Professional Graces
A growing and increasingly important section of the client list is women.
You guys out there may have been too busy with dirt track cars or hang gliders to notice who is signing the contracts, the checks, as well as stage managing the gigs and hiring the sound vendors these days.
Women have climbed up the ladder in the concert industry, and in my view, it’s a most-welcome change and is primarily due to a big advantage: many of them can do more than one thing at a time, and this multitasking capability is a valuable skill in our industry.
Meanwhile, a significant portion of the male species only think about one thing (besides sports) when they aren’t eating, and that is women.
So may I politely suggest to the more “Neanderthal inclined” readers to keep your mouth shut at the gig, on the phone, and in e-mails and blogs about this. Do nothing. It will keep you in professional graces as well as current with the times.
Healthy Outlook
When the deli tray has been sitting out all day and it’s just staring at you during that lull in the day when the band isn’t on stage yet, or after sound check but before a proper dinner is put out, do nothing.
Keep yourself healthy and in your weight class. Bread, rolls, mashed potatoes, chips, and any number of other carb munchies that make up the typical crew diet can do damage over the long term. Carbs train your body to digest in short bursts, build fat reserves (also known as a pot belly) and drive your pancreas crazy. (So your pancreas, too, desires you to do nothing.)
Along these lines, sugar is another enemy of health and the friend of eventual side effects such as diabetes. Many of us long timers are now suffering from internal diseases that can be traced directly to our massive intake of sugar, in the name of getting short-term energy to push through the gig.
When encountering sugar in all its disguised forms such as corn, cereals, loaded into drinks or coffee, sprinkled into salads and pasta sauces, do nothing – except try to avoid it. Or as medical doctors pledge upon entering their profession: “First, do no harm.”
The Finish Line
In the words of the great philosopher and Indy 500 winner Rick Mears, “To finish first, you must first finish.” He has the record for earning the pole position six times, and is one of only three drivers to win the race four times, so he knows what he’s talking about.
During the last few years of economic turmoil, when so many sound companies have folded up their tents and let the banks take back their loans and gear, these are important words to live by.
If you can finish – survive the tough times and stay around long enough to experience the good times – you can have a long and successful career, like me and the other people/companies that are still around to talk about the “good old days.”
The survivors are the ones who did nothing to screw it up.
Gary Gand is president of Gand Concert Sound in Glenview, IL. GCS has been on the forefront of large-scale audio since the 1970s and are known in some circles as the “NEXO guys.”