- Entry #99
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- 9:30 PM, Friday, December 29th,
2000:
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- The final piece...maybe.
Everything on DVD will be nice, but that may never
happen. What we have now though, is the full 4tvs show
being set-up in 5 minutes, and torn down in less than
10. This, allowing me to play absolutely any venue,
including an open-mic night, and even a comedy club
showcase. Before, the hour set-up kept me from those
places, but now there's nothin' stopping me. The
strangest thing in all of this, was that my "boxes"
idea never made it. What I'd been focussing on since
the beginning of 4tvs was not the answer... Here's how
it all began.
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- (This entire entry is indeed the story
of the restructuring of the 4tvs set-up. I'm certain
the thought of it has to be incredibly boring to most
of you. I will take no offense if you skim it all.
It's necessary to document because this change to the
show is a tremendous crossroads in my career.
I truly feel the places this will allow me to
play will be an intregal part of my "making it" in
this city.)
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- So this was about to be the future
of 4tvs. Individual boxes that I stacked into 2
towers. Made all the measurements, and the day
I was to go out and get the wood, something told
me not to. I looked at all the drawings, and then
pictured it live, and man - it just didn't work for
me. The boxes had to be made too damn big. That black
hole is where the screen would go, and damnit if the
box just dwarfs it - these are 27 inch tvs! The
thought of buying all the wood, making everything,
painting everything and then being unhappy still -
shit. So I paused a bit and hoped some solution
would just come to me. It pissed me off too - because
here I was making excuses AGAIN. I've been putting off
these boxes for a YEAR now...
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- Talking to moose one night we were
throwing ideas around. We both agreed we liked the
current set-up. It looks good. If we could only fit
the shelves in STANDING up in the trailer,
I could bolt everything to the current set-up and
we'd be all good. Unfortunately, buying a new trailer
is out of the question...then POW - it hit me.
I can saw off the tops of the shelves and just
maybe it'll fit in the trailer standing up....and
indeed with 4 inches to spare it'll fit. The strangest
part of all this is, my flux capicitor drawing I made
back in november of '98 when i thought 4tvs
up:
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- Heh, that drawing had the top
brackets cut-off. When I bought the shelves,
I just figured I had to lay the shelves down
in the trailer anyway, so what's the use in cutting
them to look like the drawing. Well, 57 shows later
I figure out why. So it's truly a bittersweet
discovery: Yea! It's gonna be beautiful, but DAMN why
the hell didn't I think of this before? All those
freakin' set-ups that killed me, all could've been
avoided. And not by some expensive restructuring by
buliding boxes...but by simply cutting the tops of the
shelves. Christ.
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- So the next step of course is
sawing through that metal. "Hey dad, can I borrow your
power tools?" I have never felt further away from
Columbus, Ohio in my entire life. I went to
hardware store after hardware store - home depot after
home depot...no one could do it for me. Finally found
this little hardware store (of course it was about 300
feet from my apartment) that could do it for me. And
you would not believe who was behind the
counter:
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- Yes, I swear to GOD - Dick
Cheney was behind the counter. This of course is a
younger picture of our vice-president elect...but by
all means it was him. I kid you though...but I
damn near went home, got my video camera, and showed
you. I even congratulated him on the close
election. It was so eerie. ANYWAY - he allowed me to
use his hack saw and cut the 6 pieces. Let me tell ya
something: I am out of shape. Granted, this is
pretty thick metal, but after doing just 2 pieces, my
heart was racing as if I had run a mile.
I was hurtin'. And you can't slowly cut these
pieces, the blade would stick...you gotta
SLAM it. By the 6th piece, I actually had to
sit On the floor for a minute. I'm such a
pussy.
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- After that debacle, I set-up
the new shelves, and prepared to spray paint them. I
removed all the lettering that used to say my name,
and hearing my thoughts. No turnin' back now
I kept thinking. I was planning to make some
posterboards at kinko's all nice and laminated with
foam board to replace the lettering. Guess now
I have to. Spray painting was easy - did it on a
sandy sidewalk next to a baseball diamond - then
kicked the painted dirt around...worked out pretty
well. Next step was the wheels.
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- Now I couldn't afford any added
height because the shelves were sized to my height,
and as well the trailer wouldn't allow it. So
I had to install the wheels within the shelf so
it only added about an inch. I could try and describe
this but screw it - it works.
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- Of course buying the 8 wheels and
actually attaching them are two different stories.
Thank GOD someone in my apartment buliding was willing
to help. So JOE - you the man...thanks for everything
- I owe you one. For two nights we set-up in the
front lobby of our apartment building and drilled
those puppies some wheels. Then of course came the
wiring. Which I must admit was one of the
singlemost kick ass day of my life. I love problem
solving. Trying to figure out a way to make everything
work out in the most convenient way possible was just
the shit. And it's now time to pay homage to one man:
the inventor of the zip-tie.
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- I mentioned him in my last entry,
but his value as a man just can't be praised enough.
These puppies made everything possible. Instead of
drilling the tv into a board, I was able to zip-tie it
on, so it can't move. Black zip-ties of course, white
ones would've looked quite tacky. It took about 8
hours (thank GOD for some great NFL games) and it
was done. And here's the kicker: the set-up is faster
than if I had made boxes. All that needs to be
done, is put the top tvs on the shelves and plug them
in...then connect the audio and video cables from one
shelf to the next and power up. That's it - everything
else is done. Again, completely bittersweet. I have
truly lost DAYS of my life with the set-up and tear
down of 4tvs - in fact exactly 114 hours. That's
nearly 5 days of setting up. Goddamn that's
depressing. If I had used this set-up, it would've
been about 12 hours. Ugh. Oh well - there'll be many
more shows from this point on, so I can't bitch
too much (tough I certainly have haven't
I?).
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- The final part of the rennovation
were the 2 signs that would go on the front of the
shelves. This actually took me about a week.
I just couldn't get it right. Here was what I
came up with:
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- It looks cool, but it's wrong for
the show. Too spacey...the technology of 4tvs doesn't
even occur to most people...so to have a logo that
looks space-ageish is stupid. I needed something that
looked fun. Not so serious. The show is just goofy.
Then again, nothing too goofy that would detract from
the tvs themselves. And as well, "hearing my thoughts"
has to go. It just doesn't work with 4tvs. It's the
name of my album, and you are indeed hearing my
thoughts with 4tvs...but that's not really what people
come away with. People come away laughing. That's what
stays with you. And, can you imagine those signs in a
comedy club? It's just too much. Couldn't really put
my finger on it, but I had to come up with signs that
worked, and said what I wanted. I finally came up
with something I liked:
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- Still looks professional, but a
lot more casual. Pepole walking in and seeing this
will know that it's gonna be funny. Yet, doing some
music too will work. The previous was just too damn
hi-tech. I know the show is pretty hi-tech, but
again - that's not what grabs people. This prepares
people for what they're about to see...
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- As you can probably tell, I'm so
damn pumped - that I wrote an entire entry on the
SHELVES of my 4tvs show. But again, I really
think this is the biggest entry of the year. It's not
just me wanting a quicker set-up time - it's the
ability to play any venue in this city. Hell
I could play on the street in a matter of
moments, and comedy club, and open-mic night: Man! I'm
so excited. Only time will tell, but I'm convinced the
places this set-up allows me to play, will be where a
HUGE contact will be. Now, how did the first show with
this set-up go?
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- Thursday,
December 28th, 2000 - 8:30-11:00
PM
- LULU'S BEEHIVE
11
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- Well
here it is - the big new set-up. Of course
things need to go wrong. Somehow all of
the zip-ties broke on one tv. (sigh) -
somehow the tv didn't go all over the
place. I don't know HOW the fuck it
didn't. It bent the HELL out of the video
feed going into it though - amazingly the
video still worked. So we figured the
zip-ties were just too tight, so I redid
them at the end. Everything was in and
set-up in 8 minutes. Another few minutes
to get everything plugged in...but at this
point we were more cautious and slow
seeing how everything came together,
rather than racing. It was certainly nice
though. So excited about the
set-up.
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- THE PERFORMANCE
- SET
1:
HARRY
- LOVE* - SLIDE** -
RHYTHM
- SET
2:
LIFE
- PARODY 2 - ABBEY ROAD -
SLIDE
- *just
shai **just bread
(request!!!)
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- Voice
felt good, but absolutely no crowd energy.
Some people were ther for me, and even a
couple girls who had been there before
requested a song! How cool is that!
Somehow, they call it out, and I put the
tape in and BAM - it's right there. I
looked so damn professional. Almost like
having a DVD. Singing-wise everything was
cool.
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- THE REACTION
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Sadly -
no CDS sold, and not even one buck in the tip
jar. No one saw it though, 'cause someone was
sitting in front of it. That might be next
months adventure. Creating a way for the tip
jar to be accesible and obvious to everyone.
'Cause really, I think anyone is willing to
throw a $1 my way...so a nice open jar - easy
to read. May be worth throwin $20 into it to
make it look good...I'll figure it out. But
really, i twas one of the slowest, most
un-energized shows I've ever done. Jess and
everyone said afterwards it didn't seem that
way to them, and my performance really varies
too much...but it just didn't feel right. Oh
well. The new set-up is done...2000 is over,
and BRING ON 2001!
WOO HOO.
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- Indeed - BRING ON 2001.
I can't wait...
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- Thanks for readin',
- Adam
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- original
video file
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