I would post this under festival talk, but it isn't a festival, so here goes ....
They suck!
Ok, that's sort of vague. On a personal note, I've not felt more trodden upon in recent memory.
Here is the sequence of events;
I bought tickets and received an invitation to the friday night gala with a red carpet reception (no mention anywhere of a dress code ... which would have tipped me off and helped me avoid some agony). They were very explicit that the red carpet entrance would begin at 8pm, sharp and insisted that everyone arrive early.
An actress I know was going to be arriving by limo and walking the red carpet. She asked me if I'd be there to take photos.
Wilmington is about a 1 hour drive for me, so I left home at 5pm made a stop at the hotel and arrived at the red carpet thing around 7pm. There was a huge parking lot, but I was told not to park in it, because they wanted to reserve the entire thing for the limos (???) I moved my car to some distant culdesac and walked back, but I had time, so no big deal.
Although I was on the guest list, and I was dressed better than my normal casual attire, I was told to stand outside and out of the main entry way with the rest of the "paparazzi", because this was a "black tie affair".
I just wanted to get the photos of my friend and get the hell out of there, but the red carpet entrance did not start until 8:40pm (so much for being punctual).
They had something like 12,000 Watts of lights setup (as near as I could estimate), and since I'm pretty sure they could not have been on a single breaker, they must have blown the main breaker on the panel (I remember hearing the air conditioner go silent). When the lights went out, I said to the coordinator standing near me, that she should unplug some of the lights before resetting the breaker. She responded, "we have professionals to handle it". Well, you don't need my extensive background in electrical engineering to know that when a breaker gets hot enough to pop, it will not carry it's full load again, until it has cooled down. The "professionals" reset the breaker and the lights stayed on for about 30 seconds. They reset the breaker again, and the lights stayed on for 15 seconds. At that point, they decided to forego the red carpet entry.
Ok, I only drove over 60 miles one way for one thing, and that was a photo of Gina on the red carpet. I had a nice flash and I could take a photo without the fresnels, so I asked if we could just pose Gina on the carpet for one quick photo and I would go.
The answer was "no". I said, you know you could get this show back on track if you unplug a couple of lights and she said, "I'm making an executive decision". (which means, "no", BTW).
So, I drove back home, having accomplished nothing and feeling rather angry.
Is this networking? Do I really need to mingle with these pompous a**holes? Clive, this is all your fault.
Doug
They suck!
Ok, that's sort of vague. On a personal note, I've not felt more trodden upon in recent memory.
Here is the sequence of events;
I bought tickets and received an invitation to the friday night gala with a red carpet reception (no mention anywhere of a dress code ... which would have tipped me off and helped me avoid some agony). They were very explicit that the red carpet entrance would begin at 8pm, sharp and insisted that everyone arrive early.
An actress I know was going to be arriving by limo and walking the red carpet. She asked me if I'd be there to take photos.
Wilmington is about a 1 hour drive for me, so I left home at 5pm made a stop at the hotel and arrived at the red carpet thing around 7pm. There was a huge parking lot, but I was told not to park in it, because they wanted to reserve the entire thing for the limos (???) I moved my car to some distant culdesac and walked back, but I had time, so no big deal.
Although I was on the guest list, and I was dressed better than my normal casual attire, I was told to stand outside and out of the main entry way with the rest of the "paparazzi", because this was a "black tie affair".
I just wanted to get the photos of my friend and get the hell out of there, but the red carpet entrance did not start until 8:40pm (so much for being punctual).
They had something like 12,000 Watts of lights setup (as near as I could estimate), and since I'm pretty sure they could not have been on a single breaker, they must have blown the main breaker on the panel (I remember hearing the air conditioner go silent). When the lights went out, I said to the coordinator standing near me, that she should unplug some of the lights before resetting the breaker. She responded, "we have professionals to handle it". Well, you don't need my extensive background in electrical engineering to know that when a breaker gets hot enough to pop, it will not carry it's full load again, until it has cooled down. The "professionals" reset the breaker and the lights stayed on for about 30 seconds. They reset the breaker again, and the lights stayed on for 15 seconds. At that point, they decided to forego the red carpet entry.
Ok, I only drove over 60 miles one way for one thing, and that was a photo of Gina on the red carpet. I had a nice flash and I could take a photo without the fresnels, so I asked if we could just pose Gina on the carpet for one quick photo and I would go.
The answer was "no". I said, you know you could get this show back on track if you unplug a couple of lights and she said, "I'm making an executive decision". (which means, "no", BTW).
So, I drove back home, having accomplished nothing and feeling rather angry.
Is this networking? Do I really need to mingle with these pompous a**holes? Clive, this is all your fault.
Doug
