Month: August 2005

Here we go again …

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” (Edmund Burke)

A good quote I picked up from the comments made on this blog entry … It took me a while to understand what was going on since it was linked to from the MSN site which had links to bLogs relating to Hurricane Katrina and this had nothing to do with that … But it raised the question of what I am doing here and what I have questioned before … The way that people happen upon this particular blog which is mine, but I am just posting my opinions, experiences … and day to day crap that some people might find interesting … I have said here that I don’t like certain things, and I have stated within these pages things that interest me and why …

This also relates to the bLog I have running on the OctaneCrew site … Not so long ago I was contacted by people that wanted certain information removed from that bLog … While I complied immediately, I didn’t have to … The result of leaving it there would not have been good for me though, so off it came … In fact, off it all came because I didn’t want to wonder about all of the prior postings on there … I now have a guideline to go by writing on that particular bLog and I stick with it … This is my personal bLog …

So posting things on my personal bLog is okay, right? Well, check out this article … Seems some companies will terminate you from employment based on things you post in your personal bLog … Is this right? Are we not allowed to have opinions? Seems if you’re out drinking at a bar with your friends and you share this information, that’s okay, but if you post it on your bLog, then you’re in big trouble …

It’s my hope that I am never in a situation that relates to my personal site here … I rant for myself and anyone else that happens on it … You might read it, or someone else might read it … Many people don’t know about it … I have hardly any comments to worry about their content … I also don’t think there needs to be some sort of ethics posted about how I deal with comments … I wouldn’t think that anyone would have to unless it were a corporate web site or something … If someone posts a comment I don’t like, I don’t see why I shouldn’t be able to remove it if I choose to … and I will …

Oh well, it’s just another post from me that shares in my frustration with the people that have the time to delve into this crap … Some people are just so touchy about things … I think there is some sort of law that says if something you’ve posted is true, no matter what the statement is, you can’t be sued for it … I hope I’m right about that …

The old look is back

I dug out my old style sheet from the old installation of WordPress and did some reading on how to make it work with the theme system in the latest release of WordPress … I got it working pretty simple enough and there is certainly some room to tweak some stuff … I think I will start here and implement in the things that I liked from other themes I ran across … I just need a theme that will stretch across the whole screen since I write so much …

Current Events

Another new look: The first thing you will notice is that I switched the look of the site. I try from time to time to make the thing more appealing as it’s my home page and I look at it everytime I fire up Firefox. I also upgraded the application that runs this site.

Gary Wilson dies: The first current event is that a sound guy called Gary Wilson died in a motorcycle accident early Wednesday morning … I assume he was driving back from a job Tuesday night. I didn’t know the guy at all but had met him a couple times. The first time I met him was when I was working at The Whiskey Tango. I showed up at my normal time, went into the booth and the PA was already on. (This was before we had a door to lock). So I power up the lighting PC and head to the DJ booth to start powering stuff up and that’s where he met me. “Are you the house guy?” Yes. “I got everything on the stage wired. I’m using my own mics and I tweaked out the monitors. I’m good to go so you can go home.” I said: Hi, my name’s Dave and the walked out of the DJ booth to finish my power up routine. I don’t know that The Whiskey Tango gave their approval for Gary to send me home for the evening? So, that was my first impression of the guy and I didn’t think it was a very good one.

The next time I saw Gary he was once again at The Whiskey Tango. When I arrived he was at his board and a full system was brought in because he was the FOH engineer that was working for Spellcaster doing Octane since their long-time sound company had given notice after 3 years together. When they had originally given noticed, I expressed my interest in the job with Octane. While Octane was weighing all their options with different production companies and doing auditions, Spellcaster was doing their sound. I also assume that Spellcaster also had the option of staying with Octane full-time. I was asked to give my opinion of the night Octane was there because I had sat in the sound booth while Octane performed numerous times when they had come through there before. My curse is that I’m honest. In so many words, I told them that Gary wasn’t doing them justice. Watching the INXS reality show lately, I think the words they use are appropriate. Gary wasn’t right for Octane. In other words, I didn’t say he was bad in order to better my chances, I just told them what I thought. And I swear on my kids lives, I fully expected that evening to have been a night of realization. I expected Octane to come in there with their Spellcaster production and sound just as awesome as ever. I fully expected to tell them that they sounded great and that it probably wasn’t worth me pursuing the position any longer. See, at that time I not only would have to bring my PA out of retirement, but I would also have to purchase a bunch more gear and do a lot of maintenance before I was ready. I fully expected to tell them that they should stick with Spellcaster and I would stick at The Tango. Such wasn’t the case.

The third time I met Gary was just weeks ago at The Ocean Drive. He showed up to mix The Benderz on my system. The Benderz were sharing the main stage with Octane that evening. I had no idea he was coming until he showed up. After the Octane event and me talking with various other people, I didn’t have nice things to say about Gary’s mix of Octane, nor did I have a high opinion of the guy since the first time I met him he told me to go home. So, if he was informed of my comments, he didn’t mention a thing and we both went on with our jobs for the evening. I attempted to accomodate him with whatever he needed and let him do his thing. That was the last time I saw him until I heard about him having the fatal accident. I don’t know what the cause of the accident was, but I assume drinking. I totally could be wrong, and Dave who does lights for Octane said that getting the guy to do a shot with them involved some arm twisting, but this could have been due to him being instructed that he wasn’t allowed to consume alcohol while working for Spellcaster, I don’t know.

Anyway, so my problem here is this; It’s never a pleasant thing to hear about somebody passing away, but it’s especially difficult when you feel for the loss (as I am no stranger to loss) but there is also this guilt that you didn’t like the guy. I guess I will go through this feeling again in time as there certainly are people who I will like and those who I will be indifferent to. Gary was 24 years old. It’s not fair that someone so young should have their life ended for whatever reason. I didn’t even know he was so young. He looked older to me.

I received the email from his company’s CEO and I sent this reply:

Here today, gone tomorrow … Life’s too short … sayings you hear from time to time but don’t realize how pertinent they are until something happens that affects you personally … Who would have thought that someone as young as Gary would be gone tomorrow? I certainly didn’t and have felt uneasy for many reasons since I heard about the accident Wednesday morning. It leaves me confused with reality or at least detached from it in some way for a moment … I think I met him only 3 times … First when he came in the Tango with Zero Cool and told me to go home … Second when he came in the Tango with Octane and lastly when he came to The OD to mix The Benderz … I didn’t know he was only 24 … and as a result of these meetings with him, I certainly didn’t know him at all. I am affected by his accident in a way that someone from “the team” is gone, and that’s never something anyone would ever want to have happen regardless of opinions. I guess there’s something to be said about the guy that he could leave an impression on me just running into him 3 times … I will never forget him but will never have a chance to know him the way others have. Please extend my sympathies however you see fit, to you personally or his family and friends.

Mortal Kombat Deception: This past week before starting the Out On the Town Brian Quinn’s band played at Abilene Monday night. He didn’t call me to mix. He had another guy go to South Carolina with him to do the festival cause I obviously couldn’t do it due to working with Octane. I guess that guy did a fine enough job so that Brian didn’t even contact me to do the Abilene show again. I’ve had mixed feelings about that too. So, rather than go to the show (which I thought I might do) I played Mortal Kombat Deception all night. I played a bit with my kids, and it’s a bit of a bloody game for kids. There are some deathtraps that my son would look away from the screen for, but he’s gotten pretty good at the game. I was almost near the end of the Konquest portion and I was spending a lot of time trying to beat Scorpion. Tanya before that was a pain to konquer as well. I think I beat her that Monday night, and then later in the week is when I sat there and tried to beat Scorpion. I tried several times and gave up to go through Konquest and get more koins to buy things in the krypt. I also found out how to unlock some of the other characters. So this one night, Thursday I think, I am trying to beat Scorpion again. My wife lays on the couch and I guess she fell asleep. You have to beat him 3 times. Sometimes I didn’t even beat him once. When I finally beat him two times, I say to my wife “Did you see that?! I was so close!” and she grunts … ‘Wha?’ … so I give her crap for falling asleep. I keep at it and I finally beat the guy 3 times and when he goes down I yell, “Yeah!” … I woke her up with my yell and she tells me to be quiet. I’m like I beat the guy! The guy I was trying to beat all week, finally I beat him! She’s not impressed. I was then able to go to the certain location to unlock another character after beating Scorpion finishes the Konquest part of the game. The last guy to unlock is Raiden, and you have to beat him in Konquest to do it. He’s very difficult to beat as well and I still haven’t done it.

If you read all of that stuff above about Mortal Kombat, the point of the story is this. My left thumb is killing me. My back hurts, my feet and calves hurt … It was a ball busting weekend with Octane. Little sleep and 3 jobs in 2 days. I stayed at a hotel Friday night into Saturday morning showing up there at about 5am and leaving at 9am. I didn’t sleep well cause I think I was afraid I wouldn’t wake up in time. Then sun all day and I got a bit of a burn. The last time I cut my hair I used a #1 and my scalp got burnt as well … First time that’s ever happened to me … When I scratch my head, it hurts. The Saturday afternoon show ended early enough that I drove the truck to my house and slept for about an hour to an hour and a half … My wife hadn’t expected me until Sunday morning, so she was out shopping. I asked that she wake me in time to go to that evening’s show. I slept better knowing she was going to come wake me up. That night’s show was supposed to be outside, but there was a prediction of rain so we played inside … Hopping out of the truck after parking it for the weekend my feet were killing me … my dogs are screaming … so I hope I will recover by this weekend. No pain, no gain.

The WebLog

I started bLogging July 28th, 2003 … If you go back to my first post, you will see the why’s and where’s … Whatever … So when I brought up a site to cover the crew that worked with Octane, I put a bLog on there … for the most part, it was just Alex and I bLogging about the past shows and maybe some incidental stuff that came along … I guess at some point it got kind of out of hand because we told mostly the truth and started giving our opinions on the encounters that we ran into at the various clubs we set up and broke down … It all came to a head when one club we play at didn’t particularly care for the comments that Alex had left about their club, and through whatever means, the agent that booked the room was alerted to our bLog and had print out in hand when he went in for a meeting with the owners … Anyway, shortly after that meeting, my phone rang and I took down Alex’s post … A while after that, and a few conversations following, it turned out I figured I would just take the whole bLog down …

The reason why I took the whole thing down was simple … Not only was there the events that had transpired that Tuesday following the previous weekend, I wasn’t sure that maybe some stuff may be looked into further by the vindictive parties that brought the original post to the attention of the agent … Surely, the agent himself doesn’t go to OctaneCrew.Com and check out what’s happening on the crew site … So it was obvious that there was a directed source there showing the way to “the good stuff” … This is when I decided that there may exist some other “good stuff” so I removed everything …

Prior to this last straw happening, there had been other conflicts rising out of my postings … People whom I thought “knew” me questioned the posts that I had made … Saying that it didn’t sound like me, and that my words were chosen calculatingly in that they could be construed multiple ways … Well, I was floored, and for the first time ever I edited one of my posts … After this incident I came to realize that people thought I had changed since I took the job with Octane … That I carried myself in such a way that I thought I was better than everyone else … If they only knew … I have to tell you I was way more confident in my house job rather than going club to club to national shows with Octane … There is so much more pressure in this … Now I constantly question my abilities as they’re described so often behind my back and to my face …

One of the things posted in my crew bLog was that I was questioning the way another sound guy was mixing a band … He had frequencies going that I thought to myself were harsh … I mentioned it to him and he brought them down in the EQ … Later that same date, those frequencies were back … So, I thought out loud in my bLog that it’s a sign of someone who’s losing their hearing to boost those frequencies because they can’t hear they as well … The guy who was running the stuff at the time I know to be a good sound engineer … So I was questioning what he was doing because I was wondering if I was doing it wrong … (Oh, he was mixing on my PA) … so since he was running it that way, I thought to myself that I was running it wrong … but then I conflicted in myself that I thought it was harsh, and I made it sound how I thought it sounded best … This is way more detail than in my Crew bLog post, but it’s the story behind the comment that set the world on fire …

People tell me after a set … it sounded great … and I don’t believe them … People whom I trust, I ask them how it sounded, and they say great and I don’t believe them … It is my dilemma that even though everyone says it sounds fine, I don’t believe them … It’s like a curse or something … There are times that I do think it sounds okay, but I pick apart everything and there is a flaw in everything I do in my opinion … I have recorded shows and brought them home … When I can listen at my own volume and pick apart those things that flew by that particular evening … There are some recordings that could pass for something to keep around … Maybe burn to CD and listen to every once in a while … But of all of them, I know there is something I could have done differently … I guess what it boils down to is that I’m insecure …

Well, the bLog thing has been on my mind recently … It has been bothering me the response I’ve been getting about it … People saying I’ve changed, etc … They seem to think working with Octane I have money falling out of my pockets and I go around stepping on people’s heads … I get crap for growing my sideburns long … Sheesh … I’m not going to get any tattoos, nor am I going to pierce my face up, so gimme the long sideburns to try to fit in with the band, okay? I’m not making huge amounts of money, but I am making about the same in two nights that I made in a week (six nights) at my house gig … Was probably a good move cause that gig has now gone down to three nights … I have gained way more in expenses though … Truck just cost me $675.00 to repair … Broke down on a Friday night, so I rented for Saturday night … that cost $275.00 … So there’s $950.00 in repair and rental … Then tack on about another $100.00 for fuel over the weekend … over a grand … I can tell you I didn’t make a G this past weekend …

My attitude hasn’t changed … The attitude seems to come from where I bring my PA system into … Like I even have a choice? Octane asks me to provide my sound system for all of their shows … they had to hear my PA system before I even was considered for the job … A lot of clubs have house systems installed … The rooms where I can bring my PA in and power it, Octane wants my PA in there … It does save a lot of hassle in the wear and tear department of some of these rooms … Octane is a loud rock band … In some of these rooms, being that loud is not possible because the PA while maybe adequate for the room and a regular party band, it’s not adequate for Octane … Some of the rooms, the PA is adequate, but the system owner is so fearful of things blowing up that he’s compressed the crap out of it … This only makes Octane sound worse … So the best solution is to bring in Octane’s (my) PA … I would think in some cases people would be happy about that … Whatever … It’s what Octane wants, and since I do this, I have this reputation now of demanding that my PA is used, etc etc … Welp, it’s what my employer requires of me … So damn the rep, I do what I have to do …

Ah, just venting again, and I think it’s okay to vent on my own personal web site … isn’t it?