Letters to the Editor
rocket999
Published Letters: 83 Editor's Choice: 8
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Jazz is all right...sometimes
[Read the article: Rock vs. jazz]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The type of jazz that I like, such Bitches Brew and Bill Frisell, sounds a lot like the ambient/techno I also enjoy. To paraphrase a previous poster, it's when a bunch of technically proficient jazz virtuosos start soloing over the same set of chords that I get turned off.
Unfortunately, "louder, faster, higher" will never make up for the lack of a coherent melody.
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Haha!
[Read the article: Somebody tell my husband to slow down!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Anonymous just above...
Me like posting. U make more.
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choose wisely
[Read the article: I'm brilliant but I can't settle down. I can't keep a job. What's wrong with me? ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Be extremely wary of accepting a mediocre job offer. The problem is, it's very easy to become complacent in the face of easy money and easy work (both of which may happen at a mediocre job). You become like the rat that only has to hit the button and the food pellet will appear. Nevermind that on the other side of the maze, there's a nice tasty hunk of cheese. You would have to run the maze. And why would you do that when the food pellet is right here, you just have to push the button...
You see the problem. Once you've taken a job, as long as it's not awful, a great deal of inertia pushes you to stay put. Finding good opportunities, writing interesting, personalized cover letters, sending out resumes, and going to job interviews: these are all difficult and can take a toll, on both the ego and the spirit.
I don't know how long you've been out of work, but in your case it might not be better to take "any job" over "no job". Maybe you do need some kind of work (e.g. paid external validation) in the interim, but can you find it outside of a corporate environment? Personally I would suggest editing (set up a webpage advertising your services), gardening, construction work, childcare, or even coffeeshop worker over becoming a receptionist. These jobs don't tend to pay well, but they don't destroy your soul, and they leave your creativity and initiative intact to look for real work.
Best of luck, and don't give up. The job market is a little tight out there right now, so it might take a while, but you will find something.
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yeah, I was there
[Read the article: "Battle in Seattle" rocks Austin]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Along with thousands of other people. I was with the medical team, which was centrally dispatched from protestor headquarters. Which meant that I ran from place to place, treating protestors who had been tear gassed, who were becoming hypothemic from being poorly dressed in the cold Seattle morning weather, who had been hit by rubber bullets and so forth.
The tear gas started very early in the morning, long before any property destruction. The protestor/anarchist property destruction also happened relatively early- it had been preplanned, against a few specific franchises: Starbucks, McDonalds, etc.
And then a funny thing happened. Around 4 or 5 o'clock, the composition of the protestors changed. There is no kind way to put this- the native Seattleans showed up. Maybe they saw the event on the news and decided to take advantage of the protection provided by the protestors, maybe the local high schools let out, I don't know.
That's when the protest degenerated into chaos. People (not protestors) started breaking windows indiscriminantly. I watched cell phone stores and other small businesses being looted. The police responded by storming the crowds and teargassing the streets. Thousands of people literally ran to get away. The streets emptied within an hour or two. At that point, most of the legitimate protestors went home or to other locations (e.g. the jail). We didn't want to be associated with the looters any more than the police wanted them to loot.
The next day, marching peacefully with the labor unions, I was at the head of a large crowd when the police moved in and arrested everybody behind me. The police were incredibly aggressive- maybe their nerves were frayed from the day before. Anyway, my friend got a cash settlement years later for that arrest- it had been a peaceful march, even as the protestors were being tear-gasses and loaded off to jail.
It's too bad about 9/11. The Seattle protest started something big, but it got derailed by the terrorist attacks.