Work, hobbits, and other things
So, The Hobbit was published seventy years ago today. Like many of you, it was my introduction to Middle-Earth - I read it first when I wasn't more than ten years old. It was (and still is) a wonderful romp across Middle-Earth, everywhere from the Shire to the depths of the Goblin-tunnels to the halls of Thranduil and Smaug. It was my real introduction to escapist fantasy, and charged my imagination for years.
Just remember, people who are opposed to escapist fantasy are the jailkeepers of reality.
Anyway, work today was hours of panic punctuated with moments of boredom. I showed up at the shop at 8:30 AM (The shop being where we keep our hardware - it's a giant toy chest, filled almost to overflowing with speakers, sound boards, lights (even a couple lasers), and everything else you could ever want to run a concert with), and we proceeded to load a ton of stuff into the truck.
The truck itself is a twenty-eight foot box truck, complete with lift gate - it's huge, and we filled it comfortably. Two enormous speakers (five feet tall, three hundred pounds, and two and a half thousand dollars apeice), our "medium" board (in its travel case, the thing is four feet tall and five long), the cable coffin (a giant trunk on wheels, it's easily three by three by eight), two mobile racks (also huge, and heavy), and all the other odds and ends that we'd need to run a concert.
It was about then that we noticed that two of the parts we needed (speakers) weren't there. We tracked them down, finally - they'd gotten locked into the pavilion, on the other side of campus. John, one of the other techs, took the van and ran over to grab them, while Jessie (the boss) and I took the truck to the concert site.
It was only when we got to the concert site that we realized we didn't have the tech sheets for the first group to perform. As we were missing it, we really didn't know important things like where they wanted their monitors, or their microphones... or, for that matter, how many people were going to be on the stage.
We guessed, and set up for three... and, of course, there were four of them. Our setup was for a fairly normal rock band - these guys were playing celtic rock, and needed a totally different setup. We tore down and rebuilt the set from scratch in about ten minutes.
Once we had them going, they rocked. I mean, they really, really rocked. The leader-type person had an amazing British accent, and the other guys had practiced theirs to the point where the only reason I knew they were faking it was because I'd heard them talk without it.
Back behind the sound board, it was a bloody mess - they switched instruments a lot, and our system was not laid out in anything resembling logical order. I'm amazed that we managed to keep track of which slider controlled which mic at all, let alone actually making the band sound good.
The rest of the day continued in similar fashion - we tore the set apart and started from scratch twice, and I did a lot of running back and forth between stage and board. Somehow, though, it all sounded really good. I finally left when the last group of the day, a latin-type music group was up and running smoothly.
I'm glad I wore my boots - I got my toes run over by the cable coffin. If I'd been wearing my soft tennis shoes, that would have hurt. As it is, the coffin bumped, and I barely even felt it.
And now, laundry!
Just remember, people who are opposed to escapist fantasy are the jailkeepers of reality.
Anyway, work today was hours of panic punctuated with moments of boredom. I showed up at the shop at 8:30 AM (The shop being where we keep our hardware - it's a giant toy chest, filled almost to overflowing with speakers, sound boards, lights (even a couple lasers), and everything else you could ever want to run a concert with), and we proceeded to load a ton of stuff into the truck.
The truck itself is a twenty-eight foot box truck, complete with lift gate - it's huge, and we filled it comfortably. Two enormous speakers (five feet tall, three hundred pounds, and two and a half thousand dollars apeice), our "medium" board (in its travel case, the thing is four feet tall and five long), the cable coffin (a giant trunk on wheels, it's easily three by three by eight), two mobile racks (also huge, and heavy), and all the other odds and ends that we'd need to run a concert.
It was about then that we noticed that two of the parts we needed (speakers) weren't there. We tracked them down, finally - they'd gotten locked into the pavilion, on the other side of campus. John, one of the other techs, took the van and ran over to grab them, while Jessie (the boss) and I took the truck to the concert site.
It was only when we got to the concert site that we realized we didn't have the tech sheets for the first group to perform. As we were missing it, we really didn't know important things like where they wanted their monitors, or their microphones... or, for that matter, how many people were going to be on the stage.
We guessed, and set up for three... and, of course, there were four of them. Our setup was for a fairly normal rock band - these guys were playing celtic rock, and needed a totally different setup. We tore down and rebuilt the set from scratch in about ten minutes.
Once we had them going, they rocked. I mean, they really, really rocked. The leader-type person had an amazing British accent, and the other guys had practiced theirs to the point where the only reason I knew they were faking it was because I'd heard them talk without it.
Back behind the sound board, it was a bloody mess - they switched instruments a lot, and our system was not laid out in anything resembling logical order. I'm amazed that we managed to keep track of which slider controlled which mic at all, let alone actually making the band sound good.
The rest of the day continued in similar fashion - we tore the set apart and started from scratch twice, and I did a lot of running back and forth between stage and board. Somehow, though, it all sounded really good. I finally left when the last group of the day, a latin-type music group was up and running smoothly.
I'm glad I wore my boots - I got my toes run over by the cable coffin. If I'd been wearing my soft tennis shoes, that would have hurt. As it is, the coffin bumped, and I barely even felt it.
And now, laundry!