A Barking Dog

I use Apple’s iTunes and iTunes Music Store on a regular basis and have since I bought my first iPod back when I was working for the classic rock grunge band. Or pretty much since it opened. I have several hundred dollars in purchases but find I still need to resort to Bit Torrent or Limewire for some things. Let’s face it, compared to the other so called “legal” alternatives, iTMS is pretty much Thee Shit. iTunes is so flexible we use it at the Swankiest Dive On The Strip ™ as an emergency pull it out of our ass playlist to fire either SFX or the whole show. Yeah, from iTunes. That is if all of our other failovers and spares shit the bed. Even on the corp gigs I do these days we’ve replaced the CD player with an iTUnes playlist (though we usually dump it to the IR for some things). So, imagine my disgust/surprise/anger/amazement earlier today when not only did my latest purchase not download, but all of the Fair Play DRMed music was suddenly deauthorized from my still pretty new, not too old, hellava machine, my Mac Pro.

Of course, my first inclination was to say (out loud, at that) Steve Jobs you’re a motherfucker. Though this particular malady wasn’t directly the fault of the man often clad in a black mockneck, technically were he to be having sex with women that were mothers, the description would fit. I suppose I fit that description as well. I had just updated my Mac Pro EFI firmware and upgraded to 10.4.8. That’s when my iTunes shit the bed. I’ve had a hankerin’ for The Cult lately. I figured I’d do what the rest of us middle aged, former (or really never were) hipsters do, and download the album, err I mean CD from iTMS. Yes, I’ll never forget the time way back when I walked into the Deja Vu on Lake City Way and saw our bookkeeper on stage dancing to Fire Woman.

On gladly taking my credit card info (they store it, actually), my iTunes started behaving rather strangely. The download wouldn’t complete. That’s odd, I’ve used iTMS a bunch before and never had this problem. I go to the top of the playlist that I use the most, and the new Evanesence wants to be authorized for this computer. Shit, I played it just prior to my “update”. Oh damn. I try some Peter Murphy from the iTMS. Same thing. Try some Floyd, (Pink, not Andy’s barber) ripped from CDs I own. No prob. So I email iTMS support. Hopefully they’ll have a good answer, but in the time since I quit iTunes, opened it again and I was authorized, though it thinks my freshly updated firmware makes iTunes think this is new computer. Never had that problem in the three decades I’ve been buying music.

The point of this post isn’t to wax about MILFs or remember how Lori was a better stripper than bookkeeper, but to remind those poor souls (or clueless twits) that run the labels why people would rather use Bit Torrent or Limewire than online sources that use DRM. I try to buy when I can, but find me a Rik Agnew “OC Life” at a so called “legal” download site and I’ll gladly buy it. Try to find one at iTMS, Real or that piece of shit Microsoft launched. It’s an URGE alright. I have the urge to barf when I use it. The labels have had almost a decade to get it together and have failed miserably. You’d think with execution that poor they’d had been running the Bush White House. People use file sharing services because they are easy and provide for portability of the music. The labels have stepped on their dicks (in golf shoes) by not being able to capitalize on the download craze. The acts that have forged ahead to do their own thing, by and large have done pretty well, or at least better than when they were getting shafted with the big label deals.

When you make it difficult for your customers to consume your product or put up so many barriers that getting it and using it will become cumbersome, they’re going to use other means to get it. And you really can’t blame them. If I may quote the great Swearengen, “those cocksuckers got what they deserved”.

And I still don’t have my copy of Fire Woman.

It’s been a while since the last post. A couple of weeks for the Moblogs and forever for a text post. Having BBEdit not work on a Mac Pro didn’t help though it’s OK on my PB. Frankly, after using a quad core Xeon Mac everything else pales in comparison. Compound that with not being able to Moblog the new gig and not knowing what I can blog about the new gig adds to the absence. And last but not least, I’ve finally started dating again. The last time I was doing this was about a decade and a half ago. Holy shit…

The new gig, well, is awesome. And I’m not just saying that because one of the bosses reads the blog. I’m the new guy, starting at the bottom and working my way up, though in the age and experience category I’m up there with management. In fact, of the 200 plus on the show (cast and crew) I’m one of the gray beards. And I can remember back in the day when I was the youngest guy on the gig. My how times change, particularly for us old farts. Oh well. It’s an interesting environment where I’m guarded in what I say. In the touring rock biz we had a bit more latitude in what we said and how we said it. For example, where someone to do something backasswards on the rock tour, the response might be ” are you toally fucking new?” Here, it might be “I question the rationality of your judgement and would have reached a different conclusion”. Though in the bowels of the SOMP (the little room in which I perform many if not most of my tasks) we’re still able to say amongst ourselves, “dude are you new?”

It’s a good bunch that I work with at the swankiest resort on the Strip. Unlike the last tour leg I did. The leg with jazz singer and guitar player that sits (though he’s not sitting these days) was an absolute pie fight. I loved my hommies (sp?) with jazz singer, but other crew was wack. So much that after the first few dates, I started riding on our band bus instead of the production bus. The so called production manager didn’t really have a handle on things, though sometimes he was too hung over to make it in on the call time. I guess it helped that he was the significant other of the tour manager of other band. At times it was an embarassing display of unprofessionalism. Those that know me, know I cut much slack in this department. These guys (and gal) were so over the top it was difficult to look the other way. Glad it’s over and at least the bonuses afforded me a neat new computer and pair of studio monitors for it.

And that brings me to the delima. What can I post? I can’t Moblog as cam phones and cams are verbotten in the theater. They made sure to tell me during the orientation. Technically I’m not supposed to have one in the building, and if I do, it should have the cam function disabled. Blogging like I have on tour isn’t going to work. The tours didn’t mind it, but I’d bet these folks would. It’s too bad, because I think a good tech blog would be good for the show. We aren’t talking about some cheesy Vegas show, it’s one of the most high profile, technically advanced shows not only on the Strip, but in the biz. And it’s moving and sexy. Speaking of sexy, why is it that the last four women I’ve dated only share two names? Never had that happen before. Of course, the roadie side of me says that it’s easier to remember the names that way. Well, you can take the boy off the road, but you can’t take the road off the boy. To those that are thinking of living the show biz touring life style, don’t do it too long or take it too seriously ’cause it will warp your mind.

So, what to blog? The dating is right out because it’s NC17 and a couple of my dates wouldn’t approve. The gig? Don’t know yet what’s appropriate except for general observations. Vegas in general? Yeah, sure but there are people better at that than I. I did buy a full pass for ETS/LDI and I’ll blog that (manufacturer types, I haven’t asked you yet, but I need another five passes for my department) It took about five times longer than I had thought to land the Vegas house gig but I should be able to blog something that works for all of us. I just haven’t found that yet.

We pulled into the Hyatt at MCO (Orlando airport) at about 0230 from our gig in Clearwater. On this leg the crew rides the production bus when we have a gig in the morning, other times we travel on jazz singer’s bus because of the better hotels and travel schedule. I don’t want to get into it right now but the differences between the touring crews of each band is pretty apparent. We’d flown down to Florida for two dates with our busses and trucks meeting us down there. It’s good to get off the bus, particularly when the production is stuck in an 80s mind frame. We disembarked the coach to send it deadheading back to NY for the next gig. When I got to my room, I hit the CNN for a quick update before crashing for the night. Low and behold, another terrorist plot broken up and big security changes. My room overlooked the intersection of the A and B terminals of MCO and not a soul in sight. I expected this to change in five or six hours as the airport reached peak time. I retired for the evening knowing there wasn’t much more I could do, even though CNN seemed to want me as informed/panic as could be.

I woke about 8 hours later and turned back on the TV. The news cycle was in full spin. I looked out down onto the entrance to terminal B security entrance. It was packed. About 15 mins later I got the call. Our American flight had been cancelled. I was told to hang tight in my room and await further instructions. I ordered steak and eggs from room service. By then the no liquids on board directive had not only been on the news, but circulated throught he hotel with a couple of members of our party calling to remind us. The steak was good but they only had white toast. And they have free Internet. About an hour later I got the call that my passport was required (that’s what we use for ID, even in the States) and we were now on a Delta flight. We met early that afternoon, only delayed by a couple of hours to walk the few hundred feet to the check in.

It didn’t look too packed from the hotel, but the check in area was a madhouse. Due to how our reservations were changed, we couldn’t use the self service kiosks and they were only letting computer bags on as carry on, regardless of what the CNN was saying. We lucked out that we could check in as a group with the jazz singer as he was going First Class and later upgraded our full fare coach tix to First for seventy five bucks. Well worth it. TSA was out in force and those that are regular readers will note I have no love loss for the TSA. Particularly after my run in at Dulles coming down to Florida a few days prior. Dulles is a pretty shitty airport anyway. It’s one of those that hasn’t been modernized and due to the economy of the DC/Northern VA/ MD area, the quality of the service and the personel are less than desirable. IOW, if you can’t hold a real gig, you can get one at Dulles. This being one of two of the airports to the capital city of the self proclaimed “leader of the free world” I would think we could do better. Then again, we can’t show any leadership in our own country let alone the rest of the world. We were in a priority line at Dulles due to our status on the airline when we approached the checkpoint and saw what in any other instance would be some babbling old man. Except this time he was a TSA agent, uniformed, running the metal detector at the check point. When we got close enough to hear him proclaim the following. “If you want customer service, the complaint department is over there” (he said with a gesture). “This ain’t Walmart. They tell us you are customers but we don’t consider you our customers.”

Mind you, this wasn’t addressing anything specific, he has bellowing it at the top of his lungs with no provacation. Lewis Black does a great bit on the TSA in his current act. Saw it at home during the break last week. Good stuff. After the comment about Walmart, as I prepared to pass through the detector I said to the grumpy screener “you haven’t been to a Walmart lately, have you?” “Don’t compare me to Walmart” was his reply. Which I shot back, “you’re the one that brought it up. What I mean is that with that kind of attitude even they wouldn’t hire you.” WOW, talk about a chilling reception. Even though I passed the screening he insisted on giving me a full wand and pat down. As he did, I mentioned that “it’s too bad you career choice isn’t working for you”. “I didn’t choose this” he barked. “Really? You didn’t apply and accept the job?” He was flustered and another screener interviened and set him away. I gathered my belongings and headed for the gate. Guys like that shouldn’t be in the TSA, or any business where they have to deal with the general public. Not my fault you have a shitty life dude. You need to deal with it. The TSA is inffectual enough without without assholes like that being in the mix. If he doesn’t like it, he should quit. They’ve got a difficult enough gig without asshats like him.

Let’s get back to a few days later (which would be today), departing MCO under an orange threat level. The TSA was well prepared, friendly and informative. The check in was a bitch due to the crowds and cancelled flights, but the screeners were pleasant, professional and seemed to have a handle on what was happening. They set up info zones/ tables prior to screening to tell up what we could and couldn’t bring on board with examples and people that seemed to want to really help. Due to our flight changes some of us were branded as four S (SSSS) which means we get special screening. While they took all our stuff apart (the roadie term for a full search), they were nice, professional and appeared to be interested in doing a good job. They did have a secondary screening at the gate where they again checked carry ons for liquids, much like after 9/11 when there was secondary screening at the gate. You can’t even take water you bought at the concourse gift shop on the plane.

All in all, inspite of what the news outlets were saying where I was (at an airport, flying as part of my daily thing) it was only a minimal hassle. That said, if some or even any of these new rules are implemented it will impact the way most of us fly. My city and my new gig at home depend on guests coming into town. Let’s hope the new rules don’t impede that too badly.

It’s good to see others getting into the moblog/blog/pic posting meme. Dave Rat is in Europe right now doing a gig that makes me look almost Jr Varsity with a great moblog at http://ratsound.com/cblog/ Excellent stuff, particularly the way he deploys his rig. Ratty is known for some pretty unconventional deployments (one of my favs years ago was tweeters on an aux) and doesn’t disappoint on this outing. I particularly like the sub deployment. These days it’s all about steering the subs for the best coverage.

Varisty corporate guy Mac Kerr is in town with a pretty nice rig. He’s got pix up at the Roaddog forum in the Lobby Bar section but the URL is a bitch http://forum.roaddog.com/index.php/t/28/S=e6039bd9fb9d44906bdcac6a3b742bc0 Hopefully that will work. It would be good to see Mac do a regular blog that highlights the differences between doing bign time corporate and music gig. Two very different animals that use a lot of the same gear. Mac is so Varsity he even has two Instant Replays.

Perhaps qualifying as the oldest roadie working for the youngest bands everyone’s fav Triple J, Jon Martin is over in Europe doing the big time rock fest scene. Some of those gigs are mega, the Europeans do the festival thing a bit differently than we do here. We’ve got Bonneroo and Vegoose and they’ve got perhaps a couple dozen big fests that don’t tour. Over here we tour the fests, Ozfest, Lolapolooza (rip) aznd Warped among others but over there they still do the big fest thing over there. We do some of that here regionally, but it doesn’t seem to have the cachet that it does over there. Perhaps Super Roadie was right when he said I was a Europhile roadie. Triple J checks in at the LAB, http://srforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/t/14996/5/

Mikey P has a few up from what he’s been doing lately at http://blog.mikeyp.net/ and Chris Hinds has some pics from what looks like his graduation gala, http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/cjehinds. After graduation I understand we’re going to lose Chris as a full time audio guy as he takes a big time gig with a world class company. Anyone with that much formal education probably has too much sense (or student loan debt) to persue a career as a sound guy anyway. Good luck Chris, keep in touch.

The car will be here in a few hours to wisk me off. It’s a service I haven’t used before that’s really a clearing house for independents, hence if you call to confirm it doesn’t exactly leave a good impression. If worse comes to worse I can schelp to the bus stop or the hard rocking hotel next door and catch a cab for my ‘Muricun flight to beautiful downtown Toledo where my M7CL turned into an MH3 then turned into an LMx. It’s got the makings of Jr Varsity and agony but at least I have a 21 hour travel day to Azerbijian (happens to be next door to Iran) to start the Euro jaunt the next day. Should be a gas. This may well indeed be the last extended touring visit for this old dog, but I don’t want to jinx anything. I spent part of the last day in town making sure my paperwork and resume were up to date so HR could start the background checks and processing and getting some locks chopped for the manditory casino style drug test. Back in the olden days when we took drug tests we could have told you what each one was like. These days it says we’re so old we haven’t done drugs in years. The opportunity is pretty exciting but I probably shouldn’t say to much more about it as it won’t start until late summer or fall once I’m back in town.

I was going to comment over at Josh Evan’s blog, SPL140-WWJD regarding a comment he made on his current trip to Mexico. The blog doesn’t allow comments or trackbacks, though. Josh is one of the good young minds entering the biz today, not as a mixer per se, but as a support guy at SIA Soft/Loud/EAW/Mackie/whatevermusogearthoseguysfromfloridawithcontrolofthepursestringshavethembuy. And of course, Crazy Uncle Kenny ™. Josh is a really sharp kid that’s passionate about the biz but every now and then he says something that makes me go “HUH???!!!!”. But then again, I’m old…

Day one of two in mexico. Kenton arrived last night. We have a great setup. They will be filming the presentations, 730s sound pretty good (its hard to screw them up) sb1000 sound out, pretty good the a front loaded clam shell. Id rather have a bh760 or array of la400. That’s a big problem in our industry. Not enough use of horn loaded subs. And people don’t know how to demo them against a front loaded sub.

Not enough use of horn loaded subs? Dude, you gotta be shittin’ me. SB1000s are the best sub EAW has ever made. LA400? Surely you jest? (can I call you Shirley?). The BH760, IMNSHO is a one trick pony and not that good at it. For killer subs, not just from EAW but from anybody, it’s all about the SB1000. If you haven’t heard them kill everything else, find me or my buddy Big Al at the place next to the BBQ joint and we’ll show you how the adults use them.
I don’t know what gigs you are going to, but in The Bigs, horn loaded subs are the defacto standard. Keep blogging Josh, it’s a fun read.

Let’s see what we did today at the big time corporate marketing gig…

We locked the D1 up just before final rehearsal. That’s OK, it only happened during the Chairman and CEO rehearsal of entire meeting. Remove laptop, reboot surface, reboot engine, all is well. Head dude was ruffled, but we blamed Windows and he seemed to be OK. Seems he’s familiar with Windows causing problems. After a load in/ tech day, a rehearsal/ tech day and tech/rehearsals for a third day today, we get problems at about the time the rest of the shows on The Strip fire up. We had 15 hours or so using these 22 frequencies and now during the rehearsals with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th in command, the radio rig doesn’t want to cooperate. Sonofabitch…

Rewind to yesterday, or even load in day a couple days ago. At load in, the in house hotel rigger gave me grief for feeding out my own hoists and trying to connect my bumpers and run my hoists. Like I’ve done for the times I’ve hung PA in the almost 27 years I’ve been doing this. Or for more perspective, he was 5 when I hung my first PA. And I’m a lot fucking quicker than he is. House AV rule, we can’t run our own hoists or attach our shit to our own grids. The local hands are from a local (well, national) labor company and are quite good> The sparky and riggers are from the hotel AV company who to me seem two steps removed from high school AV washouts. Kinda set the tone for the week. Our guys are all Varsity. Video, lighting, A1, production, content creation. In fact, I’m the newbie here and they have taken a shine to me. Yesterday, we start to run parts of the show, a Fortune 50 CEO guesting for this Fortune 100 company giving a presentation about marketing. About 3 mins into the first roll (we have a 16 box M2D rig in a 30 meter square ballroom, yeah, we thump, because we are paid to) some AV lackey comes over and says we are disturbing the management meeting of the resort chain which has rented our clients the space. The venue aren’t newbies. It’s the 2nd largest resort owner in the state. Our production manager’s response is priceless. “Sounds like you need a better airwall buffering system” he tells house AV guy. Except for that room our client is renting that entire wing of the convention center (during one of the most in demand times in Vegas) and several hundred rooms. Plus catering.

All that for this. Earlier today, we shit the bed with the radio rack. This morning, I noticed they were reconfiguring the room next door and went over to find the house AV guy and coordinate frequencies. The deal was, they had a hotel list and we couldn’t use those, but they wouldn’t coordinate outside freqs other than the inhouse freqs. That’s not really a frequency coordinator, is it? AV boy in the next room that gave me attitude came over with a list to our room. Yeah, he was blown away. We’ve got the platnum shit. All I wanted to know was if we could get 22 clear freqs for our show. late in the afternoon, someone (or something) parked on 688 MHz and a few of our channels shit the bed. It was a big fucking deal. We had to go offline for me to find some clean air. I suppose that’s why they call it work.

The gig went without a hitch. We worked through dinner and got it up and running.

All in a day’s work…

I wanted to take a bit of a break from the wedding tale with the guys with big furry hats and Cossacks to offer a bit of advice to a young chap on the other side of the pond. Chris Hinds has been posting on the LAB for a while recently attempted to broker a gig for a kick boxing event and was surprised when he told the promoters it would be about the eqivalent of about US$35,000. It would be difficult to get that at a high end corporate in Vegas for that package. There are events that go for that, but this particular event isn’t that. Chris’ blog post is at http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/cjehinds/entry/you_dont_do/ . Go over and check it out yourself but in part he says…

For that the promoter was getting:

* 12 Stacks of D&B C7 covering the majority of the audience (a system with small fills was going to cost more to put together)
* 12 Martin MAC700s on the ring for audience and ring use
* 8 Mac 250 Entour for the entrance and dancers
* 8 Mac 250 Wash for the Dancers and Entrance
* 72 Pars trained on the 600sq.ft ring.
* 2 Juliat Follow Spots with Ops
* Avo Pearl 2004 and ART 2000 Dimming
* Smoke Curtain
* Trussing for entrance with drapes
* Central lighting truss flown with 1 ton motors
* Distro from CAMS to the necessary
* 15 Crew setting up the venue from totally bare to rigged and back again in just under 24hrs.

I started to post a comment there but a few hundred words into it I figured it would make more sense to post it here and do a trackback. Here is the comment, read his full post for all the background.

Chris, the lighting guys are out of their mind. You want to rent the gear, not buy it. The fact that they were willing to half the price when it looked too high is the first sign that they aren’t really serious about working with you. This is show biz, “unsocial” hours are the norm. You pay for the time you have the gear. It doesn’t look like your vendors took you seriously and you should have shopped the bids anyway. A better way to do this is offer your services as a production manager and then bid directly to the producer. Anything you get on the back end from the provider is between you and them.

Trucking: Looks a bit high. Are you renting trucks or hiring someone like Redburn or EST? For that price I could go from Dover to Glasgow. How far is it? If it’s a truck each from each of the vendors it’s not so bad but still this should easily fit in an 18 ton if not a 7.5 ton due to the way y’all maximize the packaging of your gear over there.

If I ever saw insurance as a line item it would be a big red flag. Insurance needs to be covered not as a line item but factored into the rental.

The hourly rate for labor, (sorry labour, we almost speak the same langage) looks good but do you really need 15 crew for 24 hours straight? Use staggered and split calls to maximize the value. A crew of 15 should be able to wack this out in six hours or less given an arena config something like the NEC. Riggers = 3, 2 up 1 down; 1 electrician doubling with lights, audio = A1 and A2, squints = LD + tech programmer with the rest used as truck loaders, pushers and deckhands as needed. Not counting you as prod/stage mgr. For 15 @ 8 pounds/hr that’s 720 pounds for the in. Lets say four on the show call for 4 hours and its another 128 for the show call. If a 15 guy call can’t this this out in 4 hours or so, they need to be looking at another line of work or call some pros that can. My labor is about half of what yours is not counting taxes and all the other fun stuff that comes with hiring people. Still though, you don’t need 15 the whole time and I bet you might be able to save a kiloquid by better labor management.

Lighting: Tell them to fuck right off, chap. That’s what us septics would do. They aren’t providing truss, rigging, trucking or labor and they still want that much? They want to charge you a week for a one day one off then magically halve the price when you grimace. If they can’t get the gear to you the day or night before or have it at your gig that morning, that’s a cost they should eat, not you.

On a side rant, not to offend the good men of tea on that side of the Atlantic but that sort of attitude is why some English production companies have taken it in the shorts over the last decade or so. In the olden days you had to use a Brit company to get acceptable results. The Germans got pretty good at it, as did the Dutch and the French, well, they’re French, but they’re pretty good at it. Lately the Spaniards and Italians are getting pretty good at it. It used to be that you didn’t go to Spain or Italy without a Brit or German production. Not so anymore but there are some Brit production companies that seem to still be in the olden days and not able, willing or both to compete with the newer companies in the EU.

Rigging: I don’t know the exact quantity so it’s hard to say but having a head rigger involved is always a good idea. Why aren’t the vendors providing the hoists and rigging?

Audio: There are a lot of different ways to skin this cat, but that seems a bit steep, considering no rigging, operators or transport. Certainly you weren’t getting cut a break. The audio design (and the lighting design for that matter) had a lot to do with the price, considering the promoter gave rough expectations and not a rider or gear list. I’d knock it down to 1000 just because it’s so bare bones and they aren’t including a guy or truck.

Let’s recap using Dave numbers as target budgets or negociating points.

Lights/FX: I sure you could either trim the design or find a vendor to do it for a couple thousand pounds. For four or five grand in the states I could get a package like or identical and they’d likely bring it to me and staff it. Let’s say 2000 GBP. Might be a bit low when the market or quality of the provider is factored in but the lighting guys already pissed us off so screw ‘em.
Audio: You don’t need d&b or Meyer for this, though it would be nice. A nice little K&F rig distributed on a truss grid over the rig that houses both audio and lights, a Venice, some playback a couple of radio mics, a few wired mics and “Robert’s your father’s brother”, as you chaps say. 1000 GBP

Rigging: If we do have use outside rigging, I can’t see costing that much other than that’s what they wanted to try to get. It’s a 50m x 30m room so I can’t see how you’re going to be overboard in points or truss. Worst case you have 160 m of truss and drape and 40 m of light/audio grid. Let’s say another kiloquid.

Labor: Manage it better, pay a fair wage for a fair days work. 8 GBP/hr sounds a bit low, let’s budget 10 GBP/hr and kick the budget to 2000 GBP total. Another way would be to work bids with a guy from the PA company and a guy from the sound company and knock the crew call down to 10 or 12, plus you.

Trucking: If you do have to do the trucking, I can’t see it’s going to take more than a couple (or even one) of a 7.5 ton Iveco from Sixt. Maybe one and a transit van. I’m going to target transport at 300 GBP but would see about the vendors doing thier own.

Lighting 2000
Audio 1000
Rigging 1000
Labor 2000
Transport 300
Chris prod mgr fee 400
Total 6700 GBP and that’s still pretty steep for this gig.

What I didn’t see that you did was qualify the client. That’s why he was surprised with the price. Find out who he used before, and how much he expected to spend. Design the production accordingly. Approach several vendors and get a few bids. Be fair but firm. I think his 3000 GBP target he could probably get, but with what vendor? Depending on the venue and complexity, I could do this for around US$5000 all in for something respectable, about US$10000 for something pretty good.

If nothing else though, you got a learning experience though it may have come at the expense of not being able to work with the promoter because your bid wasn’t realistic.

As you have probably noticed, the entire PSW family of sites are down. There is an issue with the hosts and the hosts inability to properly defend the forums from phishing link attacks. Burbee, the upstream provider for Broadjam, the skilletheads that host PSW (that’s right kids, I don’t think too highly of Broadjam and really never have) has decided to block traffic to the PSW servers in response to Broadjam’s inability to deal with what is a pretty basic issue. Currently access to all the content is unavailable and it is likely to be a few more days before there is a resolution. It’s good that I’m new mellow Dave, on BP meds and calm or I’d likely have my boot so far up Roy Elkin’s ass I’d need a proctologist to tie my shoes.

In the meantime, I’ve reactivated http://forum.roaddog.com/ as a backup. I’m still very supportive of Mark, Lucy and the whole PSW crew though at this point, I’m only a spectator.

According to reports late last week Cablevision, owners of landmark venue Madison Square Garden will move the venue as part of a new project at the Farley Post office location on Ninth Ave. No official comment from the involved parties but it appears to be further along that previously thought. It’s good news and at the risk of pissing off any of my pals on the island, the place is a bit run down and not up to modern standards. I don’t want to call it a shithole because, well I don’t want to find a horse head in my bed. (But at least it’s not Jones Beach…) The infrastructure is dated, the load in is a bitch and there isn’t enough parking to accomodate the size shows they have in there. For those that haven’t gigged there, an army of forktrucks driven by locals that appear to have kamakaze pilot training race up and down the venue shuttling the gear to and from the trucks. There is the hold over from old skool union days where the IBEW are the crew for FOH stacks and control, and Local 1 IA does everything on deck. Local 1 is pretty good when I’ve been there but some of those IBEW guys are real skilletheads. Another fav story was regarding the merch cut that borders on extortion. Once upon a time, a big time touring act declined to set up merch in the building on a multi night run, opting instead to rent a ballroom in an adjoining hotel and sell the merch there announcing it from stage and by distributing handbills outside the venue. The act was made a much more favorable split the next time through.

While I doubt there will be any changes in the work rules (or ethic for that matter), the place is in big need of getting into this century in terms of a facility that size. While the plans won’t be available until later this summer, let’s hope that it’s at least on a par with the other venues of that size and stature. There is one little jewel in the MSG complex that sits atop Penn Station. That’s the theater formerly known as the Felt Forum, now The Theater at the Garden. I haven’t been in the theater for a while but do have fond memories of the joint. No word yet on if the theater would move with the arena though with modern arena designs, they can reconfigure the room to accomodate smaller shows as long as the building costs aren’t through the roof.

According to Blitzer, Research In Motion, the folks responsible for the Blackberry communications device have just settled a suit with patent holder NTP for a reported US$615.5 million dollars. I think it’s an annoying little device and wouldn’t mind seeing them at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. I understand the need that some people have for the device, just not the obsession that some have with it. I was an early adopter of mobile email in the early years, but opted to start leading a less plugged in life.

Considering the way RIM bluffed through the original trial, at one point fabricating a demo (much in the same way Microsoft did in the anti trust case) they should feel lucky they didn’t get hit harder. Then the bluff of the so called “plan b” which they threatened over the last few months was mearly a smoke screen. If they did have an alternative plan that worked they would have used it. They didn’t and were hoping to last until the USPTO could invalidate the patents and let them off scot free. That wasn’t meant to be. If anything, perhaps this will cast a light on other patents that are lodged and granted with little or no forethought. In this case NTP did try to make a like device predating the Blackberry by several years, but failed. The founder died a few years ago as this was working its way through the court. Still though, there are many broad and in my opinion over reaching patents and if nothing else at least this has brought the isssue to light, if only for a short time.