Grow House Operator Almost Gets Fried

[hausdok]

James P. Simmons (User name Mr. Electric) just sent me the attached pics and thought the brethren would enjoy them.

The pictures depict a home where the homeowner cut through the interior wall of the house, through the weatherhead mast conduit, and then tapped into the service ahead of his electrical meter in order to power all of the sunlamps for the pot farm he had inside his home. Pretty slick, huh?

Well, not so slick - his taps caught on fire and almost burned the house down!

Enjoy!

OT - OF!!!

M.

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[Jim Katen]

Lesson learned: Always hire a qualified licensed professional electrician to illegally steal electricity.

Back in my theatre days, we once stole power from the NYC subway system to power our lights. I'm proud to say nothing caught fire . . .

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[hausdok]

OK Jim,

Now that you've knocked the lid off that box, how about telling us all about your theater days?

OT - OF!!!

M.

[Joe Tedesco]

NYC subway system to power our lights! I saw that being done, I worked for Master Electric Company on 39th street.

Who was the Best Boy?

Did you do On the Water Front?

[Jim Katen]

Originally posted by Joe Tedesco

NYC subway system to power our lights! I saw that being done, I worked for Master Electric Company on 39th street.

Who was the Best Boy?

Did you do On the Water Front?

It was the late '70s. My memory is fuzzy from that time, but I'm sure it wasn't On the Waterfront. It might have been The Umbrellas of Cherbourg at the Public or it might have been one of a bunch of unmemorable plays at Vinette Carroll's Urban Art's Corps.

At the time I was going to school at SUNY Purchase (where I eventually got my degree in Lighting Design and Technical Production). Word got around that SUNY Purchase had a bunch of students who could do theatre electrician work for low pay and without an excess of attitude. So my friends and I often found ourselves loading shows in & out of all sorts of gnarly theatre spaces in lower Manhattan.

Tapping into the subway power supply wasn't my idea, but I seem to recall that it wasn't the first time it had been done. New York theatres, especially in those days and in that part of the city, were largely guerilla operations. The idea was to make things happen as fast as we could for the least amount of money possible. Laws were occasionally broken to support the greater good that we called art.

What years were you with Master Electric?

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[chrisprickett]

Oh crap Katen- I'm a SUNY Purchase guy too...sort of. I spent a lot of time there from '83-'89. Took a handful of acting classes, played a ton of Ultimate Frisbee, and have way too many sorrid "artsy-chick" stories. (the things we did on, and under, the Henry Moore)You don't know Mike Farnum, do you?

[hausdok]

6 degrees

[Jim Katen]

Originally posted by chrisprickett

Oh crap Katen- I'm a SUNY Purchase guy too...sort of. I spent a lot of time there from '83-'89. Took a handful of acting classes, played a ton of Ultimate Frisbee, and have way too many sorrid "artsy-chick" stories. (the things we did on, and under, the Henry Moore)You don't know Mike Farnum, do you?

Now that's just wierd.

I graduated in '81 and have't been back since. The name Mike Farnum isn't familiar, though that doesn't mean much. I'm lousy with names. We'll have to compare stories sometime.

BTW, if you've ever been inside the performing arts center, you might have seen some of my work. I bent conduit for the black box theatre (used to be called Theatre D) and ran wiring through much of the understructure of that complex as part of my work-study duties.

As for the Henry Moore . . . well, as one of my old girlfriends put it, "Man, that brass is COLD."

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[Brandon Chew]

SUNY Purchase ....

I worked in White Plains from 84-87 before I relocated to Albany. My wife is from Rye. Her brother was going to SUNY Purchase around that time for computer science.

Small world.

[chrisprickett]

Jim,

I have a vague recollection of black box theatre. I do have many memories of partying in the labrynth of catacombs that ran under the SUNY complex. Those were the days!