Arriving in Stavanger

Javel (as they say here in Norway)
I have arrived in Stavanger and as the bus stop poster below shows the Nu-Music Festival (which DIAL-A-DIVA is part of) is about to get underway.

The performer schedule is now closed. It is looking amazing I have to say. An incredible range. Diverse and wonderful talent from literally every corner of the globe. YAY!
Although most of my time & remaining mind power is still focused on the changes and additions to the performer schedule and the wonders of spreadsheet management, being here is a refreshing step into the physical. The picture below shows the office unit which is currently under construction. Petite and perfect. Tomorrow will see us applying undercoat and Wednesday will be painting day - shiny diva green, diva yellow and diva pink of course.



Yes, things seem to be going pretty smoothly. The Stavanger2008 team seem to be really on the case. No major stresses or problems thus far (I am firmly touching the wooden desk as I write that!). Today I have seen Greg's wonder computer for the first time which Trond picked up from London last week. It is now in the hands of Lars from the Stavanger City Council, who is setting it up to work with council network. Greg will arrive on Wednesday and tech testing will happen on Thursday.

Time Elastic

Time is melting, and yet, it is not quite pliable enough yet.
I have been going through the schedule - with lots of help from Bert and picking up on errors, overlaps other breaks in the time/space continuum of Saturday 8th September. Although there is nothing impossible as yet, there are still many artists who we'd like to give time to (that isn't in the middle of the night for them) and not much space in the schedule to play with. I am currently taking a crow bar to the 24 hour clock.

Cat is catching up with those still lost in myspace.
Jill is letting potential listeners know about DIAL-A-DIVA.
Trond (Stavanger2008) is travelling from Stavanger to London to collect the computer that will be the streaming server from Greg.
Greg is finalising the webcam details which he'll send out any minute now and has got the DIAL-A-DIVA message up on our phone number. He is also corresponding with Aasmund (numusic) about any remaining tech rider issues...
I believe that there is also a most wonderful office unit being constructed, which I'm looking forward to seeing next week.
Anne Dorthe (Stavanger2008) has co-ordinated a team of 17 volunteers for the event. Some of whom will have the ability to communicate in Russian and French as well as Norwegian and English which will increase our teams ability to understand the performers.
The various mail outs to press and interested parties has happened, much to the surprise of my local Post Office who had to deal with over 400 envelopes of posters and flyers going all over the world.
Audhild and Bente (Stavanger2008) are working on the publicity for Norway.

There is still a pretty long 'to-do' list but it looks like things are coming together :-)