A dream job
People tell me all the time what an interesting job I have. I tell them yes it can be but like any job you get tired of it. The worst part of my career is the unsteadiness of it. I have several resumes out and have been told I am being considered. This is a well and good, but it doesn’t pay the bills.
I have only my self to blame sometimes. You accept that particular position thinking it is the right decision for that time. Usually it is, however once in awhile it isn't and then several months later you think, “Well that was a waste I should have taken that other tour.”
For some years I have wanted to work for a sports franchise, especially a pro baseball team. With my background I could coordinate the travel and hotels etc for a team. I have looked into it but unfortunately with no luck. It seems they don't have many open positions. I guess those folks found their perfect job.
I will continue to look, trust me this is something that I will do someday.
So until then I will continue to live from tour to tour.
Freddy Jones Band reunites
From 1996 to 1999 I spent the majority of my time working with the Freddy Jones Band from Chicago. You may not have heard of them however they had a strong following. They sold a fair amount of CD’s yet never quite reached the gold status on any one disc. Many people knew of them from their song “In A Daydream”. The band work 150-175 shows a year, these guys loved to tour.
Several acts who went on to sell millions of CD’s opened for FJB when they were starting out. It became kind of a running joke with bands that opened for the guys. They would tell them on the first day of a tour that they would probably be selling out arenas in a few years. Most of them didn’t really understand what we were talking about.
Anyway the guys broke up around late 1999. Now in 2005 they are getting together for a
one time show on August 20th. I don’t know if I will be able to make it since I may be on tour. I would like to be.
Fat man walking
This site may be old news to some of you, however I just read about this man.
WWW.TheFATMANWALKING.com
This is a tough journey for any person no matter what shape you are in. It is especially hard this time of year in the southwest. The man is going through an area with temperatures are in the 100's in July.
I hope that he is able to keep the weight off that he loses on his journey.
Nerds and geeks begin mourning period.
A period of mourning has begun. Another original Star Trek cast member has died. James Doohan, aka Mr. Scott has been
beamed up.
I am sorry for his family.
I actually have a story of Mr. Doohan. I was making a connecting flight home from a tour several years ago. My connection was in Chicago, United Airlines. I had about an hour layover and was sitting at the gate. I’m sitting there eating a sandwich and notice a man who looks familiar. I realize it is Mr. Scott from Star Trek.
I was never a big fan of the show, sure I watched it on TV when I was a kid. This was when it ran in prime time, before the reruns.
So when it comes time to board I notice he is on my flight. I’m seated only a couple rows in back of him. The thing I see was he was rather stand offish and cold to a couple people that tried to talk to him and get an autograph.
I thought this was a bit rude on his part. The man was on a show that ran just two seasons and spawned a couple of movies. This was it, his whole career basically. The man should have been lucky that anyone cared who he was. We are not talking about Jack Nicholson here. We are talking about a guy who is known for saying “I’m giving it all she's got Captain”
Oh well he had more fans than me.
Picture from the crash
The bus can't drive 55
There is a hip hop tour featuring Eminem and 50 cent called the Anger Management Tour currently traveling the country. They were in Chicago several nights ago and traveling to Denver and unfortunately there was an accident. It seems that one of the band buses was going too fast and tried to pass a couple of trucks. The complete story is
here. Fortunately there were no casualties.
This reminds me of an incident I had on tour in 2002. I was out as the lighting director for the Smokin Grooves tour; this was the one that Outkast headlined. We were going to Cleveland from somewhere in the Midwest, Milwaukee I think. We had a day off in Cleveland coming up. Now we were not in a big hurry. I had been asleep for about an hour, when I feel the bus stop.
Next thing I know our production assistant is telling everyone the bus is on fire. That’s right I said FIRE!! Usually that means the generator is on fire.
We hurry off the bus and discover that one of the back tires has come off and the wheel well is on fire. The good thing is the bus was not damaged anywhere except the tire area.
We had two production buses on this tour. There were around 8 people on each one. With one bus out of commission we had to put all of us onto one bus to get to Cleveland.
Yes an accident is scary but when you tour you fear the bus fire more.
Who's paying the bills?
The Live 8 concerts have come and gone. Of course you will see the reruns on MTV for the next 3 months. Well, till they release them on DVD.
From what I understand the shows were free to the public and the artists did the shows for free.
I was thinking while watching some of the rebroadcast this weekend, that someone had to foot the bill to put these on. The production costs alone had to be quite high. Sound, lighting, video, staging, labor and security are not cheap. If you think the local stagehands worked for free, especially Philadelphia and London, forget it.
The sound and lighting companies probably didn't do these free either.
I know this was about raising awareness and not about money, but still someone is paying for this somehow.
I've also read that many of the artists have seen sales of the their CD's jump considerably since the event. Hopefully these artists will donate some of that money to help.
Foo Fighters
I can’t stop listening to the latest Foo Fighters CD. It’s actually a double CD. One disc is electric and the other is acoustic. I don’t why; I just keep playing the electric one over and over. I rarely do this with any CD.
So the phone is ringing again with some tour possibilities. Still waiting to hear on the non-music tour. They told me last week however as of yesterday they say no one has been picked yet.
If it doesn’t pan out, then they’re a couple things that will run back to back nicely.
reunions........they make you think
The music business has taken up so much of my time.
Yesterday I attended a family reunion, which is the first one I’ve been to in years. I spend so much time on the road I usually miss these things. My cousins from my dad’s side of the family put this together. My Dad had two brothers and sister. There are quite a few offspring just from them; sixteen kids and something like 30 grandkids. I’m not even sure how many great grandkids.
The reason I’m writing about the whole thing is the realization that most of my life has gone by and I didn’t notice. Sure I see my mom and sister and her kids quite a bit. However the last time I saw most of my immediate cousins was at my dad’s funeral over tens years ago. I don’t really know them anymore and that is what bothers me. I was fairly close to some of them years ago.
I was having this conversation with some of them about how quickly time has gone by. Most of us are at the age or just past the ages that are dad’s died. They died quite young if you hadn’t guessed. Hopefully we will all try to stay in touch more.
I have a lot of old friends who I’ve also lost touch with. Actually most of the friends I have now work in the business. I guess that happens with most people.
