May 2 4 Stories

As all of you know, its May 2 4 weekend, so you know what that means, drinking if you drink, and partying if you party. Post all your crazy stories here, at the official May 2 4 Story post.

Grease

Early last Monday morning I was sitting in my first period math class. Its a grade 11 class so I dont really know anyone in it, when all of a sudden Scott Farley approached me. “Would you be interested in doing lights for the Grease production?”. I dont know whether it was the T3’s from getting my wisdom teeth pulled, or the fact that it was a Monday morning, or maybe some unseen factor that I still cant comprehend;

But I said yes.

He informed me that I would have to be willing to give up most of the next week of my life to this thing. I agreed, thinking he was exaggerating. So later that day during design, Marc informed me that he was approached to be the sound technician for the event, and that we had quite a practice schedule. I never got a schedule so he showed me his, and that was when I realized what exactly I had gotten myself into.

Thurs. May 1 1 3:30 - 8
Sun. May 4 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Mon. May 5 6 - 10
Tues. May 6 6 - 10
Wed. May 7 Performances the entire day
Thurs. May 8 6 - 10 Performance
Fri. May 9 6 - 10 Performance
Sat. May 10 6 - 10 Performance
Sun. May 11 1 - 5 Performance

Now those dont sound so terrible, but I was one of the tech guys so I was required to come early to help set up the sound equipment with Marc Schubert, which was a massive undertaking. And we were never ever on time. Most of the nights I was there 5 - 12, and needless to say I was very sleep deprived most of the week.

So Wednesday rolled around and it was time for the first performance, there was alot of anticipation in the cast and crew. I mean, it was only a bunch of little elementary school kids and everybody knows they aren’t actual people yet, so it was like a practice with little people. But regardless it was considered a performance and that made the actors pretty nervous, seeing as it was their first time doing the play infront of a crowd. It started off a little shaky, mostly because everyone was reading their lines ridiculously fast and you weren't able to understand them, and the mics were a little sketchy. But Marc quickly got those to work, so it was just the actors. It went off pretty well, a definite improvement over the practices.

So we got Wednesday over with, it was more of a tech practice if anything. Then Thursday came, opening night. I was sitting up on my balcony with my spartan laser waiting for the crowds to come in. All of a sudden it got really loud and people just began pouring into the gym. It was pretty intimidating. Im not gona lie. This was the worst performance of them all. The singing was all off, the lines were fragmented and not fluid at all, and there was no drummer! It was just overall disappointing, but I wrote it off as nervousness. But of course the lighting was spot-on.

Friday came and I was ready for another train wreck. Fortunately for everyone involved it went off surprisingly well. There was a few issues with mics being turned off during scenes, but that was a pretty minor issue. Other then that it was pretty good. Especially the lights.

I slept in like a motherfucker on Saturday, getting up at about 2. I was kind of late showing up for the performance, and whilst warming up my spotlight catastrophe struck! The spotlight wouldn't change sizes. All I heard was a small jingling noise, like a coin falling on the ground or something, come from inside of the light. The light was fucked. It was at the max size it could go, and it being so soon to the start of the show there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. I decided I should just go with it, and work the focus as hard as possibly to change the size as much as it would let me. This show was soooooo much better then the Thursday one, the singing was almost spot on and the lines were much much much better. I was pretty impressed at the amount they improved. And just like that it was over for the first cast. As usual the lighting was stellar, even with the broken spotlight.

I woke up in my bed, which was strange because I thought I was spending the night at Danielle’s house. I laid there for awhile trying to figure out what exactly happened the night before. All I knew is I had a ridiculous hangover, and it was noon, so I got up, got ready, took some Advil, and was on my way to the last performance. This was by far the best performance of them all, the cast seemed very comfortable with the audience and their lines, sometimes improvising which I was impressed by because it actually seemed to fit the context of the play. The singing was awesome, except the last song which was never good, but it wasn't nearly as bad as before. We even got a special guest appearance by Mr.North, who took on the role of Johnny Casino, complete with curly-haired wig. And then, it was over. I invited everyone to come to Kels to have a celebratory dinner, but it was mothers day and everyone was busy. So it ended up just being my and my awesome lighting double Ellen, who was working the stage lights.

All in all I would say it was an amazing bunch of performances, and the work they put in defiantly showed, except for the Thursday show.

Share what you thought of it in the comments.

Super lame GTA launch story

Now, I don't really consider myself a huge GTA fan. In fact, I have never really liked the games. I found them ass ugly to play, full of glitches, and could never get engrossed in the storyline, I always just ended up using cheats to get the tank and pwn everything in my way. But this one seemed different, from all the videos and reviews they have seemed to have perfected the GTA formula, so I decided to give it a try, and even found myself buying into the massive hype machine.


Monday, April 28th;

I decided I was going to go to blockbuster on Tuesday morning, because I saw on a poster that if you trade in four games, you get GTAIV free! How could I go wrong, so I asked around and Cody and Kyle said they would come with me. Cody had a pre-order at wal-mart for his copy, so we decided to go there after blockbuster. I went home and chose about 8 games, just to be safe. They were the shittiest, oldest gamecube games I had, and after reading the fine print for the trade in I was convinced they would get me the much sought after prize.


Tuesday, April 29th;

Yes, the day was upon the world.

I woke up to the radio describing lines in front of most major retailers in anticipation for the game, I was glad I had a chance to get it before the after-school rush. So I got up and did all the usual morning jazz, and then I got in the car and went to pick up the Krolikowski girls. We arrived at the school and I decided math was not necessary on this particular day. So me and Monica went to Tim Hortons and then to Jon's house to waste time until second period, and the epic road trip to Blockbuster. We arrived at school and went to the caf and talked with Isaac and Rob about what their strategy was to get the game, and then the bell rang. Cody arrived very quickly wearing some glasses that made him look like a queer. After a short search we found Kyle, and then we were off. Everyone was clearly very excited. We all hopped in the Beetle and sped off towards Brantford blaring some Iron Maiden. After a short drive and much talk about killing hookers and whatnot we arrived at Blockbuster. So we walked in, saw a lady with a box of GTA’s and I went up to her and set down my massive stack of games. After some smooth talking I convinced her that my name was Sandra Coté, because only the cardholder can trade games so I had to make it so it was my name. After that close call she scanned my games to make sure they were eligible for the trade in thinger, and then. The biggest bullshit EVER. “ I’m sorry sir but we can only give you 15$ off the regular price with these 8 games”

Yeah,

I was pissed.

I told her that was bullshit and grabbed my games, promptly leaving the store whilst giving it the finger. So then we put some Deathklok in the cd player, and continued to wal-mart, headbanging like scene kids.

When we arrived at wal-mart we made our way to the electronics section, and presented Cody’s pre-order to the sales lady, she checked his age by asking him if he was 17 and gave him a weird look. While the debit transaction was going through she asked her cohort what was in the special edition the of the game. And I quote, “ Theres a bag thing, a little book thing, a map thing, a cd type thing, the game, and a box thing, you know, to put all the dead hookers in.”

Cody continued to rub it in my face that I couldn't get it, and so I kicked him in the face and now he is even uglier.

The end.