I woke up this morning feeling almost a tad hungover. Which was very confusing because I hadn't had anything to drink the night before. Turns out I simply had leftover emotions from the concert I went to last night at the Altar Bar. Last time I went there I saw the great Wanda Jackson. Headlining this concert: cello rock star Ben Sollee.
I feel like I say this a lot, but I first saw Ben Sollee when he performed at Mountain Stage in Morgantown a few years ago. He performed a short set, as is customary at Mountain Stage, but it was enough for me (and my sister) to become fans. I learned he was going to be at the Altar Bar, asked my sister if she wanted to go, and quickly purchased tickets.
It was a simply amazing concert. Doing a full 2 hour show was a major improvement and we really got to see Mr. Sollee show off his talents.
The cello is a favorite instrument of mine. I love string instruments when they're played expertly and properly, and I have a great respect for people who have mastered playing them (I gave two attempts to learn guitar in my life and gave up quickly. No patience for that). And Ben Sollee is definitely a master of his craft.
Below is the video I took of him performing "Prettiest Tree on the Mountain". A song my sister likes to say is about her. (It isn't.)
Accompanied by a drummer and a bass player, Sollee performs his songs with an amazing supply of soul and energy. He is definitely the kind of musician that deserves to be seen/heard live. His songs are terrific enough on his albums (Inclusions and Half-Made Man are the more recent ones) but hearing them live excels the experience. Mostly because he takes the time to do some great extended cello riffs or the occasional drum solo from his just-as-talented drummer, Jordan Ellis.
I always try to remember what songs stuck out to me. I jotted down the titles in my phone but then I forget the specific reasons why I liked them. But my personal favorites were "Teach Me", "It's Not Impossible (Boys Don't Cry)", and "The Globe". Then there was the 4-song encore ("I just don't feel like stopping" Ben would say with a sly smile) that included their first live performance of Harry Belafonte's "Dolly Dawn" (he should sing that a lot more often) and a very fast-paced version of Ben's "Bury Me With My Car".
Here is the drum break (box..break?) and also the last verse of "Bury Me With My Car".
So anyway if you haven't been clicking these links or videos DO IT because he's a great musician who gives outstanding concerts. Check him out.
Also I should mention his opening act, Circles & Squares, which is a fresh group that they said was formed roughly a month ago. Last night was one of their first outings and they did a great job getting the crowd all excited for Ben. I'd definitely listen to them again. So go to their Facebook page, give 'em a like, and hopefully we'll be seeing more of them soon.
By the time I put this post up, I will be halfway through my 2 weeks notice for a department store I have spent the last 2 years working at. Now don't get too excited for me; I'm just replacing one part-time job with another. But the new job is easier to travel to and in a nice neighborhood so I'm anxious to start it.
The department store I worked at was a constant source of jokes, pictures, and stories for me. Sure, I complained about it (I complain about most things) and I never thought I'd do a whole 2 years there. But all in all I think I'll look back on working there fondly, remembering the good times I had or maybe just the weird things I saw.
Here are 5 things I'm going to take away from my years in retail:
1. A Job is a Job I learned years ago (when I worked for peanuts at a Rite Aid) not to judge people by what job they have. I fear that it has become very easy for people of my generation who went to college to automatically judge people that work behind counters. I understand why: you have a degree that you allegedly worked hard for and you think that's earned you a feeling of superiority. Well it shouldn't; the fact that you went to college most likely stems from the fact that your parents had money and/or you had decent grades. Big deal, that doesn't make you a better person.
Very few people in this world choose retail as their ideal career, but they do what they have to do to get by. And getting by is hard, too. And I don't mean "no money for pizza this week" hard, I mean like actually struggling to make ends meet. I'm not preaching, just saying that for a (hypothetical) snotty grad student to judge a cashier who's just trying to feed her kids is fucked up.
2. People are Nuts
Here's something we all know, but those of us in retail truly see it: the general public is insane. And I don't mean just mentally insane (although I have stories of that too) I mean downright weird. People who line up at the department store doors at 9:30 to wait for it to open? Go do something else. It ain't Disneyworld, there's very little to see.
I have seen some crazy things. We had a woman who liked to yell at the sidewalk outside, then would come in the store and yell at the socks. Another older woman was sitting in the shoe department as my friend and I were leaving the store. As we passed she said, loudly, "I'm just waiting for my bird!". We kept walking without breaking stride, because you shouldn't bother a woman who's waiting indoors for her bird.
3. I Cannot Take Meetings Seriously
Probably one of my least favorite things about working for a corporate retail store is the inane customer service meetings we are forced to sit through. I get the purpose, kind of. But the "themes" and little slogans they come up with just shows that whoever's getting paid the "big bucks" has little to no knowledge on how to talk to real people.
The last customer service meeting I had to go to was on how to make a presence. We were asked "what are the ways you can say "hi" on the sales floor?"" Asking someone how to say "hi" is not a question for an adult human. We all know how to say hi. The meeting could easily be "talk to the customers more" and that's the end of it. But it has to be strung out for 20 minutes as we all mumble out different responses.
Oh yeah, and I giggle during these meetings. Because they're lame. And lame things make me giggle. Which in turn makes me look like an asshole.
4. Always Wash Things When You Buy from a Store
Listen, I'm not a germaphobe or anything but...you should wash all clothes before wearing them. I mean really. I drop things constantly. Unfortunately it's usually glassware. But I've also dropped clothing onto the floor of the dirty stock room. Where people walk. I've also been surprised by an unexpected sneeze and covered the clothes I was folding in my spit. Shit happens. Just wash your clothes before wearing them.
5. Christmas is NOT the most Wonderful Time of the Year
Show me someone who claims to enjoy the holiday season and I'll show you someone who's never worked a day in retail. What's to love? The overstocked backrooms, the never-ending supply of customers, longer hours but no extra money...and the music. Oh the Christmas music day after day for a solid month is enough to drive anyone insane. My least favorite was always "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime" and I am so thankful I'll never have to hear that song again.
So that's that. I'm looking forward to starting something different now. I will miss my coworkers, who have been great characters that kept me from total mind-numbing shutdown these last few years. However I eagerly await a new adventure which will hopefully supply me with new stories.
The other day I was at my parents' house for the weekend and I was snoozing on the couch. My father turns on the TV and flips to a nature channel show, which I start watching out of the corner of my eye. It starts out harmless enough, a mama mountain goat has a kid and they have to cross a river and the kid almost drowns. Cute, fun.
Then we switch to some bears, which is also fine. The bears are looking for food and then what comes along? A gray whale. A gray whale and her calf. And I start to get antsy.
You see, I "suffer" from a totally irrational fear of whales. I live in an area far from the ocean, and I always will. I have probably seen less than 10 whales in person in my life (I'm sure I went to zoos as a kid or something). But I'm terrified of these creatures.
Now there's a term for this called "Cetaphobia" which I think was invented by people on Tumblr. It is not a phobia you'll find in a real dictionary, it's something like-minded people seem to have come up with on the internet. You can argue about "is it real or isn't it" but the fact is, I'm afraid of whales and it looks like I'm not alone.
"What's wrong with you? Whales are beautiful, majestic creatures and we should appreciate them." Well to me, whales are the closest thing we have to sea monsters. I'm fairly confident that during my life we'll never have to deal with a Godzilla-esque situation (knock wood). So instead I worry about the giant animals that live in the giant ocean. [Side bar, I once had a dream where giant whales were flying over my neighborhood. It was terrifying.]
Ah, the ocean. Perhaps that's what I'm actually afraid of. It's so deep, like infinitely deep and who knows what kind of horrible shit lurks underneath it. What if the big blue whales we're used to are just the babies? What if there's like a deep sea diver that thinks he found the ocean floor but it's actually just the eyelid of a giant beast? And who knows when they'll turn on us?
Yeah, this is this stuff I'm afraid of. Monstro in Disney's Pinocchio? Horrifying. The Kraken in the Pirates of the Caribbean films? Get out of here. If I ever go to Scotland, I will go nowhere near Loch Ness because I believe that freaking monster is real. Is it just a tree branch? How can you be sure? What if it's literally a dinosaur that's survived for thousands of years and reproduces asexually?
Sorry, back to the whales. Going back to the nature program my father was watching: the gray whale was a mama and it was migrating alongside its calf. Which is fine, they're whales but there's just two of them and they're migrating. I thought they were gross but I could handle watching them.
And then shit got real.
A pack of killer whales (or orca, if you will) approach the mama Gray and her calf. The ominous narrator informs me that the pack is hunting and will not go after the mama because she is too large. They're going after the calf. They seperate the calf from its mama, attack it, and then pull it underwater where it drowns. The corpse sinks to the bottom of the sea, where the killer whales will feed off of it for days.
Yeah, your beautiful creatures just killed a baby. How majestic.
I know they're called killer whales for a reason so I'm just bewildered at the fact that these animals are the main attraction at Seaworld. I know, animals like lions are also predators and they're always at the circus. Well I don't care much for the circus either because I don't think the animals are enjoying themselves. I'm not a huge animal rights activist or anything but I just think if I were an elephant I'd rather be rolling around in the mud than have a bunch of strange little kids crying on my back.
But seriously, killer whales at Seaworld? Jumping through hoops and eating fish or whatever they do to entertain people? (I haven't been to Seaworld since I was a little tyke, and there's no way in hell I'm going as an adult). What's going on with this? These animals are huge predators, that's dangerous right?
I did a little searching into this, mainly on youtube. Because for some reason when something freaks me out, I get in moods where I want to freak out and force myself to watch shit that scares me. Then I learned about Tilikum, an old bull orca who's been at Sea World for years and has been involved with three deaths in his time there.
Two of those deaths were trainers; one was tag-teamed by Tilikum and two females while the other could possibly have been an accident. But the other death involved a man sneaking into the tank after the park closed. Apparently he wanted to swim with the whales. He was found dead and naked draped over Tilikum's back the next morning. I imagine Tilikum was smoking a cigar and saying "Look at this moron." in a smug voice.
To get serious, though, I should say I'm not "anti-whale". I don't think they should be hunted (who needs more blubber, am I right ladies?) or anything and I don't think the ones stuck in Sea World should be trapped there their whole lives. I'm just saying I don't see the beauty and the grace in them. I see sea monsters. And when I hear about a beached whale all I think is "they're getting closer. Soon they'll have mastered walking on land."
But no worries. I'm dealing with living with Cetaphobia, one day at a time. Frankly, it's not a terribly crippling phobia, like agoraphobia or claustrophobia. I suppose if I were ever on a deserted island and everything I wanted was on a separate island and the sea between us was full of whales...yeah that would be an issue. Until then, feel free to roll your eyes at me.
