Thursday, January 7, 2010

Making Connections

REMINDER: Screening of SOULMATES - February 21, 2010, 8pm at Avalon Theatre, Washington, DC. Tickets, Clips and DVD Sales Information are at www.soulmatesmovie.com

Writing is within my comfort zone. Writing a blog is a step outside it. I never considered myself an expert on the cyberworld, but since I've started searching for blogs which may be interested in this movie, I feel like I'm stumbling through a jungle with a dull-bladed scythe. Having me do something like this is ironic, considering that Millie, on whose experiences the movie is based, is one of the most tech-savvy people I know. I wrote last about how she likes to fool people into thinking she's a dumb blonde, but I am not kidding about her abilities. She's got a million stories about the places, literally around the world, where she's installed sound systems. She can walk into any space, listen to the building's sound system for a moment, and then tell the person what the building needs. The sad ending of some of the stories is that the building's representative doesn't want to hear what really needs to be done. So, Millie sighs, shakes her head, puts in the cheaper equipment that the representative wants, and then hears the complaints when the sound is still below standard. Not surprisingly, Millie has gone back to many of those places and re-done the systems the way they should have been done in the first place.

She usually installs in big gathering spaces, like auditoriums, concert halls and churches.
Over the years, she's done the systems of many black-owned churches because, pathetically, even in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, too many other sound engineers will not go into "those neighborhoods". So, a trangendered blonde gets the job done.

Interestingly, one church where she put in the sound system was located near the Maryland Rennaissance Festival grounds. Though the church itself was built years after the Festival arrived, Millie told us that the Pastor there started making negative noises about the "Pagan" aspects of the Festival and complaining of its presence. She and all of us Wiccan folks naturally felt disdain for these comments coming from the "new kid on the block". So, we could not help smiling a little when, some time after these complaints were aired, that same Pastor passed away.

Hence, the lesson for today is:
The next time a blonde Wiccan High Priestess sound engineer tells you what your sound system needs....Listen.

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