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.