Last day.

So I am sitting here at the hotel lobby, waiting for someone to get back here to pick me up because they didnt think to call me to see if I wanted to go see the final product of all the hard work I have been doing in the past month+. A lot has happened sense the first day I showed up to the job with my shorts and running shoes on. At first glance the project looked simple, and really it was. A few things I would have done different but, to each their own. So the last 4 days I have gotten roughly 14 hours of sleep, I worked a 47 hour day, which is now a new personal record.

I met some really awesome people some that I worked with others that are “locals”. But some of the most strange and odd things have happened in FHouston, yes FHouston. The hotel we were staying at originaly got robbed at gun point, saw a cop pull over some black people who were standing near a bus stop. Went to see NASA, which was awesome because we got to see the live camera feed from the space station and the sun was rising in India. Does that mean that I was in India and Texas at the same time? Eh, probably not. I saw a cop pull over another car with black people in it and pull guns on them with me being stuck in the traffic it caused by the cops only two cars behind the car the guns were pointed at, yea sketchy. Found a nice little steak house called “The Salt Grass”, some good food thar… Listened to Apple Bottom Jeans in the main sanctuary at full blast. I got to hug another man hanging 40 feet of the ground, I also got to dance 40 feet off the ground as well. Billy baker came to work for a few days, as well as Curtis and Shane. I am the king of Triax, which I learned how to make before I learned how to make coax, strange… I cant feel the tips of my fingers because they are burnt from all the sodering.

I want to go home finally, my flight leaves at 3PM local time today and I should be home around 7PM tonight.

I also saw someone with a t-shirt that had Huntington Beach on it and I asked the people if they were from there and they replied that they lived in Vancouver, boring conversation.

I also lost my camera, so I gotta buy a new one.

New Gerbers.

I got my new knife and multi-tool today. Gerber. Needless to say, Gerber is the new Le*therM*n. Gerber simply makes better tools. Here are some pics!

Taxday was awesome…

I worked from 9am 4/15 to 12am 4/16. Elton John was there, I got to mingle with the claire guys, I DIDNT HAVE ANY RED BULL (oh so sad about that). But the real reason for this post is because I look amazing right now.

Oh I also got to meet Michelle Kwan, she is cool.

5D class…

I am off to the 5D class…Be home around 5 or so.

Easter At FCC.

It took me a long time to find the time to do this. So I will try and write what I can remember from the day. I will start out with pictures. Awesome ones I might add.

This show was taken from FOH, It is very interesting.

This was a picture taken from the cat walk above the stage, I thought it came out rather nicely.

Monitor world.

Curtis all covered in red.

Billy acting like a fool.

So all in all, the whole show went well from what I saw, not many big issues. It looked great Shane! I don’t have much to say other than that, it was a while ago and I have a bad memory.

Then I went to Mexico with the HS group. That was a blast, as it usually is.

PM5D School.

Status: Accepted!

Woot!

Raido music.

Sick of it. Totally sick of the crap they play. Sick of the sellouts to the studios. Sick of the same song getting played what seems like every time I get in the car. I can name a few that are not necessarily bad songs, just over played.

• Pennywise – Western World
• The Foo Fighters – The Pretender
• The Killers – When you were young

I called the local radio station today, KROQ. I have been a faithful listener for many years, but in the past few months, actually more like 8 months it seems that they have been playing the same music with a few new songs here and there. Back on topic, after the operator answered the phone, I asked, “Why do you guys keep playing this crappy song?” To which I got the response “We, uhh, get a lot of requests for it.” After that I didn’t exactly have a reasonable response, so I said bye. Thinking about the conversation while ordering some food I thought to my self. “Self, maybe it is not directly the stations fault they play the crap music, maybe it’s the listeners.” So after over-thinking the whole thing I came up with this conclusion. The Studios have a death grip on the radio stations, people listen to the death gripped stations, people begin to like what is played on the radio because…well…it’s the only thing they hear. Then the listener begins to think like this, from first thought to last: 1) Well this music isn’t that great. 2) It is the only thing on the radio. 3) I guess I will have to listen to it. After some time, usually a few weeks of hearing the same song over and over and over the listener begins to, gasp, like it! 4)I love this music and I will never need anything new ever because this radio station plays great music.

Now you might be thinking, well thats not so bad. But you are wrong. Video killed the radio star you say? I say Radio killed good music. Before you stop reading this thinking, “wow Mike you are an idiot” let me explain myself. Radio plays the same music, people like the music. The music starts to suck, people notice but have no choice but to listen to the “new” songs that suck. So they start to like the “new” sucky music because they don’t have anything else to listen to. Now the listeners start to like the sucky music and say that it is just as good as the old stuff, but it sucks. Causing a downward spiral of crap music.

This is going to be a bold statement, if you are sitting at your desk please put caps on your drinks, find a chair with seat belts or just hold on tight. Radio is what causes bad music. People cannot ever listen to anything other than what is on the radio and that makes people go for music that is total crap? Don’t believe me, how does a band like Nickelback sell so many albums? How does a band like The killers sell so many albums? NEWS FLASH!!! These two bands are possibly the worst “rock” bands ever to assemble. AND THEY GET PAID TO SELL CRAP?!?!? I wish I could sell crap and make millions off of it. Also, just because a band puts out one good album does not mean that, that band automatically will always make good music. The Killers, hot fuss. Damn good album, I actually went out and bought it. The new album I listened to it, automatically said “The Killers tried to take a step forward with their music, and ended up taking 3 jumps back” (and you can quote me on that). Here was a band that I liked a lot, good lyrics fun to listen to. But they tried to change the forumla for some reason, and now they are one of the least favorite bands. This same thing happened with Green Day. Good in their early years, now they blow.

So what was looking to be a few word rant, turned into something much larger. Good times.

Please look into other music, don’t let the radio choose what you listen to, there have been some amazing bands in the past that just never get the respect they deserve. Please be original, just because its played on the radio everyday 5 times an hour does not mean its the only music on the face of the planet. Listen to different music. Explore. Enjoy. Don’t get taken by the studios and the stations that they have a death grip on.

If you disagree with me, you are wrong. Just try some new music, also don’t just stop after the first band you listen to, there is some crappy music out there, just keep looking for new stuff. Don’t let the man tell you what you like, let you tell you what you like.

Moving the sound board in cornerstone…

Billy, Mark, Brian, Jordan, and I moved the audio booth from upstairs of cornerstone the other day. Here are some cool pics. We moved the subs together. Basically everything we did made the room sound better, whether actually made it sound good or if it was psychological. Who knows. We Smaarted the room, and this afternoon got everything line checked and all the goodies and what not plugged in.

Getting the board ready to go

From the side.

Behind the rack.

Closer shot from the back of the rack

Front of the rack.

Lots of pretty colors and cables…I know what most of them do, I thinks…

EQ ‘n’ stuff

Patch bay.

Waffles…

They taste better than what! Now the big decision, what or waffles? I got invites to what, but invites are closed ATM.

Unions.

This is all my opinion of unions, this in no way reflects my opinion of people that work in the field as individuals.

That being said, I had a talk with my boss, Jeff, on the way home the other night. He was telling me stories about union gigs that he has done in the past. Some pretty interesting stories. I recently was involved in a conversation with a union worker, he was telling me that unions are better, I disagreed with him. His arguments were something of the following:

• You wont loose your job to illegals
• The union will keep you safe
• You get health insurance

These are all valid, but in audio the unions mandate breaks every ‘x’ period of time, and they are mandatory. That will screw you up when you are trying to load in your gear. You have someone to do everything, there are the truck loaders, the pushers, the utility crew, etc. Now that you know the different ‘classes’ here is what happens. The truck unloaders arrive at, oh lets sa, 8AM to load in, but the truck is late for some reason. The truck shows up at noon. Now the unloaders are on break, when they get back from break the pushers go on break so all the cases are sitting out side while you wait for the pushers to get back from break. The pushers get back from break and load in all your gear, but the utility guys are on break now because of all the delays. So after the truck showing up a few hours late, a job that should be done in 2 hours has now taken 6+ hours.

This is why freelance work is the best.

• You wont loose your job to illegals if you work hard
• You get the jobs done faster
• Union leaders seem to think that the workers are better off when they work less and get paid more, but in reality the customer wants to avoid over time and double time. My personal opinion is get your work done as fast as possible and avoid going into over/double time.

The way I have been influenced by Goodman is “work fast, hard, and accurate.” This directly translates to the client “these guys do the work fast and correct, and they are avoiding over/double time.” If you work hard and fast, you don’t get paid as much, which is granted, but you will get more gigs from the people because you are doing such a great job.

In freelance work you are only as good as your last gig, that being said, you work hard and fast and correct and you will get more gigs because your work ethic is good.

They simply don’t make sense in this day and age. They worked a long time ago when there were not rights for people working for large companies, where they would work for almost nothing. The unions were needed to let the companies know that the people need to be paid correctly for their jobs. In this age now, if you are not paying your employees well, they simply wont work and go find a job that will pay them the correct wage.

In conclusion, I will avoid working for a union as best as possible.