the danish outpost
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singing in the rain

2001-06-21

feeling kinda how a girl feels

oh, be careful what you ask for... you just might get it.

the Boston Globe Jazz festival has been running this week, with a lot of free concerts as well as a few headliners around town. two of the shows are down at the Pavilion. ken knew i was trying to get to as many of the shows as i could, and asked me if i wanted to work the David Sanborn/Nancy Wilson show Wednesday (today). 'sure, why the hell not?' well, here's why the hell not. i didn't sleep terribly well the night before, and once again found myself operating on about three hours sleep. lemme tell you... i'm starting to understand why sleep deprivation was used as a form of torture in prison camps.

i found myself making the most basic of mistakes. and we're not talking typos. my grasp of the English language seemed to have gone right out the window. i swear, i actually *do* understand verb tenses. and truly, i can complete an entire sentence without stopping and looking like a stunned mullet. and yes, i am capable of walking down the hall and putting one foot in front of the other without tripping over my own feet. repeatedly. man, oh man... that was a brutal day. and that was just at the day job.

so what seemed like a good idea at the time didn't seem like so much fun. but i couldn't really back out. it's a paid gig, and he'd made an effort to get me signed up. i really didn't want to call up my boss at the Pavilion and say 'um, yeah. you know, i'm just beat. can we do this another night?' not exactly good form. i dragged my poor exhausted ass down there... and at least lucked into catching a shuttle that dropped me right at the Pavilion. that was nice.

i got posted in the same area as john and george - two of the sweetest guys. i just adore them. it made it much easier to get thru setup and seating to be working with them. they make me laugh a lot.

all the while we were seating, i kept looking out over the harbor. boats were coming in in scores (including one gorgeous sloop - must have been 50' - just beautiful). and there was a reason for this. i could watch the squall line coming across the water. mind you, the storm warning had been in place since 4 in the afternoon. five minutes before the show, when all thousand or so people were in, the announcement came on. 'severe storm warning. everyone must leave the premises.' not just the tent. the premises. people, this is the waterfront. the working waterfront. there aren't a whole lot of places to find shelter down there. one woman turned to me, as we were all leaving, and said 'do we really have to go?' i know we're supposed to be polite, but i couldn't help myself. 'um. the tent? big fuck off metal frame. and lots of electrical equipment. you do the math.'

here's the beauty part of the whole situation. john and i were both going to leave after we were released (about half way thru the show) and go for Chinese food on the way out. the delay was called, and on the way out, i asked our boss 'so we have to leave too?' 'yeah. come back in an hour.' score! Chinese food right now! and we were still on the clock. sweet.

we got down there before the rain hit, got a table, and got served right away, since the owner knows john and george. funniest thing - while we were waiting for our food, we all glance over at the window, and there's ken, walking down the street with the headphones still on. dude, it's a lightening storm! take off the electronics! not that it would really have made that much of a difference, but it just struck us all as funny. i did end up fairly pissed when we paid up the bill, because someone didn't put in, and a couple of us ended up paying double, just to get the bill paid and us back to work. wanker. i should have left his damn cell phone on the floor, where he dropped it.

so, well fed and rejuvenated by copious lashings of tea, we headed back. now, the show was originally set to run until 11. with a one hour delay, we're looking at midnight. as we're working on mopping down 4000 seats and handing out towels, the shift captain came by and said we would all be free to go at 10. yeah, baby. because caffeine or not, i was still crashing hard.

you know, it was fantastic watching the storm. this was the second big one inside of a week. it's really a thrilling thing to see, i think. the rain was coming down so hard, it was as if someone had opened the hydrant. and the light show was stunning. the lightning was striking every minute or so, just lighting up the sky. it's beautiful, and a humbling thing to watch. and i was grateful to not have been one of the techs on the show. ;)

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