hard beginner to intermediate

i went hiking a couple of weeks ago and when i tried to find a map so i could give directions to a friend who was coming to meet me, i found out that the park i was at had just added a new mountain bike trail. that reminded me that i used to love mountain biking. so i decided to get back into it. after several weeks of bike shopping and a few test rides, i bought a new bike. later that day i went and rode the trail that i had just learned about. this trail was rated as beginner to hard beginner, and i rode straight through it with just a couple of problems. well that gave me a false sense of confidence and i decided to go to another trail i had learned of that was rated hard beginner to intermediate. it was also billed as one of the most technical trails in nashville. i know... i should have known better.

but i tried anyway. i got started fairly well, hardly having any trouble with the creek crossings or slight climbs. well, a little ways in, i came to what i think they called the "rock garden". when i first came up to it, i realized it was more than i should take on, and i stopped. i spent some time looking at it, and found a good line, and decided to try it. i backed up the trail a little so i could get settled on my bike before i hit the hard stuff. as i got close, i realized i was on a slightly different line than the one that i picked out, but thought i could still make it...


i was wrong. i got about half way down the rocks, and then my front wheel stopped. since i was on about a 40 degree downhill, the rest of the bike didn't stop, and i ended up vertical over top of my front wheel before falling over sideways. honestly... it was a pretty good wreck. all that really happened was a bit of blood, and a few scrapes and bruises... and a bit of scrapped paint from where the chain came off.

the best part was that as i was coming up and realized i was off course i thought, "maybe i shouldn't be trying this". then, as i started to wreck, i started to giggle and, when i hit the ground, i laughed out loud. it was really funny to me that i knew i shouldn't have tried but did anyway.

no worries, we do it all the time

so it was my first real gig as production manager. because i paid attention to the farns, i knew i needed to be sure that our hazer (like a smoke machine, but better) wouldn't set off the church's fire alarms. one of the first things i said to the church people was, "is there a fire alarm system that we need to disable while we run our hazer?" their answer was, "no worries, we run a smoke machine all the time"..... i'm sure you can guess what happened.


yep, the fire alarm went off, and the fire department showed up. but it didn't happen early in the day while we were setting up, or during soundcheck.... it went off 10 minutes after we opened doors so that everyone was already in the building and we had to explain what was happening to the audience... and delay the show. but anthony got to meet the firemen.

we called the alarm company to try and get them to turn the alarm off and they put us on hold... we called about our fire alarm going off and they put us on hold............... really?!?! so while we were on hold, we started brainstorming other options. here's the church's first idea.


well, after about 30 minutes of the alarm going off, we finally got it to turn off. as soon as they assured me that there was no way the alarm would go off again, we turned the hazer back on got the show started - only 18 minutes late.


thanks to travis honeycutt for making this church look great with very little gear. unfortunately, there was a guy in the audience who didn't agree. for the first time ever... the lighting guy got a complaint and not the sound guy. that's right - some old man came to front of house and whined about the light being in his eyes and no one came to the sound board to complain. some people even complimented me on the mix. it's really just cause i couldn't mix very loud. apparently people like it when the volume doesn't ever get louder than 95dB. i'll keep that in mind.

four 1-hr naps

last night i had my youth group lock in at church. look at my great bunch of students (and my preacher). how awesome are they?! last time we had a lock in we ended up going to bed a little after 2am. well this time was a bit different. this time we hooked a wii up to our projector and one of the guys brought rock band.... all that fun turned into we didn't go to bed until 5am this morning. well at 5am i laid down on my makeshift bed made of chairs that was so narrow that i missed my bunk on the bus. i slept from 5:15 until about 6:15, woke up and then from about 6:25 til 7:25. that's two 1-hr naps. after having breakfast and cleaning up and driving home i laid down on my couch (my favorite place to sleep during the day) and caught another couple of 1-hr naps.

it was great fun, even though i am quite sore from wii boxing and baseball. getting old stinks. check here for more on the lock in.

nice version

i was told just yesterday by an artist that i was working for that i was "the nice version of a sound guy". now, he wasn't telling me that i was a top quality sound guy, but that i was a friendly version. i do hope that i am a top quality sound guy too, but i have been striving to be the guy who can handle the techie side of things on the road and be someone who everyone likes working with as well. well, for yesterday at least, i succeeded. i love my job(s).

mirrors, mirrors, you are the walls....

today was my first official production managing gig. i was very fortunate because this gig was in town, and at a tv station, so it wasn't as hard as it could have been. anyway, after plenty of phone calls and advancing and rehearsals we showed up for the gig. my first thought when i saw this place was, "i have to take a lot of pictures of this place!" then i thought, "i should just video instead"..... so i did. unfortunately i couldn't talk richie or jon into being our tour guide so you just have to listen to whatever was loud around me or my breathing.

so as you can see.... abour 80% of this place is mirrors floor to ceiling - even the bathrooms! at first is was weird, but then it was kinda fun....

i sure did have a good time. much thanks to richie, jon, josh, andrew, brandon, anthony, seth, lici, and everyone else involved.

thoughts from the tarmac

i'm stuck on a plane on the tarmac in springfield missouri. apparently the weather in chicago is really bad. we were supposed to take off at 1:20, but were delayed and didn't get on the plane until almost 2. now it's almost 4 and that means i've had nearly 2 hours sitting in seat 10A already. here's a sample of what's gone through my head:

- i'm glad i got the seat that is both aisle and window
- wow, i took a 30 minute nap and we're still in the same exact spot we were when I fell asleep
- i think that the old lady in front of me may have just crapped her pants
- she's hurrying to the bathroom... she really may have crapped her pants
- ewwwww
- done with that album, what should i listen to next
- i wish i could blog
- i really like shane and shane's album "pages"
- wait! i can blog
- i hope i make it home tonight
- hooray! they started the engines
- dang! we were just moving so the other airplanes could get where we were
- these cashews are delicious
- i like southwest airlines way more than american airlines
- could it be true?!?! we're going to take off?!?! of course i'll turn off my elect.....

back to reality

i'm back to being a road manager today. i do miss not having to know anything about where i am or where i'm going, but i do love being the guy that people can count on to have, or be able to get, the answers.

we flew in to springfield branson national airport today to do a show in springfield missouri at a church here. this is one of those really tiny airports that doesn't even have a starbucks and the food court consists of vending machines (okay, maybe not quite that bad, but they don't have a starbucks). they do however have a chapel.


hooray for having priorities, and ones that matter! here's a shot from tonight. it was a lot of fun, and i was super excited to get to work with Bruce and Dave again - as well as Twila of course!