I’ve done nothing but work all day today, except for the 45 minutes I spent reading this strange comic book called Preacher. I’ve never read a graphic novel before in my life, but I’m giving it a try because two of my good friends suggested it to me. I’m not sure if this one is illustrative of all graphic novels or if this one is different. There is a lot of male humor and murder and fake violence and stuff. I figure I should read something from every genre before I dismiss any particular one for no apparent reason. And I’ve almost finished the second volume now, so I guess I must kind of like it a little bit. I’m not sure yet.
Anyway, reading that was the only break I took all day today. It is still the holiday but I spent the whole day working. You see, I’m in the midst of selling the restaurant I own called Empire. It’s been a nightmare trying to sell this place, not because I didn’t have a buyer, but because I no longer get along with the buyer, who is also my current partner. We haven’t been speaking, only texting and emailing for the last six months or so, so you can imagine how difficult it might be to run a business with a person to whom you are not speaking. And it is just as hard to sell a business to a person who you don’t speak to as well. So today he finally gave me his end of the paperwork which I have been waiting for for three months. I mean, he emailed it to me. Now, I have to see a very expensive attorney so that he can make sure I’m not getting royally screwed over. I don’t think I am, but then again, a seven page legal contract is not something I am proficient in reading accurately. I had no idea an attorney was going to cost several hundred dollars per hour and I still have no clue how many hours it is going to take for him to read this document and amend it. Luckily, I found one who will only charge me two hundred per hour. Anyway, so I spent the first half of my day dealing with that.
Then I spent the next two hours doing booking. That is what I do most every weekday afternoon, between grading papers and running errands for the restaurant (which thankfully I will no longer be doing after this Friday if the sale goes through. Please cross your fingers for me). I think most everyone who knows me knows that I book shows in several of the venues/clubs in Richmond. I don’t work for anyone in particular. I have my own company that I head up and I work with about fifteen different agents throughout the country and buy bands to put in these venues. I started off doing this part time, but now I book more and more. It’s really an amazing feeling to put on a show and see hundreds (or more than hundreds) or people dancing and singing along and know that you created it. When I was a teenager, I went to shows almost every weekend, and sometimes if I could get away with it more than that. I was always allowed to go because my band instructor at my private school owned and booked the club that was near my house and all ages in Va Beach, where I grew up. It was called the Atlantic Beach club. Anyway, booking shows now reminds me of how awesome it was to go to shows when I was growing up, and a lot of the shows I put on these days are geared toward teenagers. And the money that I make isn’t bad either. Haha. But that is not why I do it entirely. It really is fun, except when I lose money, and then I usually can’t remember why I do it at all. So anyway, I spent a few hours working on shows, sent back some contracts, got some new holds for tentative concerts in the late spring, and then I did my last item of business for the day.
The IRB process. This stands for Internal Review Board, and I am going through this online program for certification in which you read a module and then take a test. And you do this repeatedly for about seven hours until you complete it. This is reading about the ethics of research on human subjects–for example, if I wanted to present information about this revolutionary Focused Inquiry program at a conference, I would need IRB certification and approval. Anyway, the reading started out kind of interesting but then it got really tedious and boring. But now I’m done and I passed and even got 100% on several of the tests. Yea. It’s still nice to get good grades even when you are a teacher.
I have too many things going on and I will be glad when I have sold the restaurant and can concentrate on the two jobs I like most–and maybe take some time off for myself as well.
You have quite an interesting resume. That’s really cool that you do all that booking, and it’s remarkable that it’s something you do without any corporate connection. How did you get set up with that? What kind of shows do you book? What kind of shows would you book if money was no object? (Read the previous as What kind of music do you most enjoy?) Are you the one I need to thank for bringing jambands to Richmond at the Toad’s Place venue? Just wondering.
Thanks, Jared. When I was in college and graduate school, I used to bartend at this club called Twisters on Grace Street. After it closed, I actually reopened it as 929 Cafe and then had major landlord problems after about one year and ended up moving my contracted shows to Alley Katz. Anyway, I learned how to book shows by working for many years in a club when I was the bar manager observing the way that the talent buyer for the club booked shows. At the time, I thought promoters were kind of sketchy and not at all trustworthy, mainly because the one I worked for was that way, and I never intended to really try to learn how to book shows. And again, I never meant to continue booking shows after 929 closed, but agents kept offering me them and they were doing well and I wasn’t losing any money, at that time, so I just kept doing it.
I book all kinds of shows. See http://www.myspace.com/thetriggersystem to see my calendar of past and upcoming shows. But don’t think that what I book is necessarily what I like to listen to. Sorry, I don’t listen to jam bands like you and Colton do very much. (And yes, I do listen to what you all talk about in class) Right now, my favorite band, or new band I mean, is this band called Gaslight Anthem (http://myspace.com/thegaslightanthem). I grew up listening to lots of punk bands but also bands like The Cure and The Smiths and so forth. Even though these days I mostly book hardcore, metal and indie/emo shows, I actually went to at least 50 Grateful Dead shows when I was a teenager. Yes, I am old.
I am doing a show at Toad’s Place on Jan 26, but mostly I am starting working with the other new venue in town which is called The National. This is the venue owned by the people who own and book The Norva in Norfolk. Other than that, I book shows at Alley Katz and The Canal Club, and sometimes at The Camel or Common Groundz. I don’t book your jam bands, no. And thank you for noticing that I do not have corporate affiliation. It’s just me.