The Hurt Locker at Babble-On Recording
The Green Zone, that infamous site in Baghdad that was meant to be a safe haven from the perils of uncertainty, is a fitting metaphor for those of us in the Media Creation biz whom must adapt to the ever changing digital sensibilities of our time.
Like The Green Zone, we’ve tried to preserve a seamless “everyday normal life” here at Babble-On; critically picking over the onslaught of new and unproven technologies that might well bomb on us, while embracing those ideas that seem helpful to the writers, producers and ad agencies who zip past our front desk check point – so astutely monitored by Becky Carlson.
Now, to be completely fair, we know we’re at no risk of getting maimed (and we aren’t implying that) – but, equally so, there are plenty of businesses in the past few years who have paid dearly, lost the battle, and who will fully relate to this particular analogy. They’ve lost more than just their shirt shall we say. We empathize with them. Some good friends and colleagues are now gone.
So, we have a few things we’d like to get off the shelves and into the hands of those who might well be able to use them. We’re emptying spent ordnance from our version of The Hurt Locker, I guess – DAT Machines (even a timecode version – whee!), an Avid MOJO cable or two, 3/4 inch video decks, a Marantz portable flash recorder, cassette decks, DVD players, VHS decks, the list goes on – there’s probably even a dusty MySpace page kicking around in there somewhere. We’re posting them on eBay. So, if you’re looking to outfit a home recording studio, or your school needs some well maintained audio gear – you’ll find a good combination of new, old and not-so-used stuff for short money. BTW – much has already been donated, and anything that could be recycled has been.
To continue the Green analogy – this is all in keeping with a greater sensibility that we all share at Babble-On; Reducing needless waste. We have, in just the first few months of this year, nearly eliminated our need for CD’s and DVD’s, we are consuming even less paper (we’ve only used recycled paper since our inception), and are looking into the practicalities of converting some rooms from standard bulbs to LED. Much of this has to do with exhaustive work by Carol Bergeron, who has been converting our Session Library System into a completely integrated digital database. Now, any session we do is electronically archived (audio, video, log sheets, scripts, session notes, lunch crumbs) and is easily retrievable to any of our recording studios within just a click or two. It’s all on-line all the time. No more boxes, less plastic, less paper, and even more efficient.
Kermit The Frog once said, “It ain’t easy being Green”. Mmmm, perhaps – but it seems worth the effort.