our

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podcast, please connect because
that does help us to grow.

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And again, based on what I said
earlier, too, share it outside

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your circle, share it outside
the live events business.

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If you know people who are Pink
Floyd fans, share that with

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Pink.
Share that episode, the Mark

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Brickman episode, share the
Cosmo episode with people who

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are huge ACDC fans and say, hey,
this is the guy who does ACDC.

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And I think sometimes we get a
little technical for those

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audiences, but I think for the
most part the interest of

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concert going fans would be very
high.

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It's sort of a behind the scenes
look at how shows are put

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together.
And if we can capture some of

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that audience, I believe that
gives the podcast huge growth

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and benefits our sponsors,
benefits our guests in a big

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way.
And I would love it.

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So please, like, please
subscribe, please share.

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And so today's guest has been
somebody I've known for over 30

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years, I believe since my very
first LDI show as an exhibitor,

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which I believe was in 1991,
maybe 92.

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And she's been a fixture in the
lighting community in media.

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She's worked for LDI for longer
than anyone else, I believe, a

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very long time.
And we're currently working

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together on something at LDI
this year.

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And so we'll discuss that during
the episode.

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Ellen Lampert Griot and I hope I
said that right, Ellen Lampert

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Griot I never had that sort of
hyphenated second last name on

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there for I'd say 9/10 of the
time that I've known her.

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So I'm getting used to it.
Ellen Lampert Griot works at

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Questex as Live Design LDI
creative director.

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Ellen started at LDI in 1988.
I told you it was a long time.

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The very first LDI was in
Dallas.

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This will be her 37th year.
Ellen is a writer, editor,

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conference organizer for Live
Design LDI.

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She's from Philadelphia and went
to College in Brooklyn.

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Ellen is the editor in chief of
Harbor Magazine for Saint Barth

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and Saint Martin and organizes
the Saint Barth, which I believe

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is pronounced St.
Bart Film Festival Cinema.

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Carab Carabus Carabus this year
was the 27th edition of

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Caribbean Cinema from May 1st to
4th, 2024.

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I have known Ellen for a very
long time, as I said, but this

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is actually the first time she's
ever been on the show.

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She's been part of the show,
she's been sort of behind the

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scenes part of the show.
She's been on some recordings

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that we've done for.
We make events and other things.

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She's been a friend of the show
and a friend of mine for a very

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long time and I'm looking
forward to hearing more about

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her story and also talking about
LDI 2024.

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And of course, that show keeps
growing, and it's not in any

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small part due to her efforts.
She puts in a massive amount of

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effort every year.
She cares a lot about the show.

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She's very passionate about it.
If you know her, you know what

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I'm talking about.
So please welcome Ellen to Keys

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of Gear.
Ellen.

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Marcel.
What's happening?

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Not much what's happening.
It's like a month before LDI,

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that's what's happening.
You know, we have something to

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look forward to.
Yes.

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And I'm really, really excited
that you're going to be there

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this year.
Yeah, we're going to talk about

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that a whole bunch because last
year I missed it and I was

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kicking myself the whole time.
I was actually sitting at home

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watching posts and stuff of
people at LDI.

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This is the greatest LDI ever.
And I'm like, oh damn it, it

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was.
A good show last year, and I

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think this year's going to be
really good too.

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Yeah, I will.
I hope.

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We have, you know, a new show
director for the past couple

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years, Jesse Chibalski, and she
is very bold and very audacious,

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and she brings in lots of new
stuff every year and they really

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try to keep it exciting, which
is great.

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Yeah, Yeah, I know.
I, you know, I know that I went

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the year before it was great.
And, and yeah, I mean, everyone

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I know is going, so I think
it'll be a good year.

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Even the pandemic year was great
because a lot of people

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discovered that when there were
fewer people, first of all, you

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could meet people you've never
met before and you had more time

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to talk to them in your booth
and find out that there are a

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lot of people out there that are
not Disney or, you know, Cirque

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du Soleil or whatever.
And they have a lot of projects

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and they have checkbooks.
So it.

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Was also really cool because it
was kind of a coming out, you

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know, like everybody had been
locked up for a while and that

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was.
Exactly that.

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Was a great memory that show.
Like it was just.

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Really nice to see other humans
and talk to people and give air

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hugs and stuff because some
people were still pretty freaked

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out about it or.
Absolutely.

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Yeah.
So, so you know, I was reading

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the intro on this and a couple
of things.

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First of all, I didn't realize
your 37th year you started at

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LDI in 1988.
Can you believe it?

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That is unbelievable.
So was 88 the first show?

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88 was the first show.
Here's what happened.

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In 1979, I became the director
of publicity for the Brooklyn

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Academy of Music, which is a
large Performing Arts Center in

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Brooklyn.
And one of the people that I met

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there, you know, standing in the
lobby handing out press tickets

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and stuff, was a woman called
Pat McKay, who had a magazine

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called Theatre Crafts.
And we became very good friends.

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Her husband, Ralph, was a book
publisher and a very brilliant,

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00:14:25,600 --> 00:14:28,480
very funny man.
And Pat and I just clicked and

226
00:14:28,480 --> 00:14:35,200
we became good friends.
And in 1983 I went to France for

227
00:14:35,200 --> 00:14:37,040
the summer and basically never
came back.

228
00:14:37,680 --> 00:14:42,960
So in I went to the Avignon
festival with some dance

229
00:14:42,960 --> 00:14:46,120
companies from Bam, Pina,
Bausch, Carol Carlson, Carol and

230
00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:49,560
Carlson and just fell in love
with the South of France and

231
00:14:49,560 --> 00:14:51,760
lived there for the next 10
years on and off.

232
00:14:52,760 --> 00:14:58,560
So in about 1980, I don't know,
6-7, Pat bought a second

233
00:14:58,560 --> 00:15:00,960
magazine that was called
Lighting Dimensions.

234
00:15:01,640 --> 00:15:04,600
And about that time there were
two companies coming into their

235
00:15:04,600 --> 00:15:10,000
own in Texas, High End Systems
and Verilight.

236
00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:12,680
You know, the Rusty Boucher on
one side.

237
00:15:12,840 --> 00:15:16,680
Oops.
Rusty Boucher on one side, and I

238
00:15:17,120 --> 00:15:20,320
don't know why that's stinging.
Rusty Boucher on one side and

239
00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:24,760
the, you know, Richard
Belleville, Lowe Fowler, Bob

240
00:15:24,760 --> 00:15:32,800
Shackerel on the other side.
And they sort of started talking

241
00:15:32,800 --> 00:15:35,600
to Pat about how rock'n'roll
lighting was becoming an

242
00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:38,080
industry and ma'am, we should
have a trade show.

243
00:15:38,920 --> 00:15:43,800
So I had started freelance
writing for Pat from France in

244
00:15:43,800 --> 00:15:49,240
1983, interviewing some French
designers and lighting designers

245
00:15:49,240 --> 00:15:53,280
and going to see a lot of stuff.
So Pat said to me, hey, would

246
00:15:53,280 --> 00:15:56,840
you come back for the fall of 88
and help me get this trade show

247
00:15:56,840 --> 00:15:58,640
off the ground?
We really need some marketing

248
00:15:58,640 --> 00:16:01,160
and promotion.
So I did, and here we are all

249
00:16:01,160 --> 00:16:04,520
these years later.
Pat kept it until, I believe,

250
00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:08,080
after the 1995 show.
She sold it.

251
00:16:09,160 --> 00:16:12,760
And we've been part of various
and sundry publishing media

252
00:16:12,760 --> 00:16:16,120
companies ever since.
Yeah, The recent, most recent

253
00:16:16,120 --> 00:16:23,000
one is Questex, which acquired
us after the 19, after the 2019

254
00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:24,000
show.
Yeah.

255
00:16:24,440 --> 00:16:28,240
And little did they know, little
did they know that we were going

256
00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:31,080
to not do a show in 2020.
And God loved them.

257
00:16:31,080 --> 00:16:34,120
They kept everybody on salary.
And we just started planning for

258
00:16:34,120 --> 00:16:36,320
20/21.
And we were really lucky.

259
00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:38,440
We snuck in between Delta and
Omicron.

260
00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:44,440
Yeah, we were very lucky.
Yeah, So 88 was the first show,

261
00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:47,640
and that was in Dallas.
It was in Dallas, TX and Pat was

262
00:16:47,640 --> 00:16:51,720
funny because she really didn't
want to go to any union venues.

263
00:16:52,080 --> 00:16:55,840
So all the big places like, you
know, San Francisco,

264
00:16:55,840 --> 00:16:58,560
Philadelphia, New York, we're
kind of not on the table.

265
00:16:58,960 --> 00:17:01,200
Who knew if anybody was going to
come, you know?

266
00:17:01,840 --> 00:17:05,240
So the first year, instead of
hiring like a lot of trade show

267
00:17:05,240 --> 00:17:08,359
people, the people who work for
the magazine really sort of did

268
00:17:08,359 --> 00:17:11,280
everything.
So the subscription guy did like

269
00:17:11,280 --> 00:17:14,640
attendance and the marketing
people did, the salespeople did

270
00:17:14,640 --> 00:17:18,800
the marketing.
And, you know, Jackie Tien did

271
00:17:18,800 --> 00:17:20,920
the sales for the booths on the
shelf floor.

272
00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:23,880
And we had a woman, Paula
Millstone, who sort of became

273
00:17:23,880 --> 00:17:27,520
the operations person.
And everybody pitched in.

274
00:17:27,920 --> 00:17:32,120
And we did it in the basement of
an office building called the

275
00:17:32,120 --> 00:17:37,040
Infocom Infomart.
Infomart, Infomart, not Infocom

276
00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:40,840
Infomart.
And we practically ripped down

277
00:17:40,840 --> 00:17:42,760
the building.
I mean, it had been built

278
00:17:42,760 --> 00:17:47,760
originally as a I'm sorry
parking lot underneath of this

279
00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:49,880
building and then they decided
they would put some convention

280
00:17:49,880 --> 00:17:52,800
space under there.
So there were pillars a lot of

281
00:17:52,800 --> 00:17:56,960
places.
And on the Friday when the, I'm

282
00:17:56,960 --> 00:18:02,520
sorry, my sister's going crazy
here, 47 messages I never hear

283
00:18:02,520 --> 00:18:08,360
from her.
The the Friday the office people

284
00:18:08,360 --> 00:18:11,880
were in there and the noise
coming from those big booths

285
00:18:11,880 --> 00:18:15,040
with the rock'n'roll lights and
shows like the building must

286
00:18:15,040 --> 00:18:20,120
have been shaking.
Did we go back to the Info Mart

287
00:18:20,120 --> 00:18:21,680
the second time we went to
Dallas?

288
00:18:21,680 --> 00:18:25,120
So I think so, yeah.
Well, and then the second show

289
00:18:25,120 --> 00:18:27,000
was in Nashville.
Nashville, because that's the

290
00:18:27,040 --> 00:18:28,840
first one I went to.
That was my.

291
00:18:28,840 --> 00:18:33,520
First, everybody on a bus to on
a bus to the Grand Old Opry,

292
00:18:33,520 --> 00:18:37,760
which was still in the old hall.
We did a big night out at the

293
00:18:37,760 --> 00:18:39,480
Grand Old Opry.
That was fun.

294
00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:43,720
And it's a funny story because I
was the last person on the bus

295
00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:46,560
because I was standing outside
checking off names.

296
00:18:46,800 --> 00:18:49,040
And I got off the bus and there
were two guys I'd never seen

297
00:18:49,040 --> 00:18:51,800
before sitting one each in the
front seats.

298
00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:54,200
So I said to the one of them, do
you mind if I sit here?

299
00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:55,880
Because the rest of the bus was
kind of full.

300
00:18:56,040 --> 00:18:57,120
He said, no, that's all right,
go ahead.

301
00:18:57,120 --> 00:18:59,960
And I realized they were
English, both of them, and they

302
00:18:59,960 --> 00:19:03,440
turned out to be called Tony
Gotelier and Peter Wynn Wilson.

303
00:19:03,840 --> 00:19:07,440
And they became very dear
friends, both of them.

304
00:19:07,840 --> 00:19:11,080
And for years, every time there
was something fun to do at LDI,

305
00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:13,640
I'm like, hey, remember that
night on the bus to the Grand

306
00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:14,720
Ole Opry?
Let's go.

307
00:19:15,560 --> 00:19:18,880
So unfortunately, Tony has
passed away, but Plaza very

308
00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:22,440
nicely keeps his memory alive
with an award every year.

309
00:19:23,560 --> 00:19:26,400
And Peter is still inventing mad
CAD stuff.

310
00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:29,040
You know, I don't know if
anybody remembers this, but

311
00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:34,000
Peter Wynn Wilson actually
invented the Versa Tube, which

312
00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:39,240
Element Labs brought to market.
I remember one time being at his

313
00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:42,760
workshop in London and he opens
a closet door and there's this

314
00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:46,360
color changing thing of light
looked like neon running back

315
00:19:46,360 --> 00:19:47,680
and forth.
I'm like, what's that?

316
00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:49,920
And he said, oh, DMX controlled
LE DS.

317
00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:51,240
I'm like, what?
You know.

318
00:19:51,760 --> 00:19:54,000
And then he I.
Remember seeing that product at

319
00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:56,600
the at the first, I think it was
the first time they ever

320
00:19:56,600 --> 00:20:00,040
exhibited element labs, right?
And and just looking at it and

321
00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:01,480
going Nils, what the hell are
you doing?

322
00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:04,680
Like I know, how about that?
What has happened to you?

323
00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:07,480
You know you had the whole hog
and now this.

324
00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:11,360
What are you doing?
And bam, it took off like crazy.

325
00:20:11,360 --> 00:20:13,280
Exactly just like his drone
company.

326
00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:15,200
So he's pretty smart Nils.
He is smart.

327
00:20:15,360 --> 00:20:19,400
But then Peter also invented
Catalyst, which was really the

328
00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:23,480
first moving head projector
media server, you know a media

329
00:20:23,480 --> 00:20:26,040
server light thing.
Yeah, which was really cool.

330
00:20:26,040 --> 00:20:29,840
And then when Richard Bleasdale
just passed away and everybody

331
00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:32,720
said, oh, the father of the
catalyst I said well, actually

332
00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:37,920
he was the for hire software guy
that made it happen and kept it

333
00:20:37,920 --> 00:20:41,640
alive once it was sold to Barco
and high end and I think high

334
00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:44,800
end might still call it a legacy
product if you have one.

335
00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:50,280
I'm not sure they service them,
but Peter also made a big moving

336
00:20:50,280 --> 00:20:53,680
head mirror for like a, you
know, I don't know those huge

337
00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:59,000
searchlights, those giant.
So he, he's a really interesting

338
00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:00,960
sort of madcap inventor.
I love people.

339
00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:02,560
Like that I.
Love people who.

340
00:21:02,560 --> 00:21:06,600
Just find things that need to be
made and they get them made

341
00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:07,520
somehow.
Exactly.

342
00:21:07,520 --> 00:21:10,800
Gary Fails was like that too.
Gary Fails City Theatre was

343
00:21:10,920 --> 00:21:12,360
very, very clever.
Yep.

344
00:21:12,640 --> 00:21:16,000
He did very well creating
products that, you know,

345
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:18,120
companies just didn't want to
build on their own.

346
00:21:18,120 --> 00:21:20,920
And right, there's a lot of
those companies now, like I just

347
00:21:20,920 --> 00:21:23,640
had one of the guys, I can't
even remember his name on my, on

348
00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:26,680
my podcast recently.
And that's what he does.

349
00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:30,760
Like, you know, oh, you've got
like for circ or for companies

350
00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:35,040
like that who just need some
sort of custom electronics and,

351
00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:37,400
and it's not worth them building
on their own.

352
00:21:37,400 --> 00:21:40,440
It's sort of a small.
And so he's got like a Skunk

353
00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:44,960
Works kind of design firm that
creates electronic components

354
00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:47,000
and.
Burbank.

355
00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:50,560
Burbank, CA is full of them
because there are many, many

356
00:21:50,560 --> 00:21:54,680
people who work for Disney in
various capacities who have all

357
00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:57,080
branched off.
And the Themed Entertainment

358
00:21:57,080 --> 00:22:01,280
Association is all those little
companies that builds all that

359
00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:03,560
stuff because they're really,
really clever.

360
00:22:03,800 --> 00:22:08,160
So if you need a 90 foot
diameter LED color changing

361
00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:11,040
mirror ball, you know what you
know, whatever you need, there

362
00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:12,280
are companies that will build
it.

363
00:22:12,600 --> 00:22:15,360
So, Ellen, do you remember how
many people went to the first

364
00:22:15,360 --> 00:22:18,920
LDI?
Yes, I think about 3000.

365
00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:24,640
And now you're up to 30,000.
No 12 to 15 comfortably.

366
00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:25,720
Lot more.
Than.

367
00:22:25,840 --> 00:22:28,560
Three, but we were really,
really surprised at how many

368
00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:30,320
people came the first year.
That's a lot.

369
00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:39,520
And Pat's husband rest his soul.
I don't understand this.

370
00:22:40,520 --> 00:22:43,920
Pat's husband, rest his soul, it
was a book.

371
00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:47,280
It was a bookseller, you know, a
book publisher, books publisher,

372
00:22:47,280 --> 00:22:48,720
not really seller, book
publisher.

373
00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:51,480
But he was sort of taking care
of part of the money thing.

374
00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:53,800
And at the end of the first day,
there was just like he was

375
00:22:53,800 --> 00:22:57,000
standing there with like lots of
$100 bills coming out of his

376
00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:00,160
pockets because a lot of people
from Mexico came and they all

377
00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:01,920
just paid cash when they got
there.

378
00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:05,000
We really had no idea what was
going to happen.

379
00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:08,560
But by Nashville, we were a
little more organized and we

380
00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:10,280
really knew what was going to
happen.

381
00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:14,440
It's funny too, because Pat,
it's a real foodie, and whatever

382
00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:17,280
town we go to, she loves to find
like the best restaurant.

383
00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:21,680
So the first year in Dallas, she
found a place called the Ruth

384
00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:25,000
St.
Cafe or something that had a

385
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:26,920
little place next to it called
Baby Ruth.

386
00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:30,120
And we went there.
And one of the designers that

387
00:23:30,120 --> 00:23:32,840
she invited who I'd never met
before was Jeff Ravits.

388
00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:36,720
And so I've known Jeff since
that very first night in Dallas,

389
00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:39,040
1988.
That's cool.

390
00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:44,600
You know, I mean, so I Nashville
was my first show and I've been

391
00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:46,760
to everyone except last year
since then.

392
00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:53,720
And you know, it's wild because
when I think back to LDI, it's

393
00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:55,680
almost like I grew up with that
show.

394
00:23:55,680 --> 00:23:58,560
Like I literally grew up in the
industry with that show.

395
00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:05,120
I was hired by Gerard Cohen from
Trackman at the Reno show in 91,

396
00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:09,320
right?
And moved very shortly after

397
00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:11,280
that down to Florida to work for
him.

398
00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:15,080
And, and, you know, ever since
then, like I could almost tell

399
00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:18,000
you what happened at every show,
like the big event that happened

400
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:21,080
for me or for the company or for
the brand that I was

401
00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:24,600
representing or whatever.
And yeah, so I mean, that show's

402
00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:27,440
always been so important to me
and that the relationships that

403
00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:30,520
I have not only with you, but
with other people, you know,

404
00:24:30,680 --> 00:24:32,720
Jackie and.
Absolutely back.

405
00:24:32,720 --> 00:24:35,400
Then, even though it was usually
a fiery relationship because she

406
00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:38,360
was always fighting with Peter
Johansson or, or Gerard Cohen.

407
00:24:39,120 --> 00:24:44,320
And and, you know, it's just,
it's a show that's obviously

408
00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:46,480
near and dear to my heart and
so.

409
00:24:46,520 --> 00:24:48,000
That's good to hear.
Yeah.

410
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:50,520
So, you know, it's funny.
It's funny to what goes around

411
00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:55,120
comes around because in maybe
back in like about 1990 in

412
00:24:55,120 --> 00:25:00,840
Orlando, we invented this thing
called Backstage Orlando because

413
00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:04,120
we had some very, very close
contacts in the theme parks.

414
00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:07,000
And we decided it would be great
to spend the day at Disney and

415
00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:10,880
the day at Universal.
And, you know, there's not a lot

416
00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:14,200
of clubs down there, but we kind
of, you know, we had two great

417
00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:15,640
days.
One year we went to one of those

418
00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:19,240
Holy Land things where they
crucify Jesus every afternoon at

419
00:25:19,240 --> 00:25:23,280
3:00 or, you know, I don't know,
but that was really great.

420
00:25:23,280 --> 00:25:26,200
And then we never could do
backstage Las Vegas because the

421
00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:29,840
show wasn't in Vegas yet.
But in 1994, when the show was

422
00:25:29,840 --> 00:25:33,520
in Reno for the second time, we
decided to do backstage Las

423
00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:37,240
Vegas because Las Vegas was the
point of reinventing itself.

424
00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:40,800
And by then there was Treasure
Island with the pirate battle in

425
00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:43,120
front of it.
There was The Mirage.

426
00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:47,160
The Luxor had these like some
kind of game.

427
00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:50,120
She went down under the ground
and whatever it was, you know,

428
00:25:50,120 --> 00:25:54,400
and Doug Trumbull from whatever
he was another one of those

429
00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:57,960
Disney or I don't know, one of
the big themed entertainment

430
00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:03,440
people had done those.
They were all like and immersive

431
00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:06,440
experiences and Vegas was trying
to become like the entertainment

432
00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:08,960
capital of the world, not just
Sin City.

433
00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:11,960
There was a little theme park
out behind The MGM Grand.

434
00:26:12,040 --> 00:26:15,480
Disaster that was.
So we had Backstage Las Vegas,

435
00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:19,280
but we were in Reno.
So like 90 people signed up to

436
00:26:19,280 --> 00:26:23,480
do this trip and we got a
private plane and on Sunday

437
00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:26,800
afternoon at the end of LDI, we
got 2 bus loads full of people

438
00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:30,080
right onto the tarmac.
Not even through a building in

439
00:26:30,080 --> 00:26:33,560
Las Vegas.
I mean in Reno onto the buses

440
00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:37,640
where there were box lunches or
box dinners including Luke, La

441
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:40,280
Fortune the lighting designer
and Jonathan Deans the sound

442
00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:42,400
designer.
And off we went.

443
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:45,680
And we all stayed at Treasure
Island and everybody's luggage

444
00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:48,320
got delivered to their room.
We went to see the pirate ship

445
00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:51,920
Battle, then inside to see me
stare, which Luke of course had

446
00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:54,000
lit.
Next day went back and had a

447
00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:57,400
whole long in the theater thing
with Luke about the lighting and

448
00:26:57,400 --> 00:27:00,360
all.
And here we are 30 years later

449
00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:05,240
and Luke has relit the show from
A-Z and we're going back to see

450
00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:07,920
it again at Backstage Las Vegas.
I thought that.

451
00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:09,480
Was really cool.
Yeah, it is.

452
00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:12,280
It's really cool.
So it's only one day this time.

453
00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:15,720
People seem to have much shorter
attention spans, like getting

454
00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:18,160
somebody to one year in in Las
Vegas.

455
00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:23,040
No, in Orlando it started on
Sunday night after the show for

456
00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:28,320
dinner and something some
animals that Ken Billington and

457
00:27:28,320 --> 00:27:30,920
Jason Kantrowitz had lit at
SeaWorld.

458
00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:35,120
Then all day Monday, I think at
Disney, all day Tuesday at

459
00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:39,440
Universal, and then some going
away brunch at some place on

460
00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:41,120
Wednesday.
I mean, that was like a major

461
00:27:41,120 --> 00:27:43,440
time commitment.
People don't seem to have to

462
00:27:43,560 --> 00:27:48,120
seem to have that time anymore.
Well, yeah, I mean, I know for

463
00:27:48,120 --> 00:27:51,120
me, like typically LDI for me is
a 2 day show.

464
00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:54,560
You know, I'll come in for two
days and and usually one of the

465
00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:57,880
days is full of podcasting or
something and the other day I

466
00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:00,080
get to run around and say hello
to everybody and get the hell

467
00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:03,240
out.
But it's just time is comes at a

468
00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:05,640
premium.
You know, it's it's hard.

469
00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:07,000
What's going on?
Well, OK.

470
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:08,600
You don't hear.
You don't hear this dinging in

471
00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:09,640
the back.
No, nothing.

472
00:28:09,640 --> 00:28:11,320
Oh, OK, great.
Nothing at all.

473
00:28:11,880 --> 00:28:14,440
It's my sister.
If you need to stop, no no.

474
00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:18,240
No I don't, it's just that my
sister is has not left her house

475
00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:24,240
since COVID except for outdoor
events and she wants to go.

476
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:26,760
You can you edit can edit stuff
out.

477
00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:29,160
Yeah, yeah.
Sarah, just make a note.

478
00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:34,080
She's going to Phoenix to door
to door some political

479
00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:38,640
canvassing before the election,
and she's driving from San

480
00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:42,360
Francisco to Phoenix.
So she's just telling us who to

481
00:28:42,360 --> 00:28:45,680
call if anything happens to her
and where the dog is and who her

482
00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:48,080
lawyer is.
And I'm like, Oh my God, what

483
00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:49,360
does she think is going to
happen?

484
00:28:51,560 --> 00:28:52,920
That's hilarious.
Right.

485
00:28:53,200 --> 00:28:54,800
Yeah.
But she's really telling my

486
00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:57,760
daughter who's got the most
responsible of any of us.

487
00:28:57,760 --> 00:29:01,520
But yeah, for some reason I have
my phones off and my everything

488
00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:04,000
off on my computer and it's
dinging anyway so.

489
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:06,880
Yeah.
So usually if if it's somebody

490
00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:10,080
who's on your friend list or
whatever, they'll still come

491
00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:11,920
through even if you've got it on
DND.

492
00:29:12,520 --> 00:29:14,800
That's how mine's set.
In case of emergencies maybe.

493
00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:17,200
Yeah, yeah.
Like if my son or my girlfriend

494
00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:19,200
is is trying to reach me,
they'll ring through.

495
00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:20,520
No matter what's going on.
All right.

496
00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:22,520
Well, sorry about that.
No, no, it's all good.

497
00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:26,920
So back to LDI.
So the second Reno show, was

498
00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:32,960
that the one where the the LA
strikes happened at the dock?

499
00:29:34,760 --> 00:29:36,400
I don't remember that all I
remember.

500
00:29:36,400 --> 00:29:37,760
When all the booths couldn't get
their.

501
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:41,440
Freight, well, I remember snow
and people getting stuck in the

502
00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:45,480
Donner Pass and maybe there was
also a port strike.

503
00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:47,840
I don't really remember that,
but I remember the snow.

504
00:29:47,880 --> 00:29:52,240
Second Reno show that there was
a OK there was a strike in LA,

505
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:56,320
dockworkers strike or something
and a lot of companies couldn't

506
00:29:56,320 --> 00:29:59,080
get the.
Freight like Peter Johansson if

507
00:29:59,080 --> 00:30:02,680
I recall.
We were missing something, but I

508
00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:04,840
don't remember.
Like we still had a booth, but I

509
00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:08,080
we were missing something.
But I mean, some companies

510
00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:10,720
didn't get their booth right.
Like they didn't, they didn't

511
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:12,080
have a booth.
So they were just putting

512
00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:13,960
furniture in and stuff.
It was really.

513
00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:17,160
Weird, I remember.
Was that the year Flying Pig

514
00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:20,320
system just had their console
sitting on cardboard boxes with

515
00:30:20,320 --> 00:30:22,680
like beach chairs?
Think you're right.

516
00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:25,040
Yeah, I think you're right.
Like they went to Walmart and.

517
00:30:25,040 --> 00:30:27,960
Bought some chairs or something?
But yeah, it was a bit of a

518
00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:30,040
disaster.
And the other thing I remember

519
00:30:30,040 --> 00:30:35,480
from that particular show in
Reno was the flight in was the

520
00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:39,120
scariest landing that I've ever
had.

521
00:30:39,120 --> 00:30:41,920
Like because of the weather?
The plane was doing one of these

522
00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:44,280
where it was dropping by 200
feet and.

523
00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:46,200
Because of the weather.
Just nuts.

524
00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:47,640
Yeah.
Because of the weather, yeah.

525
00:30:47,920 --> 00:30:51,960
Well, I had by just it
happenstance been upgraded to a

526
00:30:51,960 --> 00:30:55,920
Jeep with four wheel drive and
we're at the airport and Pat

527
00:30:55,920 --> 00:30:57,240
says what do you need with a car
like that?

528
00:30:57,240 --> 00:31:01,280
You're going off roading And it
turned out we could get out of

529
00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:04,040
the parking lot 1 in the night.
Pull you out again or something,

530
00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:05,880
you know?
Yeah, that's funny.

531
00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:09,240
That was quite a year.
We've had some great experiences

532
00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:10,880
at LDI.
Yeah, heck yeah.

533
00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:14,360
I was just talking with our
friend Chris Aysen the other day

534
00:31:14,360 --> 00:31:20,800
about the Miami Beach show when
remember when our booth,

535
00:31:20,800 --> 00:31:25,720
Martin's booth, was shutting
down power in the hall and we

536
00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:27,920
had to bring in generators and
stuff, was that.

537
00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:31,160
The year with KC and the
Sunshine Band of Penrods, which

538
00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:33,720
is Mount Mickey Beach.
Yes, exactly.

539
00:31:33,720 --> 00:31:35,680
That was the one.
That was a hell of a party,

540
00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:37,720
Marcel.
You threw a big party.

541
00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:38,960
It was fun.
Yeah.

542
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:40,440
I wish I remembered the whole
thing.

543
00:31:40,520 --> 00:31:43,120
I, I've told this story before,
but I'll tell you because I

544
00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:44,280
don't know if I've ever told
you.

545
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:50,560
So at that party we had, we had
an event planner, her name was

546
00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:55,960
Ricky, excuse me, and she did a
fantastic job.

547
00:31:55,960 --> 00:31:59,120
She negotiated with with Casey
and the Sunshine Band.

548
00:31:59,360 --> 00:32:01,680
And we had a budget for
entertainment like basically

549
00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:04,760
Gerard and Peter, said Marcel,
here's how much money you get to

550
00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:07,200
do the booth and whatever party
you want to do.

551
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:13,920
And so for that party, I think I
had allocated 15 grand for

552
00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:17,680
entertainment.
And so Nikki, or what was her

553
00:32:17,680 --> 00:32:20,760
name Ricky, Ricky says to me, I,
I think I can get Casey in the

554
00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:23,000
sunshine band.
And I'm like, well, we might be

555
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:26,440
able to afford KC, but not the
sunshine band because I've got a

556
00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:29,240
limited budget, right?
And Long story short, we ended

557
00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:33,120
up paying him 13,000, brought
the whole band, asked for limos.

558
00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:34,840
We said, drive your own ass down
here.

559
00:32:34,840 --> 00:32:37,120
You live in Miami Springs or
wherever he lives.

560
00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:41,960
And asked for like top shelf
bottles of booze.

561
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:44,760
We said get your own booze and
all this stuff, right?

562
00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:48,600
And so, yeah, it was 13 grand.
But the funny story.

563
00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:52,040
So we bought drink tickets and
we were giving everybody drink

564
00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:53,920
tickets.
Well, when we ran out of those,

565
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:57,160
I started a tab at the bar
inside Penrods.

566
00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:02,080
And as you might expect, it got
a little out of hand and it was

567
00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:04,680
about, I don't know, midnight or
something.

568
00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:09,640
And, and Ricky comes up to me
and she says, Marcel, the, the

569
00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:12,920
manager is getting a little bit
nervous.

570
00:33:13,480 --> 00:33:15,480
And I said, why?
And she said, well, would you

571
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:18,600
mind taking care of the tab?
And I said, of course, you know,

572
00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:20,720
bring it to me.
So she brings me this, this

573
00:33:20,720 --> 00:33:23,400
receipt that's like about four
feet long, right?

574
00:33:24,040 --> 00:33:30,320
And, and so I go hang on a SEC.
And I'm standing talking to John

575
00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:33,000
Broderick at the time,
Metallica's lighting designer at

576
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:36,640
that moment.
And I go, John, one second.

577
00:33:36,640 --> 00:33:38,880
So I go over.
I see Peter Johansson locked in

578
00:33:38,880 --> 00:33:41,520
a conversation.
I go, Peter, Peter, I need your.

579
00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:42,960
I need your American Express
card.

580
00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:44,880
And he goes before.
And I said, we'll see.

581
00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:46,640
That's John Broderick from
Metallica.

582
00:33:46,720 --> 00:33:48,200
I just want to buy him some
drinks.

583
00:33:48,360 --> 00:33:49,760
He goes, oh, OK, yeah, yeah,
yeah.

584
00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:52,320
And he pulls out his American
Express card and gives it to me.

585
00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:57,680
And I hand it to Ricky.
And it was $32,000.

586
00:33:57,680 --> 00:34:01,840
Or something like that.
So she brings the the check and

587
00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:05,200
the card back to Peter and he's
talking ha ha ha ha ha ha and he

588
00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:09,040
looks down and he goes what the
fuck was he drinking?

589
00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:13,960
That's funny.
And I laughed so hard it was

590
00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:16,239
hilarious.
You know, it's a sad story too,

591
00:34:16,239 --> 00:34:20,040
about Penrods because it became
Nikki Beach because their

592
00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:23,560
daughter Nikki passed away.
I did not know that they made a

593
00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:26,679
garden there that was called
Nikki's Beach or Nikki's Beach

594
00:34:26,679 --> 00:34:29,880
Garden, and then that became the
name of the restaurant.

595
00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:31,800
Now they're all over, including
year.

596
00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:35,159
I did not know.
That where the average Sunday

597
00:34:35,159 --> 00:34:39,360
lunch bill for four people is
like 2500 URL.

598
00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:41,520
It's not a, it's not a cheap
place.

599
00:34:41,800 --> 00:34:44,560
Well, the food is not.
The food is actually quite good

600
00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:47,840
here and the food is not
outrageously priced.

601
00:34:48,199 --> 00:34:50,880
It's the alcohol.
You know, they really encourage

602
00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:55,440
people to buy these magnums of
rose for $250 or magnums of

603
00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:58,680
champagne for 350.
And these people get on tables

604
00:34:58,680 --> 00:35:01,240
and spray, you know?
Yeah, yeah.

605
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:03,480
Different culture, but yeah,
exactly.

606
00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:05,360
Yeah.
And then the Americans think

607
00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:08,840
they have to tip 20% here.
So the waiters at Nikki Beach

608
00:35:09,720 --> 00:35:13,400
love the dumb American.
Some money, yeah, yeah, no, it

609
00:35:13,560 --> 00:35:16,440
so I mean, that show was
incredible, but I I just

610
00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:21,360
remember the the battles again.
I think Peter Johansson probably

611
00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:26,240
and Gerard probably made Pat cry
like 50 times in her career.

612
00:35:26,760 --> 00:35:30,680
You know, they were just so mean
to her sometimes and you know,

613
00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:35,160
she was tough, but sometimes
just, you know, you break her

614
00:35:35,160 --> 00:35:38,040
down like when you're just nasty
there's.

615
00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:41,280
One in every crowd, I'm sure.
Yeah, yeah.

616
00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:43,680
But but no.
Whatever happened to Gerard

617
00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:45,440
Cohen?
He is around.

618
00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:49,840
I think he, I don't think he's
doing LDI this year, but he's in

619
00:35:49,840 --> 00:35:54,320
his 80s now and still doing it.
So his sons started a company

620
00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:58,360
and they've done quite well.
Well, his one son, his youngest

621
00:35:58,360 --> 00:36:03,920
son, Laurent started a company
in the DJ equipment business and

622
00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:07,400
they grew to eventually start a
lighting brand, which is all

623
00:36:07,400 --> 00:36:10,640
imported product and they're
doing quite well with that

624
00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:13,120
lighting brand now.
And every time he lives.

625
00:36:13,360 --> 00:36:15,480
He lives in Belgium, now in in
Brussels.

626
00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:20,080
OK, he was French to begin with.
He's, well, he's Tunisian to

627
00:36:20,080 --> 00:36:26,400
begin with, but but yes, French
and and so, yeah, he lived in

628
00:36:26,400 --> 00:36:30,600
Seattle with his his or near his
son and his grandkids.

629
00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:35,760
And now he's moved to Brussels
and, but he comes back over all

630
00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:37,560
the time.
The business is based in Las

631
00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:38,680
Vegas.
No good.

632
00:36:38,680 --> 00:36:41,760
And so, but he always stops in
South Florida and we'll have

633
00:36:41,760 --> 00:36:43,680
dinner and chat about the old
times.

634
00:36:43,680 --> 00:36:47,240
And you know, that it's really
nice because he's finally

635
00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:51,920
extremely grateful to me for the
things that I helped him to

636
00:36:51,920 --> 00:36:53,840
achieve.
You know, like he says, I never

637
00:36:53,840 --> 00:36:55,400
could have done it without you,
Marcel.

638
00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:57,160
And he never would have said
that back then.

639
00:36:57,160 --> 00:37:00,880
You know, that's great.
So even now that I'm 60 years

640
00:37:00,880 --> 00:37:04,040
old and and that doesn't matter
as much, it's always nice to

641
00:37:04,040 --> 00:37:07,200
hear that, you know, somebody
thinks you made a difference in

642
00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:07,960
their life.
So.

643
00:37:08,160 --> 00:37:11,200
And then you move to Martin.
Who did?

644
00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:12,360
I did, yeah.
Yeah.

645
00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:14,880
Well, because Martin bought
Trackman basically.

646
00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:18,160
I see Martin bought their
distribution and the company

647
00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:20,160
away from Trackman.
I forgot about that.

648
00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:24,000
And so I stayed there at Martin
for a little while and actually

649
00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:27,920
it was terrible that I left and
why I left because I left at the

650
00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:32,360
worst possible time because it
was right before the Mac 506

651
00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:34,480
hundred came out and got very
popular.

652
00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:38,920
And then the Mac 2000, of
course, but there was some funny

653
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:43,240
stuff going on between the US
office and the European Office,

654
00:37:43,240 --> 00:37:47,360
and they had just gone public
and they were doing some things

655
00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:52,640
that were less than, I don't
know, they were somewhat

656
00:37:52,640 --> 00:37:54,440
unscrupulous.
Kosher.

657
00:37:54,880 --> 00:37:58,760
They weren't real good.
And I started fearing that I was

658
00:37:58,760 --> 00:38:04,560
going to get caught up in this,
this SEC investigation and end

659
00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:06,840
up going to jail, you know, for
them.

660
00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:12,160
You know, he had ACFO in, in
the, in the US called bent,

661
00:38:12,280 --> 00:38:15,840
believe it or not.
And, and they were bent, you

662
00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:18,640
know, their, their bookkeeping
was a little bent.

663
00:38:19,160 --> 00:38:25,560
So, so yeah, I, I left because I
feared that I was going to be

664
00:38:25,560 --> 00:38:28,160
held responsible for the things
that these guys were doing.

665
00:38:28,160 --> 00:38:32,680
And and, you know, Peter
Johansson ended up going to jail

666
00:38:32,680 --> 00:38:36,000
for a little while over it.
I certainly didn't.

667
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:40,760
So yeah, anyway.
Peter Johansson went to jail for

668
00:38:40,760 --> 00:38:43,520
building a yacht with company
money in this garage or

669
00:38:43,520 --> 00:38:46,880
something.
He did all kinds of things, but

670
00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:50,920
he went to jail for basically
screwing the Royal Danish,

671
00:38:52,240 --> 00:38:54,640
whatever it was, pension fund or
something.

672
00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:55,280
Oh.
OK.

673
00:38:55,880 --> 00:39:00,240
On the Martin deal, so you know,
they invested in Martin and lost

674
00:39:00,240 --> 00:39:04,000
all their money because he was,
you know, falsely inflating the

675
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:06,680
value of the stock, etcetera.
Yeah, so there was some stuff

676
00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:10,920
going on and, and I don't know
how guilty he was.

677
00:39:10,920 --> 00:39:13,320
I have no idea.
I'm not the law or anything.

678
00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:16,440
I just know that I saw some
things that I certainly didn't

679
00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:20,800
like and didn't want to be a
part of and they said you'll do

680
00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:22,640
what we're telling you to do or
you'll leave.

681
00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:26,160
And I said fine, I'm leaving.
So that was that.

682
00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:29,200
I don't blame you.
Yeah, so a.

683
00:39:30,320 --> 00:39:31,960
Lot of characters in our
business.

684
00:39:32,320 --> 00:39:34,560
There are, yeah.
Well, it's one of the things I

685
00:39:34,560 --> 00:39:37,600
really like about our business.
You know, I love the characters

686
00:39:37,600 --> 00:39:40,640
in our business.
Like I one of the most fun times

687
00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:42,720
I had.
Well, I can't even say that cuz

688
00:39:42,720 --> 00:39:45,840
there's 1000 fun times at LDI.
But a few years ago, right when

689
00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:52,600
you guys did the circle Bar, one
day I, I'm walking by and I see

690
00:39:52,600 --> 00:39:56,320
Howard Ungerleider standing at
the front of the line and

691
00:39:56,320 --> 00:39:59,400
there's this huge line at the
circle bar and I'm not going to

692
00:39:59,400 --> 00:40:01,640
wait in line.
And so I go up and I'm like,

693
00:40:01,640 --> 00:40:03,760
hey, Howard, how are you?
And we start talking and he

694
00:40:03,760 --> 00:40:05,120
goes, oh, you want a Bloody
Mary?

695
00:40:05,480 --> 00:40:08,800
And I said sure.
So he hands me one and he's just

696
00:40:08,800 --> 00:40:12,520
got this constant flow of Bloody
Marys coming because he must

697
00:40:12,520 --> 00:40:16,320
have tipped the bartender.
You know, 100 bucks or

698
00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:18,120
something.
And he just sat there at the

699
00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:21,080
front of the line and they just
kept getting stacked back up.

700
00:40:21,080 --> 00:40:24,880
And God, I think by three in the
afternoon I was drunk on Bloody

701
00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:25,600
Marys.
With.

702
00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:29,280
Howard and we just had a blast
because everybody comes through

703
00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:31,800
the line and you're like Bob,
Bob, I haven't seen you in

704
00:40:31,800 --> 00:40:35,440
years, you know, so.
He's your fellow Canadian too,

705
00:40:35,440 --> 00:40:37,520
right?
Well, he's not Canadian.

706
00:40:37,520 --> 00:40:39,840
He's from New York.
Howard Ungerleider.

707
00:40:40,040 --> 00:40:41,520
Howard Ungerleider's from New
York.

708
00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:44,400
He lives.
In Toronto, I didn't know that.

709
00:40:44,400 --> 00:40:46,200
I don't know why.
I always thought he was

710
00:40:46,200 --> 00:40:48,480
Canadian.
Well, because he's been there a

711
00:40:48,480 --> 00:40:50,920
long time.
He, he was with Rush before

712
00:40:51,240 --> 00:40:53,400
anyone knew who Rush was.
He would, he travelled the

713
00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:55,280
country in a station wagon with
Rush.

714
00:40:55,800 --> 00:41:00,160
And he tells some great stories
on my podcast that way.

715
00:41:00,160 --> 00:41:03,840
He's he's hilarious on the
podcast, but no, he's from New

716
00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:08,760
York and he's one of these guys
that just kind of walked into a

717
00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:12,320
management office and said, I
want to be a manager.

718
00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:14,520
I want to be a promoter or I
want to be a whatever.

719
00:41:14,520 --> 00:41:16,200
And they're like, kid, what do
you know?

720
00:41:16,200 --> 00:41:17,520
I don't know.
I know some music.

721
00:41:17,520 --> 00:41:19,920
I like music.
I'm a drummer.

722
00:41:20,400 --> 00:41:25,440
And so finally they just got
sick of him coming in and they

723
00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:27,760
gave him a gig.
And you.

724
00:41:27,800 --> 00:41:30,520
Know he did a good job.
It's worked out OK for him.

725
00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:33,160
You know, he's still working.
I, I don't know who he's out

726
00:41:33,160 --> 00:41:34,880
with right now, but he's
somewhere in Europe.

727
00:41:34,880 --> 00:41:38,120
He's in Spain or something
because I follow him on social

728
00:41:38,120 --> 00:41:41,080
media.
But he's he's coming and I'll

729
00:41:41,080 --> 00:41:43,480
probably have him in the thing
that we're going to talk about

730
00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:44,160
here.
Shortly.

731
00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:48,040
Great.
So, you know, I want to talk

732
00:41:48,040 --> 00:41:54,080
about you a little bit more.
So did you go to theater school

733
00:41:54,080 --> 00:41:54,880
or?
I did.

734
00:41:55,040 --> 00:41:58,840
I did.
I went to NYU for undergrad and

735
00:41:58,840 --> 00:42:01,960
I wanted to be an English major.
And when I got there, I

736
00:42:01,960 --> 00:42:06,320
discovered that basically they
were like studying the classics,

737
00:42:06,320 --> 00:42:08,560
you know, like they would go
through like these, you know,

738
00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:11,360
Wordsworth poems and just first,
the differences between the

739
00:42:11,360 --> 00:42:13,760
First Folio and the Second
Folio.

740
00:42:13,760 --> 00:42:16,360
And that didn't really make, I
mean, it was interesting, but it

741
00:42:16,360 --> 00:42:19,760
was deadly.
So I started taking all of the

742
00:42:19,760 --> 00:42:22,200
theater courses and film and
television courses that I

743
00:42:22,200 --> 00:42:24,800
possibly could.
And then when I got out of

744
00:42:24,800 --> 00:42:28,240
school, oddly enough, I moved
back to Philadelphia, where I'm

745
00:42:28,240 --> 00:42:31,720
from.
And my first job ever was doing

746
00:42:31,720 --> 00:42:37,240
promotion and marketing for
Warner Electra Atlantic Records,

747
00:42:37,240 --> 00:42:40,560
which was like, they were
combined at the time and they

748
00:42:40,560 --> 00:42:42,800
needed somebody.
Their office was in Cherry Hill,

749
00:42:42,800 --> 00:42:44,680
NJ, which is right next to
Philadelphia.

750
00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:48,920
And they needed somebody to
service the secondary market,

751
00:42:49,160 --> 00:42:52,400
which meant they had people that
were like the PR people for

752
00:42:52,400 --> 00:42:54,800
like, you know, the big stations
in Philadelphia and everything,

753
00:42:55,040 --> 00:42:57,600
but all these little places,
like all the colleges around

754
00:42:57,600 --> 00:43:01,680
there in Atlantic City, NJ, and,
you know, all these other places

755
00:43:01,680 --> 00:43:03,400
that they considered secondary
market.

756
00:43:03,760 --> 00:43:06,840
And in those days, it was kind
of weird, like the radio

757
00:43:06,840 --> 00:43:09,600
stations called the record
stores to find out what sold

758
00:43:09,600 --> 00:43:11,960
over the weekend.
And the, you know, the record

759
00:43:11,960 --> 00:43:15,000
promoters told the radio
stations what to play.

760
00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:16,360
And, you know, it was a big
deal.

761
00:43:16,360 --> 00:43:18,400
And those companies made a lot
of money in those days.

762
00:43:18,840 --> 00:43:22,120
So it was a lot of fun.
And I started, I'd already done

763
00:43:22,120 --> 00:43:24,720
a lot of theater in, in high
school, well, and in college.

764
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:28,440
And the Warner electrolytic job
was great because there were,

765
00:43:28,480 --> 00:43:30,680
you know, concerts all the time
in Philadelphia.

766
00:43:30,680 --> 00:43:34,480
And we had tickets to everything
from the radio stations.

767
00:43:34,800 --> 00:43:37,760
And I really just love, I mean,
if I could live any place in the

768
00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:39,440
world, I would live in an empty
theater.

769
00:43:39,760 --> 00:43:43,000
I just love theatre buildings.
And I think every theatre should

770
00:43:43,000 --> 00:43:45,040
have an apartment so that when
the people go well, the

771
00:43:45,040 --> 00:43:49,800
buildings are empty. 9, you
know, 18 out of 24 hours, you

772
00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:51,760
know, there's nothing in them
most of the time.

773
00:43:52,080 --> 00:43:55,160
I mean, just imagine having that
at the stage of the Brooklyn

774
00:43:55,160 --> 00:43:57,320
Academy of Music as your living
room, you know.

775
00:43:58,480 --> 00:44:01,400
So I think in Germany, a lot of
those and in France, a lot of

776
00:44:01,400 --> 00:44:04,400
those old theatres had
apartments where like the in

777
00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:08,600
house stage manager Reggie Sir
would live in the building.

778
00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:10,640
And I think that we should go
back to that.

779
00:44:10,640 --> 00:44:13,880
But anyway, so I, you know, sort
of kept my hand in the music

780
00:44:13,880 --> 00:44:15,080
business and the theatre
business.

781
00:44:15,080 --> 00:44:20,320
And then in 1972 in
Philadelphia, I was the press

782
00:44:20,320 --> 00:44:24,520
agent for the Schubert Theatre,
which was a touring house in

783
00:44:24,520 --> 00:44:26,920
Philadelphia where the Schubert,
the forest, the walnut.

784
00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:31,880
And it's where like the tour of
Greece and the 20th anniversary

785
00:44:31,880 --> 00:44:35,720
tour of My Fair Lady and all
that stuff came through and I

786
00:44:35,720 --> 00:44:40,720
was getting my eventually became
a member of the at Pam, which is

787
00:44:40,720 --> 00:44:43,920
the Theatrical Press Agents
Union as part of IATC.

788
00:44:44,400 --> 00:44:48,040
And that did me, served me well
when I went to BAM because that

789
00:44:48,040 --> 00:44:53,280
was also a union contract.
And then in 1972, I wandered

790
00:44:53,280 --> 00:44:56,320
into this place that was
building itself on South Street,

791
00:44:56,320 --> 00:45:00,440
which was became a very hip
neighborhood in Philadelphia.

792
00:45:00,960 --> 00:45:04,560
And it was a little cabaret
theatre and the guy that was

793
00:45:04,560 --> 00:45:09,080
running it wanted to do music.
So we started, I started working

794
00:45:09,080 --> 00:45:12,280
for him part time and booking a
lot of music in there, like

795
00:45:12,280 --> 00:45:14,840
Bonnie Raitt when nobody heard
of her and her first album came

796
00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:16,240
out and you know, stuff like
that.

797
00:45:17,200 --> 00:45:20,600
There was a band called George
Thorogood and the Explorers who

798
00:45:20,600 --> 00:45:23,800
used to play there, and
Southside Johnny and the Asbury

799
00:45:23,800 --> 00:45:27,400
Jukes and I mean all these bands
and Bruce Springsteen would come

800
00:45:27,400 --> 00:45:29,480
by every once in a while.
And, you know, it was like a

801
00:45:29,480 --> 00:45:31,680
happening place.
And then we decided we would do

802
00:45:31,680 --> 00:45:34,680
a little cabaret theatre there.
So we produced some cabaret

803
00:45:34,680 --> 00:45:37,360
theatre stuff.
And then I decided I should go

804
00:45:37,360 --> 00:45:41,440
back to Graduate School.
But first I went to the far

805
00:45:41,440 --> 00:45:44,720
reaches of northern New
Hampshire and ran a Little

806
00:45:44,720 --> 00:45:48,640
Theatre company up there.
There was, do you know Don Earl

807
00:45:48,960 --> 00:45:53,720
from Earl's Girls?
Well, in 1970, Earl, Don Earl

808
00:45:53,920 --> 00:45:55,720
had a company called Aladdin
Lighting.

809
00:45:55,720 --> 00:45:59,360
It was his first company.
And Aladdin Lighting was in the

810
00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:02,240
bottom of the same building with
our cabaret theatre.

811
00:46:02,520 --> 00:46:06,040
So if we needed anything
lighting wise, there he was.

812
00:46:06,040 --> 00:46:09,840
How convenient.
So I've known Don and his sister

813
00:46:09,840 --> 00:46:13,320
Allison since 1972 when we
started Grendel's Lair.

814
00:46:13,840 --> 00:46:18,880
And so that was like, you know,
people, a lot of people would

815
00:46:18,880 --> 00:46:23,920
come through there and they,
they would go on tours.

816
00:46:23,920 --> 00:46:25,600
And, you know, every once in a
while I thought, well, maybe I

817
00:46:25,600 --> 00:46:28,320
should go out on a tour with one
of these bands, which I never

818
00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:30,320
actually did, but it always
sounded appealing.

819
00:46:30,720 --> 00:46:36,440
But a guy who worked at Aladdin
Lighting named Alan Reel for Don

820
00:46:36,440 --> 00:46:39,280
Earl.
His girlfriend was a woman

821
00:46:39,280 --> 00:46:42,160
called Nancy Piccioni, who to
this day is one of my best

822
00:46:42,160 --> 00:46:44,360
friends.
And she was in the box office

823
00:46:44,360 --> 00:46:46,680
union, oddly enough, at the
Forest Theater.

824
00:46:47,320 --> 00:46:50,520
And they went every summer to a
small theater in northern New

825
00:46:50,520 --> 00:46:53,280
Hampshire, a charming little
theater called the Weathervane

826
00:46:53,640 --> 00:46:55,360
in a little town called
Waitsfield.

827
00:46:56,200 --> 00:46:59,920
And they had sort of gotten
money from the New Hampshire

828
00:46:59,920 --> 00:47:02,720
Council on the Arts and
Humanities, but they weren't

829
00:47:02,720 --> 00:47:05,640
nonprofit.
And I worked with a group in

830
00:47:05,640 --> 00:47:07,680
Philadelphia called the
Philadelphia Dance Alliance and

831
00:47:07,680 --> 00:47:10,680
helped a lot of these little
dance companies get their

832
00:47:10,680 --> 00:47:14,160
nonprofit 501C3 status.
So Nancy said to me one day,

833
00:47:14,160 --> 00:47:17,880
hey, can you do that for New
Hampshire and apply for a grant

834
00:47:17,880 --> 00:47:21,320
for a manager for the summer?
So we did, and we applied for

835
00:47:21,320 --> 00:47:23,280
the grant.
And when the check came through,

836
00:47:23,280 --> 00:47:25,520
she handed it back to me.
I said, what do you want me to

837
00:47:25,520 --> 00:47:26,760
do with that?
She said.

838
00:47:26,760 --> 00:47:28,560
I want you to come to New
Hampshire for the summer.

839
00:47:29,040 --> 00:47:31,920
That's hilarious.
So I went to New Hampshire in

840
00:47:31,920 --> 00:47:37,640
the summer of 1977 and then went
to Washington, DC and worked in

841
00:47:37,640 --> 00:47:40,400
the press office at the National
Endowment for the Arts.

842
00:47:41,680 --> 00:47:45,440
In the winter of 77 to 78.
They had a fellowship program

843
00:47:45,440 --> 00:47:48,320
that I did.
And then 78, I went back to New

844
00:47:48,320 --> 00:47:51,800
Hampshire and I went up there in
March thinking, oh, I could get

845
00:47:51,800 --> 00:47:54,720
a jump on selling advertising
for the program and everything.

846
00:47:54,720 --> 00:47:58,760
Well, what little did I know
that in March, April and most of

847
00:47:58,760 --> 00:48:01,720
May, there's snow in northern
New Hampshire.

848
00:48:02,480 --> 00:48:04,640
So, you know, I don't know if
you ever saw that, that movie

849
00:48:04,640 --> 00:48:08,120
with Sam Shepard and Diane
Keaton where her well is empty

850
00:48:08,120 --> 00:48:10,080
and she says, well, can't you
just bring the hose around and

851
00:48:10,080 --> 00:48:11,960
fill it up?
Well, that's what I felt like

852
00:48:11,960 --> 00:48:15,120
because I ordered a cord of wood
for the fireplace, which was

853
00:48:15,120 --> 00:48:18,280
like the only place to heat the
one room I was going to live in,

854
00:48:18,800 --> 00:48:21,440
in this old, old house that had
25 rooms.

855
00:48:21,440 --> 00:48:23,120
And all the actors eventually
lived in there.

856
00:48:23,120 --> 00:48:24,880
But I thought, oh, I could live
in there.

857
00:48:25,200 --> 00:48:27,520
The plumber barely wanted to
turn on the water.

858
00:48:27,520 --> 00:48:29,440
He said, if these pipes freeze,
I'm going to kill you.

859
00:48:30,000 --> 00:48:33,360
So we turned on the front of the
old farmhouse, not the big motel

860
00:48:33,360 --> 00:48:36,720
that had been built in the back,
and I ordered a cord of wood.

861
00:48:37,040 --> 00:48:39,520
Well, in Philadelphia, if my
parents ordered a cord of wood,

862
00:48:39,520 --> 00:48:47,160
it came cut, split and stacked.
So I had had somebody shovel out

863
00:48:47,160 --> 00:48:52,160
one space in the driveway from
my car and when I came home that

864
00:48:52,160 --> 00:48:54,560
day there was a cord of wood.
Cut but not.

865
00:48:54,640 --> 00:48:58,000
Split in and I called up the
guys from the theater and I said

866
00:48:58,000 --> 00:49:01,640
hey I got a job for you guys and
they said why do you think every

867
00:49:01,640 --> 00:49:04,960
house around here has a stump
with an axe in it?

868
00:49:05,200 --> 00:49:07,520
You have to split your own wood
around here.

869
00:49:07,800 --> 00:49:10,520
So I had to, of course, pay
these guys that were like

870
00:49:11,040 --> 00:49:13,440
stagehands from the theater that
like, you know, Little Miss

871
00:49:13,440 --> 00:49:16,760
Idiot around here.
But it was quite a wonderful

872
00:49:16,760 --> 00:49:20,920
experience.
And then in the I went, then I

873
00:49:20,920 --> 00:49:26,640
started working at BAM in the
fall of 1979 when I also started

874
00:49:26,640 --> 00:49:29,720
my graduate degree in theater
management and arts

875
00:49:29,720 --> 00:49:31,320
administration at Brooklyn
College.

876
00:49:31,880 --> 00:49:37,320
So I was all like right there in
Brooklyn and and I saw what did

877
00:49:37,560 --> 00:49:38,440
you.
Think you were going to do

878
00:49:38,440 --> 00:49:40,040
though.
I thought I was going to be the

879
00:49:40,040 --> 00:49:43,360
managing director of a larger
theater company because I had

880
00:49:43,360 --> 00:49:45,720
been the managing director of
the Weathervane for two years.

881
00:49:45,960 --> 00:49:48,600
And I also did publicity and
marketing like I had done in,

882
00:49:48,640 --> 00:49:50,040
you know, for the Schubert in
Philadelphia.

883
00:49:50,400 --> 00:49:52,320
So I thought, well, I'll be a
company manager.

884
00:49:52,320 --> 00:49:55,920
Like that's the same union as
the App Pam or I'll be a, you

885
00:49:55,920 --> 00:49:58,960
know, run the Guthrie or the,
you know, who knows what.

886
00:49:59,720 --> 00:50:01,960
And then I started working at
BAM and I was the one of the

887
00:50:01,960 --> 00:50:06,960
directors of publicity there
and, and I really always have

888
00:50:06,960 --> 00:50:09,520
done marketing and publicity.
It's sort of just one of the

889
00:50:09,520 --> 00:50:11,920
things I do and I really like
that job.

890
00:50:11,920 --> 00:50:15,120
But at that point in time, the
Opera House of VAM was not air

891
00:50:15,120 --> 00:50:17,880
conditioned and they closed down
in June.

892
00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:20,880
So it was a nine month union
contract, September to June,

893
00:50:21,320 --> 00:50:23,360
which gave me the summer.
And I thought I was going to go

894
00:50:23,360 --> 00:50:27,600
back to the weather vane, but I
saw an ad for the Williamstown

895
00:50:27,600 --> 00:50:30,440
Theatre Festival in
Williamstown, MA, which was a

896
00:50:30,440 --> 00:50:34,360
town that was near and dear to
me because my two cousins, MY2

897
00:50:34,360 --> 00:50:37,480
cousins who went there and they
grew up in Pittsfield, MA, which

898
00:50:37,480 --> 00:50:41,080
is where I learned to ski and to
sail with them.

899
00:50:41,080 --> 00:50:44,240
They were great skiers.
I was always sort of medium

900
00:50:44,240 --> 00:50:46,760
skier.
But I love that.

901
00:50:46,880 --> 00:50:50,400
I love right Yeah, They there
was a little place called

902
00:50:50,400 --> 00:50:52,680
Bosque's.
It was tiny, tiny, but it was a

903
00:50:52,680 --> 00:50:55,120
perfect place to learn how to
ski and my.

904
00:50:55,160 --> 00:50:57,000
Cousin from Western Canada,
right so.

905
00:50:57,000 --> 00:50:59,320
Well, there you go.
Nothing like bam, Nothing,

906
00:50:59,320 --> 00:51:01,520
nothing, nothing.
No, Listen, in Philadelphia

907
00:51:01,520 --> 00:51:04,440
there was a place where we
learned to ski, where you went

908
00:51:04,440 --> 00:51:08,600
down a hill from the road down
into an old quarry, and then the

909
00:51:08,600 --> 00:51:12,120
rope tow brought you back up.
But when there was enough snow,

910
00:51:12,120 --> 00:51:14,920
it was great fun.
And then when I got to New

911
00:51:14,920 --> 00:51:18,200
Hampshire and, you know, I
learned how to ski on that sharp

912
00:51:18,200 --> 00:51:19,200
ice.
Yeah.

913
00:51:19,200 --> 00:51:21,960
In, you know, in the, in the, in
the Berkshires and then in New

914
00:51:21,960 --> 00:51:25,800
Hampshire and in Vermont.
And you hear the edges of the

915
00:51:25,800 --> 00:51:28,520
skis.
Yeah, I ski and then one place

916
00:51:28,520 --> 00:51:31,440
up up north it was sugar or
something.

917
00:51:33,080 --> 00:51:35,680
There's a place called
Sugarloaf, Sugarloaf, Sugarloaf

918
00:51:36,080 --> 00:51:39,480
and well, we used to ski in New
Hampshire to place called Mad

919
00:51:39,480 --> 00:51:42,720
River Glen and that we used to
say they would say it's a 3

920
00:51:42,720 --> 00:51:46,120
mount, a three blanket day and
they put a blanket under you so

921
00:51:46,120 --> 00:51:49,320
you didn't freeze to the chair
lift and then went around you,

922
00:51:49,480 --> 00:51:51,040
you know, so you didn't freeze
it up.

923
00:51:52,200 --> 00:51:57,840
But the first time I skied in
Colorado, I was just amazed by

924
00:51:57,840 --> 00:52:01,120
the silence and the powder.
And it's a whole different way

925
00:52:01,120 --> 00:52:03,560
of skiing.
But I don't think my knee would

926
00:52:03,560 --> 00:52:06,040
ski anymore.
But in those days, anyway.

927
00:52:06,040 --> 00:52:09,120
So I saw an ad in the paper for
the public to be the publicity

928
00:52:09,120 --> 00:52:12,840
director for the Williamstown
Theatre Festival, and I went to

929
00:52:12,840 --> 00:52:16,800
the interview.
The artistic director at that

930
00:52:16,800 --> 00:52:20,680
point was a man called Nico
Sacaropolis, who was Greek and.

931
00:52:20,920 --> 00:52:22,440
No.
Yeah.

932
00:52:23,040 --> 00:52:25,640
And he's a funny story too,
because his real name was

933
00:52:25,640 --> 00:52:28,520
Constantine.
And when he went to the when he

934
00:52:28,520 --> 00:52:30,880
became an American citizen and
went to have his name changed,

935
00:52:31,160 --> 00:52:33,680
they said, what do you want to
change Sacaropolis to?

936
00:52:33,680 --> 00:52:36,880
And he said, no, no, I want to
change Constantine to Nikos.

937
00:52:36,880 --> 00:52:42,280
That's funny.
But, And so I worked at that

938
00:52:42,280 --> 00:52:47,560
theater for four years, 4
summers, 798081 and 82, until

939
00:52:47,560 --> 00:52:50,960
that fabulous summer when BAM
sent me to France in 83.

940
00:52:51,200 --> 00:52:54,840
And then I ran a Film Festival
in the South of France and then

941
00:52:54,840 --> 00:52:56,960
met Pat.
And I'd known Pat by then,

942
00:52:57,160 --> 00:52:59,880
started freelancing for her.
I think my first freelance

943
00:52:59,880 --> 00:53:01,840
article in theater crafts was in
83.

944
00:53:02,000 --> 00:53:06,280
Then by 88, Pat came along with
LDI and here we are 37.

945
00:53:06,280 --> 00:53:09,280
That is insane.
That's such a great story,

946
00:53:09,280 --> 00:53:11,320
though.
That's such a great story.

947
00:53:11,480 --> 00:53:14,760
So did you ever regret, like,
not going all the way through

948
00:53:14,760 --> 00:53:17,120
with becoming that, you know,
theater?

949
00:53:17,120 --> 00:53:18,760
Manager No, no, I don't think
so.

950
00:53:18,760 --> 00:53:21,640
I I've had a very interesting
life and living in the South of

951
00:53:21,640 --> 00:53:25,520
France was great and you know
now I live on a tropical island

952
00:53:25,560 --> 00:53:29,200
and because I don't have enough
to do with LDI and everything

953
00:53:29,200 --> 00:53:31,880
else I do, I edit a couple
magazines down here and I do a

954
00:53:31,880 --> 00:53:34,280
lot of translation.
Although I have to say that

955
00:53:34,280 --> 00:53:38,320
translation is becoming a lost
art because there are a few

956
00:53:38,320 --> 00:53:42,920
artificial intelligence apps
that translate as well as I do.

957
00:53:42,920 --> 00:53:46,520
It's kind of depressing.
Except that, you know, in French

958
00:53:46,520 --> 00:53:49,040
everything is masculine or
feminine and they have yet to

959
00:53:49,480 --> 00:53:51,400
figure that.
Out they still screw that stuff

960
00:53:51,440 --> 00:53:52,680
up they.
Still like you to read, but

961
00:53:52,680 --> 00:53:54,640
Wayne is.
Coming after your editing job

962
00:53:54,640 --> 00:53:57,000
too, And it's coming.
After well, I don't know about

963
00:53:57,040 --> 00:53:59,440
the writing, I don't know about
the well, I don't know about the

964
00:53:59,440 --> 00:54:01,280
writing jobs, but.
It's coming.

965
00:54:02,200 --> 00:54:06,600
Translation, definitely, yeah.
Yeah, translation.

966
00:54:06,600 --> 00:54:08,440
I don't know, Bob the very.
First things.

967
00:54:08,600 --> 00:54:14,080
Yeah, when you talk to Bob, he's
a firm believer that all these

968
00:54:14,200 --> 00:54:17,680
AI things are not going to take
your job, that they're tools

969
00:54:17,960 --> 00:54:19,640
that help you do your job
better.

970
00:54:20,640 --> 00:54:23,720
And that's what I used to always
say too, but I'm starting to

971
00:54:23,720 --> 00:54:27,680
believe differently because like
between between Elon's robot and

972
00:54:27,680 --> 00:54:30,680
there, there's a Chinese company
whose name escapes me right at

973
00:54:30,680 --> 00:54:33,160
this moment.
But they've got an unbelievable

974
00:54:33,160 --> 00:54:35,920
robot and they've got like the
knuckles and the fingers and the

975
00:54:35,920 --> 00:54:39,520
grip and everything down to a
science now to where they can do

976
00:54:39,520 --> 00:54:42,080
really intricate things and.
But does it think?

977
00:54:43,320 --> 00:54:47,320
Well, no, that's AI, and AI will
make it think way smarter than

978
00:54:47,320 --> 00:54:49,760
any of us.
And So what you can do though?

979
00:54:50,000 --> 00:54:53,800
Like, for example, you can buy
one of Elon's robots for 20

980
00:54:53,800 --> 00:54:59,200
grand and you could program it
to do housekeeping, You could

981
00:54:59,200 --> 00:55:02,680
program it to be a French chef,
you could program it to be

982
00:55:02,800 --> 00:55:06,160
whatever you want.
And remember, it's AI so it's

983
00:55:06,160 --> 00:55:08,920
constantly learning, so you
could have it sit in front of

984
00:55:09,160 --> 00:55:13,600
the Food Network all day gaining
more information.

985
00:55:13,960 --> 00:55:16,360
And cook your dinner.
Well, that's kind of scary.

986
00:55:16,600 --> 00:55:19,600
You know, there was a play many,
many years ago from, by Alan

987
00:55:19,600 --> 00:55:22,560
Aikborn, who was an English
playwright from Yorkshire.

988
00:55:22,920 --> 00:55:25,520
And it was about a guy who was
like, I don't know, I don't

989
00:55:25,520 --> 00:55:26,880
forget, I forget the real
reason.

990
00:55:26,880 --> 00:55:30,040
But I think they he was fighting
for the custody of his child or

991
00:55:30,040 --> 00:55:33,880
something and needed to prove
that he had a live in steady

992
00:55:33,880 --> 00:55:36,760
girlfriend.
So he gets a robot and programs

993
00:55:36,760 --> 00:55:38,480
her to be the live in
girlfriend.

994
00:55:38,480 --> 00:55:39,800
Oh.
OK, Yeah.

995
00:55:39,800 --> 00:55:41,360
That was pretty funny.
Well, there's a.

996
00:55:42,320 --> 00:55:43,040
Bless you.
Thank you.

997
00:55:43,800 --> 00:55:45,040
Sorry.
There you go.

998
00:55:45,120 --> 00:55:47,520
Sorry.
There's that movie.

999
00:55:47,800 --> 00:55:49,640
What's it called?
Illinois Makina.

1000
00:55:50,680 --> 00:55:54,320
That one's a really interesting
sort of view of somebody falling

1001
00:55:54,320 --> 00:55:56,120
in love with a robot.
A robot?

1002
00:55:56,120 --> 00:55:58,360
I haven't seen that, but.
You know, all that weird stuff's

1003
00:55:58,360 --> 00:56:01,360
coming too.
Seizing.

1004
00:56:01,760 --> 00:56:03,880
I don't know.
You're allergic to you're

1005
00:56:03,880 --> 00:56:08,960
allergic to Elon Musk and AI.
God, I do think that the Tesla

1006
00:56:08,960 --> 00:56:10,680
truck is the ugliest thing I've
ever seen.

1007
00:56:10,840 --> 00:56:13,640
It's not beautiful.
And apparently to agree.

1008
00:56:13,640 --> 00:56:16,240
With you on that.
Very bad sight lines, people

1009
00:56:16,240 --> 00:56:19,160
that have tried to drive them,
you can't really see out of the

1010
00:56:19,160 --> 00:56:22,440
front or the back of it, so.
Yeah, It reminds me of a modern

1011
00:56:22,440 --> 00:56:25,400
day PT Cruiser.
You know, like when the PT

1012
00:56:25,400 --> 00:56:27,840
Cruiser came out, everyone
thought it was the coolest thing

1013
00:56:27,840 --> 00:56:29,840
on Earth.
And I have friends who, like,

1014
00:56:29,840 --> 00:56:32,840
put deposits down six months
ahead of time and stuff and

1015
00:56:33,080 --> 00:56:35,160
within six months it was the
dumbest thing.

1016
00:56:35,160 --> 00:56:37,600
On the road.
And falling apart and working.

1017
00:56:37,600 --> 00:56:40,800
Know about, you know, Teslas and
electric vehicles.

1018
00:56:40,800 --> 00:56:43,640
So far they haven't convinced
me, but that's another

1019
00:56:43,640 --> 00:56:46,360
discussion for another day.
Yeah, no, me neither.

1020
00:56:46,360 --> 00:56:49,360
I've.
I've never been a master fan and

1021
00:56:50,160 --> 00:56:53,440
but yeah, I mean, yeah, we won't
go down that.

1022
00:56:53,440 --> 00:56:55,280
Path.
No, but no.

1023
00:56:55,920 --> 00:56:58,520
It's interesting though, but who
knows what the future's gonna

1024
00:56:58,520 --> 00:57:01,240
bring?
Well, living on an island

1025
00:57:01,240 --> 00:57:03,520
because you live on Saint Bart,
right?

1026
00:57:03,520 --> 00:57:07,160
Yep.
So, you know, I talked to Sarah

1027
00:57:07,160 --> 00:57:09,560
about this stuff all the time
because she lives on Crete,

1028
00:57:09,800 --> 00:57:11,520
right?
And you know, one of the things

1029
00:57:11,520 --> 00:57:14,280
she always tells me about is,
you know, the things you don't

1030
00:57:14,280 --> 00:57:17,360
think of when you live on an
island are what do they do with

1031
00:57:17,360 --> 00:57:19,000
the garbage for?
Example.

1032
00:57:19,360 --> 00:57:22,240
And on Crete, on Crete, it's
everywhere, right?

1033
00:57:22,320 --> 00:57:24,360
Like there's literally garbage
everywhere.

1034
00:57:24,360 --> 00:57:29,000
Well, St.
Barts is very, very clean and we

1035
00:57:29,000 --> 00:57:32,800
were the first and maybe still
only in the Caribbean that has,

1036
00:57:32,800 --> 00:57:37,920
we have this huge incinerator,
huge and it burns everything

1037
00:57:37,960 --> 00:57:42,080
except glass and metal and old
cars obviously.

1038
00:57:42,520 --> 00:57:45,920
So they burn plastic, which is
good to.

1039
00:57:45,920 --> 00:57:48,480
Know carcinogen.
Well, there's a little bit of

1040
00:57:48,480 --> 00:57:51,280
black stuff at the bottom.
No, it's very clean.

1041
00:57:51,280 --> 00:57:55,560
As a matter of fact, the energy
from everything they burn goes

1042
00:57:55,560 --> 00:57:58,920
directly to the water
desalinization plant next door.

1043
00:57:59,320 --> 00:58:03,800
And the vapor from the trash
thing runs the water desal plant

1044
00:58:03,800 --> 00:58:06,320
because there's this is a very
unusual island.

1045
00:58:06,320 --> 00:58:10,280
There is no fresh water, not a
river, not a stream, not a

1046
00:58:10,280 --> 00:58:13,520
spring, not well.
If you dig deep enough, you

1047
00:58:13,520 --> 00:58:16,520
might get brackish water.
So you create all your own

1048
00:58:16,520 --> 00:58:18,040
water.
Yeah, we create all our own

1049
00:58:18,040 --> 00:58:20,760
water.
Every house sits on a cistern.

1050
00:58:21,080 --> 00:58:23,320
Anybody that built without a
cistern is silly.

1051
00:58:23,520 --> 00:58:27,720
We have 80 cubic meters of water
under the house.

1052
00:58:28,800 --> 00:58:33,400
And so you, what they do here is
the desal company sells you

1053
00:58:33,400 --> 00:58:38,440
water by the cubic meter and
they the 1st 10 per month are

1054
00:58:38,440 --> 00:58:41,960
very reasonable and then the
price shoots up really high

1055
00:58:42,240 --> 00:58:44,760
because they really want people
to be very careful.

1056
00:58:45,000 --> 00:58:48,040
So why they give up building
permits for Olympic sized

1057
00:58:48,040 --> 00:58:53,600
swimming pools is beyond me.
But we basically try to use this

1058
00:58:53,600 --> 00:58:57,200
turn water and we use the even
if we don't need them, we

1059
00:58:57,200 --> 00:59:00,000
sometimes take those 10 cubic
meters that are basically like

1060
00:59:00,040 --> 00:59:04,520
€11.00 and put them in the
cistern just for a little extra

1061
00:59:04,520 --> 00:59:06,960
in case it doesn't rain.
Yeah, for a couple weeks.

1062
00:59:06,960 --> 00:59:09,480
But everybody, mostly everybody
collects rainwater.

1063
00:59:10,280 --> 00:59:11,400
Wow.
And in the.

1064
00:59:11,400 --> 00:59:14,240
Old days, my mother in law's
house still has it so that it's

1065
00:59:14,280 --> 00:59:18,000
a concrete cistern that sits
next to the house because they

1066
00:59:18,000 --> 00:59:21,800
didn't have any, you know, the
electrical digging machines or

1067
00:59:21,800 --> 00:59:24,920
anything.
And it has a a corner of it

1068
00:59:24,920 --> 00:59:28,360
that's a wooden trap.
And my 91 year old

1069
00:59:28,360 --> 00:59:31,000
mother-in-law, when she wants
water, moves the trap and lowers

1070
00:59:31,000 --> 00:59:33,160
a bucket and pulls up the bucket
and gets the water.

1071
00:59:34,600 --> 00:59:40,000
When I first met her in 1990,
two 191 she was still washing

1072
00:59:40,000 --> 00:59:43,920
dishes by pulling up a bucket
and putting in three basins in

1073
00:59:43,920 --> 00:59:47,400
the kitchen and then one
eventually one of her grandsons

1074
00:59:47,400 --> 00:59:50,520
put in a cold running water in
the kitchen.

1075
00:59:50,720 --> 00:59:52,720
So at least she doesn't have to
go get a bucket every time she

1076
00:59:52,720 --> 00:59:55,200
wants to do it.
And she heats water and electric

1077
00:59:55,200 --> 00:59:57,800
kettle and puts it in one of the
basins.

1078
00:59:57,800 --> 01:00:00,600
And Yep.
But people, they, when I talked

1079
01:00:00,600 --> 01:00:02,480
to her, she was born here in
1933.

1080
01:00:02,680 --> 01:00:05,880
Her stories are just amazing
about life on an island.

1081
01:00:07,400 --> 01:00:08,720
What?
My mom was born.

1082
01:00:08,760 --> 01:00:11,840
In Oh, OK, there you go.
So.

1083
01:00:12,760 --> 01:00:15,440
What you You met your husband on
that island.

1084
01:00:15,440 --> 01:00:17,440
He was born and raised.
There, yes, he was born and

1085
01:00:17,440 --> 01:00:19,680
raised here.
He's like about 15th or 16th

1086
01:00:19,680 --> 01:00:22,280
generation from one of the
original families really that

1087
01:00:22,280 --> 01:00:27,840
settled here in the late 1600s.
And I was on vacation with my

1088
01:00:27,840 --> 01:00:30,400
friend Nancy Piccioni, who had
to.

1089
01:00:30,680 --> 01:00:34,840
It was after LDI in 1989.
And she said, before you go back

1090
01:00:34,840 --> 01:00:36,720
to France, will you go with me
to the Caribbean?

1091
01:00:36,840 --> 01:00:39,160
You'll love it.
It's a French island.

1092
01:00:39,360 --> 01:00:41,960
They speak French, They have
Pano chocolate, they have

1093
01:00:41,960 --> 01:00:44,000
croissants.
You're going to adore it.

1094
01:00:44,360 --> 01:00:47,400
So she really had to twist my
arm to make me come here.

1095
01:00:47,600 --> 01:00:49,720
I don't like the sun.
I don't like sand.

1096
01:00:49,720 --> 01:00:52,000
I don't like geckos.
I don't like mosquitoes.

1097
01:00:52,560 --> 01:00:54,120
But we had a great time.
We metal.

1098
01:00:54,520 --> 01:00:57,400
Right in the Caribbean.
It could be lost on me.

1099
01:00:57,400 --> 01:01:00,200
I could be in a submarine in
Moscow for all the difference it

1100
01:01:00,200 --> 01:01:03,760
makes, you know.
But I met my husband here on the

1101
01:01:03,760 --> 01:01:10,440
third time we came in 1992.
And, you know, I don't know what

1102
01:01:10,440 --> 01:01:13,040
I thought I was doing at the
time, but it was fun.

1103
01:01:13,440 --> 01:01:17,120
And Pat McKay and her husband
and Paula from LDI all came to

1104
01:01:17,120 --> 01:01:18,880
the wedding.
We had a destination wedding

1105
01:01:18,880 --> 01:01:22,240
here on the beach.
And everybody, the locals invite

1106
01:01:22,240 --> 01:01:24,720
everybody.
So we had like a dinner for

1107
01:01:24,720 --> 01:01:27,440
about 60 people.
And then 400 people came for the

1108
01:01:27,440 --> 01:01:30,640
rest of the evening.
And for years I ran into people

1109
01:01:30,640 --> 01:01:32,840
and I'd introduced myself and
they go, I knew you, I was at

1110
01:01:32,840 --> 01:01:34,800
your wedding.
That's hilarious.

1111
01:01:35,200 --> 01:01:36,680
That's hilarious.
Well, he said.

1112
01:01:36,680 --> 01:01:39,400
You might as well just put an
invitation on the radio because

1113
01:01:39,400 --> 01:01:42,880
every everybody comes.
Could you see yourself ever

1114
01:01:42,880 --> 01:01:44,680
moving away though?
Like moving back to.

1115
01:01:44,680 --> 01:01:48,400
No, it's complicated.
Well, it's come to France maybe.

1116
01:01:48,880 --> 01:01:51,640
We keep looking at these islands
that are in the Saint Lawrence

1117
01:01:51,640 --> 01:01:54,520
Seaway that are called St.
Pierre and Michelone because

1118
01:01:54,520 --> 01:01:56,880
they have the same tax status as
St.

1119
01:01:56,880 --> 01:02:00,560
Bart's has, which is they are
colectivite Utra mayor.

1120
01:02:00,560 --> 01:02:02,160
So they're not French
departments.

1121
01:02:02,440 --> 01:02:06,640
So they set their own taxes.
So here there's no income tax

1122
01:02:06,920 --> 01:02:12,080
and there's no real estate tax.
There are other taxes, but

1123
01:02:12,080 --> 01:02:14,680
Americans, unfortunately.
Got my interest up.

1124
01:02:14,720 --> 01:02:17,480
Well, yeah, but Americans, you
have an American passport.

1125
01:02:18,280 --> 01:02:20,800
I have a Canadian one too.
But I don't know about

1126
01:02:20,800 --> 01:02:24,520
Canadians, but Americans have to
pay income tax on their

1127
01:02:24,520 --> 01:02:28,160
worldwide income.
So if you were to work here,

1128
01:02:28,160 --> 01:02:31,320
which I don't really, I all my
money comes through the States

1129
01:02:31,320 --> 01:02:34,480
and I pay Uncle Sam, you know,
with my New York accountant and

1130
01:02:34,480 --> 01:02:36,480
everything.
But the people who live and work

1131
01:02:36,480 --> 01:02:39,640
here, who have established
fiscal residence, which is five

1132
01:02:39,640 --> 01:02:43,840
years in a row living and
working here, get this special

1133
01:02:43,840 --> 01:02:46,040
tax status.
So a lot of people move here

1134
01:02:46,040 --> 01:02:48,200
from France, but they don't make
it.

1135
01:02:48,240 --> 01:02:50,760
After a year or two, they throw
in the towel and they go home.

1136
01:02:51,000 --> 01:02:54,200
It is not easy to live on an
island with 10,000 people.

1137
01:02:55,160 --> 01:02:59,640
It's very small.
And God love my husband's

1138
01:02:59,640 --> 01:03:01,200
family.
You know, there's always

1139
01:03:01,200 --> 01:03:05,880
somebody for holidays or take
you to the doctor or so.

1140
01:03:08,160 --> 01:03:11,720
Five years ago, in May of 2019,
my husband had a life

1141
01:03:11,720 --> 01:03:17,120
threatening stroke and he's
diminished as it were, in a lot

1142
01:03:17,120 --> 01:03:22,800
of ways, physically, other ways.
So he doesn't drive and luckily

1143
01:03:22,800 --> 01:03:27,120
he was old enough to retire.
So his retirement kicked in

1144
01:03:27,160 --> 01:03:30,240
after, well, three years.
But the newspaper where he was

1145
01:03:30,240 --> 01:03:33,480
working at the time kept him on
sick leave for three years,

1146
01:03:33,480 --> 01:03:36,360
which was great.
So, you know, that was really

1147
01:03:36,360 --> 01:03:39,600
sweet of them.
So and that meant paying the

1148
01:03:39,600 --> 01:03:41,880
wrap around insurance policy
that doesn't come with your

1149
01:03:41,880 --> 01:03:45,840
French Social Security.
So it was, it was nice, but he

1150
01:03:45,840 --> 01:03:49,960
is retired and it would be very
hard for him to live in the

1151
01:03:49,960 --> 01:03:53,120
States at this point, even if we
decide to get him a green card

1152
01:03:53,120 --> 01:03:56,200
because he has a nurse that
comes every morning and physical

1153
01:03:56,200 --> 01:03:59,640
therapy every day and all of
that is covered by French

1154
01:03:59,640 --> 01:04:02,840
insurance, which in the States.
Wouldn't happen, yeah.

1155
01:04:03,080 --> 01:04:06,760
So he's kind of stuck here, but
you know, also the fact that his

1156
01:04:06,760 --> 01:04:09,520
91 year old mother is still
alive and they're not going in.

1157
01:04:09,520 --> 01:04:12,200
Does she live with you?
No, but there's eight kids and

1158
01:04:12,200 --> 01:04:17,160
one of the he has five sisters
and two brothers and the there's

1159
01:04:17,400 --> 01:04:19,520
three girls, three boys and then
two more girls.

1160
01:04:19,840 --> 01:04:22,520
And they all still live there.
One lives in Guadalupe, but

1161
01:04:22,520 --> 01:04:24,080
everybody else is here.
Wow.

1162
01:04:24,840 --> 01:04:28,840
And Bruno, who's the youngest of
the three sons, lives with Mama

1163
01:04:29,920 --> 01:04:31,600
so.
Interesting.

1164
01:04:31,640 --> 01:04:36,160
Yeah.
So, you know, I've always been

1165
01:04:36,160 --> 01:04:39,600
intrigued with living on those
small islands, you know, from

1166
01:04:39,640 --> 01:04:43,080
movies and television.
And the islands that I've been

1167
01:04:43,080 --> 01:04:45,320
to, I've never been to Saint
Bart, but I've been to lots of

1168
01:04:45,320 --> 01:04:48,480
them.
But I think I would go crazy

1169
01:04:48,480 --> 01:04:50,960
after a little while.
I like being remote.

1170
01:04:51,000 --> 01:04:54,040
I live.
So my house in Canada is in a

1171
01:04:54,040 --> 01:04:56,440
town called Canmore, which is
right next to Bath.

1172
01:04:57,080 --> 01:04:59,120
And it's just Banff is a
National Park.

1173
01:04:59,120 --> 01:05:02,000
You can't own real estate there.
Well, you can own the house, but

1174
01:05:02,000 --> 01:05:04,800
you don't own the land, right?
So it doesn't appreciate in

1175
01:05:04,800 --> 01:05:07,760
value and there's all kinds of
weird stuff that happens.

1176
01:05:07,760 --> 01:05:10,920
Plus in Banff, you have to work
in Banff to live in Banff.

1177
01:05:11,320 --> 01:05:14,600
So I live in the town right next
door to it called Canmore, just

1178
01:05:14,600 --> 01:05:16,800
on the other side of the Banff
park gates.

1179
01:05:17,320 --> 01:05:21,640
And it's a small enough place
where you know a lot of people

1180
01:05:21,640 --> 01:05:25,320
and they know you and, but you
know, there's lots of

1181
01:05:25,320 --> 01:05:30,720
restaurants, lots of grocery
stores and you're only an hour

1182
01:05:30,720 --> 01:05:35,360
drive from Calgary, you know,
which is a a fairly large city

1183
01:05:35,360 --> 01:05:38,160
now, almost 2 million people.
I think so.

1184
01:05:39,200 --> 01:05:42,240
So it's not quite so isolated,
but I really do like it.

1185
01:05:42,240 --> 01:05:45,080
Like I like it better than
living in a city for sure.

1186
01:05:46,160 --> 01:05:51,480
Oddly enough, after going to NYU
at the age of 17 and spending, I

1187
01:05:51,480 --> 01:05:54,320
finally gave up my last Pia
Datera in New York during the

1188
01:05:54,320 --> 01:05:58,160
pandemic when I hadn't been
there in like 2 years.

1189
01:05:58,520 --> 01:06:00,720
And my daughter and my
granddaughter decided this is

1190
01:06:00,720 --> 01:06:03,000
ridiculous.
Your new, your winter coat does

1191
01:06:03,000 --> 01:06:04,600
not need an apartment in New
York.

1192
01:06:05,080 --> 01:06:07,520
You know, so they kind of
emptied that out and that was

1193
01:06:07,520 --> 01:06:11,000
the end of that.
And then, you know, living in a

1194
01:06:11,000 --> 01:06:14,800
place like this, I think it
takes a certain kind of person.

1195
01:06:14,800 --> 01:06:18,520
It really does.
You know, I used to see like

1196
01:06:18,520 --> 01:06:20,640
when I was in New York, I would
see 8 performances a week.

1197
01:06:20,640 --> 01:06:23,960
I went to everything, you know,
and you don't see anything here.

1198
01:06:24,200 --> 01:06:32,200
But because we are insane, in
1996, four years after we got

1199
01:06:32,200 --> 01:06:34,920
married, a good friend of mine,
Joshua Harrison, said to me,

1200
01:06:34,920 --> 01:06:37,960
well, why don't you run a Film
Festival in Saint Barts like the

1201
01:06:37,960 --> 01:06:40,880
one you ran in France, which is
what I did in Avignon for those

1202
01:06:40,880 --> 01:06:44,440
10 years.
And I said, well, you could.

1203
01:06:44,440 --> 01:06:46,160
But there's one basic problem
here.

1204
01:06:46,160 --> 01:06:50,000
There's no movie theater.
And he said, well, that

1205
01:06:50,000 --> 01:06:51,640
shouldn't stop you.
Don't they show movies

1206
01:06:51,640 --> 01:06:54,000
somewhere?
So I asked my husband.

1207
01:06:54,000 --> 01:06:56,080
I said, hey, do they show movies
anywhere?

1208
01:06:56,080 --> 01:06:58,040
And he goes, yeah, on the tennis
court over there.

1209
01:06:58,520 --> 01:07:03,400
So we went to see them and they
have a building with a snack bar

1210
01:07:03,400 --> 01:07:05,560
downstairs.
And then upstairs, there's a

1211
01:07:05,560 --> 01:07:08,880
little, you know, projector
room.

1212
01:07:09,200 --> 01:07:15,240
And at the time it had a 19
sixties 35mm movie projector,

1213
01:07:15,840 --> 01:07:20,520
but it only took a half a movie
on these giant, giant reels.

1214
01:07:20,760 --> 01:07:24,320
So the movies would come in
boxes with five or six reels of

1215
01:07:24,320 --> 01:07:28,480
film, not on a big metal reel
just wound up on bobbins.

1216
01:07:28,920 --> 01:07:34,360
And the first two years the guys
here who ran the movies were our

1217
01:07:34,360 --> 01:07:36,600
projectionists.
But they didn't, we were, we did

1218
01:07:36,600 --> 01:07:39,400
like five nights or six nights.
And they didn't want to do that

1219
01:07:39,400 --> 01:07:40,720
every year.
And they said how about every

1220
01:07:40,720 --> 01:07:42,280
other year?
And we're like, no.

1221
01:07:42,280 --> 01:07:45,920
So Josh at that .1 of his
brothers was married to the

1222
01:07:45,920 --> 01:07:51,080
sister of a guy who ran
projectors in Denmark.

1223
01:07:51,440 --> 01:07:56,360
So Steve, we brought over our
own projectionist and he ran

1224
01:07:56,360 --> 01:07:59,840
that projector until they
finally replaced it with a big

1225
01:07:59,840 --> 01:08:02,120
digital projector.
So you do that every year?

1226
01:08:02,280 --> 01:08:04,720
Every year still.
Yeah, every year.

1227
01:08:04,720 --> 01:08:06,720
That's cool.
This year we would be coming up

1228
01:08:06,720 --> 01:08:08,920
on 30, but we missed 2 because
of COVID.

1229
01:08:09,120 --> 01:08:12,040
The island was closed, so we
couldn't bring any guests or

1230
01:08:12,040 --> 01:08:13,560
anything, and we decided not to
do it.

1231
01:08:13,560 --> 01:08:16,720
We missed.
We must have missed 20 and 21,

1232
01:08:17,200 --> 01:08:20,520
so we're calling it our 28th
year, even though we missed it

1233
01:08:20,520 --> 01:08:23,160
would have been 30.
And my daughter comes from

1234
01:08:23,160 --> 01:08:26,040
Philadelphia every year to help
us and we bring, it's a Pan

1235
01:08:26,040 --> 01:08:30,040
Caribbean festival, so we bring
guests from all over the islands

1236
01:08:30,040 --> 01:08:31,680
and it's so cool.
Yeah, it's great.

1237
01:08:31,680 --> 01:08:34,080
It's very cool.
This year it'll be 2025.

1238
01:08:34,080 --> 01:08:39,080
It'll be April 30th to May 3rd.
Since the pandemic, we only do

1239
01:08:39,080 --> 01:08:40,640
four nights.
We're a little older and a

1240
01:08:40,640 --> 01:08:41,800
little calmer.
It's.

1241
01:08:42,399 --> 01:08:43,279
A lot of work.
Too.

1242
01:08:43,279 --> 01:08:45,560
It is a lot of work, but it's a
fun little festival and it's a

1243
01:08:45,560 --> 01:08:48,760
great sort of crossroads where a
lot of these film makers from

1244
01:08:48,760 --> 01:08:51,479
other islands know each other
through their work, but they've

1245
01:08:51,479 --> 01:08:53,840
never met.
So it's a great way for people

1246
01:08:53,840 --> 01:08:56,479
to come and we feed everybody at
lunch and dinner and they

1247
01:08:56,800 --> 01:08:58,560
network and it's cool.
It's fun.

1248
01:08:59,359 --> 01:09:01,680
So what is Harbor magazine?
You mentioned that earlier.

1249
01:09:01,680 --> 01:09:04,479
Though Harbor is the official
publication for the Port of

1250
01:09:04,479 --> 01:09:07,960
Gustavia and you know, St.
Barts is a luxurious little

1251
01:09:07,960 --> 01:09:11,960
island and they have a very,
very beautiful port here.

1252
01:09:12,279 --> 01:09:15,000
And there's some big
international boat races that

1253
01:09:15,000 --> 01:09:19,600
come here every year with 100
foot sailboats and a little one,

1254
01:09:19,720 --> 01:09:23,800
a lot of little regattas.
And starting in a couple weeks

1255
01:09:23,800 --> 01:09:27,120
around Thanksgiving, the big
mega yachts start to come in.

1256
01:09:27,399 --> 01:09:30,040
And the biggest yachts in the
world are here.

1257
01:09:30,040 --> 01:09:34,160
The all the by New Year's Eve,
you've got probably 200 and 5300

1258
01:09:34,160 --> 01:09:36,160
yachts in the port and the
harbor.

1259
01:09:36,160 --> 01:09:38,880
It looks like you could walk to
Saint Martin, which is 11

1260
01:09:38,880 --> 01:09:42,200
nautical miles over there.
And the boats are just out there

1261
01:09:43,120 --> 01:09:48,760
and you've got, you know, people
like the founders of Google and

1262
01:09:48,760 --> 01:09:52,520
the founders of all those things
have rent houses here for, you

1263
01:09:52,520 --> 01:09:57,040
know, they've ever bought houses
or they like Roman Abramovich

1264
01:09:57,040 --> 01:09:59,080
was our resident Russian
oligarch.

1265
01:10:00,000 --> 01:10:02,440
He hasn't been here since the
war started with Ukraine.

1266
01:10:02,440 --> 01:10:05,920
But there are there are in the
hills, there are hidden places

1267
01:10:05,920 --> 01:10:07,400
where there's some very wealthy
people.

1268
01:10:07,400 --> 01:10:11,440
And a lot of them come here.
And Harbor Magazine is a BIG4

1269
01:10:12,840 --> 01:10:16,520
color glossy magazine that
covers the regattas, the

1270
01:10:16,520 --> 01:10:21,280
sailors, the naval architects,
the port, the port regulations,

1271
01:10:22,240 --> 01:10:24,280
a big fashion.
We used to do big fashion shoots

1272
01:10:24,280 --> 01:10:28,520
on the yachts, but that got to
be really sort of hard to do.

1273
01:10:28,520 --> 01:10:32,480
So we just sort of do shopping
like local stuff you need if you

1274
01:10:32,480 --> 01:10:34,800
come here and it's it's a little
older.

1275
01:10:35,600 --> 01:10:37,920
I'm the editor in chief.
I write all the write all the

1276
01:10:37,920 --> 01:10:40,360
articles.
Up until this year, we actually

1277
01:10:40,360 --> 01:10:43,920
have paid a a translator.
I write them in English, he puts

1278
01:10:43,920 --> 01:10:46,640
them in French.
Whether we'll start using Deep

1279
01:10:46,640 --> 01:10:49,080
Bull or ChatGPT remains to be
seen.

1280
01:10:49,280 --> 01:10:52,120
Yeah, but that's a fun little
project.

1281
01:10:52,120 --> 01:10:56,160
And then I do a couple other
things like that little side

1282
01:10:56,160 --> 01:10:57,840
gig, cool side that's.
Really cool.

1283
01:10:58,040 --> 01:11:00,920
Yeah, I like it.
I I don't know.

1284
01:11:00,920 --> 01:11:02,720
Someday I'm gonna have to get to
Saint Bart.

1285
01:11:02,720 --> 01:11:04,280
I've been to Saint Martin, but I
haven't been to.

1286
01:11:04,280 --> 01:11:06,520
Yeah, it's right.
It's right across the 10 minute

1287
01:11:06,520 --> 01:11:07,880
puddle.
Yeah, yeah.

1288
01:11:08,200 --> 01:11:11,080
We've talked for years, We've
joked about having like a, you

1289
01:11:11,080 --> 01:11:13,760
know, a sea level, which is a
joke because that means like,

1290
01:11:13,760 --> 01:11:18,840
you know, CEOCFOCOO, but sea
level here is like, you know,

1291
01:11:18,920 --> 01:11:21,600
sea level.
So having like a sea level

1292
01:11:21,800 --> 01:11:23,840
retreat here and call it LD
Island.

1293
01:11:24,400 --> 01:11:26,280
That's funny.
So maybe someday have.

1294
01:11:26,280 --> 01:11:29,560
You ever have you ever had to
evac for a storm or.

1295
01:11:29,680 --> 01:11:31,400
No, they don't.
They they.

1296
01:11:31,520 --> 01:11:33,600
And if they're off island, they
come home.

1297
01:11:34,280 --> 01:11:36,720
People want to be here.
They want to be in their houses.

1298
01:11:36,720 --> 01:11:39,000
They want to get out and help
their family the next morning.

1299
01:11:39,720 --> 01:11:42,240
They want to get their stuff off
the roads.

1300
01:11:43,160 --> 01:11:48,400
The worst one was Irma in 17.
And we were in Europe at the

1301
01:11:48,400 --> 01:11:51,720
time and we were watching the
television and my husband was

1302
01:11:51,720 --> 01:11:54,160
like, Oh my God, this one is not
a joke.

1303
01:11:55,360 --> 01:11:58,040
And we were, we were personally
blessed.

1304
01:11:58,040 --> 01:12:01,960
We had some most of our shutter
hurricane shutters were heavy

1305
01:12:01,960 --> 01:12:04,440
wood.
There was one room, our living

1306
01:12:04,440 --> 01:12:07,640
room had these like metal
accordion shutters, and some

1307
01:12:07,640 --> 01:12:10,800
little tornado must have gone
through there and ripped those

1308
01:12:10,800 --> 01:12:12,920
off.
But so I thought I was going to

1309
01:12:12,920 --> 01:12:15,760
find broken picture frames.
And nothing happened.

1310
01:12:15,920 --> 01:12:18,400
The orchids were still on the
plant in the living room.

1311
01:12:18,680 --> 01:12:20,560
The kettle was still sitting on
the stove.

1312
01:12:20,800 --> 01:12:22,800
The things were gone.
There was water.

1313
01:12:22,920 --> 01:12:26,760
The pillows were all wet.
But we were very lucky because

1314
01:12:26,760 --> 01:12:30,400
about 95% of the buildings on
the island had some kind of

1315
01:12:30,400 --> 01:12:32,560
damage.
Well, see, that always freaks me

1316
01:12:32,560 --> 01:12:36,720
out about being, especially on
the smaller islands is, you

1317
01:12:36,720 --> 01:12:40,200
know, when a storm comes, like
even if you wanted to evacuate,

1318
01:12:40,200 --> 01:12:42,280
where are you going to go?
Well, you can't.

1319
01:12:42,480 --> 01:12:46,880
You can't and, and, and that's
why now every building permit,

1320
01:12:46,880 --> 01:12:49,960
not only do you have a cistern,
but you also are supposed to

1321
01:12:49,960 --> 01:12:52,960
have at least one room.
The architectural style here is

1322
01:12:52,960 --> 01:12:56,680
4 peaked roofs high like it's a
boat upside down.

1323
01:12:56,680 --> 01:13:02,400
It's a wooden boat with turned
upside down with a lot of cross

1324
01:13:02,400 --> 01:13:04,800
beams.
But now they want you to have at

1325
01:13:04,800 --> 01:13:08,440
least one room that has a flat
concrete ceiling so that if the

1326
01:13:08,440 --> 01:13:11,000
roof goes, which is the first
thing that usually happens in

1327
01:13:11,200 --> 01:13:14,960
over 180 mile an hour wind, even
though they're supposed to be

1328
01:13:14,960 --> 01:13:21,120
built to withstand that a lot of
roofs went in Irma, you could at

1329
01:13:21,120 --> 01:13:24,040
least go in that room that has.
So we have a downstairs guest

1330
01:13:24,040 --> 01:13:27,440
room that's totally hurricane
proof.

1331
01:13:27,440 --> 01:13:29,840
A lot of people ended up in
their bathrooms, you know, like

1332
01:13:30,280 --> 01:13:32,320
holding the door closed.
Yeah, So the.

1333
01:13:32,920 --> 01:13:34,760
Milton that just went through
Florida.

1334
01:13:34,920 --> 01:13:39,360
We were still in Canada and my
girlfriend and I but her son was

1335
01:13:39,360 --> 01:13:44,560
here in the house and we got hit
by a tornado.

1336
01:13:45,640 --> 01:13:48,280
I saw that on Facebook.
You were right.

1337
01:13:48,760 --> 01:13:51,920
Yeah, the house was OK.
Well, it's, it's a mess.

1338
01:13:51,920 --> 01:13:55,360
We're dealing with insurance
companies and adjusters and

1339
01:13:55,400 --> 01:13:58,600
construction people and stuff.
So like, our garage door

1340
01:13:58,600 --> 01:14:02,440
buckled, our screen patio's
gone, our we.

1341
01:14:02,440 --> 01:14:05,480
Lost a roof?
One window roof is damaged.

1342
01:14:05,480 --> 01:14:08,040
We had a brand new roof and it's
it's got damaged.

1343
01:14:08,040 --> 01:14:10,800
So we now have the dreaded blue
tarp over our house.

1344
01:14:11,000 --> 01:14:12,080
Look, at least the house is
there.

1345
01:14:12,080 --> 01:14:14,800
You see some of these tornado
stories where the house is like,

1346
01:14:14,800 --> 01:14:16,960
they're not.
That flattened, Yeah, no.

1347
01:14:16,960 --> 01:14:21,400
And it's bizarre because we live
in a very small community and

1348
01:14:21,400 --> 01:14:24,680
you can see exactly the path
that the tornado took through

1349
01:14:24,680 --> 01:14:27,320
the community.
Like it's our house and about 3

1350
01:14:27,320 --> 01:14:30,440
houses down from us and then one
on the other side of us.

1351
01:14:30,600 --> 01:14:32,760
And then sort of the.
Same thing across the street,

1352
01:14:33,000 --> 01:14:34,880
and that's it.
The rest of the neighborhood is

1353
01:14:34,880 --> 01:14:36,640
fine.
Well, and then you see the same

1354
01:14:36,640 --> 01:14:38,800
path going through the
neighborhoods next to us, right?

1355
01:14:40,120 --> 01:14:43,440
So yeah, I mean, I consider us
lucky.

1356
01:14:43,480 --> 01:14:47,040
You know, we had power back in
four or five days or whatever,

1357
01:14:47,040 --> 01:14:50,120
and that's good.
Well, here all the power's

1358
01:14:50,120 --> 01:14:53,600
underground, all the electrical
wires except for a few odd

1359
01:14:53,600 --> 01:14:55,200
places have been put
underground.

1360
01:14:55,800 --> 01:14:58,480
When they put the water pipes
obviously are underground.

1361
01:14:58,480 --> 01:15:01,120
So there were already trenches
everywhere and they put in.

1362
01:15:01,120 --> 01:15:03,360
In the past couple years they've
moved all the electrical

1363
01:15:03,360 --> 01:15:08,640
underground and fiber optic.
So this island is pretty ahead

1364
01:15:08,640 --> 01:15:12,520
in terms of, you know, digital
and having the you don't

1365
01:15:13,120 --> 01:15:16,240
generally don't lose power
because of wires being down.

1366
01:15:16,240 --> 01:15:19,080
You only lose power because like
of a fire and a transformer or

1367
01:15:19,080 --> 01:15:21,440
something.
That's the same thing here.

1368
01:15:21,480 --> 01:15:22,680
That quite.
Often that's.

1369
01:15:22,680 --> 01:15:25,280
What's happening here?
I mean, we still do have a lot

1370
01:15:25,280 --> 01:15:29,240
of power above ground, but for
the most part, you know, FPL is,

1371
01:15:29,240 --> 01:15:34,760
is, you know, they get paid to
replace all the poles and stuff

1372
01:15:34,760 --> 01:15:36,600
that blow over every year in a
storm.

1373
01:15:36,600 --> 01:15:41,360
So I think they're de
incentivized to bury the cables,

1374
01:15:41,720 --> 01:15:44,640
but the government is starting
to push them to do it because

1375
01:15:44,920 --> 01:15:47,600
it's so disruptive.
You know, it's like people's

1376
01:15:47,600 --> 01:15:51,720
lives living in a in a tropical
place, you know, and then not

1377
01:15:51,720 --> 01:15:53,960
having power is, is disgusting.
It's.

1378
01:15:54,000 --> 01:15:58,720
Well, some friends of ours move
from here to Sarasota, and they

1379
01:15:58,720 --> 01:16:01,160
were on the 18th floor of a
building and they've had three

1380
01:16:01,160 --> 01:16:04,560
storms since they were there.
And their building told them not

1381
01:16:04,560 --> 01:16:08,400
to leave for Milton or Helaine
or whichever one it was.

1382
01:16:08,400 --> 01:16:10,040
Milton, I guess, is that the
last one?

1383
01:16:10,880 --> 01:16:14,880
And then what happened was they
lost power, which they didn't

1384
01:16:14,880 --> 01:16:16,520
think they were going to do
because they were on the same

1385
01:16:16,520 --> 01:16:19,480
grid with the Sarasota Hospital,
but they did.

1386
01:16:19,800 --> 01:16:24,280
And then the building used all
of its reserve diesel, running

1387
01:16:24,280 --> 01:16:27,200
the generators for lights and
elevators.

1388
01:16:27,480 --> 01:16:30,800
And then after three days, they
couldn't get any diesel and they

1389
01:16:30,800 --> 01:16:33,680
had to evacuate the building.
So they went to family and

1390
01:16:33,680 --> 01:16:35,600
friends in Miami.
Nightmare.

1391
01:16:35,640 --> 01:16:38,120
I know.
I mean, I'm so used to it.

1392
01:16:38,120 --> 01:16:41,040
Like the year I moved here was
the year that Hurricane Andrew

1393
01:16:41,560 --> 01:16:45,320
hit South Florida real bad.
And that was my welcome to

1394
01:16:45,320 --> 01:16:49,400
Florida, you know, and, and I,
I'll never forget, like turning

1395
01:16:49,400 --> 01:16:52,680
on the television, you know,
here's me from sleepy Canada

1396
01:16:53,200 --> 01:16:55,960
turning on the television and
seeing people looting like.

1397
01:16:56,240 --> 01:16:58,920
Taking televisions.
And stuff out of stores and I'm

1398
01:16:58,920 --> 01:17:01,440
going, what are these people
doing?

1399
01:17:01,440 --> 01:17:03,960
Like what is happening?
I've never seen anything like

1400
01:17:03,960 --> 01:17:05,280
that in my life, you know,
right.

1401
01:17:05,440 --> 01:17:08,760
And not having water and not
having gas, like you couldn't

1402
01:17:08,760 --> 01:17:11,640
get gas for your car.
And right, I was just like, man,

1403
01:17:11,640 --> 01:17:14,360
what did I do?
I shouldn't be here, but.

1404
01:17:14,480 --> 01:17:17,080
Well, that's what happened.
Like after they evacuated Tampa

1405
01:17:17,080 --> 01:17:20,160
and then people used all the gas
evacuating and then what?

1406
01:17:20,400 --> 01:17:23,600
Yeah, exactly.
Or like, now every there's a

1407
01:17:23,600 --> 01:17:26,840
storm, the world runs out of
freaking toilet paper and paper

1408
01:17:26,840 --> 01:17:27,760
towels.
It's like what?

1409
01:17:27,800 --> 01:17:29,320
Are you doing?
You know what?

1410
01:17:29,320 --> 01:17:31,280
Do you think you're going to
suddenly need to go to the

1411
01:17:31,280 --> 01:17:33,080
bathroom five times as?
Much.

1412
01:17:33,400 --> 01:17:35,440
Well, I don't know.
It's interesting because, you

1413
01:17:35,440 --> 01:17:40,080
know, talking about living on an
island, when the port strike

1414
01:17:40,080 --> 01:17:44,480
happened in the States and they
said that every port from Maine

1415
01:17:44,480 --> 01:17:49,080
to Texas was going to be closed,
I started thinking almost

1416
01:17:49,080 --> 01:17:51,440
everything comes here on these
ships from tropical shipping,

1417
01:17:51,440 --> 01:17:55,360
which leave Miami once a week.
And how many weeks could this

1418
01:17:55,360 --> 01:17:58,320
island survive without food and
fuel?

1419
01:17:58,560 --> 01:18:03,040
Because they have never gone for
any real alternative fuel

1420
01:18:03,040 --> 01:18:06,040
sources.
They burn billions of gallons of

1421
01:18:06,240 --> 01:18:08,760
fossil fuel to create
electricity.

1422
01:18:08,960 --> 01:18:12,000
And of course people have people
have it backwards here.

1423
01:18:12,000 --> 01:18:15,160
They sit in freezing cold air
conditioned rooms and then go in

1424
01:18:15,160 --> 01:18:17,920
their heated pool.
I'm like, why don't you sit

1425
01:18:17,920 --> 01:18:20,360
outside till you're hot and then
go in your cold pool?

1426
01:18:20,360 --> 01:18:24,560
But this island uses a lot of
electricity and I'm like, I

1427
01:18:24,560 --> 01:18:26,440
wonder how big those reserves
are.

1428
01:18:27,080 --> 01:18:28,600
Is all your electricity
generator?

1429
01:18:28,600 --> 01:18:32,120
Yeah.
Generator I know isn't.

1430
01:18:32,360 --> 01:18:35,960
It all like diesel power like.
How they created on the island

1431
01:18:36,000 --> 01:18:39,480
islands and stuff, yeah.
At the electric company, yes.

1432
01:18:39,480 --> 01:18:42,680
Yeah, yeah, it's all diesel.
Yeah, yeah.

1433
01:18:42,880 --> 01:18:48,200
So going back to LDI, yes, I
appreciate the education on

1434
01:18:48,200 --> 01:18:49,480
island living though.
I love it.

1435
01:18:50,040 --> 01:18:52,920
It's so awesome.
Man, I love the Caribbean so

1436
01:18:52,920 --> 01:18:55,040
much.
I, I haven't been in a few years

1437
01:18:55,080 --> 01:18:56,840
either, you know, it's just been
I.

1438
01:18:56,840 --> 01:18:59,240
Keep waiting for Bob Bonniel.
He wants to sail.

1439
01:18:59,240 --> 01:19:01,920
You know he loves to sail.
I'm like, come on down.

1440
01:19:02,320 --> 01:19:05,520
Yeah, yeah, that'd be nice,
sailing in the Caribbean when

1441
01:19:05,520 --> 01:19:08,320
you're used to the water in
Seattle, right?

1442
01:19:08,320 --> 01:19:10,600
You know, which is cold and
rough.

1443
01:19:11,200 --> 01:19:14,520
It's always windy.
You have an airport near you.

1444
01:19:15,360 --> 01:19:17,640
We have a teeny airport here in
Saint Barts.

1445
01:19:18,200 --> 01:19:22,400
The largest plane that comes in
is 21 seats, so no Gulf streams.

1446
01:19:22,680 --> 01:19:26,360
And it just flew over you.
Every time I read an article

1447
01:19:26,360 --> 01:19:30,440
that says, oh so and so Beyoncé
brought her private jet to Saint

1448
01:19:30,440 --> 01:19:34,680
Barts, I'm like, no, she didn't.
You can take your Gulfstream to

1449
01:19:34,680 --> 01:19:39,080
Saint Martin or Anguilla and
then take a 10 minute charter to

1450
01:19:39,080 --> 01:19:40,200
get over here.
I see.

1451
01:19:40,240 --> 01:19:43,200
Yeah, that's one of the things I
think that I think the island is

1452
01:19:43,200 --> 01:19:45,000
over developed.
But I think one of the things

1453
01:19:45,000 --> 01:19:49,880
that saved it from having Miami
style hotels and high rises is

1454
01:19:49,880 --> 01:19:53,520
the fact that there are no jets.
So it's still rather hard to get

1455
01:19:53,520 --> 01:19:57,240
to.
Most people of any means now

1456
01:19:57,240 --> 01:20:00,520
come through San Juan, and
there's a very small executive

1457
01:20:00,520 --> 01:20:06,160
airline called Tradewind that
services like Martha's Vineyard

1458
01:20:06,160 --> 01:20:09,600
and Nantucket in the summer and
St.

1459
01:20:09,600 --> 01:20:12,120
Bart's and a few other islands
in the winter.

1460
01:20:12,520 --> 01:20:15,280
I think I went to Saint John or
something one year and I flew in

1461
01:20:15,280 --> 01:20:18,600
through San Juan and took a
propeller plane from there to

1462
01:20:19,400 --> 01:20:21,680
and it was the scariest flight
ever.

1463
01:20:21,720 --> 01:20:25,640
Like my ex-wife and I, I thought
we were gonna die.

1464
01:20:25,640 --> 01:20:28,800
Like, I mean literally it was
one of those flights where.

1465
01:20:28,920 --> 01:20:30,600
Those.
Massive storm.

1466
01:20:31,120 --> 01:20:32,440
Well, you shouldn't fly in
storms, but it.

1467
01:20:32,560 --> 01:20:35,360
Was a brutal.
Storm it's better now that this

1468
01:20:35,360 --> 01:20:38,680
company Tradewind flies these
beautiful Swiss made planes

1469
01:20:38,680 --> 01:20:42,480
called pilatus and they're just
gorgeous and they're they're

1470
01:20:42,480 --> 01:20:45,840
executive designed inside one of
them is like 2 pot there's eight

1471
01:20:45,840 --> 01:20:50,160
seats so one of them is 2 pods
of four and there's walnut walls

1472
01:20:50,160 --> 01:20:53,360
and you could have a meeting you
know, or play cards or unpack

1473
01:20:53,360 --> 01:20:55,720
your lunch I mean.
A private jet, but slower.

1474
01:20:56,160 --> 01:20:58,000
Yeah, exactly.
They're lovely.

1475
01:20:58,280 --> 01:21:00,040
Yeah.
They don't have a bathroom, so

1476
01:21:00,040 --> 01:21:02,280
when you're ready for that one
hour from San Juan to Saint

1477
01:21:02,280 --> 01:21:05,840
Barts, you got to be ready.
Yeah, so I've talked about it a

1478
01:21:05,840 --> 01:21:08,520
little bit on the podcast, but
we're doing this thing with you

1479
01:21:08,520 --> 01:21:11,440
that, you know, first of all,
I'm very grateful.

1480
01:21:11,440 --> 01:21:16,400
And and you know, I reached out
to you and you just immediately

1481
01:21:16,440 --> 01:21:21,640
were like, yes, let's do it.
So working with Scott DeVos, we

1482
01:21:21,640 --> 01:21:25,240
came up with this concept called
Dining with Dinosaurs.

1483
01:21:25,800 --> 01:21:30,320
And so Scott was like, well,
yeah, what we'll do is we'll

1484
01:21:30,320 --> 01:21:32,960
pick a location, and we'll do
these dinners at different

1485
01:21:32,960 --> 01:21:36,720
locations, and people can fly in
and have a dinner with these

1486
01:21:37,080 --> 01:21:40,120
these dinosaurs who are people
from the industry who are going

1487
01:21:40,120 --> 01:21:41,480
to share their knowledge with
them.

1488
01:21:41,480 --> 01:21:45,640
And I said #1 it sounds really
expensive #2 it sounds like a

1489
01:21:45,640 --> 01:21:49,080
lot of logistics and stuff.
Why not just do it at a trade

1490
01:21:49,080 --> 01:21:51,120
show?
And why not do it at LDI, the

1491
01:21:51,120 --> 01:21:53,120
trade show that everyone already
goes to?

1492
01:21:53,600 --> 01:21:55,240
And he went, yeah, I never
thought of that.

1493
01:21:55,240 --> 01:21:57,960
So.
So I reached out to you.

1494
01:21:58,040 --> 01:22:02,320
And honestly, one of my
challenges was the name, like,

1495
01:22:02,320 --> 01:22:05,200
is anyone going to be offended
being called a dinosaur?

1496
01:22:05,200 --> 01:22:08,440
You know, being that we're old
people in the industry were

1497
01:22:08,440 --> 01:22:10,440
dinosaurs in.
The somebody who has a thing

1498
01:22:10,440 --> 01:22:12,560
called Geezers of Gear.
Correct.

1499
01:22:12,560 --> 01:22:14,840
Nobody's going to be offended at
being a dinosaur if you're

1500
01:22:14,840 --> 01:22:17,240
already a geezer.
Yeah, well, and by the way, the

1501
01:22:17,240 --> 01:22:19,920
first two women we reached out
to immediately said yes.

1502
01:22:19,920 --> 01:22:23,480
So, you know, because I thought
in particular, women are going

1503
01:22:23,480 --> 01:22:26,720
to be like, I ain't no dinosaur,
you know, and.

1504
01:22:26,800 --> 01:22:30,120
Patty Thurston and.
Carol Dodds.

1505
01:22:30,360 --> 01:22:31,400
Oh, right.
Yeah.

1506
01:22:31,440 --> 01:22:36,000
Great.
So, so, you know, reached out to

1507
01:22:36,000 --> 01:22:39,440
you and and I expected the word
coming back to me to be.

1508
01:22:39,800 --> 01:22:42,120
We'd love to do it, but you're
going to need to change the

1509
01:22:42,120 --> 01:22:44,400
name.
You know, maybe it's dining with

1510
01:22:44,720 --> 01:22:47,640
with intelligent people of age
or something.

1511
01:22:47,640 --> 01:22:50,120
Love it.
But you know, you got to poke a

1512
01:22:50,120 --> 01:22:52,600
little bit of fun too.
Well, like I said, Jesse, you

1513
01:22:52,600 --> 01:22:55,120
know, Jesse who's our show
director is just open to

1514
01:22:55,120 --> 01:22:57,600
anything.
And we had been talking about

1515
01:22:57,600 --> 01:23:00,320
doing some kind of a designer
round table and what are we

1516
01:23:00,320 --> 01:23:02,880
going to do with it?
And as we were having that

1517
01:23:02,880 --> 01:23:05,080
discussion, Dining with
Dinosaurs popped up.

1518
01:23:05,080 --> 01:23:07,760
And I said.
Hey, here's a perfect solution.

1519
01:23:07,760 --> 01:23:09,520
So we I'll.
Do all the work for us for.

1520
01:23:09,520 --> 01:23:10,160
Free.
Great.

1521
01:23:10,280 --> 01:23:12,280
Now we'll help you.
Anything you need just let me

1522
01:23:12,280 --> 01:23:13,160
know.
Yeah.

1523
01:23:13,600 --> 01:23:15,640
No, I think it's going to be
great fun and I think it could

1524
01:23:15,640 --> 01:23:18,960
become an annual thing.
I think so too, and I hope so,

1525
01:23:18,960 --> 01:23:22,560
because you know, first of all,
like, and Scott DeVos is so

1526
01:23:22,560 --> 01:23:24,760
organic about this.
I don't know if you know Scott,

1527
01:23:24,760 --> 01:23:26,160
but he's been around.
I really don't.

1528
01:23:26,240 --> 01:23:27,680
I've been a couple calls with
you well.

1529
01:23:27,680 --> 01:23:28,560
You'll meet him.
Yeah.

1530
01:23:29,120 --> 01:23:34,800
But Scott is it was such an
organic reason to want to do

1531
01:23:34,800 --> 01:23:37,280
this.
It was all about just grabbing

1532
01:23:37,280 --> 01:23:39,960
this set of knowledge from these
people over here and

1533
01:23:39,960 --> 01:23:42,160
transferring it to these new
people over here.

1534
01:23:42,160 --> 01:23:44,360
And.
And really just, you know, let's

1535
01:23:44,480 --> 01:23:48,800
respect, you know, the knowledge
and experience and history that

1536
01:23:48,800 --> 01:23:52,080
these people have and pass that
on to some new people.

1537
01:23:52,080 --> 01:23:54,680
And I said, well, that's exactly
what Geezers of Gear really is

1538
01:23:54,680 --> 01:23:56,360
about.
Like, that's what we do in every

1539
01:23:56,360 --> 01:24:00,280
episode.
And so it was such a natural fit

1540
01:24:00,280 --> 01:24:01,840
and it was all for the right
reasons.

1541
01:24:02,240 --> 01:24:05,720
And I can tell you like more
than anything I've ever done,

1542
01:24:06,280 --> 01:24:09,720
it's all yeses like the problem
is we have too many dinosaurs

1543
01:24:09,760 --> 01:24:11,520
right now.
So we got to, we got to start

1544
01:24:11,520 --> 01:24:14,880
whittling away our dinosaurs
and, you know, killing off our

1545
01:24:14,880 --> 01:24:18,080
dinosaurs.
But so I don't know, you know,

1546
01:24:18,080 --> 01:24:20,440
maybe the format will change
next year and we can get it a

1547
01:24:20,440 --> 01:24:24,560
little bigger or something.
But basically the format is it's

1548
01:24:24,560 --> 01:24:29,840
a 90 minute lunch and people are
signing up and you can give us

1549
01:24:29,840 --> 01:24:32,160
the credentials or whatever to
sign up here in a bit.

1550
01:24:32,560 --> 01:24:36,760
But people are signing up who,
who are coming to the show and

1551
01:24:36,760 --> 01:24:39,160
want to learn and everything and
they're signing up for this

1552
01:24:39,160 --> 01:24:42,360
event.
And so we're going to do round

1553
01:24:42,360 --> 01:24:45,160
tables and we're, I think we're
going to have how many round

1554
01:24:45,160 --> 01:24:47,480
tables?
I think we're going to have 9:50

1555
01:24:47,800 --> 01:24:51,080
unless we get past 100 sign ups
and then we'll do something

1556
01:24:51,080 --> 01:24:51,720
else.
Yeah.

1557
01:24:51,720 --> 01:24:55,000
So we'll have 1010 round tables
with 10 people at each one.

1558
01:24:55,120 --> 01:24:58,400
So it's 100 people.
Knowing LDI, you won't stop

1559
01:24:58,400 --> 01:25:01,720
selling tickets, so we're going
to end up with 20 with, you

1560
01:25:01,720 --> 01:25:04,280
know. 40 dinosaurs.
And I'm going to have to

1561
01:25:04,280 --> 01:25:06,120
scramble the last week to find.
Out.

1562
01:25:06,120 --> 01:25:07,640
There's a lot of dinosaurs on
us.

1563
01:25:07,640 --> 01:25:09,920
They call themselves
designosaurs Floating.

1564
01:25:09,960 --> 01:25:13,320
Dinosaurs, yeah.
So, you know, the idea basically

1565
01:25:13,320 --> 01:25:16,520
is that at each table we'll have
one or two of these what we're

1566
01:25:16,520 --> 01:25:19,840
calling dinosaurs, which are,
you know, our our criteria is

1567
01:25:19,840 --> 01:25:23,440
pretty simple.
We want people basically 60s ish

1568
01:25:23,440 --> 01:25:27,320
without being ageist, lots and
lots of experience in the

1569
01:25:27,320 --> 01:25:30,800
industry and with, with
information and knowledge to

1570
01:25:30,800 --> 01:25:33,920
pass on to to younger or just
anyone.

1571
01:25:33,920 --> 01:25:36,040
Like you don't have to be young
to come to this thing.

1572
01:25:36,040 --> 01:25:40,960
But but it's it's, it's to share
knowledge and to share stories

1573
01:25:40,960 --> 01:25:45,280
and to share the way that things
were done back in the day kind

1574
01:25:45,280 --> 01:25:46,680
of stuff.
Well, look, a lot of these

1575
01:25:46,680 --> 01:25:49,600
people were sort of in their
prime and making this industry

1576
01:25:49,600 --> 01:25:52,280
happen when LDI was founded in
88, you know?

1577
01:25:52,520 --> 01:25:54,360
Yeah.
All those 37 years ago, Yeah.

1578
01:25:54,360 --> 01:25:56,600
They were in their 30s or 40s,
Yeah.

1579
01:25:56,640 --> 01:26:00,720
And making it happen, as Scott
said in that first meeting we

1580
01:26:00,720 --> 01:26:03,200
had like it's these are the
people who really jump started

1581
01:26:03,360 --> 01:26:06,440
the industry that we all work.
In and it's one of the really

1582
01:26:06,440 --> 01:26:09,720
cool things about this industry,
like it's one of the things that

1583
01:26:09,720 --> 01:26:12,800
like I have so many pinch me
moments doing my my podcast

1584
01:26:12,800 --> 01:26:16,920
because people are telling me
how the industry started, like I

1585
01:26:16,920 --> 01:26:23,600
was there when it happened, you
know, and so, you know, real

1586
01:26:23,600 --> 01:26:26,200
quality people.
You know, we've got some of the

1587
01:26:26,200 --> 01:26:29,080
people who were like the very
first rigging people coming.

1588
01:26:29,080 --> 01:26:32,600
We've got some real foundational
audio people coming.

1589
01:26:32,600 --> 01:26:36,480
We've got some lighting
designers, of course, a couple

1590
01:26:36,480 --> 01:26:40,360
of heavyweight production
managers who are really early

1591
01:26:40,480 --> 01:26:42,520
stage production management
people.

1592
01:26:42,920 --> 01:26:46,640
So, you know, and, and then the
idea will be you'll come in

1593
01:26:46,640 --> 01:26:49,160
there and you're just in a room
with a massive amount of

1594
01:26:49,160 --> 01:26:51,200
knowledge.
And I, I would think a younger

1595
01:26:51,200 --> 01:26:55,040
person coming in especially
would be like, Oh my God, that's

1596
01:26:55,040 --> 01:26:57,960
so and so, Oh my God, I've read
about that person.

1597
01:26:57,960 --> 01:27:02,000
Oh my God, So I'm so looking
forward to it.

1598
01:27:02,000 --> 01:27:04,080
I think it's gonna be a blast.
I think it's gonna be fun.

1599
01:27:04,320 --> 01:27:06,880
Yeah, I think the hardest thing
is gonna be keeping it to 90

1600
01:27:06,880 --> 01:27:08,920
minutes.
You know, that's gonna be the

1601
01:27:08,920 --> 01:27:11,680
tough part.
That's gonna be what's hard, but

1602
01:27:12,360 --> 01:27:14,360
because people are just gonna be
getting started and going.

1603
01:27:14,440 --> 01:27:16,760
Well, I think they can just sit
and they can probably stay a

1604
01:27:16,760 --> 01:27:19,560
while and talk if they want to.
Yeah, of course, of course.

1605
01:27:19,560 --> 01:27:21,760
Or meet at the circle bar.
Later, right?

1606
01:27:22,120 --> 01:27:23,520
Are you doing the circle bar
again this year?

1607
01:27:23,520 --> 01:27:25,200
We are, absolutely.
Yeah.

1608
01:27:25,200 --> 01:27:27,160
We're gonna have the circle bar.
We're gonna have the battle the

1609
01:27:27,160 --> 01:27:29,720
Busk again.
You missed it last year, but it

1610
01:27:29,720 --> 01:27:31,440
was great.
And the last shit moved to the

1611
01:27:31,440 --> 01:27:34,000
show floor.
It's a big stage at the far end

1612
01:27:34,000 --> 01:27:38,320
of the Circle bar and we opened
it up this year.

1613
01:27:38,320 --> 01:27:40,840
So it's free to like the young
kids who want to learn how to

1614
01:27:40,840 --> 01:27:43,840
busk either on the lighting
consoles that are there or the

1615
01:27:43,840 --> 01:27:46,640
Pixara Media servers.
And then they come together and

1616
01:27:46,640 --> 01:27:49,080
they do the lighting in the
video and they don't agree.

1617
01:27:49,200 --> 01:27:50,880
Just it's really, it's really
clever.

1618
01:27:51,080 --> 01:27:53,440
Well, if I could make a
suggestion, just get more

1619
01:27:53,440 --> 01:27:55,960
bartenders will you?
Because God, their minds are

1620
01:27:55,960 --> 01:27:58,560
brutal.
I'll tell Jesse.

1621
01:27:58,760 --> 01:28:00,160
Brutal.
I'll tell Jesse, yeah.

1622
01:28:00,880 --> 01:28:05,920
Or you know, what you could do
is you could have like a, a line

1623
01:28:05,920 --> 01:28:09,440
cutting pass.
So you could have like VIP

1624
01:28:09,480 --> 01:28:13,920
bartenders that, you know, if
you pay $200 for the whole

1625
01:28:13,920 --> 01:28:17,760
duration of the show, you get to
go to that line cutting.

1626
01:28:17,880 --> 01:28:20,920
Line.
And and the money goes to

1627
01:28:20,920 --> 01:28:22,880
charity or something.
Behind the scenes.

1628
01:28:22,880 --> 01:28:25,440
Charity being Quest X of course.
Well, no, it couldn't go to

1629
01:28:25,440 --> 01:28:27,480
behind the scenes.
I'm just joking.

1630
01:28:27,560 --> 01:28:30,920
We have a run that goes for
behind the scenes, a little 5K

1631
01:28:31,160 --> 01:28:34,920
marathon on Sunday morning.
That's another interesting thing

1632
01:28:34,920 --> 01:28:36,560
that if I.
Could run 5K I'd.

1633
01:28:37,080 --> 01:28:38,560
Yeah, me too.
Me too.

1634
01:28:39,080 --> 01:28:42,360
The well, Marion is a runner.
Last year she had a broken foot

1635
01:28:42,360 --> 01:28:44,640
and she was in a boot, so she
didn't do it, but maybe she'll

1636
01:28:44,640 --> 01:28:47,120
do it again this year.
She's actually done like Iron

1637
01:28:47,120 --> 01:28:48,840
Man or Half of Iron.
Man or something?

1638
01:28:48,960 --> 01:28:50,720
She's amazing.
I see her pictures.

1639
01:28:50,720 --> 01:28:58,000
But she's not, she's amazing.
But we the, the 5K is a charity

1640
01:28:58,000 --> 01:29:01,000
event for Behind the scenes.
And this is the second year that

1641
01:29:01,000 --> 01:29:03,800
behind the scenes will have
their Wellness lounge at LDL.

1642
01:29:04,400 --> 01:29:09,480
And it's an alcohol free space
where people are safe to talk

1643
01:29:09,480 --> 01:29:13,040
about anything.
And there's organized sessions

1644
01:29:13,040 --> 01:29:16,800
in there that cover everything
from eating well on the road to,

1645
01:29:16,920 --> 01:29:19,960
you know, yoga first thing in
the morning.

1646
01:29:19,960 --> 01:29:23,080
And there's Narcan training and
there's all kinds of good stuff

1647
01:29:23,080 --> 01:29:24,640
that goes on in there.
So very cool.

1648
01:29:25,200 --> 01:29:27,240
Yeah.
That's really a nice addition to

1649
01:29:27,280 --> 01:29:28,840
I just.
Have to remember to bring some

1650
01:29:28,840 --> 01:29:30,680
of those small airline bottles
of vodka.

1651
01:29:32,000 --> 01:29:34,200
Not into the Wellness lounge?
So I can go into the Wellness

1652
01:29:34,200 --> 01:29:35,280
lounge.
And no cocktails.

1653
01:29:35,320 --> 01:29:37,240
No, no, no, no, no.
I'm joking.

1654
01:29:37,240 --> 01:29:38,680
You have your cocktails at the
Circle.

1655
01:29:38,680 --> 01:29:41,840
Bar I'm joking.
I believe it or not, I don't

1656
01:29:41,840 --> 01:29:44,080
drink very much.
You know, it's crazy.

1657
01:29:44,080 --> 01:29:48,720
It's like I I went there to the
circle bar that one time and I

1658
01:29:48,720 --> 01:29:53,640
got trashed with Unger Lighter
and it was just like, man, I

1659
01:29:53,640 --> 01:29:54,640
ain't hanging out with you no
more.

1660
01:29:54,640 --> 01:29:56,800
Not doing that again.
Yeah, yeah.

1661
01:29:56,800 --> 01:30:00,800
But it was fun.
So anything else about the show

1662
01:30:00,800 --> 01:30:03,120
this year that's different,
special, unique?

1663
01:30:03,640 --> 01:30:06,400
Well, we've added a bunch of new
things.

1664
01:30:06,560 --> 01:30:10,440
One of the new things is a 2 day
intensive for riggers that's

1665
01:30:10,440 --> 01:30:15,480
called rigs and it's run by
Tracy Nunnelly and Eric Rouse

1666
01:30:15,880 --> 01:30:19,440
and they have about a dozen
different speakers including

1667
01:30:19,440 --> 01:30:22,560
Bill Sapsis and Elmer Vice and
all the the riggers.

1668
01:30:22,840 --> 01:30:25,200
So that's a really nice addition
and we're hoping that that'll

1669
01:30:25,200 --> 01:30:30,040
become like a big annual rigging
event at LDI.

1670
01:30:30,400 --> 01:30:33,560
And then they're doing some kind
of rigging training on the floor

1671
01:30:33,560 --> 01:30:36,240
that's called Spratt training.
It's like working at height

1672
01:30:37,240 --> 01:30:39,600
certification training.
That'll be right on the show

1673
01:30:39,600 --> 01:30:43,240
floor with a company that oddly
enough is called RIG, I think

1674
01:30:43,240 --> 01:30:45,000
it's called Rigging
International Group.

1675
01:30:46,280 --> 01:30:49,200
And there's a lot of media
server training.

1676
01:30:50,040 --> 01:30:54,320
Some of you might remember Nigel
Sadler, who was with Green Hippo

1677
01:30:54,320 --> 01:30:57,680
for a long time, who's coming
back to LDI with a new company

1678
01:30:57,680 --> 01:31:00,920
called Hive, which is a new
media server that launched in

1679
01:31:00,920 --> 01:31:03,800
the UK, has done a lot of
international products.

1680
01:31:04,000 --> 01:31:10,680
There's also Green Hippo, Viv,
Disguise, Watch out.

1681
01:31:10,680 --> 01:31:13,760
So there's a lot of media server
stuff going on, which is great.

1682
01:31:15,360 --> 01:31:18,640
I think, you know, immersive
environments and creating all

1683
01:31:18,640 --> 01:31:22,200
that stuff in disguise and notch
and all that stuff is like the

1684
01:31:22,200 --> 01:31:23,680
future.
Bob will tell you all about it

1685
01:31:23,680 --> 01:31:25,200
when you talked.
About it, yeah, yeah, no, I'm

1686
01:31:25,200 --> 01:31:25,960
looking.
Forward to my.

1687
01:31:26,000 --> 01:31:29,200
Bob Talk.
He's really our techno go to guy

1688
01:31:29,200 --> 01:31:31,280
Bob.
Bob is going to be mad at me

1689
01:31:31,360 --> 01:31:35,040
because by the time he hears
this, it'll already be fixed.

1690
01:31:35,040 --> 01:31:38,840
But I had to bump his podcast
that we were recording next week

1691
01:31:38,840 --> 01:31:42,560
because I'm coming up to New
York to see the to see.

1692
01:31:42,880 --> 01:31:45,440
The David Gilmour.
Yeah, the David Gilmour, Mark

1693
01:31:45,440 --> 01:31:47,960
Brickman thing, so.
Is that at Madison Square

1694
01:31:47,960 --> 01:31:50,440
Garden?
It is, yeah, a bunch of shows.

1695
01:31:50,440 --> 01:31:52,880
Like I think, I don't know, 5 or
6 shows or something.

1696
01:31:52,880 --> 01:31:56,600
I'm going, I'm going on the 6th,
but I think it's 4th, 5th, 6th,

1697
01:31:56,720 --> 01:31:58,080
10th.
I don't know.

1698
01:31:58,440 --> 01:32:00,920
It's a bunch of dates.
It's like 5 dates or something.

1699
01:32:01,320 --> 01:32:03,560
They're in.
I think they're in LA right now

1700
01:32:03,760 --> 01:32:07,080
for a few dates and then.
It looks amazing from the

1701
01:32:07,080 --> 01:32:10,880
pictures I've seen.
I just, I love what he did with

1702
01:32:10,880 --> 01:32:13,320
the whole bus thing that he's
doing.

1703
01:32:13,320 --> 01:32:16,480
You know, he's using a stylus on
a screen and just going like

1704
01:32:16,480 --> 01:32:19,440
this and that controls what's
happening with the lighting.

1705
01:32:20,160 --> 01:32:21,800
Live what?
Product is that.

1706
01:32:22,120 --> 01:32:24,320
He created it.
It's called Paint with Light.

1707
01:32:24,320 --> 01:32:27,840
He created it and had some
software engineers build it for

1708
01:32:27,840 --> 01:32:30,560
him.
And and so Mark just said, if

1709
01:32:30,560 --> 01:32:33,400
I'm going to go to go out and do
another show, I want to be able

1710
01:32:33,400 --> 01:32:36,040
to run it.
And I want actually to run it

1711
01:32:36,040 --> 01:32:39,800
like not just hit buttons and
have it trigger macros and

1712
01:32:39,800 --> 01:32:42,720
things like that.
I actually want to, I want to

1713
01:32:42,720 --> 01:32:46,440
control the light.
And he came up with this concept

1714
01:32:46,440 --> 01:32:48,880
and it's just incredible.
It really is incredible.

1715
01:32:49,160 --> 01:32:54,200
Yeah, it's, it's so cool.
But but yeah, so anyways, I was

1716
01:32:54,200 --> 01:32:56,760
supposed to record with Bob, I
think on Wednesday and I'm

1717
01:32:56,760 --> 01:32:58,480
flying on Wednesday, so.
OK.

1718
01:32:59,200 --> 01:33:03,360
So, yeah.
And how do you register for this

1719
01:33:04,000 --> 01:33:06,920
Dining with Dinosaurs?
Thing well you go to the LDI

1720
01:33:06,920 --> 01:33:10,040
website which is WWW.
Don't have to.

1721
01:33:10,040 --> 01:33:14,600
Say that anymore ldishow.com.
Yes, Well, just in case,

1722
01:33:14,600 --> 01:33:20,440
ldishow.com and you you can go
to Reg options.

1723
01:33:20,440 --> 01:33:22,640
There's a button on the top that
says registration options.

1724
01:33:22,640 --> 01:33:24,600
It's green over on the top,
right?

1725
01:33:24,840 --> 01:33:26,920
Yeah.
And when you go to there, you go

1726
01:33:26,920 --> 01:33:30,640
down and look at there's a la
carte add-ons and the dining

1727
01:33:30,640 --> 01:33:33,280
with dinosaurs is one of the a
la carte add-ons.

1728
01:33:33,400 --> 01:33:36,640
And I think it's like 79 bucks.
Yeah, 79 bucks, but it's great.

1729
01:33:36,760 --> 01:33:39,600
Yeah, yeah.
No, I mean it'll be thousands of

1730
01:33:39,600 --> 01:33:42,160
dollars worth of conversation.
Information.

1731
01:33:42,240 --> 01:33:44,240
Absolutely.
Absolutely.

1732
01:33:45,400 --> 01:33:47,760
Well, I completely appreciate
you doing this.

1733
01:33:47,760 --> 01:33:50,520
I've taken too much of your time
already and.

1734
01:33:50,520 --> 01:33:52,400
No, it's great.
I love talking with you.

1735
01:33:52,400 --> 01:33:53,760
It's great fun.
Fun.

1736
01:33:53,840 --> 01:33:57,600
I, you know, Sarah told me right
before we recorded this that

1737
01:33:57,600 --> 01:33:59,520
this was your first time ever on
the podcast.

1738
01:33:59,520 --> 01:34:02,160
I'm like, no way.
But you know, I'm thinking of

1739
01:34:02,160 --> 01:34:05,280
all those times that we did, we
make events, things.

1740
01:34:05,280 --> 01:34:08,240
Or the exactly or.
Just those Zoom calls, those

1741
01:34:08,240 --> 01:34:12,360
weekly Zoom calls, and.
A podcast together with four

1742
01:34:12,360 --> 01:34:14,800
wall one time.
Did you do one of those?

1743
01:34:14,800 --> 01:34:18,240
No, I did during the pandemic,
they were doing groups of people

1744
01:34:18,440 --> 01:34:23,120
like little podcasts from 4
wall, like 4 lighting designers

1745
01:34:23,120 --> 01:34:25,440
for this, for that.
And I did a couple of those.

1746
01:34:25,440 --> 01:34:29,320
But well, we make events was
great.

1747
01:34:29,320 --> 01:34:31,440
I mean, what a what an
experience that was.

1748
01:34:31,440 --> 01:34:34,720
Oh my God, Marcel, you really
started something and I missed

1749
01:34:34,720 --> 01:34:36,160
those Zooms.
You know, that was an

1750
01:34:36,160 --> 01:34:39,000
interesting group of people.
Yeah, no, I'm gonna, I'm gonna

1751
01:34:39,000 --> 01:34:40,880
try and bring those back in a
that.

1752
01:34:40,880 --> 01:34:43,160
Would be.
Great in a weird way at some.

1753
01:34:43,160 --> 01:34:45,400
It would be great.
I reconnected with people.

1754
01:34:45,400 --> 01:34:47,680
I met new people.
Yeah, You know, I've been

1755
01:34:47,800 --> 01:34:50,240
friends with a lot of them on
Facebook and watch what they're

1756
01:34:50,240 --> 01:34:53,680
doing and, you know.
Well, you know, so my sister

1757
01:34:53,680 --> 01:34:57,560
works for me, and my sister came
on those Zoom calls because

1758
01:34:57,560 --> 01:34:59,600
there was nothing really else to
do, right?

1759
01:34:59,600 --> 01:35:02,600
And she got to know so many
people.

1760
01:35:02,600 --> 01:35:05,800
She's got so many friends in our
industry now that she got to

1761
01:35:05,800 --> 01:35:07,040
know.
Through those zooms, tell her to

1762
01:35:07,040 --> 01:35:08,600
come to LDI.
Yeah.

1763
01:35:09,240 --> 01:35:11,000
Where does she live?
She's been a couple times in

1764
01:35:11,000 --> 01:35:11,560
Calgary.
OK.

1765
01:35:12,320 --> 01:35:15,680
Yeah, she lives in Calgary, but
no, she's been a couple times

1766
01:35:15,680 --> 01:35:17,560
and really enjoyed it.
I don't think she's coming this

1767
01:35:17,560 --> 01:35:22,360
year, but but yeah, so I want to
do that again.

1768
01:35:22,360 --> 01:35:24,440
It's funny cuz Sarah was asking
me this morning.

1769
01:35:24,440 --> 01:35:27,800
We had our meeting and she said
what, what should we do for a

1770
01:35:27,800 --> 01:35:32,120
special New Year's podcast
because it's on one of our

1771
01:35:32,120 --> 01:35:34,880
recording days or whatever.
And we were talking about doing

1772
01:35:34,880 --> 01:35:39,520
a drunken live stream on New
Year's Day and, you know, like

1773
01:35:39,520 --> 01:35:42,920
the old Zoom things.
And so I don't know.

1774
01:35:43,320 --> 01:35:45,880
That'll be fun.
Yeah, it's always fun when it

1775
01:35:45,880 --> 01:35:48,560
involves some sort of drinking.
Right.

1776
01:35:49,080 --> 01:35:51,160
All right, my friend, I will see
you in a month.

1777
01:35:51,200 --> 01:35:52,600
I will.
Talk to you soon.

1778
01:35:52,600 --> 01:35:54,000
A month and 1/2?
Yep.

1779
01:35:54,000 --> 01:35:56,480
Oh my God, it's soon.
Yes, it's a month.

1780
01:35:56,760 --> 01:36:01,040
Yeah, it's a month and a week.
Yeah, it'll be fun all right.

1781
01:36:01,040 --> 01:36:04,040
Great, see you later in Vegas.
Yep, thanks.