I'm unemployed (again -- stupid term positions could at least have enough work to last the full term), my love life continues to resemble a viking funeral (which is nobody's fault but my own, admittedly; when on-again-off-again unemployed, first priority is trying to raise enough scratch to not die), I'm down one longtime friend and one family member from this time last year (but one or more of these is not my fault), and all I've found since getting my degree last May is that my degree is stank useless. My biggest accomplishment to date is, well, that degree.
I still haven't found anything that came even close to resembling an actual career, I've still never had the brief financial security needed to start or join a band (and Uptown no longer has musician classifieds, so that's one outlet down), I don't have anywhere near the money to go back to school, and to date my writing is... well, you're reading it.
I suppose it's not all bad; I finally willed myself to stop biting my nails over the past year, there's a roof over my head, and I... have... a cat? Yes! I have a cat. I think we've been over that, though.
What I'm getting at is that things could be better. A man has to have a plan! And since I am determined to have a better time being twenty-three than I did being twenty-two, my plan is no further away from fruition then the acquisition of a decent-sounding acoustic guitar and enough money to get a busker's licence from the city. (However much those are.)
I'm serious! If you're downtown this summer, you hear a Matthew Sweet song and you turn to see a six-foot-three guy in a luchador mask singing and playing guitar on the street -- then my plan will have succeeded. And hopefully you will throw me some of your change, because making money one handful of coins at a time would still be better than I'm doing right now. And if anybody tells me that Manitoba is full of quality jobs for young people, I can threaten to El Kabong my guitar over their head.
If there's one thing that downtown Winnipeg is in increasingly desperate need of, it's culture -- noteworthy items of interest that don't involve working or mugging people. Something for people to talk about around the water cooler, guess-what-I-saw-today, or at least something that'll make them do doubletakes on the way to work. Obviously I can't singlehandedly make Winnipeg a dramatically better place -- because only people with money are allowed to do that, and they very rarely want to (else pedestrians would be crossing Portage and Main right now) -- but every little bit here and there helps, right? Right! New York has its Naked Cowboy, Toronto has its Zanta, and Winnipeg can have its insert stage name here for overeducated lucha-masked song-slinging loudmouth.
(At the very least, I'd have my own profile on Weirdos of Winnipeg -- and considering the elite company I'd be keeping, why, who could say no to such an honour?)
This is a better and better idea the longer I think about it, which should show you how inept I am at long-term planning!
But anyway.
Cibo Matto - Birthday Cake [buy | official site]
Ivor Cutler - I'm Happy [buy | dedication site]
The Boys - Soda Pressing [buy | official site]
Happy Birthday, me! Happy Wednesday, everybody else!
3 comments:
Whatever the case, it would sure beat those bongo drummers and the harmonica guy that used to play by the library.
What have you done so far as far as pursuing something in writing and editorials (since clearly you have a lot to say)? Although I suppose that one can only make a lot of money in that not by saying what they think but what people want them to say (eg: the whole "Old People suck" thing when in reality, only old people read editorials).
I read editorials. And thank you kindly for reminding me that I am old. >:(
Anyway. Getting a content foothold into the papers as a paying gig has so far been a wash; I've been respectfully declined by the Manitoban and quietly ignored by Uptown, and those were the places that needed people at the time. (I'm thinking of trying again for the Manitoban, shoot for Copy Editor this time around -- because I am not quick enough on the uptake to recognize failure when I encounter it.)
And as regarding your second point, you're probably right; I still suspect that Tom Brodbeck would lose his job immediately if he announced that everything is now okay in Winnipeg. Doubly so considering that the corporate overlords at Quebecor are reputedly doing their best to consolidate their national presence, which is another way of saying they are slashing jobs from coast to coast anywhere they suspect they can get away with it. There are actually fewer jobs out there for prospective writers than there used to be; feel free to act surprised when I start drinking.
You know you chose the wrong degree when music as a source of income looks more and more like a viable option!
I suppose that doesn't help with the Internet in our modern day age when thousands upon millions will do those kind of jobs for free on the web. Speaking of that, perhaps the Internet is another possibility.
Although it's a common rule of thumb that in order to get the job you actually like at X company, you have to take their crappy jobs first and hope that you get noticed by somebody while stomping on a few people along the way. I guess Work is about discovering all the horrible people in the world. >=(
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