"ole' boy"
wire, paper,glue,
spray paint
2022
has been a place that I have used for different reasons throughout parts of my life. I will more than likely not give a shit about it again soon.
I picked up
A.M.
(red vinyl, clear plastic sleeve, bed-room in an attic that
was definitely a code violation, Costco turntable/receiver/dual tape deck unit) a day or two after it had come out from my local record store. I knew you were a part of Uncle Tupelo, and I really liked Uncle Tupelo but I had some "musician" friends that REALLY liked Uncle Tupelo. One can only handle so many Olympia beer fueled campfire guitar renditions of "Moonshiner" before one questions the tastes of his peer group. They were also VERY into Soul Asylum at the time so do what you want with that. Forgoing the fan-boy pontifications involving the inaugural WILCO record, we will suffice to say that I'd quickly figured out what I liked about Uncle Tupelo. I need to note that I have been in arguments about Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy. I gave that up a few years ago realizing I didn't fucking care anymore and that Nels Cline could be the greatest guitar player in the world.When my friend Andy Capps, who happened to be the drummer on Built To Spill's 2nd record as well as one of the finest humans I have ever had the pleasure of knowing died of a methadone overdose, the soundtrack to my grief was
A Ghost is Born.
Wracking sobs, gnashing of teeth, tearing of cloth sadness. I don't think that record is particularly sad but it's not without melancholy or dissonance.
When I was breaking my first marriage up into pieces of anger and guilt and freedom and beauty there was already another woman crashing into all of it. I am PRETTY SURE you and yours wrote "Either Way” specifically, just for me to hear. That last sentence sounds a little schizophrenic but that might be the only song I have every played over and over and over so I could just fucking cry and cry and cry. Well done, I needed that. I am listening to it right now and it worked again.
Sky Blue Sky
brings us Nels Cline right? I saw him play as a Minuteman with Mike Watt at 7th St. Entry in 1997. We hung out a bit backstage as my friends’ band Caustic Resin were touring with them. Brett was freshly out of rehab and fragile as fuck. Nels destroyed me in that room. When he joined WILCO I wondered if I was somehow psychically manifesting my personal supergroup.
Wilco (the Album)
just plugs me in and blasts me off into memory. At this point in life I am losing it a bit (later on I will come to know I hadn't seen nothin' yet). "One Wing" "You and I" and "I'll Fight" are suffice to say, painfully beautiful soundtracks written just for my life.
No one else has to “get” this trip of mine. I have failed to meet anyone who understands WILCO the way I do. That might be an indication of how distinct each record has been. My opinion is that WILCO records need to be seen as a suite of sorts. A flowing unfinished tapestry. I am still trying to figure out Ode To Joy. To me, that record is proving to be the most elusive. What might be so special or even magical about music is how much the individual listening to it interprets and transforms it. A song doesn't have a choice. It's placed in time and space and lives and breathes based on the will and spirit of the listener. How long does the song belong to the creator? Does it ever?
Of course reading (listening to) your book changed the way I hear you and yours. Now I wonder if it would have had as much of an impact if I had actually read it to myself...I wonder if I would even be writing this if I hadn't heard your voice tell me parts of your story and explain WILCO to me from your perspective. I better sum this up. I have rambled on and on, now it's time for me to go..
You and I had very different upbringings and I could go on about that but it doesn't really matter either way. We both "raised?'' ( I believe our children teach us way more than we will ever teach them) two boys (mine are 21 and 19 and amazing and I am lucky). We both love music beyond most people care to think about it, I think...I am just taking that from your book. You and I both enjoy a slightly more "wry" if not deceptive sort of humor, again conjecture. Also both of us were addicted to opiates for longer than we wanted to be. I stole mine from the county coroner's office I worked for. My duties included performing autopsies under the supervision of a forensic pathologist. I was in charge and oversaw toxicological testing, photography and evidence collection (which also included destroying DRUG evidence). I was lucky and when I was fired after a dirty drug test I didn't have the courage nor means to score from the other obvious avenues. No one ever even knew I was a junkie. After I was fired I just happened to have the flu for a month. Did that in cold terror, shaking away to nothing in the basement. My entire world was never the wiser until it was recently old enough to handle it. I guess I wanted to let you know that about me. Not many people know that about me. I have an idea about how THAT feels.
I don't know why I am writing this now. At this point I have revised it a few times and honestly it's a bit embarrassing. Luckily for me, embarrassment is not a crippling issue. If someone sent me a note of this nature, I would be at least intrigued and probably fairly amused. It would be great if you got back out to play in Boise again. I thought for a minute I would attempt one of those Iceland shows but time and money were not in the way. I spent a few days in Iceland a thousand years ago and have been trying to get back there since. Hopefully you do read this letter. I'm hoping that it isn’t a nusance and possibly elicits a smile.
Yours sincerely,
Barton Loyd Kline
barton.kline@gmail.com
https://alwaysweargloves.blogspot.com/
NOW THAT i AM A FULL TIME GROCERY STORE EMPLOYEE, IV'E BEEN GIVEN PAUSE TO THINK ABOUT GREAT and historical GROCERY FIGURES, COUNTER CULTURE IF YOU WILL. i HAVE KNOWN THROUGHOUT LIFE. iT'S AN ARTFORM, YOU KNOW?
first though, i decided to start delivering for door-dash on my scooter. I think it could be the way to game the system they have in place. I can use the scooter and not worry about silly miles on the van and i get about 100 mpg with the motorcycle vs. 17 in the van. that seems helpful? Well, fucked up the first time I dashed and drove needlessly out of my way for not very much $ per hour but i won't get fooled again. it was hilarious and dangerous and frivolous and pretty fun.
that being said, door dashing does not involve management or much customer service. it's an evil way to make money with an evil system. I need to figure out how to sell weed while I do it to offset my karma. shouldn't be too hard to figure out.
what happened was that I got involved with a possible second job delivering bread for an amazing local bakery. I had about 72 hours of decision making crashing around in my head last weekend. i worked a shadow shift with the bread folx. before we even got in the truck the owner had offered me a position with the company that i really had TO ponder. it was better money, better people and definitely reflected my worth in the eyes of the bread company. they are friends and know the recent past as far as the restaurant/pub was concerned so it was a nice stroke to the bartego to feel wanted for reasons of reputation. more on that later i guess.
the big issue, among a few minor issues, was that i would have to quit the market job to do the delivery job. conundrum ensues. quit stupid job that i've just wrapped my brain around to accept smart job that i don't have a handle on at all. dollar more pay, benefits, quick and dirty hours. new horizons for the company that they wanted my help with. my caretaker ethos were properly triggered. hemming and hawing I chose to stick with stupid job. I am so happy i did. I realized a lot about my needs with those 72 hours. I really do need to be able to express my weird customer service guy. the market exposes this to me so well. i need to be a weirdo. it will more than likely get me fired but i knew that going in.
i am not working for the market anyway, the market works for me.
it is incredibly important to believe that you have something to offer the world. you shape the world around you as much as it shapes you.
so i decided to use the bakery job against the market. not in a malicious way, just a simple "you need me more than i need you" way. i had planted the seeds with the market that i was going to be taking another job on the weekends but the hours would not conflict with my current schedule. dropping this nugget on management was not without impact. suffice to say that when the market powers understood that i had worth beyond the scope of their current mindset, they did a bit of a dance for me. that being said..
my assistant training began with the overlooked assistant manager that evening. I need to paint a picture of the overlooked. i'll be brief...gordon (not his real name) has been working at the market for at least 100 years. watching him explain how to count a till out for the market was like watching magician explain a card trick. expertly his hands moved in motions he'd performed so many times that his hands were no longer attached to his body. his mouth muttered incantations, blessing the paper and coin and cheque and stamp to their place. not here anymore, now here, and with this move knowledge was accrued and set in motion for the day to come next when it would happen again. histories were given of magi before that graced the notes of profit. how the old ones had done it before and how the new ones tread in dark waters of change with the change. it was fascinating. a simple task taken to levels that not even gordon really understands. make the tills two-hundred whispered the ancients.
all this because I wanted more money for my time.
time is our most precious commodity. it's priceless really. mine is constantly fucked with. i am wrestling the universe for control of it again. I don't think i have ever had a great grasp of it but then again i've never known it's real weight until now.
a little less than 24 hours has passed since I started this post and
already my plan to gain better access to slack has been run awry. i have to go deal with that now and i'm perplexed by it. i shouldn't be, but i am.
this thing is quickly becoming a book about management AND ALL OF THE IMAGES ABOVE WERE MADE BY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE PROGRAMS.
FUCK REALTORS |
what do i get from this. well, i feel good about making others feel good. I get off on it. a lot really. especially if it's entirely in my hands...i'm ruined for working for the "man" now because I refuse to play that game anymore. it's not real. there is no man. only people working towards a common goal and many times that is simply a time line. a start and a finish together. in between that time we hopefully have a "good" time and we enjoy it's spent-ness. it can be more and loftier ideals can be attached but in the end, bosses are just people that got involved earlier, paid into the system in some way, and really the only defining factor is that they fucking buy into that they are above everyone else. hopefully that just means that they have the keys to the place. they might get paid more but generally that means that they are saddled with the responsibility of someone else fucking up . I don't want to get into "bad bosses" right now. that's a whole chapter, shit, maybe that's the book. an entire book based on how bad you could do it. the nuances of shitty management are infinite.
so we build our brand. fucking up harms the brand, people don't trust shoes that fall apart right? WRONG bad example and a good point. fucking up big time harms the brand. you can't be known for being the guy that never shuts up in a conversation and expect people to want you at parties. I regularly hide from people in public that i don't want to engage with. I have plenty of project people that come to my house to suck me dry. i find that creative, witty, compassionate people intrigue me the most and i want to surround myself with people like that. I certainly know that i've lived a varied and intriguing life to some people and this is certainly where my identity and my "careers" OVERLAP. i am thinking it might seem to some that working in a grocery store is light years from being a mortician or running a restaurant but really, I am not doing anything different at all. in the end, it's just us being us doing a thing. the real and hopefully different aspect is that we have learned and grown over the years to be better and better at being ourselves, and therefor better at the Jobs we have to do. REALLY HOPEFULLY we learn so much about ourselves we get to a point that there is no "work"...literally maybe but mostly metaphysically. I am getting closer to attaining this i think. i've been very privileged to start seeing this notion. (realtors will never understand this idea because they are broken souls sent to earth from hell only to be surprised that when they die they will awaken in hell to be realtors selling property to other realtors in hell.) I think i first tasted the sauce of "anti-work" (i don't have a good name for it yet, I used to think it was zen but i don't care for that word any longer i guess) i was a dishwasher at a fancy italian restaurant. fuck, that's a whole post really, i learned a lot from that job. I realized that if the dishes were steady and i could concentrate only on each dish as it came through me and not focus on anything else but that dish...i could manipulate time. music from a
the real trip then might be to be as comfortable as you can, in any moment. not wishing for anything to be nearer, or farther, or better. or worse? I just know that i'm trying to learn how to be better at not being shitty to myself about it all.
I refuse to "work" these days. I go to a job but I am working for myself. I am building a brand that says:
1. this guy probably won't put up with shit that isn't real
2. he actually seems to care about me based on a very short interaction that by all practical purposes may have been the most genuine moment I have had all day with my fellow humans.
3. becaUSE I TRUST HIM for some reason? BECAUSE HE LOOKS ME IN THE EYE!
4. HE COULD BE THE DEVIL. MAYBE i LIKE THE DEVIL MORE THAN I THOUGHT? and I am the devil! if i chose to be evil i'd be damn good at it. i don't think the devil has anything to do with being evil. manipulating people for personal gain doesn't have to hurt the other person and its a natural process for growth and development. fucking someone over to best them or swindle them or emotionally damage them is evil. i don't want your soul (i don't think we have them but...) i want you to be happy!
5. I HOPE HE ISN'T LIKE THESE VANS SHOES I BOUGHT LAST MONTH...I TRUSTED VANS, THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO HOLD UP. WHAT HAPPENED TO VANS?
vans might be a bad example they have some very quality lines out right now. let's not shit on vans. the only examples i can come up with right now are local restaurants and beers and i don't consume either of those things currently. Star wars? starwars used to be cool...oh fuck, the simpsons is probably a good example. they should have shot that horse a long time ago. that also reminds me that the new rick and morty should be up today. now that's a great brand!
2. guinan. i personally think she could have been a bit more helpful.
3. Riker is a dog.
4. there's obviously a lot more but i just bored myself into stopping at this point.
The best thing about Trek is that it showcases the best it could be in the future with still allowing for human idiocy. replicators changed it all. imagine living in a world with out realtors. i can't wait for the future.
WORKING AT THE MARKET HAS BEEN MESSING WITH MY MIND.
I can't sleep worth a shit these days. My schedule is pretty wacky. I have a job again. Working at the M&W market. So strange really, all these years of going there for everything. Jesus. Just thinking about a million years ago moving in with my parents house with those two boys. Blowing up worlds. So much unknowing caring so much about unknowing. just keeping it together. M&W was there. Thanks for all the beers!.
I quit drinking. Can you believe I did that? CRAZY! feels really good. I kinda hate that shit now. Such a great way to not do it anymore. Sort of like the pills? That hurt more. I didn't tell you about that. I don't think I want to. No one knew. How insane. So fucked in that basement. Writing around in sweat and hatred.
I quit drinking because I couldn't look myself in the eye anymore. Shame is a heavy bitch. Guilt is a dagger. Am I over all that shit? I might be. I am almost 50. That's fucked huh?
I live with a girl now. Close to where I used to live with a girl, and then didn't. Had roommates. Drama.
Make a nest.
"ole' boy" wire, paper, glue, spray paint 2022 king of the trash he was created for halloween but i've realized this ...