Thursday, March 23, 2006
New TownHouse Renovation - Day 24 (3.20.06)
Monday:
Goals: Meet the counter measuring guy at lunch, go to the old place and pack in the evening.
We are starting to get nervous about the packing we need to do, so we decide it is a good idea to take a night away from the place to pack some stuff up.
During my lunch break I met the counter top guy at the new place and watched him measure out the countertop. I have never seen them do this before, and was really impressed with the template that he created. He actually put strips of balsa wood on the base cabinets and cut them to size. Then he hot glue gun'd the whole mess together and had his template. One thing about the measuring is that it made me change my mind on the color. With the samples right there in the kitchen next to the counters and the floor, the gray just looked too plain. There was another color that really popped with everything and still went well with the green in the dining room. The color was Borealis Blue. I called Rena to give her the lowdown and she admits that she liked that color all along, but thought I wouldn't like. Double score!
So I finish with Mr. Cabinet, and head back to work. After work, I high tail it home to pack only to be greeted by Rena with some awesome news.
But first some background. In the L.A. music industry scene, sometimes big named artists will decide to do a small show in a record shop to promote their new album. The problem with this is that they can't do any kind of formal planning or announcement or there will be massive stampedes and problems if word gets out just because of the number of people that just HAVE to be there. So they typically call the store the afternoon of the day they want to do the event to tell them that they want to perform. Word still gets out, but it really cuts down on the mob-factor when planning these things.
So back to the Rena conversation: "Prince is performing at Tower Sunset"
, she says. To translate from record industry speak, this means that "the Artist Currently Known as Prince will be performing at the Tower Records on Sunset Blvd." "Awesome", says I. We are pretty big Prince fans. And his concert that we saw a year and a half ago still rates as one of my number one shows that we have been to. And this was at the sold out Staples Center - a huge crowd. The Tower Records will only hold 150 people according to the fire marshal. So Rena explains that she heard from a colleague that there was rumor of him performing, and we gradually got more detailed information throughout the night (from other work friends) as we packed. She finally calls the manager of the store (another friend) and she confirms it, but says the fire marshal is stopping people at 150 heads, so we had better get down there and she wasn't even sure if we would make it in.
Oh, and here's some pics: Working on Townhouse on Monday
She decides to call someone at Universal Records (Prince's label) to see if we can get some credentials to get in. We get the thumbs up and we are on our way.
He is slated to perform at midnight. It's about 10:30 when we leave and it is raining like a son of a bitch and we need to get to Hollywood via Laurel Canyon Blvd...which is a windy mountain road. So we are strapped for time. Luckily there is a break in the deluge and we make it over the hill in good time, find some primetime parking and ease our way down Sunset Blvd to get to the show.
There is a HUGE line of people waiting to get in. Basically it is a first come, first served type of situation. We call our Universal contact, he meets us outside with two passes, and we walk to the front of the line and into the store. Which is such a sweeeeet feeling. We make our way in, say our hellos and get ourselves set up at the front of the crowd. Rena was at the very front, and I was right behind her. We were about 2 feet from the DJ and the backup singers. Prince ended up being about 10 feet to our left. It was AWESOME. They played a bunch of songs from the new album, and then finished up with some chopped up versions of "Purple Rain" and "1999". I could have used some "7" or some "Sexy MuthaFucka", but beggars can't be choosers. It was hot, crowded and the crowd was totally into it.
At the end of the show, Prince hands his guitar to a guy in the audience (who we later find out is someone Rena knows at Universal Records). It was a pretty sweet show, and our first time seeing a HUGE artist at one of these little late night instores. We got home at 1:30 and went into a coma.
Goals: Meet the counter measuring guy at lunch, go to the old place and pack in the evening.
We are starting to get nervous about the packing we need to do, so we decide it is a good idea to take a night away from the place to pack some stuff up.
During my lunch break I met the counter top guy at the new place and watched him measure out the countertop. I have never seen them do this before, and was really impressed with the template that he created. He actually put strips of balsa wood on the base cabinets and cut them to size. Then he hot glue gun'd the whole mess together and had his template. One thing about the measuring is that it made me change my mind on the color. With the samples right there in the kitchen next to the counters and the floor, the gray just looked too plain. There was another color that really popped with everything and still went well with the green in the dining room. The color was Borealis Blue. I called Rena to give her the lowdown and she admits that she liked that color all along, but thought I wouldn't like. Double score!
So I finish with Mr. Cabinet, and head back to work. After work, I high tail it home to pack only to be greeted by Rena with some awesome news.
But first some background. In the L.A. music industry scene, sometimes big named artists will decide to do a small show in a record shop to promote their new album. The problem with this is that they can't do any kind of formal planning or announcement or there will be massive stampedes and problems if word gets out just because of the number of people that just HAVE to be there. So they typically call the store the afternoon of the day they want to do the event to tell them that they want to perform. Word still gets out, but it really cuts down on the mob-factor when planning these things.
So back to the Rena conversation: "Prince is performing at Tower Sunset"
, she says. To translate from record industry speak, this means that "the Artist Currently Known as Prince will be performing at the Tower Records on Sunset Blvd." "Awesome", says I. We are pretty big Prince fans. And his concert that we saw a year and a half ago still rates as one of my number one shows that we have been to. And this was at the sold out Staples Center - a huge crowd. The Tower Records will only hold 150 people according to the fire marshal. So Rena explains that she heard from a colleague that there was rumor of him performing, and we gradually got more detailed information throughout the night (from other work friends) as we packed. She finally calls the manager of the store (another friend) and she confirms it, but says the fire marshal is stopping people at 150 heads, so we had better get down there and she wasn't even sure if we would make it in.Oh, and here's some pics: Working on Townhouse on Monday
She decides to call someone at Universal Records (Prince's label) to see if we can get some credentials to get in. We get the thumbs up and we are on our way.
He is slated to perform at midnight. It's about 10:30 when we leave and it is raining like a son of a bitch and we need to get to Hollywood via Laurel Canyon Blvd...which is a windy mountain road. So we are strapped for time. Luckily there is a break in the deluge and we make it over the hill in good time, find some primetime parking and ease our way down Sunset Blvd to get to the show.
There is a HUGE line of people waiting to get in. Basically it is a first come, first served type of situation. We call our Universal contact, he meets us outside with two passes, and we walk to the front of the line and into the store. Which is such a sweeeeet feeling. We make our way in, say our hellos and get ourselves set up at the front of the crowd. Rena was at the very front, and I was right behind her. We were about 2 feet from the DJ and the backup singers. Prince ended up being about 10 feet to our left. It was AWESOME. They played a bunch of songs from the new album, and then finished up with some chopped up versions of "Purple Rain" and "1999". I could have used some "7" or some "Sexy MuthaFucka", but beggars can't be choosers. It was hot, crowded and the crowd was totally into it.
At the end of the show, Prince hands his guitar to a guy in the audience (who we later find out is someone Rena knows at Universal Records). It was a pretty sweet show, and our first time seeing a HUGE artist at one of these little late night instores. We got home at 1:30 and went into a coma.
# posted by Tony Starr @ 12:41 AM 
