As our stay in New York concludes we’ve has a lot of fun in the process. Having the opportunity to return to my past (Broadway Musicals) is fabulous. I spent many years working on various Broadway tours and runs in Vancouver including Phantom of the Opera, Showboat, Sunset Boulevard, Riverdance, Joseph and Ragtime. So, when in New York I make an effort to see as much as possible. This time I was able to catch five shows and there are many more around town I didn’t have time to see. Below are my capsule thoughts and reviews to some new shows and some longer running productions.

American Idiot: The new musical based on the Green Day album was a great visual and aural experience. The look and performances were stellar. It was like watching a live 90 minute music video- Broadway style. Unfortunately, the loose storyline imposed on the music was weak and not particularly fresh.

Billy Elliott: Last years Tony Award winner was every bit as good as all the reviews. I definitely enjoyed the musical more than the movie. The role of Billy is amazing as the young performer is on stage for at least 80% of the show and has to deliver or the show doesn’t work. This show also had an amazing lighting design- subtle and extremely effective. This is truly a ‘Broadway show’. It was good to see a performer I toured with on Ragtime in this production as well as a former crew mate on the props crew. I expect this show to have a long run on Broadway. The challenge on touring this show will be finding enough young ‘Billys’.

Avenue Q: On Monday night Diane and I headed Off Broadway but not very far to see the 2004 Tony Award winner, Avenue Q. I’ve heard a lot about this show and knew the music quite well. I was a little afraid that I would be underwhelmed as I had heard so much. That was definitely not the case. The show is “Sesame Street for Adults” and is extremely clever. It very eccentric and unique. Any show that has a main character based on Gary Coleman is quirky enough for me to enjoy. The show still feels fresh and I would go back.

Promises, Promises: On Wednesday afternoon at the last minute I made it to Promises, Promises with very little expectations. The show is a revival of a late 60’s musical. Sean Hayes from Will and Grace fame was the lead and was extremely funny. Unfortunately Kristen Chenoweth was ill. The production was extremely stylized and hit all the right notes. It was a great way to spend a very hot afternoon on Broadway.

Fela!: Last night we hit Fela, the new hit musical on Broadway. This again was very unique as the entire interior of the theatre was dressed up as a Nigerian Music Hall. The show in one word was “mesmerizing”. The energy and passion of the performances kept you thrilled throughout. In this case, the storyline was just enough of a thread to tie together the Afrobeat music. You learned about the history of Fela while being thoroughly entertained.

As much as I love Broadway musicals I also love attending Sporting events. I’ll watch almost anything. In New York I had the opportunity to attend a Mets game in their two year old Citi Field. It’s very interesting to compare all the new Ballparks. This field ranks up with the best of them. One unique aspect of this field is you can ‘plane spot’ throughout the game as it is right on the flight path of La Guardia. Not that I cared that much but the Mets won 8-0.

At PRP we strive to eat well and I’m living the motto in New York right now. We arrived Friday night and had an amazing late night dinner at Charlie Palmer’s, Aureole. The restaurant is near Bryant Park which is close to where we are staying. Although the food was amazing it was almost over shadowed by the impeccable service. It was as well orchestrated as any Broadway show.

Saturday night, prior to checking out the new Green Day musical, American Idiot, we ended up with friends at Esca. Esca is at the edge of the Theatre District and Hell’s Kitchen. It was a nice night so we were able to eat out in their garden. It was a beautiful oasis with a water feature and little herb garden right in in the middle of the bustling city. Speaking of bustling…New York seems as busy as ever (the exact opposite of Detroit). Besides the setting, the highlight of this meal was an amazingly delicately prepared Mahi Mahi.

Last night we headed down to the West Village and dined at Perilla. Again it was an early dinner before a show but the small narrow room was packed. This restaurant is owned by Season One Top Chef winner, Harold Dieterle. This dinner featured an appetizer that is worth coming back for many times. The Crispy Calamari Watercress Salad has been the culinary highlight of New York (so far).

Tonight, it’s off to Basso56 for Italian and then tomorrow it’s hotdogs at the Mets game.

Life is much better when you ‘eat well’.

The Olympics and Paralympics were without a doubt a phenomenal experience. Not only was it an extraordinary leap in my career but also just being apart of the Olympic Fever it’s hard to describe the feelings. It was also fun to list all of the projects PRP were apart of.

I am very proud of all that we have accomplished; it was quite a ride. Were am I getting in this post, well as we were wrapping up everything the end of March looking back on what we achieved and I was humbled when I got an invitation from my cousin to come to his grade 4 class for a public speaking assignment.

Each student had to pick a topic and speak for 4 minutes in front of the class. It was such a cool assignment. Each student learnt the structure of public speaking and then dove into their topic. There was a variety of topics, including family pets, being the middle child and favorite sports and then my cousin Ryan got up and asked me to stand beside him.

His topic was me! He talked about the Olympics and how cool they were but then how amazing the Paralympics were. Then he introduced me and how I was the Associate Producer for the Paralympic Ceremonies. He talked about growing up in a small town, going to college and university and being driven. I couldn’t believe it. Here is this little guy I see ever so often and this is his view of me. I almost started crying, not quite though. He talked about the PNE fair too, how I get to meet cool artists like Mitchell Musso and Billy Ray Cyrus. (Disney stars). Ryan rounded the speech stating that if you work hard, get an education and try your best you to can get a cool job.

Through the long hours, and stressful times, I never thought my cousin was looking at me and thinking this. I am very proud that he selected me for his speech.

A very cool experience!

Thanks Ryan it was a pleasure coming to your class.

In addition to all the Entertainment programming and Events PRP puts on we also have a Division which handles events in the Corporate world. Currently we are in the midst of a month long multi city tour of the US working with the Professional Association of SQL Servers on a new product launch. What’s great about this side of our business is the people you meet and things you learn that are totally unrelated to anything you would ever think to learn about. Also,  as we work with the same groups over the years, we meet interesting folks that are in totally unrelated fields.  We  share some great stories as we meet annually in cities across North America.

Over the years I’ve learned:

-Microsoft SQL Server is a relational model database server (that’s about all I know about it even though I have worked with the organization for four years)

-Consulting Engineers of BC have been involved in some amazing projects in the last 10 years

-Amway is a mulit-level Marketing Program not a pyramid scheme

-to know when to hold them and when to fold them at the World Series of Poker (I actually did know something about this topic)

-I learned more than I ever wanted to know about hand surgery. I spent one full week behind a tech table at this conference and feel amazingly qualified to enter this field

-small companies can grow big and successful if they have a strong foundation of good people. Hemlock Printers, West Fraser Timber and Creo are all great BC success stories that all started with a few visionaries and we’ve had the pleasure of producing events for over the years.

You never know what you will learn and who you will meet but suffice to say it will be something you never thought you’d learn.

Diane (aka “Detroit Princess”) and I are in Detroit for a PASS SQL R2 Launch Event. After a morning load in and meetings we headed into downtown Detroit to ‘check’ things out. At first glance, Detroit is my kind of city as it has all the major sport stadiums right downtown (Joe Louis Arena, Comerica Park and Ford Field) all surrounded by Sport Bars. However, there is something very strange about this city…It is empty. We were in the downtown core at lunch time but there was hardly anyone around. There was also surprisingly very little traffic. Obviously, the recession has hit this area very hard. Apparently the population is now under 900,000. The city has been as large as 1,900,000 people. The largest crowds we saw in town were in the newly built casinos.

Another thing that has struck me as interesting while watching the late news is that the first fifteen minutes of the news are totally devoted to reporting on shootings and murders. Very sad…

In Torino

Now for a look deep “behind the scenes” at PRP and into inter-office gambling.

Unlike traditional office pools, lottery groups or petty cash wagering, at PRP, the gambling commodity is ‘Gelato’. No one is quite sure when it developed but for years now, many disagreements and wagers have been settled and then paid up with a Gelato. The range of items that have been wagered on is staggering but almost always trivial. “How many Catholics are in Canada?”, “How old is Cher?”, “Is American Football in the Maccabi Games?” (I won all three of those ones).  The one item we never wager on is the weather. Many of our shows are weather dependent and we always hope for good weather but never bet on it. That is too much of a gamble.

At any given time there are many Gelatos owed or owing on the board. The Gelato is an excellent commodity as it is available around the world. The best we ever had was in Torino (no surprise) followed closely by a deluxe offering (on a plate) in Santa Monica. Recently, Patrick and I were disappointed by our Gelato in the largest Mall in the world, Dubai Mall. Locally, in Vancouver, our two favourite Gelato ‘Payment’ cafes are Dolce Amore on Commercial and La Casa Gelato on Venables.  There is one time of year that we allow for a deviation of payment terms. During the Fair at the PNE, a Hot Fudge Sundae is considered equal to a Gelato.

In Santa Monica

Well we all know the subtle differences in the American vs Canadian lifestyles. We know the little language differences, they like our reference to a touque vs hat and a few things like this but what we didn’t know had a different reference was the powerbar.

In the heat of the event Kate our fabulous PASS representative asked the Washington venue representative that we needed two powerbars in our office as soon as possible. Thinking we need them set on the table so we can plug in our laptops.

A short while later a nice tray of powerbars showed up on a platter. Apparently what we were looking for were power strips not power bars. We were laughing so hard we were almost crying.

Fun fun.

PRP was in Washington DC. Working with PASS and Microsoft on the SQL Server R2 launch. This was city one of a city tour. Marcia and Heather were team C on this city. We were assisting with a one day conference with a keynote presentations and break out sessions. The event was very successful. Since we were in town we wanted to tour and get the real experience of Washington DC.

We wanted to hit all the sites so we went on a bus tour. It was even more team C action as Cappy was our tour guide. Its amazing the grandness of the monument and the history in this town. The old brick building and wow the columns. There’s a lot of marble and a lot of columns…. Seriously a lot of columns.

One city down four more to go!!!!

Twenty four years ago today, Patrick and I both were working at the Opening Day of Expo 86 in Vancouver. We’ve had the pleasure of visiting Expo 2010 the last two days. I’ll save our thoughts, observations and tips on the the overall Expo for another post and just give some thoughts on the external architecture.

It seems like the Expo of the 21st Century is geared all around architecture. Who can be the most inventive and strange. There certainly are many unique pavilions and below is gallery of some of the most unique. My top five are:

1. Great Britain- with 60,000 transparent rods sticking out of the building

2. Netherlands- multiple small unique living structures connected in the ‘air’

3. United Arab Emirates- gold dune like shape- seems to tie together the nature and money that drives UAE

4. Denmark- round pavilion with 1200 bicycles people can ride around the structure

5. Saudi Arabia- palm tree roof (this pavilion was reputedly most expensive and had 4 hour line ups)

Here are just a few of the other pavilions we saw. (Canada, Oil, Germany, Turkey, Estonia, Latvia, Portugal and Vancouver)

Both Nik and I were approached by media covering the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai during opening weekend.  They wanted our impressions of the Expo.  I was interviewed by Chinese television and Nik spoke to Korean Television.   With all but 13 countries of the world participating - there is lots of interest around  the world regarding Expo 2010.