I always introduce myself as a writer and sort-of musician, and now I add to that, a ramp agent. And as a writer, sort of musician, and ramp agent who writes about being a ramp agent, I am going to use my little forum to invite anyone interested to do something that I have been doing for the last 2 years.
The National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is an event that is now in its 12th year. It is a fun exercise in what founder Chris Baty calls “exuberant imperfection,” or in other words, writing a 50 thousand word novel in only 30 days--during the month of November. More info here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/whatisnano
It’s hard, it’s messy, it seems impossible. But it is possible, and what’s more, it is so much fun that I can’t possibly imagine ever going a year without doing it.
November is already my favorite month of the year, with my birthday (the 19th!), football season, the leaves changing, Thanksgiving (along with the Fourth of July, my favorite holiday), and add to that the 30 day sprint to 50 thousand words. And I’m especially excited for this year, because my new job has introduced me to so many people and so many new situations (as my lovely wife said it would when she encouraged me to take this job!) that I think I have a whole new well of inspiration to draw from.
The first year I did it, I came up with the book I called The Best of Thunder Johnson, a story about a cable access employee who accidentally broadcasts a porno movie over the air and then becomes the focus of a disturbed mental patient’s rage. It was fun, it was inspired, and overall I am happy with the final result. It is a story that would never have been possible had I not put forth the effort to write so much in so little time, even if the original product was a complete mess.
I encourage anyone out there to try this with me. You say you don’t have time, that no one can possibly do a good job on a novel in such a short time? That’s half the point! It’s actually more fun to do things like this when you have less time. Because that way, the time you spend writing becomes sacred, and more meaningful, and dare I say, more meditative. It creates a break from the busy world you inhabit. And besides, sleep is overrated.
So do this with me: write a novel. Be my writing buddy! Writing starts November 1!
Showing posts with label personal history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label personal history. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Monday, June 07, 2010
DGK10 at the Sidebar this Saturday!!!
Are you up for a Davey G show?
Did you miss the last one?
This Saturday! On the eve of my new career outside of the food service industry, the Sidebar hosts the second
Davey G and the Keyboard 10th Anniversary Show!
We all had so much fun last month at the first DGK10 show, and many of you came out and had a great time. But maybe some of you couldn’t make it. And some of you really missed the presence of Man-Friend: the Davey G Tribute band. Well, here’s our chance to make it right, and celebrate ten years of Davey G and the Keyboard.
Saturday, June 12
The Sidebar
218 E. Lexington Street
Davey G and the Keyboard
The Mandroids
Rare Candy
Markitect
4th Grade Security Risk
…And the return of
Man-Friend (The Davey G tribute band)
Doors at 9 p.m. Hope to see you there!!!
--Davey G.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
My “retirement” from the Food Service Industry
(The first post in what will soon be a blog that will be separate from this one)
Friday I gave my two weeks notice from a job I have held for the better part of 9 and a half years to embark upon something else, something entirely different than the jobs I have been doing since the time I was 18.
Food service, I say to you, it’s been fun…
In 1994 I moved to Maryland from my parents' home and started upon a long “career” of sorts in the food service industry. This was after spending 2 years at a fairly cushy high school job (the public library) but then needing the freedom and independence and even more desperately needing to get out of my hometown and find a better life.
And that led me to fall into the quick and easy gainful employment (whatever that means) of the service industry, with the jobs that are easy to get, but oh so painful and unrewarding.
But I was lucky. After a false start at a bakery at the tourist-y Inner Harbor in Baltimore (personal note: beware of any new occupation that requires you to buy tan pants) where I was asked, quite seriously, “Where’s your smile???”, I found a job at a deli downtown. (Okay, actually, the bakery let me go, which might technically be the one and only time I was ever “let go”--like a turd--from a job…I believe my manager’s exact words were “I think you might be better off looking for another job.” I can probably talk about this later. Anyway…)
I walked into a little deli and asked if they were looking for “counter help.” They were, and though it was a tough job with a fairly demanding boss and initially low pay, I survived an early push to sack me (I’m a slow learner and up to that point had very little food service experience.) I wound up thriving in an environment that turned out to be very nurturing and comfortable. The boss who wanted to fire me wound up looking at me as a surrogate son…admittedly, this is not a relationship I am entirely comfortable with, but it allowed her to be more forgiving of my shortcomings. I stayed there an astonishing 6 years before I jumped on an offer to work at my favorite drinking hole, the Irish Pub. After 6 years, I left the deli, free of what had at times been a very trying experience, but one that I was happy to have had. I said “I’m never going to do that again,” meaning I would never stay so long at a job like that.
9 and a half years later...
Oh, I love the pub. I have worked there through the entire Bush Administration. I was there on 9/11. I watched Super Bowls, worked St. Patty’s Days, made many friends, watched more than 40 servers come and go, cooked many hundreds of burgers, cleaned the toilets many hundreds of times, and washed countless dishes…but almost more importantly, The Pub has been a constant in my life. When I started, I was single. At the end, I am married. I went through girlfriends, rental properties, cars, friends, acquaintances, people I never want to see ever again, and all the while the Pub was still there, a constant presence in my life. It is an anomaly in a business that is by nature volatile and uncertain: a restaurant that has been open and under the same ownership for almost 30 years. It is not run by some crazy iron-fisted autocratic despot, like you are used to seeing on the Food Network or in big restaurants. It is instead run simply by Bill, who could never be called autocratic. Hard work and the luck of the Irish have been with Bill and his wonderful family, and he somehow makes it work. I have been there for the Pub, and it has been there for me.
And now, after all this time, almost 16 years in the food service industry (some jobs I have yet to mention that may have fallen through the cracks: Produce clerk, Pizza delivery man, I was a prep cook for three days at a job I was ill-suited for both in skills and mentally, I washed dishes at a crazy busy breakfast place) I am proud to yell from the mountaintops the one thing I have wanted to say for years:
I am retiring from the Food Service industry!
Oh, okay…don’t burn your bridges, never say never, yeah, I get it. But I’m 34 years old, and for various reasons I will explore shortly, I need this part of my life to end. And now, thanks to a fortuitous series of events, I am about to embark on a career change, one that takes me hopefully quite far from the reality of the kitchen/deli counter/dish room/what have you.
Meet the new me. Davey G: Ramp Agent for Southwest Airlines.
Stand by…
Friday I gave my two weeks notice from a job I have held for the better part of 9 and a half years to embark upon something else, something entirely different than the jobs I have been doing since the time I was 18.
Food service, I say to you, it’s been fun…
In 1994 I moved to Maryland from my parents' home and started upon a long “career” of sorts in the food service industry. This was after spending 2 years at a fairly cushy high school job (the public library) but then needing the freedom and independence and even more desperately needing to get out of my hometown and find a better life.
And that led me to fall into the quick and easy gainful employment (whatever that means) of the service industry, with the jobs that are easy to get, but oh so painful and unrewarding.
But I was lucky. After a false start at a bakery at the tourist-y Inner Harbor in Baltimore (personal note: beware of any new occupation that requires you to buy tan pants) where I was asked, quite seriously, “Where’s your smile???”, I found a job at a deli downtown. (Okay, actually, the bakery let me go, which might technically be the one and only time I was ever “let go”--like a turd--from a job…I believe my manager’s exact words were “I think you might be better off looking for another job.” I can probably talk about this later. Anyway…)
I walked into a little deli and asked if they were looking for “counter help.” They were, and though it was a tough job with a fairly demanding boss and initially low pay, I survived an early push to sack me (I’m a slow learner and up to that point had very little food service experience.) I wound up thriving in an environment that turned out to be very nurturing and comfortable. The boss who wanted to fire me wound up looking at me as a surrogate son…admittedly, this is not a relationship I am entirely comfortable with, but it allowed her to be more forgiving of my shortcomings. I stayed there an astonishing 6 years before I jumped on an offer to work at my favorite drinking hole, the Irish Pub. After 6 years, I left the deli, free of what had at times been a very trying experience, but one that I was happy to have had. I said “I’m never going to do that again,” meaning I would never stay so long at a job like that.
9 and a half years later...
Oh, I love the pub. I have worked there through the entire Bush Administration. I was there on 9/11. I watched Super Bowls, worked St. Patty’s Days, made many friends, watched more than 40 servers come and go, cooked many hundreds of burgers, cleaned the toilets many hundreds of times, and washed countless dishes…but almost more importantly, The Pub has been a constant in my life. When I started, I was single. At the end, I am married. I went through girlfriends, rental properties, cars, friends, acquaintances, people I never want to see ever again, and all the while the Pub was still there, a constant presence in my life. It is an anomaly in a business that is by nature volatile and uncertain: a restaurant that has been open and under the same ownership for almost 30 years. It is not run by some crazy iron-fisted autocratic despot, like you are used to seeing on the Food Network or in big restaurants. It is instead run simply by Bill, who could never be called autocratic. Hard work and the luck of the Irish have been with Bill and his wonderful family, and he somehow makes it work. I have been there for the Pub, and it has been there for me.
And now, after all this time, almost 16 years in the food service industry (some jobs I have yet to mention that may have fallen through the cracks: Produce clerk, Pizza delivery man, I was a prep cook for three days at a job I was ill-suited for both in skills and mentally, I washed dishes at a crazy busy breakfast place) I am proud to yell from the mountaintops the one thing I have wanted to say for years:
I am retiring from the Food Service industry!
Oh, okay…don’t burn your bridges, never say never, yeah, I get it. But I’m 34 years old, and for various reasons I will explore shortly, I need this part of my life to end. And now, thanks to a fortuitous series of events, I am about to embark on a career change, one that takes me hopefully quite far from the reality of the kitchen/deli counter/dish room/what have you.
Meet the new me. Davey G: Ramp Agent for Southwest Airlines.
Stand by…
Monday, May 24, 2010
DGK10 show recap.
(Pictured: Me, Scott Alexander, Paperback Tragedy, and the Pfisters)
One of the best compliments I can ever get for a show I put on has almost nothing to do with my actual performance. It is something that I might overhear someone saying but that is never actually said to me: “Wow, this is a really weird crowd.” Weird, as in, the people you see at this show would most likely never be at the same place at the same time anywhere else but at a Davey G show. To me it is fun to get groups of people who may like pop-punk hanging out with hard-core fans or fans of comedy of just plain well-wishers, friends, girlfriends, wives, etc. There’s bands and people that I like who don’t all fit into the same mold, and that’s really what this show was about for me.
The Davey G and the Keyboard 10th Anniversary Show at the Windup was a very personal show for me. In addition to celebrating 10 years of something this monumental, it also coincides with a major change in my life: a new job in a completely non-food service related area (more on this in an upcoming blog). I can’t lie--getting up and announcing this to the crowd and getting such a wildly positive reaction made me more happy than I thought possible. My words were heartfelt, my thanks are real. As I said toward the end of my set, this was not a Davey G and the Keyboard retirement show, just the marking of an occasion.
For the record: I played 22 songs, plus an encore. 10 songs were from the “Generica” album. The songs “Lost in the misery,” “Bowl Games,” “Boppity Bop,” “You Just Made My List” and “Why Must We Wear Pants?” are songs that I probably haven’t played live since the very beginning, and “Nervous Breakdown” and “Theme From a Sci-Fi Discussion Show” are songs that I’ve never played live. I borrowed my closing line from the late Frank Zappa: “Good Night, Baltimore, wherever you are!”
Wild Bonerz opened, filling in for the late cancellation of Man-Friend. Scott Alexander, Paperback Tragedy, and the Pfisters all rocked with reckless abandon, and I thank them all for doing so.
Thanks to everyone who came out, and hope to see you at the next one!
--Davey G.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Rambling words about Davey G and the Keyboard a fortnight before the Davey G and the Keyboard 10 Year Anniversary Show (a short series) Part 2.
Part two of two. Read part one.
For my 10 year anniversary as Davey G and the Keyboard, initially I had pictured doing one big show with a dozen bands and maybe making it an all day thing. Quickly I realized that this would not be desirable for anyone. It’s very hard to expect people to stick around for 12 or so bands and then face the very real possibility of it all backfiring for me, the “headliner,” as all but the most dedicated fans run out of gas before I’ve even started.
Instead, I chose the two-date option, with bands or parts of bands that I have played with over the past 10 years.
Which now gets me to those bands…
Pfisters. I haven’t actually played with them, but Darren and all the Sidebar crew have been stalwart supporters of Davey G over the last several years and I really appreciate that. Ditto for Matty of the Mandroids, with whom I have played twice, both times at Free Comic Book Day at the Collector’s Corner.
Paperback Tragedy has been there pretty much since the beginning, when they were still known as Brat. Will West is kind of a personal hero--he’s a true musician who plugs away year after year, true to his craft and a great guy to boot. Him and Paperback Tragedy get nothing but respect from me.
Scott Alexander and I go back to 2005, when we met at the Talking Head Club Gong Show. Since then we have shared a stage or two or three, and he recently appeared on the People’s Court and won.
Man Friend, the Davey G tribute band…what can I say? Ken and Co. have put together a tribute band in my honor. I honestly can’t wait to hear what my songs will sound like coming from someone else.
http://www.maximumsciencefiction.com/
Rare Candy’s brand of video game music has been a great fit for any bill I have been on. Ditto for Markitect’s brand of solo indy rock. A friend of mine is convinced that 4th Grade Security Risk is the best band name ever. Can’t argue with that.
Common questions people tend to ask me:
So…where do you perform?
I have performed many times at the Sidebar and the Windup Space. In the past, I have played the Ottobar (back when it was on Davis Street), I frequently played The Talking Head (ditto), and Winchester’s Comedy Club. at Source of the Nile (Pittsfield, now defunct), Spotlighter’s Theatre, Metro Gallery, Lionheart Café (Albany), Schenectady Cable Access, Hampshire College, a couple shows at Once Twice Sound and at Free Comic Book Day in Parkville, and for a time back in ’01 I had the Davey G Variety Show at Winchester’s for a couple of shows.
Dave, I know your middle name doesn’t begin with a “G.” What gives?
“G” is a tribute to Warren G. Harding, one of the greatest President of our age. I have no idea, it’s just a name I chose long ago and it happens to rhyme with a lot of words.
What’s with the lotion?
You gotta stay smooth in this business…
Actually, I did it at the very first show, and it stuck. It just always gets a reaction. I used to use a fresh bottle for every show, then I started watering it down, which makes it much messier-looking and far more effective. And if you don’t have any idea of what I’m talking about…
Dave, you have so many great songs: what’s your favorite?
Great question! Very insightful! I love all my songs like they were my children. I’d like to believe that at any one time during the show, I am playing somebody’s favorite song. From a performance perspective, I like Wash the Dish. From a personal listening perspective, I’d go with either Milwaukee or I Wanna Be a Real Musician--I’m especially proud of that one because it’s one song that doesn’t use a pre-set and also I play drums on it.
Most popular song?
Man Friend, hands down. A lot of people tell me they like one song or another, but everyone seems to like Man Friend.
I like that flyer better than I like you: Who made it?
That flyer was made by Mr. Alex Fine. He does excellent work: this is the third flyer he has made for me. When I see he has done such great work for a show I’m doing, I feel a great need to raise my game and do the best show ever. Here’s his info. www.facebook.com/alexfineillustration
So it’s been 10 years: What’s next?
Difficult to say…I will keep performing and making new songs. I have been doing a lot of writing, with a book out in zine form and others in the works. I just want to create, perform and enjoy my life. Odds are, if you are in touch with me either personally or over various social media, you will know about what I will be doing next.
http://www.facebook.com/daveygandthekeyboard
http://twitter.com/daveygandthe
Anything else?
Come to the Davey G and the Keyboard 10th !!!
Saturday, May 22 at the Windup Space!
And
Saturday, June 12 at the Sidebar!
Thanks for reading! Hope to see you at the show!
--Davey G.
For my 10 year anniversary as Davey G and the Keyboard, initially I had pictured doing one big show with a dozen bands and maybe making it an all day thing. Quickly I realized that this would not be desirable for anyone. It’s very hard to expect people to stick around for 12 or so bands and then face the very real possibility of it all backfiring for me, the “headliner,” as all but the most dedicated fans run out of gas before I’ve even started.
Instead, I chose the two-date option, with bands or parts of bands that I have played with over the past 10 years.
Which now gets me to those bands…
Pfisters. I haven’t actually played with them, but Darren and all the Sidebar crew have been stalwart supporters of Davey G over the last several years and I really appreciate that. Ditto for Matty of the Mandroids, with whom I have played twice, both times at Free Comic Book Day at the Collector’s Corner.
Paperback Tragedy has been there pretty much since the beginning, when they were still known as Brat. Will West is kind of a personal hero--he’s a true musician who plugs away year after year, true to his craft and a great guy to boot. Him and Paperback Tragedy get nothing but respect from me.
Scott Alexander and I go back to 2005, when we met at the Talking Head Club Gong Show. Since then we have shared a stage or two or three, and he recently appeared on the People’s Court and won.
Man Friend, the Davey G tribute band…what can I say? Ken and Co. have put together a tribute band in my honor. I honestly can’t wait to hear what my songs will sound like coming from someone else.
http://www.maximumsciencefiction.com/
Rare Candy’s brand of video game music has been a great fit for any bill I have been on. Ditto for Markitect’s brand of solo indy rock. A friend of mine is convinced that 4th Grade Security Risk is the best band name ever. Can’t argue with that.
Common questions people tend to ask me:
So…where do you perform?
I have performed many times at the Sidebar and the Windup Space. In the past, I have played the Ottobar (back when it was on Davis Street), I frequently played The Talking Head (ditto), and Winchester’s Comedy Club. at Source of the Nile (Pittsfield, now defunct), Spotlighter’s Theatre, Metro Gallery, Lionheart Café (Albany), Schenectady Cable Access, Hampshire College, a couple shows at Once Twice Sound and at Free Comic Book Day in Parkville, and for a time back in ’01 I had the Davey G Variety Show at Winchester’s for a couple of shows.
Dave, I know your middle name doesn’t begin with a “G.” What gives?
“G” is a tribute to Warren G. Harding, one of the greatest President of our age. I have no idea, it’s just a name I chose long ago and it happens to rhyme with a lot of words.
What’s with the lotion?
You gotta stay smooth in this business…
Actually, I did it at the very first show, and it stuck. It just always gets a reaction. I used to use a fresh bottle for every show, then I started watering it down, which makes it much messier-looking and far more effective. And if you don’t have any idea of what I’m talking about…
Dave, you have so many great songs: what’s your favorite?
Great question! Very insightful! I love all my songs like they were my children. I’d like to believe that at any one time during the show, I am playing somebody’s favorite song. From a performance perspective, I like Wash the Dish. From a personal listening perspective, I’d go with either Milwaukee or I Wanna Be a Real Musician--I’m especially proud of that one because it’s one song that doesn’t use a pre-set and also I play drums on it.
Most popular song?
Man Friend, hands down. A lot of people tell me they like one song or another, but everyone seems to like Man Friend.
I like that flyer better than I like you: Who made it?
That flyer was made by Mr. Alex Fine. He does excellent work: this is the third flyer he has made for me. When I see he has done such great work for a show I’m doing, I feel a great need to raise my game and do the best show ever. Here’s his info. www.facebook.com/alexfineillustration
So it’s been 10 years: What’s next?
Difficult to say…I will keep performing and making new songs. I have been doing a lot of writing, with a book out in zine form and others in the works. I just want to create, perform and enjoy my life. Odds are, if you are in touch with me either personally or over various social media, you will know about what I will be doing next.
http://www.facebook.com/daveygandthekeyboard
http://twitter.com/daveygandthe
Anything else?
Come to the Davey G and the Keyboard 10th !!!
Saturday, May 22 at the Windup Space!
And
Saturday, June 12 at the Sidebar!
Thanks for reading! Hope to see you at the show!
--Davey G.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Rambling words about Davey G and the Keyboard a fortnight before the Davey G and the Keyboard 10 Year Anniversary Show (a short series) Part 1
10 Years…a career that started on the couch of a house on Maryland Avenue…yes, the Davey G and the Keyboard trajectory has taken many turns. From the time that my old band, Lampstand, (for which I was not a keyboardist but a drummer) had it’s final meeting (a reunion eight years after our breakup) on July 2, 2000 until now, it has been quite a trip. Little did I know that the reunion of my high school band would ignite a desire within me that would last for so long. I’ve written about a lot of this before, so I’ll try to be brief in recapping it all…
Read about Lampstand here then come back and read the rest…
After that last show, I became inspired to return to the stage. After a summer of writing songs and goofing around on an old Kawai X20 keyboard, I had a set, and then a show, my first. September 2, 2000. 23 people showed up, and an act was born.
http://davecookson.tripod.com/daveyghistory.html
A few months later, I had a “tour” with my old band mate, Kneil, who was at the time in a band called Bromp Treb. I played in front of a green screen at Schenectady Cable Access, then a house party in Pittsfield, and then a show at Hampshire College. It was then January of 2001, and in those 3 shows, I really felt like I was on to something, setting a course that neither of us could have been aware of at the time…
2001-2002 was a heavy period of performances. Davey G and the Keyboard, as I was now calling myself, was getting off the ground. I had a fairly important show at the old Ottobar, then got a series of shows at the now defunct Winchester’s Comedy Club. I played and I played, and then I stopped, in 2002, and did not return until 2005...
When I came back to the stage in 2005, it was to much fanfare, more shows, more focus. I put together Prepare to be Keyboarded, then two years later I worked on what I had hoped would be my masterwork, Chairman of the Keyboard. This album was an attempt at more “professionalism,” an attempt to compensate for some of the rush jobs of the past. It was nothing if not an exercise in anal-retentiveness, at least as much of that as I am capable…
2008/2009 were also busy years, playing at the Sidebar, my home away from home.
Which brings me up to now, 10 years after the release of “Generica,” and the Davey G and the Keyboard 10th Anniversary Show (s)...
Next: The DGK 10 lineup and comments….
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
The Davey G and the Keyboard 10th Anniversary Show (s)
Flyer courtesy of Alex Fine.
On the 10th anniversary of his landmark album, “Generica” Davey G celebrates with you …
In the year 2000, I released my very first album, “Generica,” in cassette form. It had 21 tracks, some of which were very good, some of which were not very good. But it was the start of something fantastic, and ten years later it is time to celebrate the “achievement” of that magical debut album which launched the career of Davey G and the Keyboard. Come see me, Davey G in 2 very special shows in which I will be drawing heavily from that first album…
Saturday, May 22
The Windup Space
12 W. North Avenue
Davey G and the Keyboard
Pfisters
Paperback Tragedy
Scott Alexander
Man-Friend (The Davey G tribute band)
Saturday, June 12
The Sidebar
218 E. Lexington Street
Davey G and the Keyboard
The Mandroids
Rare Candy
Markitect
4th Grade Security Risk
Doors at 9 p.m for Both Shows.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
236 or…Davey G and a dramatic attempt to lower his cholesterol Part 1.
(Note: I’m splitting this up into multiple parts due to its length and due to the fact that part 2 still needs work. And to add dramatic tension. Hang in there.)
I’m going to write about something that may or may not interest anyone, but I write it out of the hope that maybe I can pass along a little of what I have learned in a relatively short period of time. I have found in the many years that I have been writing semi-publicly, I have been surprised at the positive reactions I receive when I simply write from the heart. Today, ironically, it is about the heart that I write.
Or more specifically, cholesterol.
I have always been in reasonably good health--no major diseases, I don’t get sick very often, and I am fairly active. I ride a bike to work, (and recreationally--read here) I walk frequently, and I work on my feet in a fairly un-sedentary life. I would consider my eating habits--well, not the best, but I have only ever had a vague sense of caution about what I eat. For example, I have always known that it is not a good idea to eat a lot of fried food, and that maybe red meat all the time is not always such a good idea. Once, back in high school, I was so freaked out by something the health teacher said about bacon that I didn’t eat it for 2 years. I don’t eat fast food, because I hate the way it tastes, I don’t eat potato chips---I could go on, but the point is that I have always believed that my lifestyle and eating habits were much better than the average American.
But overall, that has meant that I have gone under the assumption that because I was “active” and “ate well” that I didn’t really need to think about things like fat content or nutritional content because after all, I’m not fat and I take vitamins, and beyond that, I also don’t smoke.
So little did I suspect that I would have a problem with high cholesterol.
I hadn’t been to a Doctor’s office in over 12 years until I got insurance and began seeing one regularly. The first time I went I was holed up for 2 hours while I was given every conceivable test and questioned extensively about “family history” and my own personal habits. I was given kudos for not smoking, chided slightly for a 3 to 5 beers a day habit (only partly as a bi-product of working in a bar for so many years) and overall given a clean bill of health.
The next time I visited, I was told that my blood-work was “excellent” but that my cholesterol was just barely on the higher end of okay--just under 200. I figured that was fine, and I wasn’t told to change anything, so I didn’t.
On a later visit, I was told that my cholesterol had risen--up to about 214, and I was given the Fear of God speech, about how cholesterol builds up in your system and takes 15 years to get to your heart, which would put me right on schedule for a mid-life heart attack. The Doctor wasn’t worried, because there was no history of this in my family, but it was merely a friendly warning. I left the office with the thought that the one thing I was absolutely going to change right here and now was to go back to my boycott of bacon that had been so successful almost 15 years ago.
Then a few days later, I got a phone call from the Doctor’s office. “We need to see you. It’s about your test results.”
That’s never a good sign. But I went through all the possibilities, crossed out the more unlikely ones--if I had cancer or something, they wouldn’t tell me, they’d send me to a specialist first, right?--and tried not to worry about it until I could actually know what it was.
I made an appointment and saw my usual Doctor’s counterpart, a man with whom I was unfamiliar. He gave me the bad news: my cholesterol number had shot up to 236, and they wanted to put me on medication…
How did this happen? How could a healthy person like me have such a problem like this?
At the risk of being overdramatic, I have a lot to live for. In addition to a wife who loves me enough to keep me healthy and many animals who need me, I have so much I want to do. I have always planned on living to an old age and always being mentally and physically capable to write (speaking of which...) and make music and otherwise make the world at least marginally better for other people. I want to write many great books and travel to see wild polar bears and none of the things I want to do can be done if I die or become incapacitated when I’m 50. So I need to stay healthy and for the first time in my life, I need to care about what I eat and what I do to stay fit and avoid costly medication or future hospitalization.
**********************
I told the Doctor “Wait, hold up,” and then told him that I needed some time to work on this before they put me on medication. Up to this point I had taken no steps to fix this, because no one had ever really told me how dire a situation it was. It was only then, sitting in that office that I became convinced that now was the time to take this seriously, that I could no longer “take my health for granted.”
I had to completely re-examine my life, and what I could do differently. Avoiding bacon is a good first start, but where else was I going wrong?
Next up: Things I love, but might have to cut down on…
I’m going to write about something that may or may not interest anyone, but I write it out of the hope that maybe I can pass along a little of what I have learned in a relatively short period of time. I have found in the many years that I have been writing semi-publicly, I have been surprised at the positive reactions I receive when I simply write from the heart. Today, ironically, it is about the heart that I write.
Or more specifically, cholesterol.
I have always been in reasonably good health--no major diseases, I don’t get sick very often, and I am fairly active. I ride a bike to work, (and recreationally--read here) I walk frequently, and I work on my feet in a fairly un-sedentary life. I would consider my eating habits--well, not the best, but I have only ever had a vague sense of caution about what I eat. For example, I have always known that it is not a good idea to eat a lot of fried food, and that maybe red meat all the time is not always such a good idea. Once, back in high school, I was so freaked out by something the health teacher said about bacon that I didn’t eat it for 2 years. I don’t eat fast food, because I hate the way it tastes, I don’t eat potato chips---I could go on, but the point is that I have always believed that my lifestyle and eating habits were much better than the average American.
But overall, that has meant that I have gone under the assumption that because I was “active” and “ate well” that I didn’t really need to think about things like fat content or nutritional content because after all, I’m not fat and I take vitamins, and beyond that, I also don’t smoke.
So little did I suspect that I would have a problem with high cholesterol.
I hadn’t been to a Doctor’s office in over 12 years until I got insurance and began seeing one regularly. The first time I went I was holed up for 2 hours while I was given every conceivable test and questioned extensively about “family history” and my own personal habits. I was given kudos for not smoking, chided slightly for a 3 to 5 beers a day habit (only partly as a bi-product of working in a bar for so many years) and overall given a clean bill of health.
The next time I visited, I was told that my blood-work was “excellent” but that my cholesterol was just barely on the higher end of okay--just under 200. I figured that was fine, and I wasn’t told to change anything, so I didn’t.
On a later visit, I was told that my cholesterol had risen--up to about 214, and I was given the Fear of God speech, about how cholesterol builds up in your system and takes 15 years to get to your heart, which would put me right on schedule for a mid-life heart attack. The Doctor wasn’t worried, because there was no history of this in my family, but it was merely a friendly warning. I left the office with the thought that the one thing I was absolutely going to change right here and now was to go back to my boycott of bacon that had been so successful almost 15 years ago.
Then a few days later, I got a phone call from the Doctor’s office. “We need to see you. It’s about your test results.”
That’s never a good sign. But I went through all the possibilities, crossed out the more unlikely ones--if I had cancer or something, they wouldn’t tell me, they’d send me to a specialist first, right?--and tried not to worry about it until I could actually know what it was.
I made an appointment and saw my usual Doctor’s counterpart, a man with whom I was unfamiliar. He gave me the bad news: my cholesterol number had shot up to 236, and they wanted to put me on medication…
How did this happen? How could a healthy person like me have such a problem like this?
At the risk of being overdramatic, I have a lot to live for. In addition to a wife who loves me enough to keep me healthy and many animals who need me, I have so much I want to do. I have always planned on living to an old age and always being mentally and physically capable to write (speaking of which...) and make music and otherwise make the world at least marginally better for other people. I want to write many great books and travel to see wild polar bears and none of the things I want to do can be done if I die or become incapacitated when I’m 50. So I need to stay healthy and for the first time in my life, I need to care about what I eat and what I do to stay fit and avoid costly medication or future hospitalization.
**********************
I told the Doctor “Wait, hold up,” and then told him that I needed some time to work on this before they put me on medication. Up to this point I had taken no steps to fix this, because no one had ever really told me how dire a situation it was. It was only then, sitting in that office that I became convinced that now was the time to take this seriously, that I could no longer “take my health for granted.”
I had to completely re-examine my life, and what I could do differently. Avoiding bacon is a good first start, but where else was I going wrong?
Next up: Things I love, but might have to cut down on…
Thursday, February 21, 2008
News about the up-coming Davezine 13!
At the risk of cursing myself-- with the exception of some proof-reading, some editing, a change or two here and there, I am proud to say that
Low Level Bureaucrats 3: The Rise of the Collective is done!
Working nearly every available day, getting frustrated with dead ends and a story that has gone through multiple re-workings, now I have a (mostly) finished story, which concludes the Low Level Bureaucrats Trilogy--at least as far as the print version goes. I have decided that any future adventures in Beatown will live on-line.
I started Low Level Bureaucrats way back in 2004. It was an idea I had to write a story about a guy who runs for mayor on a platform of eliminating meter maids. That story took me about 8 months to write, and ultimately it played a role in returning Davey G and the Keyboard to the stage at the 2005 Davezine 11 release after a 3 year hiatus.
In 2006, I wrote Low Level Bureaucrats 2: (Karl) Love Story , which turned out to be one of my easiest writing experiences ever, with none of the usual hesitation and re-working that had gone into previous stories. I had the idea, I worked on it steadily for 3 months, and it just came out.
Part 3 was not so easy. As some readers may know, I had worked on Part 3 for months and months and struggled along to get 12 pages of a story that I just didn’t like. Not that it was bad, but it appeared that I’d been watching the Simpsons too much, and had maybe unconsciously copped a plot-line that, while not bad, just wasn’t one that I was happy ending the trilogy with.
Then I came across the article about how a drug for Restless Leg Syndrome leads to the side effect of gambling. This inspired me to re-imagine Karl Love’s gambling addiction of LLB 2 into a side effect from a drug used to treat his Freudian Slip. And then I thought about things in my adopted home town of Baltimore that really irritate the hell out of me, and it morphed into a story that I feel effectively wraps up the trilogy, and serves as catharsis for…those things that irritate the hell out of me in Baltimore. (see: the Parochialist).
And even that story hit a snag. I blasted something out in two months, then had to go back and rework at least half of it. (The lesson here: plan your stories before you write them, you will thank yourself for it later.)
But very soon, Davezine Number 13, featuring Low Level Bureaucrats 3: the Rise of the Collective will come out for all to read.
Look for my new Davezine at the end of March! I will announce it here, on my blog, on my site, on myspace, mailing list--wherever you are reading this!
For back issues, (Davezine 1-12) here’s the link to my catalog!
http://davecookson.tripod.com/testcatalog.html
Low Level Bureaucrats 3: The Rise of the Collective is done!
Working nearly every available day, getting frustrated with dead ends and a story that has gone through multiple re-workings, now I have a (mostly) finished story, which concludes the Low Level Bureaucrats Trilogy--at least as far as the print version goes. I have decided that any future adventures in Beatown will live on-line.
I started Low Level Bureaucrats way back in 2004. It was an idea I had to write a story about a guy who runs for mayor on a platform of eliminating meter maids. That story took me about 8 months to write, and ultimately it played a role in returning Davey G and the Keyboard to the stage at the 2005 Davezine 11 release after a 3 year hiatus.
In 2006, I wrote Low Level Bureaucrats 2: (Karl) Love Story , which turned out to be one of my easiest writing experiences ever, with none of the usual hesitation and re-working that had gone into previous stories. I had the idea, I worked on it steadily for 3 months, and it just came out.
Part 3 was not so easy. As some readers may know, I had worked on Part 3 for months and months and struggled along to get 12 pages of a story that I just didn’t like. Not that it was bad, but it appeared that I’d been watching the Simpsons too much, and had maybe unconsciously copped a plot-line that, while not bad, just wasn’t one that I was happy ending the trilogy with.
Then I came across the article about how a drug for Restless Leg Syndrome leads to the side effect of gambling. This inspired me to re-imagine Karl Love’s gambling addiction of LLB 2 into a side effect from a drug used to treat his Freudian Slip. And then I thought about things in my adopted home town of Baltimore that really irritate the hell out of me, and it morphed into a story that I feel effectively wraps up the trilogy, and serves as catharsis for…those things that irritate the hell out of me in Baltimore. (see: the Parochialist).
And even that story hit a snag. I blasted something out in two months, then had to go back and rework at least half of it. (The lesson here: plan your stories before you write them, you will thank yourself for it later.)
But very soon, Davezine Number 13, featuring Low Level Bureaucrats 3: the Rise of the Collective will come out for all to read.
Look for my new Davezine at the end of March! I will announce it here, on my blog, on my site, on myspace, mailing list--wherever you are reading this!
For back issues, (Davezine 1-12) here’s the link to my catalog!
http://davecookson.tripod.com/testcatalog.html
Monday, January 07, 2008
Criticism
Davey G and the Keyboard was recently the target of some vicious criticism, in print, from someone who apparently was not going to like it no matter what (Let me just say that this person objected to the fact that I play with a Casio keyboard, supposedly indicating a lack of seriousness--nothing could be further from the truth--and the rest of this blurb flowed from that rather unfair prejudice). Rather than respond to it directly, or dignify it by even mentioning it’s source [no, it’s not my arch enemy on Park Ave.] , I would like to offer some thoughts for others who may experience the same thing.
The best criticism, they say, is done in private, with a loving arm around your shoulder, and is never meant to embarrass or hurt.
And then there’s the other kind. The flat-out mean, the “I didn’t get it but I’m going to shit on it anyway” sort of unconstructive stuff that can only lead the person criticized to discouragement.
I invite myself open to criticism every time I get up on stage, or anytime anyone listens to my music, and though this may be shocking for me to admit, people don’t always love me. It’s just a fact of life, and I accept that.
It was especially obvious back in the days I performed at the comedy club. A lot of the times I would do two shows a night, and often it was bittersweet--the early crowd might absolutely adore me, and then a different later crowd would hate me. What it taught me is that I am the same every time: it’s the audience who changes. That is not to say that people are “wrong” not to laugh, or to enjoy my act--it is just to say that sometimes the situation can be stacked against you and there is just no saving it. That is when I just have to trust that I know what I’m doing and get through it, even if I’m not feeling the love from the crowd.
In the last three years of performing as Davey G and the Keyboard (of a total of seven), I haven’t really had a bad show (thankfully) and I have been doing this for so long that my act truly “is what it is.” If someone doesn’t like it, there really is no changing it. And that is what I tell myself, the thought that helps me deal with harsh words: I know what I do is good, because I feel it, because many, many people (who have nothing to gain by kissing my ass) tell me it’s good, because it is me, and it flows from me.
“All Art is a search for truth,” my old acting teacher said, and while I do not believe what I do is Art, for me it is truth. No bad words against me are ever going to shake me from that truth.
Thanks for reading!
--DGK.
www.daveygandthekeyboard.com
The best criticism, they say, is done in private, with a loving arm around your shoulder, and is never meant to embarrass or hurt.
And then there’s the other kind. The flat-out mean, the “I didn’t get it but I’m going to shit on it anyway” sort of unconstructive stuff that can only lead the person criticized to discouragement.
I invite myself open to criticism every time I get up on stage, or anytime anyone listens to my music, and though this may be shocking for me to admit, people don’t always love me. It’s just a fact of life, and I accept that.
It was especially obvious back in the days I performed at the comedy club. A lot of the times I would do two shows a night, and often it was bittersweet--the early crowd might absolutely adore me, and then a different later crowd would hate me. What it taught me is that I am the same every time: it’s the audience who changes. That is not to say that people are “wrong” not to laugh, or to enjoy my act--it is just to say that sometimes the situation can be stacked against you and there is just no saving it. That is when I just have to trust that I know what I’m doing and get through it, even if I’m not feeling the love from the crowd.
In the last three years of performing as Davey G and the Keyboard (of a total of seven), I haven’t really had a bad show (thankfully) and I have been doing this for so long that my act truly “is what it is.” If someone doesn’t like it, there really is no changing it. And that is what I tell myself, the thought that helps me deal with harsh words: I know what I do is good, because I feel it, because many, many people (who have nothing to gain by kissing my ass) tell me it’s good, because it is me, and it flows from me.
“All Art is a search for truth,” my old acting teacher said, and while I do not believe what I do is Art, for me it is truth. No bad words against me are ever going to shake me from that truth.
Thanks for reading!
--DGK.
www.daveygandthekeyboard.com
Monday, February 19, 2007
Dr. Demento
This is the rejection letter I got from Dr. Demento in 1992 for my album “Wicked Personal Experience.” Just yesterday I sent him another CD--apparently he’s still kicking, 30 years in.
I used to listen to the Dr. Demento show every Sunday night, back in Pittsfield, even taping the shows, and I’ve realized how much of my musical taste and selections have come from that show. It was the first place I heard They Might Be Giants, Wild Man Fischer, many Frank Zappa and Weird Al songs.
Here’s hoping that my Davey G and the Keyboard incarnation makes it to the Funny Five!
www.daveygandthekeyboard.com
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
notes on songs, What I Can Learn From Weird Al
Working on a little Davey G. Sampler, for local jukebox play. Not a big project, not for sale or anything, just something I’ve been thinking about. It’s funny to think about all the songs I never play anymore, and how different (at least, to me) the new songs are from the days of the Generica cassette.
I wrote a new song yesterday, with the help of the Casiotone, based on a joke that has been in my head for years. I want to write a lot of songs and then cut out the crap. So far, the process has yielded about 8 songs I like, and about a half dozen that could go either way. One thing: Weird Al, whom I greatly admire, has a habit of making even his not-that-funny songs hilarious, all based on his energy. Just watch the Eat It Video sometime. While the song is funny in it’s own right, the video is double-plus funny because of the absolutely over-the-top dead seriousness and energy he puts into it. He is silly, but he means it.
I could learn a lot from that.
www.daveygandthekeyboard.com
I wrote a new song yesterday, with the help of the Casiotone, based on a joke that has been in my head for years. I want to write a lot of songs and then cut out the crap. So far, the process has yielded about 8 songs I like, and about a half dozen that could go either way. One thing: Weird Al, whom I greatly admire, has a habit of making even his not-that-funny songs hilarious, all based on his energy. Just watch the Eat It Video sometime. While the song is funny in it’s own right, the video is double-plus funny because of the absolutely over-the-top dead seriousness and energy he puts into it. He is silly, but he means it.
I could learn a lot from that.
www.daveygandthekeyboard.com
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Updating the Archives
My brain and eyes are a little fried from working on the web site. I am trying to improve the Davey G History (as some readers may know) which now has forced me to look at the previous diary posts (before I started using blogger and myspace) to try to improve things like loading time and just sheer navigability (that’s a word, right?). For some odd, fucked up reason my apostrophe’s turn to question marks on my site--I try to change them when I can but nonetheless, there they are. I hope that by using blogging technology I can eliminate these sort of problems, but for now I just want to spare any of my readers some of the pain when looking at my archives.
Anything prior to about April of 2006 can be found here:
http://davecookson.tripod.com/daveygshowdiary.html
Still flawed, but getting better…I don’t hate it as much now.
BTW, working on a great new story idea…
www.daveygandthekeyboard.com
Anything prior to about April of 2006 can be found here:
http://davecookson.tripod.com/daveygshowdiary.html
Still flawed, but getting better…I don’t hate it as much now.
BTW, working on a great new story idea…
www.daveygandthekeyboard.com
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
part 2, Davey G history
It’s an ongoing process putting this new history up, but for now it comes out in little dribbles. Here’s part 2.
http://davecookson.tripod.com/daveyghistorypart2.html
www.daveygandthekeyboard.com
http://davecookson.tripod.com/daveyghistorypart2.html
www.daveygandthekeyboard.com
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Davey G History, Part One is Up
Part one of the new Davey G History is up.
Check it out, see what you think--I make changes based on feedback, and I also will probably get more pictures. Working on the rest of it but I thought I’d share what I have done so far.
www.daveygandthekeyboard.com
Check it out, see what you think--I make changes based on feedback, and I also will probably get more pictures. Working on the rest of it but I thought I’d share what I have done so far.
www.daveygandthekeyboard.com
Thursday, November 02, 2006
more Davey G History stuff
I wrote like an insane person yesterday, in part due to my new cat,
who gave me a reason to stay inside and keep her company. So here is a bit that talks about my dry spell in Davey G. The other stuff I wrote fleshes out my early days as I re-write the History of Davey G.
Part 3: 2002-2005--the drought
It was an expected part of the cycle. After the good 2 years of my rise, it was pretty much obvious that I couldn’t keep it going. I think I just got sick of doing what I was doing, or I ran out of ideas, or I lost some confidence. Whatever, I just decided to retire. I had sputterings of appearances, an open mic here and there. But nothing serious, no new material, nothing that really charged me.
I can’t say it was a bad time: I did so much in other areas of my life, traveled, finished college, wrote. But Davey G and the Keyboard was not a part of my life, and as I’ve come to realize, my performances may disappear, but the desire for them never does. It is what I do, it is who I am. I treat every show seriously, I put all that I am into every single performance. I don’t care if 5 people show up and hate me, I am still giving all that I’ve got. Because like it or not, for better or worse, I am a performer, and that can’t be snuffed out, not even by my own occasionally apathetic self.
I felt downright religious writing that. I hope it’s not too much.
www.daveygandthekeyboard.com
who gave me a reason to stay inside and keep her company. So here is a bit that talks about my dry spell in Davey G. The other stuff I wrote fleshes out my early days as I re-write the History of Davey G.
Part 3: 2002-2005--the drought
It was an expected part of the cycle. After the good 2 years of my rise, it was pretty much obvious that I couldn’t keep it going. I think I just got sick of doing what I was doing, or I ran out of ideas, or I lost some confidence. Whatever, I just decided to retire. I had sputterings of appearances, an open mic here and there. But nothing serious, no new material, nothing that really charged me.
I can’t say it was a bad time: I did so much in other areas of my life, traveled, finished college, wrote. But Davey G and the Keyboard was not a part of my life, and as I’ve come to realize, my performances may disappear, but the desire for them never does. It is what I do, it is who I am. I treat every show seriously, I put all that I am into every single performance. I don’t care if 5 people show up and hate me, I am still giving all that I’ve got. Because like it or not, for better or worse, I am a performer, and that can’t be snuffed out, not even by my own occasionally apathetic self.
I felt downright religious writing that. I hope it’s not too much.
www.daveygandthekeyboard.com
Thursday, August 31, 2006
The Medium is the Message
The last few days I’ve been playing my old cassettes on my tape player that I use for my Davey G. practices, and have been rewarded with the unending joy of the wave of nostalgia they bring. Suddenly it’s 1993 all over again, and I’m listening to They Might Be Giants “Lincoln” album, or the Fastbacks “Zucker,” both were bought in the early ‘90s and neither of which I’ve played because of the continuing trend toward analog obsolescence which have led to Cds and MP3s and the like. These are some of the old albums which are so old and fundamental that I never bothered to update them, so they sat unused in boxes around my house. While it would be possible to purchase them again on CD or download them, the way I remember experiencing this music was always on cassette, with all its inherent flaws yet without some of the issues of Cds (Say what you will about the sound quality of a 15 year old tape, but at least a tape doesn’t skip.). The music would be the same but the experience would be vastly different.
As I brought the cassettes to work and connected the tape player to the stereo, I can also see the wave of nostalgia wash over my late 20-something co-worker. He sings along to every song, songs neither of us have listened to in 10 years. It’s a strange kind of boundless joy I haven’t completely understood--I was truly ecstatic when I listened to the MCKnicknix, an old and forgotten New England band who were my first punk rock show ever, and then Jawbreaker on the flip side (whom I saw twice, getting to shake Blake Schwarzenbach’s hand at the show in Connecticut where a fight broke out during the opening band’s set). It was great to liberate the near-defunct technology and hear the songs of my youth in the form I remember. I find myself wishing I still had my old Dead Kennedys and Circle jerks cassettes which I played out long ago. I know they are still out there in some form, but I know it wouldn’t be the same. That’s not such a bad thing, as a scratchy cassette is nobody’s friend, but I guess that’s not the point. Because (make my corporate Comm. teachers at UB proud) as media guru Marshall McLuhan said “the medium is the message.”
www.daveygandthekeyboard.com
As I brought the cassettes to work and connected the tape player to the stereo, I can also see the wave of nostalgia wash over my late 20-something co-worker. He sings along to every song, songs neither of us have listened to in 10 years. It’s a strange kind of boundless joy I haven’t completely understood--I was truly ecstatic when I listened to the MCKnicknix, an old and forgotten New England band who were my first punk rock show ever, and then Jawbreaker on the flip side (whom I saw twice, getting to shake Blake Schwarzenbach’s hand at the show in Connecticut where a fight broke out during the opening band’s set). It was great to liberate the near-defunct technology and hear the songs of my youth in the form I remember. I find myself wishing I still had my old Dead Kennedys and Circle jerks cassettes which I played out long ago. I know they are still out there in some form, but I know it wouldn’t be the same. That’s not such a bad thing, as a scratchy cassette is nobody’s friend, but I guess that’s not the point. Because (make my corporate Comm. teachers at UB proud) as media guru Marshall McLuhan said “the medium is the message.”
www.daveygandthekeyboard.com
Monday, August 07, 2006
Hardees Fast Food thoughts, part 1
When I was 14 I worked at Hardees Fast Food Restaurant back home in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. As I think about it from my kitchen at the job I've now been at for over 5 years, I kind of feel like Lester Burnham in American Beauty. The character is ruminating on the summer of '73, when he worked at a fast food joint, just partying and getting laid, with his whole life in front of him.
While I remember hating a lot of the job, I think that for about 3 months of 1990 it was the best thing ever. I was just starting to play in a band--even if I was only just drumming on buckets and crap at first until I bought my crappy-ass third hand drum set (which I still play). I was just starting high school, working this job at 3.75 an hour, living with my parents, truly with my whole life in front of me.
All I did was flip burgers, chop lettuce in a big lettuce press, wash pot and pans, just work in this little industrial kitchen. Its kind of weird but I was pretty happy with the work--keeping thing simple and routine, while still being very excited about the possibilities of life. I never thought I would still be in a kitchen so many years later, but I guess in a lot of ways my life hasn't changed. I'm still making music, being a drone, but excited about the possibilities of life. I still summon the inner 14 year old whenever I sit down in the basement and make music. Or whenever I get on stage and scream through a kiddie horn.
The bliss of Hardees didn't last,obviously. I became pretty sick of the place and the people, and after about 8 months (an eternity in a high turnover world of fast food) I told my manager I didn't need to work and I put in my two week's notice. A few months later the place shut down, pretty much with no warning, and now I think it's been turned into a used car dealership.
I started thinking about Hardees on Friday night when Josh and I, bored out of our minds at work, took out paper hats and wrote stupid shit on them. I wrote "Hardee's Head Chef" and he wrote "Hawk Tenderizer", all the while blasting Ozzy Ozbourne and collectively not giving a shit. I couldn't help but think back fondly to a time when this sort of shit was just a job and not a fate that I had resigned myself to.
www.daveygandthekeyboard.com
While I remember hating a lot of the job, I think that for about 3 months of 1990 it was the best thing ever. I was just starting to play in a band--even if I was only just drumming on buckets and crap at first until I bought my crappy-ass third hand drum set (which I still play). I was just starting high school, working this job at 3.75 an hour, living with my parents, truly with my whole life in front of me.
All I did was flip burgers, chop lettuce in a big lettuce press, wash pot and pans, just work in this little industrial kitchen. Its kind of weird but I was pretty happy with the work--keeping thing simple and routine, while still being very excited about the possibilities of life. I never thought I would still be in a kitchen so many years later, but I guess in a lot of ways my life hasn't changed. I'm still making music, being a drone, but excited about the possibilities of life. I still summon the inner 14 year old whenever I sit down in the basement and make music. Or whenever I get on stage and scream through a kiddie horn.
The bliss of Hardees didn't last,obviously. I became pretty sick of the place and the people, and after about 8 months (an eternity in a high turnover world of fast food) I told my manager I didn't need to work and I put in my two week's notice. A few months later the place shut down, pretty much with no warning, and now I think it's been turned into a used car dealership.
I started thinking about Hardees on Friday night when Josh and I, bored out of our minds at work, took out paper hats and wrote stupid shit on them. I wrote "Hardee's Head Chef" and he wrote "Hawk Tenderizer", all the while blasting Ozzy Ozbourne and collectively not giving a shit. I couldn't help but think back fondly to a time when this sort of shit was just a job and not a fate that I had resigned myself to.
www.daveygandthekeyboard.com
Thursday, August 03, 2006
me, and the Poncherellos
The show is up on the talking head site, though I am not the top of the bill--sort of the concession for taking that date and accommodating a touring band. I have been loosely working on a few new songs out of my little basement “studio.” One is about the MTA, another called “Be My Friend,” “Come to my House”, and I did a version of “It’s So Easy.” I guess when I sit down and work at it a few songs come out sometimes but I really would love to push it and get more done, even get another keyboard. One day…
My friend Andre and his band the Poncherellos are playing a reunion show up in Massachusetts at Source of the Nile. They were a group that formed about the time I was in Lampstand, then broke up and went their separate ways, then had a reunion show (along with the Lampstand reunion show that was somewhat of a watershed event in the Davey G and the Keyboard forming) and now, after a long period of working in LA in the porn industry, Andre has decided to re-form the group. I am really curious about this--they were pretty much a straight-up goofball ‘70s style band, who took their name from the Erik Estrada character in CHIPs, yet somehow they achieved a great deal of underground success, mostly due to the dogged determination of Andre, the guy who wrote Rebel Sound Magazine (also somewhat of a seminal publication in the Western Mass. punk scene, whatever that was) and had the connections within the national scene. I think their 7-inch split with the Gloo Girls in 1993 was Maximum Rock’N Roll’s 7-inch of the year. Yeah. So anyway, this show is rumored to be on August 17 at 6 p.m. Apparently Andre is moving back to Massachusetts to start a business, something related to coffee and punk, a place to do shows. I hope it works out.
My friend Andre and his band the Poncherellos are playing a reunion show up in Massachusetts at Source of the Nile. They were a group that formed about the time I was in Lampstand, then broke up and went their separate ways, then had a reunion show (along with the Lampstand reunion show that was somewhat of a watershed event in the Davey G and the Keyboard forming) and now, after a long period of working in LA in the porn industry, Andre has decided to re-form the group. I am really curious about this--they were pretty much a straight-up goofball ‘70s style band, who took their name from the Erik Estrada character in CHIPs, yet somehow they achieved a great deal of underground success, mostly due to the dogged determination of Andre, the guy who wrote Rebel Sound Magazine (also somewhat of a seminal publication in the Western Mass. punk scene, whatever that was) and had the connections within the national scene. I think their 7-inch split with the Gloo Girls in 1993 was Maximum Rock’N Roll’s 7-inch of the year. Yeah. So anyway, this show is rumored to be on August 17 at 6 p.m. Apparently Andre is moving back to Massachusetts to start a business, something related to coffee and punk, a place to do shows. I hope it works out.
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