Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals

Subject: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 30 Nov 02 - 05:52 PM

Excuse the awkward wording in the title. Also, although this is definitely connected to music, it may be seen as BS by some 'cause there'll no doubt be some funny stories...so Joe, label it BS if you think that's right.

I just read Seamus's hilarious story about "artistry and construction" in Marion's thread about 'going pro' and it made me chuckle.(could ya post it here as well?) I know there are a few full timers like myself here, and probably a LOT of semi-pro players as well....but why limit things? If you've had any bizarre "CIVILIAN WORK EXPERIENCES" favour us with the terrifying tales.
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Before running out of all options and becoming a Music Pro, I was fired from, or quit, about two dozen jobs. Several of them involved just getting up from my desk (I know the concept of 'me' having a 'desk job' is strange, but imagine how weird it seemed to ME!) and wandering out the door. I'd leave everything half done on the desk (probably a bunch of cheques or something) and keep walking for an hour or two. I'd feel guilty for (once again) letting my poor mother down, I'd feel useless for failng at one more job that a trained monkey could do, and my back, which a few minutes before had been aching so badly I could hardly stand it, was suddenly pain-free. I'd remember how my 'boss' had said 'I simply can't understand why you make so many mistakes...you're not on drugs are you'? Little did she know that sitting next to a WINDOW was the only drug that I needed!

Within a couple of hours I'd be at one of the Music stores I frequented, sittin' in a corner pickin' away contentedly.....AND bullshitting merrily with the sales staff, so that they were always happy to see me (a good thing in the cold of winter). Most of the time I was too embarrased to even go back to whatever office I'd walked out of and grab what pay I HAD earned.

The big problem was that I'd have to sponge off my Mom for a couple of weeks, and then I'd be forced to go for another interview.....which I always aced, by lying about wanting to be part of a "good team" (echhhhh!)....what I could never understand was why one company would hire me when I'd simply walked away from another......guess the communication line wasn't as good then.

Hmmmmmmmm....I had FAR more interesting day jobs than that! But it's a start.....any stories?

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: Seamus
Date: 30 Nov 02 - 06:23 PM

Apart of a good Team... Sigh.

Long before the fateful construction gig, (but before the band) was my Homer job.

I'd just moved to Arizona. I'd recieved my leaving papers in Philosophy which prepared me for a toga, a mountain top, and precious little besides. After a few weeks on Ramen, I put in an application at the friendly local Nuke Plant.

I worked as a Decontamination Technician, which meant alot of time working in high radiation areas wearing spaceman spiffy protective clothing. It was interesting, and bizarre, a bit like Lemmings.

Luckly, the band came along and saved me from the life of glow and D'oh!

Seamus

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: Cluin
Date: 30 Nov 02 - 06:50 PM

I used to work at a fire hydrant factory. Not bad work but you couldn't park anywhere near the place. (rimshot!)


Seriously, does it seem that most musician's "day jobs" are at places at best indifferent to music appreciation?

I lost count of many times on a job I wanted to stomp the ubiquitous squawk box radio into oblivion because it was tuned to the same Top 40 station with the same numbingly monotonous dance music pouring out of it all day. "Don't these people even hear what they're listening to?" I kept thinking. Maybe it all went towards the "weekend Warrior" attitude, reliving and looking forward to Friday night at the dance bar where they could drink themselves stupid and forget they were another week closer to the grave...

Cynical bastard, eh?

Anyway, that's MY happy day job, story. Sweet dreams, kiddies. ;)

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: InOBU
Date: 30 Nov 02 - 07:15 PM

Well Rick, my day job... political science for marginalized cultural isolates pays as well as folk music... I need to sell out and pay some bills some day... Cheers Larry

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: InOBU
Date: 30 Nov 02 - 07:17 PM

Most likely the reason I get so steamed when out brother Steve revives the commitment and success in NYC thread to make an anouncement of a concert, which has nothing to do with the topic... one gets short on the humor when one has to work so hard to "play" music... play my *ss... we have to come up with a better job description!
Stay well, Larry

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: Mooh
Date: 30 Nov 02 - 08:14 PM

Giving up the day job was the best thing that ever happened to me. Got all stressed out over a period of 2 years or so until one day I just didn't go to an important meeting, instead I drove up north and wandered around in the bush for a day, went home, cast away the shirt and tie, collected sick benefits for a while, and fell into teaching music privately (best job I've ever had). The day I left the day job I guess I freaked out my family, my employer, my secretary, and my friends, but they got over it. A couple of friends used the episode to distance themselves from me, but that's what lousy friends do.

Up until now, after about 25 years of workday life, I leave a job every 3 or 4 years, usually because I've known it was time for a change after a year or so on a job. These days I'm pretty content with my lot, music makes a pretty fun job.

I've changed jobs for money, for a girl (not a good idea), for a change in scenery, but I've never been fired. When I was younger I did a lot of things which could have got me fired if I'd worked for normal employers, but that's the story of my life, abnormality. In spite of significant Union activism, one employer has even rehired me twice! Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, I guess.

Anyway, I'm fooling with the idea of dropping a part-time job I hang onto for the pension and health benefits. I'd be best not to, but it's so damn inconvenient to my music job. Besides, what's a musician doing with a pension plan? Good thing I can wear a discman at work.

Music doesn't pay the best, but it's more than the average local wage, and for the first time I don't feel like ditching the job for something else.

The best wood carver I've ever seen had to retire from a day job before he could really practice his art. I sometimes wonder what he'd have achieved if he could have been paid better for his art.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: kendall
Date: 30 Nov 02 - 09:35 PM

I spent most of my working years in law enforcement. The customer was always wrong.

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 30 Nov 02 - 11:28 PM

Rick .... this is a grand thread...

Thank you for the start.....

Nope...unlike...you....never hob-nobed with...the pros....
But, will.... always land ...where the nickle's grand.

The words are neat, got a beat.

I'll show you where the melody goes.

Never...Never... give up you day jobs... Let the night time folks... slob you on the knobs...but feed them corn cobs....cuz yo got better...waitin' in the wings.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: Justa Picker
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 12:07 AM

I never really had a day job.

I remember though in my final year of high school, lasting 3 weeks at a MacDonald's and then terminated because "I was too efficient" at making burgers. 'Customers didn't want efficiency, they wanted fast food.' (I had it in my mind that every burger I made should look exactly the way it appeared in television ads so each one took a bit of time.)

Then I worked at a gas station pumping gas for about 3 months shortly out of university, and then at 21 joined a band and went full time..and that was it...for the next 20 years.

I gave up professional gigging for a desk job a while back.
It pays better and has its moments...

-- but I'd rather be playing.

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: alanabit
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 03:15 AM

Lost my voice one time at the end of the eighties. There were bills to pay so I worked at a warehouse for a month. I spent an hour and a half travelling in each direction and was bored oiut of my skull for the hours in between. On the second or third weekend, I managed one gig and a busking set. It brought in more loot that a week at the day job. "Don't give up the busking," would have been better advice!

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 11:11 AM

I've actually had the odd day job that was fun and that I DIDN'T get fired from. Did street cartooning for a summer. Met a guy who was an illustrator for National Lampoon, and was a bit surprised that he was out hustling the tourists as well (this was in Cape Cod)....but I wasn't surprised to find that he was having as much fun as I was.

One job that WASN'T fun though, was at an Art Studio in Montreal. On my first day I put my hand on a still wet piece of art!! The artist was doing a whiskey bottle label, and handed it to me to look at (it was already ON a bottle). I had no idea that the paint was wet. Somehow I think that we BOTH learned something in that moment, but I was totally freaked out and quit or got fired within a couple of days. I could have spared myself soooo much weird stuff by just grabbing my guitar, opening my case on the street, and starting to play...but busking was very rare in those days, and I simply never thought of it.

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: Peter T.
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 12:56 PM

I once worked as a security guard in one of those huge grocery store warehouses (the A&P) which is about as close to a normal "working man's job" (I don't consider academic life to be work in spite of the horrendous hours and administrative grief) as I ever got, except for summer jobs in the North to get me through college. I also worked as a law clerk, which was always interesting. The security guard thing made me very sad, and Marxist -- it was the punching in and out, and the desperate counting of hours before you could go home that got to me. Talk about alienation from one's labour (I know, this is very naive, that is what most people go through, but I was seventeen). Another thing was that at the end of the day, I was supposed to stand at the exit doors so that staff did not steal merchandise. I have never been able to deal with a situation where people are presumed guilty.


I was eventually fired for singing "Marian, Madam Librarian" swaying on a fastmoving forklift truck riding down one of the train siding platforms at 2 a.m. You had to be there.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: leprechaun
Date: 02 Dec 02 - 02:01 AM

What the heck is "busking?"

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: Peter T.
Date: 02 Dec 02 - 09:45 AM

Busking is a very old form of tree worship, of which the only current verbal survival is "bosky", as in "the bosky wood". My understanding is that groups of singers used to dance and sing around the great oaks and beeches, and that over many years this dwindled down into one singer. If you go out into woodlands in parts of Britain, and in the more civilized areas of Canada and the U.S. (outside of hunting season), you will find "buskers" sitting under stately trees, singing. There is not much money to be made from it, but there are great spiritual satisfactions. yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: Amos
Date: 02 Dec 02 - 09:50 AM

LOL!! Peter, another gem of commonality!! I carried a .45 around the waterfront of Stockton, CA for some time when I was young, as a rent-a-cop (security guard) -- it was dull, grim work, but I missed the opportunity to become a Marxist, somehow. :>) I take it that, as a security guard, what offended them was your driving the forklift -- surely it wasn't the singing!!!! LOL!

Thanks so much for the inside etymology on bosquery!!

A

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: Ferrara
Date: 02 Dec 02 - 10:24 AM

These guys are having too much fun. Busking is making music on crowded street corners, outside subway/underground entrances, etc in hopes that passersby will contribute money.

Washington, DC has had some remarkable buskers, guess the one I'm most familiar with was Bob Devlin, who was literally a one-man band. It was a joy to see him as well as hear him because he had his instruments set up, strapped on, attached in holders, etc and could accompany himself in extravagant ways.

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 02 Dec 02 - 01:00 PM

JP,

Out of curiosity, what band were you in? I'm wondering if I ever saw you.

Steve

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: Marion
Date: 02 Dec 02 - 02:25 PM

I've rarely hated my jobs, but I never seem to last in them - either I lose them for some reason (nothing dramatic, just seasonal work ending or client's needs changing etc.), or I get sick of them and quit. The longest I've ever had the same job was fourteen months in a grocery store when I was a teenager. I wonder if I'll be sick of being a musician in a few years.

I do have one slightly dramatic "walking away from it all" story - I was taking an full-time Arabic course in Amman, Jordan. I had been trying to get another foreign girl to visit Lebanon with me, but she had backed out and I was reluctant to go alone. Anyway, the professor in this course was obsessed with talking animals with political agendas. All that we'd ever read in the class was stories about animals talking together, and we discussed what animal symbolized the media, which one was the President of Syria, and so forth. On the day of the final exam, I flipped to the back to see the essay question was, and it was: "Write a dialogue between a lion and a gazelle that has a political meaning." I looked at this question and realized that I'd rather be in Beirut... so I walked out of the exam, wrote a note for my roommates, and went to catch the bus for Beirut. Spent the next three weeks roaming around Lebanon and Syria by myself - possibly the most impulsive adventure I've ever had. I guess I failed the course, I never contacted the school again.

Marion

PS Speaking of your mom, Rick, have you ever noticed that she looks like Meryl Streep?

PPS Peter, is that really the etymology of "busking"? And don't say "there's not much money to be made from it"; I made $64 in an hour once. How many day jobs pay that?

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: Peter T.
Date: 02 Dec 02 - 04:24 PM

No, it was a joke. "Busking" really comes from "buscare" to kiss, embrace, in Italian. The first mention is in Boccaccio, where he makes reference to a street troubadour who sings for kisses from passing maidens. A similar reference in Spanish about three hundred years later (one of the exemplary tales by someone not Cervantes) talks about a street singer who tried to win a fair maiden who thought he was worthless by wandering into a bullring and singing during one of the bullfights, charming the bull, the girl, and the crowd into submission. He was unfortunately trampled to death by a deaf horse -- commemorated in the inital march of the horses in today's bullfights: the picadors blow into the ears of the horses to signify that they can hear. A later bullfighter, the famous Buscamente, took his name from the old tale. yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: CraigS
Date: 02 Dec 02 - 04:53 PM

I seem to remember that Robert Burns urged a Bonnie Lassie to Busk,Busk, but I'm sure she didn't make one thin dime or groat!

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: Amos
Date: 02 Dec 02 - 05:17 PM

(Peter, I knew it was a joke!! Honest!! LOL!!)

A

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: leprechaun
Date: 02 Dec 02 - 09:56 PM

Well thanks a lot. I sat there singing under that tree all day nobody even gave me nickel!

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 02 Dec 02 - 10:04 PM

Jeez Marion, if my Mom looks like Meryl Streep (it's an old promo photo on the wall of her in the thirties) how come I look like Ernest Borgnine?!

A day job I LIKED but somply found too dificult, was working at a Children's Aid Home. Did it for nine months, but went into my bar gigs at night stressed and angry. When you see kids who've been fucked over soooo badly by the adults that should have protected them (and not HAD them in the first place) it's depressing. I did visits to "parents" and had to decide (reccommmend actually) whether a kid should go back to that environment. Not ONCE in nine months did I think that should happen, but I was told that a 'sixty percent' "return to mommy" was expected by the Government to keep the system from being too clogged. My guess is that the vast majority of those kids (they'd be around forty now) have lived sad sad lives.

Oops, delivered flyers for a couple of days! Those sacks are HEAVY (but not when they've been emptied quickly!)

Seamus...I thought YOU were Seamus Kennedy! Sorry to be so familiar!

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Don't give up yer Day Job, professionals
From: musicmick
Date: 03 Dec 02 - 01:40 AM

I dont think I ever had a day job in the sense of thinking of it as a possible career. Oh, I put in days for Manpower Inc., doing odd jobs like trash collecting and heavy stock work, but theses were just day to day things to cover meals. I have been a performer since I was twelve and a full timer since I quit highschool. I never felt that I had any options. (Well, I did put in two years on a kibbutz so, maybe, I might have had a future in laundry or chicken raising if I didn't have to get up so early in the morning.)