# SWAG?



## the_marching_penguin (Nov 2, 2003)

Just a quick question. Does Swag stand for something or is it just a slang term??


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## DMXtools (Nov 2, 2003)

To me, it always meant Scientific [email protected]$$ Guess... :wink:


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## wolf825 (Nov 2, 2003)

the_marching_penguin said:


> Just a quick question. Does Swag stand for something or is it just a slang term??



My definition...

SWAG= Stuff We All Get, Souvineers We all Get, Soimething We all get. 

Given in appreciation for a job well done usually.....and not surprisingly it can be given to select crew members and not an entire crew..sometimes its global--all the crew on a call..othertimes its selective--someone you worked with and did a good job for will hand you a souvineer...or just the audio or lighting guys got something cause the tour or show guy they worked with had stuff to give out. Swag is a gift...its not an expectation...its a nice way of saying "thanks". I should also add--If you get no swag on a show call--it doesn't mean you didn't do a good job or the crew guys weren't happy with you, just means they may have run out...on a tour they only have so many SWAG items...OR they may have no swag items to give--some tours are cheap when it comes to local crew stuff and they simply may not have anything or been allowed to give anything away. 

-wolf


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## drumbum (Dec 21, 2003)

FRom what i understand . . . its slang. It jsut sounds cool too . . . 

"Yeah, i just worked the John mayer tour, got some kick-ass swag fro that!!!"

"When we did the test-run of the lighting for the Simon and Garfunkle tour, Upstaging gave us some swag . . . ."


yes, these are both things i have said to people. I love the reactions.


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## ship (Dec 21, 2003)

Funny, the swag name, I used to as a carpenter call it booty. More something we acquired than were given. Sure we will transfer a semi-truck's worth of wine from one to another, but given it's after hours you don't really expect the thing will be 100% intact now do you? 

Got some Upstaging Swag ha? I hear that's the premium stuff on the market. Just checked, I'm not wearing any, I have a James Taylor local crew shirt on, at least one that's covered in saw dust. Need shower before bed.


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## drumbum (Dec 21, 2003)

ship said:


> I have a James Taylor local crew shirt on



Im actually wearing some Ratdog local crew right now . . . and when i left my post last night i was wearing a shirt from s&g talking about. I wish i had "Aquired" some swag from some other shows i've worked . . . like Jason Mraz, or Michelle Branch. Swag seems to be a nice pick-up for girls . . . whenever i wear my John Mayer Local Crew Shirt i always get "Oh my god! You workd on the John Mayer show? DId you get to meet him?" 

Its a sad thing taht i use the swag for my personal life . . . meh.

I do remember that upstaging did give us a little more swag than jsut shirts . . . we got some old spansets, rigging steel, a coupe shackels . . . yup, none of which should ever be used again.


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## cruiser (Dec 21, 2003)

Ive got an androids, matchbox-20, tommy emanuel and some other pretty neet guitarist from a guitar festival show I worked on lighting for.

A friend of mine works for channel V everynow and then which is like MTV here, and he has done stuff for coca-cola, jim beam and midori and has a whole collection of merchandising...

John Mayer just toured here, they couldnt get their technician out intime to do the lighting, so he did it and now has a collection of john mayer stuff.... damn gotta envy him!


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## ship (Dec 22, 2003)

drumbum said:


> Im actually wearing some Ratdog local crew right now . . . girls . . .
> 
> I do remember that upstaging did give us a little more swag than jsut shirts . . . we got some old spansets, rigging steel, a coupe shackels . . . yup, none of which should ever be used again.



Tonight it's a Frost Lighting Sweat Shirt - Can't exactually wear it to work now can I, and a Ocktober Fest Staff shirt. Talk about swag - 30 tokens or 30 beers was the norm for working such shows. About breaks even after constant decorator's union problems. - In spite of the "who might be the people in such union questions" they gave almost as many problems as any other union at times. Ha, Ha, anyone following the current Navy Pier/McCormic Place - past Governor of Illinois thing? Interesting how connected non-functioning places to work can be to the lead people in the city or state. Did I say City??? Na, it's the Teflon Mayor. Sticks to all but him. Good person, he diserves to be a king or Poriah of the city by genes but he has this greasing the wheel thing still going on. But that's off subject and why I won't work at places I'm qualified to work, much less enter McCormic Place convention center anymore.

What am I saying. Any gig where after it's done you get to drink around the world of micro brews is golden. 

Now back to the subject. They did what on spansets, shackles and steel??? - !!!

That's not swag, that's directly something the people should not be leaving behind. Not only from the stand point of hey, this stuff is unsafe for us to use but just fine for all of you to be using, talk to the lawyers after someone gets injured and we are in the lawsit. Any idea on what I do for a living when my very hastled boss goes home for the night or is on vacation? Something about needing accurate counts on all equipment - especially rigging stuff so that at midnight we are not searching the building for those missing pieces that should be there but somehow can't be found. They mark the gear as bad, it gets cut up so it can't be used than taken out of the inventory and replaced. It does not come back from a show and it becomes a liability left all across the country or world and makes the people search for it.

Them people leaving you the rigging swag did no favors to you because what gear was not safe for them to keep was also not safe for you to keep. Plus it screws other shows that are counting on it's use. Don't want any names and shows, but in the future, if someone offers you rigging gear or other swag that's show gear, both refuse it and report the people offering it. They need a talking to.

Off my high horse. What shirt I really wanted was the Norah Jones shirt. Does not help me pick up girls but I like the singer. That or the Sting tour - any of them, that I actually did a lot of work on but still missed out on the shirt for. The rest for me are just colors of shirt to wear under the basic black, blue, green or gray. The Stones tour too much. Every time I'm low on clean shirts, that's all that's in the cabinet. It amongst other bad rock is what I won't wear even if judging by color. Swag, I already have a trunk of it - a sea bag's full of shirts to clean once in a while. Pick and choose at some point than send the more rare ones into the don't wear because they are wearing out pile such as my Elf Quest shirt.

Swag, too bad Klien does not do it. Wait a minute I have their button shirt. More Klien, ETC, Altman, Flying Pig etc shirts from the vendors is what I want. Tour shirts is too easy.

Any news on the high school or college trading of shirts swag thing? That's something you all can do amongst each other. Find a buddie and trade that Grease shirt or what ever. Good way to bulk up the inventory plus make a statement to your teachers.


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## drumbum (Dec 23, 2003)

I never said we were using the spansets and shackels. . . well, not for their intened use . . . . decorations yes . . .


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## ship (Dec 24, 2003)

Hopefully not, thing is that you never know. People that don't undestand why or the reasons for it might just at some point make use of such gear. That's the danger. Early on, I got from work a bunch of black oxide wire rope. The spool of it was rejected because it was splintering more than normal - broken wires. I took home the scraps of stuff we already installed and had to re-rig while the spool was destroyed. Sure, those scraps did not cause problems and the stress I used it under was less but the point is once something is destroyed it's the responsibility of the owner to ensure it cannot fall into someone eles's hands that might just make a mistake. What happens 10 years from now when what ever you are using the gear for is forgotten? Goes into stock or someone's dorm room for personal abuse. That's a bad thing. I would say destroy the stuff and out the door it goes. I have my own wall of shame - bad gear I collected over the years. Nothing wrong with that, interesting to learn from and look at. That is a museum. a few pieces otherwise not perminantly mounted so they can't be used are waiting for a mistake to happen thus my concern. Unless the gear is posted on such a place and in doing so is made so it can't be mixed with other stock, it's a liability. Just my opinion however.


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## soundman (Jan 4, 2004)

I wish I could have saves some of the gear from some of my summer job like the D rig mississippi midas but that stuff had to go back out.


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## ship (Jan 4, 2004)

Out of curiosity, what's a D rig mississippi midas?


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## soundman (Jan 4, 2004)

D rig was our low grade rig A rig being turbosound tops and bottoms midas FOH nice MON deskand lots of bells and whistles. B rig was the same except the rack only had a few frills nice FOH MON had a few less sends and less stands. C was our bar room beast, FOH and MON from the same desk mic stands and cable had been around the block speakers on a stic unless it was an outdoor gig or the Turbos werent out processing was on request and this ended up in the beer tents and bars.

the D rig was the the my 1st rack I ever made. It was needed for some show that ended in -fest or -fair where the rider stated that it need to be loaded full of effects and what I thought unneed stuff like 6 or 8 channels of compression and like 6 or 8 channels of eqs I think, which is not a big deal for a big board but more on that later. This rack was ugly the case beaten. To open it you had to lift the top and sides up but the case stodd about 6 feet tall when you included the casters so it was no easy task. All the stuff fit in the top 1/2 making the bottom wasted space but all the other racks were out on other shows. A plus was it had a nice fan out but not all the channels worked.

Now the mississippi midas was just your standerd 24 channel desk but channel 2 needed to be "kicked started" dont ask me what that means I never ran the thingbut we put it on an easy-tilt and took some pictures. It was funny looking 4 guys giving it there all to get this little board that barrely fit on the easy-tilt up. The road case for this flag ship board a movers blanket. I wish I had the pictures but I dont know what happend to the people their, it seems they fell off the face of the earth after october.


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## jrlang (Jan 12, 2004)

Swag=good

I have recieved my share of nice swag. Now I am the one giving it out. anyone want some?


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## jrlang (Jan 12, 2004)

Anonymous said:


> what do you have not to be choosy or anything or is this soemthing I should pm you?


It's company swag. Nothing outragious. but still something for free.


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## Nephilim (Jan 12, 2004)

soundman: haha kick-starting; I've been there with an old busted-up rental A&H... one of the faders wouldn't fade up unless you pushed HARD.

jrlang: I'll take free stuff!  Should I PM contact info or what?


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## Radman (Sep 7, 2005)

jrlang said:


> Swag=good
> 
> I have recieved my share of nice swag. Now I am the one giving it out. anyone want some?



Sure I'd like some! PM me for my address if you want to send some.


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## propmonkey (Sep 7, 2005)

id like some swag. it feels good wearing swag around school


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## jumpjet (Sep 7, 2005)

> Scientific [email protected]$$ Guess


Brilliant!


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## AVGuyAndy (Sep 7, 2005)

I'm going to the AES convention in NY, i hope I can get some free stuff there!


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## bdesmond (Sep 8, 2005)

Now, once you've got a piece or two of swag, you have to consider if you're moving towards not having to buy certain types of clothing and accessories. I have enough golf shirts, t-shirts, and long sleeve cotton shirts to not need to buy any of those, and I don't. I don't have enough button up non dress shirts yet to not need any of those, but, I don't wear too many of em anyway.

I always have someone's logo on, be it my employer's, some Microsoft product, or some other vendor that I've dealt with. I also have a couple of nice fleeces and warmer stuff, so that covers that range of things. Have a Windows windbreaker and a windows cool weather coat (more than a windbreaker, less than a ski jacket). I don't yet have a ski jacket with somebody's logo on it, so I still have to invest in that industry.

Two of the nicest backpacks I've seen in a while are swag items...haven't had to get a backpack in three years at least. Wore out the swiss army branded one, on to this new one from somebody called "ogio". Also have an MS logo bowling shirt ... haven't had occasion to wear that though. Have ample supply of mugs and such for organizing my desk too. Mugs don't rate too high on the cool factor though.

Trade shows at least in the IT arena aren't usually good swag, maybe a couple t shirts, some crappy pens and more cloth bags. The good stuff like the fleeces, windbreakers, backpacks, etc you have got to know people. I usually (re)load when I'm at somebody's office or on a campus myself.


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## avkid (Sep 8, 2005)

I am open for receiving anything and everything anybody wants to send me!


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## JahJahwarrior (Sep 8, 2005)

avkid said:


> I am open for receiving anything and everything anybody wants to send me!



would you mind doing my math homework?


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## avkid (Sep 9, 2005)

If you are in 5th grade or less I would be glad to do it, otherwise prepare to fail miserably.


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## JahJahwarrior (Sep 10, 2005)

September Lighting and Sound America--"the Swagman is Coming To town." 


Havne't read it yet, I'm going to sometime though....not sure if the articles are online or not....


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## What Rigger? (Sep 4, 2006)

This thread may be dead, but what the hell...

SWAG: Sh*t Whiners Ain't Gettin'
Stolen While At Gig
Stuff We Ain't Gettin'


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## propmonkey (Sep 4, 2006)

as a joke i was told SWAG="Stuff We Ain't Gettin'"


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## musikman88 (Sep 5, 2006)

propmonkey said:


> as a joke i was told SWAG="Stuff We Ain't Gettin'"


On the road it was told to me crap We Aint Got. But the actual origin of SWAG goes back to the dock loaders in New York City. SWAG was used to bribe dock loaders to unload a particular ship before others that were ahead of it. The actual term is Stolen Without A Gun or SWAG. At least that was the way it was told to me in the 70's when I was touring.....
Jimmy


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## ledieu (Sep 9, 2006)

Swag is a type of curtain motion where I come from. A 'Draw' is a centre parting curtain and a 'swag' opens diagonally (also known as 'contour' motion) A guillotine is an up down motion.


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## Timmyp (Sep 15, 2006)

I've got a fair few bits over the past year or so (I've only really been doing backstage stuff for a year, considering I'm only 15 and there isn't a decent theatre in town).

I've got t-shirts from Martin, Apollo, Rosco, High End and a couple of others.
I've got key chains, pens etc from all the above and more.
I got a coat from Sennheiser which was pretty sweet.
I also got t-shirts from my Work Experience placement.
Then there are the crew shirts from school shows, and also a couple of Am Dram groups.

Best bit is a rigging spanner (complete with bottle opener for the end of the run ) from a shop I did a few favours for. 

Don't really know if that's good or bad for a year...but I don't think I'm going to need to buy a t-shirt again in a hurry! 

Can't wait till I'm old enough to actually work on shows properly (not just for the swag of course, I do love any kind of theatre).

Timmy


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