take this job and shove it

Yeah it has been awhile ‘tween postings but I haven’t been sitting on my butt… well, okay maybe I have but… I’ve also been… um… working, reading, drinking, quitting… Yep, it’s been a little golden period of discovery the last few months. First, no more radio (well not for awhile)… I’d lost the drive to really get to the station every fortnight, program a show, face the drunks left over from the previous shift (urban cowboys – is there anything dumber? Oh yeah, aussie homeboys who think they live in the Bronx!) Anyway, the show was suffering from my lack of enthusiasm but then GM Holden solved my problem – my car broke down and it just wasn’t worth fixing. Now, this may not seem an obvious out to you but believe me it was enough for me to jump ship. The radio station was too far away and the shift too late at night to rely on Adelaide’s "splendid" public transport system so Matt Krieg is currently handling all duties on the fine ship "Esoteric Circle". Anyone want to give him a hand? I’m sure he’d appreciate it. This doesn’t mean the CDs I get sent don’t get played though – I still pass them on to Matt for airplay and review so keep the good shit coming. The other big news – I quit my job! Yes, that’s right – as of 23rd December 2005 I am now a house husband/professional lounger/ freelance writer. After four/five years at Big Star (not actually sure how long I was there – how sad is that?) I’d just had enough. I like the folk I was working with but the music was no longer fun it was now just a product. Or as Raven at Confederate Mack Zine put it… "commodity masquerading as art/ a substance lacking heart…"
And that was another turning point – a few months back Dann Lennard from BP (bettypaginated.blogspot.com) sent me a couple of copies of Confederate Mack and I immediately identified with this crazed, dreadlocked, 30 something southern white boy/lounger called Raven who sat at an old word processor and let his thoughts on everything from politics to beer to wrasslin’ to philosophy to music to life filter through his beer addled mind and paint stained fingers onto paper and ultimately to me. He struck a chord. I don’t agree with everything he says or likes but damn he’s on the money a lot more than not. He got me thinking - what am I chasing? Skirt, money, power, recognition? I really don’t know but I know what I don’t want (to overuse a very old cliché) and I didn’t want to keep working to make some record company fucker rich who doesn’t even appreciate music, who just sees it all as product, as chart success and another prefab band to milk the kids with. Fuck that. And how’s that for contradiction anyway, since I write for ACP, run by the Packer family – talk about rich fuckers who see everything as a product. Still, it’s one step at a time. If I can drop out even just for a little while I might just get that novel written (or re-written), I might just get time to listen properly to all the good music I have managed to pick up over the last year or so, I might just start to enjoy life. Already after only a week I can feel that something has changed, at least at home. I’m enjoying my daughter’s company, my wife’s company a lot more. I’m cutting down on the drinking (not a bad thing trust me) I’m staying home, I can feel the batteries recharging, the words forming in my head (just need some judicious editing), just little things, but I have the feeling I've made the right choice. As for Raven, well apparently no-one has heard from him for awhile. I know his website is down but who knows, maybe he’s recharging too. 2006 could be a good year or I could go stir crazy, time will tell. One thing I know, I won’t be going nuts worrying about getting shitty product on the shelf and out to the other stores. Fuck Wolfmother, fuck Bernard Fanning, fuck the big day out, fuck the stooges (both on and off the stage)
I quit!! And damn did it feel good (:
kami