Dave Rat - Roadies in the Midst

Hello brand new year,

Hey, check out Wooster Collective and scroll down the December 31st page to the "Best Christmas Wreath Ever." The "Erock" guy that made it is a well known Seattle roadie that I toured with on a Danzig tour in 1990 and then again with Pearl Jam and now he is in the Neil Young camp.

Good morning new year and I am all done pretending to be excited about last year sliding into the past. I liked last year and feel no elation in it going away. In fact, it's ending is a bit more annoying than anything else. So now I get to spend the next 3 weeks writing the wrong year and sectioning off all the little bits of paper called receipts that I have collected from around the world so I can try and figure out how much I owe in taxes. Say bye bye to what I knew and hello to new adventure. Usually that statement would bring me some sort of thrill or at least anticipation but as I ponder why it feels so inert, I realize it is having choice and freedom that makes me happy. I choose to go get coffee, I choose to orchestrate my life so I can tour as a sound engineer and I choose try and be healthy for the most part except when I choose not to to. I have no choice about whether the new year comes. It is just a chunk chunk chunk of the time machine plugging along because allegedly, two thousand years ago this Julius Caesar guy comes up with a calendar and so we have a big party to celebrate a new number at the end of the year at right about now.

So since this year start marker has been hammered into my life by the world around me, it creates a situation of before and after yet possesses no capability to alter it.

So here we are crossing into a new year that is helpless to turn the tide of the quagmire that greed promoted as fear created, they hung Sadam. They got him good and even though there were no weapons of mass destruction at least the powerful US/UK was able to attack and kill off a group of allegedly threatening people, that were guilty of attacking and killing off a group of allegedly threatening people. I am not against the death penalty, I am against hypocrisy. The liar presentation that there was some altruistic humanitarian angle or some actual imminent threat that was used to sway the naive into supporting what has no option but to fail. Violence does not make peace, no matter how you wrap it. But I do not believe in world peace, I do not hope for it nor will it ever exist. It can not exist anymore than humans will ever be successful at persuading wolves, bobcats and sharks into being vegetarians. It just aint gonna happen, and that is ok and that is beautiful. It is the balance of life, the eaters and eaten and without that life would stop. I am not against the death penalty, I am against hypocrisy. I am against deception, and though deception is part of life like a chameleon in hiding or a snake that mimics a branch to hunt, it is the challenge of unmasking the deceivers that perpetuates life for those with open eyes.

And heaviness aside look what I found!!! I came back from tour and my office was drenched in Tiki!

How much does that warm my heart! Gifts and thought and each day for over seven months now I dedicate some time to sharing my world. A group of friends that playfully call themselves the Ratketeers came up with logo

that in all of of playful absurdity, Rat made into shirts

and devised a surprise and with the help of Daniella and Julie at the Rat Shop converted my office while I was away! And more importantly, check out the new front of house theme for the US tour coming up! Thank you Ratketeers! Hmmmm, something tells me that as a sound company and a bunch of roadies, we may be breaking some new ground in the realms of the unusual. Definitely not boring at least.

I spent my New Years as I so often do attending a rock show for a change. Imagine that! This years choice was Paramount Studios

Where Rat was doing sound for several stages and DJ's including this Rat Trap 5 rig

and a V-Dosc Rig on the stage with The Killers

where I hung out with Harley who was mixing their sound

And also with Greg to the left who was FOH tech for Rat and I met up with Shaun and Karissa

For a nice transition into the new year. OK, here we go, now that we are done with the old, lets see what we can do with the new!

The ready to move ahead,

Dave Rat