Product Endorsement

I searched in vain for Gold Bond and finally gave up.  A worker in one of the stores offered to help.  i said forget, I've looked everywhere and I can't find it.  When she persisted I somehow explained what I needed and she directed me to this.  The local equivalent, with much snappier packaging.  In muggy weather, this stuff saves lives.  Feel the tingle!

Dress Rehearsal and Opening Gala

July 1st was a big day.  Dress rehearsal at 10:00am, which was attended by several hundred orphans as a charity event.  A generator blowout and fire at the Shanghai tent led to some serious electrical issues for us:  most of the show went on without air conditioning, and we had some lighting problems backstage as well.  Now you might think that air conditioning is a luxury and not a big deal, and you would be wrong.

It is hotter and more humid inside than outside in the absence of A/C due to the greenhouse effect of the sun baking the tent.  But even more importantly, the lights onstage kick some serious heat.  The performers on stage are doing some strenuous activity, and for many of the acts a firm grip is important.  We improvised a tube to bring air conditioning through the rigging truss for the flying acts and generally to help cool off center stage.  But with the generator out, everyone is sweating profusely.

The Gala
The Governor of Jakarta, executives from our sponsors and the local organizer attended a Gala ceremony tonight with local celebrity announcers and select performances from Cirque Le Masque and from China Shanghai Circus.  At the tent gusts were greeted by couples in traditional dress.  I had a nice conversation with these two.  Later I met another of the women who studied near Chicago.  Everybody has been very friendly.

I ran into our follow spot operator Adif and his friend outside.

With the Shanghai Circus management and their translator Ayu.

A traditional dance number.

The Governor came to kick off the First Annual Indonesian International Circus Festival.

And so did the news media.

From left to right, the performers who entertained the Gala guests: Andrei (German Wheel), Samantha, Bianca, Lara (dancers) the Chinese hand-to-hand and flying acts, Elisabeth (dancer) Weego (Weego) Rachel, Laura, and Danny (cube juggling).

There were nothing but blue skies ahead!

(Todd, Greg and Anthony you might recognize that phrase from Dermot's AP Press essay).

Security

Security is a big deal here.  I mentioned there was a small army of workers putting the festival sites together.  There is also a small army of private security, Jakarta Polisi (state police), and well, Army here to provide security.  And for good reason:  in 2009, the Ritz Carlton and Marriott hotels in Jakarta were bombed.

Our hotel has constant security out front.  Every vehicle that pulls up to the hotel is stopped by two guards who give a cursory inspection and use a long handled mirror to inspect the undercarriage.  Taufik (below) is one of the guards.  At the door, there are typically two more guards and a walk through detector.

Just outside the fence of the festival is a police barracks.  Sometimes you'll see 30-40 of them doing drills.  We've had to walk through their space quite a bit but they've been friendly.

Every day, 30 minutes before each show we get a security sweep.  Several guards come through checking for explosives with a visual inspection, wands, and a sniffing dog.

Anyway, it's good to know that people are looking out for us.

Random Notes

Walking back to the venue.  I'm always struck by this view.

One of the main contributors to the smog, besides motorized transport, is the practice of burning landscaping debris and litter.  Some days it can irritate your throat.  These are just grass clippings, but I've smelled burning plastic as well - that can't be good.

The entrance to our tent.  Mia is talking to some of our crew, from left Atot, Bimo, and the two follow spot operators Adif and Rinto.  Bimo is terrific.  A very mellow personality, he has a vintage Rolling Stones shirt for every day of the week.  I would not believe anyone could rock a flannel in 90 degree heat, but he pulls it off.  Bimo's brother studied in the state of Washington.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Circus swag has started popping up.

They have set up giant air conditioners on platforms around the venue to keep the tent cool.  But with all of this equipment - lights, sound, air conditioning, etc.  Electric is not yet reliable.  Today, the air conditioning is out, and Weego's face can give you an idea of the temperature in the tent.

And what better way to cool off than with an iced coffee. I've already mentioned that the coffee here is to die for.  Just head and shoulders above what I'm used to at home - and we buy good coffee!  I grabbed an iced coffee from a store nearby and was tickled by this handle that they slipped onto my cup.  Not necessary, but nifty.

On To The Embassy

Traveling on a work visa is a little bit different than tourism.  Mia had to do a lot of paperwork before we even left the US, and had our passports stamped with a pretty nifty visa at the Indonesian Consulate.  (Fortunately for Mia the consulate is right in NYC; for the Chinese manager Kate, the nearest consulate was a 2 hour flight from her home.)

Once in Jakarta we had to assemble all of the passports from the group and turn them over to the government for paperwork.  Step two was for all of us to pile onto a bus and get our pictures taken and sign documents at Immigration.  A good opportunity to take some pictures from the bus!

I've noted before that traffic can be treacherous.  For the main arteries, there are pedestrian bridges with ramps that you need to use to cross the highway.

Even with all the pictures, I'm not sure you can truly fathom how many motorcycles and mopeds there are here.  There are swarms of them.  I keep expecting to see traffic accidents, but somehow they manage to share the road.  Also, they drive on the left, British style here.  I would be a nervous wreck if I had to drive here.  I don't even like to drive in Manhattan!

Another statue in my honor.  This is getting embarrassing.

This is a really cool statue/fountain featuring a chariot drawn by horses . . . some of the horses are solid and others are sort of mesh, giving them a skeletal/ethereal appearance.  I found out this is the Arjuna Wijaya Statue, and it was originally sculpted in ceramic before later being recast in bronze.  Click on the first link for a much better picture at Wikipedia.

We also passed the Indonesian National Monument, which like the Washington monument in DC you can ascend internally.  For some reason I can't get that photo to upload, but frankly it wasn't a good shot anyway.  Better to click through on the link.

My battery ran out shortly after.  We did pass through Batavia, the old Dutch colonial part of the city.  Those wily Dutch decided to recreate Amsterdam in Jakarta, digging a number of canals which are still there today, though not exactly swimmable waters.  I'll bet there are some enormous catfish in the bottom of those canals.

Pictures, fingerprints, paperwork, then back on the bus and back to work.  We won't get our travel documents back for a few days.  Kind of a weird feeling as usually you guard your passport with your life while traveling.  But this is standard procedure on for work visa travelers.

AT&T International Service: A Waste Of Time And Money

There are nearly infinite reasons to hate AT&T.  Add to the pile that the AT&T international plan (calling and data) was absolutely useless for us in Jakarta.  I finally cancelled the plan today and we picked up disposable phones to communicate locally.  No email, but at least talk and text let us communicate.  Our AT&T smartphones (BB and iPhone) might as well have been paperweights here.

Most people can simply take out their SIM card and replace it with a local one.  Not AT&T customers!  A tip:  take the money you spend on locking your phones and otherwise putting up walls around your service and instead, use those funds improve your service . . . like every other mobile carrier has been doing for the last several years.  AT&T has slid from 1st to last among major US carriers in recent years . . . and now they get a thumbs down on international service too.  Judging by the T-shirt, I can only assume the person pictured below is another AT&T customer who shares my sentiments.

Today I picked up a cheap Nokia from this shop (below) in a mall packed with little electronics and communications equipment stores.  There were also of course many stalls packed with pirated movies, music and games (see above).  Geek heaven!

 

Catching Up

OK, so I'm going to cheat a bit here.  I'm going to back-date a few posts to catch us up to speed on the action.  (It's July 3rd now, but I'm dating the posts as of when I took the photos.)  We have been very busy, and I can only post from the hotel room . . . which we're not in very often.  On with pictures!

The tent is nearing completion.  Lots of things to work out:  placement for props, wings, ramps and stairs for the stage, marking out stage positions, preparing the backstage area, firing up the A/C, sound systems, and lighting.  Lighting cues are tremendously important and will keep Mia very busy over the next couple of days.  Because we have day and night shows, some tweaks have to be made to compensate for the difference in sunlight/darkness outside.  My flash makes the tent look darker than it actually is in the tent at mid-day.

Two thousand seats to be placed and (hopefully) filled with delighted audiences.  The black curtains will eventually line the whole tent to help block out sunlight, but enough light still gets in that we can't do one bit with glow-in-the-dark props for the day show.  Too bad, as I really like that piece.  The day crowd gets an alternate segment that the dancers have already rehearsed.

The sound booth.  Lilik is our local sound engineer.  Every act and every transition has music that has to be timed just right.

On the third, outdoor stage is a European group called Cyclown Circus.  Today they had a photo session in our tent.  Really interesting cats and I will have more on them later.  They travel around the world mixing stunts with music, comedy and street performance - and they typically travel around on giant bicycles.  I have never met a group like this before.  Do check out their website.

There is a small army of people . . . actually a fairly large army of people . . . putting this gigantic space into shape for the festival.  The China tent is equal in size to ours, plus a large outside stage of Cyclown and musical performances, plus scores of booths for food, games, and other performances.  And they say an army marches on its stomach.  There are a host of little catering tents like this one set up where the workers get hot meals and traditional Indonesian style coffee (like what I know as Turkish coffee with the coffee "mud" at the bottom of the cup).

I had to make a run out to get dinner for one of the performers who missed lunch and would also not be able to get back to the hotel for dinner.  Moped ride!  That is the China tent in the distance.

While we were at the restaurant it started raining.  Unfortunately my battery died . . . try to imagine me in the next picture with dinner in one hand and an umbrella in the other keeping me and Omar dry.  What I wouldn't give to have that shot.