Losing track of time.

Well I blew right through April and into May . . . and now May is almost over as well. Where has time gone? 2021 is moving fast. Or at least it's starting to move a lot faster. And why have I lost track of everything? Because I'm finally getting work again! You can't imagine how happy I am to be able to say that. Or perhaps you're in the same boat as I am, and hopefully you're now experiencing the same rebound. (I'm still in search of more projects, and possibly "the perfect job", if you're hiring by any chance.)

That's no excuse to skip my blog postings, though. Sorry everyone. I really did mean to post something last month; hoping to get some photos from a few projects that occurred. But those photos never

materialized. I could go on a little tirade about how frustrating it is to not see things that I've been designing. But that's our present situation. Safety precedes attendance these days, so I rarely even get to go on site. So I try to scour as many media outlets as possible for proof that the production ever existed.

The Grammy Awards Red Carpet was the big project of the last quarter. It was my fifth time designing the red carpet, and I felt very fortunate to get the opportunity to do it again. Especially these days, when the show was in jeopardy of not happening at all. (Or, even worse, happening "virtually".) Everyone at the Academy contributed to pull this off, and it took a lot of creative thought. Instead of the typical 500ft tent, we divided the carpet into individual pieces and created safety-conscious "zones". Everything was moved from the street outside of the Staples Center into the L.A. Convention Center next door. Everything had to be re-thought and re-invented. As I said, it took a huge effort. But everyone was happy to be working and to be safely pulling off something that looked impossible at the end of 2020.

After that I had a little work with a performance design for the ACM Awards backstage events. Another quick little sponsor set, just creating a nice area to capture social media footage. One thing I've noticed in 2021 is that clients really want to jump back into developing events, but they are just unsure about all of the uncontrollable intangibles surrounding the industry right now. If you can show them something cool, affordable, and adaptable they open up a lot faster. You can't go into a project fearing the worst, and expecting everything to be shut down. You need to confidently move forward, preparing to shift gears when needed but not letting that impede the creative process.

After the ACM's it was over to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland, for the 2021 NFL Draft red carpet. This was another legacy event for me, as I've been doing the red carpet for the Draft since 2015. It's never a too terribly scenic-heavy event. But it always has a lot of logistical challenges to overcome. It's usually a bit of a puzzle that needs to be assembled, and I enjoy those challenges.

Yeah. . . so that's been the last couple of weeks. I've been designing some pieces for the Billboard Music Awards and the iHeart Radio Music Awards, but reports on those will have to wait until the shows have aired. I've also done some work assisting another designer on a tv talk show that will start broadcasting next month. And I've helped on a project by a very big name alternative band (they were named one of Rolling Stone magazine's Top 100 Greatest Artists of All Time) that's so secret I can't mention the project, the band, my involvement . . . or anything about it, really. Soooooo. . . . I guess you can call that a teaser.

Thanks for reading! I'll try to get back in the groove of posting regularly, but no promises. If I'm unable to post it means I'm busy and (hopefully) working hard. So no news truly is good news sometimes.