Hangin'

Had a beer and a conversation in the back yard with one of my fellow tenants today after getting home from work. He's heading west for summer break soon. He's also an artist, painting student at RISD, which gives him some interesting stuff to talk about. Or at least I think so, since I find art a fun thing to think about. Anyway, apartment living tives you other people to interact with. When those people are likeable and interesting, it's a gift.

Choice cuts

Unionization in America reached its high point when—duh!—manufacturing was actually done on a wide scale here. It's unlikely to reach that level again, which is a shame. But it's somewhat encouraging that younger unionists, as seen in this column, persist. A couple of paragraphs stand out.

Their ranks include Godfrey, 29, a server at Nine Zero for the past nine years. With good pay and job security, she was able to buy a condo in Jamaica Plain. And her good health benefits are even more important now that she’s expecting her first child.

There’s also Arthur Bergevin, 24, a Brandeis graduate who works as a food runner at the W Boston, and plays drums in a band called The Tin Thistles. The union contract gives him more control over his schedule, helping him juggle work and gigs. He can pay the bills while he chases a music career.

As the proliferation of high tech ventures with first person (iPhone) or second person (YouTube) names suggests, the rhetoricc of empowerment is both useful and popular. You want people to believe that they're steering their own course and have all the choices in the world, not least because it will give them more to blame themselves for. And in terms of what screensaver to download and what flavor filling to get in our Oreos, we do have more options than ever before.

But there are other choices. Issues of where to live, how to make a living and how long to work doing so, and whether you can even think about sending your children to college. If you're not among the Very Very Rich, these are choices that are being taken away from you. Real empowerment is vanishing in the rearview mirror.

Bergevin has managed to blackmail his employers into letting him play with his band, and that's great news. Elsewhere, there are plenty of bottom rung workers who want to play music, paint, or just spend more time with their kids. But no one in power care because no one has to. That's wrong, because just about all of us are proles, and we should have choices. Including the choice of saying no.

Great Scott (Heron)

Gil Scott-Heron passed yesterday. He's known for his influence on political rap, which in itself has been in retreat for some years now. But he was more than that. There was always texture and true soul to his songs, a sense of there being a man behind the message. He came back with a new album in 2010, I'm New Here, and while it may take some warming to, just the fact that he was back in front of a band in his last months is a cause for celebration.

Pre-Memorious Day Friday Random Ten

No one, it seemed, really wanted to come in today. Give people a three day weekend, and many will stretch it out to four. Not a complaint of mine, but despite the quietness of the office, I had quite the busy afternoon. Almost to adrenaline rush levels.

1. The Kinks--Wicked Annabella
2. David Bowie--Move On
3. Simon & Garfunkel--Punky's Dilemma
4. They Might Be Giants--32 Footsteps
5. Grizzly Bear--Little Brother
6. The XX--Shelter
7. Blossom Dearie--It Might As Well Be Spring
8. The New Pornographers--Jackie, Dressed In Cobras
9. Alexander Brailowsky--Chopin's Polonnaise #9 in B Flat
10. Patsy Cline--Walkin' After Midnight

Furry story

While I was walking to the market tonight, a car drove by. In the beam of the headlights, I saw this little ball of lightning scramble out of the way, past the sidewalk, into a driveway. It was a cat, of course.

If the owner of the cat had seen it in the street, they might have been upset. This assumes someone attentive taking care of the cat, but the cat was pretty well groomed, so this isn't an outrageous assumption. But there was something beautiful about the way the little guy(?) perked up and ensured his survival. When it was over, I had to stand and applaud.

Sad but also...

I like putting poetry up here now and again, because it serves as a reminder/excuse to read it. This is a lovely and melancholy little study.

Psalm and Lament
Hialeah, Florida
in memory of my mother (1897-1974)

The clocks are sorry, the clocks are very sad.
One stops, one goes on striking the wrong hours.

And the grass burns terribly in the sun,
The grass turns yellow secretly at the roots.

Now suddenly the yard chairs look empty. the sky looks empty,
The sky looks vast and empty.

Out on Red Road the traffic continues; everything continues.
And I think that for the first time I understand

The beautiful ordinary light of this patio
And even perhaps the dark rich earth of a heart.

(The bedclothes, they say, had been pulled down.
I will not describe it. I do not want to describe it.

No, but the sheets were drenched and twisted.
They were the very handkerchief of grief.)

Let summer come now with its schoolboy trumpets and fountains.
But the years are gone. The years are finally over.

And there is only
This long desolation of flower-bordered sidewalks

That runs to the coner, turns, and goes on,
That disappears and goes on

Into the black oblivion of a neighborhood and a world
Without billboards or yesterdays.

Sometimes a sad mood comes and waters the roof tiles.
But the years are gone. There are no more years.

~~~Donald Justice~~~

Refreshed Friday Random Ten

I give myself permission to nap at work, when time permits. Overall I'm pretty sure it makes me more productive rather than less. Of course it can also be a little disorienting, on the rather rare occasions I actually fall asleep. Waking up, that is. Because once you lose consciousness, you don't know how much time has passed, at least at first. Or exactly where you are. I may have addressed this before.

1. Radiohead--All I Need
2. David Bowie--Look Back In Anger
3. 8½ Souvenirs--Yes, Yes, Yes
4. Grizzly Bear--Knife
5. Blossom Dearie--Comment Allez Vous
6. Elton John--This Song Has No Title
7. Simon & Garfunkel--Fakin' It
8. The New Pornographers--Three or Four
9. Warren Zevon--Werewolves of London
10. Ladytron--Predict the Day