My 2009 - As Seen on Youtube

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but here are some videos shot from the crowd that I've found of some of the shows I've done this year. Hopefully 2010 will be even better!

Systems Enginner - Avenged Sevenfold / Buckcherry / Papa Roach / Saving Abel

FOH - Burn Halo

FOH - Avenged Sevenfold - Rock on the Range Festival and Foro Sol Stadium, Mexico City.

Systems Engineer / FOH - Bonnaroo "The Other Tent" 2009

Systems Engineer / FOH - Rothbury Sherwood Court Stage 2009

FOH - Detroit Electronic Music Festival Main Stage 2009

Systems Engineer - Rod Stewart Tour 2009

FOH - The Kin (tour support for Rod Stewart)

Tech - Metallica - Rock n Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concert

The American Public Education System... LOL

The evolution in teaching math since the 1950s:

1. Teaching Math In 1950s A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit ?

2. Teaching Math In 1960s A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?

3. Teaching Math In 1970s A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit?

4. Teaching Math In 1980s A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

5. Teaching Math In 1990s A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong answers, and if you feel like crying , it's ok.)

6. Teaching Math In 2009 Un hachero vende una carretada de maderapara $100. El costo de la producciones es $80. Cuanto dinero ha hecho?

E-Rock Video Music Awards

I just watched the Beyonce video that, according to Kanye West, is the greatest video of all time and frankly I just don’t get it. For one thing, I had to look it up on the Internet because I don’t think I’ve seen a music video on MTV in 15 years. Aside from that I’ve seen some great videos in my day and frankly three chicks in leotards dancing while the camera spins around them is rather lame. Since we’re judging the video and not the musical content, I’ll spare any further commentary on how lame the song is.

I decided to compile a list of videos that are superior to the Beyonce video. I mean no disrespect to Beyonce, but Kanye started this. In no particular order here is the E-Rock list of better videos that would disqualify Beyonce’s video from its “greatest of all time” status issued by Kanye West.

1. Michael Jackson – Thriller
2. A-Ha – Take On Me
3. Tom Petty – Runnin’ Down a Dream
4. Twisted Sister – We’re Not Gonna Take It
5. Warrant – Cherry Pie
6. Robert Palmer – Addicted to Love
7. Dire Straits – Money for Nothin’
8. Buggles – Video Killed the Radio Star (this one started it all)
9. Devo – Whip It
10. Metallica – One
11. U2 – Where the Streets Have No Name
12. Madonna – Papa Don’t Preach
13. D.12 – My Band
14. Dixie Chicks – Goodbye Earl
15. Avenged Sevenfold – A Little Piece of Heaven
16. Peter Gabriel – Sledgehammer
17. Beastie Boys – Sabotage
18. Pink Floyd – The Wall (the whole movie was a music video)
19. Foreigner – I Don’t Want to Live Without You
20. Van Halen – Right Now

This is not a definitive list and I hope to get plenty of input. Comment with your additions.

Bonnaroo Day 1

After a long flight from Mexico City, a 12 hour visit at home and a 6 hour drive to Manchester, TN I finally arrived at Bonnaroo. Before the masses arrive we have a day for set up. I wake up, go to the hotel lobby, get some coffee and wait for my commerades to begin the day when out of nowhere a dreadlocked, tie dye wearing douchebag hippie comes up to me asking if he can photocopy my credentials to sneak into the gig.

Of course I tell him no, but I actually try to be nice and I don't tell him to go fuck himself or anything of that sort, but he keeps persisting. When i offer him the alternative of buying a ticket for the show he responds in typical hippie fashion with all of the wealth envy excuses that could lead me into another blog but I won't go there now. He tries to explain that the artists make too much money and that he's a musician who plays for free all of the time. I tell him that I'm a capitalist and that his attempts at guilting me into giving my pass to him won't work he tries the typical hippie wealth is evil assault approach.

Dirty Hippie - "What does money do for you?"

E-Rock - "It provides me with the things that I want or need."

Dirty Hippie - "Like what?"

E-Rock - "Like my mortgage payment."

The hippie tries another approach.

Dirty Hippie - "So does money, like, give you power?"

E-Rock - "only in your mind."

Dirty Hippie - "What makes you say that??

E-Rock - "you think that because I hold capitalist ideals that I am wealthy. You also think that since I have something you want, namely my pass, that I should share it with you because you are less fortunate than I am. You are wrong on all accounts."

The hippie moved on to someone else thankfully.

Later that day a REALLY dirty hippie approached me while I was tuning and aligning the PA with pink noise after standing in front of a stack of subs holding his ears.

REALLY dirty hippie - "are you making that noise?"

E-Rock - "yep"

REALLY dirty hippie - "why are you making that noise?"

E-Rock - "I'm taking reference measurements and aligning the sound system"

REALLY dirty hippie - "you're listening to that noise?"

E-Rock - "yep, along with my computer"

REALLY dirty hippie - "oh. do you have to make that noise?"

E-Rock - "yep. Hey why do you have mud on your face?"

REALLY dirty hippie - "I'm making a cob house"

E-Rock - "so it's mud and shit?"

REALLY dirty hippie - "It's cob"

E-Rock - "isn't cob part mud, part shit, part straw?"

REALLY dirty hippie - "sometimes but we just use mud."

E-Rock - "couldn't find some quality shit for free around here?"

REALLY dirty hippie - "we never use shit, just mud"

E-Rock - "still looks like you have shit on your face"

The hippie leaves and I return to my adventures in pink noise. This is going to be a fun week.

Day Off, Mexico City

Friday was an off day. Since Thursday was a LONG day I slept in late and finally got up around 9:30 am. I spent about an hour convincing myself to get out of bed after which I ventured out into the unknown.

I like to explore so wandering a strange city is very appealing to me, however I'm not used to not being able to communicate with the locals that I meet. I've retained a little Spanish from my high school days, but communication is still difficult. Luckily, the locals seem to be very patient with my slow and choppy Spanish, even trying to help my language skills out with a friendly correction now and again.

Mexico city is nothing like the Mexico that I expected. I expected the American stereotype of Mexico. Dirty. Desert. Rusty El Caminos and Camaros lining the streets. Instead I discovered a gigantic metropolis that sprawls for what seems like forever in all directions. The streets are very clean and there are people going about the business of living in a big city everywhere. I wandered into a lovely park that had a rose garden that led me to a monument and statue of Ghandi. (I don't know what Ghandi had to do with Mexico, but he's there nonetheless)

The graffiti is much more artistic than the typical USA graffiti and just as illegible.

I should take this opportunity to tell my American friends that your favorite Mexican restaurant sucks in comparison to the food here. The only problem is the water. Drinking the water here will turn your colon inside out; this includes ice in the mixed drinks. I'm looking forward to coming home and having a glass of nice, chlorinated and fluorinated, government water.

My wandering lasted about 3 or 4 hours when I finally realized I was tired and lost in a foreign city. I tried to find a landmark, but there are no tall buildings here to use as a reference so I walked in what I thought was the right direction. Block after block I just soaked in how the Mexicans went about their lives and stumbled upon a bicycle rental kiosk. (these kiosk's are cool. You can rent a bike and return it to any of the many kiosk's around the city) The kiosk had a map of the city on the side of it and after asking the clerk where I was (in Spanish, thank you very much) I was happy to see that I was only 6 blocks away from the hotel. I wandered up the street, back to the hotel and straight back to my room for a nice siesta.

Not at all a bad day.

From Jan - Present a brief catch up session.

I haven’t been very diligent about posting gig blogs. In fact, I haven’t posted anything in a while. I suppose it’s time to post somewhat of an update. Let’s get everyone up to speed quickly.

From January thru April I was the audio systems engineer on the Avenged Sevenfold / Buckcherry tour. On that tour I also mixed FOH for Burn Halo who was the tour support band.

In May, as I was preparing for the summer of festivals with Thunder Audio, I was called by Nigel (the FOH for A7X). Nigel was having some health concerns that made him unable to mix a few gigs with A7X and asked me to fill in; of course I agreed. I’m happy to help out a friend and I’m very happy to be mixing a band like A7X. It’s another move in the right direction for my career.

The first A7X gig was opening for Korn at DTE Amphitheatre in Michigan. Once I stopped trying to recreate Nigel’s mix and created my own, I was comfortably in the pocket and had a great show.

The second A7X gig was at the Rock on the Range festival in Columbus, OH. It was my first stadium gig and I was more than slightly nervous. Luckily I also mixed Burn Halo on the third stage early in the day and I got my head wrapped around the gig instead of the festival. Both Halo and A7X were great gigs for me and led me to where I am now.

As I write this, I am sitting in the production office for A7X in Foro Sol Stadium, Mexico City. A7X is playing 3 shows with Metallica this week in front of 50,000+ crazy Mexicans every day. Every show is sold out.

I took a walk around the venue before the doors opened to the public. Taking some photos along the way I all of a sudden realized that this was my 2nd stadium gig EVER (the first being Columbus the week prior) and I was standing on a covered pitcher’s mound in a baseball stadium on my first trip to Mexico about to mix a metal band in front of a sea of people. That’s 3 things to cross off of my “to do” list… ;-)

I’ll have some good photos to post soon. For now, I think I’m going to find some churros. I have some stories to tell about my first trip to MX, but I want to go outside right now.

Cheers!

More Air Travel

We've all been through the airport. The government's desire to look like a friend to all and not be besmirched by accusations of racial profiling has forced the hand of the myrmidons working the security counters at our nation's travel hubs to make random searches and to follow a ridiculous guideline of how to convince someone that they were a potential threat and justify detaining and inconveniencing them for another few minutes.

My recent trip through DAY was no exception. I actually take my wardrobe into consideration when I prepare for a flight. I wear loose fitting shoes. I do not wear a belt or suspenders. I put my wallet in my carry on. My iPod, cell phone and camera are all in their own separate cases that are easily distinguished. My laptops are easily accessible as they need to be placed into their own security trays. Boarding pass and passport are always in hand. My sleeves are always short and pockets always empty.

That didn't stop our Mensa ready friends at the TSA from giving me the pat down, ball fondling treatment. They weren't concenred with my "quart sized ZipLoc bag" full of sample laundry detergent gel. I was wearing a fleece vest over a t-shirt and was singled out for wearing a "bulky coat". (the guy in the bubble jacket behind me walked right through) While my patdown that stopped short of an anal probe was in progress I noticed a TSA woman trying to rip the zipper off of my laptop bag.

E-Rock "What are you doing?"

TSA Cunt "Your bag has to be opened, sir."

E-Rock "Why?"

TSA Cunt "Are you carrying a portable hard drive?"

E-Rock "There's a terabyte drive in there. It's impossible to miss. I looks like a book with a bunch of electronic connectors on the back."

TSA Cunt "We need to get it out."

E-Rock "Do you need to destroy my bag in the process?"

TSA Cunt "We will be careful with your property, sir."

E-Rock "I'd like to use MY definition of careful and not yours."

I try to guide her in the proper application of force and leverage in order to open a zipper in order to extract the hard drive, to no avail. She kept flipping the bag and dropping it to find the compartment with the drive in it.

My hard drive rescans and wouldn't you know, it turns out NOT to be a bomb. My clothes are back on and wouldn't you know, I turn out NOT to have a bomb. Sleep well America, the government is keeping you safe.

A Dozen Fun Facts About the House Democrats' Massive Spending Bill

1. The House Democrats' bill will cost each and every household $6,700 additional debt, paid for by our children and grandchildren.

2. The total cost of this one piece of legislation is almost as much as the annual discretionary budget for the entire federal government.

3. President Obama has said that his proposed stimulus legislation will create or save three million jobs. This means that this legislation will spend about $275,000 per job. The average household income in the U.S. is $50,000 a year.

4. The House Democrats' bill provides enough spending - $825 billion - to give every man, woman, and child in America $2,700.

5. $825 billion is enough to give every person living in poverty in the U.S. $22,000.

6. $825 billion is enough to give every person in Ohio $72,000.

7. Although the House Democrats' proposal has been billed as a transportation and infrastructure investment package, in actuality only $30 billion of the bill - or three percent - is for road and highway spending. A recent study from the Congressional Budget Office said that only 25 percent of infrastructure dollars can be spent in the first year, making the one year total less than $7 billion for infrastructure.

8. Much of the funding within the House Democrats' proposal will go to programs that already have large, unexpended balances. For example, the bill provides $1 billion for Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), which already have $16 billion on hand. And, this year, Congress has plans to rescind $9 billion in highway funding that the states have not yet used.

9. In 1993, the unemployment rate was virtually the same as the rate today (around seven percent). Yet, then-President Clinton's proposed stimulus legislation ONLY contained $16 billion in spending.

10. Here are just a few of the programs and projects that have been included in the House Democrats' proposal:

* $650 million for digital TV coupons.
* $6 billion for colleges/universities - many which have billion dollar endowments.
* $166 billion in direct aid to states - many of which have failed to budget wisely.
* $50 million in funding for the National Endowment of the Arts.
* $44 million for repairs to U.S. Department of Agriculture headquarters.
* $200 million for the National Mall, including grass planting.
* $400 million for "National Treasures."

11. Almost one-third of the so called tax relief in the House Democrats' bill is spending in disguise, meaning that true tax relief makes up only 24 percent of the total package - not the 40 percent that President Obama had requested.

12. $825 billion is just the beginning - many Capitol Hill Democrats want to spend even more taxpayer dollars on their "stimulus" plan.

Inauguration Thoughts

Next Tuesday all of the choirs of angels in heaven will rejoice in unison. The snow will melt, flowers will bloom, birds will chirp and people will dance as the United States of America celebrates the inauguration of the 44th president, Barack Obama.

Mr. Obama has big plans and he plans to hit the ground running. America will no longer have to worry about paying their mortgage. President Obama will reign in the horrible evil banking corporations that are forcing Americans to uphold the agreement they made with the banks when buying their house. Americans will no longer worry about the rising cost of fuel. President Obama will create strenuous regulations on the oil companies that are unfairly taking the money of Americans in return for the goods and services requested of them. Americans will no longer worry about getting sick or injured. President Obama will have the health of every American in mind when he implements his health care system that creates yet another government agency to be run by sub-standard staff providing sub-standard care.

Mr. Obama’s plans are lofty and the cost will be even higher. He will have to outspend his predecessor to barely scratch the surface of the mountain of promises he made on the campaign trail. Fear not. It’s not the average American that will be footing the bill; the evil rich Americans will be paying for everything. The Americans that went to college have a career, live responsibly and have prospered will now have to provide for their neighbor’s family as well as providing for their own.

Margaret Thatcher is quoted as saying “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money”. I don’t know if she actually said it, but it’s the truth nonetheless. Americans and American politicians alike are only concerned with the immediate future. The “what’s in it for me?” and “how will this benefit me now?” ideology is very much the fashion these days and it is no more apparent than by the election of a charismatic rock star senator with no political track record aside from campaigning and a socialist agenda that caters to the fears and weaknesses of the electorate.

January 20, 2009 marks the beginning of a dangerous road that can be navigated but only by the few of us that see the distant future and have made plans that will help our children pay the tab that this President is going to leave them with.