(click the picture
above for the high definition
video - but also click
YouTube
for me!)
11:38 PM, Tuesday,
November 11th, 2008:
I think whenever
you look back on choices in your life, you realize how
delicate they are. How easily you could've chosen a
different path and your life would have been
completely different. I'm lucky that I have hardly any
"what-ifs", I've always seen everything through to the
end... but several of you may be amazed at how close I
came to never making 4tvs a reality. No LA, no
nothin'...
It starts a bit
earlier than today, November 3rd, 1998:
Brian
Setzer Orchestra concert with Jess
watching the opening band play in front of
the curtain to a crowd that could give two
shits. It occured to me... what would I
do if I were in their shoes? Flat-screens
were just starting to come out, and I
pictured walking onto the stage, holding
one, with me in it. That would grab
everyone's attention - and they'd at least
listen to what I had to say. I could even
sing with it back and forth and then
literally - BOOM. I saw me standing there
with 4 televisions around me - being able
to do 5 part harmonies. I had just
realeased my A Capella album and thought
of how cool it would be to do it LIVE. I
remember specifically saying "Oh my God"
to Jessica and barely being able to
explain what I was envisioning.
It stayed with me
that night, but soon drifted off like so many good
ideas we may have. With 1998 technology it seemed
almost impossible...
...and I really
let it go. I just wrote it off. To this day, I sit in
amazement at how fleeting the idea was - and how close
I was to letting it go. A week later, on the 10th, I
saw Billy Joel in concert and the itch really got bad.
I had to perform. I was so sick of doing just radio
when I was an entertainer. I just couldn't ignore it
any longer. The following day, I was antsy the entire
time. I was recording a band that came in to the
station and it was driving me even more nuts. I went
home from work and drew out my idea:
Hung it from the
canopy bed jess and I had at the time and just stared
at it. I'm not making this up - LOL. I stared at it
and thought of it all night. This was it. This was
what was going to finally make me give up the comfort
of radio and pursue a bigger career. Once I burned
that vision into my head? Over. Done. I couldn't get
it out. I took it to work and put it up on the wall
and started making calls to production companies
around town and of course - they all said it couldn't
be done. (Quick technical note, 4tvs is really one
image, split and zoomed into 4 corners. That's how it
all stays synced) Video wall projectors (starting at
$9,000) could only go as few as 9 TVs and no one could
think of a cheaper way. Burgundie (who I was divorced
from at the time, but still friends) got me in contact
with someone she had worked with and this guy, Adam
Bonner (the AB of ABOT Productions) found a way to do
it for $2500. On the 23rd (the day Ocarina of Time
came out) we had a meeting with him and worked out the
production end of things and I went out and bought 4
televisions officially sinking more money than I could
afford into the dream.
I literally held
onto the credit card at "Sun TV" on Morse Rd. in
Columbus as the cashier tried to take it. I was a
little freaked, but I jumped.
There's a million
more stories, and as they come up I may do "10 years
ago today" stuff in the coming year but this is THE
moment. The night I didn't let that idea slip away.
Now I could sit here and preach to you about how you
should also jump at those ideas and never have to say
"what-if" but that's slightly pretentious of me. As if
it was JUST the idea that made me do it. Just isn't
true. It was something inside me that was just
unsatisfied. That feeling of knowing you are capable
of so much more and no one else gets it but you. It
never goes away, it always makes you a little antsy
and it's so strong. THAT is what you have to have to
make those jumps. If you don't have that? You're not
sinking (what ended up being $10,000) into an idea for
a stage show. Now, if you DO have that inner angst? No
matter what age, jump. 'Cause that little dreamer is
hard to cage. And it spins off into all sorts of shit
if you try to.
And if you don't
have the idea yet? Keep throwin shit against the wall.
FALL. UP. THE. STAIRS. Good DAMN the amount of time
wasted on inaction is unbelieveable. K, well, now I'm
getting preachy. 10 years. Ten of the fullest and most
exciting years of a life you could possibly
have.
