From: "Brendan Gray" To: "Blah" Subject: f*cking RANT Date: Sat, 14 Aug 1999 00:43:59 -0400 Okay kids, here's todays Pop Quiz: Can anyone tell me what Eritea is? Anyone, anyone, Bueller...Bueller? Okay, here's a hint: Its a country. Anyone know where it is? Turns out Eritea is an African nation somewhere around Ethiopea/Somalia. Alright, back to my rant. So today, I get up and go to do some freelance lighting tech work. The gig is at the Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro (Motto: Hey, at least its not West Virginia!). Of course, there was a burning Perrier Truck on the Beltway (Be on the lookout for spontaneously combusting Yuppies!). (Yes, I know I'm confusing my tenses here, but its a rant so I don't/didn't/won't really care) So, anyway, traffic on the Beltway (Motto: Suckers!) was terrible. We get there, and meet our contact, who is very eager to please, but regrettably doesn't have a clue, and whose name sounds to our ears exactly like "handjob." (Disclaimer: No actually disrepect is meant to the Eritean people by this rant. I'm sure "Brendan" translates into something like "runs with head up ass" in some language, someplace.) Anyhow, after much discussion, gesturing, and posturing, we begin to load in our decent-size lighting rig into this arena where of course, a basketball tournament is being held. (note for sports fans: [ed (not ED, ed:) sports fans, this is blah, are you on crack?] there must be no referees in Eritea because these kids were fouling like their life depended on it..most of the points were scored from the free-throw line) Well, we manage to do a pretty good job of setting things up. (errant basketballs and annoying people asking "are you the sound guys.."NO!"" aside.) Of course, the people who are putting this event on have no idea what they are doing (see translation for "Brendan", above). They kept asking about lighting for the dancefloor, which they hadn't ordered lighting for, visibility for the video cameras (lighting for cameras is much different from lighting for the eye) and all this other crap that they hadn't requested. We can do all that. it just costs money, and they were nickel-and-dimeing us all the way on this gig. Grr. and its really frustrating when you have no idea what any of the announcers or anyone is saying and its not even a latin derivative language wheich you can sortof identify with. Arggh. All in all, a very frustrating day. I hate doing events with people who don't know what they are doing. Speaking of people who don't know what they are doing, how was the Bound ball? We all had a good laugh the other day sitting around the office when we discovered our company's name in the ad in the City Paper as one of the lighting vendors for the event. Seems one of our occasional employees was using the company's name without telling anyone. Sure enough, he calls the shop on Thursday looking for some gear. Now, I would have told him to go f*ck himself, or at least made him pay through the nose, but there he was today, loading a pitiful rental package into some lame looking pickup truck. I almost feel sorry, but not really. Its just that Monica deserves better lighting than that. grr, so now I have to go back out to this Eritean Festival tommorrow night and run the show, which means I might not make Kirsten's party, which mean's I don't see Wuss, and others, which just sucks. I'm also bouncing back and forth between here and NYC which has the worst rental market this side of Tokyo, and trying to find a place before the end of the month, or ASAP since the guy I am looking with just got evicted because his brother was 2.5 months behind on the rent. grr... Okay, I'm done, but I'm home, and not watching Monica, which sucks, and not in NYC, which sucks, and not with my girfriend, which sucks, and she is in Massachusetts, which also sucks, and my hard drive is on back order and my muffler has a hole in it and my alignment is fucked and my car leaks oil, and I'm unshaven, and my knee is still messed up from my accident and my sister has my stereo and my computer is sick and i havent been added to the rants web page in eons in fact no one has becasue no one updates the blah web stuff anymore I mean c'mon there are people on the cast of charachters who we probably don't even like anymore if we ever did I'm just being crochety becasue I've been here for a while and I'm way too much not sober for this time of night and just a little bitter. Y'all come visit me in NYC. Love, Brendan