thus and such

The interview at the collectibles place seemed pretty good.  They mostly handle (at least out of the store) watches, jewelry, and sports and entertainment memorabilia.  (I was told that the store only holds about 1/3 of the business' goods, and that is also silver, furniture, etc.)  The store is small and cramped and a little chaotic.  I was interviewed by a staff member right on the floor, and I think I impressed her, but the head guy was too busy to see me.  The bad news is that there are no benefits, there could be Sunday hours, and the pay may suck.  When I was asked what I wanted hourly, I said "close to 20," and she asked if I could be flexible.  I said yes.  But the truth is that without bennies, I can't take less than 18.

I really want to work there.  I realized when I was in there and looking around, and when I talked to the woman about my enthusiasm for and knowledge of collectibles, I realized:  I'm a serious collectibles junkie.  Truly.  I saw a tiny little bellhop uniform hanging from the wall and kind of gasped and asked the woman, "Is that a Johnny-the-midget-Phillip-Morris outfit?"  She said, "Well, I'm a little young to remember that...but I think you're right."  She looked mildly and pleasantly surprised.  I'm a little young to remember that, too, but I knew anyway.  I also gasped at the framed Al Jolson autograph.  Gasped at the Apollo 13 picture signed by the astronauts, and of course the signed Beatles poster.  Case of baseball cards and shelf of signed balls.  Signed baseball and basketball jerseys.  trays and trays of watches:  Rolex, Cartier, Mont Blanc, Movado.  Jewelry in the window.  Told the woman I could tell a ruby from a garnet, a good ruby from a bad one, and any of the above from glass.  The place is just all full of stuff I dig and understand.  Unless the boss is a total lunatic or bastard, I really would like to work there.

Two of my references have already e-mailed the uptown university, so I may get myself an interview there.

I broke down and bought the CD of Garland Jeffreys' first album today.  I used to see him many years ago when I was hanging out at the Folklore Center; he was friends with Eddie Diehl, who did repair work there, and would come to visit him.  I didn't know that he was a musician, but when I saw the album, I recognized him and bought it.  It wasn't on CD for a long time.  My favorite song on the album is Ballad of Me, and I've never been able to find an mp3 of it.

My second favorite Garland Jeffreys song is Jump Jump, which fortunately is on YouTube.



Oh, geez, they *do* have Ballad of Me:



Do we all know what "earworms" are?  A song you simply cannot get out of your head, whether it's one you like or hate?  The one that recently had me for a couple of days was "Little Green Bag."  I'm still not sure whether or not I like it, but it's one weird damn song.  The verse and the refrain (I'm not even sure which is which) seem to come from entirely different songs, and I'm still not sure I have a handle on the lyrics (they don't seem to be hard to understand, but I haven't quite been able to figure out what it's all about).  It was initially recorded by The George Baker Selection (who?  OK, I've been too lazy to look them up), by The Strawberry Alarm Clock (!!!) and recently by Tom Jones with the Barenaked Ladies.

OK, I did a little homework.  The George Baker Selection was a rock band from 1967 to 1978.  George Baker now performs as a solo act.  And he's Dutch, which makes the whole thing even weirder.  Maybe that's why the lyrics make no sense -- they're not in Dutch, but maybe they're kind of ESL.



More research.  Here are the lyrics:

Lookin' back on the track for a little green bag,
Got to find just the kind or I'm losin' my mind

Out of sight in the night out of sight in the day,
Lookin' back on the track gonna do it my way.

Out of sight in the night out of sight in the day,
Lookin' back on the track gonna do it my way.
Lookin' back

Lookin' for some happiness
But there is only loneliness to find
Jump to the left, turn to the right
Lookin' upstairs, lookin' behind, yeah!

Lookin' for some happiness
But there is only loneliness to find
Jump to the left, turn to the right
Lookin' upstairs, lookin' behind.

Lookin' back on the track for a little green bag,
Got to find just the kind or I'm losin' my mind

Out of sight in the night out of sight in the day,
Lookin' back on the track gonna do it my way.

Lookin' back on the track for a little little green bag,
Got to find just the kind or I'm losin' my mind,
Alright.

Lookin' for some happiness
But there is only loneliness to find
Jump to the left, turn to the right
Lookin' upstairs, lookin' behind.

Pa pa pa pa pa pa ....

----------------

I'm not nuts, right?  The music is weird and the lyrics are weird.

And now it's YOUR earbug, mwah ha ha!