Shows abroad

[smokeAndMirrors]

There is a possibility I might be doing shows with the band in Turkey next year. Has anyone done laser displays there, and are there any oddities I ought to be aware of in terms of requirements, shipping, electric power (I'm from the UK - are they 240V there?), health and safety and so on?

[mixedgas]

There is a possibility I might be doing shows with the band in Turkey next year. Has anyone done laser displays there, and are there any oddities I ought to be aware of in terms of requirements, shipping, electric power (I'm from the UK - are they 240V there?), health and safety and so on?

Be aware that Islamic culture, depending on the local variant, may not like "Graven Images", so be prepared with graphics that are abstract and shape based, not just representations of God's creatures. On the other hand Ataturk went out of his way to make Turkey secular just so he could unite the place, so you might ask your hosts what the balance between abstracts, images, and beams should be.

They do LOVE their abstracts in the middle east. The local cultures have names for many of the patterns. Since Turkey is borderline Europe, you again, may need to strike a balance. Or you may get away with anything tasteful.

Steve

[smokeAndMirrors]

I guess I'd better get rid of my "Mohammed doing child whilst himself being done by a pig" cartoon then

Seriously: it's all beam work anyway, but that's an aspect I hadn't considered. Cheers!

[mixedgas]

I guess I'd better get rid of my "Mohammed doing child whilst himself being done by a pig" cartoon then

Seriously: it's all beam work anyway, but that's an aspect I hadn't considered. Cheers!

5 months setting in a very, very, boring "History of Middle East and Islam" class in college finally paid off, once... It was boring because the guy who taught it picked a very lame thin paperback book for the course.

So I googled Pigs and Islam and got more interesting reading in 10 minutes then I did in that entire 5 months.

...I just read up on the "pork" thing, seems the ban is based on parasites, plus eating nasty wastes, and other things that make the pig unsuited for parts of the middle east as a food source, the pig is otherwise considered one of God's creatures and a needed one at that. In Islam, you can't touch them or eat them, but you are not expected to hunt them to extinction as they are a needed scavenger "to clean the Earth". Goes for all Abrahamic religions, including Judaism and Christians, from the Old Testament.

... It seems a colonel in the Philippine Insurrection came up with the idea of shooting Terrorists with bullets dipped in Pig's blood and fat, and burying terrorists face down within Pig skins, to prevent entry to Heaven, let a few of the terrorists/local heros watch, and then released them. Word got around and the attacks stopped, for fear of repelling one's 72 virgins. The concept has stayed around for decades. A bit more checking says God gets to decide who comes in, and that a Martyr's body in Islam is considered so pure that it need not be washed before burial. A bit more checking shows that the commanding General, one "Black Jack" Pershing,(Very famous dude) probably thought the whole idea disgusting and repugnant.

It seems the proscribed cure is to wash the parts of your body that touched the pig with a mixture of Earth, Stones and Water once, and then wash it six more times. Seems like a good way to scrub off parasitic worms to me.

Very interesting...

Steve







Steve