When was a teenager I lived just a few blocks from the local elementary school and we used to go over there on weekends, hop the fence and play basketball. We went there for a few reasons, It was close. It was a “real” court and much better than someone’s driveway and 8-foot hoops made us feel like NBA stars even though we all pretty much sucked. So when we would play actual games of 3-on-3, the deal was, you had to call your own fouls. If you smacked an opponent upside the head as he went in for a layup you were expected to raise your hand and cop to the foul. It was kind of the hoops version of the honor system. And it worked well as long as everyone had, well, honor. But once you had someone laying on the ground bleeding and the person everyone knew had committed the hard foul swearing he never touched the guy it was pretty much over. Yes, your team got a penalty, maybe lost the ball, or the other team got a couple of free throws. But if you screw up you have to man up and suck it up.
That came to mind when I was trying to dial in a mix for a band last weekend on a board I had not used in a while and could not figure out why I couldn’t get a little grease in the monitors. I had an output solo’d before the Fx send, the room was really live so I was not using any ‘verb in the house and was just trying to placate the singer. Seeing as how the house guy was looking over my shoulder and knew I had screwed up I had little choice, but still I had to suck it up and say, “oops, my bad, how’s this?” I would like to think I would have done so even without someone standing here who knew I had screwed up. Man up. Suck it up.
Speaking of sucking it up. Watching CNN while working from home nursing a bum leg. They had Colin Powell on (Lord I like that guy. Too bad he has too much sense to run for office…) and they were talking about the Henry Gates thing and he told a story about waiting for a very long time in Reagan National Airport when he was National Security Advisor and finally having to ask someone at the gate if his guest had arrived and finding out the person had been there for some time and that the person at the airline knew that there was someone waiting to meet the National Security Advisor but did not put the guy waiting together with the Powell because he probably could not imagine that someone holding that office was black. When asked how he responded to something like that he said, “Sometimes you just have to suck it up.”
It’s when people don’t take responsibility and suck it up that things get out of control. I live in Vegas which is a pretty free place or always has been, but that is changing and not for the better. Just the other day I saw a news item about casino dealers complaining about the effects of second-hand smoke. Are you kidding me? If you work in a casino you are going to be working around smokers, it is almost a law of nature. What do you do about it. You suck it up, or find a job that is not in a casino.
I remember when living in Cali and they passed this stupid no smoking law that banned smoking in bars for God’s sake. Booze and tobacco go together like eggs and grits. All of the anti-smoking people celebrated, and I admit that I was kind of jazzed about not having to sing in smoky bars anymore. Except it meant I didn’t sing in any bars. No smoking meant fewer customers and fewer customers meant less dough for live music, which put a huge dent in the work available for both musos and techs.
We make choices in life. I would have liked to have been a rock star, but as a songwriter, I am a really good magazine editor. I did not have the innate talent to live my fantasy. Suck it up. Instead, I have a great job in an industry I love and I play music for the joy of it not cuz I need to pay the rent. You know someone who has tinnitus or some other condition that means they can’t be around loud noises? Well, the live event production industry is probably not a good job fit for them, no matter how much they want it. Suck it up.
And now for something completely different…
Talking with my publisher the other day I got the really good news that two audio companies, Yamaha and Sennheiser, that have never been involved in the Parnelli Awards before, had come on as sponsors. For too long too may people have thought that the Parnellis were just a squint show. Not sure why. We have honored folks like Big Mick, John Cooper, Bob Heil, Bruce Jackson, John Meyer, Pooch and Tom Young in the past few years. And it is not just the “big boys.” We honor one regional soundco every year, and the chance to decide who gets nominated for that honor this year is in this very issue on page 22. The winners in each region of the Hometown Hero Awards automatically get nominated for the big regional soundco of the year award.
If you have never made it out to the show you really need to do so. It is a great chance to give a tip of the baseball cap that hides our bald spots to the people who make this business a great place to work. Audio people, staging people, even squints and vidiots. Orlando in November. Not super convenient, but it is your only chance to recognize the audio folks doing really good work out there. Yeah, it runs during a squint show. Suck it up and get your butt out there and fly the sound crew colors. Or just find me and we can pass the whole day of the show telling LD jokes. It’ll be great.
