Well, it has come and gone again. NACA. The National Association of Campus Activities show. And this year was, BY FAR AND AWAY, the best time for me I've had to date.
Let me explain briefly what this is all about.
NACA is an association of performers who get together and ply their wares to colleges all over this country. In it's own way, NACA is a big old trade show, not unlike the ones which the film and music and even the comic industry engages in. The difference with NACA is that members are showcasing themselves to their core audiences-the colleges.
This year's New England Regional NACA was held at the Center of Manchester in Manchester, New Hampshire. It was attended by close to 1,000 college students and numerous musicians, comedians, DJ's, and other performers.
Our primary role, meaning Video Excellence' primary role, is to document the three days of this event and produce the 10 minute highlight tape which precedes the final night's activities. While it is a task which Russ Dougherty, owner and operator of Video Excellence, can handle on his own, it's always much more fun with more than one. This year's shoot included Russ, Eric Anctil, who had composed some of the music and was responsible for the direction it took, and myself. So we have the one who blends into the background, the Zen Master and me-the one guy who hides from nothing and manages to make himself as obvious as possible.
More on that in a bit.
With the students set to arrive in Manchester beginning at noon on the Thursday, Eric and I left Massachusetts at around 9:30-fully loaded with snacks, medicinals(legal ones, I assure you), clothes and miscellaneous stuff. The plan was to meet Russ up there, as he was traveling in a separate vehicle because he had to leave on Friday night to come back in state and shoot a long-scheduled wedding. Suffice it to say, we made good time, landing at the hotel a few minutes after 12.
Grab the gear, grab any other essentials, put your game face on and go to work. And we did!
Trading off on the taping duties, Eric and I quickly became acquainted with the arriving students, including some who remembered me from last year(big hello to Merryl, Marnie and Sonya from Greenfield Community College, along with Jane and Christina from Wheelock-thanks for replacing that Rubik's Cube after all this time!).
Getting the preliminary shots out of the way, Eric and I went across the street for a quick bite. Just a small sandwich or two to tide us over until dinner that evening.
Oh...did I mention the guy in the front of the hotel who was carving an Alaskan Husky out of a tree trunk using only a chainsaw? Really cool stuff!
Shortly after lunch, we ran into Russ, who had been shooting at OUR hotel. See, this event was so huge that they book students, performers and video folks into three hotels in three different towns. Our place was in Bedford, New Hampshire-two exits away. Not only was Russ shooting students and the like, he was also setting up the equipment in our room.
Oh, did I forget to mention that we had to literally CUT this ten minute tape in our hotel room? Yeah...we did. And that was half the fun of it(I think!)
So, with almost three hours of 'on the job' time under our belt, we continued to shoot. This time, it was the afternoon's events for arriving guests. Temporary tattoos(I would have gotten one, but the line reached to about Maine) and mini-golf(also would have joined in, as Russ and I have been known to cut some nasty swaths across the astro turf) was the menu of the day. Nice shots, fun time.
Oh, did I mention this was when I met the crew from SHU? Let me explain. SHU is short for Sacred Heart University of Fairfield, Connecticut. And they had to be some of the most energetic, fun-loving students we met on the trip. Right from the get-go, they were holding court in the lobby with sheers and dance routines(honest!). They easily made my job of shooting good video that much easier. Remember-I cut my teeth on Lincoln High School students who couldn't say no to a camera.
With enough footage in the can to last a bit, we headed back to Bedford to freshen up, charge batteries and get ready for the introductory dinner that night.
Ah yes-there is nothing like a chicken dinner to soothe the aching stomach. Of course the pudding was stiff enough to hold three spoons, soon resembling the tribots from WAR OF THE WORLDS. And, despite out comic actions, the young ladies from Emmanuel College didn't run screaming from out sight(is it our luck or what? Last year Wheelock, this year Emmanuel. What is it with all girl schools and video folks? I don't know, but I'm sure not complaining!)
Following the opening address by Gail Stern(one of the most dynamic speakers I have heard in some time), it was time for the fun to begin-the showcases.
Now, the showcases represent NACA's choices for performers to do their best 20 minutes, in an effort to "showcase their talent" before a live audience. Showcasing is an honor afforded only a few. We were told that there were over 350 submitted tapes for possible showcasing at this year's New England NACA. When all was said and done, approximately 30 got the honor.
I live for showcases. It's a chance to get in the middle of the action with some major up and coming performers. And, when I mean get in the middle of the action, I'm not kidding. We have the opportunity to have all access passes, which allows us on the stage and backstage. Again, a rare opportunity which I relish. Thursday night's MC was comedian Scott Faulconbridge who nicely warned up the crowd for One People. This five piece band proceeded to rock the house for a solid 20 minutes. It's a very cool thing to see hundreds of college kids pile towards the front of the stage and groove.
And now you also know why we end up ON the stage-it's sometimes the only safe place to be!
Interspliced with comedienne Elvira Kurt(who had the audience in the palm of her hand until she drifted down the ELLEN path and lost them) and hypnotist Michael Anthony, was the band Domestic Problems. As with One People before them, they got the crowd out of their seats and into the action.
A little less than two hours after it began, the first showcase ended and it was off to the Marketplace, where the dealers hawked their wares and schools engaged in the ever popular School Swap. Trade your best left over promotional items, that's the motto of school swap! Eric and I traded the last of our Halloween candy which we had brought as munchies for this really funky glass he wanted from Emmanuel College. Sigh...the things you do!
It was somewhere around 1 AM when Eric and I got back to the hotel. Russ was already hard at work on cutting the video, having left us an hour or so earlier to begin the arduous task. This continued for some time. How long, I really couldn't say, because I crashed somewhere around 2:30 in the morning. All I know is that I woke at 9:30 and Russ had just gotten back from shooting some stuff on Friday morning. Grab a Power Bar, pop down some Ginseng washed down with Green Tea and it's off to the races again.
Highlights of the second showcase of the weekend included Beth Wood (a killer folk singer with a smoky voice), Butch Bradley(a comedian WAY out in space), Tiny Glover (tiny was a big misnomer for this weighty comedian) and Colorblind( a Charlotte based band that managed to lift the crowd out of its' seats and got them moving).
With this showcase shot, it was time to grab a bite(pizza...spinach, eggplant and anchovy, naturally!) and proceed to finish cutting this tape. So here we were, locked in the hotel room and racing against the clock. Our goal was to have this tape done by 8 PM so Eric and I could catch the evening showcase while Russ hit the road for home. As fate would have it, we met our self-imposed time limit and, by 8:30, Eric and I were inside the Armory, making our way to the stage.
At this point, things were kind of screwed up. The performance artist who was scheduled to appear had been replaced by some guy doing his best Buffet imitation. We caught the very end of the show and were waiting for this comedienne to make her way to the stage. Oops...another switcheroo! The comedienne was out and this band by the name of Mark Morris and the Catunes was going on-stage. And, following on the heels of the energy that Travellin Max had laced the room with, this crowd was ready to explode.
From the minute this band hit the stage, the room became electric. Songs filled the air, the crowd danced and screamed and sang along with them. People made their way to the stage and danced WITH Morris and company. That's when I saw Marnie try to leave the stage and be carried aloft through the crowd before landing back, daintily, on the stage once more.
And then the surfing began in earnest.
The band had just finished a lively, romping cover of a RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE tune and were ripping into another song when I saw this kid with the platinum dye job surfing through the crowd. Lurching forward, he made it to the stage, only to be escorted off my the stage crew. Another guy in the crowd was hoisted aloft, only to be launched forward over the crowd. I saw him come crashing down and really didn't think much of it. It's a pit...people fly all the time. Eric was filming at the time and I was just grooving on the scene.
That's when the hole in the crowd, like a gaping, bloody wound, opened up. People at the front of the stage were screaming and motioning to the road crew. I hollered at Eric, something along the lines of "something's gone wrong". The band stopped playing, the stage crew leapt into the crowd. It was like watching Altamont all over again, as the crowd continued to ebb and flow and move away from the very edge of the stage. As I made my way to my feet and towards the edge of the stage, I looked down, half expecting to see the guy who had been airborne only seconds before, laying crumpled in a heap. Instead I saw a girl-blonde, dressed in a white top and overalls. My mind freaked! I thought, for the briefest of instants, that it was this girl Christina who I knew from Wheelock College. The girl was screaming something about not feeling her legs and I freaked some more!
It was total chaos; like a really bad moment from a Fellini film.
I got off the stage and helped Tim Lorenz and his crew from Johnson and Wales get the crowd back to their seats. The hotel security showed up, the EMT's were there. The whole thing was a bad nightmare that I couldn't wake up from. For the first time since my mom died this past summer, I could feel some very strong emotions raging inside me and trying to break out. I felt tears coming into my eyes as Eric held me tight and did that psychic calming thing he does so well.
At the point where they had stabilized the girl, I walked away. I had to get as far away as possible-somewhere where I could just chill out and not let those gathered there see how upset I was.
What I didn't realize until the following day was that the video company providing the live feed of the showcases was FILMING this whole thing-providing a grisly 30 foot high image on twin screens for all to see. So, in reality, my few tears wouldn't have meant a tinkers' damn to those there-they were getting the whole enhiclada live and in living color!
From that moment on, the mood of this conference was forever altered. It was a mellow feeling which permeated the air. Later that night, after the showcase and the marketplace, there was a coffeehouse. Eric and I entered the room and we were greeted by the loving shouts of the crew from SHU. I made my way to them and proceeded to tell them how much that meant to me, especially after the events of earlier in the evening. It was a tremendous feeling to be that appreciated by people who, until the day before, were total strangers to me.
So here we were-two hundred people sitting in the dark, grooving on the music of John Akers, Lezlee, and Kate Barclay. You could literally feel the emotion in this room; the love in the air. It was a cosmic experience which I could tell you about and try to explain but it wouldn't make a difference. You HAD TO be there...you HAD TO feel it for yourself.
It was well after two in the morning when Eric and I got back to our room and talked a bit before crashing. Saturday morning. Another day in New Hampshire. Another day away from my wife. It was the point where I finally got the feeling of what life on the road was like. I wasn't sure if it was Saturday. I wasn't sure WHAT day it was. All I knew was that there were two more showcases today and that, after last evening, nothing would ever be the same again.
The first set opened with a rousing performance by the Jen Shankman Band, who we had talked with at their booth during the previous two days. This was followed by an amazing performance by Leslie Nuchow. The woman's voice, the vibe in the room, with this crowd which just the day before had been jumping and screaming and now sat passively, all created an aura of magic throughout the hall. I could feel it. Eric could feel it. Every living soul could feel it.
And that feeling didn't go away. You could feel it that evening before the awards banquet, where 500 college kids were on one side of the glass doors screaming at us while we just smiled and took it all in. You could feel it during the showing of our final video, although you couldn't HEAR it because the video company TOTALLY f**ked up our presentation to the point that Eric and I were screaming at each other while all our hard work went down the drain. You could feel it during the final showcases, where Orbit did their best Sonic Youth imitation and Wine Field ripped it up with a killer version of "All along the Watchtower".
And you could definitely feel it during the dance party afterwards, when Eric got to talk to the injured girl from Friday night who explained that, despite her injuries, her "butt could still move" and she went out into the crowd and danced the night away.
We sat, we talked, we hung out with Marnie and Sonya and Christina and all the great folks from SHU. It was the ultimate end to the ultimate emotional roller coaster of a weekend.
It was close to 3:30 before we hit the sack on Sunday morning. In just a few hours, we would be packing our gear and heading home to Massachusetts with the memory of the elated feelings we felt during these three days still ringing in our heads. And as I lay my head on the pillow, one thing came into my mind. "How many days is it until next year's NACA?"
So, in it's own way, this issue of THE PODIUM is dedicated to all those people who changed my life in so many ways that weekend.
To Joanie for allowing me, at a very crucial time in our lives, to go in the first place
To Russ for allowing me to make a trek which could have been shot by one.
To Eric for being the best brother I never had and for keeping me together during these three days.
To Marnie for the much needed back rub before the final showcase.
To the mystery girl who had her belly tattooed-if anyone knows her, Eric would like to find her!
To Lee, Laura and Julie from Bridgewater State College for saddling us with Julie's butterfly wings. It was a nice gesture, but we felt they were more at home at Woodward Hall than they were in my back seat.
To Joanna, Kate, Christina and Nicole from Emmanuel College for providing us with one lasting image at the end of the final Marketplace
To Christina, Jane and the rest of the ladies from Wheelock-thanks for providing me with one more memory to add to mom's keychain wall.
And most of all, to Henry, Mike, Diana, Caitlin, Karyn, Peter, Heidi, Christine, Michelle, Lucie, Brandi, and Angela from Sacred Heart University-thank you all for making me feel welcome, accepted and loved all at once. you guys were the coolest! Thanks from the bottom of this old heart for making me feel young again.
Keep reading. Keep dreaming. And, since this is the LAST issue of 1998, have the happiest of holidays. We'll see you in 1999.