The Great Recession OR Slow News Year

Coming out of the Winter season is always an exciting time in the rental / production world and this year is no different. This last day of February marks the end of playtime, it's time for the busy season. This last year has been an emotional challenge for many Americans due to the constant media attention to the economic meltdown, collapse of the house market, and my favorite exaggeration - the Great Recession! I didn't let the media hacks get me down and I mostly tuned them out and focused on all the good things - such as having the best January ever due to the many Inauguration events happening in DC in 2009. I'm sure if I was writing this from a construction company or auto dealer it would have a different tone.

The Great Recession was great to me for a few reasons which I'll list:
* Fuel prices (gasoline AND diesel) dropped.
* My stock portfolio got beat up, but that's okay, I'm not retiring for a while.
* Interest rates on mortgages dropped and I refinanced without ANY costs to a much lower rate.
* All the vendors I deal with were willing to make a deal to sell more product.
* Purchased a used forklift at a great price and in top notch condition.
* Hired a new employee that was laid off by the county - their loss, my gain.


It's all in the way you look at thing, the glass is half full.

I'm not surprised to report that I'm hearing over and over from customers and vendors - things are really picking up, March and April are VERY busy. I can report the same thing - March and April are looking to be very busy months, but they always are (which I AM thankful for, and I don't mean to sound egotistical). The busy season will feel more hectic than ever because we've come out of the recession finally, sure thing. Many companies, in may industries have made their operations more efficient after years of functioning in the "irrational exuberance" economy that was America.

I was happy and content over the last two years personally and in my business life because my overhead costs were in control. The majority of what you heard about in the media was people in overpriced homes in interest only loans, or similar financial instruments. I've always been conservative with a backup plan, and money in savings to smooth out the bumps. As a result the media hype never got to me and I never really worried about any of it. Business is solid and I'm ready for the busy season, again.

Out with the old

Afterglow Lighting was started in 1998 with the purchase of four Used Intellabeam 700HX fixtures and a I/Beam LCD Controller from Don Turner. When I say that I purchased them from Don I mean that I sat down with him and he told me to draw up a payment schedule and he'd approve it. The next day I drafted the agreement saying that I would pay $2000 up front, and $500/month. Total purchase cost was approximately $5300 for the package, and it was paid on schedule.

Intellabeams were available in the used market because of the introduction of the Technobeam by High End. Since used gear was the only thing I could possibly afford, the tried and true Intallabeam was the ideal moving light for me. I started off doing club work for the Maryland based Pink Floyd tribute band Several Species. After a few shows in the Recher Theatre I started doing corporate work and parties. Other equipment was added to inventory as the cash flow allowed and for many years all income was 100% reinvested. (I had a fulltime day job at the time)

In the year 2000 the *new* Hammerjacks night club was buying used gear to outfit its reincarnation. I sold my four Intellabeams after 2+ years of steady work through the lighting company doing most of the sales for the club. If I recall correctly I got $800/fixture which wasn't much depreciation for 2+ years. My four I/Beams went several others to Hammerjacks for it's short lived existence. From what I understand, Cancun Cantina purchased all of the Hammerjack's Intellabeams at auction, and now they sit a warehouse at Cancun Cantina.

For the first time in the company history I sold perfectly good moving lights to turn around and pay more than double for the new version of the same thing. In September of 2000 I responded to market demand and sold off my Intellabeams to purchase new Technobeam Iris fixtures. My timing was pretty good because I skipped the first version that didn't include an iris.

Just under ten years later it's time to sell the ever reliable Technobeams. We only built up an inventory of six units due to the popularity of moving head fixtures, but they have been a pleasure to own. I listed the Technobeams (and some hard working Trackspots) this morning on GearSource.com with a sense of nostalgia. I'll be sad to see them go because they work great and have always been reliable, but for what we do now it's not the right fit. So we'll sell the Technobeams for under $1300 then invest the money into more Martin Mac 700 Profiles at over $7800 each.

I'll refine the sales plan to "Sell Technobeams and buy CASES for Mac 700s"

twisty light bulb

Last week I had a high efficiency "twisty" light bulb in my house die when the light fixture it was housed in came in contact with water (from the dishwasher, a floor above). The bulb transformer most likely failed as it turned on and off several times before finally dying. The date written in Sharpie on the lamp was '07, so it did get some use before dying of unnatural causes.

I have heard and read that the drawback of the high efficiency light bulbs for the home is that they contain mercury and need to be disposed of properly. It's not entirely clear how one should dispose of these lamps properly if you are reading the packaging - it just shows a line through a trashcan meaning, "hey, don't just throw this away". Okay, where do you belong now that you are dead?

I checked the Google and found out that The Home Depot started a nationwide recycling program last year where you bring in your dead Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs to the returns counter and just drop it off with them. Today I drove a mototcycle with the lamp in jacket pocket to The Home Depot to see if it was truly that easy. Yup, it was that easy. Kudos to The Home Depot for stepping up and handling this recycling project.

I wish my site was this cool

I really get a kick out of most everything on the I Can has cheezburger site, or http://icanhascheezburger.com

I just wanted to let you know.

Back in '88

It was my first concert. The venue was the Capitol Centre in Largo, MD (before they renamed it the US Air arena). The date was May 21, 1988. The band performing was AC/DC, and the ticket price was $17.50 . I was a Freshmen in high school with less than a month before Summer vacation. I was a huge AC/DC fan and was very excited to be going to the concert.

We purchased our tickets at Maryland Waterbeds on Craign Highway in Glen Burnie. I thought it was really weird that a waterbed store was "the" place to buy concert tickets, but that is the way it was before the internet and it was better than going to the ticket master box office at the Macy's in Marley Station mall. The person in line in front of us purchased Pink Floyd tickets for their Momentary Lapse of Reason tour which was later released as the Delicate Sound of Thunder live album.

My friend Phil Borczon's dad drove us to the show in his pickup truck and dropped us off right before the pay to park booths. We walked across the parking lot and got in line at the closest entrance. We got inside the place and walked around the concourse where you could see the massive audio rig at right about eye level if you walked into the right portal. WOW was what my expression said, and all I could think. Huge audio cabinets and hundreds of chrome par cans, or "lights", lots and lots of lights. The light rig was massive to me because it was the biggest I'd ever seen to date, being it was the only lighting rig I'd ever seen.

LA Guns was the opening band and as is tradition they only got to use a minimal portion of the stage and lighting for their set. Our seats turned out to be excellent because we were in the section closest to the left side of the stage, but not blocked by the speaker cluster. Didn't really care for their set because as far as I was concerned they were preventing AC/DC from taking the stage - hurry up man.

Finally it was showtime. The house lights go to black and the crowd goes wild, screams and roars of anticipation in the arena. The opening song was Heatseaker, the first song on the Blow Up Your Video album. The stage was empty except for smoke pouring out hole in the center of the stage. A 15' - 18' rocket slowly emerged from the center of the stage with triangular stage pieces cut like slices of pizza hinging open. When the rocket was sitting on the stage the for a few moments a door gets kicked open and Angus Young jumps out playing his guitar and the rest of the band joins him onstage. To this day I think this stage entrance was one of the most clever and effective.

They played all the songs I knew and most everything from Blow Up Your Video. It was when they played the song Let There Be Rock that something clicked in my head saying, THIS is what I want to do. The lighting for LTBR involves a lot of crowd blinding and lots of white light, a call and response for lighting if you will. From the first notes of the song Let their Be Rock that night back in '88 I knew what I wanted to do. Stage lighting for rock shows became my dream at that very moment. I didn't know that dream would later become a lighting company, but that is how it happened.

Years later I found myself in college trying to find a major. The closest thing to rock and roll lighting was theatre lighting, so that is the path took. Ten years after that AC/DC show I purchased four used Intellabeam 700s and started lighting shows (music or corporate) or anything else I could and Afterglow Lighting was born in 1998.

One of these days I'll rewrite this into a more compact version for the company website.