Originally Posted by JimP
but why are you crying?
Originally Posted by GlendaleViper
I'd say it's because DD sacked me a good one, but to be truthful (and
everyone in attendance can attest to this), I am just a weepy drinker.
Originally Posted by philodox
Actually, Steve did
all of the woodwork in my rig except for the wooden pieces on my K340 cups which were done by Larry at headphile. I had a great time at the meet everyone, will post impressions either tonight or tomorrow night. Need to read through this thread at home, since I can't see any of the pictures when I browse head-fi from work.
Nice avvy, 'Viper! I've lost the ability to recall which night various bits of bad behavior went down, but all I can say is that I am glad my tub photo didn't come out. I am not as happy about the cause for it being wrecked, which was Stevieo charging into the bathroom from his possum position on my bed and turning on the water. Luckily, Tyll and I wrestled him away from the faucet before he could switch the flow to the shower head and dowse me, but SiBurning did have to pose for his great shot in a damp environment because of it. Actually, that Head Code thing that ONLY he uses as a portable dac and headphone amp could easily have gotten fried, and that would have been a shame like the passing of the Dodo Bird.
Anyway, this reminds me of more people impressions that I need to get out there during the afterglow. Of course Team Florida already knows how much they mean to me and I really cannot [legally] go into all the details of why that is.
However, I have to say that, in alphabetical order, Dom, Gene, John, Matt, Mike, Stevieo, Vicki, and Wayne are great people and great friends. Yes, even Stevieo. Sorry I had to threaten serious physical violence to shut you up when trying to go to sleep at 5am Sunday, Stevieo, but whenever I am not hating you, I love you man! Oh, and Wayne needs to clear his calendar a little better and be more focused on the meets. Well, come to think of it, it wouldn't be Wayne if that were true.
I also had more time to hang with Team Florida folks whom I know less than the others. It was great to see Guss2 and Xenia, including at the great Brother Truckers night that kicked it all off. Melinda is gorgeous -- so kind of you to bring her so the surrogate grandparents/aunts/uncles have a chance to catch up -- and best of luck with the newest member of Team Florida who arrives in August! Also nice to see SEABREEZE and his family. Thanks for sharing that music with me, but please PM me with the name of that New Orleans blues man. Good stuff, and congrats on raking in some cool prizes from the raffle! mrarroyo and I also chatted a couple of times during the meet, and I look forward to seeing him again.
As you might be able to tell, I am furiously proud to be included among the ranks of Team Florida [Extended]. Once again, Mike and the whole crew should be lauded and applauded for their efforts. Somebody else -- is it possible that it was Billy? -- already said it best: It wasn't a crass corporate show. Instead, it was like being invited to the cool kids' party and having a blast. Thanks everyone!
Now, in no particular order and with advance apologies for leaving people out as will necessarily happen due to the loss of multitudes of brain cells over the last five days, here are some more people and people-related impressions. I have already called out grawk and N_Maher as being new buds for life, but it seems weird to leave them out here. [Almost as weird as thrice and others not being there for the meet, but that is another story altogether.] I've had lots of online time with those guys and so forth, but making it real was a real treat. jjhatfield is also awesome, although we have to convince him that he can hang with us at night even if he is not into partaking in the debauchery. There are many examples of successful sober partyers like boomana, Grahame, CrappyJones, and others.
Heck, Jude was a wild man in NYC -- ouzo must be the key
-- but nursed a beer over two nights in SoFla! Go figure that, but it sure seemed like he had fun anyway. It's great to see Jude hanging out and being the real person that he is, rather than just the personification of Head-Fi.org. You always hear people at these meets saying things like "Jude is so cool, I wasn't sure what he would be like..." Jude is the man, but he is also a way cool dude to hang out with and a good friend.
GlendaleViper and Phil[odox
] were the only members from Canadia that made it to the meet, and I am very glad they made the effort. Jay was one of my favorite Head-Fiers from the first International Meet in NYC, and he told me he had even more fun at CanJam. And there are pictures to prove it this time! The 'Viper needs to be at EVERY meet where partying is on the menu. He can party like a rock star, but he is obviously not afraid to show his tender, weepy side as well.
Given how great it was to have them down there in Florida, it raises that point that we need more Canadians to make the effort to participate in these events. Heck, we need more non-US members from all over who are active and involved on-line to show their interest by being present in-person. Those who are saying they want to have the International Meets be held in Canada or Finland or Norway or wherever need to step up and be counted to show that such a thing could work. I personally would love to have a meet outside the US if members, vendors, and economics allow for it.
Immtbiker was muted literally by losing his voice, but it was great having him around as always. Maybe even better that way!
I keed, I keed. Mostly you could just tell that Aaron and I were relieved that Mike and crew were responsible this year and not us! He The Monkey is a mad man on bourbon, and I love him for it. I also love the fact that he set up his rig -- sort of -- on Friday but never got music playing on it until about 4pm Saturday. Hilarious! DanG is the only Head-Fier I know who buys fine French champagne to party with this crowd. Nice touch, my friend. I still think Boston is a good prospect for an International Meet so check with your peeps!
I truly enjoyed hanging out more with Edwood and Lan, and Ed sure can put away some beer when he gets rolling.
Lan quietly takes it all in, but except when they get going with the techno-geek-babble and then he is unstoppable!
bhd812 and his Beely Buckets of Starbucks always add a lot to any event. He did not disappoint this year, but the humidity seemed to slow him down a little. I need to get out with him in whatever convertible he has rolling next time, although that seems way more dangerous than the other stuff we were doing all weekend.
Another Chicagoan who made the journey was acidtripwow, and Al is a great guy with a great name!
He came early, joined in for the Brother Truckers event even though he knew nobody, and had a great time. Friday was his birthday so he slipped off for some fun off-site but otherwise fit right into the mix for the meet.
Bozebuttons is awesome, super knowledgeable, and he even stuck with me during my interrogation by the local police, and my talking-to from the hotel manager. Thanks Tom! SiBurning was in full effect this weekend, from rolling his own tabacco, to tying his pony-tail back with a TTVJ flat pad, and it was wonderful that he made it. One downside was that I followed his lead on choice of steak at the impromptu closing dinner and neither of us liked it. Oh well, at least he offered to let me listen to his portable rig with his well-used tri-flanges -- I thought those things were white, not yellow.
Just kidding [mostly--see impressions thread from 2006 when he admitted the audiologist refused to take his impressions], but when we swapped in some new black olive foamies it sounded really good. We really need to commend those of us who are 3-for-3 on International Meets. I want to start a thread somewhere for people to post up who has a hat trick and who has a goose egg. Maybe collective pride and/or shame will get some people off their butts and into the seats at these meets.
I got to hang with some of my peeps who made it from Cali. Grahame and guzziguy were both smart enough to bring their wives along to justify the trip, and all had a good time. Ken was a little beat after the first two nights of partying, but Grahame's abstinence from alcohol served him well to stay in the mix to the wee hours. Iron_Dreamer looked like he was going roll his eyes back into his head and start some crazy drunken martial arts stuff again, but he seemed to tame the beast in time. Former Cali member Asr was too busy taking pictures during the day and posting them during the night to spend too much time chatting, but it was good to catch up a bit on his transition to Colorado. Make sure that you get out to his meet this summer if you are within striking distance!
Young dudes like shomie911 and bperboy who are both in high school and my roomie CrappyJones made some effort to be at this meet and had a fabulous time as far as I could tell. bperboy convinced his parents to make a trip out of it and they had a fab time on their own too. Huge thanks to the folks for pitching in! shomie only had to get his butt down the road 20 minutes but he was THERE! He won't soon forget this event. CappyJones had to fight through some issues with his folks in between finishing his last college exam week and starting a PhD program at MIT, plus he had to get past 2 separate flat tire incidents on the way to the meet, but he stuck it out and has already posted up a newbie thread that tells of the experience. Excellent progress, my young Padawan. Keep up the interest and engage in this craziness both online AND in person. It pays, I am telling you, it pays.
Speaking of young dudes, vo328 brought his almost 8-year-old son who is a Head-Fier in his own right. They had a BLAST from what I could see and were very welcome. My own 10-year-old son is very jealous, Vic, and is angling for attendance next year!
Although I naturally group them together because of their role at meets proper, many of the vendors are just as good friends as any other members. Tyll is obviously a madman and can party the rest of us under the table. I know Vicki has and I think I have publicly thanked him for helping to resolve the Saturday night party foul by moving us all into his meet room, but that was a big relief and I really appreciate it. Plus, I got to rock out with the desktop system at volume and that was awesome in and of itself! It was good to see Jorge again and Ben was a great addition even though he kept saying that he wasn't even the one who was supposed to come to CJ08. Lucky him.
Todd and Pete are buds that I just love to hang out with, and I am glad I had some chances to do that. I actually saw a pic of Todd in my hotel room during the Friday night party and it took seeing that to remember he had been there!
Tats from Yama's Inc. [Stax] is a fantastic person and I hope he stays involved in Head-Fi. It has been great having him at the last two big meets and maybe he can help get SoCal organized for more meets too! It is always great to see Craig, and it was much appreciated that he came so far solo to be at the meet. I thought we were going to get him up to the parties a bit more, but we'll wear him down eventually.
Justin is hilarious even though he pretends to be Silent Bob. When he speaks, it is worth it. He actually got a little feisty on Sunday during break-down of the meet winged a wad of duct tape off my head. But I think he was just feeling cocky because Ray Kimber had offered to have Justin exhibit at RMAF with Kimber Kables. Big deal!
[Actually, I think it is a big deal. As I said earlier in this thread, Ray should be a great ally along with some of the other large and well-known vendors who joined us like Klipsch. Our horizons are broadening and there are great possibilities for the future of our meets. Just ask Tyll and he'll tell you all about it!
]
Jack Wu, his brother, and his father are some of my favorite people in this hobby, period. They are great and their approach to the business as well as the personal side of this community are both outstanding. Similarly, it is wonderful that Ray and Grace Samuels and Mikhail and Galina Rotenberg have become such Head-Fi power couples! They are great together and separately. I also think that Jason of Sleek Audio told me his father is involved in the company, so that is at least four great family operations who were present.
Uncle Wilson is my hero and is a blast to talk to. He is so generous, as has been noted, but he is also just a great fellow. Keep coming to the meets Wilson! It was good to see Drew from Moon Audio and Fang from Head Direct again, although I didn't hang out as much as I wanted with them or with Ken Ball and Vinnie Rossi. Those two make a good team and had a fun table at the meet. I was especially impressed with RWA's new Isabella preamp/dac/headphone amp that Vinnie unveiled. Great, great sound to go along with the great [and hugely improved] Sig 30.2 amps. But that was meant for my gear impressions that are still to come.
One of my favorite moments during the meet was sitting down with Rudi and Sovkiller at the RudiStor table for a listen to my balanced Ed. 9s on the NX 33 (sounded great, btw, but that is also meant for a later gear impressions post. In trying to pick some music, I mentioned that I really liked an Italian jazz disc called The Third Man that came out recently that was all duets with a trumpeter and a piano player. Even though Rudi did not have the disc, he picked the trumpeter, Enrico Rava, within two guesses. Rudi then told me that Rava was born in Rudi's home town, and we chatted about the recording which had been written up in Stereophile or TAS. I remembered that it was on my iMod so I brought it over from my table and we rigged up a connection and listened through Rudi's amp. He and Alberto liked it enough that Rudi pulled out his iPhone and bought the album on the spot. He was downloading it while I auditioned the amps and maybe some of you heard it later after he pulled it up on his iBook. Not too many contexts in which an Italian, a Cuban-American and a San Franciscan can share that kind of moment. Cool stuff made possible by CanJam.
I was weak on getting/remembering names for lots of new vendors that Mike and Team Florida rallied for this event, so I apologize for not calling you all out by name. Shure sent some new guys, Eric from Sennheiser was back but he brought along Ray Kimber with Kimber Kables and IsoMike. It was good to see the Ultimate Ears team again, and I am crossing my fingers on winning the UE11 raffle (which makes typing very difficult, actually). The dude from Intunition stuck it out and kept up good spirits even though his offering was not really the best directed to the CanJam crowd and seriously couldn't compete with the masses of gear all around him. JasonK and the guys from Sleek Audio and Professor Thump and his sidekick from Klipsch all partied out of bounds on Saturday with the Shure crew in tow. Maybe I shouldn't have told them Sleek and Klipsch were competing for coolest new vendor when they were rocking out during the Eric Culberson show, but I am glad that they had fun and slotted into the mix so easily.
I never met the FreQs and made a huge mistake in not spending enough time with the people from Smyth. Next time.
It was great for Oz of Let There Be Sound to join us and to show off some of his amazing gear -- I wanted local high-end dealers to be at the SJ meet but it did not happen. I think it adds a nice flavor and also brings in some new folks -- Oz's presence brought in quite a few people and I would be surprised if some of them were not already signed up as new Head-Fiers.
It was cool meeting and hanging with Ingwe, daveDerek, fatcat28037, Harold Clarke, and tons of other people. Some of them, like Dave, I have communicated with on the forums, done trades/sales with, or even talked to on the phone, but others not at all. In either case, putting faces to names and talking about headphones/audio or politics or beer is a lot of fun, and really enriches the experience. I am a pretty social person anyway, and I am lucky to have lots of friends and family in my life. Still, my wife recently commented that she is happy and actually impressed that I have made such a HUGE group of new friends at my relatively advanced age. I hadn't thought about it like that, and it has happened gradually and has grown in intensity, but that is very true. Some of my older friends see me less and my family loses me for a few days at least a few times a year, but I have loved pretty much every minute of it.
Thanks Jude for keeping this thing of ours going, and thanks to all the members and vendors and member-vendors and spouses and parents and friends and families that allow us to get together like this and have some truly fantastic times.
Cheers all, and sorry for the windy, almost weepy, post. 'Viper must be wiping his eyes right now, I am sure of it. Wait, is it beer thirty in Ontario yet?
