MOAW

the mother of all weeks just passed by. two sponsor reports, 2 finals. i survived. just. one final was ok, the other was an exercise in sadism. the instructor's sadism that is.
i seem to be on a campus discovery inititative of late. today, went roaming around the ultra cool Krannert Center for Performing arts here in Urbana. If u dont know what it is, check out their website....www.kcpa.uiuc.edu.
Was given a guided tour of the place. here are some cool things that i never knew about krannert center. before anything...i love this place and have seen some great performances here. one more reason why uiuc can be fun (-:
1. krannert was built at a cost of more than 20 million dollars with money from Krannert. it was designed by a u of i alum who also designed portions of the lincoln center. The place was completed in 1969 (whats with that year anyway....moonshot, krannert, woodstock...hmmm...coincidence or something to do with the number)
2. there are spiral staircases around 10 stories high. climbing them is a pain but worth it. nice dizzying view of the stage from up there.
3. most of the halls here have pits. unlike other places, the stage is really sturdy above the pits because they are on screw lifts instead of the leaky hydraulic lifts.
4. got to use a follow spot. these things can be really nasty to focus. the old ones come with these carbon rods that are intensely bright by burn out in 45 minutes. one good reason to have an intermission!! the newer ones come with electric stuff and can get nasty hot. they have these heavy duty fans to keep them cool
5. the heating and ventilating out here is a massive undertaking. each of the halls has its own heating and coooling subsystem.
6. the roofs: most are plaster based like in other places. but instead of patchworks to improve the acoustics (like at the met), these are continuous and provide one of the best listening experiences.
7. safety: sucks. one of these days someone is going to drop something or themseleves from above the stages and wop.... most of the lighting has to be focused after lowering oneself into a precarious position 3 or 4 storeys above the stage. not nice.
8. rappeling: some spots can and are used for rapeling(-:
9. props, costumes: name it ...they got it
10. steinways: there are loads of pianos. there are 3 concert grand newyork steinways. lots of dough!
thats all i remember. nice trip that lasted at least 2 hours.

man...have i been busy (this understatement is my excuse to all those who were supposed to hear from me over the weekend but didnt)
i have been in front of my pc enough hours to give me a backache and the computer overheating. the thing just turned itself off last night.
btw...i have become one of those internet radio freeloaders. netscape, yahoo to name 2 threw me out. yahoo said i have listened to as many as i could in a month. netscape...said cool it..enough of led zep for the day. damn. first kazaa..then such restrictions...how the hell are poor indian graduate students like me going to listen to any music.
listening to: led zep, led zep and more led zep. this is month two of my fascination with this kickass group. favs...all their blues songs...levee breaks, gallows pole and their metal sounding numbers. guys...u got to listen to this.
Lastly...isnt ur day made when a cute girl smiles at u. well...she made me survive this rotten rotten weekend.