Sunday, January 31, 2010

The Difference In Big Productions And Two Bit Stuff

I'm watching the Grammys tonight and writing this blog.

Each of these is a big production. Watching the Grammys, I'm impressed by the enormous musical productions they put on. Pink is flying through the air and there's no problem, no static with the microphone. She doesn't sound like she's out of breath or having any trouble maintaining perfect pitch while being twirled at 30 feet up. Could she possibly be lip syncing? Now she's dripping with water, somehow she got sopped.

A while ago Lady Gaga was thrown into a fiery pit, then she emerged at a piano with Elton John across from her. And Beyonce was out there with a dozen storm troopers and enough fans blowing her hair up to power the Balloon Boy.

I've done some sound work in my time. Like setting up a few microphones and some speakers. It's never been great stuff, but I've been able to work with what I had to make it work. You plug in the white plug into the white socket, etc., and it generally works. Or if there's no colors, you just feel your way. I had a speaker that was blown out. Maybe it just deteriorated because it was 30 years old and the speakers are made of some kind of paper. It was buzzing. It was up to me to get rid of the buzz. So I tried some hot glue on it, but it didn't do any good. It might've had a psychological effect.

I have a drawer of various cords from over the years. Some of them I've spliced together. So that if I really work at it, I can hook up any record player to any computer. I've never tried it, but I'm guessing it would even work with an old Edison record player, if I had enough cords and enough time to try every combination.

So there's the Grammys and their big productions. Then there's me, with my stash of cords, plugs, a few microphones, and hot glue.

Then there's all the two bit stuff out in the world, lesser shows and those with less abilities than me.

UPDATE: I'm hoping Lady Gaga wins everything. She didn't win the first thing, the Song of the Year. I hope she at least wins something. Besides my aging heart, although that's definitely worth winning.

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