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.