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.

Progress At The Tent

Monday was a long, long day.  By the end of the night the morning's wake up adventure was last week.  Mia is actually still at work doing lighting cues at the tent.  Mia and Kate from Shanghai Circus had to spend a good chunk of the day doing radio appearances, so working late was a necessity.  Here are some pictures from today's work getting ready for the show . . . we'll have two shows a day for 10 days starting July 2nd.  Who am I kidding, you're here to see pictures.  Let's get on with it!

A reprise of the view from our hotel room.  Note now the blue rectangle in the distance.  That is our tent.  To the right is a two story driving range that I will examine more closely later this week.  Strictly for research purposes - the sacrifices I make for science.

Morning.  Our gear still has not arrived but the tent is coming together.  The stage is largely complete and some of the lights are hung.  That's Mia in the center.

The risers for the audience are halfway finished . . . and so is the skin of the tent.

The gear has arrived.  Late, a couple of pieces damaged, but all of it is here.  Poor Jeff (the rigger). For reasons we could not understand, the shippers made him open and inventory everything in his three cases of gear.  Lengthy delay followed by pointless, frustrating tedium is the breakfast of champions, Jeff.  Dig in!  Ah, we can laugh about it now.

The "ceiling" is under construction and some chairs have arrived.  In the foreground is the table/platform for the Rola-Bola act.  The two women in the picture are our media coordinators, and are about to take Mia off for a series of radio interviews.

Me and Atot, a member of the technical crew.  We are working with a lot of good people here.  I'll get pictures of as many of the gang as I can.  In the background, we still haven't gotten the backdrop quite right.

The future entrance to the venue.  In the background, some almost surreal towers of the financial district. A very interesting view at day and night, reminiscent of the Emerald City.  Due to the hazy weather, the buildings take on a washed out appearance in the day - almost looks photoshopped.

Night.  Lighting and sound systems are largely in place.  Both backdrops are hung and the tent is nearly complete.

Danny, Mario, Jeff, Carly and Ivan preparing for tech rehearsal.

Andrei testing out the space for his German Wheel act.  The Boss observes, pensive.

Late Night

I mentioned previously that lighting is key to the show.  Mia and Ferry (the lighting engineer) have to write the lighting "cues" for the entire show and program them into the lighting system as pre-sets.  Each act and each transition can have multiple lighting cues.  There are huge trusses of lights in front of, behind, and to either side of the stage (more on that later) and 4 articulated robot lights at each corner of the stage to light performers from below.  Lastly, there are two follow spots at the rear of the venue that are manually operated.

Each lighting cue depends on stage placement and must not only make the performance look good, but also  has to be checked out with the artist to ensure the lights are not blinding or create distracting shadows, etc.  It is a very time consuming process and requires the entire cast to be present for most of it.  After everybody goes home, Mia and Ferry still have a lot of work to do.

Mia and Ferry are testing some lights.

Most of the lights on the trusses are the big colored gels but there are also these high intensity articulated robot lights.  I am sure there is a shorter and more appropriate name for them, but I am equally sure I don't know what it is.  I do dig these lights though.  They can be programmed for some really cool effects.  Here they are running through some wave and strobe effects, and the haze from the fog machines allows the lighting engineer to see precisely where the lights are targeted.

For Mia it's been an 18 hour day - less for me, as I cannot help with the technical end of the lighting.  When I was hanging my shirt before bed, I noticed we picked up a hitchhiker on the walk home.  I put him on one of the plants in the floor lobby.  Godspeed, my clingy little friend.

Local Fauna

Now, understand that we are in a big city - Jakarta is home to nearly 8.5 million people and is the 12th largest city in the world.  But with a park immediately across the street, and knowing how much bio-diversity lurks beyond the concrete jungle in the actual jungle, I had been hoping to see a few critters.

Up until tonight, the only animals I have seen have been cats, house sparrows and a dove.  Sparrows are everywhere.  Anywhere the British have been, you will find sparrows hundreds of years after the Brits have been booted out.  But tonight I spotted a bat, a local toad (pictured below) and a lizard of some sort.
This toad made my night.

There are many stray cats.  I was saddened today to see what appeared to be a dead kitten in the remains of a trash fire.

 

It turned out the kitty was alive, though clearly down on its luck.

I've decided the kitten bears a striking resemblance to Scut Farkas.

You'll be glad to know that the kitten's squalid existence is not entirely grim.  He is camped out right across from a security checkpoint, and it looks like the guards have been feeding it.  But he still looks like Scut Farkas.

"Cry for me, crybaby!" taunted the Farkas cat.