September 18-

'The Big Wedding Event' for which I booked a variety of talent at San Francisco City Hall has come and gone. Just for the musical element, this lead time constituted 8 months of planning accumulating hundreds of documents, e mails and files. It was a crowning career achievement for many vendors. The bride is from Thailand, age 30; the groom an investment banker from England, age 60. Both reside in the SF. On the 'day of', the wedding planner had a staff of 16 all sporting head sets, the florist for her installation a staff of 35. I was the music booking agent of record with a second agent in from Los Angeles. One band was "California", the official 9 piece house band for 'American Idol'. The featured Show band was the 6 piece "Village People" with three original members. The ceremony included a 10 piece Brass Choir in the Rotunda's first balcony. The 25 piece Thai orchestra and costumed dancers originally contracted for the event had to be cancelled due to visa issues in that turbulent country. That element was replaced by a Bangkok CD and indigenous furniture! With many challenges met along the way the 'day-of' was actually quite flawless!

September 23 the agency installed a custom Soundscape for an event at the San Francisco Fairmont Hotel. This client wanted a sports theme. They had organized an LSU Football Tailgate party for all their university alumni. The audio portrait was a 30 minute loop that included: music, nature sounds; game announcer (snuck in a few audio moments from the recent Saints & 49ers game--which we lost !) . Clients were transported by these sounds to the football experience which, absent visual images, was uniquely stimulating in the way radio can be over television.