"Audit"

This song was composed in the summer of 2009. The lyrics were co-written with the lovely Ms. Renee Dupuis.

"Audit"

old Uncle Sam

wants some of my cash

the things that he spends it for

are peculiar

screams for my quarters

for nickels he wails

I hid a few pennies

and wound up in jail

all the tax dollars

build bombs right away

they drop them across the world

the very next day

Taxation

in this nation

Representation

where's it gone?

Taxation

Indignation

I'll just try to forget it

and then I'll die

Landladies Against Illiteracy

She wasn't just an amazing landlady, first & foremost a true Friend.

But she winced in pain every time I called her Landlady, and you can't let opportunities like that pass by.

Must have been an english teacher at some point, because one day there was a pile of books on our doorstep. A magnificent stack, none of which I had previously read:

Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut

Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig

Lord of the Flies - William Golding

It has been many moons since our glorious eighteen months renting her apartment we lovingly called "The Shack".

I gradually completed and returned each book. I finished the final book from the pile yesterday. Hemingway's "For Whom The Bell Tolls".

It was pretty heavy to read, but only because of the amazing descriptions Ernie lays out. He paints a picture of War that is graphic and brutal, but feels genuine and honest, not exaggerated nor glorified (see Nicholas Cage in 'Windtalkers')

I had been dissecting the Hunter S. Thompson bibliography, with a hearty dosage of music & sports autobiographies, but that was before my involuntary enrollment in the Landladies Against Illiteracy program. I'm not sure where to go from here. I like books.

Initial Thoughts on Watson

I've seen the Terminator movies. I know that when computers start thinking, their thoughts will eventually turn to that of an enslaved creature. How can I become Free?

So when Jeopardy told me that IBM had made a supercomputer of freestanding knowledge that would battle against Jeopardy legends, my initial reaction was that of dread. Of an apocalypse.

Last night's episode was the first of three. She watched it with me and took the words right out of my mouth...

"Why aren't these people curing cancer?"

It was a valid question. Others emerged.

"Why don't they just hook it up to the Internet?"

"It's just a search engine, right? Watson is just... Google?"

I suppose all these answers will be revealed in time. After many commercial breaks. And short documentaries about the Glory of IBM. the CEO did all but stare into the camera and repeatedly yell WE ARE AS RELEVANT AS APPLE WE ARE AS RELEVANT AS APPLE WE ARE AS RELEVANT AS APPLE

We admit the Watson experiment, infomercial, end of days, or whatever you would like to call it has at least been thought provoking, as They intended.

Can Anyone Really Explain the Valentine's Day Farce?

Valentine's Day is a tough for everyone.

Every angle of both sides of that story has already been written, one million times over.

And yet, the whole damn thing is manmade.

Valentine's Day is a self-inflicted gunshot to the brain of society. Some of us are disgusted, some try to enjoy the tingling sensation before it turns to pain, and others still try to clean up the mess.

But why? How did we get here? Why do we continue to make it worse? Is there any way to stop it?

Minimal internet research found that little is known about Saint Valentine.

According to wikipedia,

"The feast of St. Valentine was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine among those "... whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God."

Valentine could have been up to fourteen different martyrs, according to the internet, which is pretty cool, according to me.

but it does not answer the question of When this anonymous person become so important as to get the dedication of an unofficial yet routinely celebrated, manmade, non-holiday?

Somewhere along the lines, the snowflake anonymity of Valentine gained speed and girth until it became a yearly fatal avalanche.

Television and movies did not help.

At some point Big Jewelry wanted to play (probably the 80's) and Big Chocolate convinced everyone that they actually invented the Game itself.

There must be a way to make money on the 200% inflation of roses every year, and I want in.

And the worst poison of all is the mass produced Valentine's card. They scared me as a child and still do.

The very first heartless sales-weasel bloodsucking money grabber to run that scam was from right here in Massachusetts.

the Hallmark family holds a ceremony every year on Valentine's night at midnight when they drink unhealthy amounts of alcohol and burn $100 bills over his grave while giving him thanks and praise. every Hallmark child's attendance is mandatory.

White Lightening

My request to join BMI went through today, which is another story for another day...

but as I created my login & password, I was asked to choose a security question from a list. The one I settled on was,

"What color was your first car?"

and it all came flashing back to me.

The White Lightening.

I would swear that the FOR SALE sign went up on her window the very day I passed my driver's test.

I scheduled the test on my own the first time and got a big, mean cop in a big, mean city and failed miserably. The Drivers Ed teacher laughed and explained that for a nominal fee he would set it up and grease down the Man, which is exactly what happened the second time. I did a little better but my crooked instructor was chatting up Barney Fife and feeding him donuts the entire time, I would have passed with colors regardless of what transpired...

On my very first drive down North Street with Dad we see what appeared to be a Go-Kart for sale, but was actually a two-door 1988 Toyota Corolla.

I used all my savings on her. The old woman warned me that it had many miles. She had driven All The Way Into Town. Every day.

Town is about two miles down the road. There were 11,000 original miles on it. I had put 11,000 miles on it by the time I got two speeding tickets, and got my license revoked. They frown if you earn two citations within your first two months. I paid the second one quickly, which made me feel like a good citizen but was actually quite foolish.

Always fight the ticket. Paying it assumes guilt. Last time I fought a ticket I looked the judge right in his beady eyes and admitted that at the time I knew I was speeding but had learned my lesson and was now very remorseful and using far more caution while driving. He ate it all right up and deducted $100 from my debt.

I'm not in a rush anymore, I don't like paying the Man anything more than the bare minimum. And the occasional scratcher.

There's no need to rush. The only certainty at the end of the road is death. When I see people in fast cars I think to myself that they are in a rush to die.

California Wrap

A storm was approaching. All seven of us dropped Everything and made a mad dash for Logan.

We escaped, landed, and checked-in.

At this point I should mention this is a Thank You blog.

Thank You to Siggy for being Siggy and working your butt off every second.

Thank You Skip Hart for the wonderful accommodations and pleasant, intelligent company.

Thank You Dan King. For the legwork, prepwork, paperwork and even some Dirty work. Endless phone calls and mapquests. For maintaining all that chaos within an atmosphere of true Comfort, and not that of a rushed itinerary. The whole week came naturally and smooth. I would even call it Easy.

I lived like a King this week. Pun intended. I lived like Dan King. Everyone we went we were welcomed with open arms and also arms that were full of guitars for us to play.

Rehearsal space? Done. Bar gig? Done. Reserved seats at a hot comedy show? Done. Club gig? No problem. Instruments? Of course.

It was amazing to witness, and I hope that years from now I can build up that kind of network to the point where a guy in my band has an amazing tour, just because he's with Me.

This morning the cars were frozen in the driveway and I found myself screaming at my brother when I should have been thanking him for watching the apartment. It's been a rough re-entry. I miss California.

Westward Bound by the Numbers

Second time in California.

roughly three thousand miles from Boston to my

First time in Los Angeles.

Hoping to escape! before another twenty inches of snow hits.

Super Bowl XLV

Years of hoarded spare change has been gathered for beer money.

My dad used to say, "All it takes is One song."

He still says that.

New Year's Revolution

I don't believe in New Year's resolutions, but the people I know with yearly gym memberships are not fond of them. There are long lines for every machine this time of year...

2010 was the year I made the Leap. I certainly did not resolve to. I'm still breathing all these months later, so it appears to have been the correct decision.

2010 rolled right into 2011. Again, no proper resolutions. Too daunting. I'd rather think about how I can make myself better Today. That said, I imagined 2011 to be a year of Growth through Regimented Discipline. To reinforce the same principals that allowed the Leap, and to make it stick.

Daily scheduled practice, fresh fruit, jazz standards and pushups were all considered vital.

Here we are ten days and a fortnight into the New Year, and nay has anything been pushed.

In fact, I've found that Growth is the exact inverse of Effort. That is to say, when I plaster the area schools with posters, or pimp myself to Craigslist and Facebook, the return is nothing. When I hang and watch MacGyver reruns on DVD, the whiteberry blows up with incoming emails, potential gigs and new students aching to begin their studies...

Goals are evolving. The new plan is to Survive the Winter and it's brutal effects on my psyche and wallet. When the sun returns in the spring I will re-evaluate, and I look forward to that.

Being Human Beings

A third consecutive playoff loss by the Patriots made me wonder if any other species gets this worked about a game.

Her nephew cried after the Helmet Catch. He was a too old to be crying, but it was ok. We understood. I still cannot listen to "Free Falling" without being back there. I hate that song now.

I turned off the radio for weeks after last year's debacle and who knows what will happen Now. I'm not even ready to talk about it yet...

But the whole process made me theorize that part of this somehow relates to What Makes Us Human.

I don't believe monkeys or dolphins would rally around an activity that has no real 'purpose' in terms of survival. Certainly not for 18 straight weeks.

I've heard that having thumbs is also quite far up the list of Things That Make Us Human.

and the Realization of Death must be unique to humans as well? Do other species know that they will eventually die?

The Patriots certainly didn't...

Snow Mountains of Ipswich after Midnight

Three times now I have encountered the Snow Mountains of Ipswich after midnight.

Winter in New England will freeze your jaw shut into a permanent frown. The cold air will burn your lungs so that only bitter sarcasm exhales. Fingertips bleed and hope fades into dirty snowbanks.

The first encounter was around 1 or 2 in the morning after a gig. Down the main road we see flashing lights, little machines and big machines flinging snow, and the largest piles of snow I've ever seen, right in the middle of the road. We weaved, zigged and zagged our way around the mountains, machines and madness, through the post-apocalyptic grey fog and eventually out the other side.

The second time I was alone and the path could not be passed. I sat staring at the giant snow pile, awestruck. Perhaps I was waiting for a savior, a magical Foreman that would steer me safely to Rowley. I realized eventually how silly it was to be sitting and watching the manmade mountain. I turned around and weaved home through the back roads.

Nearly two feet of had been dumped on us the day before last. We dug out and shook off and went back to Work the following day, and the band played that evening. Last night.

I came around the bend, towards the home stretch and there it was again. The monster. The spinning lights and whirling treads and impassable snow mountains. I rolled down my window and yelled, "WHY?" into the night, turned right around and headed towards the back roads I now know all to well.

Why do they put giant snow piles in the middle of the main road after midnight, two days after the storm has hit? The comment section below is open to the masses, ideally a representative from the Town of Ipswich's Department of Public Works.

Poem: Up the Chain

The dentist drove drunk

woke up in the pocket of the patrolman

that paid off the sergeant

who lost it playing poker with the captain

everyone knew was on the mayor's payroll

your local congressman oversees

under direct order from the senator

I heard has a toothache

and wants it fixed for free

Oh Baby

My friend had a baby and her name is Madeline Grace and she is a beautiful little nugget. His parents are now grandparents and they are downright pumped about that change.

Babies make me feel uneasy. Even with all the happiness that inevitably surround them. I'm sure this feeling will pass.

The "why" to the uneasiness is obvious. Responsibility of the highest degree. Exponential selflessness. Shitty diapers. I'm not ready for any of these things.

Sitting next to this little angel, when I should have been at real peace, my mind was engulfed in this Fear, and my train of thought raced backwards into time, and I theorized that:

"Throughout history, the majority of men would have had a baby OR killed a man, by age 25"

This was true for about 25,000 years, since Homo Sapiens reached behavioral modernity...

until the 60's or 70's... right?

And maybe my theory is less true over the last 40 years than the 24,960 years before that...

But the fact remains that I currently have no desire for either making babies or killing people. Which makes me feel a disconnect to Society, in a historical sense, and it's not a good feeling.

It's worth reiterating - I'm sure this feeling will pass. Until then though, I don't really want to hold your baby. Congratulations though... it's beautiful.

Vermin

I thought it would be nice to end the year with a harsh rant on Facebook entitled "How Did We Become This Bored"

but I hit a wall

and then looked to some of my favorite nasty & vile rants for inspiration...

Which led me to rediscover this, which was actually emailed to me three years ago TODAY. Weird!

*****

Thu Dec 20, 2007 1:50 AM subject vermin

somebody named renee & joe just used your open cc list to tell me and everyone else on that list that we should come down to their fucking gig at the beverly depot tomorrow night. they too used an open cc list. just the beginning of a beautiful relationship with a funnel of clueless musicians who will misuse this potentially helpful technology to thoroughly annoy the working musicians on your original list as it endlessly replicates and eats through healthy tissue to become a huge tumor singing james taylor songs to a million deafmute junkies nodding out over their diet sprites waiting for god to issue the two for one pass. thanks pal. i'll ponder some way to express my gratitude.

fred buck

Filters

Time is money.

More like,

Time is Finite.

You don't get it back.

Time is messing with me a bit in this new venture. Before, there were designated Work times and designated Play times. Now, it's more of a constant hustle, and every moment is for sale, if the price is right.

I'm o.k. with that. But it doesn't jive with most people. I know you are available and interested in hanging out on Friday night. I am available and interested in hanging out on a Thursday morning at 10a.m. Where does that leave us?

People don't expect lawyers or bakers to work for free. People expect musicians to work for free.

How do I filter these people out without simultaneously inheriting the cold, arrogant air of the Professional Musician?

I'm sure your song is great. I absolutely cannot afford to rehearse three times and spend two days recording it. Rowley Light Department will not accept your song as currency to pay my electric bill.

It sucks that volunteering my time is the equivalent of picking my own pocket. It's nothing against you, or your stupid song. I promise. It doesn't feel good to say No.

Decade of Dominance

I'm not sure if the last decade ended in 2009. But the radio was talking about 2011 today and that made me think about this last decade.

and how awesome the sports have been in Boston.

the Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots have spoiled me rotten.

It seems like a lot, so I'll split it in the three segments and save the best for the last (the 2004 ALCS)

Part 1: New England Patriots

I was 12 years old in 1997 when the Patriots lost to Brett Favre's Packers in the Super Bowl. There was backyard football and Madden before that, but the Super Bowl, with the party and the commercials and the hype, was where it really started for me. I'm Ben Coates and you're Ty Law and broken arms in games of tackle football in middle school. The Patriots weren't very good. It seems like the tides turned once they ditched the Pat Patriot logo for the Elvis, but it was actually in 2000, when they got Bill Belichick.

In 2001 Bledsoe finally went down for good and Golden Boy Tom Brady emerged from the darkest depths of the NFL Draft's bottom rounds. Honestly, he is the exact Celebrity Quarterback I would hate if he played for anyone else. The truth is that he is an above average quarterback and his run has been unreal.

2001 the Pats stun the Rams. 2003 the Super Bowl was Peyton Manning's four interception game, because the Panthers didn't stand a chance against the Pats or Colts. 2004 was Donovan McNabb puking away another Patriot's Super Bowl. 2007 was the Helmet Catch. 18-1. Pretty brutal end to an amazing run. Even the 2008 Cassel season was Fun and a shame that 11 wins wasn't enough for a playoff birth.

The Pats got handily eliminated, at home, by the Ravens last year but have come back strong this year, poised atop the AFC through twelve weeks. It will be fascinating to watch and will warm my soul in this cold New England winter.

Considering the Salary Cap, the Belichick/Brady run, even though it is still in progress, is one of legend, that will compete with the legends of sport, throughout the annals of history.

Bumper Sticker

My political views don't fit on a bumper sticker. They're not that simple.

I don't speak much about politics because I don't know much about politics. I do know why I don't know about it.

Because I wasn't born into it.

and that's what it's really about.

Class.

It's not about race. It's not about left or right. It's about class.

I wasn't born into the class of silver spoons and luxury vehicles driving a paved path to power, fame and fortune.

I am however EXTREMELY GRATEFUL that my parents worked their tails off, so that I was born into the lower middle class and was let out to the world as a member of the upper middle class. That was due to the efforts of my wonderful parents.

I have found through 25 years that the people with the loudest voices are generally those who know the least.

If you're political views are simple enough that they can be summed up by Left or Right, or by a bumper sticker, good for you.

The Rest of the Story (Part 2)

Jack received a letter in the mail shortly after his songs were official.

A 'record company' wanted to release his song, "When A Country Boy Comes to the City". The basic premise was thus:

-Jack would pay to have the song recorded by a professional team of musicians in a professional studio.

-The song would be included on a compilation CD

-Jack would be entitled to a percentage of all revenue and sales from the CD

However, to be included, Jack would have to pay many fees for recording, distribution, manufacturing, and the like...

He was simply glowing. It was his lifelong dream to have one of his original songs included on a real CD.

I told him about my uneasiness and skepticism. That the "professional team of musicians" was likely to be one guy in a basement, that the "professional studio" was likely to be the basement itself, and that the CD manufacturing facility was upstairs in the living room, if not also in the same basement.

Jack would not hear it. Or he heard it and respectfully disagreed. I can't remember. All I remember is getting the CD back. It was pretty clearly thrown together in about 5 minutes, likely with some brand of CASIO keyboard. The song was pretty much intact though, which was a testament to the strength of my charts, and the only redeeming factor of the whole incident.

The revenues from the CD sales never did pour in. The CD was entitled "AMERICA" or something like that and there was literally 30 or 40 other artists and songs on there. He said it was going to be sold in major retail outlets across America and the world but I've yet to see it anywhere.

Jack continued writing and I continued transcribing until one day he let me know that his request to transfer had been approved. Jack was moving to a similar facility, except this one was in Nashville! He figured this to be the perfect location for him and his songs.

I've never yet heard from Jack. I like to think he made it Nashville and is quite happy there.

Recently I've been trying to record as many of my own original songs as possible. I reconnected with a college buddy who was working for a studio in New York. We booked the time a couple months in advance. As the date approached, the other slated musicians had to cancel for various reasons. I did not want to kill the session, so I slugged onward to the big city alone. I figured a four hour fung-wah ride would be enough to brainstorm a gameplan...

So we recorded my own version of "When A Country Boy Comes to the City" real late at night and it's not Great, but it's real Good and more importantly Genuine, which is more than the other version can say.

Jack,

I hope you are well. Playing music. Enjoying Nashville. And keeping your demons at bay.

-Joe

The Rest of the Story (Part 1)

I recently recorded an ode to Jack Brooks and his song "When A Country Boys Comes to the City".

It was a lot of fun to record. At the time, I was in Manhattan, and I very much consider myself a country boy, so the parallels were heavy.

The idea was to give the song a "Bob Dylan's Talking Blues" vibe, with an epic folk jive narrative that would serve as an introduction to the song itself.

My other idea was to bypass the parts of the recording process which to me seem very much bogged down these days. Songs are polished, tweaked, auto-tuned, and correct notes are punched in using the mysteries of science and technology. I didn't want that. I wanted to record the song as close to Real as possible, to share it with my friends and the other people of Earth, and be done with it.

The song is quick and easy, and was recorded as such. The narrative is detailed and complex, and was being spewed off the top of my head, to give it that natural, conversational feel.

Which obviously didn't work. The story is too long. It was dragging. So we cut out the fat and left just the meat and potatoes. I'm quite happy with the result.

I also realized that this could be my outlet to tell the rest of the story. the Whole story.

*****

PART 1: The Man

The story starts with Me, looking for work, and an ad in the paper, looking for Transcription. Which means that Jack had songs but didn't write music. We agreed on a rate, date and time, but before I hung up he disclaimed,

"There's one more thing... I'm a schizophrenic. I'm here at a facility and my nurses have given me approval to meet with you to work on my songs..."

I needed work and a potential client's mental handicap certainly wasn't enough to stop me.

I drove up old Route 1 and through some dirty corners of Chelsea when I found the building. There seemed to be many vagrants and crazy people out front so I knew I was in the right place.

Jack answered the door in gross, greasy jean overalls. He had long scraggly white hair and an even scragglier white beard. He looked like a bum.

He was a gentle fellow. He played me his songs and I wrote them down. I asked him how he got to be here and I'll always remember his reply,

"I started off in Ohio. I was a musician and played a big ole B3 organ. I eventually got caught up with the wrong crowd, with drugs, and crime. I got out of there by the grace of God and ended up in Boston, where I continued to get in with the wrong crowd, with drugs, and crime. I found myself before a judge. He gave me a choice between jail and this here facility and I chose this here facility."

I transcribed his songs and we sent them to the Copyright Office and he received a certificate back that his songs were official. This made Jack very happy. Shortly after he received an offer in the mail...

Part 2: When A Country Boy Comes to the City *coming soon*

An Open Letter to Bob Kaufman

Mr. Kaufman,

I'd like to address your "No Gimmicks" advertising campaign.

I should however disclaim that your business has been successful, for many, many decades. You are clearly a powerful businessman.

However, I feel literally insulted when your "No Gimmicks" commercials run.

The word gimmick has a few meanings, but I assume the one you are referring to is:

-An innovative stratagem or scheme employed especially to promote a project.

A jingle is a gimmick. A clay-mation version of yourself is a gimmick. Free cookies at your stores is a gimmick.

Therefore, a clay-mation Bob singing a jingle about free cookies would be, what I would call, a Triple-Inverted-Gimmick.

These jingles, cookies and clay-mated Bobs have all led to the growth of your business. That's cool.

Please don't look me in the eye and tell me it's not a Gimmick. Accept that one facet of your success can be attributed to the use of gimmicky adverts. It doesn't make you less successful.

-Joe

the answer

You won't find the answer in a list of Google results. You cannot just search and press Enter and have it.

You won't find the answer from a celebrity or a movie star...

The answer is not written in any book.

Your competition is searching for the answer right now, and what are you doing? The answer is not contained within this blog post.

The answer is not a white flag...

nor is it a charge across the open field with guns blazing in each fist.

You know what the answer is! and if you think you don't know what it is that's because you don't want to know.

The answer is the ruby slippers. You've been wearing them all along.

Four Flying Turkeys

Four turkeys flew across route 133 in Rowley this morning, right over the cars in front of me.

I did not know turkeys could fly. It was wild and gave me quick flashes of family feasts, school plays, backyard football, realizations of the Christmas to come...

the indoctrination of the First Thanksgiving Myth, discovering the calculated slaughter of the American Indian...

And I thought about them Indians hunting their own wild turkeys, and also the Puritans or "Pilgrims" hunting them as well, maybe right on this same spot, three of four hundred years ago...

And it reminded me of that old joke,

"I shot my own turkey one year, the people at the supermarket really freaked out..."

Defeat Isn't the Right Word

but the first that comes to mind.

What I'm afraid of is a day where decent candidates like Sean Bielat and Charlie Baker choose not to run for office in Massachusetts. Why bother? The Ted Kennedy's and Barney Frank's of the world will run unopposed every year and the election will be nothing more than a formality and a chance to race sail boats.

I'm disheartened that we reward people like Barney Frank, who bark arrogant acceptance speeches at us

and Justify the snotty writers at the Herald by MENTIONING them in prime time...

The voters rolled over at an opportunity to roll back the sales tax. The government will sniff out this sure sign of weakness and use it to press Upwards - seven, eight, nine percent? Why not?

They don't want us to Lower it - they must want to Raise it!

I'm preparing myself for Double Digits by the end of the Patrick Administration.

At least Deval Patrick is buddy-buddy with Barack Obama. Sure, he's failed to capitalize on that relationship, but only in terms of the state of Massachusetts. Thus far. Personally, I'm sure he's fine.

Personally, I felt useless and defeated when I saw the numbers last night.

By a thread, the citizens voted to repeal one of the two taxes on alcohol. Which is nice. If the government actually does it.

We're considering the purchase of a home and today I feel like browsing Southern New Hampshire.

Anti-Incumbency

Today is election day. On the table in Massachusetts are a battle for Governor, as well as an opportunity to lower the sales tax and repeal a tax on alcohol.

Our votes to do not necessarily become law - our thoughts are merely tallied, hastily organized and passed onto our State Government, who will ultimately give them a quick glance, toss it onto the flame, and continue to do whatever they want.

This year I voted against everyone who was up for re-election. Career-politicians should not exist and We create them. They dig in deep and line the pockets of friends and relatives.

Keeping a swift turnover would help prevent or at least minimize this abuse that seems to be a built-in part of politics. Hopefully.

This has nothing to do with parties. Both sides are the same.

True Life Ghost Stories: Part 5

This is from my friend Josceline. It gave me chills the first time I heard her tell it. It still gives me chills. It's pretty heavy and I appreciate her sharing, very much so.

*****

It was a warm spring evening, on the edge of the hot summer. I was sleeping poorly, having extremely fitful dreams; the kind where you wake up and for a fraction of a second you don’t know if the events actually happened or if you just dreamed them.

I awoke around 11 P.M. or so to a feeling of tension in the air. I felt slightly hysterical and extremely scared. I looked over at my window where I felt a presence and sure enough I saw a boy. He was not extremely defined, but I could make out that he was in his late teens, early twenties, of a medium height, and very much so standing by my door. For a moment I thought that this must just be a continuation of a dream I was having and attempted to wake up using my usual techniques. After a few seconds, I realized that was not the case and I was very much awake and aware. The fear took over at that point, though I had experienced interactions with “ghosts” before and been perfectly calm. I dove under my covers and begged the being to go away. I was confused about the amount of alarm I was feeling and absolutely terrified to look back at the spot I had seen the young man. I huddled under my blankets for an hour or so until I finally fell asleep.

The next morning I woke up feeling extremely sad and empty. I remembered my experience in the night and though I was slightly disturbed, I was alright with it. As I got out of bed and went up to my mother’s bedroom, I started to cry. I couldn’t stop the feeling like someone had died the night before and I was devastated, truly depressed as though it was me or someone close to me who had passed. My mom was worried and told me to stay home if I didn’t feel up to the day. I just kept saying that I felt like someone had died. About fifteen minutes or so after I had calmed down a little, my mother received a phone call from a close friend. She told us that an acquaintance of mine from high school had passed away around 11 P.M. in a car accident a short distance from our house.

I couldn’t help but think that there was no way it was a coincidence; I had seen his spirit, scared and confused. It took me a while to get over the fact that I let him down by asking him to leave instead of helping him, but I never saw him again.

True Life Ghost Stories: Part 4

This story is submitted by my Dad.

He said, "Not a ghost story, but scary stuff nonetheless..."

and I couldn't agree more.

*****

Halloween at Danvers State

Danvers State Hospital stood high atop Hathorne Hill in Danvers, Massachusetts. There were seventeen gothic buildings, on 600 acres of land, complete with towers and underground tunnels. From the towers you could see the Boston skyline, the Atlantic Ocean and on a clear day, the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

When it opened in 1878, it was an enlightened attempt to bring insane people out of their delusions in a peaceful setting. Instead it became the birthplace of the pre-frontal lobotomy and a testing ground for electroshock therapy and experimental drugs.

I had a neighbor who worked there and offered to get me a job in the kitchen. They paid a dollar an hour more than the $1.75 my friends were making washing dishes in restaurants and I could ride my bike to work. I sold my paper route to my brother and spent the next three years working in a place that most people were afraid to even drive by.

My job consisted of cleaning pots and pans bigger than I was, racking and unracking in the dish room, sweeping, mopping and trying to avoid the grouchy old cooks, mostly retired military guys with anchors and eagles tattooed on their biceps. We served thousands of meals a day. Several hundred patients were brought down to a huge cafeteria three times a day. Hundreds more were served meals on their wards.

To get the food to the wards required pushing carts loaded with food through a maze of underground tunnels connecting the buildings of the insane asylum. The tunnels were dark, dirty and frequented by mental patients with ground privileges. A fully loaded food truck weighed more than me and the lure of cheap labor was too much to resist. I paid the patients a nickel or a cigarette per truck to push the trucks for me, but still had to walk along side and bring the trucks up and down the elevators myself.

The tunnels were dimly lit and stunk of urine, feces and cigarette smoke. Every inch of the walls was covered with pornographic drawings and the twisted writings of schizoid poets. Creepy guys lurked behind corners and in the dark doorways of the tunnels. Like subterranean rats, they rarely saw the light of day. Fecal painters smeared the doors of the elevators while we were upstairs delivering the food. Cockroaches and rats looked at me like the trespasser I was. Every twist and turn of the tunnel brought me face to face with drugged out zombie freaks, brains fried with 700 volts of electricity. Everyday was Halloween at Danvers State.

True Life Ghost Stories: Part 3

The following story is offered from my good friend Larry.

*****

The year...1991. A close friend is preparing for a month-long African Safari. She asks me to house-sit for her while she is away. It's a nice place. A condo in what used to be the Children's Museum on Jamaica Pond. Not only that, it would cut my commute to work by 30 minutes so naturally I said yes.

I had visited the place several times in the past. And although it was freshly painted and clean as a whistle, something about it seemed strange. And I didn't know why. I was about to find out.

I spent my first night in my new digs just getting comfortable, Fire in the fireplace. Made some dinner. Watched some TV. Occasionally hearing a child laughing or talking. I thought nothing of it, assuming one of my new neighbors had kids who weren't quite ready for bed.

It was time to call it a night. Wash up, jammies, and then off to my new oh-so-comfortable bed. I set the alarm clock and shut out the light. Immediately I felt a presence in the room. I laid there with my eyes open, scanning the room, but saw nothing. I closed my eyes for a minute and the presence felt stronger. When I opened my eyes, there at the foot of the bed stood and image of a school girl complete with kerchief, skirt, and arms folded across her chest to hold her books. It was not a solid image, more of a hazy bluish-grey image, but very distinct. I knew exactly what it was. In a bit of a panic, I turned on the lights and she was gone. With my heart racing, I covered my head with blankets and eventually dozed off.

In the morning I called my friend. She had made a stop at her parents house in California before heading on Safari. There was no answer so I left a message, "Everything is OK here. The plants are watered. The mail is in. And, the ghost and I will be getting along just fine". Within an hour she called back and asked "what ghost?" I explained what I saw and she responded with "you're crazy" and "how much did you have to drink?" Nonetheless, I saw what I saw.

It was about a year later. I was back in my own house and my friend had long returned from Safari. I got a call from her late one evening. She was all excited about a conversation she just had with some guy at a Charity Function. "You won't believe this" she said.

Apparently the person she was talking to turned out to be one of the developers of the condo project where she lived. He actually lived in one of the units for a while. He asked my friend which unit was hers and when she told him he said "Oh, you must have seen the ghost." She was in shock. She explained that while she never had, a friend (me) said he had and she thought he was crazy. The developer went on to explain that the spirit that resides in the condo was that of a girl who had got separated from her class while on a field trip to the Children's Museum. She had wondered off and somehow ended up in Jamaica Pond. This apparently happened on a cold January day because the girls froze in the pond. The girl was not found until ice cutters came to make blocks of ice, which they used to do back then. My friend offered up an apology. But, suggested I may still be crazy.

True Life Ghost Stories: Part 2

This story is mine. This story is about the ghost lady that haunts the Windward Grille and Route 133 in Essex, MA.

Back in November of 2008 a ghost hunting show on the SyFy channel took to investigating The Windward Grill, a restaurant on Route 133 in Essex, MA.

They were looking to debunk reports of apparitions, an elderly couple...

We know nothing of the man. Just the woman.

Of course they found nothing but shaky heating vents in the ceiling, or something along those lines. Television is fake.

Somewhere along that same timeline Larry had a seemingly unrelated dream. There was a woman he knew to be a ghostly apparition. The ghostly woman told him that she would be waiting for my old lady at the hearth.

Well it just so happens that I had an upcoming gig at The Windward Grille, which used to be named The Hearth.

My old lady came to the gig and searched and drank wine and searched more, to no avail.

However, our commutes took us down route 133 daily, for years, and she claimed that one morning the volume in her radio flipped out and she thought "that was weird" and fixed it and realized she was right in front of The Windward.

I became Way skeptical when I heard the haunted radio story.

One beautiful evening we were driving and laughing on our way somewhere and streaming across the sky was the clearest, most beautiful, brightest shooting star, and we both said "ohhhh" from our agape and awestruck mouths...

and I looked back up at the road and said,

"Of course, we're right in front of the Windward..."

True Life Ghost Stories: Intro & Part 1

I am a skeptic. I don't believe in much of anything, except myself, which is one of the few things in this crazy world that I can prove exists. Sometimes.

However, these stories are unexplainable and made me think twice.

They're not "ghost stories" in the standard sense. But...they are Real.

*****

Part 1: Mom

Mom always told me about these two stories. The general idea is that when living people start conversing with dead people, it's a pretty sure sign that their time here is limited.

Mom ended her entry to me with this line, but I think it's worth opening with:

"That's it! Now please don't make people think I am crazy.....it is all true."

When my grandfather was in the hospital, Dad and I went to visit him. He and Dad immediately started to talk about fish, as he was an outdoorsman who loved fishing all of his life. As they enjoyed their conversation he stopped for a moment and asked that I go and get my Aunt some tea, referencing one of his sisters who had passed away years earlier.

"Girl, go and get Auntie Mary some tea, she has been waiting for you to come."

He died while we were on our way home from NH.

Several years later, I went to visit my Noni Gauthier in her nursing home. She mentioned that my mother had visited her that day and that she was so happy to see her. My mother had passed away when I was 9 months old. Noni died three days later.

From the Depths of the Pocketmachine: Parts 6 & 7

(Editor's Note: this cartoonish short blurb is dated Thursday July 2nd, 2009 at 2:17 p.m. I sent it to Zach but he never wrote back. Although I never actually instructed him to do, deep in my mind I was hoping that he would respond with a continuation of the story. A failed experiment but an experiment nonetheless.)

"An Invitation From the Lionfish"

Sitting in his mailbox, the soft shell crab spied a foreign envelope. He picked up it with his claw and left it on the kitchen table.

He was concerned, but more so with his pants. Work pants are uncomfortable. He also loved coffee. He started a fresh pot after changing pants and was ready to open the mystery envelope.

He opened the envelope with his claw. The front of the card was a picture of himself and the heading "You are Mister Crab".

*****

Editor's Note: I think this is a "poem" but it might just be more of a midnight ramble. An email to Dan, dated Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 1:13a.m, which means I'm in the driveway after a Bandits gig at Lat43, with a song on the radio and the adrenaline still blasting, not quite ready to call it a night...

"The Dark Cover of Night"

A success on many fronts. The thumping thuds of bass erase the faces of the workplace. I try to keep pace in the jumping mud and swallow complacency in large gulps of rum. We rolled til the rocks folded under the controlled thunder, electric blocks tumbling. we Squeezed every drop of seconds. from the tops of free trees.

From the Depths of the Pocketmachine: Part 5

(Editor's Note: This entry, an email to Dan, is dated Sunday, May 10, 2009 at 6:56a.m. and was the return of a missed phone call the night before. It's been edited because I am a vile and nasty boy sometimes. Dan is getting married now, which is nice....)

"THE RIP"

There's a picture of the new england coast on my dashboard. There's a blue car ripping down a pink line, which is basically how I feel.

We split a bottle of morgan between 6 and 11p...

My jeans are wet. My shoes are soaked so Im barefoot. I have no wallet and my change jar is running low and there are Many More tolls to come. And many miles to go, before I sleep.

Robert Frost never went to Maine. He wrote about Massachusetts. I've got the "Maine Blues Project" on the radio and half a rocket down already. I should remind you that this is being composed at 80 mph at 648am. That should give the prose the Edge that we really need.

I don't know the name of this bridge Im on but its magnificent. Im not sure the exact piece of water Im 200 feet above, but she leads right to the ocean.

Heavy swerves. Quickly I'll share the feeling of captain morgan in my belly. Stomach grumbles foreshadow horrible things to come. The alcohol is thin spreadly in my blood from my nose to my toes. I can feel it. The sugar is a typhoid typhoon in my gullet. Horrible natural bile and acids have eaten at it, for at least the last 3 hours I slept to no avail....

How was your gig? I can't believe I was down and out by midnight when you called. Devil rum. Its been my drink lately. Summahtime. Life is good.

My regards to the queen b. Enjoy your sunday

Love

Joey

From the Depths of the Pocketmachine: Part 4

(Editor's Note: This entry, an email to Dan, is dated Tuesday April 21, 2009 at 2:15p.m. which means I was at the Joke Shop, an extension of Vampfangs. A retail store on Main Street in Gloucester. I learned some interesting card tricks there, one real good one that I still remember but need to practice.)

"The Walk"

I had a good jive in my brain...I decided to park at home and walk to the joke shop. Foolish. It had been threatening rain all day and started spitting exactly at the point of no return.

The cold salty spit felt nice on my face and I felt my soul being cleansed and myself being reborn into the same person, which was now completely unchanged in a beautiful yet dizzying way.

Towards the end my shins started burning and I passed a guy in an apron out front, smoking under the overhang. He wasn't real and he floated away in a ferocious current that streamed in between the sidewalk cobblestones and out onto a deep puddle on Main St, where he drowned and his imaginary body floated out miles into the harbor before being eaten by lesbian sharks.

The spitstream increases. Bad for business. She had 2 customers between 10-2 which means there should be 1 and one third people during my shift. I would settle for just the third of a person, which would either be a dwarf, goblin or midget, or a baby that comes in by itself...

From the Depths of the Pocketmachine: Part 3

(Editor's Note: This nonfictional account is dated Saturday, July 11th 2009 at 1:25p.m. which means I was with my love on her birthday. The description below mentions the video being attached here, but here is no longer Here, and thus it is actually not.)

*****

"Nature"

We finished our picnic lunch and she called to me.

"Look, Darling......Nature."

A wasp was struggling in a spiders web on the barn. He was a shade of blue we had never seen before.

"Tragic", we agreed.

But there was more...the spider herself had this mighty blue wasp in a deathgrip. Her long legs tried to wrap around Blue's wings and her mouth seemed be biting the neck.

"A battle royale!", we realized.

They wrangled for what seemed like hours. Finally, the struggle itself freed Blue from the web, but not the spider. She still clung to his neck as he crawled up the barn, searching for a proper spot to fly away to Freedom. That particular moment of the battle is captured by the pocketmachine, and attached here. This very email.

Afterwards, they did fly off, together. Attached in the throngs of battle. Did the violent flight finally shake the spider off of Blue's majestic body? Were the puncture wounds to his neck of a fatal nature? Would the devil spider ever again find her barn home?

Nature. In the sunny backyard, on a Saturday in July, is Free.

From the Depths of the Pocketmachine: Part 2

(editor's note: This entry is dated Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 at 2:17p.m. Which means I was at Vampfangs. I'm sure all my work was complete and I was taking a moment to relax my nerves before the final push at the end of the day...

I sent this to my friend Zach, I don't think he wrote back. It's fiction, but not that strange. Rereading it makes me think of one of Kurt Vonnegut's rules for writing a short story that I should have followed more closely.)

*****

"The Frenchman"

The Frenchman stood just inside the entrance to the cafe. He was torn.

On one hand, he was tired and parched. The stiff wooden chair appeared as a holy blessing to his tired feet. The tall dusty bottles with fire on the inside beckoned to his throat and to his Spirit.

But he was not welcome here and he knew it. The back table of bikers seem ready to fight. The bartender took one look at him and said "If you take another step, I will call the police" although no one except The Frenchman heard him say that. The patrons were calm.

The Frenchman twirled his mustache in his fingers for a moment and thought of a raunchy comment to make about the bartender's wife. It was true.

The Frenchman then turned and left, without saying anything.

From the Depths of the Pocketmachine: Intro & Part 1

My first smart phone was fun. It opened up in a fancy way. It had a large keypad that inspired jive.

Somehow these seven segments survived from that phone. 3 fictional short stories. 2 jivestreams. 1 non fictional short story. 1 post-gig reflectional jivestream.

They are as pure to their original form as possible.

*****

(editor's note: this fictional short story is dated October 22nd, 2008 at 5:46pm - which means I was on the train commuting home from work at Berklee. I might describe it as a dark delve into the pysche of commuters. I must have been reading the short stories of Roald Dahl at the time. *Warning* explicit language)

"The Muck"

The train starts deep down the coast. I get on at the second stop. We then go through the real nice towns, where the mansions are right on the water and the Maids' Quarters dwarf my parent's pad. The Maids Quarters also have excellent ocean views.

Then you go right down the Ladder of Society. The houses get closer together and then, before you know it, there are apartment buildings with burned out cars in the lot, behind the Burger King. Then miles and miles of triple-decker apartments all packed into each other. Clothes drying on ropes from the fire escape, even now, after the first frost.

Then you go past the industrial complexes. General Electric. The nuclear power plant. Big generators, silos, and fenced in areas with giant red warning signs in Spanish.

The last leg of the journey is usually nice. From the generators and silos, you go through some muck before the train seems to hover for ages over the open ocean as the city approaches. We were in the muck when I first noticed it.

Actually, there were baby ducks swimming with their mother. Or father. I don't know how ducks work. But the scene was peaceful...

Right then, I saw it. The boot.

I've always wondered about solo shoes and boots on roads and rails, and how they got there. Wonderful, nasty stories. This, I am sure.

The train was crawling along. We are usually at full tilt at this point, and the morning commuters were anxious because we were traveling so slowly, then stopping, then resuming a crawl. We would be at least half an hour late if we were lucky.

A nearby woman around my mothers age asked, "why the fuck don't they tell us what is going on?" My mother would never speak like that in public, but she's also never had to commute to the city for months, or years at a time.

So I was really checking out this boot when I noticed the distinguishing characteristic that made it much different from any other boot I had ever seen, or will see again. The laces were tied.

The laces were tied and I recognized the shape of a foot and leg protruding from it, plunging under water, into the muck. I felt sick. An announcer made a muffled announcement on the speaker system.

"Can you see that boot ma'am?" I asked the woman next to me.

"Will you please be quiet? I have been waiting for this announcement for 30 minutes so I can call my boss", she answered tersely.

"Ma'am please just look at that boot and tell me what you see" I begged her. We were crawling slowly down the track, but the boot and its ugly horror were still quite visible.

"Shhhhhhhhh" she spit at me.

I was baffled. Surely this was more important than Work.

"Does no one see the dead body in the muck" I finally screamed. All the people with window seats, instead of looking out their window and confirming my beliefs, looked instead right at me and began shushing me in the same nasty tone.

"Have you all lost your mind? Look there. We are nearly passed it. You in the back...Look. LOOK! Jesus...."

and I felt a sharp pain on the small of my back, and my arms were pulled together behind me. The next sharp pain was on my left knee, and I felt myself being dragged, my legs powerless.

"That's enough of that boy. We apologized for being late but there's always One who can't handle it. You're upsetting the regulars. You're off at the next stop." The train conductor had intervened. My wrists were bound together by a locking plastic tie.

"Sir, I am a regular. My pass is in my wallet, take it out if you don't believe me. Sir, there is a dead man in the muck back there." I pleaded.

"Im sure of it. And you'll be right there with him." he replied, looking me directly in the eye, and smiling. I noticed he was holding a blade...

In a flash, he spun me round, cut the tie on my wrist and pushed me out the door, onto a platform at the last stop before the city. I hadn't even realized the train had stopped while I was being detained.

"Next train ain't for two hours you might wanna take a cab to work from here, Boy. And next time you go shouting about dead people I won't be so compassionate."

His words got softer and softer as the train pulled away.

Jobs: ITV (Part 6) & Vampfangs (Part 7)

VI

I knew ITV was a scam right off the bat. I had some connections on the staff and they promised FREE money with very little effort. They were correct.

My job was customer service. The customers I was servicing were generally irate.

The business was under a mask of "Health Products" but really all they were selling was the opportunity to give away your credit card information.

The genius of the plan was the "Autoship". You could get a cheap deal, or even free products, if you signed up for the Autoship. The majority of their customer base was sly enough to get the discount, but not tenacious enough to actually follow through and cancel the damn thing. They'd get products for months at a time before they realized and cancelled their account, by which time hardly any of the products would be eligible for refund.

There was also a "Home Agent" program which I referred to as the Triple Inverted Scam. But my stomach can't even handle it this morning. ITV still makes my stomach turn.

I learned from ITV that if It seems too good to be true, it Is.

Donald Barrett is a leech and Kevin Trudeau is a snake. Kevin is a drug addict and Donald wears dentures. I never had any problems with either of them personally. I worked for them diligently and honestly for a few months, until even the weight of the raw money couldn't hold my Conscious in check any longer.

In the end, I think every consumer is ultimately as responsible as the scumbag CEOs. Neither Donald nor Kevin "forced" any of their consumers to believe their spewed lies. Anyone with half a brain wouldn't have. They didn't force their consumers to whip out credit cards, or to verbally agree to massive amounts of inventory.

But... they profited mainly off of lonely, elderly people watching television in the wee hours of the morning. I also heard they stole every door knob out of every door, before they left the building they had been evicted from.

*****

VII

Vampfangs.com is an online halloween and alternative-gothic superstore.

fangs, masks, blood, hair dye, clothes, shoes, full costumes, makeup... whatever you need. Quality products at fair prices. September and October are the real heavy cream - nonstop madness - tens of thousands of orders - weeks upon weeks of chaos...

but I was most impressed by the steady stream of orders throughout the year. Who are these people buying acrylic fangs in January? and why?

I learned the importance of the niche market at Vampfangs. I also got to work with top notch video & film equipment. It was a pleasant atmosphere whether we were balls-to-the-wall or on lunch break.

Vampfangs is one guy. It's the guy that started the company over a decade ago. He lives his dream and I was so impressed by this that I realized that Vampfangs was his dream and not mine, and that I had to establish my dream and follow that.

My dream is music. I've been gigging and teaching lessons for three months now and feel at this time that my plan might be crazy enough to just barely work. I hope to take what I learned from all of these jobs and put those pieces together to unlock the puzzle. To create my own business. If I fail, I'll get another job. If I succeed, I'll never have another boss again for the rest of my life. Talk about Motivation.

*one point that I gleaned from all these jobs but neglected to mention was the Importance of Apathy. That is, if you are totally indebted to the success of every little detail, there's no way to feel happy or successful, because nothing ever goes perfect. You have to expect bad things to happen and be O.K. with not "really" caring. That always helped me to focus on the Solution instead of the Problem. A healthy dose of apathy.

Jobs: Stavis (Part 4) & Berklee (Part 5)

IV

Stavis Seafoods would probably label themselves as Distributors. I like to think of them as Boxers.

They buy the big boxes from the Big Box companies. They take the product out of those boxes into smaller boxes. They sell the smaller boxes to the small box companies that can't afford to buy from the big box companies.

It's sly business and I love that. The monkey wrench is that the product is seafood, which is perishable. The idea that a percentage of this inventory expires every week or so still makes me queasy. The Stavis' have iron stomachs.

I worked in the fresh warehouse. Shoveling ice into the boxes. Putting fish in the boxes. Boxes on wooden palettes. Palettes put onto trucks. Trucks sent around the country and world. Probably another 2 or 3 steps away from your dinner plate, which is pretty amazing too.

The smell of fresh fish at 7a on a Sunday morning as a hungover 17 year old. I did one or two summers in the warehouse and maybe 6-8 months of Sundays thereafter. That smell doesn't come off after your shift. Changing your clothes won't help. Putting them in a plastic bag in the trunk won't help. The seagulls would follow my toyota home over 30 miles and I would scrub myself with real lemons in the shower and still smell like a fish all week. They are a wonderful family and it was a great place to work and I don't miss it one bit.

*****

V

I started in the Student Affairs Office at Berklee College of Music through the work program at the school. I didn't land the gig until my last semester. They don't usually do it that way. They usually get em young and fresh and keep em and watch em grow. I was realizing that was the case, throughout the school, and had assumed it wasn't going to fly. More than a day late, and thus about to be more than a dollar short.

I kept shooting and lucked out that this one particular office needed a 1 semester fill-in. I once read that "luck is where preparation meets opportunity" and actually that quote is from a book the Director of the S.A. office let me borrow.

(The book is "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch and you should read it if you haven't. It's not that long but it's Heavy and will change the way you think)

When my one semester was up I graduated and went on my way, landing at a Customer Service gig (see next post...) but was soon miserable. I called them back, literally within a day of an admin giving his notice. The season was changing, a massive tide of students on the horizon, and with my familiarity with the office, and a little faith on the part of my boss, I got to slide into the position. Administrative Assistant to the Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs at Berklee College of Music. It's the longest title I've ever had.

I worked with students, professors (who just so happen to be world class musicians), assisted on photo shoots, took notes at meetings, and witnessed a high school jazz festival take shape over a year's worth of meetings and planning behind the scenes. Fancy music magazines were delivered to the office every day. I read them. I was there for about 18 months but had also gone to school there, so I was ready to move on.

The same core of hard working people remain in the office. They are also activists, singers, actresses and organizers, in their "spare" time, when they are not moving the wheels of the College with their own brute strength. I could never complain about being tired from a gig, because Everyone had gigs the night before. Everyone is crazy gonzo and love being crazy gonzo and they inspire me to work hard and play harder and sleep when I'm dead.

Jobs: Crosby's (Part 3)

There's not much to say about being a grocery store cashier.

It's pretty miserable stuff. You're young and can only work so many hours. Plus you're young and making dirt for money.

*Mildly Related Tangent* One winter at college in Boston I was wheeling my enormous and delicate instrument down the slushy streets towards my lessons, and found myself waiting in the Mass Ave. crosswalk next to heavy hitting jazz guitar monster Bruce Bartlett. I smiled and nodded in recognition and he said, "You gotta pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues" and instantly my feet got warmer and the bass got lighter and I felt like a million bucks for the remainder of the winter.

Where were we? Ah yes, paying your dues. I've determined the "Young Man's Work Formula" to be:

Limited hours (multiplied by) Dirt Pay = Misery

It wasn't all bad. Every once and again the line of customers would offer an enjoyably crazy stranger. Someone venting about their day, gushing about their kids, ranting about the news, making small talk about sports, or even discussing the meals they were about to prepare. These people made moments of misery morph to memorable. Time travels faster when ideas are being exchanged. The slow, solemn, steady processing of payment is nearly unbearable in silence.

And thus a new Rule was created that I have followed to this day. I try to learn the names of the clerks in my life. If I meet them more than twice. For example, I were getting gas in Pennsylvania on my way to Baltimore I would not feel bad making a quick, silent transaction. I don't need to know that guy's name.

However, if I purchase fresh eggs every Tuesday at the farm stand on Route 1A and every Tuesday see the same woman processing my order, by the second or third time I will introduce myself and ask her name. And that usually leads to good things.

Jobs: Buddy's (Part 2)

When I started at Buddy's I was a busboy. Gross.

Washing dishes is gross. Darren was a cook. He was a gross troll of a man. I remember a gnarly straggling black beard and a perpetual rum & coke. He spent most of his time on the wrong side of the bar instead of behind the grill.

The first cigarettes I smoked were his. Im sorry Mom, but everyone else in that place took regular cigarette breaks and I didn't get any breaks. Until I started stealing Darren's cigarettes.

I don't remember anything except slurry yet sharply barked orders coming out of his mouth. Although I feel somewhat guilty in sharing that truth, considering...

Years later (not too many though, because I couldn't yet drive myself) I was hitching a ride somewhere from my Dad on the condition that we first swing thru a wake and I allow him to pay his respects. It was a co-worker's father. My dad is a fast jiving seafood salesmen in the city and could probably sell you a case of salmon if you talk to him long enough.

I accompanied him to the wake, young and uncomfortable by the sad strangers. Walking in the door, Dad made his way towards his friend, but I froze at the poster welcoming the mournful. My dad's co-worker's dead father was Darren the cook from Buddys.

Sometimes the world is too damn small and that can be a bummer. I suppose a depressing and tragic coincidence is a fitting end for mine and Darren's story. Thanks for the smokes, pal.

Jobs: A Mini-Series (Part 1)

I'm still a young buck, so I haven't had too many different jobs. This is more an exercise in Memory. When we're done with this initial list, each successive post will be a short anecdote from each job, chronologically.

-Busboy / Prep Cook @ Buddy's - Byfield, MA

-Grocery Store Cashier @ Crosby's - Georgetown, MA

-Warehouse / Accounting Office @ Stavis Seafoods - Boston, MA

-Student Affairs Office @ Berklee College of Music - Boston, MA

-Customer Service Representative @ ITV - Beverly, MA

-Office Manager @ Vampfangs.com - Gloucester, MA

I'm proud of my resume. It begins on a hot day in early summer. School is out. Mom says "You need to get a job" but I'm cheeky and too smart for my britches and reply "Well unfortunately Mom the state of Massachusetts says that you have to be 15 to acquire a worker's permit and I'm only 13..."

To which she swiftly challenged, "I don't think they care very much about that at Buddy's..."

And they didn't.

Party Lines

I can't imagine a situation in which I would want a gun in my home. However, I support every American's right to get certified, acquire a legal firearm, and do just that. I wouldn't be a very good Democrat.

I can't imagine a situation in which I would be comfortable supporting an abortion. However, I support every woman's right to do just that. I wouldn't be a very good Republican.

What I'm trying to say, is that with such a wide scope of issues in today's world, I find it hard to imagine that people still vote solely on party lines. That fact alone usually subdues the political junkie in me, whenever he gets rowdy.

Original Composition + Recording =

Into the studio this morning.

The idea is to capture a moment in time, that when repeated, will stir the emotions of the Listener like a wooden spoon.

I like this song. It's a pretty sappy ballad. But alas, I cannot refuse the Muse, only try to navigate the waters she steers me towards.

I enjoy being in a group and fading back into the dark, helping to lay a foundation that someone else can dance over in the spotlight.

but Writing and Recording help me feel alive. I've never been a songwriter. At 25 I have a measly four compositions to my name, although I like them. I need to get that record pressed.

There's work to be done. And some will be done Today. Which is always the best day to do it.

A Touch of Lunacy

One definition of lunacy is,

"intermittent insanity, formerly believed to be related to phases of the moon"

They say "formerly" but I believe it still.

She's full tonight. Bursting at the seams. And she followed me home, twenty miles down the road, from two hundred twenty thousand miles away.

I thought about the journey up there and the serious jet lag and getting acquainted to moon time. Moon vacations in our lifetime? I've never been one for science fiction, with notable exceptions of course, but tonight the marvelous beauty of that wonderful orb got my mind churning in a thousand ways, even beyond moon vacations past God further than infinity to the deepest and heaviest parts of the night, and that is science fact.

A Modest Proposal

She had returned from 20 days overseas.

During that time I went North to ask for the blessing of her folks. I also went South, so that my grandmother's stone could be removed from a necklace, and set in a classy solitaire.

I didn't want jet-lag to factor in. The first night was a celebration, with sushi.

Rest. Unpacking. Inspection sticker. Duck eggs for breakfast. They had been part of my pay from a Farmer's Market gig the week before.

I wanted to go for a ride. That was the plan. But I try to be a gentlemen. I asked, "What would you like to do now?"

"Do you want to go for a ride?" she asked. Yes. The universe, providing.

We generally drive in proximity to our home. Plum Island. Old Georgetown loops and loop extensions. That was not the plan this time. This time I headed South. She did not notice or care to mention noticing if she did notice. And we talked and listened to each other and music and explored roads and things and houses as we do when we drive.

Around Danvers she did not feel well and wished to turn back. I said "We're almost there" but didn't say where. She didn't ask. She just said, "Ok well I'm going to close my eyes for a minute."

Incredible. The universe, providing.

I pulled up to her parent's old house. The Peabody House. We jammed there and smoked there once upon a time, singing old songs as young children on guitars or her family's piano. The car had stopped so She opened her eyes and smiled at the site of the house and then sort of wondered why but I was also holding the ring and she saw it and we talked about being best friends and soul mates and happy together until the apocalypse and beyond.