Maps? I got maps!

And I think I misaligned my spine, shot my shoulders, and crapped out my carpals workin' on the damn things!

I've been an increasingly eager Fringe fan over the last four years, and, I imagine like many of you, I have developed strategies for seeing the most best shows with the least amount of traveling. You know, if we could harness all the brain power that's been put to use a) organizing the Fringe infrastructure, b) preparing the plethora of Fringe offerings, and c) deciding what shows to see, why, we could...

... put on, and share in, the best damn Fringe this side of the globe! What better use of our creative energies?

Anyway, I have long longed for a single map that showed all the Fringe venues. There have been maps of clusters of venues, but both the venues and the clusters are expanding this year, and I wanted the big picture of how to get from A to B to Zed. So I developed my own, using the Fringe venues page on the Web site and some Web-based mapping services. I requested maps of each venue, then found the best combination of zoom and center that showed just (well, almost), the right balance of breadth and depth.

I finally found a view that covered all venues but the two Northeast ones, did some print screens and some Ctrl-V's and some Word picture editing, and created a single, fairly detailed map, with arrows to 22 of the 24 venues. Then I used the Fringe venue numbers and location clusters to tag and color-code each arrow. Then I did NordEast on another map. Then I displayed the text venue info on page 3, also numbered and color-coded.

Then I got really tired and stiff.

Then City Pages Fringe insert came out, and it turns out the wonderfully creative Fringe folk had read my mind (again) and produced a single, 24-venue, Fringe map!

But, mine has more detail. And I can reprint it when it gets crumpled and unreadable. And you can check mine out if you see me, (say at the Bryant-Lake Bowl Fringe preview tonight, or at Leslie Ball's Cabaret Fringe preview Saturday night). I'd be happy to e-mail you a copy, but keep in mind its a hair, I mean a beehive hairdo, over 2 megs. So your mail server may get indigestion.

Gotta go eat, and get over to the BLB. Then a good night's sleep, and tomorrow I take a vacation day from work and begin to map out my strategy. Which at present consists of seeing about 40 shows in the first two days of the Fringe. Now, my right brain don't need no stinkin' math, but something's not quite right here... More on my Fringe saturation strategy later.

Say Hey if you see me, post a comment if you'd like, but most of all, DANCE to the MUSIC of the FRINGE!