One of the things that really got me interested in live sound wasn’t just hanging around bands or partying with musicians. Sure, those moments happened, but there is an old reality in entertainment: even when you think you are simply attending the party, you are usually paying for it somehow. Sometimes you pay with money.…
Read MoreSome of the things I publish will irritate people. That is not an accident, but irritation is not the objective either. The objective is consistency. I do not let an institution, industry, political movement, nonprofit, school, government agency, corporation, or social cause off the hook merely because its original mission sounded noble. Good intentions do…
Read MoreMarty gave me some constructive criticism about the DJ side of what I do. He wasn’t trying to insult me, belittle me, or tell me I was doing a bad job. He was looking at it from the outside and giving me the kind of advice that people sometimes need to hear when they are…
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There are moments doing rideshare when something happens and you’re left wondering exactly what you were supposed to do differently. Today, apparently, that something was a smell. I had driven to pick up a passenger for what would have been another one of those longer trips across Massachusetts. The passenger gets into the car and…
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I have spent enough time around computers to know that when somebody says there are bugs, they usually mean something inside the software has gone wrong. This time, the bugs were real. I had been asked to help tear down an old shed. The structure was infested, which was one of the reasons it needed…
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Every once in a while, I make the mistake of stepping into a political discussion on social media. Most of the time, it reminds me why I don’t do it very often. The latest conversation started with a list of “warning signs” that people often associate with authoritarianism. Someone asked which political party those warning…
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One of my longest-standing professional values can be summed up with a simple phrase: Never go fishing off the company pier. That principle can apply to customers, coworkers, professional contacts, gambling, relationships, and just about any other situation where personal decisions can become tangled up with how you earn your living. Recently, I picked up…
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One of the great things about working rideshare and living the gig life is that you never run out of stories. Every day brings a new conversation, a new situation, or a new lesson about dealing with people. One situation that comes up from time to time is when passengers ask for recommendations. “Where should…
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There are moments in life when you see someone do something and ask one simple question: Why did you have to do that? Sometimes you can understand the thought process. A person gets surprised, offended, concerned, or simply thinks they’re documenting something important. But understanding why someone made a decision doesn’t automatically make it a…
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There is a strange little season in rideshare that does not get talked about enough: the midsummer blues. This is especially true around college areas. During the regular school year, a college town is a machine in motion. Thousands of students are trying to figure out where they are going in life, where they are…
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