RAW

August 29, 2004

RAW Choice Cut: The Pixies - "Where Is My Mind?"

"Your head will collapse, but there's nothing in it and you'll ask yourself…where is my mind?" - Pixies

Truth be told, I don't know what the hell I was talking about in that last RAW column. I think I was just writing to cleanse my soul and my My Documents folder. The old stuff mixed with the new stuff in anything but a cohesive fashion. Then add to the fact I was trying to be funny / apologize / foreshadow at the beginning. Oh well, nothing another column can't fix.

"Youth's like diamonds in the sun. And diamonds are forever." - Alphaville

"My life is a fucking Saturn commercial," is what I said to myself this past Friday night as I drove through Five Points. Originally heading that direction to party w/ BGJ but then deciding to just get a pita and call it a night everything just got all weird. It felt as if I was going 5 mph down Greene Street watching as everything unfolded. The drunk girls holding each other up. The lines forming outside of the clubs. Some guy throwing up outside of a bar called "Pub." The cops questioning this guy on how much he had to drink. Everyone waiting at the ATM to take $21.50 out of their accounts. Then add to the fact I was already listening to Alphaville's "Forever Young" (which was used in Saturn's "High School" commercial) beforehand you had the makings of a really low budget commercial. All I needed was a sign saying "Now Leaving College" and a voiceover saying "As you travel down the highway of life, make sure you're riding in a Saturn."

"WE WANNA HAVE FUN AND WE WANNA GET WASTED!!!!!!" - Andrew W.K.

[promise that this will be the last paragraph of me complaining about my job directly - I'm starting to get tired of my excessive negativity, so I know anyone reading this is pretty sick of it also.]

The most beneficial thing about living at home isn't the discounted rent and free food. It's the fact that my mom is always somewhere near for me to talk to. As much as I complain and bitch and sometimes whine about my job and how bad it is, we've come to a conclusion - the job itself isn't THAT bad (oh yeah, there's still a lot of shitty parts about the job), it's just the fact that right now I'm too young. As much as I'm trying to do a good job (as far as my bosses are concerned I'm doing a great job - little do they know I'm halfassing it *shrugs*), my biggest concern at any moment is "when do I get to play?" I want to watch Monday Night Raw, I wanna go to concerts, I wanna drink with my friends in Columbia or Clemson on a Friday night, and right now I can't. In between working 50 hours a week at a place I don't like, the 10 hours of commuting, and the 40 hours of sleep I'm not left with much time for anything else - like social interaction. Or finding time to cash my check for that matter. Even with her having an idea of my impending mental (and sometimes physical) crash n' burn as far back as November when she tried her damnest to convince me to go straight to grad school (she knew I was going to want to play some more), she let me go ahead and try working for a bit. Why? Because she's good for giving me just enough rope to hang myself with (and I always thank her for that ;-)).

"Chances blown. Nothing's free. Longing for what used to be." - Offspring

One of my biggest fears about working (and life in general) has been personified at my job. There's another supervisor there who simply put, work is his life. And there's times when he hates work more than I do, but it's all he has. He has a degree. He has experience. He's 56 years old. Lives by himself. Works at night, so there's no chance of him meeting a woman. He comes in on days he doesn't have to make sure things are working correctly. He's there every Sunday to help maintenance. Sad thing is, he's a good guy who just decided to settle with the hand that life dealt him. We've talked about it (he always brings it up) and I tell him just find another job, you can move on. His answer "I'm too old to change kid, I think I'm just gonna stay here and deal with everything." Hey, whatever floats his boat - but as I said 3 years ago, "Nothing worse is looking at a man who settled." Except maybe looking a column from three years back and realizing I didn't proofread it.

"Why'd I have to go and get myself decapitated?" - Weird Al (mocking Avril)

I wanna talk about music for a little bit. Is it just me, or does it seem like music is on autopilot for the time being? I mean right now the number 1 song in the country is Terror Squad's "Lean Back." Lyrics - nothing to talk about. Beat - nothing special. And the dance - Simplest. Dance. Ever. Hell the only thing interesting about this song is the fact that Fat Joe says the word "nigga" about 20 times in the song and no one cares - yet J. Lo did the same ONCE in one of her songs a couple years back and it was the talk of the town. Guess you can get away with some things when people like you. While we're on the rap subject, what was up with the performance by Outkast at the VMAs? I mean I'm as sick as "Hey Ya!" as Andre is, but I mean come on now…he performed the song with his hand in his pocket. No energy whatsoever. It was if you could tell he didn't want to be there. As far as Rock goes, *shrugs* It's been slow there too. If it wasn't for the fact that I abhor the 'new' Taking Back Sunday and that Breaking Benjamin is kicking a fair amount of ass not much would be happening there either. Hell, even my favorite genre - pop - seems to be taking a vacation. When Top 40 playlists are being topped by Ashlee Simpson and whatever new single Avril decided to release this week, even I have a problem with that. Before I leave the music topic, more quick rap notes. G-G-G-G-Unit needs to go the F-F-F-Fuck away. I'm tired of this stuttering shit. Nelly releasing two albums on the same day. Great. On one album we have that awful "Get Your Eagle On" on track, the other we have him straight up SINGING on a track. And somewhere on one of those albums we have a duet between him and Tim McGraw. Lovely. I'm not even gonna waste a CD-R, let alone cash, on either one of those coasters. When music gets this bad, there's only one man who can save us… Where's Weird Al when you need him?

Speaking of which, it's been a while since I've made a list. I think I'll list my favorite Weird Al songs. I'm sure someone could use a smile. If you download them and don't laugh then poo on you.

5-T) "Theme From Rocky XIII" [Survivor - "Eye of the Tiger"]

5-T) "A Complicated Song" [Avril Lavigne - "Complicated"]

4) "It's All About The Pentiums" [P. Diddy & The Family ft. Fuzzbubble - "All About The Benjamins (Rock Remix)"]

3) "Headline News" [Crash Test Dummies - "Mmm Mmm Mmm"]

2) "Amish Paradise" [Coolio ft. L.V. - "Gangsta's Paradise"]

1) "Eat It" [Michael Jackson - "Beat It"]

"It wouldn't be L.A. without Mexicans, Black Love, Brown Pride…" -Tupac Shakur

I wanna talk about Mexicans - well Hispanics/Latinos in general for that matter. I'm gonna say they get an unfair rap in the United States. For all the politicians and such saying that illegal immigrants shouldn't be allowed in this country, they might wanna take a second look at the American workforce. And for everyone saying that they're stealing jobs from Americans - not true. They're doing the jobs most Americans don't want to do and they do them happily. Their work ethic is fucking amazing (I would know - I supervise about 35 of them) and they're very very mannerable. Scary thing is, the most problems I have whether it's disciplinary or just plain laziness comes from my African American and Caucasian workers. They feel as if they don't have to work as hard for the same pay. Either that or they feel as if I shouldn't make them work as hard since I'm "one of them" (guess that only applies for my black workers - seeing as how I'm not white). The days I have the least amount of problems are the days when my English speaking workers take the day off. Or don't show up. Funny how that worked out.

"Why ain't you a thug by choice? Why the whole world love my voice?" - Jadakiss

While I have a few more things to talk about, I think I'll save them until after Labor Day. Why? Because I'm going to Clemson for that weekend. And as sure as a bear shits in the woods, I'm sure sometype of drama will erupt. It's funny how the things you hated the most in life becomes the things you kinda look forward to. It's almost as if that type of stuff happens JUST to keep life interesting.