Lately I've been obsessed with the passing of time, and I've always been interested in Lord Alfred Douglas.
It wasn't until recently that I realized that he lived to be 74, dying in 1945. It seems weird to think about: he was born in 1870 and was with Oscar Wilde in the 1890s. It was such a far-away time. But Douglas died in 1945, one year after my father was born. They were alive at the same time.
And Douglas went to jail too, for 6 months, after losing a libel case brought by Winston Churchill (!!). he was in jail in 1924, the year my Noni was born.
Douglas's only child, Raymond, died in a mental hospitol in 1964, just 10 years before my older brother Matt was born.
Anyway, it all just seems so strange to me, but it doesn't really matter (plus I think I already wrote about this last year, I'll have to check).
Good night.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
It was cold when I walked 50 minutes to my 7am shift at the resturant and I fucking froze. I did it all last winter and when people ask me how I manage I Tell them the truth and say, "I don't know".
The 6:30am person makes coffee and sets up everything. I like that shift because it allows 30 minutes for my face to thaw before the doors open at 7am. As the 7am guy I take off my coat and hat and start serving customers right away.
I like everyone who works on my side of the resturant. There is one girl, however, who, although we are friends, kind of bugs me. She's chipper and too excited and at the same time very serious and a perfectionist. She'll have a valid complaint against me or someone else but treat it like a crisis and go over-the-top. It's maddening sometimes.
She's vegan and big into recycling and conserving. We all compost what we can if it's easy and doesn't take extra time. She composts everything, even our many coffee ground-filled filters- that's fine, but things like that take her away and leave more work for the rest of us.
There was some conflict this morning and it still "grinds my gears". All phone calls to the resturant come to my section. Not long after I started working there someone called for the owner and I took the message and asked if they'd like to leave their phone number. "No, they've already got it."
I posted the message and later on that day the manager had a talk with me and explained that the owner always want the phone number with the message because they don't want to have to look for it. It's a good point so since then I've always made sure to get the caller's phone number. The callers sometime get annoyed but I don't care. A couple people refused and the moment they hung up their message went straight to the trash. There's no way I'm gonna get yelled at for them.
A girl- I'll call her Aimee- started working here 3 months ago. She did badly at first but she's gotten better. Still, almost everybody dislikes her at varying degrees. She's got her problems but I don't think she's as bad as everyone says. I've made excuses for her and defended her to a lot of people, including the girl I mentioned above. She used to hate Aimee but recently she's started to soften, thanks in part to me.
This morning Aimee had one of our vendors on hold; they were looking Ronnie, the main baker who also does all of our purchasing. I said to Aimee, "Be sure to get their phone number. They might not want to and they'll say that Ronnie already has it but get it anyway. Ronnie doesn't want to have to look for it".
I can see why people here get frustrated with her- as she hung up the phone I looked at the paper: no fucking phone number. Twenty minutes later, I had to go up to the office and- stupid me- I handed the message to another manager to give to Ronnie and the manager politely gave me shit for the message not having a phone number. I should've just tossed out the note and I'm still kicking myself.
It wasn't a big deal but it wasn't something I wanted to hear about at all. The manager then made it clear that I wasn't in trouble or anything, she just wanted me to spread the word and make sure everyone knew. But I got defensive and couldn't make it clear enough that I had flat-out told Aimee, "Get a phone number".
It pisses me off. I fuck up enough and I'm always happy to take the blame, but I'm not a manager or anything so I don't wanna be responsible for thing other people do.
It was cold when I walked 50 minutes to my 7am shift at the resturant and I fucking froze. I did it all last winter and when people ask me how I manage I Tell them the truth and say, "I don't know".
The 6:30am person makes coffee and sets up everything. I like that shift because it allows 30 minutes for my face to thaw before the doors open at 7am. As the 7am guy I take off my coat and hat and start serving customers right away.
I like everyone who works on my side of the resturant. There is one girl, however, who, although we are friends, kind of bugs me. She's chipper and too excited and at the same time very serious and a perfectionist. She'll have a valid complaint against me or someone else but treat it like a crisis and go over-the-top. It's maddening sometimes.
She's vegan and big into recycling and conserving. We all compost what we can if it's easy and doesn't take extra time. She composts everything, even our many coffee ground-filled filters- that's fine, but things like that take her away and leave more work for the rest of us.
There was some conflict this morning and it still "grinds my gears". All phone calls to the resturant come to my section. Not long after I started working there someone called for the owner and I took the message and asked if they'd like to leave their phone number. "No, they've already got it."
I posted the message and later on that day the manager had a talk with me and explained that the owner always want the phone number with the message because they don't want to have to look for it. It's a good point so since then I've always made sure to get the caller's phone number. The callers sometime get annoyed but I don't care. A couple people refused and the moment they hung up their message went straight to the trash. There's no way I'm gonna get yelled at for them.
A girl- I'll call her Aimee- started working here 3 months ago. She did badly at first but she's gotten better. Still, almost everybody dislikes her at varying degrees. She's got her problems but I don't think she's as bad as everyone says. I've made excuses for her and defended her to a lot of people, including the girl I mentioned above. She used to hate Aimee but recently she's started to soften, thanks in part to me.
This morning Aimee had one of our vendors on hold; they were looking Ronnie, the main baker who also does all of our purchasing. I said to Aimee, "Be sure to get their phone number. They might not want to and they'll say that Ronnie already has it but get it anyway. Ronnie doesn't want to have to look for it".
I can see why people here get frustrated with her- as she hung up the phone I looked at the paper: no fucking phone number. Twenty minutes later, I had to go up to the office and- stupid me- I handed the message to another manager to give to Ronnie and the manager politely gave me shit for the message not having a phone number. I should've just tossed out the note and I'm still kicking myself.
It wasn't a big deal but it wasn't something I wanted to hear about at all. The manager then made it clear that I wasn't in trouble or anything, she just wanted me to spread the word and make sure everyone knew. But I got defensive and couldn't make it clear enough that I had flat-out told Aimee, "Get a phone number".
It pisses me off. I fuck up enough and I'm always happy to take the blame, but I'm not a manager or anything so I don't wanna be responsible for thing other people do.
Friday, January 28, 2011
A new interest or obsession
This past fall I was obsessed with Carrie Fisher. I was into looking up info about her life and work. I'd already read Postcards From The Edge, but in October I got Surrender The Pink from the library. It's her second novel and it's a fictional account of her relationship with Paul Simon.
I also looked up old news stories and interviews and read her Rolling Stone "Big-time Girl Talk" interview with Madonna. That was an interesting read.
Last week I was re-reading parts of Kathy Griffin's book and it got me interesting in the alternative comedy scene of the early and mid 90s. Ben Stiller, Andy Dick, ect. And today I was reading about Judd Apatow. I'm not very impressed with his movies and IFC has been playing old episodes of Freaks and Geeks and I don't see what the big deal is. Still, I can't help but be impressed with how busy he's been. He worked on The Ben Stiller Show (on Wiki it said that the two of them met in 1990 outside an Elvis Costello show) and did a re-write for The Cable Guy script and after that he went to write for The Larry Sanders Show, one of my favorite TV shows.
He wrote movie scripts and created his own TV shows. He's in his early 40s and hwe's accomplished so much. It makes me feel like a slacker, but then, I am one.
Last year I was always posting here about all the ideas I had for books and movies I wanted to write. I started them all and finished none of them. And even if I finished, say, my Lifetime horror movie, what would I do with it? Do I set up a meeting with someone from Lifetime or just put it in an envelope and mail it? I can see a fat package sitting on my dresser for weeks until I finally shove it in a drawer.
I've got to change the way I do things. Or, even better, I need a partner to keep on top of me.
I also looked up old news stories and interviews and read her Rolling Stone "Big-time Girl Talk" interview with Madonna. That was an interesting read.
Last week I was re-reading parts of Kathy Griffin's book and it got me interesting in the alternative comedy scene of the early and mid 90s. Ben Stiller, Andy Dick, ect. And today I was reading about Judd Apatow. I'm not very impressed with his movies and IFC has been playing old episodes of Freaks and Geeks and I don't see what the big deal is. Still, I can't help but be impressed with how busy he's been. He worked on The Ben Stiller Show (on Wiki it said that the two of them met in 1990 outside an Elvis Costello show) and did a re-write for The Cable Guy script and after that he went to write for The Larry Sanders Show, one of my favorite TV shows.
He wrote movie scripts and created his own TV shows. He's in his early 40s and hwe's accomplished so much. It makes me feel like a slacker, but then, I am one.
Last year I was always posting here about all the ideas I had for books and movies I wanted to write. I started them all and finished none of them. And even if I finished, say, my Lifetime horror movie, what would I do with it? Do I set up a meeting with someone from Lifetime or just put it in an envelope and mail it? I can see a fat package sitting on my dresser for weeks until I finally shove it in a drawer.
I've got to change the way I do things. Or, even better, I need a partner to keep on top of me.
A "pet" peeve
Right away I have to say: I don't like the phrase "pet peeve", or, more specifically, I don't like the word "peeve". But anyway...
For whatever reason, I've always tended to think of cats as female and dogs as males. Why are some people so quick to correct me or get mad when I refer to a pet using the wrong gender?
My roomates have two dogs- a dark female German Shepherd named Tasha and a snow-white fluffy male Huskie named Porter. The female, Tasha, is very loud and aggressive and barks all the time and annoys the shit out of me. The male, Porter, is quiet and friendly, always wagging his tail. He gets so excited his whole rear end wags from side to side.
If I say about Porter, "Wow, she looks so happy", my roommate is quick to correct me, "Porter's a 'he'".
We have three cats too, and the male, Tigre (aka "Fatty" and "Fatty-Boom-Batty"), is the most outgoing; he'll scratch on my bedroom door to be let in whenever I have company. My friend Amy actually gets annoyed at me when I refer to Tigre using 'she'.
Who cares? What difference does it make what gender a pet is? If you're visiting a friend do you treat their male cat differently than their female cat? I don't. So what's the big fucking deal?
I have another complaint. Have you noticed that in movies where the main characters are madly in love with each other the two of them are always boring, uninteresting people. Take Twilight: New Moon, which I happen to be watching right now- Bella is moody and crabby. She's no fun and neither is Edward. You wouldn't want to spend five minutes with either of them, so really, who could love them?
For whatever reason, I've always tended to think of cats as female and dogs as males. Why are some people so quick to correct me or get mad when I refer to a pet using the wrong gender?
My roomates have two dogs- a dark female German Shepherd named Tasha and a snow-white fluffy male Huskie named Porter. The female, Tasha, is very loud and aggressive and barks all the time and annoys the shit out of me. The male, Porter, is quiet and friendly, always wagging his tail. He gets so excited his whole rear end wags from side to side.
If I say about Porter, "Wow, she looks so happy", my roommate is quick to correct me, "Porter's a 'he'".
We have three cats too, and the male, Tigre (aka "Fatty" and "Fatty-Boom-Batty"), is the most outgoing; he'll scratch on my bedroom door to be let in whenever I have company. My friend Amy actually gets annoyed at me when I refer to Tigre using 'she'.
Who cares? What difference does it make what gender a pet is? If you're visiting a friend do you treat their male cat differently than their female cat? I don't. So what's the big fucking deal?
I have another complaint. Have you noticed that in movies where the main characters are madly in love with each other the two of them are always boring, uninteresting people. Take Twilight: New Moon, which I happen to be watching right now- Bella is moody and crabby. She's no fun and neither is Edward. You wouldn't want to spend five minutes with either of them, so really, who could love them?
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
TM posters
I love this University poster, great colors. I'm not crazy about the sleeve for that record but a lot of the University promo posters I've seen look really good.
I saw TM for the first time at Toad's Place in New Haven in 1995. I probably mentioned it here before, but back then most club show tickets were available at the record store Strawberries or at the mall clothing store Filenes.
I bought my TM tickets at the returns desk at Filenes and when they printed out the woman behind the counter said, "Throwing Muses and...Ass Ponies, hmm, that should be a fun night!" I smiled and blushed and got away as soon as I could.
HMV
HMV, the record store, put out, I'm finding, some really cool promo posters. These are pretty neat.
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