Here Come The Men in Black:

No, not those MiB. No aliens involved here.

I've made mention to my profession a few times. I'm a professional technician. Which could mean anything, really, in this day and age. Audio/Visual Event Technician narrows it down some. We are the men in black...for real. That's our "uniform" (though I infamously among my co-workers scoff at that and on a day to day basis wear what I want. Hey, I'm in a hot workshop, cut me some slack).

My profession is a really weird one. If we do our job right, you don't even know we're there. If something goes wrong, everyone knows we're there. And 99% of the time we're unfairly blamed for technology failing. That's what technology is there for, to fail. Especially in the digital era. Now, we've got 10 components in one piece of equipment, and if that fails...you just lost 10 components. Yeah, it's lighter, but...

Anyway, this is a shout out to all the other pro techies out there. We stand united, brothers and sisters. We of the profession where everyone asks our advice, but never heeds it. The profession where people always complain about how everything costs so much, and then complain about the end product when they "value-engineer" the event. And those of you who aren't of our particular ilk...thank your technician at events. You'll find them in the corner, usually, with wary eyes.

Here's a couple work pictures to amuse you all.

A look at our area during a commencement. That's me up at the rear board (the lighting console).

A better look at me in that scene.

And back in the theatre days, me waving like a madman from a fly (curtains) gallery, probably right before curtain on the show "The Music Man."