An open letter; to all of you

wiley
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Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2009 7:26 am
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Tue May 27, 2014 10:25 am

To say things have been a bit crazy here is an understatement, it’s finally slowing down after the show and a couple of birthday bashes for some kids this last weekend.

I know I haven’t been there to comment on all of the recent post on the open mic night, let’s just say it does bring back memories and boost my enthusiasm for this next September. My hat is off to all of those who participated and to those who didn’t. This next year will bring more memories that will be shared with all here.

Many thanks to all of those who stood by as my technological skills proved to be more than lacking. Armed with a new USB mic and a 1020p web camera, connected directly to the fiber optic network modem by wire no less (speeds of 800+mbps down and 350+up) the sound check not an hour before with Dave went pretty much flawless, top speed on everything! Those of you who viewed the show at first know how that went – we ended up wireless, not five feet from the modem, using the built in laptop camera and the mic from the Zoom camera. The ‘helicopter’ sound was from the house system I had left on (We had been playing Dave’s “Wordless Rhyme’s” CD beforehand), the window and shades which put out so much glare (never a problem during the checks) are ‘fixed-in-place’ and close to twenty feet tall. Scooting the laptop around had become, by then, a scary thought yet proved to be necessary.

Funniest thing about all this is our nephew who is an IT expert and my wife’s departments IT expert, both who now give seminars on such technology, were there.

We sold 57 Concert Window ‘tickets’ – 4 refunds of which one of those actually bought back in. So 54 viewers, most of you watched the entire show, two plus hours!

We had somewhere around 50 in our home, all who left with huge smiles on their face and a new appreciation for music in general. I think the wife and I and one of the son-in-laws had been the only who had even heard of Dave. No one had ever heard of such a thing as a "House Concert". Not so anymore, that number has grown like wildfire since. My thanks to all of them for being a part of the show.

Now for all of you –

I have no clue who used different ‘names’ on CW than on TG so, to those who did – thanks for your support from both myself and Dave.

And then, in order of ‘appearance’;

Bill – “haloi25” – what can I say, except thank you! Someday soon we will get together and share some notes and a nice bottle of wine!

Lynn – “auntlynnie” – Wow, those of us who have had the pleasure of meeting you last September know what a special person you are, thanks for your help before and during the show.

Willem – “willem” – your candor hit at just the right times, thanks for hanging in there!

Dan – “wrench” – I cannot state how wonderful it was to ‘see’ you. Knowing you were there made my problems float away, thanks bud, many thanks. I know we all miss you around here.

Neil Hogan and Matt Williams – thank you both for allowing me to post about this concert – thanks for your support for such artist as Dave. In doing so you have touched not only my life and Dave’s , but so many others.

Dan Gurney – CEO, Concert Window – Thanks to you for having the foresight of creating and then standing by such a product. Dan and his crew were there, start to finish. Their help during the problems ( coupled with the fact I could not ‘chat’ back ) ended up in the solution.

Again, to those ‘un-named’ and all of the above, Thank You!!

Thanks for being a part not only of this, but of my life. Thanks for standing by, thanks for believing in me when it would have been so easy to just back away, thanks for listening and propping me up, and Thanks for having my back when things went sideways.

And a special thanks to my wonderful wife, Donna – none of this would be possible without her and my families support.


willem
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Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2009 7:53 am
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Tue May 27, 2014 11:33 am

You're welcome,, it was a great house concert.

Willem


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auntlynnie
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Sat May 31, 2014 2:48 pm

Hey Wiley,
In spite of the early technical problems, it was well worth it and I appreciated sitting in on the concert so much more when it worked.
I loved the little chat window - caught up with friends old and new. I just think this is a really neat way of connecting, and I would love to see this attempted at IGC for the open mic night, so we could share some of IGC with the larger TG community.

Wiley, I'm so glad you got to experience hosting a house concert. Who you gonna host next?

Lynnie


willem
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Sat May 31, 2014 3:29 pm

auntlynnie wrote:
Hey Wiley,
In spite of the early technical problems, it was well worth it and I appreciated sitting in on the concert so much more when it worked.
I loved the little chat window - caught up with friends old and new. I just think this is a really neat way of connecting, and I would love to see this attempted at IGC for the open mic night, so we could share some of IGC with the larger TG community.

Wiley, I'm so glad you got to experience hosting a house concert. Who you gonna host next?

Lynnie
That a great idea Lynn and Wiley knows all the ins and outs,, I will stay up late :laugh:

Willem


willem
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2009 7:53 am
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Sat May 31, 2014 3:29 pm

auntlynnie wrote:
Hey Wiley,
In spite of the early technical problems, it was well worth it and I appreciated sitting in on the concert so much more when it worked.
I loved the little chat window - caught up with friends old and new. I just think this is a really neat way of connecting, and I would love to see this attempted at IGC for the open mic night, so we could share some of IGC with the larger TG community.

Wiley, I'm so glad you got to experience hosting a house concert. Who you gonna host next?

Lynnie
That a great idea Lynn and Wiley knows all the ins and outs,, I will stay up late :laugh:

Willem


wiley
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2009 7:26 am
Status: Offline

Sat May 31, 2014 10:06 pm

Lynn,

I'm not sure about the internet connection or even using a 'hot spot' at the Quaker Center. Supposedly one of my problems dealt with the site's upload capabilities since once I lowered my resolution on the camera the video was fine, sort of the same with the audio. I had bought a Yeti Pro Mic and during the sound checks I was putting out 1020p on the camera (Zoom - Q2HD) and 196+ at 24 on the audio, way above the normal (4x CD quality). The audio I went to was 44.1 at 16 (which is CD quality). So still needed a pretty good connection and speed. The helicopter sound was due to my own oversight, I had used the surround sound in the living room for the 'house soundtrack' before the concert and just flat forgot to reach over and hit the stinking off button!

As for another, trying to firm up a date for Saturday, August 16th. We will most likely do another Concert Window, and the setting itself will be pot luck (maybe an entrée) and BYOB. Will drag in chairs, may need to borrow a few or even rent some, $1.50 per chair for Friday > Monday. One of the Facebook photo's is of our living room, looking upstairs from what was Dave's partial point of view. Also way early to formally announce anything yet everyone who was at Dave's has jumped up and down knowing we are going to do another.

I've actually contacted the artist and booked the date, just a formal thing now. Here is a sample of Van;



Once again, thanks to everyone who tuned in and to Neil for all the announcements.


haoli25
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Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2009 7:06 am
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Sat May 31, 2014 11:00 pm

Wiley, thank you again for the 'Dave Show'. I really enjoyed watching him play and sing. I also really like the idea of Concert Window. (Wish I had thought of that one) When you get your next concert set up, just let me know when I can buy a ticket for it. :)



Bill


wiley
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Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2009 7:26 am
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Sat May 31, 2014 11:18 pm

Jason, to finish the story on the BBQ - our Brother-in-Law in Alvin, Texas has a room full of cook-off trophies and had participated once and been invited back twice to the 'real' World Championship Brisket cook-off. So, of course, they came up for a visit and for his wife's birthday and we bought 3 brisket - 24 pounds worth. A few days before Dave's concert, I went to the freezer the brisket were in out in the garage. Hadn't been in it in a while since the only thing in it that would call to me on more than rare occasion is the no-sugar added 'skinny cow' ice cream which I had sworn off of. Just that day I had a craving so...

Now the fridge is (was) an upper/lower things, the fridge being where we keep the soft drinks and bottled water, beer, etc. It had been working fine. Yet as I opened the freezer......

Luckily our nephew, their son, travels to DFW around twice a month!

*NOTE: Not a total loss, the youngest daughter sliced them up, put them in pans and distributed the meat. A big portion of that went to a family who's daughter ( One of Braelyn's friends since childhood ) just the day before had suffered a tragic horseback riding accident. The extra fed the family several times, the young girl is now back at home and doing fine.


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