All's Fair in Love and Work

It may seem a strange analogy, but I sometimes look at being single as similar to being unemployed. The longer you go without a mate or job the more your perspective changes. I think after you've been on your own for awhile, you lose much of the elasticity you need to put up with another person's antics, or a boss telling you what to do(or, worse, with that other person trying to tell you what to do..).

Those things fade from your memory with the passage of time, and become 'someone else's problems'. Much like if , say, you work with your hands as a livelihood and suddenly stop, you'll gradually lose the callouses on your hands and thus the work will be difficult to resume, since you've lost that "protective coating".

You may want a mate or job very much, since there are definite plusses to both(regular sex/regular money, ..) but you get less willing to put up with the crap involved in either situation the longer you're out of it, so they become harder to obtain. You're gonna hurt your hands without those callouses..

Me, I've usually had a job. Getting a decent job took some time and effort, but I've usually had something coming in as far as gainful employ. I haven't always had a mate though, and have had some long periods in between them on occasion. This is one of them.

Well, with a mate as well as a job, it's all in how much you're willing to put up with, what you're willing to accept, and what you're getting out of it in terms of "benefits". Unless you're independently wealthy, you have to have a job since you have to make enough money to live, so what you'll accept and put up with are usually pretty open. She doesn't have to be pretty but she does have to be dependable.

Conversely, you don't have to have a mate, though of course it would be very nice to. So what you'll accept and put up with is quite different, since it's not an abolute necessity(though you do compromise some things as time goes on). Like the job, it's a whole set of things you look at--a "benefits package", as it were--that you use to decide if you want to get involved with a particular person. Besides what they look like, whether they have/want kids, what kind of beliefs they have(how many Gods they worship, if any)-and of course, whether they're employed. Or employable..

Like everybody else, I've got my own tastes, things I'd prefer to have given my druthers.. But pretty much all of my preferences are negotiable, or transferable--as in a restaurant, I will except some substitutions for preferred menu items(and strangely enough, for each of the things I like, I've fallen for someone who definitely didn't have them along the way). I used to think I should 'hold my ground' as far as my absolute preferences, but it's really better in the long pull to have some flexibility--if nothing else, you enjoy more.

Nonetheless, there are two things with a woman that I am a sucker for and one of them is a clever wit. This attribute can just about close the sale by itself. If we can laugh together, then we can probably do some other kindsa fun stuff together too. Seems logical anyway.

Hell, I dunno. As I mentioned earlier, this is one of those dry periods, during which I usually re-examine my views on whatever it is I'm not getting(dammit!), to try to find a better way of doing things, one that will yield results. This period has been punctuated by a few interesting nibbles, but nothing conclusive. So I'm still trying to figure it out.

The only thing I do know is there has to be that "thang", that connection between you. A sort of buzz you get just being around each other. I had it with the one I married(well, and divorced, but I did marry her)and a few times besides. It's so cool when it happens, however briefly..So that's what I want, somebody I "connect" with. So far it hasn't happened with any of the women I've met, but I trust it will sooner or later. Just gotta have faith, I guess.


Oh yeah. The other thing with a woman I'm a sucker for(and, if the evening goes particularly well, hopefully of ) is , well, let's just say a relative inability to see her feet looking straight down. I do love that particular attribute. What, you thought it was going to be something noble and- uplifting? Come on.. Seriously of course, physical attributes such as these are not essential to attractiveness, however desirable they may be. (I've fallen for a skinny gal or two in my time.) Still, a buxom woman with a clever wit could easily have me for dinner.

Butt Talk

I guess these would fall into the domain of Scwewball Ideas here(and, yes I was speaking just now in Fudd dialect)but I've had a notion recently about some of those Nat'l Public Radio talk shows, particularly the health-oriented ones. If there's a point here, I guess it's that I'd like to see some more specialization there. For instance:

Deltoid Corner- dealing with shoulder-related issues.

4-Star-Genitals -for care of one's nether regions.

Thigh Noon-lunchtime legtalk.

Feet First- devoted to the care of one's pedal extremities, hosted by(forgive me)Dr Paul Bunion. He could actually have kind of a half-lumberjack-half-Podiatrist thing going as well as far as his on-air persona.

Butt Talk- the show that probes anal issues and often expels them from whence they came. A question-and-answer listener call-in as well. "Hello, you're on Butt Talk"..


Well, that's all I've got for now. Lucky you..

Productivity

I got a call today to sub on a gig coming up in March. All well and dandy. Looking forward to playing it, should be fun. In the course of the phone message, the person hiring me was kidding around about my bio(which mentions the different places I've sold CDs to online--hey, numbers are numbers even if it's just one!)and the number of CDs I put out.


This is one thing I seem to be noted for, besides having weird song titles. The productivity thing. My phone message today mentioned something about my turning out a new CD every 6 weeks. Allow me to set the record straight here.


I turn out a new CD every fifteen minutes.


That's right. I have just a little over five million different CDs out at the moment... In an evening I can do 12 new CDs, and over a weekend I can put out 50 new CDs. Sometimes I can put out a new CD over my lunch hour, though it's tough what with having to feed my dog and cat and myself at the same time.


Well okay. Going off the deep end a bit here. But I have been insanely prolific at times as far as writing as well as recording , churning out reams of music. Then again you look at some of the classical composers as far as output, finding both extremes: Haydn with 104 Symphonies, Vivaldi with 500 some-odd Concerti, and then Brahms with his 4 Symphonies and 4 String Quartets.. Who's to say what's "insanely" prolific and what falls within the realm of sanity? They were as prolific as they needed to be.


Writing all that's inya to write is just great. The only caveat I can see here would be to avoid writing the same Symphony 104 times or the same Concerto 500 times! Or for that matter, even 4..


Another thing about productivity. I dunno about others, though I'd assume they have some similiarities to myself, but I definitely have my "off" periods as well as my "on" phases. Seems like they need each other really. There was one schoolyear(1979)where I couldn't seem to come up with SHIT as far as writing any new music for the whole year--and I was a music composition major-- until that summer, and then I couldn't write it down fast enough. And I remember one gig some years back, a little 2-hr thing, where I had NO CHOPS until about the last 3 tunes-and then I had plenty of facility.


That's the thing about one's Muse(or at least mine). She's a capricious chick--though aren't they all..


So, spirit willing, I'll continue to turn out new tunes and new CDs. Maybe not every 15 minutes, but a new CD or two this year. I do have a lot of stuff though as far as music written- a near-insane amount, by some standards...

The POETS Club

Jake LaMotta, in an interview, once explained why(to his mind anyway)boxers embrace after a bout. Part of it is a matter of sportsmanship of course, acknowledging that it is, after all, "just a game", but LaMotta said this is "because they're just so glad it's over".

Hmm. That's kinda how it is with the work-week, at least at the place where I work. People don't necessarily hug each other on Friday at 5--after all, we weren't fighting each other all week, at least not usually(though we do often 'spar' with our clients it seems, and not always get the best of it)--but they are all very glad it's over, all the same. Friday at 5 makes us a jubilant bunch, as we exit the back door and slide down that dinosaur(so to speak)to our cars- to our freedom(well, for 48 some-odd hours anyway). Yabba fucking dabba doo....

However I spend my Friday evening(well, within reason- barring some catastrophe or something)I consider it a celebration- even if it's just plopped in front of the TV with the remote in one hand and a bag of Cheetos(or, depending on what I was watching, maybe something else) in the other.. Another week of work bites the dust and another 48 hours of my-time awaits me. One guy I work with calls that The POETS Club. POETS is an acronym, for 'piss on everything, tomorrow's Saturday'. For that matter, POETS can be a 2-day celebration: piss on everything, tomorrow's Sunday works well too. Some weeks you need a double-header as far as that goes..

The POETS Club can also be expressed in the following poem:

Me and Mike, ve vork in mine.
Holy shit, ve haf good time.
Vonce a veek ve get our pay.
Holy shit, no vork next day!

(Not sure where that's from but it's pretty apropos here..)


So anyway, every Friday at work, some reference to POETS Club is made. Somehow it helps propel you to 5 o'clock. From there, you're on your own. I must say, even though the nature of the work I do is not exactly a barrel o' laughs(I work in a gov't relief office, thus we get the complaints)I do enjoy the various personalities I work with. After 37.5 hours with them though, it's nice to see them fading from memory for the time being as another POETS Club commences.


Man, I thought it'd never get here. But it always does.Now if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting to attend..

Brave New Year

Well I guess this is the first blog of '06. Five years and twelve days into the 21st Century. I make New Year's resolutions every January, but end up forgetting them as I get deeper into the year. Maybe they take care of themselves on an unconscious, below-the-surface basis, without my conscious intervention, or maybe they just splatter on the floor like a sack of wet noodles- only to be cleaned up and re-attempted the following January. I still do 'em every year's beginning though, whatever their fate for the remaining 11 months.

If you think about it, life is really nothing but a bunch of cycles, a collection of patterns endlessly repeating themselves: the 7-day cycle of the week, the four-part cycle of the seasons, the 12-month cycle of the year, the cycle of birth-and-death(if you believe along those lines), lunar cycles, menstrual cycles, reproductive cycles..Lotsa cycles. You can set your goals anytime of course, but it's always easier at the beginning of some kinda cycle: on Monday, or in January. There's still all that promise in there. Still kinda young kinda wow. Not too old yet(that is, within that particular cycle). Everything ages, at least within itself.

Oh wow, that statement is so, like, five minutes ago...

So what am I resolving for this year? Actually I think it's much the same stuff as last year: less beer consumption, more exercise, more practicing, not let things bother me, maybe meet a woman I really like and who likes me(that can be the tricky part, the reciprocity: seems like all too often, one of you is the 'liker' and the 'likee' just ain't biting..). Pretty mundane stuff, stuff most anybody would put on their blog if they were fool enough to have one of these sites.

Well, a year later I still consume more beer than I probably should, and exercise a LOT less than I would do well to. But a lot less bothers me- still aways to go there, but I have progressed in that area.. I don't practice as much as I should either, but I have 11 and a half months to work with here as far as getting my shit together. And I have at least met a couple of women and went out with one a little bit this summer, though I still haven't met one I really like who really likes me.

Maybe this will be the year for that. Eleven and a half months remain, so we'll see.. Well, regardless, I hope to still have some fun this year, to play and write and record all kindsa new music and like that. And maybe in January of 2007, when I'm making the same old resolutions I'll be able to say I made some more headway in one area or another..