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Summer Experiment

One of the reasons why I like working for myself is the option to work as little as possible.

Okay, maybe that sounds a little strange. Maybe if I said that I like to work as efficiently as possible, it’d sound better. It wouldn’t be as true or clear, but if that makes you feel better, then let’s roll with it. All right?

The way I see it, being self-employed has enough hassles and risks without also driving yourself into an early grave by working a hundred hours per week. You’re constantly putting in, nurturing, and failure is always an option. If there’s no serious upside to that equation, then why not go work for someone else and at least eliminate the stress of wondering if/when things will all go kablooey?

Which is all to say that I was intrigued by some news out of New Zealand yesterday where Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is floating the idea of a 4-day work week to help restart their economy after COVID. Considering NZ handled the pandemic better than just about an country on the planet, I figured it’s worth a listen.

After reading some comments on Reddit that spoke positively about a 4-day work week, I was convinced. After assuming all the risk of a business, one of the benefits should be flexibility of some kind and Summer should be poking its head out of the clouds at some point. Why not?

Starting next week, I’m planning to take Wednesdays off, creating a schedule where I don’t work more than two days before a day off and also don’t get more than two days off before going back to work. It’ll require moving a couple things around in our business, but after a quick survey of my schedule, nothing major.

Right now, it’s a Summer experiment, but it’s something I hope will become permanent. While it’s not quite the 4-hour work week, it’s a start. Right?

That House on Word Wednesday

This one comes fresh off the presses (or permanent marker) from the Adjustment project I’ve been tinkering with off and on for awhile now.

Stuck In Neutral

I miss making music with other people.

When I decided to step away from my last band, Tumbledown Saints, there was the consolation that it wouldn’t be the end of playing music. At the time, I as playing almost every week at church, so that lessened the sting. As much as I enjoyed playing blues with John, Dave, Jeff, and Marc, there was a degree of peace in the decision.

Now, as we hurtle through week ten of lockdown here in Maine, I’m really missing it.

Doctor Shaq

Great interview with Shaquille O’Neal from 2019 where he discusses his life outside of basketball in business and personal growth.

The Friday Five | May 15, 2020

This is a collection of things that I’ve been enjoying, doing, or thinking about through the week. Since it’s been a little while since my last gratitude post, I thought this would be an opportune time to share some things that I am thankful for right now.

Please note that some obvious things (family, food, shelter, etc.) aren’t going to be on the list below. It’s not that I’m not grateful for them, it’s that there wouldn’t be room for anything else if that’s all I focused on. So let’s just take those as a given, okay?

FATAL FLAWS. This might seem like an odd one to start off with and probably deserves its own post at some point. Before the pandemic, we’d been in the process of discussing how our business needed to change and/or adapt for the near and far futures. Along the way, we identified some flaws in our business model along with one potentially fatal flaw (to scalability and expansion that is). Now, as we’re hurtling towards week nine of lockdown, it turns out that the fatal flaw has been our saving grace. Just a reminder to approach things from multiple angles.
TOM ROBBINS. Being caught shorthanded with fresh books to read was an example of a problem I’ve been trying to look at from a different angle. The positive being that I dove back into the work of Tom Robbins over the last couple weeks and was reminded how much I love his writing. It’s also been a flashback since I remember clearly the time in my life when each one was read and in some cases, the location. That’s not to say fresh books aren’t on the way, but it’s been a fun spin down Memory Lane.
BLATANT FOOLISHNESS. Another positive of not having many places to go is that I’ve been able to spend every Sunday night recording a fresh episode of the Free Range Idiocy podcast with my friend Tim. We have no aspirations of fame and fortune (which is good being one out of a billion podcasts in the universe), but it’s an excellent opportunity to spend a couple hours laughing our way into the new week.
NEW MUSIC. Throughout my life, I’ve spent a lot of time looking backwards with music instead of looking at what’s coming next. From my elementary school years spent listening to The Beach Boys up until now when I’m more likely to be pulling an old Verve jazz record out of my collection instead of prowling the new release section of iTunes or Spotify. However, the last couple weeks have given me some good excuses to look at the present and even the future, so here’s a couple of recommendations… The new Lettuce album Resonate is absolutely outstanding … Ditto with new Fiona Apple album Fetch the Bolt Cutters (but you probably already knew that one) … And here’s one to look forward to – Maceo Parker has a new album coming out in June, but hit us all up with a new version of his song “Cross The Track” as an appetizer.
PASSION PROJECTS. I suppose the podcast would count in this category, but here I’m specifically talking about the poetry project I’ve been working on. Same as with the podcast, I have no illusions about this book taking the world by storm, becoming a bestseller, or catapulting me to a level of recognition that results in me being taught in a class some day … but … it is fun and it is something to do. Sometimes, that’s enough.

If you’ve enjoyed any of this, I’m glad. Feel like sticking around for a bit? Check out some of my more recent posts below.

Learn Me Some Things

It’s a firmly held belief of mine that it’s possible to learn something from anybody.

Perhaps that sounds foolish, hopelessly optimistic, or even incredibly dumb. That’s fine, it’s not your firmly held belief, so you’re off the hook. Feel free to wander the world and only notice the things you’d like to notice. Be my guest.

But how’s that possible? How can you learn something from people who appear to be willfully ignorant or just plain dumb?

Word Wednesday Out Of Time

Sometimes, it’s fun to mess around on the page (or screen).

a man out of time

had Bukowski lived in the Age of Facebook,
you know damn well he’d have been trolling
at 2am instead of writing poems

drunk as hell, giggling as he typed
another flamethrower reply
then sit back & watch the show

which is how i comfort myself
on nights like this when nothing
is getting done.

Part of me does wonder about what someone like Hank would’ve thought of today’s world. Another part thinks he would’ve thought about it the same way he did about his own world and time: poorly.

Either way, the image of Buk sitting down at his computer, cigarette ashing on his shorts, surrounded by beer cans, and typing furiously on social media just to start fights is pretty amusing to me.

Risk Management

I’ve been pondering this section of Another Roadside Attraction enough to commit the page number to memory for reference. Considering I don’t memorize numbers easily (or for fun), that means… something… right?

“You risked your life, but what else have you ever risked? Have you ever risked disapproval? Have you ever risked economic security? Have you ever risked a belief? I see nothing particularly courageous in risking one’s life. So you lose it, you go to your hero’s heaven and everything is milk and honey ’til the end of time. Right? You get your reward and suffer no earthly consequences. That’s not courage. Real courage is risking something you have to keep on living with, real courage is risking something that might force you to rethink your thoughts and suffer change and stretch consciousness. Real courage is risking one’s clichés.”
Amanda speaking to an FBI agent in Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins, page 251

The Friday Five | May 8, 2020

It’s been a couple weeks since I’ve posted a Friday Five. I’d get into the reasons, but honestly, all I pretty much have to say is: pandemic. So let’s do something a little different and roll with five music videos that I’ve been digging on this week and spread a little joy today.

C’mon… we all need a little more Bernard Purdie in our lives, don’t we? Dig on David T. Walker and Chuck Rainey on bass.

Discovered Turkuaz a couple years back, but hadn’t run across their version of this Sly & The Family Stone classic before. So good.

What else can you say about Maceo Parker that hasn’t already been said a thousand times before? Dude played with James Brown, George Clinton, and Prince. This is a new version of an older tune, but does it ever groove.

I was lucky enough to play this one a bunch of times back in the day with Mama’s Boomshack, but this groove right here is next level. Fred Wesley is a baaaaaaad man.

The new Lettuce album, Resonate, is really good. This song? This one right here feels like a Tower of Power and Sly Stone mash up. Needless to say, I love this song almost as much as oxygen.

Word Wednesday: Adjustment 25

One of the drawbacks of being involved in multiple projects (being in a creative flow as Robert Rodriguez would say) is that it’s easy for one to slip to the side every now and again. I used to get pretty upset about that until recently when I realized that’s okay – as long as it gets picked up again (and nobody is sitting around waiting for it), what’s the harm? After all, most of these things are for my own amusement anyways.

All that to say that I haven’t been making many blackout poems lately, but here’s one that I did.