Tech Support to the Stars 289
Carl Bialik writes "The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Prince, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, Bon Jovi, and U2 all have used technical support when on the road, when their Wi-Fi or Xbox or Sidekick needs servicing. The Journal takes a look at the lives of the essential, if overlooked, members of the entourage, the support tech. Joshua Kapellen, of Best Buy's Geek Squad, has been on the road with U2 since 2004. From the article: 'Last March, lead singer Bono needed his Xbox connected while the band rehearsed in Canada. Mr. Kapellen got a call. He hooked up the contraption and a few minutes later was playing videogames with Bono. "It was one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me," says Mr. Kapellen.'"
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Can somebody please explain... (Score:1, Interesting)
There's many reasons why, popularity by association, hero worship, rarity, etc.
One time I fought over Goldberg's (of WCW/WWE fame) receipt after he came through the drivethrough. I didn't even like prowrestling.
Lots of people's lives are dull and unhappy. Its nice to hear about rich and wonder what its like.
Prince, eh? That Sounds Fun. (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not sure I'd want to be doing tech support for this guy.
Re:Prince, eh? That Sounds Fun. (Score:1, Interesting)
I got my re-start in the music world doing just this sort of thing...I had some minor success (embarasingly so) as a teen and left the industry to pursue computers and schooling and along the way guys I met in the industry would give me calls asking if I knew how to do something or other and I'd try to help...and it slowly grew up the food chain.
More and more, I got the call the be the guy to break the bad news to the guys that either it wasn't possible OR the price was much more than they wanted to pay (and something they said screw the price and I'd send a team down to LaLaLand and we'd get it done).
But yeah, it sometimes sucks to be that guy...sometimes the stars are so far in their reality that they refuse to believe you...other times they are so thankful that you aren't one of the yesmen and hangers on that are willing to lie out their teeth and try not to offend them that they love you (this is more often than not -- the camel girl handler was probably a suckup that couldn't really do her job and was just afraid of losing her only access to this lifestyle).
Luckily, I have my company these days that handles most of this and I can focus on the more important things in life (its still fun to get free shows as friends know to call me if they are within a few hours from me, or occasionally flown out to industy events, but I'd rather stick with my research these days).
Trying to decide if I should post this anonymously or not...yeah, I think thats the right thing as I'd rather not get my name raked through the mud by geeks who seem to think this is bragging in that 'stars' should be envied...they ain't anyone special except folks with a lot of money who get recognized while walking down the street (and are usually more down to earth than guys that have made money the old fashion way -- getting it from their parents -- in fact the last show I did, I was flown out to do help with guy doing a birthday party for a billionaires daughter...and I ended up decking her husband because he said some racist things about the band members in my presence and getting in my face when I said something about it -- I'd rather deal with new money / reality distorted stars than asshole old money -- and most of the old money is exactly this way).
Definately anonymous.
Getting paid for support the *stars* (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Slash-crap. (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Prince, eh? That Sounds Fun. (Score:5, Interesting)
One day a frantic designer from Warner Brothers Music comes in, he wants a rush Iris print. I said no problem, I can drop everything in the queue and set up your job immediately, for only 2x the usual rate (our standard rush-drop-everything rate). I sit down with the client at the workstation and open up the Quark XPress file, it's the new CD cover for Prince's "Diamonds and Pearls." But it is totally fucked up. The designer has done everything possible that will take forever to rasterize and print, I can immediately see that this job is going to take at least 90 minutes just to RIP. The designer totally loses it, he says, "but.. but.. I have to get a print done and back to my office before Prince gets there to see it, I need it in the next 15 minutes, Prince is already in a limo on his way to my office! Money is no object, can't you get 5 or 6 people to work on it and get it done sooner?" I wasn't in the mood to explain the Mythical Man-month to him, I said, "look, we've only got one Iris printer and one RIP, but even if I had 6 of them, they don't work cooperatively, we would still only get your first print in 90 minutes, not 1 print in 15 minutes. You really should have gotten this job to us sooner if you wanted a print sooner. This job is going to take exactly as long as it takes, and no less. If you'd set this job up properly, it could complete in 20 minutes, and we go to a lot of work to educate our customers to prepare jobs to run efficiently, so if you'd like, I can explain that to you while we wait for your job to finish."
The designer broke down into tears, and ran out of my office and left the building. I decided to complete the job (there was nothing else really urgent in the queue, it could run unattended while I did other jobs), and about 2 hours later it was done (my estimate was a little low). I called the designer at Warner's but nobody could find him, I eventually spoke to his manager. He said Prince was still in the building and was ready to review the proof, so I had it sent over by my fastest, craziest motorcycle courier. I called the manager later to insure the proof was delivered promptly, he said Prince saw it and loved it. However, I noticed that the CD cover that was released for sale was a completely different design. Sheesh!
Big fish, Little Pond, Lots of mud.. (Score:5, Interesting)
For example, one graphics arts teacher who taught photoshop thought that our server was just a group of files that we copied to each computer and assigned that group of files a drive letter.
Another ( I am not joking ) Assumed that email was printed out and delivered to various faculty on campus by the recipients secretaries. (His, actually did that from time to time.)
Then the Dean of Information Technology would tell one person to do something, turn around and tell another person to assist but what they told the person who was supposed to be assisting was two completely different things, and latter one of the two would get asked why they didn't do what was asked of them.
With as much moolah as some of these stars rake in, I am seriously surprised that they dont retain their own tech support to go with them and live with them.
Who needs technology when you have someone to do it for you.
Ludacris's manager took CS classes? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What is the story? (Score:4, Interesting)
Having spent time with celebrities there's that split second at the start where you do an internal Keanu Reeves (woah, dude!) but then the rest of the time, they're a normal person, with normal things to do (eat, go to the toilet). It really is just an everyday sort of experience. Really, the time spent reading/watching their work is much better, and much more intimate with their psych. And a second spent with my girlfriend, watching the sun set, is much more significant than any amount of time spent with a celebrity.
I've been there. (Score:4, Interesting)
But, you have to draw the line sometimes. Anyone below the level of Producer was almost guaranteed to be a nice, normal person that you could work with easily, but above that, egos are totally out of hand, and I wouldn't hesitate to tell them to get out of my face. I call this problem "Producer Syndrome." Producers that have the power to order people to set up $2 million in equipment in a corner of a building, and who lose tens of thousands of dollars per minute for production delays, tend to lose perspective.
Re:Right... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Right... (Score:3, Interesting)
Hanging out with celebrities is potentially much more valuable than hanging out with the Mom-and=Pop store down the street that just needs their DSL modem rebooted.
Why do you think Adnan Koshoggi always kept celebrities and babes hanging around? Because it made business people want to do business with him, that's why. He made hundreds of millions of dollars off that celebrity crap. He's no dummy.
Re:Nothing too complicated (Score:3, Interesting)
I once read an article about all the electronic crap the Corrs drag around. It sounded like they had a dozen different systems: sound, lighting, mixing, computers, all sorts of stuff. They probably needed a semi to carry it.
Re:Getting paid for support the *stars* (Score:3, Interesting)
My point was, even people who have armies of people to shield themselves from mundane tasks (like writing checks) can be convinced to pay up if you know how to work with them. For some people, it is the hardest thing in the world, standing up for yourself and demanding payment, but if you want to succeed as a consultant, you have to do it.
Re:Stars are easy (Score:4, Interesting)
Has the market for tech dipped? (Score:4, Interesting)
"Technicians like Mr. Kapellen are paid about $32,000 a year, the industry average for computer technicians, according to the Association of Support Professionals.
Could this be a regional issue? Or is $55 the norm for computer lackeys in the Big Apple because soda in 20oz bottles go for $1.50 a pop and generally that's an analogue to how expensive everyithing else is making the same work provide the same quality of life (virtually speaking) in NYC as it does for the Geek Squads in Demoins Iowa? Or are the Geek Squads just generally extremely underpaid.
I'm on the job hunt now and have had some balk at $65, but just recently dropped my price by $10gs just get hired. At the $55 level, people don't even blink. The only reason my my compensation rose so high was because I'd mastered an arcane level of Ghost on the Enterprise level which streamlined efficiency to a high degree. But try explaining that to a shop that has never used Ghost and they just go..."Uh huh".
But what puzzles me is that $55k seemed the norm in 1998???!!! So, how can it STILL be the norm starting price, in addition to all the experience I've gotten since then be priced at that level? That doesn't even keep up with inflation!
And added to that, wouldn't anyone feel underpaid for this stressful job at merely $32 a year? I understand there are different costs of living around the country but this seems like a dramatic difference!
Re:Best Buy's Hardware Whores (Score:2, Interesting)