Nine Inch Nails Rehearsal Videos

Videos of their rehearsal for their upcoming tour were recently released on the Nine Inch Nails website. It will give you an idea of who you can expect to see alongside Trent Reznor on the stage this summer. Each video is a rehearsal of a song off their new album The Slip (available FREE online) which was just released. Below are images that link to each video, click them to play the video of that song.

It is safe to say there will be plenty of songs off their new album in the setlist for the show. I am sure this isn’t the last thing they will do before the show so stay tuned to this blog and we will be sure to keep you in-the-know about any videos/songs/graphics that they offer up on their site.

Videos Hosted and Available at NIN.com :: Originally Released at Pitchfork.tv

Go Blue! Ticket Giveaway

*THIS CONTEST HAS ENDED*
I know what you are thinking, “What? Another Giveaway?” After hours of trial and error, various experiments, field research and rigorous testing, I can finally confirm once and for all that there can never actually be too much of a good thing. With that settled, we thought it would be great to run another giveaway on the blog. The show of choice this time around is the highly anticipated Blue Man Group : How to be a Megastar Tour 2.1 which is sure to be one of the most exciting and elaborate shows this year. One random entrant will win a pair of tickets to the show. To enter in the giveaway, we are asking you to comment with the bands/groups/shows that you would like to see come to Rupp Arena. We definitely get a fair share of ‘megastars’ on the arena floor, like the Blue Man Group, but there are so many events out there that we sometimes miss ones that you would love to see.

Follow these easy steps to enter:

• Leave a comment on this post.

• Include in the comment your top event (or more than one if you would like) that you would like to see come to Rupp Arena. These could be musical acts, sports events, or any other type of event.

• Be sure to leave the comment under the email address you want us to contact you at if you win

It is quick, painless, and lets us know what you would like to see come to Rupp Arena so we can try to book them. We will once again run all the comments through our super-awesome-state of the art-crazy-monkey operated-random-post comment-picker-machine to select a winner. Since it is random, as long as you make sure that you suggest at least 1 event you would like to see, then you have just as good of a chance as anyone else who enters. Please enter only once as all duplicate entries will be removed. Need some encouragement? I have just the right kind of thing…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWTCVEXOCQg]

The contest will be running starting today, April 17th until Wednesday, April 23rd at 5pm EST. The winner will be announced the following day, Thursday, April 24. The contest will run for about a week, and then we will announce the winner the day afterward which will still allow you plenty of time to make plans for the show that following Sunday, April 27th. With our usual recap of the show, we’ll post a picture of the winner and their guest!

Let us know what event(s) you would like to see at Rupp Arena below!

Sweet Sixteen Time Lapse

Sweet Sixteen took place a few weeks ago but it’s worth bringing up again so you can check out another of our time lapse videos…this time of the ENTIRE Sweet Sixteen tournament. Before you watch, take a look at some interesting stats Rupp’s Concessions Manager, Brian McMillin, compiled from the event.

117,212 - Total Number of People in Attendance
110,000 - Items Sold at Concessions
6,230 - Gallons of Soft Drinks Slurped
2,000 - Pounds of Popcorn Popped
700 - Gallons of Ice Cream Enjoyed
17 - Football Fields of Hot Dogs Scarfed (6,100 feet)
16 - Teams Looking to Make Their Mark in History
15 - Intense Games Played in the Tournament
8 - Sessions of Games Played
2 - Steinway Grand Pianos Worth of Meat Consumed (2,732 pounds)
1 - Amazing Tournament to Remember for Many Years

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzR8SVHk7p0]

Three Days, Three Events, Forty Thousand People

You may remember a weekend back at the beginning of March where there were some events going on. The staff remembers it well since it was one of our busiest weekends this year. Earlier in that week was the Linkin Park concert which also marked the official launch of this blog. That weekend was the George Strait concert on Friday, Monster Jam on Saturday, and then UK Hoops (University of Kentucky Women’s Basketball) was on Sunday. Amidst the madness, someone around the office thought about how cool it would be to show a time lapse of the entire weekend. All three events vary so much from one another and require a lot of setup which would make a time lapse interesting to watch. WKYT was kind enough to run with the idea and set up a camera in one of the spotlight sections above the upper arena. It turns out that the video was a great idea. Everyone around the office enjoyed it a lot, and even the people who were here all weekend found it interesting to step back and take a look as it all unfolded. For you viewing pleasure, we added some music, some time stamps, and uploaded it to our Youtube page.

* The following took place in an undisclosed building (psst… Rupp Arena) between the dates of February 29st and March 2nd. This has been captured from actual events and is not a dramatization. This post will self destruct in two and a half minutes. *

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQjBBxtOVe0]

Bill Keightley Memorial Videos

I had the chance to attend the memorial for Bill “Mr. Wildcat” Keightley last night at 6 PM in Rupp Arena. There was a good show of fans and supporters, but the most amazing aspect was the amount of coaches and players there to pay their respects. Among the players were this past year’s team, as well as Kenny Walker, Jeff Sheppard, Jay Shidler, Kyle Macy, Dwayne Casey, Cameron Mills, Scott Pagent, and Walter McCarty as well as many many more. Beyond the players, there were many coaches who were good friends with Keightley that were present. Three of the five coaches and Keightley served under were there (Joe B. Hall, Rick Pitino, Billy Gillispie, with Tubby Smith’s flight being delayed on his way to the service), as well as John Pelphrey (former player and current head coach of Arkansas), Billy Donovan (former assistant coach and current head coach of Florida), Rick Stansbury (native Kentuckian and current head coach of Mississippi State), and Jeff Morrow (head coach of a Kentucky high school basketball team). there were some great speeches given, but my favorite by far came from an unlikely source, Rick Pitino. Here is a video of the great speech Rick gave last night.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqTv8PA0Bd0]

It is easy to say that Bill Keightley impacted many people’s lives. He turned boys into leaders, nervous and youthful coaches into experienced veterans, and anyone he met into a friend. One of the overlooked things he did was not only prepare college athletes for pro sports, but people for whatever life they lead. There are doctors, real estate agents, firemen and more than all dawned a jersey during school.

To see all the speeches as well as the tribute video, you can CLICK HERE and view sections of the memorial that someone captured from TV last night and put up on Youtube. You can also stop by the news page on ESPN and on WKYT to view all the kind and thoughtful comments at both places.

Fight, for the Blue and White

This past Sunday was UK’s last game of the regular season. Since it also happen to be our last home game of the season, it was Senior Day! That’s right, UK fans everywhere gave a proper farewell to Ramel Bradley and Joe Crawford at center court prior to the night’s game. Not only did the fans show their support, but a video played of Randolph Morris wishing them well, and their former teammate Rajon Rondo from the Boston Celtics presented them with their jerseys.

It is fair to say that the team wanted to return the appreciation to the fans and planned to end the season on a good note. Early in the game, Florida lead by 9 points while Kentucky was busy playing catch up. Once we caught up though, we took it all by storm. Around half time, the scores were very close with Kentucky leading by only 2 points. After a nice rest, they stormed back on the court and swept up the Gators by going on a 15-0 point run and getting the lead by a good margin. Near the end of the game, Florida was able to catch up some and make Kentucky earn the victory. Below is a quick clip I took from the sidelines of the fans getting into the game and ‘backseat’ reffing from their seats.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WEOMoqh6w8]

For some photos from court-side, check out our Senior Day set on our Flick page. For more stats on the game, be sure to check out the Box Score and Play-by-Play on the UK Athletics site. While you are over there, you can read their recap of the game for more detail on each play as well as more specifics about the stats of each player.

People Behind the Curtain

Although the Wizard of Oz was great and powerful, perhaps he misspoke when he said “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” With productions of the scale that take place in Rupp Arena, perhaps it is the ‘people behind the curtain’ who should be given the most attention (except for the event itself of course). When you go to an event keeping the video production in mind, it can seem almost daunting at the amount of well edited videos that are displayed on the LED screens. As a good example, take note of the eRUPPtion Montage I posted up yesterday. Numerous montages like that are made for nearly every event that happens at Rupp Arena (be it a basketball game, concert, truck pull, etc.).

Each event definitely has it’s fair share of video production, but compared to a UK Basketball game, all our other events fall short. Of course that should not discredit the amount of work that goes into each show at Rupp Arena, but is more to emphasizing the amount of video production that goes into a single basketball game. This past Sunday, during Senior Day for UK Basketball, I was able to step inside the video production room and take some photos and a short video. Below is a clip from during the game where there are many tasks being done without a hiccup by our experienced crew.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxtC5Jg_uwQ]

It is one thing to have to produce a bunch of videos for an event and play them in the right order. It is another thing entirely to have to capture and play video on-the-fly, switching between multiple cameras, and getting the best shot for a particular situation. On top of that, there are trivia, montages and replays that have to be done and inserted into the gaps during the game. Not only is this done once, but for every UK Basketball game, men and women. That is a total of twenty-five times just this season.

To get a better sense of being in the room and seeing all the action happen, as well as the many knobs, switches and buttons that I strategically avoided to prevent meltdown, have a look at the Video Production Room set on our Flickr page. There are quite a few shots there for you to feast your eyes on. Next time you attend an event at Rupp Arena, pay attention to the many elements that go into that show. Who knows, if you like the event a lot, maybe you can treat the video production crew to a hotdog from the concessions stand.