Update

Almost 8 months after my last post, I'm back. So before we start celebrating let's get some base things settled:

1. I still work at CCBC
2. I now have a new boss. Yes, B.I.L.L. is gone, and the new guy is kind of awesome!


So yes, I just thought I'd give everyone a quick update. Hopefully I'll be back sometime. Peace!

Nate B.

Wish I Could

Last night, I said something I never thought I'd ever be able to say again...I love my job. No, I don't love the one at CCBC (I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I've worked at a Community College Theatre for the last four years...and I hate it), that one is just a toilet waiting to be flushed. I got a new job. A better one. I now work at Jim Rouse Theatre for The Performing Arts. The theatre space is so amazing! It was originally built as a dance space, which lends itself more to down and side light than front light, which actually works pretty well since you don't have alot of shadows. The space is mainly rented out, most regularly by the Columbia Orchestra which had a concert last night that I had the pleasure of watching from both backstage and the booth. I got to hear a superb performance of "Someone To Watch Over Me" sung by Theresa Brickham.

This theatre has all the technical equipment I could ever dream of working with: a Yamaha 02R96v2 digital mixing console (which I got to work with and learn alot about last night), a High End WholeHog 3 console *squeals like a teenage girl meeting Justin Timberlake* (actually, I'd probably squeal if I met Justin Timberlake anyway), 2 Studio Spot 575 CMY Zoom, motorized trusses, and even a competent Technical Director who is constantly teaching me things. Last night was only my third day, and already I'm being treated like family, and I've actually been given responsibility, not just thrown at the bottom of the food chain, which makes me happy. Everyone working there is also very nice, probably because they're all so well paid. I know I was willing to put up with a lot more crap there from patrons than I would be over at CCBC.

So, you're asking, what do I wish I could do...the answer is this: I wish I could quit my job at CCBC. Seriously! The problem is, the job a JRT is only part time with very irregular hours. For example, the next time I work is going to be mid-March. Therefore, I still need to put up with my CCBC job for a while till I can get a third job and drop that one, or until JRT realizes they want me on full time (I wish!). Either way, CCBC has stopped being an amusingly bad job, and I think it's high time I moved on...i wish I could!

-Nate

Time to Quit?

So this semester has been incredibly busy for both Nate and I and Nate has finally admitted after much beating around the bush that he simply doesn't have the time to post any more and I finally stopped beating around the bush and admitted that I was being incredibly lazy about upkeeping my various online tomfoolery.

So I will be posting once more on the regular. Sorry guys. For full and complete updates on my undertakings I'll have other links up shortly.

As for CCBC I'm concerned that my employment there may be hanging by a thin thread.

I'm not going to get fired off course. I think I have finally come to understand that all this job gives me is anger and grief. I think I'll quit.

I was totally surprised too! Honestly I show up for work late every time I am scheduled to work ( that is if I show up at all) I gripe and complain, not so much because I hate being there but mostly because once I discovered I could get away with it I couldn't resist doing it.

Today Bill complained at me about painting lines on this set we're working on crooked. I told him that if we had new brushes or even better brushes then maybe the majority of the paint work would get done quicker and be better looking. He explained to me that the reason we can't have nice things is because people would just mistreat it.

I countered that that was not a reasonable explanation and that he should take the time to hire and train people who don't know how to use things to use them correctly then our things would be taken care of. Keeping crappy equipment so stupid people can build ugly sets makes no sense. Instead of training these people so they would know what they were doing with good equipment which will make BETTER looking sets.

He tried to argue with me some more but after countering all his points and possibly angrily diatribing about how he constantly has us do things that with proper and non broken equipment we could do better and fast and with more motivation and he angrily told me he didn't feel like having this conversation.

That's all well and good, I understand that he is my boss and that I am the employee , I also understand that he probably knows a lot more about a lot of things than I do but I also expect as an employee to be given the proper tool sto get the job done and that I have a few rights too.

LIke the right to having a steady schedule for a show. For steady hours. I shouldn't be getting paid every three or five or two or four weeks a 16$ check. with my lunch taken out of it even though I never got one. To be told nothing from my TD about a show i'm required to tech and then not having an idea what I'm to do there and flying every show I work by the seat of my pants. There are just so many terrible things wrong with this place. I used to giggle about how I'd blog about how terrible it is but I honestly don't feel I can even keep the charade of enjoying being on the campus any more.

It is just so dreadfully awful.

I'll decide what I want to do another day but at least now I feel like I vented a bit. I know no one I complain to at CCBC cares at all.

Example: At UMBC upper level students help teach numerous lower level students how to properly use tools and build things. In future semesters this practice continues. The shop is neat and orderly all things have a place. The T.D fully answers all questions and doesn't disappear after assigning you a task. Everything is planned out, discussed before any actual construction is built.

At CCBC there are no theatre tech students upper or lower level everyone who works there is a volunteer or a temp hourly paid by the college. Things are never completely put away and objects are continuously being stolen "borrowed" or simply broken and lost. The T.D doesn't know how to weld, to follow a construction plate build a platform with even legs or even explain anything remotely well. The plans for construction are dubious at best. Bill frequently assigns you a task, a single task then disappears for long moments before reappearing to tell you the next thing he wants you to do before vanishing more.