1 passion for life!

[KLGunner]

Being a Mechanic at heart and being a gun lover. I'd have to say being a gunsmith would be my job of passion.

 

[Peglegjoe]

I would love to build classics and street rods.

I do for fun - cars, and motorcycles. My latest project is my 1970 Dodge Charger 500.

It's (the hobby) a money pit. But, satisfying to see them go from "why would anyone mess with that??" to "damn, man...that thing is COOL!!" I say money pit because I do it for love...not for resale, or "flipping". I fix cars and bikes that I love. And, I tend to keep them. Because I love them.

I love lots of things - working with my hands (put a kitchen most of the way in an apartment on Saturday, a rental property project), taking care of my home and property, maintaining my cars and bikes, playing with my dogs, playing with my guns (although that isn't as frequent now that they're all on a diet)...my day job is enjoyable, service writer for a major manufacturer. My side hustle, though, is one that I've always loved and always wanted more of - live concerts. I'm a sound guy, and I love music. I've been doing production work since high school. I love the hustle of building a show, setting it up with a HARD deadline (curtain at 8, sound check at 7...NO leeway), seeing the band smiling during the show knowing they have nothing to worry about, seeing the crowd dance and sweat and smile and holler and cheer...even the strike afterwards, tearing down the equipment and letting the energy bleed off, organizing everything so it's ready for the next gig, doing a quick post mortem with the band ("hey, we missed this opening here / Bob forgot that solo there / hey, how about we try XYZ next time" kinda thing), chatting with the tired audience members who are still smiling...I love it all.

I need to get back to it. We need to open the hell back up! I got a text from one of my bass players this weekend "hey do you have the recording from 1/31/20? I need to know if we did a guitar solo or a keyboard solo...". So I pulled out my multitrack recording, fired up the studio software....and was carried back to that show. First (and only, so far) show with a new guitarist who absolutely RIPS. Started mixing the show again, right there in the studio (multitrack, for those who don't know, records each channel (guitar, bass, vocals, kick, snare, etc) just like they were playing it live, so I can "re-do" the show anytime I want with software, and output finished .wav files, or songs, or send them out to have them synched with video).

I didn't realize how much I'd missed it!

And, this was a banner show - new guitarist, new songs...5th song in the second set, the drummer starts hammering on the toms and the guitarist tears into Van Halen's Panama. I didn't have a room mic set up for this show (a microphone pointed at the audience to pick up their sounds, cheers, etc), but when the song ended, through the vocal mics onstage, you can hear the screaming and cheering from the crowd. The guys absolutely KILLED that song...and it showed. Playing it back, and mixing it down again, took me right back to that room, that night...and all that fun. The bass player announced after the song "heyhey...I know you're all tired, I know you're all hot (it was hotter than hell in that room with all those people jumping and sweating - I loved it!)...but don't go anywhere because we have another 45 minutes' worth of music for you!!" - and launched right into the next song.

I need that back.

I'm fortunate in that I don't "have" to have it, and its income, to make ends meet. My day job, and my rental properties, cover my everyday expenses. I do make money at it...but it's definitely more for the experience, and the excitement, and the entertainment, and the FUN...than for the money. I make enough at it, for it to self-perpetuate - gig money goes into the new equipment budget, so every show sounds better than the last. Just like shooting - every round needs to be a better shot than the last; every target needs to be better than the last. I never stop trying at my gigs, and I'm never satisfied. I know I'm good...but there's always another trick, another effect, another tweak, another piece of gear...another improvement to be made.