The New Boss

They've done some "restructuring" here at work and I have a new boss. My boss used to be in Cincinnati and I'd talk to him, oh maybe once a year at most. The new guy is in Albany and he is definitely a man with a plan. I met with him Friday here in Boston along with my new Boston boss. They spent a lot of time talking about how my job may be outsourced, a lot of time talking about what a brilliant career he's led, and some of it laying down the law as to how things will proceed from here on out. I spent most of my time trying not too look too pained by it all and mostly not succeeding. At the very end I was asked for my two cents and mentioned that I'm not that happy with the direction the company is taking in general; becoming more corporate by the hour, paying more for less benefits, no real raises, and the expectation that more work will be done by less people. This brought enthusiastic and unanimous agreement. The new boss had meticulously calculated his cost of the new health plan (taking inflation into account) as a 12% pay cut.
All the hard fought for gains the average worker has accumulated over the years seem to be in the process of being systematically dismantled everywhere you look, and everyone just seems to take it lying down. Why is that? As a society we seem intent on going backward...from teaching "Intelligent Design" in the classroom (wasn't that decided by the Scope's trial something like 70 years ago?) to overturning Roe v Wade in the Supreme Court (hopefully won't happen but that is the political intent) and of course the plight of the average shmo and shmoette, working harder for less money and less benefits.
Of course all that money being saved goes somewhere...shareholders. The, from my point of view as a humble worker, downward trend with my corporation began when they went public. And along with being a disaffected working stiff I've also been heavily invested in the stock market for years and have done well by it. I wouldn't have been able to buy my condo without that investment paying off. I'm about to inherit some money from my father also mostly accrued through investment in the stock market which will give me a degree of financial flexibly.
So there you have it. The whole system is skewed to whoever has a little money they can invest. Acutally it's skewed to people who have a LOT of money to invest. Personally I think I'd rather be treated like a human being at work every day and make a little less money on the stock market.

Back to normal

One of my personal hells is having to live among panicky Red Sox fans...all that whiney misspent angst. Among other things they absolutely ruin Sports radio, which isn't saying much as it's a pretty iffy experience under the best of circumstances (question: when did Dale Arnold become an angry bitter man?) . I want to hear some good football talk dammit! (Oh yeah, they lost too...) One the other hand, there is a certain reassuring return to normalcy to see the Red Sox crash and burn in September.

Rilke again

One has to be fairly soused to quote Rilke. I don't know who the hell Rilke is actually, everyone I knew who ever talked about him was a totally pretentious shit. Nonetheless that's a kick ass quote, it's taken from the current New Yorker from an article by John Lahr (son of the actor who played the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz) on Harold Arlen, the great songwriter (who among other things composed all the music for The Wizard of Oz). Here's a great quote from Harold Arlen: "Don't waste your energy on the ugly. Save it for the beautiful."

Toad's

I finally went to this bar someone told me about. I figured I'd have a quick beer and head on out, I'm not big on drinking alone. But then the music started and, well, it was good. So I had another beer. End of story.

Rilke

"Works of art are of an intimate loneliness. Only love can grip and fairly judge them. Consider yourself and your feelings right every time."

Acting class

It was good! The couple who run it are very nice and normal. There are 11 of us, 7 guys and 4 girls. There's a wide age range and it's a good mix of various types of people, mostly professionals but a few more working class types. Only one really untalented strange guy, but he makes up for it with totally off beat perceptions. Some exuberant good energy people and a few hang back types, but everyone participated admirably for the first class. My fears of encountering fears of a bunch of neurotic weirdo's was unfounded, in fact I may end up being one of the weirdest ones there...most of them seem pretty normal.
It was fun and just participating in it really got my juices flowing for a bit. Most of them have never done anything like this before so I had the advantage of experience...not that it helps all that much in term of being good but at least it wasn't all strange to me. We did some typical warm-ups and some improvisation...at which we were mostly terrible. My goal of achieving a sort of workman-like mediocrity seems within reach.

Blank slate

A week without any emotional turmoil, thank god. About mid-week I awoke from some troubling dreams and realized I've been living with some weird knot of pain in my brain for a while. So, in my state of semi-slumber, I decided to just dissolve it. And I did. My poor old brain doesn't feel tired anymore. Just blank. Pleasantly blank, but still...blank is blank. It's probably not a good sign when feeling blank is considered an improvement, but you take what you can get in this good life...that's what I say.
I signed up for some acting classes, that should be a lot of fun. One always meets, how shall I say this, interesting personalities at these sorts of things. And football is back. So, things are looking up. I may actually be able to resurrect myself to some state of semi-normalcy before the next disaster strikes. God, life is good!

New Yorker cartoon

Two dogs talking. One dog says to the other dog, "I had my own blog for a while, but I decided to go back to just pointless, incessant barking."

Thanks pal

I had a long conversation with the guy at the liquor store today;

"How ya doin' pal."
"Good, how're you"
"Great! Is that it?"
"Yeah"
"Nine twenty. Outta Ten? Eighty cents your change. Thanks pal."
"Thank you."
"Have a nice night pal."
"You too."

I don't know, it's not gay (not that there's anything wrong with that) but...I think we could have a man crush here.

PS
I would like to thank my two friends for their kind comments and advice regarding whiskey in response to an earlier somewhat pathos laden post. I do intend t follow up on your very good recommendations at some point in the very near future. The whiskey part I mean.

somewhere Bruce Schwegler is smiling

What a fuckingingly great incredible weather weekend! Jay-zus, good for ails ya.
The Kirk music was as spotty as I figured it would be. One ten minute track was listed as "mostly silence with some conversation at the end." Uh...thanks Roland...probably seemed like a good idea at the time.
I saw the movie "Me and You and Everyone We Know." It's gotten good reviews and I figured it would be a wonderfully whimsical way to end the weekend. And it was ok, not that strong in the love story department, but it definitely had its moments. And yes I do feel adequatley whimsified (whimsicallish?). I mean I am attempting to make up words, so it shows...right?

Rahsaan Rahsaan

I went to buy some music, couldn't believe the long lines at the T. At the store I picked up three Rahsaan Roland Kirk CD's, and as the clerk rang them up shook his head and said "We've been selling a lot of Kirk this week." Huh? When did he get hip again?
Then going back home, more mob scenes at the T. Finally as I walked down the Davis Square bike path I saw some distinguished looking gentleman with a camera slung around his neck looking very parentally concerned. Oh yeah, I realized...the students are back in town. And some of them seem to have excellent taste in music. I can feel the just-waiting-to-get-out-of-control energy pulsing through the city. Yay!