Tuesday, November 8, 2016
Video: Djembe Heet Toe Technique
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Slow Down
Everyone should be forced to walk for one whole day. Maybe not even for a whole day, just to the store or to some other destination. I realize the majority of American cities can not be travelled without a car, and actually walking can be a dangerous without proper sidewalks, cross walks and lights.
But that danger could work to prove my point that everyone is driving too fast. Not everyone is driving recklessly, but there's no question everyone is driving too fast. We are in a hurry, there's no time, I'm late, I want to be there now.
A day of walking could put in perspective how fast you are really going. A normal person walks between 2 or 3 miles per hour and drives at 40 mph in a residential zone where kids are playing, people are walking their dogs or going for a jog. By taking the time to walk from one place to another other than your front door to your car, you will realize how 20, 30 and 40 mph are really fast at getting you places.
Our need for speed has gotten out of control. Too many people are getting hurt, physically and financially. Driving is causing lots of stress for people who do drive the speed limits, causing tension between drivers and harmful road rage resulting in horrific tragedies that are unnecessary.
Just slow down, be mindful and take your time. Reaching your destination is the goal and not reaching it, probably means you're dead.
But that danger could work to prove my point that everyone is driving too fast. Not everyone is driving recklessly, but there's no question everyone is driving too fast. We are in a hurry, there's no time, I'm late, I want to be there now.
A day of walking could put in perspective how fast you are really going. A normal person walks between 2 or 3 miles per hour and drives at 40 mph in a residential zone where kids are playing, people are walking their dogs or going for a jog. By taking the time to walk from one place to another other than your front door to your car, you will realize how 20, 30 and 40 mph are really fast at getting you places.
Our need for speed has gotten out of control. Too many people are getting hurt, physically and financially. Driving is causing lots of stress for people who do drive the speed limits, causing tension between drivers and harmful road rage resulting in horrific tragedies that are unnecessary.
Just slow down, be mindful and take your time. Reaching your destination is the goal and not reaching it, probably means you're dead.
What We Can Learn From Sports
Always look forward, never back. When you make a mistake, its a mistake, reset and get ready for the next one.
Javier Baez made two errors on the defensive side in Game 7 of the World Series. He pulled himself together and walked up to the plate and hit a home run.
David Ross did the same thing. After a bad throw that advanced the runners and falling over on a wild pitch that led to two scored runs, he shook it off and went to bat that resulted in a home run.
The Chicago Cubs won the World Series after being behind three games to one when you need four to win a best of seven series. They ended up winning three games in a row, one at home and two on the road, to win their first World Series in one hundred and eight years.
It would of been easy to give up on the Cubs. Sell the team to a new city, fans turn their backs and root for someone else. But none of those things happened. And all the faith and all the cheering and all the gear supporting the team paid off in the end. They learned from their mistakes, they didn't ruminate on them, they had slumps, but bounced back to have the greatest victory of all.
When you feel you can't write, have nothing to shoot, no inspiration to do your art. Think about the Cubs and how they never gave up. Think about pro athletes because they all fail at the drop of a hat, have to pick themselves up and go at it again, succeed or fail, again and again and again.
And we love them when they win and hate them when they fail, if your a fan, a reporter or critic. That might be why we hate ourselves so much when we fail, because we thing everyone feels about us the way we feel about our team. But just remember, deep down we always love our team. And the players, although they may have failed, have to look forward to the next play, next game, next season.
Their are winners and losers, but no one is a real loser. It's just a game, it's just a job, it's just an election, it's just [fill in the blank].
Keep creating, keep moving, don't look back and feel sorry for yourself when things don't work out. Pick yourself up and keep moving forward.
Javier Baez made two errors on the defensive side in Game 7 of the World Series. He pulled himself together and walked up to the plate and hit a home run.
David Ross did the same thing. After a bad throw that advanced the runners and falling over on a wild pitch that led to two scored runs, he shook it off and went to bat that resulted in a home run.
The Chicago Cubs won the World Series after being behind three games to one when you need four to win a best of seven series. They ended up winning three games in a row, one at home and two on the road, to win their first World Series in one hundred and eight years.
It would of been easy to give up on the Cubs. Sell the team to a new city, fans turn their backs and root for someone else. But none of those things happened. And all the faith and all the cheering and all the gear supporting the team paid off in the end. They learned from their mistakes, they didn't ruminate on them, they had slumps, but bounced back to have the greatest victory of all.
When you feel you can't write, have nothing to shoot, no inspiration to do your art. Think about the Cubs and how they never gave up. Think about pro athletes because they all fail at the drop of a hat, have to pick themselves up and go at it again, succeed or fail, again and again and again.
And we love them when they win and hate them when they fail, if your a fan, a reporter or critic. That might be why we hate ourselves so much when we fail, because we thing everyone feels about us the way we feel about our team. But just remember, deep down we always love our team. And the players, although they may have failed, have to look forward to the next play, next game, next season.
Their are winners and losers, but no one is a real loser. It's just a game, it's just a job, it's just an election, it's just [fill in the blank].
Keep creating, keep moving, don't look back and feel sorry for yourself when things don't work out. Pick yourself up and keep moving forward.
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
My Halloween as a Haunter
In the haunted house your job is to scare. The customer wants to be scared. In October 2016, I worked twenty nights in a popular haunted house, listed here are some of the best possible ways to get people scared and observations from my experience.
Things that help:
1. Scary make-up or a mask
2. Good hiding places
3. Good timing
4. Noise makers or a good scream
Let's take a closer look at these,
1. Scary Make-Up or a Mask
Although people are scary in their own right, in a haunted house you want to create an atmosphere or in the movie business, 'suspension of disbelief'. So having a zombie face, a bloody face or terrifying goblin or skeleton mask can startle the bravest patron.
2. Good Hiding Places
In scare school the first thing he says is, "Be a predator." A predator as in a lion or a wolf. Work together like a wolf pack to shake, rattle and scare the customer. Stalk your prey like a lion would in the wild. To do that you need a good hiding spot. A good attraction will have all that builds into it. Drop windows, curtains, pop holes, camouflage doors, etc. And space for your haunters to move behind the scenes to hit each one with the least amount of effort.
3. Good Timing
Good hiding places will create a scary surprise, but having the timing to pop when the customer is right in front of you is also good to have. Having peep holes to see where the customers are and to know when they will be in front of you to maximize your scare. Listen to the other haunters also to know the cues that they are getting close. Knowing the attraction will also help you keep track of where people are on things they say or from the cues again which room they are in and how long it will take to get to your position.
4. Noise Makers or a Good Scream
Screams and diabolical laughs are good ways to get a scare. The problem is when you scream for three hours you lose your voice. Having an alternative sound source is a great idea. Items like shaker cans that rattle, wooden poles to knock against the walls (hands work too), metal poles to drag against the floor or slam against the wall (more on that later). Built in window shutters or doors to slam can also cause a song jolt in the customers.
Getting to know your surroundings to understand when and where to pop to get the best scare can lead to a positive experience. Also having some handy backups in case your voice gives out or to bring some variety to your game can also keep you healthy and having fun.
Routine and the Importance of Being Flexible
When you're in your space and have found your best spots to jump out and scare, it's easy to get down a routine. Routines can be helpful to get you warmed up and have a 'go to' scares. When you run a routine over and over again it starts to become second nature, and this is good when the house starts to become busy and you don't have to run all over the place.
But with routine, comes the dreaded boredom. Doing anything over and over again becomes mind numbing and boring, even something as fun as scaring people in a haunted house. So you need to find new ways to scare people using sounds, movement or scary sayings.
In my spot, I have eight pops to choose from when the customers come through. During my first two weeks, I worked five of them the best that I could. The first in the curtain hall, because there are two people on the other side, I hit one out of three curtains. Then when they turn the corner, I get them at the large window by pulling in the shutters to create a THUD and rattle my shaker can, then if the group is large enough, I can turn the corner and get them at the second window. When they come down the hall, I can get through the hole with some wall banging. I only did this if I used a phrase and then repeated it louder and more aggressive. I also had to be flexible with this if the other haunter, the roamer, was in the room. I didn't want to step on his scare. When he is there, I would run to the other side and get them from behind the sofa, spot that wasn't originally mine, but have adopted as the only person in the spot.
Then came the pipe.
A haunter appeared one night carrying a long metal pipe. He stood on the other side of the wall opposite the large window. Once the customer turns the corner, he SMACKS the plywood wall with a baseball swing creating a high pitched crack that is actually breaking the wall itself. Once confronted with this sound, the customers are temporarily deaf which made the large window scare redundant as a sound scare. When I confronted him about it, at a time when I should of waited because the continuous SMACK every three minutes was also getting on my nerves that cause me to be somewhat hostile with him, he claimed it was a distraction.
A distraction in a haunted house is a technique to pull the customers attention away from where the other haunter is hiding to maximize the scare when that haunter pops out.
A loud SMACK on the wall is not a distraction, it's a scare or I believe it to be a disruption (an act that doesn't build or support on the scares of the other haunters, but actually takes the customers out of the moment of their suspension of disbelief). And it's a scare that he insists on doing and even though the customers complain, most comments compare the sound to the sound of a gunshot, about it every time and the wall is breaking the haunters and supervisors encourage him to do.
The Boy Scout is Always Prepared
The next night, knowing he will be cracking the wall, I pocketed my earplugs and am now free from becoming deaf myself. But still in need a new scare strategy.
After several attempts at asking for another haunter to share the space with me, I have come to terms that I will be working the spot alone until the end of the season. The guy on the other side of the wall is the best relief I have as the roamer has to fill in other parts of the attraction because of people not showing up for their own personal reasons.
I let him have the wall. Once he SMACKS it, I go for a scare in the fridge. The fridge is one of the eight pops at my disposal, a hole up and behind so the customer can't see me, but also not big enough for me to climb through. The front has little ripples that I run finger across to make a sound that resembles playing a guiro, this causes a distraction, if they can hear it that while they are focused on the fridge, I can pop out through one of the windows. I also have a styrofoam hand I can drop down to get a minor scare.
A Little More About the Hand
Knowing I could fit through the fridge hole, I searched the kitchen for something I could drop down and land on the fridge shelf. At first I had an old Pepsi can. The aluminum made a enough noise to get the customer's attention. But, the can kept falling onto the floor and I would have to go and retrieve it. I then found the hand and began using it to grab the can, it wasn't a perfect fit, yet still made a sound that got attention and even got a few scares. Then I asked my dad if he had any fishing string, because he owns a boat all his fishing gear is there. What he did have was some translucent sewing thread. I tied that to the hand and to the light inside the fridge and now can drop the hand inside without it falling on the floor. It still doesn't make a loud enough sound to get their attention on its own, but combined with the ripple is getting a lot of scares.
Embracing the SMACK!
Now that the pipe is a definite part of the house, I have to find new ways to maximize my scares. Why? Because I am a professional at everything I do. It would be easy to take the lazy way and just hit my main three spots; curtain, small window, and attic sofa. Yet, I am not a defeatist and strive to be creative in my work, even a minimum wage job performing in a haunted house.
I stand on the attic side to wait for the customers to come around the corner. While I'm waiting, I practice my heel-toe hand drumming technique on the wall. Then when one group comes by I use that to create a, what I imagine to be, six-legged Lovecraftian creature. I hear a scream and a 'what was that?', this becomes a go to scare. I also revel in the fact that I got a scare with something subtle and not overly loud.
My noise maker, the shaker can, is loud and sounds like a snake. I move it over to the attic side for the pop behind the sofa. A prop golf bag also sits next to the pop for easy storage and access. A win-win and a good scare spot. Some of the best things I heard, 'That's creepy.', 'That was good.'
Just like any good actor, constantly evolve your character and build your repertoire. Observe how other people work in their space and learn from their success and failures and always learn from your failures to keep improving. Coming back from my break I observed the supervisor playing the piano from the behind the wall. Something I didn't know was there and now that I did used it to my advantage.
Forget Everything You Know
Don't forget everything, but now that you have a good knowledge of your surroundings and everything you're capable of doing from your routine start to build a rhythm. If you continue to just hit the same spots over and over using the same screams or tagline then you'll get bored pretty fast. Your rhythm will put you in positions to scare when things get busy. When customers come through one after the other, relying on the routine will begin to frustrate you. You need to hit them wherever you can, whenever you can.
Your rhythm will also be useful when you're thrown a curve ball. Remember what I said about timing, in the house certain cues happen; lights, animations, sounds, etc. You time certain pops to those cues and certain haunters hit these cues at different times. So after getting use to one haunters timing then they don't show up anymore, you have to get use to another haunters timing all over again. Falling back on your routine is a good way to ease back into rebuilding your rhythm.
On Your Toes
Seth Godin mentioned 'on your toes' on his blog. It refers to the idea of doing your best every time. You may do something a hundred times, but each time should be as fresh as the first. I know that is almost impossible, yet you should do your best to be 'on your toes'. Even when your wage is low, moral is fleeting, or at times you feel your a member of the Stanford experiment. Hard work and being apart of an experience is a worthwhile endeavor. Something to feel good about when you hear the words, 'You scared me.' Because that's the job.
Things that help:
1. Scary make-up or a mask
2. Good hiding places
3. Good timing
4. Noise makers or a good scream
Let's take a closer look at these,
1. Scary Make-Up or a Mask
Although people are scary in their own right, in a haunted house you want to create an atmosphere or in the movie business, 'suspension of disbelief'. So having a zombie face, a bloody face or terrifying goblin or skeleton mask can startle the bravest patron.
2. Good Hiding Places
In scare school the first thing he says is, "Be a predator." A predator as in a lion or a wolf. Work together like a wolf pack to shake, rattle and scare the customer. Stalk your prey like a lion would in the wild. To do that you need a good hiding spot. A good attraction will have all that builds into it. Drop windows, curtains, pop holes, camouflage doors, etc. And space for your haunters to move behind the scenes to hit each one with the least amount of effort.
3. Good Timing
Good hiding places will create a scary surprise, but having the timing to pop when the customer is right in front of you is also good to have. Having peep holes to see where the customers are and to know when they will be in front of you to maximize your scare. Listen to the other haunters also to know the cues that they are getting close. Knowing the attraction will also help you keep track of where people are on things they say or from the cues again which room they are in and how long it will take to get to your position.
4. Noise Makers or a Good Scream
Screams and diabolical laughs are good ways to get a scare. The problem is when you scream for three hours you lose your voice. Having an alternative sound source is a great idea. Items like shaker cans that rattle, wooden poles to knock against the walls (hands work too), metal poles to drag against the floor or slam against the wall (more on that later). Built in window shutters or doors to slam can also cause a song jolt in the customers.
Getting to know your surroundings to understand when and where to pop to get the best scare can lead to a positive experience. Also having some handy backups in case your voice gives out or to bring some variety to your game can also keep you healthy and having fun.
Routine and the Importance of Being Flexible
When you're in your space and have found your best spots to jump out and scare, it's easy to get down a routine. Routines can be helpful to get you warmed up and have a 'go to' scares. When you run a routine over and over again it starts to become second nature, and this is good when the house starts to become busy and you don't have to run all over the place.
But with routine, comes the dreaded boredom. Doing anything over and over again becomes mind numbing and boring, even something as fun as scaring people in a haunted house. So you need to find new ways to scare people using sounds, movement or scary sayings.
In my spot, I have eight pops to choose from when the customers come through. During my first two weeks, I worked five of them the best that I could. The first in the curtain hall, because there are two people on the other side, I hit one out of three curtains. Then when they turn the corner, I get them at the large window by pulling in the shutters to create a THUD and rattle my shaker can, then if the group is large enough, I can turn the corner and get them at the second window. When they come down the hall, I can get through the hole with some wall banging. I only did this if I used a phrase and then repeated it louder and more aggressive. I also had to be flexible with this if the other haunter, the roamer, was in the room. I didn't want to step on his scare. When he is there, I would run to the other side and get them from behind the sofa, spot that wasn't originally mine, but have adopted as the only person in the spot.
Then came the pipe.
A haunter appeared one night carrying a long metal pipe. He stood on the other side of the wall opposite the large window. Once the customer turns the corner, he SMACKS the plywood wall with a baseball swing creating a high pitched crack that is actually breaking the wall itself. Once confronted with this sound, the customers are temporarily deaf which made the large window scare redundant as a sound scare. When I confronted him about it, at a time when I should of waited because the continuous SMACK every three minutes was also getting on my nerves that cause me to be somewhat hostile with him, he claimed it was a distraction.
A distraction in a haunted house is a technique to pull the customers attention away from where the other haunter is hiding to maximize the scare when that haunter pops out.
A loud SMACK on the wall is not a distraction, it's a scare or I believe it to be a disruption (an act that doesn't build or support on the scares of the other haunters, but actually takes the customers out of the moment of their suspension of disbelief). And it's a scare that he insists on doing and even though the customers complain, most comments compare the sound to the sound of a gunshot, about it every time and the wall is breaking the haunters and supervisors encourage him to do.
The Boy Scout is Always Prepared
The next night, knowing he will be cracking the wall, I pocketed my earplugs and am now free from becoming deaf myself. But still in need a new scare strategy.
After several attempts at asking for another haunter to share the space with me, I have come to terms that I will be working the spot alone until the end of the season. The guy on the other side of the wall is the best relief I have as the roamer has to fill in other parts of the attraction because of people not showing up for their own personal reasons.
I let him have the wall. Once he SMACKS it, I go for a scare in the fridge. The fridge is one of the eight pops at my disposal, a hole up and behind so the customer can't see me, but also not big enough for me to climb through. The front has little ripples that I run finger across to make a sound that resembles playing a guiro, this causes a distraction, if they can hear it that while they are focused on the fridge, I can pop out through one of the windows. I also have a styrofoam hand I can drop down to get a minor scare.
A Little More About the Hand
Knowing I could fit through the fridge hole, I searched the kitchen for something I could drop down and land on the fridge shelf. At first I had an old Pepsi can. The aluminum made a enough noise to get the customer's attention. But, the can kept falling onto the floor and I would have to go and retrieve it. I then found the hand and began using it to grab the can, it wasn't a perfect fit, yet still made a sound that got attention and even got a few scares. Then I asked my dad if he had any fishing string, because he owns a boat all his fishing gear is there. What he did have was some translucent sewing thread. I tied that to the hand and to the light inside the fridge and now can drop the hand inside without it falling on the floor. It still doesn't make a loud enough sound to get their attention on its own, but combined with the ripple is getting a lot of scares.
Embracing the SMACK!
Now that the pipe is a definite part of the house, I have to find new ways to maximize my scares. Why? Because I am a professional at everything I do. It would be easy to take the lazy way and just hit my main three spots; curtain, small window, and attic sofa. Yet, I am not a defeatist and strive to be creative in my work, even a minimum wage job performing in a haunted house.
I stand on the attic side to wait for the customers to come around the corner. While I'm waiting, I practice my heel-toe hand drumming technique on the wall. Then when one group comes by I use that to create a, what I imagine to be, six-legged Lovecraftian creature. I hear a scream and a 'what was that?', this becomes a go to scare. I also revel in the fact that I got a scare with something subtle and not overly loud.
My noise maker, the shaker can, is loud and sounds like a snake. I move it over to the attic side for the pop behind the sofa. A prop golf bag also sits next to the pop for easy storage and access. A win-win and a good scare spot. Some of the best things I heard, 'That's creepy.', 'That was good.'
Just like any good actor, constantly evolve your character and build your repertoire. Observe how other people work in their space and learn from their success and failures and always learn from your failures to keep improving. Coming back from my break I observed the supervisor playing the piano from the behind the wall. Something I didn't know was there and now that I did used it to my advantage.
Forget Everything You Know
Don't forget everything, but now that you have a good knowledge of your surroundings and everything you're capable of doing from your routine start to build a rhythm. If you continue to just hit the same spots over and over using the same screams or tagline then you'll get bored pretty fast. Your rhythm will put you in positions to scare when things get busy. When customers come through one after the other, relying on the routine will begin to frustrate you. You need to hit them wherever you can, whenever you can.
Your rhythm will also be useful when you're thrown a curve ball. Remember what I said about timing, in the house certain cues happen; lights, animations, sounds, etc. You time certain pops to those cues and certain haunters hit these cues at different times. So after getting use to one haunters timing then they don't show up anymore, you have to get use to another haunters timing all over again. Falling back on your routine is a good way to ease back into rebuilding your rhythm.
On Your Toes
Seth Godin mentioned 'on your toes' on his blog. It refers to the idea of doing your best every time. You may do something a hundred times, but each time should be as fresh as the first. I know that is almost impossible, yet you should do your best to be 'on your toes'. Even when your wage is low, moral is fleeting, or at times you feel your a member of the Stanford experiment. Hard work and being apart of an experience is a worthwhile endeavor. Something to feel good about when you hear the words, 'You scared me.' Because that's the job.
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