2005 AES Took Place in NYC October 7-10, 2005..........

Here's the Vanimal's Crazy AES Trip Report... October 11, 2005

Here's a little mass-spam capturing a blur of last week in NYC at the AES
show before I forget it all....not that I can remember it all either.....
read on.
---
Cheers,    EveAnna Manley 

Man, I was completely swamped this past week at AES. Didn't get to sleep
before 4 or 5am on any night for the last week. It was CRAZY! Never seen
anything like it. Totally overwhelmed by literally thousands of people I
interfaced with over the week.

The first night in NYC after arriving at 6am on a red-eye and then setting
up our booth at the Javitz all day, I took my boyz up to Columbia and showed
'em my ol' stomping grounds. We enjoyed some tasty Ethiopian food and then
played cards all night sitting outside the West End Bar drinking endless
pitchers of beer. That ended up being a 5am-to-bed experience.

The next day was an all-day sleep experience. That nite I spent some time
hanging out with Rick's girlfriend Renee. We all had dinner at one of Rick's
fave places, Casa Mono, just south of Gramercy Park, where Roy Hall's son
Ilan works. He is amazing to watch work. Hands moving so fast! Searing
flesh! Frog legs! Razor clams! Numerous toasts to the late great wonderful
Rick eventually led to another 4am-to-bed experience, but at least not with
the hot Peruvian guy who was hitting on me at another bar... nevermind... I
have a reputation to uphold!

Wanna see my KNOBS?

The show began and I can hardly explain how packed it was and how
overwhelmed by people I felt. Maybe had a little to do with dehydration and
hangover, but I have had worse... I couldn't even stay on my booth as when
I'd start talking with one guy, up would come another and another and
another and another and I could only throw out three words a piece to each
of 'em successively getting carpet-bombarded with people. I decided it would
be smart to evacuate my stand and have private meetings outside in the back
loading dock with the dudes I wanted to spend quality time with. Just
couldn't take the machine-gun barrage of people! Unreal. Never seen it like
that at any trade show before in 17 years of doing this.

Mike Smith Movin' Quick and Workin' Hard

Photo by Balta

Poor Jay also feeling overwhelmed and mobbed at the Manley Labs booth.

I was honored to be asked by Cranesong Scott and Dave Hill to draw the winning names for their 10th Year Anniversary 
STC-8 give-away. Photo courtesy of John Jennings from Royer. The camaraderie in this biz is wonderful. We're all pals.

Best Arms at Show. Hillary Johnson from TapeOp

Best tube at show from Eunice at KR.

 
At trade shows, when yer feet get tired, just lie down and drink beer, is my motto.

We were all a little wiped out already by the first night of the first day of
the show. But we will rally for a Big Beef Sleep after a Serious Steak
Dinner. (It's a tradition.) Gary had us arranged for what Johnny Carson
called "The Best Meal in My Life" at Peter Luger's. Now time for a math
exercise: Here comes the rain. Subtract some cabs. It is Friday night.
Subtract more cabs. We are in Times Square and it is packed with humanity.
Subtract more cabs. There's a terrorist threat on for the NYC Subway.
Subtract more cabs. We have 5 of us to get to Brooklyn, 2 Froggies, 2 Roast
Beefs, and the Hamburger. Subtract even more cabs, times two. It is Ramadan
so Muslim cabbies aren't cabbing. We are so screwed for cabs. Out of nowhere
comes our savior, Garrett the limo driver, and we pile in his stretch. After
what was Not The Best Meal in My Life, although it was totally tasty,
Garrett comes to drive us back to Manhattan. Good on Garrett.

Now this night, Friday night, I am back to the Milford Plaza EARLY. It is
only midnight! Great! I plan on 8 hours sleep. Got to! But when I open the
door to my room, I am blown back by the reeking stench of I cannot describe
WHAT. When we checked in, there was a wet spot in the corner by the dresser.
It was now dry, but whatever had been spilled was now ripened and fermented
into a torturous aroma of what I then spent the next 4 hours trying to figure
out. So again, another 4am night for me. Fortunately in the morning, the
Mildew Plaza hotel staff heard my case and responded in favor by changing
our room to a much more pleasant smelling one up on the 24th floor. Only the
tub overflow cover was detached and the remote control for the TV was
missing in that room, and if you ignored the pile of lint accumulated behind
the bed, it wasn't half so bad, for $250 a night of course.... ouch.

My pal Erica. We are two short chicks in audio. But there are shorter. I, for one, am taller than the Phather of British EQ at least. I checked! Hell, even Linda almost had him beat. (Howl!)

E R I C A

Photo by Balta

The TEC awards Saturday night was killer. Courtesy of my pal Erica at
Universal Audio, I was sitting with Jerry Harrison, and Elliot Mazer and his
wife, Diana Reid Haig. At the VIP party afterwards I wuz rubbin elbows with
my pals Les Paul, Phil Ramone, Elliot Scheiner, Al Schmitt, Chuck Ainlay, Ed
Cherney, Doug Sax, etc. etc. etc... what a lineup! If a bomb had gone off in
that room there would be no more recording, ever. Except for Bob Ludwig who
didn't go to the TEC awards for the first time since time immemorial. And
"Where's George" Massenburg who wasn't at the post party either. I got about
4 seconds during the whole week with George. Just incredible how booked out
we all were. Classiest moment at the award ceremony was when Apogee acknowledged
Bruce Jackson. Inspiring. Gee, I might even acknowledge my ex' one of these days. 
Who knows. Kudos to Apogee!

Bill Park and Jim Dugger talking to Tim Farrant of Buzz Audio. Tim is my co-moderator at Geekslutz.

We were the premier sponsor for a giant party Sunday nite at Roscoe's Lakeside Lounge in the lower East Side. That means we paid more than all the other sponsors towards the party costs so we got the biggest logo on the party passes. Too easy to hit fire marshal capacity there so thank goodness the rain held off and we could keep most of the party out in the street, as we had planned by printing 1000 passes for a 150 person bar. Go Samara!  (See her pictures here.) The killer Eric Ambel Trio rocked down for us. I just love watching and hearing Roscoe!! (Go get his Yayhoos CDs!) Leslie and Nat furiously poured drinks for our mob all nite at the bar. It was the hit party of the show, and is now popularly known as "The Manley Party" so we have taken over the "Best Party at Show" award now for about 5 years running now at AES shows... too cool. We have arrived. Fletcher was too gracious. It really was all his idea, I will be first to admit.  Contact me if you need a Manley "SLAM one Down" beer coozie.
	Cherney was there!
	So was MW  (that's Michael Wagner if you are not in the know)
	And Max, David Glasser, and VIP Cookie Marenco! With Bill Park from ProRec.

Rupert, Dave Hill, and Hutch. They are really smart guys. Me? I just type.

Rupert Neve's newest company's booth was next to ours so finally when things
calmed down a bit Monday I got the chance to chat with him and swap
manufacturing war stories of my melting tube sockets with his melting transformer
bobbins. Rupert called that "Liquid Audio". Thoroughly enjoyable.

Jay needs a new camera...

Las Vegas addendum October 13 - 16, 2005, the weekend after the AES show:

Vanimal on the 15.

  Highway Mike

Cindi:   You WEAR that hat, girl! You WEAR that hat!

  Dave is a PROFESSIONAL driver!

In the early afternoon on Friday, Zoe and Fran (FM Design) gave us the grand tour of  the new construction
hi-rise tower at the Palms Casino, which includes a recording studio too. 
We got to ride the outside construction elevator up 26 floors and tour all these lavish suites under
construction. Very interesting for us to see. One suite for the basketball stars has a
basketball court in it, complete with locker rooms and a scoreboard. Another
suite had a two lane bowling alley in it! The studio will be beautiful. They
had bought a bunch of my gear, so I am grateful for that. Thank you Zoe! They are
having their official opening party in December and I think we'll come back
to Vegas for another weekend of fabulous decadence!

Trumpet screamer Peter Olstad  with The Vanimal

Saturday nite, after we enjoyed what might have been The-Best-Meal-of-My-Life savoring Kobe beef at the Craftsteak restaurant at the MGM, Brad and his wife, Janis, joined us for another wonderful Tom Jones show. Brian Monroney, TJ's MD and lead guitarist, took us all backstage after the show to hang out with the musicians. That was great geeking out with Peter Olstad, Herman Matthews, and Les King. These guys are just too nice. We rewarded them by swagging them out with Manley Coozies.

Peter Olstad in his hip jumpsuit.

  Brad and Brian

Jan, Cindi, Dave, Brian, and Gary hangin' out backstage.


Vegas was a profitable experience for me. I won $860 bucks over the weekend at Roulette. 
Hey, that paid for the carpet and table rental at the AES show! 

Alas, I got home Saturday night and got hit with food poisoning. I had a SALE. Everything Must Go!

Vanimal Spice and Lynn Fuston at the big party.

Blurry photos courtesy of Lynn! Blurrier photos courtesy of Jay!

Everything else is mine, all mine. (Unless otherwise noted.)  Legal Notice