Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
My annual post: Still on the road
I was on the road when John Lennon died.
I was in Ohio. Gonzo and I were on tour with The Babys, a band with a brief career and some good tunes. They had been the opening act for Journey’s tour, but within a year The Babys would break up, and Journey would snag Jonathan Cain, The Babys keyboardist, to replace Greg Rollie, Journey’s co-founder, keyboard player and vocalist (who is also the voice on classic early Santana hits).
I don’t remember specifics about exactly what I was doing when I heard the news. That’s one of the downsides of actually being part of the music and concert industry way back when, at least for some of us. I’m pretty sure we were watching Monday Night Football, and we heard Howard Cosell make the announcement. I remember being stunned.It just wasn’t what you’d expect. It was a foreign concept, that John Lennon would be shot and killed. It made no sense. Then again, with a few exceptions, it never makes sense whenever someone is shot.
But, John Lennon?
It hurt all of us, sure, but, me and Gonzo, we were in it, y’know? We weren’t rock stars, but we worked for a rock band. We didn’t hear our music on the radio, but we heard the music of the guys that we hung out with every night. We were getting good paychecks and having a great time because we were in the industry. Little tiny specks in the industry, certainly, but, in it, nonetheless.
We were in it, really, because of the Beatles. We were in it for the same reason young guys formed bands and played music and held on to a dream of some day doing nothing but playing music for a living, and living the music. We had those notions, for good or for bad, because we had been brought to the dream by the Beatles. I’m pretty freaking old in a lot of people’s eyes now days (I’m fifty-six), old enough to have gone to the Marquette Theatre on the corner of 59th and Kedzie to see a Hard Days Night (it’s where I also saw Ferry Cross the Mersey, with Jerry and the Pacemakers) the day it was released. I was already interested in the guitar before the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan, but me and thousands of other kids ramped up our dreams by learning how to play Day Tripper and every other Beatles tune we could figure out.
Hard to imagine that anyone else will come along in my lifetime and make a global, cultural change like the Beatles did.
And so there I was, in Ohio, having achieved some tiny level of satisfaction as a roadie, for bands that got airplay, that played concerts in small halls and big stadiums, and I was just doing it, living it, feeling it…
And John Lennon was dead.
Allow me to digress briefly: Years after Lennon’s death, the industry lost another great, influential soul when Bill Graham was killed in a helicopter accident. He didn’t have the stature of Lennon, but he was a major force in live music. Shit, he was THE force. Clarence Clemons had a condo just beyond my backyard in Sausalito, and we’d see each other, shoot the shit every now and then (I was on the video crew for some of the Born in the USA tour), and we saw each other the day after Bill’s accident.
Clarence looked at me and asked, “Now what?”
He was asking how on earth do we fill that void? Who would we turn to now, who would keep things happening, who would put on shows that people would remember their entire lives, who could musicians and artists and managers and fans rely on to make the impossible possible, how would we ever find our way to nirvana without the guru?
That night in Ohio was a “Now what?” moment.
Everything would be the same after that, because everything keeps going no matter who lives and who dies, just as everything would be the same after Graham, but, just like it is for all our tragedies, personal and distant, nothing would ever be the same.
As I get older, I realize how powerful the “Now What?” moments are in our lives, and I grudgingly accept, with sadness, that the “Now what?” moments must occur, and all I can do is carry them with me, remember them, and use them to guide me, to remind me of how I should treat people, and make the most of every moment, because the next moment isn’t promised to anyone. Not to me. Not to you. Not to John Lennon.
Lennon and millions of other souls are gone, and I can ask “”Now what?”, but, more importantly, I think John Lennon would say it’s okay to ask the question, as long as I move my ass down the road to look for the answer. It’s the moving that’s the answer; the journey is the answer; the knowing that life is full of “Now what?”, and you may never know why, but the only way you’ll ever a chance in hell of figuring out anything is to keep moving…
On the road.
The Giants and Journey
He's a big fan
He’s a Giants fan, season ticket holder, semi-retired rock star.
This couldn’t have happened anywhere else. That’s not bluster, it’s just an accurate assessment based on the place, the time, and the song.
As a writer, I can’t help but think about how this must feel — almost 45,000 people, at one of the great sports spectacles in the country, and, what, two-thirds of the crowd knows you AND your song…and then they sing it.
I worked for a great band. I live in a great place.
Go Giants.
We need more chrome
Winners and Losers
Here are two recent “Who Did Everything Right?” and “Who Didn’t Say Hello?”.
This week’s Who Didn’t Say Hello? loser (can’t really call them a winner, now, can we?) is a retailer that regularly has crappy customer service: Home Depot. Although I will give the Home Depot store in Santa Rosa, California a slight offset for the two employees who at least smiled when we made eye-contact, it wasn’t enough to balance out the seven employees I passed as I wandered around. It’s not just a matter of customer service, really, because even someone you pass on the sidewalk will acknowlege you in some way, but to have your existence ignored by employees who are getting paid to assist customers is unforgivable. Customer service entails many things, and one of those is being proactive — don’t wait for a customer to ask for help…unless that’s your company’s philosophy, which is what you’re representing to me when I’ve got to FIND YOU and then ASK you for assistance.
As always, I will share any response I receive from Home Depot about their inclusion in the poor customer service universe (and I’ll also let you know if they don’t repsond at all).
The winner of Who Did Everything Right? is the Lens Crafters store in the Santa Rosa Plaza shopping mall. I waked up to the counter, was asked how I could be helped, explained that even though it was Saturday and the store was busy, I was really hoping to get the one-hour turnaround on new glasses. What followed was a pleasant, efficient and courteous experience, initially by store manager Brian and then by employee Chelsea. I got a promise of an hour-and-a-half (I was okay with that), a socially enjoyable experience, and before I left for a quick trip to L.A. I picked up my glasses when I was told I could.
The pleasant experience was a rarity, and I plan on going back for prescription sunglasses pretty soon.
Quick. Post.
Just received a forwarded emailed newsletter about ethics. Great subject. The format was a bit long, but the worst part about the whole thing was the catch phrase above the newsletter’s name: Good. Smart. Business. Profit. It was forwarded by someone smart and savvy, who knows I just finished some copy writing and name creation for an eNewsletter, and who asked for my opinion on the catch phrase.
Here’s my response: Really. Sucks. Big. Time.
’nuff said.
Your Notebook
well, where is it?
Where’s your notebook?
Well, where is it? You have one (or more), right?
If you’re a writer or an artist, you have one. That’s because if you are indeed a writer or artist, you can’t live without some kind of notebook or journal, because you can only function as a human being when you have a place to put your thoughts, plans, sketches, reminders, stuff like that.
I’m not talking about a day planner, but if you have one of those with you all the time, you can make a section of that your ‘notebook’.
I do a lot of consulting with new and working-at-it writers, and telling them to get a notebook is one of the first directions I give them. It’s a very sensible suggestion, yet I am still amazed when I discover this has never occurred to them. A pen or pencil, and small notebook. They are indispensable.
And, if you are any kind of thinker, planner, presenter or speaker, you should have one too. Doesn’t matter if it’s a pocket-size spiral notebook, or, my preference, one of the many style of Moleskin notebook/journal, get one (actually, get several) and begin to keep it with you all the time. I don’t have any special insight or secret to reveal in this post; it’s simply that you shouldn’t be without some kind of writing implement nor writable surface when that great idea for the series of slides you need pops into your head as your waiting in line at the grocery store, or when a friend gives you a website URL to go to, or you’re reading a magazine and hit a sentence that clears up a question you’ve been trying to answer for months.
Or…a cartoon, a birthday, a poem, a street address, a “don’t forget to…” or handful of sentences that you need to remember…or just a doodle pad.
Don’t be without your notebook.
Stop reading this and go get some.
Go.
“Is this thing on?”
The dream would be this: the MC walks to the podium, quickly scans the crowd, smiles, picks up the microphone, speaks into the microphone… and not once does someone from the audience shout “louder”.
That is the dream. Outside of the ‘professional’ arena, the dream rarely becomes reality. It’s not that hard, really, to know how to speak into a microphone correctly, but there are some myths and misunderstandings that I will attempt to clear up. It’s not rocket science, you’ll never forget it once you know it, and audiences around the world (or within your world, wherever that may be) will love you for it.
And I’m specifically referring to handheld microphones in this post. The addendum for podium mic usage is thus:
- first ASK the AV technician (AV = audio-visual, or audio-video) if you can touch the microphone to adust it.
- upon receiving permission, and beforehand (if possible), stand at the mic and adjust it so that the top points as directly at your mouth as possible (the diagram below will help with this)
- speak at your presenter-voice volume and maintain that volume for the duration of your presentation.
Lavalier mics, those little mics that attach to you shirt, sweater, etc., also have their own parameters, which I’ll post about in a few days.
Now, into the handheld domain.
Aside from holding the mic too far away, the most common mistake is to hold the mic close enough to your mouth but at an angle that can’t pick up your voice because you are essentially speaking over the top of the microphone, not ‘in’ to the microphone.
Think of your voice like the jetstream you see the TV weather reporter pointing to; a channel of air moving — for my illustrative purposes — above and horizontally to the land below.
Microphones have different pick-up patterns, different shaped areas around the business end of the microphone where, when sounds pass through the areas, sounds are detected and conveyed electronically. These patterns are all, essentially, bubble-shaped, but shapes that could never be produced by any sort of bubble-blower. Envision a filled balloon. Now, envision a microphone held vertically, and push the bottom of the balloon down and over the top of the microphone just enough so that the round head of the microphone just disappears into the balloon. Without going into technical details, this is what the pick-up pattern looks like in general.
The pick-up pattern, in the real world, doesn’t have the defined and confining boundary of the balloon’s skin, and it’s nowhere near the size of a typical balloon, but the point is this: your voice needs to enter the balloon-shaped area for optimal use of the microphone, and that would be a line from the vertical top of the balloon down into the top of the microphone. The common mistake, that drives audiences crazy and is never fixed by the presenter moving the mic closer, is when the mic is held straight up and the presenter’s mouth is speaking over the top, like blowing across a candle.
Hold the mic so that the end you speak into is pointed at your mouth; a profile view would have your mouth at, say, two-o’clock, and the microphone a mere few inches away, held at an angle where the top is pointing at two-o’clock and the other end at eight-o’clock.
can you hear me now?
Voila! Everyone can hear you, the AV tech is all smiles, and the only reason you ask “is this thing on” is as a follow-up to a joke that you hoped would have been funnier.
Yeah, go ahead, blame it on the microphone…
Inexcusable
just saw the beginning of President Obama’s Q&A for his town hall meeting in Indiana. as an old media pro, and as an older live event pro (which, I know, makes it seem as if I am of two different ages…), I couldn’t help but be both amused and bummed that the support crew for the most powerful man on the planet had an audio problem. the audio feed for the President’s handheld mic was working for the live feed to TV, but it wasn’t working for the house PA, so he couldn’t be heard by the audience. and he had to wait for a back-up to get to him.
inexcusable.
a bazillion years ago when I was a roadie with Journey, one of the musicians in the band had some technical problems during the show, and the next night he said something that I have never forgotten: “There are too many people working for me for my shit to be screwed up.”
occasionally, paraphrasing just won’t do. his statement left no doubt as to how he felt about the situation, and he was right. the band had a crew of road-tech veterans, and, except for sunspots, acts of god and Twilight Zone stuff, there was no reason for anything to not work for the two hours when everything HAD to work. so while it may be slightly amusing that even the POTUS has technical glitches in his ‘show’, it is inexcusable.
ladies and gentleman, check your stuff. if you’re too busy, and it’s your show/presentation/lecture/speech/sales call, then find someone capable to help you check:
- acquaint yourself with the microphone, look at the on and off switch; is it going to be on or off when you pick it up? if you’re supposed to turn it on, make sure you know how. usually the techs will place a piece of tape over the switch, leaving it in the on position; if this is the case and your microphone goes out, you’ll know it has nothing to do with the switch, so don’t even bother looking at it.
- where is your back-up mic?
- where’s the soundboard? can you see it, and can you see the sound tech, and are all the cues known? everyone got the same script?
- if you’ll be using a podium mic, ask the tech if it’s all right for you to adjust it (it’s not always all right, but almost everyone reaches for it and yanks it around), and, again, find out what the back-up mic situation is.
I’m not going to go into a whole propper microphone technique in this post. yep, there is such a thing, and I’ll post about it later this week. after this post, you should know this: if it can happen to the POTUS, it can happen to you, so do everything on your end to see that it doesn’t.
inexcusable…
A moment to reflect
I’m a book marker. As I read non-fiction, I mark-up pages; I make notes, put in special folds, and occasionally use Post Its to indicate particular pages or passages. I heartily recommend it for many reasons, including finding and then remembering something from a book that makes good blog-post material.
I’m a Buddhist (an occasionally grumpy Buddhist, yes, but, hey, I’m an Irishman, too), currently reading The Wise Heart, a guide to Buddhist psychology by Jack Kornfield. There are a great many facets of Buddhism and its daily practice that apply to better communication skills. I read a passage about what’s called The Sacred Pause and it’s right on target for a communication tip.
The sacred pause is “a moment where we stop and release our identification with problems and reactions.” Yes, I know, it sounds somewhat flowery or ephemeral as a brief quote, but it really is a great technique for enhancing presenting and public appearance skills. It’s a very simple concept, really, and it’s been suggested and adhered to by wise people for longer than I’ve been around, although said in a slightly different manner: think before you speak.
Kornfield writes, “…habitual responses can come out of our mouth…before we know it”, and we all know that’s true. The application of the pause to presentations and public appearances is in the Q&A after a presentation, answering questions at a press conference or as a member of a panel, and in the meet-and-greet portion of a meeting or after your presentation. We’ve all had our foot-in-mouth episodes; I don’t beleive any of us hasn’t. The key to reducing the number of episodes is in the pause. There is no universal law of any kind that says we have to respond to a question or comment immediately, and many of us would be well served if we took a breath, took a moment to really consider our response before we opened our mouth, and spewed out what we should have edited, re-worded or just kept to ourselves.
Most people in a group setting are uncomfortable with silence. Someone always wants to pop the silence bubble in any way possible, a trait I label as the “Hey, how ’bout them Giants?” syndrome (also used to quickly change the course of a conversation). But a pause, that extra moment of silence, can also give someone a power edge. A pause before response draws attention, draws people in. It does bring a focus onto the pauser, and that brings with it some pressure, but to communicate effectively an audience has to be attentive, and the power of anticipation is a good thing, pressure or not.
The stress of feeling the need to respond immediately is a trait that pops up in depostions, and it’s one of the first coaching issues attorneys (good attorneys) address with their clients: don’t answer immediately; take a breath, give your brain some oxygen, which will help you relax, both of which will help you think, and then answer.
It’s great advice, and well worth practicing. Train yourself to remember this at every opportunity you have to interact with someone, whether it’s your kid, a relative, the poorly-trained store clerk or a trade show audience: pause then respond.
Take a moment to reflect on that.
Here we go
yep, i’m ready to roll into 2009…
what? whaddya mean it’s here? dang.
okay then…
ended the year with several gigs: very cool video DVD project for a well-known wine guy (but it’s not about his wine), a medical illustration assignment for a litigation graphics firm, and an ongoing re-branding and communications project.
diverse, yes, but they’re all still about communicating, and the principles of how i approach those jobs are the same. i’ll be posting about those principles over the next week or so.
and on today’s “who didn’t say hello?” watch, it’s one of the regulars, Best Buy.
i receive more greetings and smiles from people i pass on the steet than i get from the “it’s all about me” floor people at Best Buy. maybe that’s the mandate they get from corporate.
i’ll let you know their response.
