oh no

I did not get that job and I haven't even begun to let myself feel how upset and disappointed I am -- not to mention baffled.  What really gets me is that I haven't seen any ads for a job nearly this good at which I might have any kind of a shot.  Back to looking at boring shitty jobs.

too sad

I watched part of a documentary last night that I shouldn't have watched.  It involved someone I once considered a friend; the "friend" basically treated me like a flunky and then dropped me.  It's been a couple of years, and I don't think about it much, considering that I knew this person for most of my life.  At first I didn't think the documentary footage bothered me (it was actually some deleted scenes from a film I'd seen some years back), but I couldn't sleep last night, and today I can't eat and can't stop crying.  Sometimes people are so cruel and disappoint you so thoroughly and shockingly that it's hard to let go; I'm still stunned by the way I was treated, nearly two years later.  Maybe it's partly because I'm very stressed, waiting to hear about that job, but I think I'm also very sad.  Losing a friend is hard enough; discovering that the "friend" only used and discarded you is nearly unbearable.  Barry knows that I miss the "friend" and keeps hoping that we'll make up, but I don't see anything to go back to.  After a certain point, I decided to stop inviting neglect and cruelty, which was the right decision, but it's hard not to miss the friend I never had.

happy thursday

Well, I'm not so sure what's happy about it, but it's not a bad one.

I went to the farmer's market at Cadman Plaza (Brooklyn), and while it's not as big as the Union Square one, I managed to score some nice stuff: arugula, heirloom tomatoes, nectarines, kirbys, a red pepper, and some colby cheese from the Amish.  The tiny plums and the peaches were kind of hard, and we're due to get some basil from the landlord's garden.  The landlord has a little garden in the backyard, which is off-limits to the tenant, but a guy who lives downstairs is kind of in charge of distributing the overage.  We got some fresh figs today...I wait all year for them.  I can see the fig trees from our bedroom window.  What's better than fresh figs?

After the market, I took a nice stroll down Montague Street.  I mostly grew up in Brooklyn Heights, when it wasn't entirely obscenely expensive.  Most of the old-time stores are gone, of course.  But what's a drag is that when I was there a couple of years ago (serving jury duty at the court that's right behind the farmer's market), there was a wonderful used book store in what used to be Kleinman's Pharmacy (where I bought my first tampons and first make-up).  The bookstore guy and I were convinced that we knew each other, but couldn't figure out from where.  Anyway, the bookstore's gone now.  Shit.  We do have a good used bookstore on Coney Island Avenue, near Kings Highway (it's called Here's A Bookstore, which I love), but I hate to see a used bookstore go out of business.

I listened to my mp3 player the whole way there and back, and am particularly enjoying songs from the new Los Lobos album, Tin Can Trust (I downloaded it from Amazon).  Also loving this song:



I'm not sure I've heard anything else by this band, but I love love love this song.

My uncle and his wife are coming in from New Jersey (they live near Princeton) on Sunday, to try a brunch spot in preparation for a big family get together in October, for my dad's 80th birthday.  We're going to Colicchio and Sons...I'm psyched about seeing Howard and Tina, and also about eating at C&S.  I haven't eaten at any upscale restaurants since Penguin -- we occasionally went to Blue Ribbon for a birthday or an author lunch. 

And of course there was the famous private-room luncheon at Gramercy Tavern when David Lynch was in town the first time, with some Penguin sales reps and buyers from Barnes & Noble and such.  The food was amazing, and let's face it, just having lunch with Lynch was amazing.  He was easily the most fascinating of all of the authors I worked with, though not necessarily my favorite.  He was certainly one of my favorites, along with John Strausbaugh and Marc Hartzman and Martha Frankel.

My uncle is certainly one of my very favorite blood relations.  He's actually closer to my age than to my father's -- my father is 15 years older than Howard, and Howard is 13 years older than I am.  He's very intelligent and very well-read, which my father is as well, but also very generous. 

My brother is not in touch with anyone, and we're all kind of pissed and scratching our heads.  We're not even sure if he's coming to dad's 80th birthday.  I wouldn't mind so much...my brother's been more and more distant since he got married, and even more so since he moved away.  But I basically have no contact with my nephew, with whom I was hoping to have a close relationship.  They had already moved to Riverdale when he was born, which was enough of a hassle, but now they're in Providence, RI, and I've basically missed Walter's childhood.  He's eight now, and we've never been invited to visit in Rhode Island, not once.  Family can be a huge pain...sometimes a pleasure, sometimes a huge pain.  Barry's family was at least nice enough not to move away from where they all lived and grew up.  Mine all left Brooklyn or Manhattan.  (My uncle grew up in Philly and lived there for many years, until he and Tina moved to New Jersey, which is actually a good deal closer to us.)

Well, I think the brunch should be great fun, anyway.

I've changed the template for this blog, and I think it's more attractive and easier to read.  All comments welcome.

musical awesomeness

I turned on the TV today and caught the last half-hour or so of a documentary about Folkways Records (now Smithsonian Folkways), a label that recording not just every kind of music in the world, but tons of spoken word albums and even albums of things like nature sounds and train noises.  To me, the folk and blues albums are the really hot stuff. 

The documentary was very interesting.  They only identified the talking heads the first time they were shown, so I kept seeing a guy who wasn't identified (must have come into the show before I turned it on, in other words), and kept thinking, "That's some I know," but couldn't place him.  And couldn't place him, and couldn't place him.  Then I realized it was Richard Carlin, who edits and writes music books.  I met Richard at summer camp when he was 15, and even though I've seen recent pictures of him, I still remember a skinny teenager with thick-rimmed glasses.

I always thought it was cool that at camp, Richard played the concertina, and was a counselor-in-training at the publications shop, a marvelous writer -- and now he still does music and writing.  I love seeing someone stick with a passion (or two) all those years.

Anyway, it looks like everything from Folkways and Smithsonian Folkways is available for purchase or download.  I think one or the other must have gobbled up some tiny folk labels along the way, because I found a favorite album (Clark Kessinger, Fiddler) which I could swear was on another label when I originally bought it, maybe County.  You can download albums for 9.99 or songs for .99.  It's absolutely amazing what's on there:  children's songs, The New Lost City Ramblers, the early albums of Dave van Ronk, pretty much everything Woody Guthrie ever did, amazing folk compilations, jazz, Lightnin' Hopkins, Leadbelly. Malvina Reynolds...there's lots.

One caveat -- when you download, the file does not have a title or song info.  An album will have the album title, but not the track names.  (It comes with a PDF file of album notes, but you still have to type in the track names yourself.)  A single song with have a numerical file name, and mousing over it will give you the artist's name, but not the song title.  And only the song title appears on the download page.  It's not *so* bad if you can recognize the song you're downloading and/or the artist, but when you're downloading things like instrumental fiddle tunes, it's a serious pain in the ass.  I suggest writing down the names of individual songs as you purchase them.  Otherwise, it's near perfect.

You can even download the Harry Smith anthology (the formal title is The Anthology of American Folk Music), a vast and wide selection of pretty much every kind of American folk music, collected as way-rare 78s by Harry Smith.  I happen to have a hard copy, which is 6 CDs.  (And if you want some fun, look up Harry Smith, who was a serious, brilliant, and nutty character.)

I am insanely happy with the Clark Kessinger album. He's pretty much always been my favorite fiddler, and I've really missed hearing that album.  (I am still searching for two long-lost old-timey records:  Art Rosenbaum & Al Murphy, and Alan Block & Ralph Lee Smith.)  I also downloaded a track of Tony Trishka and one of The Red Clay Ramblers with Fiddlin' Al McCandless.  I've been listening to a lot of old-timey (stringband) music again lately.  I think I remember why I loved it so much as a teenager.

I couldn't resist

Ladies and gentlemen: Pee Wee at Sturgis.

Pee-wee Goes to Sturgis from Pee-wee Herman

third interview; credit; renting in NYC

I had my third interview today, with the founder/president, and it went very well.  This was mostly to see how I would fit into the firm, as a worker, as a person, and as the first contact with the company (front desk and phones).  I now know that I'm one of five candidates (I was the second one she saw), and I was the only one of the five who sent thank-you notes.  (My feeling is that she and the two other interviewers were impressed by that -- all got e-mail thank-yous within a day of the interview.)

Yesterday, when I called to confirm the time of the interview, my second interviewer answered the phone (the incumbent office assistant is already gone).  He and I chatted for a couple of minutes, and he said, "I passed you on to (the president)."  I thanked him, of course, and even thought I'd known that my third interview would have to be on his recommendation, it almost had a tone that he particularly went to bat for me in some way.  Maybe he indicated in some way a preference for me over the others. It was clear that he was impressed with me, and it seemed like she was too, today.

I also looked at the company website after my interview, and in an article reproduced from a newspaper, she said that when hiring, she checks references and does a background check for any criminal history.  I was a little uncomfortable about the background check which can include a credit check and some other things that I don't care to have examined.  And what she said in the article referred to tutors, not office staff.  I would imagine that office staff gets pretty much the same checks, references and criminal record, which is fine by me. 

I did once have a pending job which I didn't get because of something like a background check, and was once dismissed from a temp-to-perm situation after a week; the HR person said something like "Your references didn't check out," and legally didn't have to say any more, so I have no idea what the problem was.  My best guess is that the start and end dates I gave for a particular job didn't jibe with what the former employer said.  At one point, I lost all copies of my resume, and had to reconstruct it from memory, so some start and end dates may be off by a couple of months.  I could have explained that if given the chance.  I was told to leave right away (this happened right at lunch hour), and believe it or not, she had a couple of guys stand over me while I cleared my desk and then they escorted me out of the offices!  Unless she had uncovered some criminal activity in my past (of which there is none), I cannot imagine why I had to be treated like a criminal.  It was actually pretty ridiculous.

Unfortunately, I still have credit problems that date back many years, because I was foolish about money then, and haven't been able to afford to make it right since then.  When I've been working and earning a reasonable salary, I've been making payments, but when I have an ultra-low-salary job (like the last one) or when I'm not working, I wasn't able to work on old debts, which probably stacked even more black marks against me.  My credit rating is not good, which I had always thought would not be a problem as long as I didn't apply for loans or credit cards.  But now a lot of landlords are asking for them, which seriously sucks.  The last time we were apartment-hunting, we found that even small non-stabilized apartments (like a three-family where the landlord lives in one and rents two) wanted credit reports.  All big apartment buildings certainly did.  We were amazingly lucky to get a stabilized apartment in a small building without having to give a credit history. 

For you non-NYCers:  Apartment buildings with more than four units are rent-stabilized.  This means that the landlord must offer a one- or two-year lease, and is only permitted to raise the rent a certain percentage (the amount is determined by the city every year).  In addition, the landlord is only allowed to raise the rent a certain percent if an old tenant moves out.  A non-stabilized building has less than four units, and if the landlord lives on premises, the landlord can pretty much do whatever s/he wants; the apartment is considered a part of the landlord's apartment, as if the tenant was renting a room from her.  So in a non-stabilized apartment of this sort, the landlord doesn't have to offer a lease, only a month to month amount, which can be raised any amount at any time, and the tenant can be thrown out if the landlord wants to move a relative in.  I'm not sure about four unit apartments where the landlord doesn't live on premises, but it's not as good as stabilized, that's for sure.  The jackpot is if you have a rent-controlled apartment.  Rent Control was a predecessor of Rent Stabilization, and much more generous to the tenant.  (I don't know the details, but it's much better than anything else.)  You don't have rent-control unless you've been in the same apartment for around 45 years (I think 1965 was the cutoff).  Rent-control people pay tiny rents. My aunt has an RC apartment in Greenwich Village, a one-bedroom in a good location for which market price is probably something like $4000.  She probably pays around $400.  (Of course, there are very strict laws about passing an apartment on to anyone else, or even subletting.)  Oh well.

I have some important relaxing to do now.

a good grade and a good filmmaker

The second interview went beautifully.  I felt like I had a good rapport with the guy, and he asked interesting questions.  There were none of the kinds of questions I didn't much want to answer, like why I left my last job and why I've been unemployed for two years.  Toward the end, I told him how much I'd enjoyed the essay-writing portion of the interview process, and he said, "Oh yes, I think I have your essay here in my folder...here it is.  Look at the bottom."  He turned the paper toward me, and on the bottom, someone had written "Great!"  So I'm pleased to say that I got a good grade, seventeen years after my college graduation.  I'm supposed to hear about the job within two weeks.  I wanted the last job I interviewed for, but I think I want this one more.  (I also wanted a job at NYU badly, more because of the salary and bennies than the actual work of the position.)

I recently got back in touch with my friend Paul Lovelace.  He and his wife Jessica Wolfson are working on a documentary about New York radio legend Bob Fass.  I've seen a couple of Paul's documentaries:  "Robert Christgau: Rock and Roll Animal" and "Bound to Lose" (I am thanked in the credits of the latter).  Paul certainly knows his way around a documentary.  Here's the trailer:



I finally got myself some online backup, because this computer has been acting a mite funky lately and I've never been prepared for a hard drive crash, though I've had a couple (and a couple of times I took a computer into the shop and had to have the hard drive wiped and Windows reinstalled).  At least if I have a crash, I won't lose my music, pictures, written documents or browser bookmarks.

As I've mentioned before, I'm very fond of cologne, and lately I'm fascinated by this website.  These folks sell perfume and eau de parfum/toilette in small sizes, decanted from larger ones, so one can buy some very good products at reasonable prices, or try out new ones.  They carry a huge number of scents, including some that are no longer made, some that are hard to find, and some that are unavailable in the states.  They also describe the notes and type (woody, oriental, etc) of each scent.  I have been browsing and reading a lot, fascinated.  Once I'm employed, I'm going to spend some money there, to get some otherwise unaffordable scents, and to try some new ones.