Short Burst Series- Band Seeking...Band?

Short bursts of the musicians life...

In these dragging, wintry, days of unemployment from having any kind of "real" day job (which I'm finding quite palatable, by the way), I find myself perusing the mostly useless, but always entertaining, CraigsList. You know, for job postings, musician postings, etc.

None of the dirty stuff. C'mon, now.

There is, of course, the chance that I'll find something good.

Usually, it's just a bunch of crap.

Today, though, there was something I saw that was really weird, and yet, it's something that I have seen before, not only on CL, but also in publications like the Reader and the Illinois Entertainer.

The operative words here are "...seen before...".

We're talking several occasions.

Several!

Understand? (It really just makes me wonder, sometimes, just who the hell some of my so called "peers" are.)

I saw an ad saying that an "established" band was seeking "experienced guitarist, bassist, and drummer with gear..."

Huh?

So it goes...

Waffles and Unemployment

So, I'm still unemployed. I wasn't expecting that to change in a day. You weren't either, I suppose. Since I was such a crabby little hot-diggity-dog yesterday, I thought I'd give you the other side of the spectrum.

Waffles.

Blueberry waffles, made from scratch, is what I had for brunch today. That's right, it's only Thursday, and I had brunch. And, yes, I DO have a waffle iron. How would you make them, otherwise? Sheesh.

So, blueberry waffles, bacon, squeezed grapefruit juice, coffee, the works. It was delicious. That goes without saying, but I'm saying it anyways.

So what does this have to do with unemployment? It's simple, really. All of a sudden, there's time. Time for things like making waffles in the middle of the day on a Thursday. Time for writing silly blog articles about the things that annoy and amuse me as a citizen of Chicago, and the world. Time for re-evaluation and re-invention and learning a new skill. Time in my practice studio, improving on a very well-known skill.

Time with my niece.

Unemployed is certainly not what you REALLY want to be. At least not for the long haul, anyways. But it's definitely not the worse thing that you could be, either. You'll get your check every couple of weeks. I will too (hopefully, anyways). And things will work themselves out, as they inevitably do. Eventually, I'll have my money maker shaking like it used to be.

So will you.

So it goes...

Who's on Unemployment?

There's a lot of us out there that are broke. It's not exactly the best of times. It's not the worst either.

No yet.

At least not in my world.

But it's getting there. I've recently joined the ranks of the unemployed (yes, yes, a collective gasp can be heard all around, I'm sure). That means that I've had to jump through the bureaucratic hoops for the Illinois Dept. of Employment Security (IDES) that many of you know all too well. It's been almost a month since I was let go, and there is still a bunch of dithering as to whether or not I'm entitled to unemployment compensation. After applying with IDES, I got a letter 10 days later saying I'd be getting a call in another 10 days. That call came today. Now they have to call my old job and then make a ruling.

You guessed it: another 10 days.

I still don't know why they didn't contact the job first, and THEN contact me. It seems backwards. It seems stupid.

It IS typical.

I still haven't gotten any of the dough, which is earned money, by the way.

It seems like government operating at it's optimum efficiency again, and as always. Earlier today, eight of the nation's top bankers went to D.C. to explain how the $700 billion bailout money was used and whether or not they needed more.

More for corporate jets, or executive salaries, or junkets to Vegas? I say humph AND harrumph.

I could use some of it. You could too, I'm sure.

So it goes...