gonkulair

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We flew into Santiago, Chile this morning on a charter plane…ah charter plane. We then loaded buses and headed to the hotel, where we had a wonderful breakfast outside beneath the towering Andes. I’m now back in my room, waiting for 12pm to go out and about with the power guys and Dori. I think we’re going to get a car and go do some stuff. We have today and tomorrow off, so I’m looking forward to sleeping in and playing some Battlefield 2 online with some of the other Geek Squad agents. Apparently the server that BFGTech is cobranding with us are doing so well, they gave us another 3 servers and we basically control what goes on them and what we play. Super Duper fun it is. Well, I’ll post a picture from my awesome room as soon as the morning haze dissipates. I can see downtown Santiago and the Andes Mtns surround it all, it’s pretty sweet looking. It’s good to be back in a spanish speaking country, I have a clue how to speak the language, and I’m much more capable at faking it because I know the important words and how to pronounce them. The Portugese in Brazil sort of threw me for a loop, it was really really hard to get something so simple as a Large Chocolate Shake at McDonalds…Hey, I’ve been a good boy, and I’ve lost 13lbs since I left less than a month ago, I deserve it. Besides, I skipped lunch yesterday because I was sleeping, and had worked my butt off loading out. Anyhow, a good day to all and keep reading.

Right now we’re done with Sao Paulo Brazil. The most exciting thing was pretty much when Bob the video guy threw an orange smoke marine flare in the seats after load out. Wait, I take that back, I forgot about the crossload from pallets out of an airplane into the fruit trucks at the airport. That was pretty fun. They’re also shooting an iMax HD 3D version of the show, so we have a whole bunch of extra film equipment to load/crossload. When we picked it up at the airport, they forgot (yah right, more like didn’t care) to send a representative to pack their truck. Mistake for them, we packed the truck tighter than I’m sure they’ve every seen, and when we were done, we put every remaining load bar in the backend of their truck, so they would have to take them all out. We also put some in right next to each other and twisted them around so their handles were together, this makes them even harder to get out. A lesson to be learned, don’t ever piss off a group of roadies then expect them to load your equipment.

On a side note, the rumors of Brazilian beauty and style are true. The people here are extravagant, and “Amazon Beauties” was brought to light by the people (ladies) here. The other crew members did real well, however, I still prefer my foxy brown polish girl, she’s got more charm and she speaks the english good.

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Our two Mexico City shows were the biggest yet. The estimate is around 90,000 people per show. You can tell when you’re here. There are times where the people cheer louder than the sound system, that’s over 110dB. The people here are also very enthusiastic, so they yell and sing along a lot. There are times when they are singing, and rather than hearing the band, you’re hearing the people singing the song, kind of funny. They could sing in the parking lot for free. Today my friends Dennis, Andy and I hijacked a golf cart to go get the ticket stubs from the door, it was hilarious, and we had to drive up on curbs and around blockades to get there, laughing all the way of course. Then, the golf cart started getting slower because we apparently took the one with an almost dead battery. We ended up pushing the thing, with 3 passengers up the hill back to the production compound. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, but the heat and altitude made it a serious task. After the show, we loaded out and I managed the stage hands bringing gear up the huge (100m) ramp. It was long hard work that took a very long time, I was wiped out after we finished, but it was a really great workout. After I had finished I took part in the crossload, which is where we unload the trucks onto air pallets for the planes. Since Mexico City to Sao Paolo, Brazil would take like a week by truck, we fly the gear on cargo planes, 3 of them to be exact. The crossload was a new experience and quite fun as far as work goes. To finish it all off, we were served a catered breakfast right on the tarmac, surrounded by show gear, forklifts and cargo planes.