More of the Not Same

The job interview sure has changed a lot since the good old days. When I was a young man, getting a job was easy- I'd wait until the bars opened and then visit each one, having a drink or two before getting around to asking the bartender, "hey, you guys need any help?". I always picked smaller, privately-owned restaurants and bars and I never had any problem finding work, even during my 'hobo' phase. I had an Amtrak pass and I took a 90-day vacation with hardly any money- I'd stop in whatever town caught my fancy-New Orleans, Flagstaff, Eugene- and get a quick kitchen job, work a few days and move on once I got paid. It really was fun, but I'm not sure if it's possible to do sober- for me anyway.
I mean, I could probably get a decent bar job right this very second if I wanted one...alas, I don't want to work around drunks and cocaine and those two things are an inherent part of bar jobs.

In 1990 I was on unemployment after working at a defunct bar -I was required to make a 'job search' report to the State every week in order to get my dole check. It was a pain-in-the-ass, you had to obtain real names and phone numbers without actually finding a job; something that was a lot trickier in the pre-Internet period.

One afternoon I walked into a comic shop and asked the guy behind the counter if he was hiring. He held up a white cardboard rectangle and asked me what it was. There was an identical rectangle on the wall behind him with a note affixed to it:
BACKING BOARDS 10 CENTS EA.
"Um, it's a backing board", I replied, not quite sure what a "backing board" was...I got hired on the spot. I wound up working there for almost eight years.

Today, my job searches are much different. Lately I've been on a series of failed interviews, including some that were set up by temporary agencies- something that the temp agencies never used to do-and I've found that every interview is now done by a 'team', usually three, sometimes two people. There is an uncomfortable interrogatory quality to being scrutinized from three sides and I have been flunking whatever hidden tests I encounter...aha!

As I write this, I have a theory: I have failed the 'distraction' test.

There is always one person at each interview that is extremely affable, someone that I 'click' with right away- and that person always leads me into a conversation about something that is not germane to the actual position. I have been taking this as a hopeful sign that I will "fit in" , but now I suspect that it was test to see if I could keep my mind on the boring-ass job being discussed. Obviously, I can't.

Today I had to sneak away at lunchtime for a job interview at a legal office. At the firm, one if the three interviewers saw my radio/audio credits and told me who his dad was. His father used to own a famous recording studio. Cool!
I could have talked forever about old studio gear, but I had to get back to my file clerk job, so I stayed on-topic and I sensed a 'good' vibe when I did so. It was a strange dynamic, the youngest of the three, a petite Asian lady, seemed ready to hire me on the spot, she even asked how soon I could start, but stopped short of making a cash offer...the other, older woman didn't say much of anything, she just took notes. The man was friendly, but not nearly as enthusiastic as the younger lady.

There was an inconclusive flurry of feints, parries and ripostes over schedule and salary requirements- this is a lot easier to haggle about when one has a job already, I have learned. It helps to be Not Desperate, ya know? Anyway, I asked for a couple thousand dollars more than my last law job, now I'm wondering if I didn't undersell myself...I'm wondering a lot about this potential job. I hate multi-person interviews and the mixed messages that result, but I did get a tour of the office and saw Obama and Kaine stickers on display in a couple cubes, which was a welcome switch from the starched conservatism that dominated my former office. Seeing those stickers made me want to work there...well, actually it's the health insurance I want, but I'm less likely to have a aneurysm if I'm not surrounded by raving Bush lunatics.

As luck has it, one of my job references dropped by to visit tonight. He arrived right before I sent an email containing said references to the law firm, per their request...I'm glad he did, I was able to update his phone #...it really was a strange coincidence that I saw him. Perhaps it's a good sign, eh?

Things are looking up.

Ebony and Irony

I hadn't realized what an utter piece of garbage our old turntable mixer (above, right) was until I got a chance to play with our new one...yep!
New one!
This morning there was a piece of gear in the studio that I'd never seen before- a shiny DJ mixer! Woot! Fancy!
No one had sent out an email or called me, so I was surprised as holy heck to see it...I cued up a record, pressed a few buttons, plugged in the headphones...
Cool!
It has a much better sound than the old one, I could hear the difference straightaway- it has long been a source of considerable consternation to me that my records sound better at home than at the station... why is that?...it's the mixer, duh!

There isn't much that makes me happier than new audio gear.
I was clapping my hands together in glee.
Serious glee, I'm tellin' ya.
The sort of joy that transcends dignity.
*Squeal!*

I pointed the new gizmo out to the early morning DJ, but he doesn't play vinyl. He didn't care. He hadn't even noticed it, his loss...I really wanted to share this happy moment with somebody...but who to tell?

Voila!

In walks one of our nighttime DJs.

"Hey man!", I said,"Have you seen this? This new mixer is cool!"

"Um, yeah. I came in to switch it."

"Switch it?"

"Yeah. It's mine. I left it here last night."

So with under a minute to spare, he replaced the new mixer with the old one.
I cued up another record.
It sounded like shit.

The New Breakfast Snob, Nov. 25, 2007:

Funkadelic- Grooveallegiance
Pledge allegiance to the Funk! The equipment fiasco had threatened to derail my groove train, so some serious action was needed...

Osibisa- Move On
OK. This has cowbell, it helps me rock steady... speaking of helping ,Cowbell has posted details on how you can send gifts directly to the troops in Iraq- and a story that might move you to do so.

Larry Graham- Can't Stand The Rain
This morning we had a brief but heavy pelting of hail, which soon turned into a dreary drizzle, which may or may not have cleared up by now...I'm too goddamn gloomy to be bothered to look outside my window-and my window is directly behind my monitor...I'm that depressed.

Kinks- Sleepwalker
This is one of the very first records that I bought with my own money. I wonder if I will ever have my own money again...my unemployment runs out next week, just in time for X-mas...please Godzilla, I'm an adult now- no more retail...no more foodservice...no warehouses...where are the 'real' jobs? The kind you can blog from, I mean.

Soweto Gospel Choir- Paradise Road
Geez, I should stop complaining...it could be worse. I could be in Soweto- or Baghdad.

Stewart Copeland- Gong Rock
Ex-Police drummer's solo album is so good it almost takes my mind off of war and poverty...where is Klark Kent when you need him?

Kraftwerk- Das Model
I start thinking of Africa...and Germans...African Campaign...1941 all over again...Desert Fox...Rat Patrols...make it stop...

Gong-Can You:You Can
I can say that I am truly grateful that I saw Gong perform in Baltimore, Md., many, many years ago...they were great.

Can- Halleluwah
Can't say I saw Can. Fives times fast.

Stewart Copeland- African Dream
According to the computer, I had four on-line listeners...if you add that number to the number of people listening on the FM dial, it's probably closer to a half-dozen than it is to four.

Soweto Gospel Choir - African Dream
You can't spell 'Soweto' without 'Stew', as in Stew Copeland, who we just heard do a different song with the same name as this one. Circular, maaaaan...like a globe, duuuude.

Nina Hagen - African Reggae
Whatever Nina has to say, she says it in German...a Teutonic tantrum invoking Ras Tasfari. That might seem a bit ironic , but it's nothing compared to this:

The new Will Smith movie, I am Legend, is a re-make of a Charlton Heston flick, The Omega Man, based on Richard Matheson's 1950's sci-fi novel, I am Legend.
In The Omega Man, Heston's Lone Gunman killed a lot of vampires...Charlton's character also had interracial consensual necrophilia with an Afro-Vampire, which was pretty hot stuff for a future NRA figurehead to be involved in...I wonder what Heston would say if he found out that the Hollywood Jews gave his job to a black man?
He'd be happy, I think. Chuck marched with MLK and was an ardent civil-rights activist.
Who knew? Let's give some props to Charlton Heston!
It's a madhouse!!!



Joe Strummer- Get Down Moses

Charlton Heston once played Moses in the film version of a different sci-fi book. In the book, the Moses role was originally intended for a non-white man, so I think it's only fair that Smith gets the Omega Man gig...I wonder if Will's romantic interest will be a White Zombie?



Moody Blues- Dear Diary
Woke up late, wasn't were I should have been...what's happening to me?

Rickie Lee Jones- Runaround Rorschach
Ink blot romance. Welcome back.

Blonde Redhead- Four Damaged Lemons
Damaged lemons? Make broken lemonade.

Manfred Mann- Fritz the Blank
On the 'fritz', i.e., broken, damaged- plus a Germanic reference in the names, get it?...oh, never mind. Go back to sleep.

Loreena McKennitt- Gates of Istanbul
I sure wish she'd play somewhere around here. I'd pay if I could.

Quiet Sun-Bargain Classics
Classic early Brian Eno appearance- bought last summer for three bucks: a bargain!

Emerson, Lake & Palmer- When the Apple...
Quite possibly the longest song title ever. I'm not typing it all. I'm not even reading it.
Listen, yes. Type, no.

Soft Machine- As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still
Gong's Daevid Allen briefly played with an early incarnation of Robert Wyatt's Soft Machine...the Soft Machine served as opening act on a Jimi Hendrix tour- one of those concerts was in Richmond. I was too young to attend the Hendrix show, but I saw Allen in Maryland; that's as close to Hendrix as I'm likely to get.

Altan- Beidh Aonach Amarach
I can't pronounce this but I really enjoy it.

Fairport Convention- Now Be Thankful
A belated tip-o-the-hat to Turkey Day.

Jethro Tull- Up To Me
Take you to the cinema, leave you in a wimpy bar, You tell me that we've gone too far, come runnin' up to me...up to me.

It's up to us. 2008 will be a New Year, dammit!

Fiona Joyce- Cry Over You
Who filled your head with this 'freedom' stuff?



Pretty Things- Old Man Going
S.F. Sorrow is one of the first 'concept' albums, ever. It's a musical narration of the sad, lonely and wholly insignificant life of Sebastian Francis Sorrow...first, war fucks him up, then his lover dies in a dirigible explosion which S.F. witnesses...broken, he falls in with a bad lot and eventually an aged and withered Sorrow finds himself sitting on a park bench, sharing fulsome wine with Aqualung.
No one cares.
The End.




------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


TRICK HAPPY ENDING:
In 1998, the Pretty Things re-united and performed the entire S.F. Sorrow album live at London's Abbey Road studios; it was broadcast on the BBC and released as a limited-edition CD that features the entire original band, with Arthur "Fire" Brown as narrator and Pink Floyd's David Gilmour on guitar.


Cool , eh?

Protecting Corporations From the Citizen Menace

I don't know who created this Time parody, but I've had it on my PC for over two years. I doubt it will ever happen. Bush lacks the integrity, character and sense of propriety that Richard Nixon had.
That's a pretty low bar to hurdle.

The last time we had a President who got busted conducting illegal wiretapping, that President resigned in disgrace.
This time around, Congress, which is purported to be controlled by a mythical 'opposition party' decided to legalize said wiretaps. It's amazing , but the Dems who voted to give Bush and Gonzales warrant-free access to American's telecommunications seem to have forgotten that Nixon's main eavesdropping targets were largely comprised of his political enemies, i.e, Democrats. Instead, they approved new legislation that seems tailor-made for loopholes and ambiguous interpretation:

By changing the legal definition of what is considered “electronic surveillance,” the new law allows the government to eavesdrop on those conversations without warrants — latching on to those giant switches — as long as the target of the government’s surveillance is “reasonably believed” to be overseas.

For example, if a person in Indianapolis calls someone in London, the National Security Agency can eavesdrop on that conversation without a warrant, as long as the N.S.A.’s target is the person in London.

If you send out an email to your friend's list and any one of those friends are are abroad, your emails are subject to scrutiny- as are your telephone calls. This has been going on, with the covert cooperation of several major telecom corporations, since shortly after 9/11/01.
Eventually, the telecom's role was discovered and this led to the filing of dozens of privacy lawsuits against the companies who enabled this illegal activity.

Wow. The phone companies have been illegally monitoring the conversations of American citizens. For years.
They've been turning the data over to Federal intelligence agencies.

That's a problem for those of us who like to think we live in a free country.

Here's Bush's solution:
Protect the Telecoms from the citizens.

Bush Seeks Legal Immunity for Telecoms

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration wants the power to grant legal immunity to telecommunications companies that are slapped with privacy suits for cooperating with the White House's controversial warrantless eavesdropping program.

The authority would effectively shut down dozens of lawsuits filed against telecommunications companies accused of helping set up the program.

The vaguely worded proposal would shield any person who allegedly provided information, infrastructure or "any other form of assistance" to the intelligence agencies after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. It covers any classified communications activity intended to protect the country from terrorism.

Thank Godzilla that we still have Judges who believe that we are a nation of laws- Constitutional laws, to be precise. Once again , portions of the dubious Patriot Act have been found illegal and unconstitutional.

A U.S. District Judge decided to strike down for the second time key sections of the Patriot Act that would allow the FBI to obtain electronic communications data from private companies without a court warrant.

Marrero wrote, "In light of the seriousness of the potential intrusion into the individual's personal affairs and the significant possibility of a chilling effect on speech and association - particularly of expression that is critical of the government or its policies - a compelling need exists to ensure that the use of NSLs is subject to the safeguards of public accountability, checks and balances, and separation of powers that our Constitution prescribes.”

Face it. Bush is always going to take the side of the ultra-rich bastards who are screwing you.

-The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention Program

- Katrina

-Tax cuts for hugely profitable corporations

-Tax cuts for the wealthy

-All Those Kids Left Behind because all the money went to tax cuts and war-profiteers.

-The mortgage that your bank promised you was a good idea.

-Iraq.
Face it: One focal idea behind invading Iraq was to raise the price of fuel by disrupting the international flow of oil...oil prices recently dropped a few pennies and the rhetoric for invading Iraq quickly intensified. Coincidence?
If you think gas is expensive now, just think what will happen if we bomb Iran.
First, they'll cut off any oil that might possibly reach the USA. Then they'll bomb the shit out of Iraq's fragile oil infrastructure.
We will drop more bombs on Iran in response, but by then gasoline will be upwards of five bucks a gallon...just a scenario, mind you.
Of course, any oil Iran does manage to export will likely be sent to our good buddies in China and Russia, which is a whole 'nother can o' worms.

Iran will strike back after being hit, probably with ground-based bombings in Iraq- between the USA and Israel the skies will be pretty much shut down, but the ground situation will remain at least as unsolvable as it is now- probably get much worse.

And so on... until everyone dies or peace breaks out, whichever happens first.

Peace and annihilation are likely to occur simultaneously.

Not To Be Alarmed...

It seems that scarcely a day passes without word of another dangerously economical Chinese product being recalled due to safety concerns. Notably, Mattel just issued a global recall of millions of toys:

This week, Mattel (nyse: MAT - news - people ) recalled nationwide 9.3 million Chinese-made toys because of tiny magnets that could be swallowed and another 265,000 toy cars because of possible lead-paint hazards for children. Those figures were for toys sold in the United States. Worldwide, Mattel recalled 18.6 million toys, including 18.2 million magnetic toys and 436,000 die cast toy cars.

Well, duh. American manufacturing moved it's factories to overseas to cut costs- including those incurred by adhering to America's more stringent safety and labor regulations- and we were rewarded with cheap goods, the only drawback being that the products might kill you, your pets or your children.


According to at least one TV 'expert', this is a good thing and China is our "greatest friend":

A lot of people like to say, uh, scaremonger about China, right? A lot of politicians, and I know you talk about that issue all the time. I think people should be careful what they wish for on China. Ya know, if China were to revalue it’s currency or China is to start making say, toys that don’t have lead in them or food that isn’t poisonous, their costs of production are going to go up and that means prices at Wal-Mart here in the United States are going to go up too. So, I would say China is our greatest friend right now, they’re keeping prices low and they’re keeping the prices for mortgages low, too.”
-Erin Burnett, CNBC

Burnett implies that it's worth risking toxicity to ourselves and our families if we can save a few pennies.
I vehemently disagree. Perhaps I don't fit the conventional consumer profile, but I don't mind paying a bit more for cat food if it means my cats can survive eating it. If I had children, I suspect this same sense of protection would extend to them.

A big thanks to Crooks and Liars for posting a video clip of Ms. Burnett's shill...maybe it's a product of my Nixonian childhood, but I have never considered China to be America's "greatest friend". In fact, I used to have a tongue-in-cheek conspiracy theory that China had launched a covert war to destroy America and that all those $29 DVD players contained hidden incendiary devices; once a certain quota of units were sold, ensuring that the players were widely distributed, a remote signal would be issued and the DVDs would ignite, burning down a great deal of homes and causing large-scale mayhem of all sorts, paving the way for the Yellow Horde to invade...or was it the Red Menace? Red Dawn? Fiendish Fluoridators?

Of course, this was just a joke- the obvious flaw being that the Chinese own a great deal of American real estate and it might not be in their best interest to commit mass arson on their own properties-unless much of that real estate suddenly plummeted in value due to a market crash...but that's just more crazy talk.

I have a more rational theory about the Chinese toy recall. It's based on one of the most traditional incentives- vengeance. The production of these hazardous toys is payback for the American treatment of an entire generation of Chinese immigrants during the construction of our once-mighty railroad system.

The American citizens regarded the Chinese
immigrants as serious competition for their employment opportunities. This type of sentiment was further intensified by two other factors. The first was an increase in Chinese immigration after 1860. The second was the depression that started in 1873. In San Francisco, an Irish immigrant named Denis Kearny started a movement to fight the "Oriental menace". Throughout the West, there were anti-Chinese riots. Finally prompted by anti-Chinese sentiments, congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. It ended the immigration of Chinese laborers. The Geary Act of 1892 extended the 1882 exclusion policy.

Well, guess what eventually happened to the railroads? A few weeks ago I saw a Discovery Channel show about the steel industry. In it, a factory foreman explained how his plant received thousands of tons of steel in the form of old train rails. A great deal of this was recycled and sold to China, which apparently has a nearly insatiable appetite for cheap metal...at the time I thought it was ironic that the railroads were being dismantled and sold as scrap to the descendants of the people who helped build them.

It hadn't occurred to me that some of those rails might be melted down, converted into toys, coated with lead paint , accessorized with ingestible magnets and sold back to us at our own peril.

I mean, that sounds crazy doesn't it?