A Busy October…
Thus far it has been difficult keeping up with the blog, research, Bill…oh and my husbandry duties.. you know life and all its glory? Although, I am making strides (thankfully) and this October has been a fruitful month. Moving forward, this project is shaping up to be even more interesting. On the table for November is a possible meeting with P.Seeger, a Hanley Sound Reunion and a meeting Woodstock Producer M. Lang.
AES
I’ll start by saying this …Bill has the energy of a teenager. While sitting at his kitchen table collecting data, scanning articles and photos of his family and work …he is in and out of his back door working on different projects. Which leads me to last weekends event... we attended the 131st AES (Audio Engineering Society) Conference in NYC. Here is where all the sound industry heads meet for the latest and greatest in new sound technology.
Myself, Bill and Harold Cohen (former Hanley Sound employee) left at 5am for a days worth of industry information. I managed to secure a proper interview room …which was locked! Luckily I got clearance from the AES event coordinator to film most of the event. Getting back to Bill …for a man of 75 years he just keeps on going…I was more exhausted than he was...we got home around 2 am the next day. This was an impromptu day out with the guys…nothing planned yet I was hoping to secure some valuable interviews...which I did.
Broadway and Meyer Sound
I did manage to interview Abe Jacob. Abe is a legend in sound. He was one of the sound engineers for Monterey Pop (Meyer Sound) and Broadway. Abe is considered to be the grandfather of theater sound.
SHURE Microphones
I also interviewed Micheal Pederson of Shure Microphones. Mike has been with the company for 27 years and is also the company historian. This interview was essential because Mike was able to give key examples on how Bill developments allowed them to make a better Instrument.
Museum of Sound Recording
Lastly I interviewed Dan Gaydos. He is the curator of the Museum of Sound Recording. Dan is also an instructor ...this was great because some of his students were present and actually knew of Bill as they should. Dan gave a great interview.
Moving on ….
Woodstock and JBL
The month of October had offered me additional Interviews with Ken Lopez and Stan Goldstein.
Ken Lopez, is an assistant professor of clinical music industry and associate director of the music industry program, and has been a professional guitarist and audio engineer since 1964. He has owned music and professional audio retail stores, as well as a tour sound and fixed installation companies. For 15 years Mr. Lopez served as vice president of JBL, a world-renowned manufacturer of professional audio equipment…Ken is surely my go to guy on this project. He offered me so much valuable information.
I interviewed Stan Goldstein of Woodstock fame. Stan was instrumental in coordinating the involvement of the (Wavy Gravy) Hog Farm at Woodstock 1969. Stan was says he wore many hats during the festival and till this day really didn’t want to be there to begin with…
OCCUPY BOSTON
Recently I spent some time at the Occupy movement in Boston’s financial district. There I spoke with (and interviewed) protesters of the movement, the band booking person (Kelley Pope) and specifically with a tech person who was responsible for getting the “word” out via social media, the web and any other catalyst delivering tech driven information. Although , I am unsure if I will be able to tie in Bills involvement with his anti war protest experiences …
One common question I asked was …do you see any identifiable leadership or any one leader emerging from this movement? The answer was no. The Occupy Movement is based off of a horizontal democracy system where the people unilaterally vote through a system of hand gestures. The people who speak within the movement are stacked in an order of response to issues…so if anyone person speaks too long or is getting too much attention it is voted that the next person (stacked) gets to speak. As I understand it , this stacking order is also gender, and race driven…for example if too many men have spoken on the same issue…etc.
Arnie “WOO WOO” Ginsburg
I am of course saving the best for last…
I have been trying to figure out the best (most unique) way to describe the culture of a typical teenager of the day during the Hanley 50s and 60s. Because Bill spent some time spinning at record hops and roller skating rinks (where he was influenced by the organ music) I needed an expert to describe what and why teens were attracted to the hops and why the roller skating experience would influence a young Bill Hanley to get into music…enough to be a sound engineer. Bill and Arnie were actually at some of the same events like the Beatles at Suffolk Downs 66 and The Rolling Stones debacle at the Lynn Manning Bowl 64…though Arnie doesn’t remember meeting him directly. Arnie does remember his name being thrown around.
Arnie is a legend in his own right.
Arnie was a well-known disc jockey in Boston radio from the mid-1950s to the 1970s. He also became involved in the business side of radio as a business manager, president and owner of WVJV-TV and later as an executive with Pyramid Broadcasting and program manager of their Boston station WXKS/1430.
We spent the evening watching old videos of him and listening to some of the jingles oif himself he has collected over the years. Arnie now 85 lives in Perkins Cove which is just outside of Ogunquit Maine…super nice guy…he even gave me a WOO WOO plug for the project on film…super psyched about that!
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