sparks

I was in charrge of the tech and the talk area. The seat numbers were a new thing that were only for the two paid for talks. Due to a communications blip I was only told about this on Saturday Morning and came up with an on the spot solution. In retrospect I think we need to rethink how that was done, and make it a bit clearer to everybody. Sound quality is a perennial problem. we are in a big concrete and metal box with a high roof. We have slowly been inproving our sound kit but it can only do so much. As soon as we let people into the other areas of the show the noise spills over and we get bounce off the back wall from the PA itself. We have to judge the set up with an empty area and then try and fix it during talks to account for the effect of the people in the area during talks. As for the use of the mics, that's down to individuals, some talk into the mic and can be heard normally, some shout into it and threaten to blow the PA and others just wave it around at random.....that includes the guests! In an ideal world we could sort this out but it would take time to ste up each talk with a sound check etc etc. In the meantime we try aour best and try and improve show by show. And yes I wanted to shoot the bloody cyberman and insert a whip where the sun doesn't shine....

any crew driving past Camberley after the show on Sunday. If so do you have any space in your car. I need to get back to Sandhurst on Sunday night :-( Sparks

Actually I do have a white coat somewhere..... They are huggy and warm......

Didn't you know that academics are all poor...they do it for the love of their research. I could earn a damned sight more than I do if I ran away to industry...or the civil service.....oops in fat that's exactly what I am going to do.....:-D

I heard you did a very good job doing the white boards at Coventry. I know it isn't the greatest job but it's good to know you still did it well!

hmmmmmm! Actually not yet....although I have done the paraphrased quote from "The Little Shop of Horrors" hence the title of this thread. BTW it may be 8 years of being pissed...or something....it's all a haze!

yes but i'm loathe to post it on the forum and the IM here doesn't work apparantly. Best bet is to see me at C13 and I can chat to him there.

I don't look like a skeksis......looks in mirror....Sh*t!!!!!!!!!

I was at Manchester last week!

You don't fool me Dr Sparks, you're a pussycat. I won't tell anyone though I promise I'm glad my secret is safe!

hmm ..."the social interactions of genre fans mediated by alchohol consumption and shirt destruction" maybe I'll get a grant I'm I not scary enpough that people are polite to me....? Actually I think it's going to take a bit of getting used to. No still waiting on the other matter, you know how the civil service is..... Thanks, and cool about the skulls, we'll have to ahve a chat at MK(?). You'd be interested to know I was interviewed for a student documentary on the use of psychology in magic the other week, really enjoyed it.

It only takes that long if you do it part time...run a worldcon...work at other shows...have a kid.... fall off motorbikes....etc etc etc:-P

Just to let you all know I had my PhD confirmed this morning. I've got to hand in two copies to the British library and then I get to call myself Doctor officially. Going to get rather pi***d tonight....it only took me 8 years!

I met your brother, somebody on the crew introduced me to him, please apologise to him I was in a bit of a rush and thinking of 5 things at the same time so I didn't get a chance to speak to him properly (probbaly just grunted hello to him as I rushed away ) We are looking at setting up a more formal tech team for showmasters in the near future, we are in the early stages at the moment and will be looking for volunteers at some point. If he's interested then I'll be more than happy to chat (preferably after the show...lol)

Techies always like to show off their toys.... glad it was informative

Thanks to everybody who worked the talk area at Coventry and Manchester. It was sometimes hectic and frantic but it mainly ran smoothly due to your hard work. Cheers sparks

A quick note from the tech crew, Both cameron (my minion) and I really enjoyed the cosplay competition. the standard of costumes was very high. (remember we have been doing this sort of stuff for years at different cons and shows!) Personally I think I was robbed (see my reference picture), but I have to agree that I had an unfair advantage with the huge government grant and the nuclear reactor they lent me....lol A quick note on music. It would be useful for the tech crew if we had music in advance. this weekend we had a limited playlist and occasionally we had to just play something that was "close enough". Obviously over time we will build up a wider collecion of music but it would be really handy if entrants wanted something specific they could supply us with it on mp3 or cd as early as possible.

that depends if you are a wargamer or not. I'm sorry to hear he has past on though regardless of the damage he did to the hobby.

I wonder what I was watching on the TV.....?

it was a pleasure! I have to say as stagemanager/tech, it was a good show. Ladyd listened to the advice we gave her and we discussed "notes" after the show which I know she has taken onboard. Hopefully over the next few shows the small kinks can be ironed out and the shows can go from strength to strength. I'd also like to thank Matt who stepped in with his laptop and music collection :-)

You kept that quiet.....Happy Birthday!

WHAT DID YOU DOOO? COUGH..... I had an earthing problem with my bass amp. As I said we were recording a demo album for Sony the next day and I wanted to see if I could find the fault (which was causing a bit of hum from the amp) My guitarist offered to help. He has a PhD specialising in building lasers and of course I'm a qualified radar technician....so you would think we would be ok.... Unfortunately we took the amp to bits and at some point we needed to listen and see if we could get it to hum so we had it powered up. The hum was there and I decided to take the amp circuitry out of the casing since I thought I knew what was causing the problem. (a small solder job should have fixed it { actually I was right and when we did finally get round to fixing the problem it only took a couple of minutes with a soldering iron}) I went to get the tools and Philip unscrewed the front of the amp. We had to push the ciruit chassis through the body towards the back to get it out. Now it's quite common to have equipment live when you are trying to fix it but there are obvious times when you need to switch it off. taking a chassis with a suspected earthing fault out of the case is one of them....Phil thought I'd unplugged the amp....I thought he had....it was late at night when Idiscovered that the chassis was live... I had a hold of it with both hands and of course the electricity was going accross my chest...I remember trying to let go and failing I remember smelling the rather unpleasant smell of burning flesh and thinking there might be a problem. Philip just thought I'd caught my finger in the case. and I couldn't speak to tell him; so the only thing I could do was try and dive over the top of the amp and wrench the cable out of the socket or rip the cables out of the amp. this did work except I caught my head on the side of a cymbal on the drum kit and cut it quite badly....here it gets more surreal Philip sees the head wound and the blood pumping everywhere (head cuts look worse than they are) and faints. I've just had a major electric shock and am suffering for burns and a head wound and I have top give first aid to him for shock! I ended up removing my wedding ring as fast as possible then sticking my finger in a cup of cold water (which probably safed the finger) and phoned our vocalist to come to the studio and take us both to hospital! There are two things that are ironic here. I worked for several years with SERIOUSLY high voltages and never got a shock and Kat had just gone to Isreal to visit her parents and the last words out of my mouth as she left were that she wasn't to worry since I'd managed to look after myself before we married and I wasn't as if I was going to do something stupid and kill myself when she was away. so don't tell anyone since it's a bit embarrassing!

as a kid i once broke my funny bone.....it wasn't Good to hear...good luck at the clinic

i agree excersice the finger...ooo err. I once melted the tip of my finger with electricity....don't ask! and had to argue with the doctor who wanted to splint it to the next finger. the problem was I was recording an album the next day and needed to play using it. Eventually the Dr called the specialist who agreed with me that I could have the finger unsplinted. When it finally healed I'd lost hardly any of the movemt in my finger and didn't need any opporations in order to fix the ligament that had been damaged. It may be painful at the time but it's far better in the long run...trust me.

Of course the only Mayhem was from me forgetting that Craig, Chris , Charles and Barry were in fact only two people! Otherwise the talk area was a joy to be in, very smooth and organised, mostly thanks to the crew who were there making sure I knew what I was doing. A very big thanks to all.