I told him to stop over, and I would make the copy no problem.  I have a Macbook Pro and a Windows PC where I was, so no matter what, we’d make a copy.  I ended up using a trial version of Toast I got with Cubase 5.  But even so, I would have tried the FREE Mac software Burn if Toast hadn’t stepped up.  It was a click, “Copy” and it asked how many copies you wanted.

While we waited for the process to complete, Tom reiterated his DVD copying experience and frustrations.  He was to the point where he was going to go out and buy a new computer to make this work!  He thought maybe his PC was too old for such a task as copying a DVD.  I said, “If you’re going to buy a new computer, you should buy a Mac.”  I think that was Monday, August 17th.  I saw Tom a week later, Monday, August 24th and he told me he bought an iMac.  He was going back to the store to have a one on one session with someone who knows Logic.  I told him Cubase 5 or Digital Performer 6 were good choices as well … and you can always play with GarageBand.

I hardly ever touch a Microsoft Windows machine anymore unless I have to.  All my servers are FreeBSD and the Mac software (OS X) is FreeBSD based.  The interface is so much more intuitive and I venture to say “cleaner” …  It’s much more of a pleasure to develop web sites and programs on and mix music as well … Come on Windows people, once you go Mac, you never go back!  Or so they say … but who are “they” actually?  Probably a bunch of satisfied Mac users! =)

There are so many times that I think of something to blog, but I never get around to it.  I think of the situation, the story and everything, but then I don’t get to it.  Or, maybe the paranoia of what I would be posting and the opinion that may come of it, or too much information shared …  Blah, tough living in this day and age, isn’t it?  The age of immediate consequences from something you may post online.  The Internet is everywhere and immediate.  Anyway, here are the current events:

Hosting: There have been several instances in the hosting area that have devastated me. One, I had a disk crash on a machine that I never thought the disk would crash.  Like, I had it in my mind that that was a pristine machine and I didn’t have to worry about it.  It’s where all my stuff was and where I could just ssh in or sit at its console and update code on the fly … No backups.  Gone. Now I have everything important on RAID5 and my personal machines have Time Machine running.

Verizon is a huge thorn in my side.  My last mile is Verizon.  Verizon is copper.  Verizon wants to run FIOS (fiber) in Philadelphia.  Comcast rules the video market in Philadelphia.  Seems contacting politicians is the only way Verizon FIOS will come to Philadelphia.  There is nothing more than I want right now is FIOS to be in Philadelphia because my connection speed would greatly increase immediately.  How this affects me now is that Verizon doesn’t want to run any new copper, they only want to run FIOS.  I have had a terrible time as of late with my connection and this is the problem.  It happened the first time in May and was dormant until Christmas Eve, from then on it was daily bouncing until the last copper pair change.  Verizon has been on site over 3 times.  It’s too late, the customers that this affected the worst have already found other solutions.  Not cool Verizon, not cool at all.

Octane: Sound for Octane continues, but with almost every venue having house sound installed, I can’t rememer the last time I needed my PA.  For that matter, the last time I had the PA in the trailer, the trailer was burglarized for one bass bin and one monitor.  They took nothing else although much was in there as well as all the band’s gear that was strewn to just the outside of the trailer.  Makes absolutely no sense.  I still haven’t been able to sell the truck since replacing it with the van and trailer.  I should try that on eBay again.  While Octane remains booked fairly steady for a band in their position, there are weekend nights that I am sitting home.

Fosterchild: I have mixed Fosterchild a couple times since the lineup change and circumstances warranted it.  It was a welcome change from the norm.  Apparently we’re going on tour soon!

Out On the Town: I have started working with the paper again. This time I am doing the layout on the computer.  Another reason for my Mac purchase. (Still steamed about that one [previous entry], but I will survive.  I have rationalized some things away.)  Hopefully this will help with the ultimate goal of sitting on my ass the rest of my life.

Windows: I found out that MS Access doesn’t scale, or self sustain.  Don’t know how to put it, but left to its devices, a web site utilizing an MS Access database will cause ASP to hang on a Windows Server.  The database needs to be regularly reorganized.  I can tell you for a fact that this will not happen on any other platform.  Thanks again Windows!  Way to mess up everyone’s life on your server cause you can’t handle something and don’t report on it either.

Health: My health is getting better. I had my last cigarette September 27th, 2008 at 10:45pm.  This was right before Octane’s first set (acoustic) outside at The Whiskey Tango.  During the set, pressure mounted in the center of me chest and by the end of the set I was getting sharp pains.  I didn’t go out for a smoke after the set, I took it easy but sharp pains came and went and I generally didn’t feel right.  I was getting scared and I decided that I thought I should go to the hospital.  I spent the weekend in the hospital while they did all sorts of fun tests.  All tests were okay.  I then went back to have a camera shoved down my throat and that turned up acid damage in my esophagus, stomach and duodenum.  I was told to take 4 Prilosec daily.  The anesthetic for the tube test was wild, like snapping your fingers, test done and two and a half hours went by.  I haven’t smoked since and have started dieting and exercising.  I may get a Brazilian and wear a bikini or thong to the beach this summer?  … and everyone knows how I love the beach.

The Whiskey Tango: I went back to work at The Whiskey Tango May 20th 2008 to fill in the open nights with Octane and to do the off nights.  Ronnie quit to go work for Spellcaster down the shore for the summer with more nights.  Since then The Whiskey Tango changed ownership and management and those off nights aren’t happening anymore.  Status there is up in the air right now.

Coding: I recently updated some old ASP pages I did way back in the day for the Bigg Romeo site.  That was fun.  I am progressing on new web development projects and I am very excited about that.  Also thinking of ways to further promote the hosting through a better interface.  The new trickles in slowly anymore and Verizon isn’t helping with the departed.  Here’s hoping FIOS comes through.  They are sure to support that endeavor more than they’ve helped me now, right?

OH! and the biggest thing about all of this is that anything new will be in a new location!  All the servers, routers, switches, computers, etc. will be moved to a brand new location.  We will be moving but still don’t know when yet.  I am hoping for A.S.A.P., but that’s me.

That’s all I can think of right now.  Any questions?

I’m surprised that I haven’t updated my site, my bLog since September … I guess I have poured much of my offline time into my online vLogs on the OctaneCrew site … I’ve found talking into a camera much easier than doing this typing thing, but once all the video is recorded, editing can become a lengthy process …

So what’s new since my last post in September? Happy New Year!

Web Hosting: Nothing much new in the hosting world. I’ve been trying to get hold of Savvis to renew my contract. Three years has finally come and gone in December, but getting hold of my account representative has been more than difficult. I finally got him on the phone about a week ago and haven’t heard back yet. This has been the worst response from Savvis to date. I think their sales force is not as professional anymore, or I got the one guy who doesn’t keep up on things … I got a quote from them about a year ago for $250 less per month, but I was told I couldn’t renew my contract until it was up. When talking to my rep last week, he tells me the price has gone up. If this is the case, I will be switching companies, no matter how much the hassle.

The main Windows server crashed beginning of October. The machine went on its merry way into Lalaland … I was able to put the drive into an external enclosure and suck off the data onto a new installation which made the switch fairly transparent to those who just use web services … The mail handled by FreeBSD kept flowing, and the registry infomation that the Windows products keep there was able to be saved so no renewing of passwords, etc was necessary … What a relief that was …

Octane: Much the same as they continue to play every weekend on the Philadelphia club circuit. They did have a highlight November 30, 2006 when they appeared on the Opie & Anthony satelite XM Radio show where they played on the “walkover” … a deluge of CD orders poured in that I dutifully got out in the post … They were just on again yesterday morning, and again, the CD orders are coming in from across the country …

The crew is starting fresh in that the crew that I inherited when I started with the band are all but gone. The last remaining guy has given notice and will be done as soon as he can be replaced or he gets sick of waiting for us to find someone. My son started coming out to shows and he has fell into duties that he’s never done before … Of course this means I have to do much more work than before … It’s not been fun the last couple weeks … Hopefully we’ll find some new crew that can get the job done as before …

Father-in-Law: My father-in-law Edward Walter Andrews passed away January 2, 2007. He was born in December 29, 1925 … He had a building of fluid in his chest a week or so before Thanksgiving and was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. He never came back out of the hospital. I thought for sure that he would have come home. For my children and I, that was the last that we’d ever seen him … My wife went daily to visit him in the hospital … Again, I thought for sure he would get past this … He was a big burly cement finisher … Never thought that it would get the best of him …

Since I’d known him, he didn’t work … Already retired … He did keep himself busy though … You couldn’t keep him away from tinkering with something … When I was dating my wife, he’d help with the car if there was a problem, or I should say the “report” of a problem … Like my wife would mention that I was having a problem with my brakes … While sitting there waiting for her to come out of the house, out he would come, “Problem with the brakes?” … and you would want to blow it off and say yeah, but I know about it and I am taking steps to rectify the brake trouble. “Pop the hood.” … oh no, well, I will humor him … He checks the brake fluid level and stuff … “Need to bleed the brakes” and then we spend the next 30-45 minutes bleeding brakes and it’s fixed … He wouldn’t take no for an answer when it came to fixing things … While the brake bleeding went well, sometimes everything didn’t go as planned …

Once we moved into our house, there were things around the house that were broken and I would sometimes come home to find my father-in-law working on things … I would ask my wife why he was here, and she would say that she told her mother of the problem and he came over to fix it … So, sometimes the fix would be quick, other times he would explain to me what the problem was and make frequent trips to the hardware store getting what was needed and trying the next steps on to fix the problem … While we may not be able to use whatever he was fixing at the time, eventually he’d get the right thing from the hardware store and off we’d go …

I guess I should have mentioned that he was hard of hearing, so in these processes, you would say something to him, and his reaction wasn’t always such that you’d know if he heard you or not … It could have been lack of hearing or determination, not sure which so that added to part of the mystery … He would sit at family gatherings and be in his own little world … While everyone is discussing something at some length, he’d blurt, “Th’say it’s gonna rain tomorrow.” or he’d comment on a sports player playing on the team that was playing on TV … He was a Philadelphia fan …

Although very silent while in the family gatherings, you could catch him beaming at his grandchildren … Not knowing what was going on in his semi-silent world of his head, but he was entertained by his grandchildren … From across the room, he would make gestures to catch the children as they would fall … Ah, he was a character … My wife would laugh when telling me of things that her father would do … He was a price watcher, often going to 3 different supermarkets to catch the sale at each one … Often times, haggling on prices when prices aren’t for haggling … Being concerned with parking spots on a street etc … Having conversations with people and when they’d gone lean down and ask, “Who was that?”

My kids have lost their Pop and we took the kids to the viewing, mass, interment and luncheon … While the 8 year old broke down at the end of the viewing, the 5 year old was just about at comprehension … There was debate on whether the children should have attended and I was adamant about them going … They hadn’t seen their Pop since before Thanksgiving and never visited him in the hospital with all the tubes in him … They needed to see him sleeping in his casket and laid to rest … They did want to visit him in the hospital, but my wife also expected him to come back home as well … I still can’t believe that congestive heart failure won him over as well … I fully expected him to live forever …

Well, that sums up my major life since my last post. If anything else comes up, I will update.

This past Wednesday, February 1st 2006 Octane opened up at the TLA for Pray for the Soul of Betty which is Constantine from American Idol‘s band … Considering all of the concern prior to the show, it went fine for me … I made Octane sound good and everybody was happy … I didn’t meet the guy, but I was in his presence and that was interesting enough for me … I didn’t attempt to meet him either as I wouldn’t have had anything to say to him except that I saw him on TV … Still the highlight of my Octane career has been meeting Gene Simmons whereas I did have a conversation at length with him and he signed a copy of his book for me …

ICUHost.Net Billing went out and I also sent out a newsletter … After reading the letter and rereading it, I emailed it out and I missed a blatant misspelling … Damn! … I have started developing a replacement billing application that will replace the ASP one I wrote years ago … I am writing the new one in PHP … I am also using a different authorization system than I normally use for other sites I’ve secured up … This one does hash checking as well as email address verification through links and stuff … Pretty cool … Needed something like this for keeping tabs on customers and verifying new ones … I can’t tell you how many people I just didn’t set up because they were from out of state … Even though they signed up and everything, when I didn’t get back to them, they didn’t get back to me, so I guess I was pretty good in sniffing out the fakers … So hard to trust anyone on the Internet these days … Anyway, along with the new authorization methods, the new billing application will be able to verify domains via different databases and I’ll have a way better handle on billing and domain management … There have been domains that I’ve set up but never assigned to a user and they got a free site for months … When I started verifying DNS against accounts, this won’t happen … I’ll be able to check balances and anything past due I can update the DNS records and inactivate the site … Writing it in PHP allows me to utilize the command line and schedule the billing to run as I see fit … I think I will end up running something weekly if not daily … It will check many things for me that I have not been able to check on a regular basis … Right now, I have someone who moved their site, name servers and everything, but I see that they’re using my mail server and other stuff that I haven’t inactivated … I don’t think that’s right, and with automation, these things won’t happen …

Anyway … no time … need more time … We didn’t win PowerBall … We will this Saturday though …

UPDATE 06/15/2005: Actually, the Whiskey Tango is closing 3 of their 7 nights … Sunday, Monday and Thursday tanked …

UPDATE 08/29/2005: and shortly after, they tanked Wednesdays … They’re only open Tue, Fri and Sat … Sports Bar is open every night though …

My father had extreme system slow-down on his machine at his office … Didn’t know why … said everything was slow … After determining that it was just his system, tried to see how the machine itself was running … CPU didn’t look over taxed as well as plenty of memory being free … Hmm … So, I ping the server … time-outs … I ping the gateway … time-outs … Could it be the network card? The snow closed some places, so that day went wasted … The next day the place was closed due to illness so eventually stole a 3Com out of another machine in the office and stuck it in there … Vwahlah! It was the network card …

Development on http://www.lastmanband.com finally completed and launched about 24 hours ago … Everyone is happy … Development on several other sites continue … Some more important than others … Downloaded the database from my father’s web site and removed a ton of comment SPAM … An old ASP site I had done a long time ago … I’m sure it will fill up again … I should rewrite the site …

Watched Catwoman; The Day After Tomorrow; I, Robot; The Girl Next Door and The Village …

I may not have a job on Sundays anymore … the Whiskey Tango is looking to cut costs and if Brian Bortnick doesn’t play there anymore, they’re not going to replace him immediately with anything and they may just end up putting him in the front room like they do for the Monday night acoustic show … That will be a huge monthly pay cut for me … I guess it’s inevitable … unavoidable … a done deal … Brian is seeing if there may be a way to continue to utilize my services … either by helping with the small PA or by running another PA somewhere else should he go somewhere else … I guess I should do whatever comes along …

Cleaned up log files on the Windows servers … If there is more than 250 log files in a directory, the stats program will choke and sometimes cease to process … I thought it errored out, but it seemed like some sites past sites that had too many log files processed further than others … I don’t understand it … But I should switch to something that doesn’t have this restriction so it doesn’t choke … Also, some people are deleting their “/stats” directory, and that will error out as well … I am going to implement something on the FreeBSD side that handles all of this, but wouldn’t you know it again, there’s something that runs more efficiently on FreeBSD than it does on Windows … I hate to keep knocking the platform, but it happens time and time again that there is more efficiency on the FreeBSD side of things using software that costs nothing to procure … I’m sure there is something that has a decent price tag on it for Windows, and someone like me that needs to use it on many domains, there will be additional fees … *sigh* …

I think that brings me to current … I did buy some fabric at the fabric store to make pockets for Octane’s guitar cabinets as well as a cover for the monitor board … The fabric I bought was marine vinyl … Nothing too flowery … Just black …

Oh, and as I click the categories to file this post under (almost all of them) I remember that my Counter-Strike server died … again … This time I don’t really know why … I was getting ready to catch up with the old CS crew, and the guy says, “Is your server down?” … and I’m like I don’t think so, let me check … Sure enough, down … I look at the machine … No power … hmm? I then press the power button, nothing … I turn off the power switch in the back, then press power again … okay .. it’s on .. walk around to the monitor … Nothing again … hmm … same thing again … power off in back, power in front … I watch it .. it stays on .. hmm? Around to front … I see the thing booting and … boom! gone … The thing won’t stay on, so I think power supply? Who knows … I have to replace the thing and see if that does it …

Right next to it is a P3 that was the Windows MySQL server a while back … I finally put a power supply in that and stuck a 160G drive in there … Started to install FreeBSD 5.3 and I get drive errors … hmm? So then I think maybe it’s the version so I burn brand spanking new FreeBSD 4.11 … same sort of thing … hmm? Turns out the drive setting are what’s confusing it … So I go into the BIOS, select USER and it won’t let me specify the HDs Cyls and Tracks like all other BIOSes do … Then I start looking for BIOS upgrades, etc … didn’t find anything promising, so this machine sits … Now with this weird thing going on with the CS Server, I think I will do some swapping out of power supplies and drives and see if I can’t get the faster machine working with the larger drive and throw up another FreeBSD web server … One with quotas, and log management with stats … ooh, I am so excited!

To follow up on that post about buying things elsewhere … I didn’t end up getting anything else … Vito, the rat bastard, came through with the mics and effects I was looking for … I didn’t end up getting some of the stuff that was on my list either … and I didn’t pursue it anywhere else … I think I had spent enough money for some time … In fact, now that I am looking to do some simple changes in the system, I went to Cintioli with my inquiries … Last night I picked up the final items of my order that had been backordered … It was just a spare power supply from the tour package and a dust cover for the board … These items hadn’t held me back at all …

After Cintioli, I went to the fabric store and bought three yards of marine vinyl to cover the monitor board with (so new covers for both boards this weekend) … and some elastic for mounting the mics on the guitar cabinets … a hook needle to attach this to the front grill on the cabinets with black upholstery thread … Then new sneakers … Yeah, a couple stops, but it was my night out to tie up a lot of loose ends … More to complete on my todo list …

I stopped by Cintioli’s yesterday … They wanted me to bring by money … So, instead of bringing by money, I went there to review the current order I have had outstanding with them since August 27th … They still have not got some things in that I ordered … I was told by several people not to go to Cintioli for this stuff and use some guy that they knew at another music store, but I was like; ‘I have been going to Cintioli’s since I was 13 years old … They have helped me out in the past, and I will honor that loyalty and buy solely from there.’ Welp, here it is 3 months later, and still things I ordered for Octane have not come in yet … It is very frustrating … So, after last night, even things I have been waiting for I decided I will get elsewhere, and I finalized what I will definitely be getting from them and a final payment when it’s all in … It really sucks that it’s turning out this way since a lot of my life … or career … went through that music store …

Clubs I’ve been to since the last post are as follows: Reeds, Tinks, Montana West, Park City and The Whiskey Tango … It was raining at Reeds, and while we came in the back without any rain, we loaded out in the rain going down the ramp … What I envisioned as a very difficult load out with slipping worked out well … no slipping … Tinks was VERY far away … All the way up to Scranton … Montana West is just down the street from Ed’s Quakertown and it’s a very big room … Sorta like the old Bronco Bill’s … Park City was near The Meadowlands and it was a house system … They had It’s the Pigs open up for them there … Even though we brought in the light show, it was still considered a walk-in … The house system was 2 SR4732as flown and 8 JBL 15s on the bottom … It actually didn’t sound that bad, and the room isn’t that big … Sorta like a 15 North … And Whiskey Tango … Everyone was asking me if I was going to bring in my system being that I had mixed almost a year on their house system … I said that it was sort of like borrowing somone’s car … You’d rather drive your own …

After every show I ask who I can how it sounded … I am certainly very concerned with this … I still have the stress at the shows of doing a good job and hoping things go smoothly … Since the little trouble spots at The Ridge (first gig) I think everything has gone smoothly … The things that we need to do as a crew are to make sure we’re set up by the time the band gets there if they want to run a song or two … Otherwise, I think things have already progressed in that we’re setting up much faster … Then the load out needs to get faster and part of the problem there is the size of the truck and how to pack it each night … We still haven’t settled on one pack … It has been getting packed differently night after night … John is incredible with the pack … Each night there seems to be more and more room … but even though this happens, there still is the need for a larger truck cause stacking is not good … Not only does it require more muscle, the truck drives differently depending on the pack …

Anyway … so most people are telling me that it sounds really good … I have my own reservations cause there are things that I would like to sound better … In particular the drums … I think the kick drum could be fatter and the toms should sound better … The wood hoop kit that Bob is using sounds much different than the kit he used at the audition … While the kit sounds good when they’re all playing (read: in the mix), I think if it sounded great to me before everyone else started playing that the mix would just sound that much better … I have been going with very hot guitars as they specified they wanted it to sound … but one only need to listen to their CD When All is Said and Done and be able to tell how they should be mixed … Whenever they play an original, I hear that familiar mix and I really get into it … Some of the songs that I’m not familiar with yet, or don’t get the adrenaline pumping as much I kind of suffer through in that I am hoping it sounds as it should … Sometimes bringing Brian’s voice over those guitars is difficult, even with the Distressor … I am using the Symphonic a lot in this area, and it has been helping …

There are many people I promised to get to things this week (being that I’m on “vacation”) … and I hope to get to them … They include my father and some people need some recordings that I made with the minidisc transferred to CD … This requires re-recording the stuff to get it into computer format … Which reminds me … I have been sorta told that I shouldn’t record Octane … I don’t necessarily know why … I think Brian is afraid to immortalize a mistake or something? I don’t rightly know … Anyway, again, I hope to get a lot done so that eventually I will have this time to myself that I thought I was getting when I left the Whiskey Tango 6 night a week job for the Octane 2 or 3 a night job … I still work at The Whiskey Tango on Sundays nights … Regardless of who is there … It will help finance this huge investment I have taken on with Octane … New light show, and a lot of new PA gear … Whew!

This is pretty appropriate … There is “talk” going around, and it’s simply ludicrous … It’s amazing to me how “adults” can be so childish … It’s also amazing to me that some people simply can’t tell the truth … They have to put a spin on things maybe cause it makes them look bad, or it alters the perception they were going for in instigating something … I appreciate the fact that I tell nothing but the truth all the time … For me, there is no reason to lie or stretch the truth … There is no benefit in it … ever … Eventually you will be caught, and when that happens, you lose all credibility … you will never be trusted again, no matter what the situation is … No matter what the relationship is … business, social or personal … It is very frustrating to me that these sorts of people exist out there, and it is very disappointing that at this point in my life I have to deal with this sort of behavior … It is very simple … I am trying to provide for my family, and I am trying to do that multiple ways … In providing for my family, I am also trying to upgrade their environment as well … It’s just sick to me that people would want to jeopardize that … If not for their own selfish reasons or for sport, I don’t know … Cause I think the only result they will receive is a negative one no matter what the outcome …

I was very happy that I could come inside and hear the first audition … You have to understand, I went in there feeling defeated before I had even started … I didn’t have the kind of boards that they would have needed … I only had my little Mackie 24-4 … my little Peavey 16 channel monitor board … Old crusty JBL speakers and like no substantial amount of equipment … I went in there with 4 tops, 4 bottoms, 3 racks, a cable trunk … monitors and boards … That was it … The guy before me had the room filled with 32 or 40 channel boards, tons of cases, etc … Me, even the speakers I just soldered the new speakers into I didn’t test cause I would have had to basically set up the PA to test them, so I didn’t even know if they would work … At that point I didn’t even care … At that point besides the fact that it didn’t matter cause I was so sick, I knew that my PA even without those speakers would WOW them … While I was there, the third guy to audition showed up … It was about 3 or 4pm at this point and I had to get back to The Whiskey to do The Interns … Waited a long time for the first guy to load out, and in the interim the offer was made that the third guy load in his system and I mix on it so they could hear me mix and save me the loading in and out because I was so sick … The third guy said that was cool with him, but I declined the offer … I wanted to mix on my system … After all, wasn’t that the point? After all, didn’t I go through hell to get it there including renting a truck? Didn’t I spend about $320 on new speakers and $155 on renting a truck? Well, hell yeah I did … so I was going to set up my system … The band helped load in (my hand truck went flat) … so did one of the managers … So I set up all the stuff and got checks while each guy checked out their stuff … There wasn’t much talking going on … When I got everything I needed and they got what they needed through what monitors they actually used, they just basically started playing … I cranked it, and it slammed! It sounded awesome in my opinion … Fat clicky kick, snappy snare and November Rain toms … cutting guitars and deep bass … A suggestion here and there and they just played and listened … No real direction to me … Then a mic was used to sing a song … okay, onto the acoustics … We checked those through the PA and monitor for the drummer at the same time, and they jammed on the three acoustics for a little while … The only vocals were that one song … Then the drummer had the monitor guy play his drums so he could hear them out front … and that was it … Thanks Dave. So I packed up and ran out of there to get to The Whiskey … spent … so sick …

I’m not mentioning who the other people were that auditioned for obvious reasons, but if any of them happen by this, I would certainly like to thank the third guy for helping me out as much as he did … I mean he wasn’t there to help me … but I was so sick, I guess everyone felt sorry for me … But everyone was cool about it, and I was very happy with the way things sounded … I certainly hope they were …

Well, 3 weeks later I guess they were happy cause they hired me … So I had to tell The Whiskey Tango and purchase the stuff that I said I would get if they hired me … The sound company that was covering them between sound companies was also in the running to do them permanently … They gave them notice (as promised) so they knew that their system was going to be available again. They would keep them for 3 weeks so that they wouldn’t lose any down time and the transition could be made to the new sound company (which is me) … Well, this company immediately decided if they weren’t getting the account, they were done doing the band entirely … no notice or anything … They supposed this might happen, but they didn’t think it would … So this would screw the band and it would screw The Whiskey Tango if I went out and did the band with the system that I auditioned with … Screw the band not having sound, and I would screw the Whiskey not being there for the weekend … Who would they get on such short notice? Props to John John at The Whiskey for being very understanding and helping work everything out, and props to the drummer for finding alternatives for that weekend … We are still going to rush to get everything for this coming Thursday, but heck … What else are we going to do?

So, I am now officially the new sound and lighting provider for Octane … I was also able to hang onto Sundays at The Whiskey Tango … I really feel bad about leaving the Whiskey, but this opportunity had to be pursued … It was what I wanted in the way of coming “out of retirement” if I had chose to go back “on the road” … plus the money isn’t something to shake a stick at … I will have more nights home now and my 6 year old was very happy about that …

There was also a lot of rumors going around about all sorts of things revolving around this band and stuff … Well, I got the job, and I will know first hand soon enough if the rumors are true … I will certainly vent here … Stay tuned …

I have been working house sound for approximately 9 months now. While it is something to easily fall into and something that someone like myself who has been “on the road” for the prior 7 or 8 years, it’s just not the same in many ways. The biggest is the money. In my current situation, it’s not my PA that is the house PA that I work on, so my PA has been sitting in a truck for the last 9 months. I don’t take any outside jobs as I am at the install 6 nights a week. Yes, 6 nights a week. The money is less than I made working with a band in the same situation. What we would refer to as “walk-ins” … I would show up just with the band’s equipment and run sound on the establishment’s PA system. In most cases, that PA was owned by a 3rd party and they were making money from the bar by them having that system in there … But that’s besides the point … So right off the bat, I am making less money in my current situation by not using my PA … Not that I don’t have a nice install to work on, it’s just not mine and therefor I don’t put as much “love” into that system as I would my own …

While I could have realistically sold off my PA either whole or piece by piece, I didn’t actively pursue that … Not for any particular reason, and not with any plans in mind … I just haven’t done it … and with the current job, my time has been severely limited … I may only work a certain amount of hours each night, but it is 6 nights … 2nd shift basically … I have also done extra things at my job … I have run a self serving network connection to the booth so that I can be on the Internet and do other things while I am at work. For example, if a band brings in a guy like my above example of the band’s gear and mixing, well, I just sit there and wait for 2 o’clock to roll around. So, I put in the network connection so I could work on Internet things while there doing nothing … So, I get paid to work on other projects while I am there “babysitting” as I call it …

When I started there was a DJ that worked Sunday and Wednesday nights … He moved to Chicago and they never replaced him … I purchased the appropriate cables and started to bring in my laptop to play music from the computer … I purchased a program to “rip” my CD collection (I was a DJ way way back too) and I provide the music between sets on these Sunday and Wednesday nights now … In fact, I did that before I put in the Internet connection, and I did that cause I started bringing my laptop to work more and more and I currently bring it every night now … When they needed things to use while others were repaired, I opened up my truck and grabbed those things … The short list is a drum monitor (that eventually got blown), a monitor board and some mic stands (or mounts) … I didn’t ask for money for any of these things … I have also done benefits where I essentially worked a “double” shift and I received quite less money than a normal shift … The thing about these benefits was that you were dealing with bands that were right out of the garage or who had never played such a club, so in my opinion it’s more work …

Don’t get me wrong, I am NOT complaining … It is a fine place to work and very easy to sit back and just do it because there is little pressure what-so-ever … The stress factor is very close to zero … There are perks that I don’t even take much advantage of, and that’s free food and drinks … In fact, I buy $1.00 sodas out of their take out … When I get food, I believe I tip very well … All I am leading up to is that this job would be great for someone who hasn’t had a taste of “the road” … Where there is much more money to be had … While I may not think it’s that much money, someone else may think it’s the best job in the world … They could look at it as getting fed 6 nights a week with the opportunity to tie one on every night … While I don’t choose to do this, someone if well behaved could manage it … I seriously don’t think there are any plans of doubling my pay anytime soon, and I don’t think the bar would consider investing anymore money into a sound guy simply because in actuality, I don’t really do much … I may be realiable and a great worker and a pretty go0d sound guy even, but there just isn’t enough to justify paying more I think …

So, on to the title of this post … I decided that if I “came out of retirement” as I like to think of it, that I wouldn’t do that for a mediocre situation … In other words, when the band I worked for broke up, I could have easily did sound for various bands that needed sound for various venues and did it that way … I would have had to be responsible for booking myself and finding work … That wasn’t a scenario I wanted … I also didn’t think that if I ever got the itch to take my PA back out that I would do it with a band that wasn’t a true “A” band … I would need to do a band that would bring me the recognition that I think I deserve … I have done many things for many people in the entertainment industry and I seriously don’t think that it’s something that I shouldn’t take advantage of, or expect to be respected for … it’s about that time …

So, there is currently 2 bands that I would want to work for, and I am waiting around to see what pans out with them … One is very near and was a recent surprise availability … In the case of “Pick me!” it has to do with a semi-local sound company that does a lot of bands on the circuit … While the owner seems to be doing very well for himself, while it was said he would be declining this recent availabilty … that changed … He isn’t in business to say “no” to money … Me neither …