Looking back at
what I considered "computer problems" in 1999
make me shake my head. Not because they were minor but
because it would be a scenerio that would repeat over,
and over, and over for the following 5 years (and I'm
sure the next 50).
Five years ago
today however was up to that point one of the greatest
days of my life. It was the start the first huge
obstacle in my life that I had to overcome to
keep this journey going and it was easily the most
tedious. The month previous, ABOT productions
came to me and said they would only edit my music
pieces as they thought my comedy pieces were too
risque. Please understand that what was considered too
risque were songs heard on the radio well within
FCC limits. What that meant was I was pretty
fucked. I was paying them $500 for each 15 minute
set they rendered for me and in order to continue 4tvs
I needed soooooooo many. Insight for the newbies
- I was hired as a band back in those days. So
I needed to fill 3-4 hours. New sets/songs were
my lifeblood.
So instead of
caving to them I just stood up, smiled, and
walked out. They had heavy religious beliefs and
I was not about to get into an argument with
them. They were throwing away a lot of business and
I respect anyone willing to stand up for what
they believe in...which is exactly why I stood up and
walked out. If I remember correctly, Adam Bonner
(AB of ABOT productions) wasn't so sure and was trying
to think of a way to make it work and I just
shook his hand and said "Let it
Go" man.
That's all noble
of me and shit, but then I realized I had no
way of pulling this off myself without thousands and
thousands of dollars in editing equipment. So I
started off buying video cards but after days (and oh
how I mean 16 hour days) of testing and changing,
and prodding and calling tech support it never worked
right. I couldn't just import video, and then
export it back to the tape. EVER. It was the
harddrive, so I bought a new harddrive - it was
the wire, bought a new wire, it was the video card,
installed more video cards then after that didn't work
they all said it was my Sony Camcorder. (sigh).
Looking back I now know exactly what it was. It
was 1999. And shit just wasn't ready for this
yet.
Then
I watched a commercial of some guy videotaping
his son skateboarding, then making a video for him.
Vaio. Sony Vaio. I figured you know what,
I dare these fuckers to blame it on "the other
product" now. I'll buy a Sony everything, then
call them up and go POSTAL. Or "Columbine" as the term
was used back in '99.
Bought the
computer, got it all ready - went to load footage -
NADA. NOTHING. Not a thing. Looked in the manual and
it was because I didn't have
SONY'S FUGGIN LINK. For the camera to the
computer. I mean good LORD. As annoyed as ever,
I go to the only store selling one of these 3
foot cables - and it was $60. $60 people. Whatever,
I was honestly just excited to be able to get
home, have it not work, so I could call those
fuckers at tech support back and ask them if
I needed to live in a sony built apartment
complex with sony electricity. Or if the fact that I
bought a SEGA dreamcast two months previously
just voided my chance of anything working. Who knows.
Got back - plugged it in and...
...it
worked. Loaded the footage in (the
infamous groupie
shorty's footage), I put it into 4 little
corners of a screen and put it right back
out to the tape. Voila.
November 17th, 1999. I promptly stood
up ran outside and ran in the cornfields
next to our apartment. It's funny - my
whole life I lived in the city except
for the last 5 months in Columbus when
Jess and I moved to Canal Winchester. Yet
for this story, country bumpkin running
for joy in cornfield just works. LOL.
I was elated. I
knew that the rest would be fine. I now had a
canvas in which to create. So freeing. I had just
lost my job at CD101, was going to LA for no real
reason but I could at least create new sets and my own
demos and not be beholden to some religious extremists
who can't RENDER videos that TALK about sex. LOL.
And that was it.
Easily the biggest day in the life of 4tvs. What's
even more amazing is the fact that the skills
I was forced to learn in the coming months lead
me to the job that saved Jess and I in 2000:
Hollywood Screentest. It was one of the better
turnarounds of my life. Making a shitty situation end
up better in the end. Had I been beholden to ABOT
while in LA I would have been so caged. So
screwed. Luckily I was able to create all of
this. Hard to believe.
Man was I ever a
different person on this day five years ago. I thought
I had been through it all and I hadn't
touched the surface. Whew.
