December 2005

LOCAL FEATURE

By ANDY ZEFFER
VJ Gary Nolan left New Orleans after Katrina to return home to Fort Lauderdale. (Photo by Andy Zeffer)

MORE INFO
VJ Gary Nolan
Cathode Ray Club
Every Friday through Tuesday
www.garynolanmedia.com

Video vanguard
When Gary Nolan isn’t dodging hurricanes, the Cathode Ray VJ produces eye-catching videos
Friday, December 16, 2005

Though happy with his new stint as the resident V.J. for Cathode Ray, it has been an unexpected homecoming for Gary Nolan.

Nolan, nationally known for his dazzling video re-mixes, can be found at the popular Las Olas hang out five nights a weeks.
But before this past August, Nolan had no idea he would be working his visual and audio magic in his hometown.

Born and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Nolan got into the music biz right out of high school, playing local proms, homecomings and weddings.
He always had a love of music. That led him to enroll in broadcasting school, which resulted in a career on the airwaves for six years.

“I had morning shows in Atlanta and Fort Myers,” Nolan says. “In Atlanta, I worked for a country station. In Fort Myers, it was a dance
station that had its own club.”

But a reversal of fortune brought Nolan back to the bars. After relocating to Little Rock to start up a string of a radio stations, a crooked
business associate took the money and ran.

“So there I am sitting in Little Rock, my furniture with a moving company that this business associate was supposed to pay,” Nolan explains.
“So I got a job at a club called Back Street. When I started, it looked like a Bennigan’s, and I turned it into a black light nightclub.”

A move to New Orleans
Nolan stayed in the nightclub scene, moving back to Fort Lauderdale to work at the Copa. A few more moves took him back to Little Rock
and then to Miami where he worked at a bar called Friends.

“I really got into the video work at Friends in Miami,” Nolan says. “The owner of the Bourbon Pub in Key West liked my video work and
offered me a job. I stayed there for five years.”

Though the Bourbon Pub in Key West and the Bourbon Pub in New Orleans have different owners, Nolan increasingly found himself making
appearances at the Bourbon Pub in New Orleans.

“In New Orleans they hadn’t hired a new V.J. in eight years,” Nolan says. “They were very set on what they wanted. So when they asked me
to join the team just eight months ago, I took the offer.”

That was in April. Everything was going well until August, when Hurricane Katrina arrived.

“I know how to handle a hurricane in Florida,” Nolan says. “But there I had no idea what to expect, and I kept hearing about the whole soup
bowl effect. So I decided to do what everybody else was doing, and packed up a few things to get out for a few days.”

Nolan landed up at his aunt and uncle’s home in Alabama. There they sat for three days glued to the news channels. By Tuesday, Aug. 30,
Nolan knew he would not be returning to New Orleans and the Bourbon Pub anytime soon.

Instead Nolan took his few possessions to Fort Lauderdale, where he spent a month and a half in hotels with assistance from both the
Red Cross and FEMA. It was not until mid-October that Nolan ventured back into New Orleans.

He had planned to go back earlier, but, just as he was about to do so, Hurricane Rita swept through the Gulf. He was forced to wait.

Finally, with funds from FEMA, he rented a U-haul truck and drove with his brother to the destroyed city, to see what he could salvage from
his apartment in the French Quarter, a block from the Mississippi River.

“You can’t explain what it looks like,” Nolan says. “You see it on the news, but once there, you can’t believe it. The smell was just awful, and
there were no people on the streets.”

Nolan had to go through a number of road checks before entering the city limits. After passing thousands of refrigerators and huge piles of garbage
still waiting for pick up, Nolan found the majority of his possessions in good shape, though the third floor roof off his building had been ripped off.
In eight hours the brothers loaded up his stuff.

Nolan decided to leave the devastation for good.

Homecoming
Back in Fort Lauderdale, Nolan was talking to a few clubs about work opportunities, and had an offer on the table in Key West. Then he got a call
from Cathode Ray owner Larry Wald, who he knew through his days in Key West.

“I sat down with Larry,” Nolan says. “He thought I was just looking for something part-time until I could go back to New Orleans. When I told him
that I was seeking full-time work and had secured an apartment here, he offered me a great deal.”

Now Cathode Ray boasts Nolan’s video re-mixes, some of which are eight to 10 minutes in length.

Nolan’s specialty is to take standard four-minute videos, put them to a dance re-mix, match up the vocals to the artist’s lip movements, and fill the rest
with eye-catching visuals.

He uses Adobe Premier and Pinnacle Software to get the best results. Right now he gets a lot of requests for the Pussycat Dolls “Don’t Cha,” Kelly
Clarkson’s “Since You’ve Been Gone,” the Black Eyed Peas “ My Humps,” and Madonna’s “Hung Up.”

Though he is relieved to be settled in Fort Lauderdale, Nolan still thinks of his friends and colleagues in New Orleans. The Bourbon Pub has re-opened,
but with limited hours.

And Nolan says he is still astounded at the way things were handled in Katrina’s aftermath.

“Everybody thinks New Orleans was just poor people who lived there,” he says. “A lot of the people were good working people, who were not
looting and committing crimes. They got out with their lives and have nothing to return to.”

When Wilma hit South Florida and people were complaining of no power and bars being closed, Nolan had to bite his tongue more than once.

And he says it was unnerving to leave New Orleans, only to be dogged by Rita and hit by Katrina.

Says Nolan: “There was a point where I felt like they were following me.”