TravelStream™ news feed for member showme on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/showme en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:39:43 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/41/1246933245/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/41/1246933245/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/41/1246933245/tpod.html Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:39:43 -0400 Stillman Theater Wins European Living Statue Championship in Belgium!

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Lommel, Limburg, Belgium

I went to Belgium and won the European Living Statue Chamionships! I certainly wasn't the most silent or well-costumed living statue, but I'm sure I was the funniest. The festival/contest had almost 50 statues from around Europe, and all prizes were decided purely by the audience vote, without a jury. My unique street show must have made them laugh and cheer the most. I had an excellent time and met a lot of other really good statues. Afke, Jordi, Fransisco, Patrick, Jürgen, Minko, Robin, Rocco and many, many more....After the event a few of us travelled together to Amsterdam, one of my favourite cities in Europe. I stayed a couple of nights before returning home. Amsterdam is totally vibrant all the time, or at least in summer. Bicycles and trams fly through the streets while chess is played, cafes are filled, buskers and artists ply their trade and museums and parks are filled with culture, inspiration and creativity. I've promised myself I'll visit Madame Tussauds Wax Museum next time I go......> http://www.madametussauds.com
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/40/1246923391/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/40/1246923391/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/40/1246923391/tpod.html Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:22:13 -0400 Phoenix Fire Show: Exclusive Hotel Opening in Milano

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Milan, Lombardy, Italy

We drove down the day after an indoor show in Stuttgart, through Zürich and across the San Bernardino pass into northern Italy. The top of the pass and the drive down was amazing with breathtaking views extending across an entire alpine valley. The road descended like a snake from about 2000m above sea level, with stunning country-side the whole way. There's a kind of adrenalin that comes from driving down heights with hair-pin bends, even at a relaxed pace...We arrived in Milano and did an excellent show for the hotel opening. Invited guests were treated to top-class catering and entertainment, with national press coverage and all the attention that a quality hotel deserves.The drive back was another highlight, past Padova and back up to Vienna. Somewhere along the way we exited and found a picturesque village with a restaurant that served the most genuinely delicious Italian food I've ever eaten. No joke.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/37/1208046780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/37/1208046780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/37/1208046780/tpod.html Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:18:31 -0400 Grand Yacht Club Unveiling: Shanghai

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Shanghai, China

This grand unveiling was an eighteen artist high-power blacklight, led, fire and pyrotechnic combination of scenes designed with high impact in mind. The show heralded the unofficial opening of a luxurious yacht club somewhere two hours drive from Shanghai. In the area around the waterways private houses and apartment complexes had recently been built and were being put up for sale at very substantial prices. Our hotel was a massive complex, obviously central to the surrounding development, and it was sided by rows of European-style buildings, units for sale on canals built out of the lake. The place had it's own unique aesthetics but felt strange because it was still very much empty. Some of my photos are from the hotel/yacht club location and others are impressions of downtown Shanghai.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/36/1228813920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/36/1228813920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/36/1228813920/tpod.html Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:57:10 -0500 Water, Earth & Fire Showcase: Toronto

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada

This was a showcase of elements on a 270 degree open stage - three separate Phoenix performances representing water, earth and fire punctuated the large-scale corporate awards ceremony with an infusion of high-end show impact. Our drumming show elevated the crowd as top Senegalese drummer Mamebirane M'boup fired up his solos with full force. All our pieces were amplified by the very nice effect of 360 degree surround video projection. The entire Canadian crew - the organisers, agency, technicians and even drivers - were impeccably professional and totally friendly, as were all Canadians everywhere we went. There was a very smooth, consistent and well oiled manner in place that made for a really straightforward working environment. Staying in the same hotel as the event we performed at definitely helped.A lot of Toronto seems to also go underground and I figure the cold winters there may be part of the reason for it. Perhaps that's normal in north America, I'm not sure. Mazes of shopping centers connect all the major buildings from beneath the earth and I was told that a person can walk in a subterranean straight line for about eight miles from the central train station before having to resurface. In our time off we went shopping, got hotdogs and checked out the CN tower, which was the world's tallest free standing structure before being surpassed by the Burj Dubai in 2007. We also walked past the baseball stadium, a building famous for its SkyDome, shortly before a game was due to begin and we were harangued by scalpers hustling to sell tickets while we ate our Canadian hotdogs. It all felt very genuine, and nice for me as I'd never been in north America before.I have to say that Canadians live up to their passion for ice-hockey. In one restaurant I counted more than twenty-five televisions showing about 15 different games simultaneously. Something else that struck me, at least in the location, was that everything was 'designated' to be something e.g. the signs read 'designated backstage', 'designated catering area' or 'designated pedestrian crossing' instead of simply 'backstage', 'catering area' or 'pedestrian crossing' - there were many signs like this and it struck me (at least) as being uniquely funny...... Phoenix Productions ∼ www.phoenixfiredancers.com
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/35/1206936000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/35/1206936000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/35/1206936000/tpod.html Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:32:03 -0500 Enormous Stadium Show: Dubai World Cup

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Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The Dubai World Cup is the world's most notably rich horserace with a total prize money of US $21 million for all races and US $6 million on the world cup race. Our task was to present the highlight performance that preceded the world's ultimate horserace on Middle Eastern soil. It was truly a major production. We broke ground in producing a large-scale show for a stadium environment, creating a new range of hi-tech costumes, collaborating in a big way with preferred fireworks companies, displaying fire, pyrotechincs and performers using original, innovative methods and flying artists off cranes at crowd-stirring heights.I will never forget the feeling of hearing the audience (approx. 50,000 spectators) collectively all say <i>"oooohhh... wow" as the internally lit flying characters came in thirty meters over their heads on the crane. I was ready in costume and had about four minutes left before going onstage. It was an unmistakeable wave, a wall of tone, that resonated through the entire stadium with all the impact of 50,000 people being taken by wonderous surprise. Perhaps none of them ever consciously heard the sound they made as a whole... For me it was like the rumble of a low earthquake but uplifted and grand, ecstatically inspiring in those moments before our pyrotechnic stiltwalking team's cue. The entire piece was twelve minutes with Vanessa Mae as the show centerpiece, while our characters exploded and flew, played and cavorted in time with fireworks, music and projections around her. We had firedancers surrounding the trophy itself, pyrotechnic stilt characters that danced and detonated, projection costumes and a range of fantasy characters as well as the flying performers that elevated the show and audience to a state of unforgettable, audio-visual, high-end impact.The event was a spectacular succes - Vanessa Mae's appearance and the show surrounding her were much celebrated in the press in Dubai and around the world. The American horse, "Curlin", went on to win the World Cup, whilst at the racetrack itself no betting actually took place due to strict gambling laws within the Emirates. Despite this the feeling in the crowd was at fever pitch the whole day. We managed the whole thing from a tiny backstage pavilion totally crammed between the press and the throng of racegoers....Phoenix Productions ∼ www.phoenixfiredancers.com
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/33/1207879440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/33/1207879440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/33/1207879440/tpod.html Sat, 20 Sep 2008 19:16:27 -0400 Desert Safari Quad Crashes & Camels: Al Ain

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Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

Al Ain is a very clean and spacious city in the province of Abu Dhabi. It's the site of an oasis that would have vitally served desert dwellers before the advent of desalination plants now transforming the Arabian Gulf into drinkable water. The area was a nice change from the endless construction, hustle and traffic of Dubai. We performed at Al Ain's technical university where students from the various Gulf states competed against each other and compared their technical expertise. Our shows marked the onset and finale of the event, which spanned five days, so we had time in between to relax and enjoy as well as rehearse.The guys running the agency that brought us over are really really cool. They took us on a totally wild desert safari on one of the days off, as well as for a relaxing bathe in the healthy hot springs near Al Ain on another afternoon. They were so hospitable and I'd love to plug their agency but will settle for saying a big "thank you" to Kal and Emad for an awesomely memorable time.The desert safari was an experience that I'd recommend to anyone hanging out in the Emirates. Honestly, we had so much fun cheering and screaming as the V8 4WD's plunged recklessly through the dunes. It was like surfing crossed with a roller-coaster ride on waves of sand and our drivers were real profis with ultra-cool attitudes and even cooler sunglasses. See the videos for an idea of the squealing that was going on inside those vehicles at the time. After this bout of ballistic dune-bashing we were ready to captain a couple of quad bikes of our own. Taking turns, each of us set out for our very own adventure in the undulating sand. Some of us had no previous experience and didn't end up getting too far, while others got the hang of it quickly and burned rubber amongst the crests and troughs of shifting desert. It was really cool. I carved up the dunes and got airborn twice off a really nice little jump. I also crashed as I came too fast over one dune and was plunged into a valley. I flew off the bike, landed hard on my arm and then the bike landed moments later by doing a complete roll over the top of me. It bashed into the back of my leg with all its weight and left me badly bruised for about two weeks afterwards. Still it was worth it as it was the first time I ever fully rolled a vehicle. Luckily the bike landed upright and I was able to get it out of there without anyone suspecting a thing. Minutes later Emad crashed in the very same spot and landed completely upside-down. He reappeared soon after, waving frantically from the top of a dune. The Arabic drivers drove out there and together they got the bike back upright, completely relaxed about everything. I'm sure we weren't the first people to crash their quads. It was really a blast - check out the videos....Phoenix Productions ∼ www.phoenixfiredancers.com
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/34/1206708720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/34/1206708720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/34/1206708720/tpod.html Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:14:54 -0400 Auspicious Dragon Gate Fire Show: Shanghai

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Shanghai, China

Phoenix landed in China for a collaboration with Dan Miethke from the Australian-based fire performance company "Pyroptix". We were the final highlight show for the opening of the new "Dragon Gate" Mall in the heart of Shanghai. Other acts included a traditional "Han Dynasty" drum and dance group with very long sleeves, Chinese musicians playing beautiful and complicated instruments incredibly well and Russians dancing really hot flamenco, rhumba and tango, as well as speeches by VIP's, a fireworks display and our stilt-walking characters as an after-show roving act for the general public.With about two and a half days and nights in total there wasn't much time to take in the city. The show was an hour's drive through Shanghai but we still managed two separate trips to the location, two nights out at good restaurants and great clubs, checking out a couple of local markets and getting to a really good clothing market that had loads of nice cashmere coats and silk material. It felt like we had half the entire sleep from our trip on the plane there and back. Thanks to the organisers (you know who you are) for really great treatment and a wonderful experience.Shanghai seems like a pretty cool city, simultaneously avant garde and young yet grounded in a kind of concrete conservatism that is propagating towers and sky-scrapers while local structures and slums, indeed entire city blocks of them, sigh and fade hopelessly into obscurity. It is clear that the voice of the poor and small goes unheard in the face of China's open market economy dictatorship. I saw city areas that appeared to be awaiting doom with aesthetic beauty, their walls crumbling and rooftops caving in, while advancing sky-scrapers loomed against the immediate horizon, threatening monolithic merchants of the inevitability of progress. Asia, generally, seems to be always filled with a kind of livid contrast.This was the general impression I had of the city from the luxury of my bus window which, I admit, really isn't a lot. And anyhow, we all had a really great time there, investigtigating the people and their language, culture, shops, restaurants and clubs to the best of our western abilities. Thanks again to Dan, Steve and Sandy for bringing us over and showing us a really superbly great time!Directly after the show we somehow managed to all have a nice dinner, go out to a completely rocking club and get back to the hotel for a shower before taking off to the airport and Dubai for our next major show at the world's richest horserace (see my next blog). To top the trip off, at check-in four of us lucky people, including yours truly, received a very auspicious upgrade into business class thanks to the airline over-booking seats. The service and food on offer was top class but none of us could really enjoy it as we needed to have a fairly good sleep instead. Still, economy has never been the same again....Dan Miethke ¡­ www.pyroptix.comBlack Dragon Media ¡­ www.blackdragonmedia.cnPhoenix Productions ¡­ www.phoenixfiredancers.com
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/10/1159063200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/10/1159063200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/10/1159063200/tpod.html Tue, 27 May 2008 07:28:14 -0400 Armed Forces Officers Club: Abu Dhabi

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Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

My first trip to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Phoenix Productions had a show, while I was Stillman Theater and pyrotechnics shooter, in front of sheik royalty at the Armed Forces Officers Club, a 5-star hotel and military officer's playground. It was to mark some very important event near the end of Ramadan, the traditional Muslim holiday which goes for a month and consists of everyone fasting during daytime and eating at night.The show was only on one evening and we stayed for a total of five nights because of flight availablitity. The hotel had pretty much every kind of entertainment you can imagine including an olympic-sized swimming pool, jacuzzi, squash courts, tennis courts, enormous fitness center, shooting gallery, billiard and darts room, gameboy gamesroom, paintball warfields, running track, tabletennis, ten pin bowling alley and quadbike racing track. The officers are having so much fun, honestly, who would want to ever go to war?!?The Phoenix show happened on a stage that had an approximately 13 meter drop if you fell off the front, and a high-voltage circular rig pumped 1000's of volts into visible streams of electric energy as part of the backdrop. Moments before show time, Christoph, one of our artists and Austrian national Kung-Fu champion, had jogged sportively up to the sheik and presented him with a commemorative burning torch. In addition I was Stillman the living statue lined up at the end of a row of army generals who had greeted the sheik as he entered the building. Stillman even saluted and shook his hand, which seemed to not phase him in the least. Afterwards I ran to the edge of the stage while still in costume and shot the pyrotechnics for the Phoenix show. They loved the performance and everything else that went with it, having never seen anything like that in Abu Dhabi before. During our long stay we made the most of the hotel's great infrastructure - playing, swimming, driving the quads, squashing and paintballing each other until close to dawn. They had great food but only at night so we had to sleep or starve during the heat of the day. They were amazingly hospitable and glad to have us as their guests, and before we left the girls of the crew were presented with Arabic perfumes while the guys received memorial plaques. Amongst all the busy hotel activities we also took taxis to Dubai to party and got cheap haircuts in downtown Abu Dhabi....Stillman Living Statue Theater ¡­ www.stillman.infoPhoenix Productions ¡­ www.phoenixfiredancers.com
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/26/1203977580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/26/1203977580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/26/1203977580/tpod.html Mon, 05 May 2008 19:59:26 -0400 UV, Cyber & Fire Shows: Manama Seef Opens

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Manama, Bahrain

This was a quick trip to Bahrain for the opening of Seef Mall in Manama. Short but sweet, we had fun and met a crew of breakdancers, a genius of football levitation, some living statues from Britain, a 'slinky lady' from Russia and an Australian virtuoso violin player. The crowd was entertained and all of us performers had a great time together as well.Our 5 person crew (4 artists, 1 technician) were slotted with 3 completely different shows, Maya Moon, Light Vision and Phoenix Fire, with all the different equipment and backstage preparation for each performance, and our fire show was the event finale. The breakdancers were a real highlight with the locals and had most of the kids and some of the crowd busting moves with them backstage later.The agency crew (really cool people) took us out for a nice dinner and later to party. Nightclub entry seemed a bit tricky in Bahrain as they have strange closing times and subsequent backdoors to the club where they make you wait 10 - 15 minutes in the shadows...it felt a bit suspicious and we had a sunrise flight so we left early. The Bahraini from Saudi Arabia who drove us back told us, and showed us, how Saudis get through bottleneck traffic on a Thursday night in downtown Manama. It was pretty exciting really....Phoenix Productions ∼ www.phoenixfiredancers.com
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/15/1178409600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/15/1178409600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/showme/15/1178409600/tpod.html Thu, 01 May 2008 20:14:21 -0400 Fire & Laser: Mediterranean Multimedia, Spain

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Benidorm, Spain

Our location was a 5-star luxury Sheraton/Westin hotel on the hills behind Benidorm, and the goal was to create the fire-dance highlight to a massive light, sound and laser show that shook the hotel grounds every second evening. We stayed almost a month and played a total of 14 shows, adapting to the environment and using the pool, the bridges across it and the central stone tower for the finale. A crew of French-speaking Belgian technicians were working with us and I was able to improve my very poor French, as well as Spanish, during the stay.We were occasionally given the product, a brand new Dodge Nitro, to get to work and back, so I really have to recommend it. They have a uniquely quirky modern style inside and out and are great cars - powerful, comfortable, solid with many practical features. I had great fun driving. One day somewhere between Alicante and Benidorm I broke my all-time landspeed record. Don't worry, it wasn't previously all that fast anyway......Phoenix Productions ¡­ www.phoenixfiredancers.com
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