Dave Rat - Roadies in the Midst - Building and Fixing Things

The Beauty of Ouch

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:21:00 -0400

Okey dokey. Settling in with a smile. Last time tour ended, I think Sept of '07, I set out to buckle down and get to business. That I did! but not without a cost. Oh I learned a lot and it was well needed with the economic turmoil and running a small business and all. This time though, the outlook I see around me is a much rosier picture. So this time home I making sure to better balance work with fun. And what could be more fun than building a complex multi-angled custom enclosure from scratch with no drawings, designs or sketches?

The back shell had a bummer of a shallow angle so I put in a tension support

Side wall and front edge

and we have a rough assembly

Router, trim and add in the cut to fit face

Paint it black, make some custom brackets out of aluminum and old K&M mic booms. If you look carefully you can see I drilled and tapped some holes in the boom swivels

The clutch is accessible through the side handles

Add some light and a music stand screws into the boom swivels

And ha! A tiltable music stand inside a wedge to hold set lists and fits perfectly between two Rat S Wedges. And with a little bit of work on making a bracket, it easily converts to a teleprompter wedge.

I started saturday morning and finished sunday eve with a bit of help sunday and still got the shorty softball and soccer games in. Now that was fun!

**** Sound Nerd Speak ****

I want to thank Kevin Young and Jeff Mackay from Live Sound Magazine who came out to the Toronto Blink 182 show and spent the day with me. As y'all may know by now, I have spent quite a bit of time and energy working on new and hopefully usefull subwoofer configurations. Iit was so cool to see that Kevin and Jeff were not only fun to with but they really grasped the gist of what I was working on. If you do not get Live Sound Magazine and are interested, check out page 40 of this link and let me know what ya think:

http://www.livesound-digital.com/livesound/2000910?sub_id=k9wLjOAqJzwc#pg1

And another kind of cool smile thing, the EAW MicroWedge's 12 and 15 got 'readers choice' awards on Pro Sound Web

http://www.prosoundweb.com/product/details/microwedge_series/

These are things I need to remember when the inevitable life stalls occur.

**** End Sound Nerd Speak ****

And while we are on the subject of smiles, I may as well immerse deeply, because it is always better that way. I recieved this e-note not long ago that literally made my day!

Hi Dave,
It's for a long time that I wanted to contact you again after we met at a concert of the Red Hot Chilly Peppers in Bologna a view years ago.
Probably you don't remember about me... let me give you some indications. We met at the supermarket in front of the Palamalaguti stadium near Casalecchio di Reno (Bologna).

You were very gentile to me and gave me the possibility to see all the concert from behind the scenes. After I told you that I'm a sound technician you let me have an "all areas pass". I still have the entire ticket of the concert.

Why I'm telling you all this things? Because after I meet you I had an enormous professional grove. Call it coincidence, call it destiny... you may laugh, but after one week I worked with my first W 8 System of Martin up to 16000 Watts and an K8 console of Soundcraaft. That was amazing for me. One year later I went to Milan where I now life and work. I'm specialized in big conferences, events like Fashion, computer, medical stuff etc.

But very often I must recognize that I have to thank You for the possibility to think big. It was about the thought that even behind this big shows they are humans to do the work, not gods. To meet a great human like you changed my hole approach to this job.

Excuse me for my very limited English knowledges. I hope you''ll understand. One thing is to speak English every day during your work, one thing is to write down something that has any sense. I'm Italian after all, and i've never studied english at school.

I appreciate your fantastic and very comprehensive blog regarding sound systems. You must be a fantastic sound engineering teacher!
There must be a way to thank you ... do you still like Italian Coffee (I remember that at that time you bought some typical italian products like olive oil and of course coffee and we left saying that after the concert I would offer one to you. Do you have an original italian Moka Coffee-machine? If you let me know an address where I can send one to you, including some packets of real italian Coffee, it would be a great pleasure for me to send one to you.

Hope to see you sometimes if you are in Italy for work or for pleasure...
Stefan

And thank you Stefan for sending the note! I have also recieved quite a few positive responses to the blog and I must say that that is what makes it worthwhile. There are people in my life past and present that have opened various doors of inspiration for me and to know I am passing it on and it is appreciated, rules!

Figuring out a destination and being confident that that is where you truly want to head is the hardest part.

But it it sure seems the the road is full of potholes, obsticles and worst of all is taking a wrong turn.

But when when you see it clearly, it is then easy to recognize especially when you get there

The question are "what speed to travel?" and "how much exposure and what expense am I willing to endure to get there?" Or perhaps "what amount of reckelessness can I get away with?" Either way, at least for me, no worthwhile life adventures come without a bit of bumps and trauma. Annnnnd, it seem I am not alone in this is this perspective. Perhaps out of one upmanship or just pure fearlessnes. A dear companion of mine, much to my fear and concern surfed right toward a huge rock, Closer and closer, I am think noooo, dont do it! Yet the desire to push the limits must have been overwhelming. Finally, I abandoned ship but not my companion, oh no, he heads right for the rock and ouch! That had to hurt!

Everyone, please tell Rat Surf Board to be more careful! He just wont listen to me. Oh wait, Perhaps, like me, he needs to learn the hard way. Speaking of learning the hard way, raise your hand if you think Taco should jump from a 6 foot high bunk bed. ??? Anyone?

That's what I thought. Some ideas are better than others and I am sorry to say that Taco now has a broken leg.

But I must admit, I would not trade the bumps and bruises for boredom. Boredom and death avoid at all costs, life is what is lived in between.

Dave Rat

The Beauty of Motion

nospam@example.com (Dave Rat) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:32:06 -0500

And the oh so painful sensation of an abrubt stop. To jump is exhilerating, but to land can be a bit less enjoyable unless a proper preperation is made. Hence the trauma climbing to the great heights of economic wealth without an adequate safety net. And also hence the thrill of slicing through a giant wave while forgetting to avoid the facepart of my head hitting the planet earth. But please, let me rewind.

Sunday November 30th was a quite fabulous surf day. C-Street Ventura saw consistant sets of double overhead waves. My first session with the Gene and Larry from the am crew at 7:30 went pretty well and brought out my five dollar, 8 foot board I bought a yard sale.

It took a little repair work

but it is my favorite as it rides like a mini long board, is super light and fun. But that day with the current so strong, I switched up to the Rat Board for session 2

after breakfast and headed back out with Brian Rat and his two friends as they drove up from down south. All good and the waves were building and we lasted about an hour and a half before heading in.

So exhausted from over three hours out already and pulling out of the parking lot I get a text message from Johnny who Ventura locals may know from Tony's Pizzeria, an awesome cool Pizza spot right up the street. So out of the parking lot and up to park again just up the way and 15 minutes later I am wet suited up for session number three. Oh my, my arm are rubbery and I get the longest surf ride I have ever ridden. Google earth says it is just under a half mile.

I wish I still had a picture of the surf that day to show you but that is another story. Anyway, thrilled and so happy I go to exit the water and a little wave comes up behind me while paddling in and boom crunch ow! Turns out the strong current had dug a trench and while I was trying to paddle in, what seemed to be a small wave jacks up with the tail of my board and shovels me head first into the planet earth. I got no mirror but but my hand indicates lots o blood. Dazed and delerious I stumbled myself out and found an overwhelming desire to lay down and regoup my thoughts and contemplate the long hike bak to the car. Next thing I know the lifegaurds and paramedics have me surrounded and won't let me escape.

I must say that it really smarts to try and restraighten one's own broken nose. I got to ride in a lifeguard pickup truck and an ambulance and most of all I want to thank Johnny for being a hero and looking out for me. He recued my car, brought me my clothes and made sure my surfboard had a safe place to stay till I escaped stich giving nurses and hospital world.

14 stitches and a broken nose and no surfing for three weeks later I was back on track. Not that I missed a day of work.

Most importantly, don't worry, I know what you are thinking and it is ok, the Rat surfboard is fine! What comes to mind is a short story that Anthony K told me once, so I looked it up and found it:

The Story of the Taoist Farmer

This farmer had only one horse, and one day the horse ran away. The neighbors came to condole over his terrible loss. The farmer said, "What makes you think it is so terrible?"

A month later, the horse came home--this time bringing with her two beautiful wild horses. The neighbors became excited at the farmer's good fortune. Such lovely strong horses! The farmer said, "What makes you think this is good fortune?"

The farmer's son was thrown from one of the wild horses and broke his leg. All the neighbors were very distressed. Such bad luck! The farmer said, "What makes you think it is bad?"

A war came, and every able-bodied man was conscripted and sent into battle. Only the farmer's son, because he had a broken leg, remained. The neighbors congratulated the farmer. "What makes you think this is good?" said the farmer.

As told by Executive editor, Elise Hancock, in the Johns Hopkins Magazine, November 1993, page 2, in section entitled Editor's Note

I am not sure what the good part is yet but I know I will find it!

And as far as sound world, I guess the latest on the Rat front is http://fohonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2041&Itemid=1

Till soon again and Happy New Year!

Dave Rat