let fury have the hour...

Last year on this day, I did a Joe Strummer tribute show on the anniversary of his death that generated more phone calls and requests than I've ever had in my 5am time slot. I came late to the Clash party, between his work with 'The Only Band That Mattered' and his Mescaleros project, it only makes me sad that his second creative wind was cut so short.

His sounds were a gateway into all sorts of other sounds that I delved into later on: reggae, dub, and the non-cheesy sounds from all over the world that became mix CD material and radio station format sounds that were at once familiar and refreshingly new. Looking at his playlists, it echoes what mine evolved into: classic and underground rock, vintage soul, African pop, roots reggae.

This year, I decided to turn it into an annual tradition because there just isn't a whole lot of good Christmas music in my format and you can hear that stuff anywhere else on the radio. I got one request for "Get Down Moses" and another caller who was mad that I wasn't playing Master P. Can't please 'em all I guess.

faking it

As much as I extol the virtues of being an efficient low-level flunky, there are downsides too, such as squirming awkwardly as we go over personality types and things that would never work in the real world if you deal with jerky people who are in power over you and know how to bully using their credentials and ability to sweet talk to the people who do have the clout.

I've gotten to the point where it doesn't bother me what so-and-so thinks of me because my self-esteem is not tied up in my job. I don't expect to be respected because I don't have any money or power and don't choose to schmooze. I do my job without expecting anyone to notice if I'm doing a good one.

And some of this stuff sounds fake as hell... with all this talk of making oneself more likeable by "preparing interesting conversational vignettes."

This totally reminds me of Mr. Collins in 'Pride and Prejudice,' who thinks so highly of himself and his position, enthusiastically sucks up to the rich and powerful and is unsufferable to anyone with sense.

"They arise chiefly from what is passing of the time. And though I do sometimes amuse myself with arranging such little elegant compliments, I always wish to give them as unstudied an air as possible. "

I wonder what it'd be like if Jane Austen was sitting there. I could imagine her scribbling on the back page of her notes with snarky comments while still maintaining an air of utter decorum.



Maybe I should start working on a success journal instead of the Great American Novel.

vikings and stuff

Being a bit of a geek for mythology and a bit of a Kenneth Branagh fangirl, I'm interested to see what he does when he takes on Norse lore and find it hilarious that a bunch of losers who live in their mom's basement and blame their loserdom on abstract hatred of people that aren't Aryan.

Branagh's cast Denzel Washington in Shakespearean Italy before so it's not like Idris Elba as Thor is all that out of the ordinary and I find the whole indignation funny because what better way to mess with wacko crackers than to do the whole Nordic mythology thing without someone with the complexion of Brad Pitt in a leading role.



At least he's not messing with the plot like Julie Taymor is with 'The Tempest.' I'm all for getting creative, but dammit, why does everything have to be turned into some Womyn Power thing?



Still, on the subject of mythology and high culture, here's the very awesome Best Operas in 10 Minutes, complete with Monty Python-esque animation.

put the art in party

I spent Friday night watching little kids dressed up like angels run around as the adults are telling great stories and me and a fellow academic denizen are discussing good music, favorite writers, and our irritation at a great majority of the Beat writers. In case I ever have to look for other employment, one of my friends told me she has a sister who can get me into a factory where they make industrial kitchen equipment so all hope is not lost.

I thought that my first Christmas without living with anyone would be depressing, but it's been so good to go out and be around others without the stress of entertaining a whole lot of people and to come home where it's peaceful and I can look out my window and see Christmas lights in every direction.

The radio station had their celebration the next evening at a west side bowling alley with free food, beer, lanes, and pool tables, and flying solo to an event where people bring their dates isn't so bad because I could eat sushi and drink Great Lakes Christmas Ale and hang out with whoever I wanted.



While the bowling throwdown between the metal vs non-metal djs never happened, I had a good time (a certain personality to be left nameless notwithstanding) and stayed way later than I thought I would. We threw gutterballs, talked Southeast Asian garage rock, with a soundtrack from someone's iPod that included lots of Metallica and unhipster classic rock in the best way.

And last night I got my introvert on and got back into fooling around with linocut printmaking. While I'm a quiet kid at heart, I sometimes come down off a lot of socializing with some degree of angst, but art making has always been good for my soul. While I was waiting for some sheets of acrylic transfer to dry, I got out my inks and messed around on some scrap paper with results that were better than I expected. I always felt like I irritated my previous roommate who would come home to a cranked up stereo and me doing projects on the kitchen table but now I don't have to worry about that.





I get to go back to the ceramics studio tonight to hopefully finish up some DIY Christmas gifts and then meet up with the pretty-much-family-inlaws of my sister to find out what the gender of my future nephew/niece will be.

ain't gonna work for a soul-suckin' jerk

My inner cynic wonders if the pending budget cuts will result in yours truly having to seek other legal means of income. It's not that I mind the prospect of factory work, mopping floors, or delivering pizzas, it's just that I enjoy my employment so much because it's enabled me to not only sustain my minimalist lifestyle, but to continue to open my world in so many ways and not to feel like I've sold my soul. That is so worth it to me.

And I work with a pretty awesome crew. I might get snarky sometimes but I really do love the students and my compadres and am glad I don't have to wear a power suit and heels. Being a cultural if not biological Gen-Xer means I've cultivated an amused and sometimes snarky attitude when it comes to motivational maxims and Orwellian jargon. I don't see why the Powers That Be want to know my religious preferences and musical tastes and if I'm prejudiced against anyone. That just seems like a bad idea all around.

I wonder if my inability and aversion to general brownnosing and ladder-climbing will be the death of me, but I'm hoping I can float through under the radar like I always have, because at this point, I want to stick around awhile.

the customer is always...

The first time I saw 'Clerks' I was in a Kent State dorm room with a guy I'd just met right after I transferred from a school where the only permitted R-rated movies were "Braveheart" and "The Passion of the Christ" and where if you were in a guy's dorm room you had to have the door open, feet on the floor, and the lights on during certain visiting hours. It's no wonder I didn't last long there in the middle of nowhere.

It felt weird knowing that such bizarre rules did not exist, moving from there into what was almost a condemned building (broken windows, destroyed bathroom fixtures) with bushes covered in cigarette butts and all sorts of general debauchery and substance abuse.

But there's a place in my heart for Kevin Smith's characters, because unlike most movie characters, they reminded me of real people in a real setting that didn't seem all that far removed from my own economically depressed suburban world, with its dead-end jobs, unluckiness in love, obsession with pop culture ephemera (classic rock in particular), and lack of interest in upward mobility with a preference for perfected slacking.

Having always worked in customer service as a zoo ticket taker, seasonal retail salesgirl for two dreadful weeks when I was 19, and public sector peon for most of my life, the maxim that 'the customer is always right' is often wrong.



Though certain individuals claim to have "adopted" some of my coworkers, at least they don't have the option to do this, though it would be entertaining. I understand the whole respecting other people and cultures and lifestyle choices, but sometimes this gets a little pretentious or assumes that we're more narrow-minded than we actually are.

hell and high water

While the vermin are in the process of being vanquished, evidently my shower water missed the plumbing and ended up pouring into my downstairs neighbors' house last night and I felt really
bad. I mopped up as much water on the floor as I could and thankfully my landlord is on it so hopefully it'll be fixed by now. Clawfoot tubs might look glamorous and Victorian but they're a pain in the neck. Also, just because a house is old does not mean it's built the greatest.

It's a busy time of year for us peons and I nearly used my little interweb soapbox to rant about incompetent and lazy people who get away with things because they're in good with the legal mafia union made up of angry women who think the 60's never died. Sometimes this is cathartic and other times it just gets me more mad so I'll leave it at that. I guess this means I have issues with boomers of a certain kind and it just is what it is.

I used to be really quiet and then I got older and somehow ended up with a big mouth that I need to keep in check. And it's not just a big mouth, there's the whole issue of colorful language that occasionally gets me in trouble. Most people who don't know me don't believe me when I say this.

But I guess after all those years of being put down and realizing finally I don't have to take it the way I once did, I'm still figuring out when it's best to be blunt and say what needs to be said and when it's better to hold my peace and know that I'm at least not on the level of that other person.

But on a lighter note...

The day off yesterday was nice and after my Arabica study session I went thrifting and scored a bag full of amazing Christmas garland that's probably older than I am by at least fifteen years considering it was all made in the USA, and one box that looked like what Run-DMC uses to decorate their tree.



Heck yeah.