Editor’s Note

For many years, I provided audio gear and services for a charity event in the L.A. area. When I started doing it, I had crap gear and only a very basic idea of what I was doing. I was the quintessential guy in the band who owned the PA and charged them as such. As the years went on and I provided more and better gear and service, my price went up. Because it was a charity, I cut my normal price by about 25 percent.

There is a joke about sound guys that, while it does not shine the best possible light on us, causes every sound person I have ever told it to to either laugh or nod because it rings so true.

Q: How many sound guys does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A: 10. One to do it and nine to stand around telling each other how much better they could have done it.

It is not often that in the same three-hour period you get to see the promise of the future and a living example of the greatness that got us here in the first place. That probably sounds confusing, so allow me to do what I do…

We are all hoping that the coming year is going to be better than the one that just passed and I am very much among those hoping. I mean, how long can it go on? And entertainment is more immune to downturns than other sectors of the economy, right?

Last month I had the best work assignment in the company, hands down.  I was asked to travel (OK, traveling sucks but it got me that last Southwest roundtrip I needed to qualify for a freebie, and anyway, it gets better…) to New York to cover the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concerts.

So often-at least for me—events that end up changing my life seem so trivial at the time they happen that when, usually years later, I try to look back at them I get many of the details wrong and this is very much one of those cases.

When was a teenager I lived just a few blocks from the local elementary school and we used to go over there on weekends, hop the fence and play basketball. We went there for a few reasons, It was close. It was a “real” court and much better than someone’s driveway and 8-foot hoops made us feel like NBA stars even though we all pretty much sucked.

For the past couple of weeks I have been working with a couple of “veteran” sound guys trying to put together a tribute to one of the giants of live event audio industry. I have always thought that we tend to wait too long to pay tribute to people who deserve it and that we should do it while they can still see and appreciate it. It has been a moving and humbling experience.

Yes I am a pirate

            —Jimmy Buffett

As we head into the summer season—even in a flat-out crappy economy—it means time for festivals, fairs and other outdoor one-offs. We may be coming out of the mire a little earlier than other places but things at least appear to be slowly picking up in Las Vegas. After a really slow few months, more than one company I know of out here is running up to three shows deep some weekends.

It was one of those deals you can’t turn down. With how digital everything in my world has become, there is no such thing as enough hard disc space.  In addition to the 150GB in my MacBook Pro I carry a 400GB portable and the iMac on my desk at home has 250GB internal and—until recently—five external drives sitting behind it (and that does not count the 2TB network drive just filled with music).

A good friend of mine said these words to me a couple of weeks ago. The “wazzup with you?” call had turned to some rumors of dirty deeds done dirt cheap in the live audio biz. Not gonna name any names or even give details on any situations. The idea here is not to call anyone out but to remind us all that in audio, as in life, what goes around comes around.