tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8939395558538729512024-03-12T21:25:47.355-04:00Lauren Agnelli Words and MusicHow to Have a Creative Career in the Arts. . . one adventure at a time! The 2012 focus is on survival jobs held while keeping true to a life's work as a writer and musician -- through thick and thin.Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.comBlogger248125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-89730020458622284272012-10-08T10:56:00.000-04:002012-10-08T10:56:32.439-04:0010-07-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #215 (The Squares “Can’t Stop The Rain” coda)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Once
the lyrics and melodies and song structures were in place, Tom and Bruce went
to town on the catchy licks and bassline, and we all started harmonizing on the
choruses. Because I started to sing the lyrics and nobody objected, I sang lead
on the song. Wow, that was a rush! Once we were in the room, I think that
Malloy & Brannon kind of had to step aside -- or more likely, the
Washington Squares force field pushed them to the periphery, as in a
centrifuge. They started the song and handed it off, so we were fleshing it out
and finishing that sucker.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I was
considerably cheered that, after an hour or so, we had a new collaboratively
written song made in Nashville. How cool. Did it matter that five people were
in the room and that I kind of took over on a few aspects, and everybody shared
equally in the song? Didn’t matter to me, not a bit. I’d do it again -- write
with a group of writers -- and come up with some cool tunes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I know
that I took the lyrical/melodic lead, but the song wouldn’t have been the same
without the contributions of everybody (esp. the new, faster tempo and cool
guitar and bass parts). I’m very proud of “Can’t Stop the Rain.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We
recorded that song and “You Are Not Alone” in David Malloy’s Nashville studio
the next day. The version we completed and took back to NYC with us didn’t
impress the record company; it wasn’t very folky at all, too souped up with
synthesizers and effects that made it sound kind of new wave (like Human League
or Haircut 100), which was happening at the time but it wasn’t our style.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">At any
rate, we did record “Can’t Stop the Rain” as well as “You Are Not Alone” on our
first album, the sessions we did at Electric Ladyland with Mitch Easter
producing. . .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-20124785445919622872012-10-08T10:54:00.000-04:002012-10-08T10:54:06.686-04:0010-06-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #214 (The Squares “Can’t Stop The Rain” pt. 2)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">So, I
put my nervous headache and migraine aside and bravely faced the music
(literally). We drove back at the office/writing room for Malloy and Brannon
just in time for a “working lunch” to finish writing a song with five people in
a -- a “Nashville Committee” songwriting session. I’d heard about them &
was so excited! I would now have to prove myself in a competitive group of
writer-musicians, two of whom I knew well. And as much as I like to be “nice”
and polite and never step on others’ proverbial toes, I WILL speak up when
necessary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Once in
the writing room, I sat on the floor, and the guys sat around casually, too. I
had a pen and notebook in hand rather than a guitar -- Bruce and Tom had their
instruments. I started out saying, “Now here, this melody -- what if you took
the last part of this line and started with it because it sounds more interesting?”
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Those
few notes/that part of the melody became the top of the verse. Bruce added
full, dramatic guitar strums -- a D - D - E pattern. Tom noodled around on bass
and got the “Shakin’ All Over” bassline to fit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“And
how about that repetitive part, ‘Nah nah nah nah. . .’ -- that can start the
chorus?” My brain was on fire. I was deconstructing and reconstructing the
melody because it needed some juicing up, sprucing up -- pruning too, perhaps.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">After
maybe 20 minutes of getting the song melody and structure tight, I tuned out
everything else in the room and remembered sensory images -- sights, sounds,
smells -- from the summer I had my heart broken for the first time. I thought
of how flowers start to die. . . came up with the line, “Last rose of summer,
withered” and I thought, what else, what else? I got it:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“--Like
the love gone in your eyes.” Gone or lost? Somehow, “gone” sounded more
country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Malloy
and Brannon approved of the direction of the lyrics, so I plowed on and
sketched out lyrics that included a chorus, “Can’t Stop the Rain, Can’t hide
the pain, I see the flash, I hear the thunder--“<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The
rest of the chorus goes, “--It’s going to fall, despite it all, but I won’t let
it drag me under: No, you can’t stop the rain.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-35993448265011134692012-10-06T18:41:00.002-04:002012-10-06T18:41:51.929-04:0010-05-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #213 (The Squares “Can’t Stop The Rain” pt. 1) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">In my
Nashville motel room, trying to work on a song “by committee” and under a
deadline, I was sickened by a migraine/stress headache combo. That was unusual,
because at this time in my life, I had almost stopped getting migraines; I’d
had them as a little kid up to about my teens, kind of weird because most
people get them as adults and can’t shake ‘em. . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Anyway,
we were due back at the office/writing room for Malloy and Brannon in a few
hours, at which time we’d have a “working lunch” and pound out a song that five
people in a room were scheduled to work on and write. Talk about pressure! I
felt so nervous, but knew it was doable because I think quickly and words are my
absolute stock in trade (if you’re reading this, I’m sure you’ll agree).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">True
enough, lyrics aren’t just your everyday kind of words, they have meter and
meaning and rhythm and rhyme. However, I’m quite adept at wordsmithing, from
starting out as a poet and poetaster (one who writes rhyming lines that aren’t
always poetic but will do in a pinch).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And,
even though I was sort of channeling Roy Orbison, I knew that the lyrics would
have to be about rain. That narrowed down things considerably, in my mind. I’d
write about the inevitable rain in life, the rain on my parade that came
sometimes, the rain that came when love was in vain. My first love was so very
painful to me. . . I was only fifteen, and it was so intense to fall for a guy
so completely and so stupidly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I
thought about it, and the time of year (the end of summer), and the kind of
rainstorms that resulted (thunderstorms, very dramatic and so perfect). I
didn’t have anything written down going into that lunch/writing session, but in
my mind, I had a sketch started. . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-44448364871662686692012-10-04T21:01:00.001-04:002012-10-04T21:01:24.153-04:0010-02-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #211 (The Squares in Gnashville. . .) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">As
before mentioned, we had this early (G)Nashville connection with the Washington
Squares. Apparently, the label really wanted to try to pair us with David
Malloy as producer and sometime co-writer and so, we were flown down south to
have a writing/recording session. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">It was
really cool, to go anywhere first of all -- I love adventure! -- but best of
all, we were sent on a creative mission. Joy. We arrived in the middle of a hot
day and were sent, pronto, to our motel on the outskirts of town. That day, we
poked around the neighborhood and found a very silly pastime at a nearby
recording studio for the public that was basically a karaoke setup. . . people
came in to record vocal tracks to their favorite songs, then received a copy of
the recordings on a cassette tape.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I think
it was the Barbara Mandrell recording studio or somesuch. . .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but we had such a fun time there. I
recorded “Stand By Your Man” and “You Ain’t Woman Enough”; Tom recorded “Like a
Virgin” (what can I say? He was a big Madonna fan and it was a riot!); Tom and
Bruce recorded “To All the Girls I Loved Before” (a total crack up -- Bruce did
a silly voice, more like Ricky Ricardo on helium rather than Julio Iglesias);
and Bruce recorded “Your Cheatin’ Heart.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">If
there is any way I can find those recordings on that ancient cassette I carried
around for years, I’ll certainly try to salvage it and convert to digital (I
promise!).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">That’s
where I’d say the country roots of The Washington Squares were born. . . I’d
always loved classic country music, and had friends who were country music
writers and bonafide southerners (Stephanie Chernikowski, the photographer, and
her friends, Martha Hume and Chet Flippo). I don’t know if Tom was much into
country music, but I know that Bruce loved Hank Williams and lotsa rockabilly.
. . probably a lot of the early Sun Studio sessions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-39966996435155041392012-10-04T21:00:00.002-04:002012-10-04T21:00:29.230-04:0010-01-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #210 (The fun stuff -- being in the recording studio with “You Are Not Alone”) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">When
you’re a musical group, especially if you make your own music and write songs,
you want to be in the recording studio, tracking your progress by doing
sessions. That’s the lingo. . . yeah, musicians doing sessions; we sound like
jazzers or something sophisticated-like. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">At any
rate, we did record demos (all analog -- it WAS the eighties, after all, and
CDs were just starting to happen), notably for a few labels like , with Steve
Burgh in NYC, and also in Nashville.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Yup,
that’s right: Bert Stein, the VP of our record company, had a working
relationship with a few Nashville-based songwriter/producers, notably a guy
names David Malloy. Malloy’s friend, Spady Brannon (sounds VERY Nashville,
eh?), often wrote with him. Stein was pushing us to record one of the songs
they sent him on a demo (written by somebody named “Jason Snaarz,” which we
thought suspect -- was probably Malloy and Brannon for all we knew) called “You
Are Not Alone.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Because
we’re good musicians, we learned the song and arranged it with our three part
harmonies (“stirring!”) and pretty acoustic guitars. . . before you knew it, it
became a nice little anthem for the disenfranchised (“They’ve got the
system/You’re out on your own/They’ve got ways to make it seem like they’re
right/And you’re always wrong. . . They’ve got the power of the press behind
them. . . etc. etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>till the
chorus: YOU ARE NOT ALONE/YOU ARE NOT ALONE).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We
truly hated the song at first, but it grew on us. . . and it made it to our
first album, oddly enough. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I’d
still like to know who Jason Snaarz is. . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-43290983905494339252012-09-27T08:45:00.002-04:002012-09-27T08:45:50.494-04:009-26-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #209 (“How’m I Doin’?” -- and we tell him, too! -- Part 2)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d2t4Cb_S0hM/UGRKO-wbC5I/AAAAAAAAAgQ/tnWRsJnos4o/s1600/Wash+Squares+with+hizzoner,+1986.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="337" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d2t4Cb_S0hM/UGRKO-wbC5I/AAAAAAAAAgQ/tnWRsJnos4o/s400/Wash+Squares+with+hizzoner,+1986.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Much
the same way anything interesting and excellent happened for the Washington
Squares, Tom Goodkind got us into some improbable and cool situations. Keep in
mind, he probably had some help from his wife, Jill, who was in Public
Relations and carried her camera around to snap us with all kinds of celebs,
including Hollywood types, an up-and-coming Whoopi Goldberg and a well known
actor, Robert Duvall. . . . both very nice to us, actually.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">At any
rate, we had a request one holiday season (’87 or ’88?) to play for Mayor Koch
and guests as a party at his home, Gracie Mansion. I was more excited for my
mom and Rick’s parents to know we were doing it more than personally, I think.
I just hoped we’d play and sing well, and get a nice meal and some $ out of the
deal. Really, I have very simple motives -- and I’m not easily impressed. All
right, I’m impressed by kindness, magnanimousness, compassion, and fun. I will
namedrop if it helps the listener with placing the person, place or thing I’m
trying to describe. Face it, most people seem captivated by tales of
celebrities, and I hate to disappoint. . . <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">So,
when the Washington Squares played a party for Mayor Koch at Gracie Mansion, we
ate well and played well. The salad dressing especially was really excellent,
so I asked the chef how to make it and I still whip up a yummy balsamic Dijon
vinaigrette based on what we had at Gracie Mansion back in the late ‘80’s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Shary
Flenniken -- Bruce’s wife -- spent some time bending Ed Koch’s ear at the
party. Tom was annoyed with her, maybe because he wanted to also talk to
hizzoner but didn’t want to impose? Nah, Tom wasn’t that kind of person; I was
more prone to worry about making an imposition on people at the wrong place and
time. . . <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OiXz7bF5jPA/UGRKWTln3oI/AAAAAAAAAgY/vpStp8nSBhM/s1600/3+Wash+Squares+at+Gracie+Mansion+with+hizzoner,+1986+2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OiXz7bF5jPA/UGRKWTln3oI/AAAAAAAAAgY/vpStp8nSBhM/s320/3+Wash+Squares+at+Gracie+Mansion+with+hizzoner,+1986+2.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-63904666736720042282012-09-25T09:46:00.000-04:002012-09-25T09:46:57.089-04:009-25-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #208 (“How’m I Doin’?” -- and we tell him, too!)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EN_b3SMpWy0/UGG1i0U3BaI/AAAAAAAAAfw/nNqvBcRL0uY/s1600/Mayor+Koch+&+Lauren.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EN_b3SMpWy0/UGG1i0U3BaI/AAAAAAAAAfw/nNqvBcRL0uY/s320/Mayor+Koch+&+Lauren.jpeg" width="303" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Before
New York City was ruled over by mayors the likes of nasty Rudy Giuliani and the
current OCD-Napoleonic potentate, Michael Bloomberg, I recall when NYC’s mayor was
the suave, waspy John Lindsay. I was a little girl, growing up in Queens, and I
remember when Mayor Lindsay visited the Zion Episcopal Church right near our
house. At the time, I was in the Girl Scouts; somehow we in Douglaston merited
a visit from the city administration (including the comptroller at the time, a young
good looking Italian type named Mario Proccacino).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">All
right, so I shook Mayor John Lindsay’s hand many years ago (Proccacino’s too).
Back in the ‘80’s, when the Squares ruled the Village (in our minds!), we had a
pretty cool mayor, a colorful guy who we all liked for his sense of humor and amazing
resemblance to Frank Perdue (“takes a tough man to make a tender chicken”),
Mayor Ed Koch (“takes a tough man to make a tender city?”).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I’m
standing next to good ol’ Ed Koch at a Yankees opening day game with Rick
Wagner. . . back when we actually could occasionally afford to go (games weren’t
too pricey and we had enough disposable income to enjoy ourselves -- or maybe
we didn’t know better and spent all we had, that’s probably it!).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Oh all right, it’s
not ACTUALLY Ed Koch in the pic with me. . . but a year or two after that, we
really WERE in the company of hizzoner Mayor Koch: no lie</span><!--EndFragment-->
</div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-5298978454261630972012-09-24T21:39:00.000-04:002012-09-24T21:39:10.337-04:009-24-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #207 (Oops! We did it again with Billy Crystal, take 3. . .)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8aAEIexoIvY/UGEK8Zpc1rI/AAAAAAAAAfQ/kLif_F4yplw/s1600/Squares+with+Billy+Cristal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8aAEIexoIvY/UGEK8Zpc1rI/AAAAAAAAAfQ/kLif_F4yplw/s320/Squares+with+Billy+Cristal.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I have
to say, we did some really interesting and cool stuff, and I very much credit
Tom Goodkind with getting us out there and finding opportunities. He was an MBA
from N.Y.U., and figured out how to use his business degree -- and acumen -- to
get us ahead, from marketing to business plan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">One of
the opportunities that came our way was to go on a Midwest tour with
then-upcoming comedian Billy Crystal. This was before “When Harry Met Sally”
and the Oscar hosting that he did. . . as I said, he was an up-and-comer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">At any
rate, again, having temp jobs on the side in NYC worked well for me. We got the
tour itinerary and, I believe, flew to Cleveland, where we rented a car to
drive around where the tour was going. I don’t exactly recall, but think we
toured with a bongo player at that time, either a guy named Ben (who was a
little scary) or Frank Gianninni (who was a real nice, cool guy). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">So, we
did the first show on this little theater tour, and it went well. Billy liked
us, and we posed for a pic with him (attach).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">But
Bruce had some other plans in his nutty, defiant brain. A natural comedian
himself (and a Jerry Lewis aficionado), he got it in his head to learn and
steal Crystal’s jokes -- and tell them during our set.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">SO
WRONG! I had no idea he was doing that at the time, though. Did Tom know? Hard
to say, but I think if he <b>did</b> know, he’d have said, “Bruce, man, that’s
such a bad idea ‘cause we’ll be thrown off the tour, man.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">. . .
which is exactly what happened after two gigs: we lost the tour and were sent
back home with our figurative tail between our legs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Still,
I just really wish I knew what possessed Bruce to do that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we’ll never know, ‘cause he’s long
gone. . . next year, it’ll be 20 years ago that he died.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-33623951456685549692012-09-15T12:58:00.000-04:002012-09-15T12:58:09.462-04:009-05-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #200 (Oops! We did it again, take 2. . .)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We
played this gig at the Bottom Line one time -- I think it was a benefit for
something, maybe AIDS research or World Hunger Year? -- and the Squares took
the stage. Now, Tom and Bruce customarily did a little back and forth comedy
routine a la the Smothers Brothers or Lenny Bruce, generally leaving me out of
the picture because they were quick, the fastball wits. I was the female in the
middle who’d look left to right, right to left, and look bemused and mildly
tolerant of those “bad boys.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">As you
can tell, I, too, have my own brand of fastball wit, but as I’m accustomed to
putting it on the page, onstage I tended to not get words out quick enough, and
I’d fumble. But THIS one time, I was heard. . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">This
was after Bruce made some jokes about Michael Jackson, maybe along the lines
of, “How can you can tell it’s bedtime at Michael Jackson’s? When the big hand
touches the little hand. . .”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">So, In
the news at the time was a gory tale of a man who killed his girlfriend and
cooked some of her body parts to eat. Ugh. So Tom says onstage, between songs,
“So, you hear about this guy who ate his girlfriend?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Not
missing a beat, I jumped right in, “Well, Tom, plenty of guys eat their
girlfriends” -- referring to a sexual act, you know, a double entendre. Nervous
laughter and a few rather sick guffaws met my bold remark. I thought it was
pretty good -- stopped the guys in their tracks for about a minute. They were
incredulous that I could have said something so quickly. . . and I wonder what
would have happened had Bruce said that instead of me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Anyway,
after the show, our record company voiced mild displeasure at my onstage
comment. Never had the guys ever been chastised for their shenanigans, but I
thought there was a teensy bit of a double standard at play there. . . cute
girls just can’t “play blue,” I guess.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-7553704223547470672012-09-15T12:56:00.000-04:002012-09-15T12:56:27.939-04:009-04-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #199 (Oops! We did it again. . .)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Now I
come to one of the more embarrassing things that happened to the Washington
Squares. . . I’ll talk about something I did, first off, and in the next entry,
I’ll mention a gaffe performed by our very own lead guitarist and jokester,
Bruce Jay Paskow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I
recall playing the Bottom Line one time when the L.A. office of our record
company (all three or four of them!) came in to New York to meet with President
Danny Goldberg. They came to our show at this rather prestigious former
downtown club, where all of the mid-level acts played on tour and some of the
bigger acts started out or played “surprise” shows, mostly for the press or
bigwigs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Bottom Line was run by Allen Pepper, and his business partner, maybe his brother
-- who stayed out of the picture and sat upstairs, counting money (so I’m
told). They really did stick to “the bottom line” and were notoriously frugal.
At any rate and despite all that, seeing bands there was always a treat, and
playing there a regular privilege. . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_DXK4klZTyE/UFSzDWXPlSI/AAAAAAAAAew/bzMUsJY88sA/s1600/The+Bottom+Line+&+Lauren..jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="287" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_DXK4klZTyE/UFSzDWXPlSI/AAAAAAAAAew/bzMUsJY88sA/s400/The+Bottom+Line+&+Lauren..jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<!--EndFragment--></div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-16455512056263379402012-09-11T10:16:00.001-04:002012-09-11T10:16:34.648-04:009-03-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #198 (Schmoozin’ with the Stars, take 5)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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recall, Stipe liked to talk with me because he was very into my rock writing
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px;">So,
here’s another of Michael Stipe and Rick down south around the time</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> of
that gig in Winston-Salem, North Carolina </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px;">(see
the Chesterfield sign above Rick’s head?)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px;">. . .
sure wish I had some pics of the dB’s, too, ‘cause I really loved that band,
loved their songs even more than REM’s and was friends with Peter and Will (I
guess sorta friends, we were friendly and had a mutual friend, Stephanie).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> (photo by L.E. Agnelli)</span></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5FxUzHAw1sI/UE9HBaSFSLI/AAAAAAAAAeQ/H_JdEzJgfY0/s1600/'85+Michael+Stipe,+Rick+&+me+2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5FxUzHAw1sI/UE9HBaSFSLI/AAAAAAAAAeQ/H_JdEzJgfY0/s320/'85+Michael+Stipe,+Rick+&+me+2.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<!--EndFragment--></div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-59912850718835934922012-09-11T10:10:00.001-04:002012-09-11T10:10:28.929-04:009-02-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #197 (Schmoozin’ with the Stars, take 4)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bYBsNyQGj9w/UE9GMCJzU2I/AAAAAAAAAeA/rqz7XFocHNA/s1600/'85+Michael+Stipe,+Rick+&+me+1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bYBsNyQGj9w/UE9GMCJzU2I/AAAAAAAAAeA/rqz7XFocHNA/s320/'85+Michael+Stipe,+Rick+&+me+1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">(pic of
me & Michael Stipe by Rick Wagner?)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Because
of their association with the headliner, the dB’s -- and Rick -- knew the guys
in REM, a.k.a. It Crawled from the South. In 1984, they had become a phenomenon
and were growingly popular. The small theater for the gig was packed with
enthusiastic young (college aged) fans of the hardworking little quartet from
Athens, Georgia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Backstage,
I met Michael Stipe, who at the time had long curly locks and wore thick black
framed glasses. I really liked his look. When he took off his glasses, he
reminded me of Elvis Presley, with the shape of his lips and his eyes. Of
course, his stage persona was nothing like the flashy King; Stipe commanded
attention by being so intensely focused on his performance and shy self that he
radiated a charisma that burned from within, forcing fans to pay attention. His
singing voice, of course, had the right qualities and his lyrics were ambiguous
and singable enough. . . all augmented and gelled together by the band, with
harmonies and bass by Mike Mills and jangle pop chording by Pete Buck, along
with the solid drumwork of Bill Berry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Outside
the venue, Stipe stopped for a casual pic or two with me and Rick (or maybe
Rick was taking the pic?)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-10558782278560027632012-09-11T10:08:00.003-04:002012-09-11T10:08:59.510-04:009-01-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #196 (Schmoozin’ with the Stars, take 3)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Around
1984/1985, I was falling in love with Rick Wagner, who was at the time in the
dB’s, a very cool indie pop-rock group. If he at first thought I was groupie
material, his eyes grew wide with surprise when he realized that I was a
double-threat talent: the rock writer Trixie A. Balm AND “the girl” in the
Washington Squares. Ooh la la!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">At any
rate, having temp jobs worked well when I wanted to go out of town, on tour or
on an adventure. Rick and the dB’s played a few shows down in North Carolina in
the late summer, and I went along because I wanted to be where the excitement
was and, I guess, the Squares weren’t doing much that week (incredibly!). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We went
to a cool dive type bar in the same town where REM and the dB’s were playing a
show the next night. Playing live, to a crowd of maybe three dozen fans: The
Replacements. I remember howling with delight at their shenanigans, seeing “big
boy” Bob Stinson in a dress and his little brother, with the long shaggy
rockdude hair, Tommy, on the bass, all in various stages of drunkenness along
with the leader, Paul Westerberg. Already a rock legend, Westerberg sang and
played some of the best darn confessional rock songs with singalong choruses,
reeling off modern anthems as effortlessly as Cheap Trick or maybe even Big
Star. . . his true heroes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I do
recall that was quite a trip, and I’m sorry I don’t have pics of that night
with The Replacements. .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>. but I do
have some of somebody from that OTHER famous band. . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-8900104313842412802012-09-11T10:07:00.002-04:002012-09-11T10:07:47.900-04:008-31-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #195 (Schmoozin’ with the Stars, take 2)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p3-17OLfNdg/UE9FgbNnnuI/AAAAAAAAAd4/pmxwuWDO5-8/s1600/Squares+&+Abblie+Hoffman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p3-17OLfNdg/UE9FgbNnnuI/AAAAAAAAAd4/pmxwuWDO5-8/s320/Squares+&+Abblie+Hoffman.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">(Abbie
Hoffman pic by Jill Goodkind)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">To
continue along those lines -- “Schmoozin’ with the Stars” -- here’s a pic of us
with Abbie Hoffman, political and social activist, co-founder of the Yippies. I
always liked Abbie because he a young revolutionary who wanted to change
America back in the turbulent sixties . He and Jerry Rubin both gained fame as
the poster children of The Revolution. Of course, as time progressed, Hoffman
kept up the idealism and political convictions along with actions, while Rubin
did the practical thing and figured out how to succeed in business. . . <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">So
Abbie came to the village in the eighties (he was living in Pennsylvania?) to
get a pet project going, a radio show called “Radio Free USA” for which he
wanted the Squares to work on a theme song, with him. We met in a pizza place
on the corner of MacDougal and West Third, and we also met at my apartment, I
believe. Abbie was really likable, and it was sad when he died in New Hope,
Pennsylvania (ironically) of a suicide in 1989, at the age of 52.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">At any
rate, I remember how the lyric started out: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“You
say there’s no hope left and you’ve gotta go straight. . . “</i> and then the
build into the chorus: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“It’s time to
start a master plan (cool lick a la the Stones’ “Satisfaction” leading up to
the tag chorus) Radio Free U S A. . . “ <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-1787272165184118392012-09-11T10:05:00.000-04:002012-09-11T10:05:42.387-04:008-30-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #194 (Schmoozin’ with the Stars, take 1) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Now for
the real change of pace. While working all these strange places as a corporate
spy (er, temporary secretary -- same difference), I was working in music as a
Washington Square in the eighties, and as a Dave Rave Conspirator and
Agnelli-Raver in the nineties.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We did
get to meet a lot of cool people, especially folks and folkies who’d carved a
good career back in the day. Most of them were really cool people, very likable
and good to be with. I don’t have a pic of us with Dave Guard from the Kingston
Trio, but he was quite a sweetheart. . . he gave an old banjo of his to Tom
Goodkind, a 5-string banjo lacking a resonator, but one that was easy to walk
around with and frail (Tom’s preferred mode of banjo picking).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Here’s
a pic of us with Tom Rush (“Wasn’t That a Mighty Storm”) at the Lion’s Head in
the village. I recall he wasn’t a very fast talker or mover, and I was
impatient and felt anxious, somehow -- everything in my head and body was
firing fast, and I needed to be around people who were similar. I’m not sure he
had a big sense of humor, either. All right, let’s face it: I thought his music
was OK, but not really my thing. . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">(Tom
Rush pic by Jill Goodkind)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iZRln_hZXc4/UE9Ew5H_32I/AAAAAAAAAdw/25wGyNnVHyU/s1600/WS+&+Tom+Rush+'87+3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iZRln_hZXc4/UE9Ew5H_32I/AAAAAAAAAdw/25wGyNnVHyU/s320/WS+&+Tom+Rush+'87+3.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-59561035476952802352012-09-11T10:02:00.000-04:002012-09-11T10:02:16.190-04:00 8-29-31 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #193 (Absence Makes the Parting Pondered) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And
now, for a change of pace. Has absence made your reader-hearts grow fonder?
Hmmm. Well, please just don’t forget me and this incredibly ambitious effort to
reconstruct a life lived in the best possible intentions and with such optimism
that the disappointments never linger. . . there’s always a bright new hope,
somehow, a bright new hope that God and the fates will again smile and say with
a pat on the head, “That’s nice,” like an indulgent Auntie Mame type.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I’ve
been trying to figure out a really smart next move for a survival job. While I
believe that my music and writing -- my creativity -- is always going to be my
vocation and life quest, living in semi rural Connecticut is not yielding me
the kind of half decent white collar survival work I’d come to rely on in NYC.
And the education field I’m finding more and more tedious. . . besides, it
seems they only want my subbing help. While I’d be happy with a teaching assistant
or para job to work days while I kept up with music and writing, I apply along
with 50+ other applicants and somehow I’m left swimming in the applicant pool
without a prayer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I just
don’t have enough friends in the right places here, either. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I am
always striving to balance the practical along with the creative in my life. So.
. . . I was absent for almost two weeks trying to figure out my next move. I
thought I should go back to school. Another Masters degree, maybe? (I already
hold one I’m not using, a Masters of Science in Education, Secondary English
concentration.) Southern CT State has a great Information and Library Science
program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>. . but no, that would be
a dead end for employment and so much stress, so costly, and so many hoops to
jump through. Cannot do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">With a
little help from my friends, I am looking into a way more practical course of
action, now. Will let you know when it’s ready. . . <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-82942203506446075322012-09-11T08:16:00.003-04:002012-09-11T08:18:15.053-04:009-11-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #206 (Remembering 9/11 on the 11th Anniversary)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
(The following was written last year, for East Haddam patch.com <br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/com%20%20%20%20http://easthaddam.patch.com/articles/courting-ground-zero-ten-years-later">the original patch.com article</a> -- below photo of me was taken around 2002)<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"></span><br />
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Horror, awe, and curiosity motivated me that gorgeous late summer’s day. I can’t say it was the smartest adventure ever, but circumstances compelled me.</div>
<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1em; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.429em; margin-bottom: 0.714em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WdWwpIGv93k/UE8rOSVcEjI/AAAAAAAAAdQ/QxfjpEXLcnw/s1600/albumcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="383" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WdWwpIGv93k/UE8rOSVcEjI/AAAAAAAAAdQ/QxfjpEXLcnw/s400/albumcover.jpg" width="400" /></a>In 2001, I was living in downtown Manhattan and working uptown – at a media planning company in Worldwide Plaza, at 8<sup style="line-height: 0;">th</sup> Avenue and 50<sup style="line-height: 0;">th</sup> Street. When the first plane hit the World Trade Towers I was underground, riding the “E” train subway.</div>
<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1em; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.429em; margin-bottom: 0.714em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
I didn’t know what happened until I was at my administrative assistant desk and I saw a swarm of worker bees on the other side of the cubicle farm. Whispers in fearful tones jabbered around me, then—</div>
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You know the story.</div>
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We were all sent home from work. Bridges, tunnels and subways in Manhattan were shut down, so it left walking home as the only option. Home was four miles, south. My friend, Levi, lived on 47<sup style="line-height: 0;">th</sup> and Seventh, so I tried calling on my cell phone but couldn’t get through (jammed signals). In an emergency, you crave the company of friends.</div>
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He did answer his apartment doorbell, though, shock on his face.</div>
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“I’ve got to walk home,” I said, “Or find somewhere to stay.”</div>
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“We have to go there,” murmured Levi – another writer, another glutton for unusual experience, Life full-on.</div>
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Intending just to walk with Levi until we reached my home (two neighborhoods north of the World Trade Center), I started walking south with him down the West Side Highway. I’d have been content to watch the disaster on TV at home, but no.</div>
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Looming directly in front of us, billowing gray smoke oozed from the flames of the crumbling Twin Towers.</div>
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“Unreal,” we muttered. Who could believe this was happening? The most brilliant, cloudless cobalt sky was being smoke-smudged. In my platform sandals and long work dress I wasn’t exactly dressed for hiking, but on we trudged, closer to ground zero.</div>
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In a series of zigzag maneuvers, we managed to walk to South Ferry in four hours, then come back up to where we could see the smoldering skeletons of the fallen Twin Towers up close. Gray flakes of burned papers and other debris fluttered down. . . I wrapped a bandanna around my nose and mouth, hoping to block any toxic debris.</div>
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Really, what WAS I thinking? Levi didn’t talk much while mulling over the enormity of the situation. I kept thinking of the many temp jobs I’d worked at the World Trade towers during the 1990s. . . all the times I stared out of the windows on the 101<sup style="line-height: 0;">st</sup>, 102<sup style="line-height: 0;">nd</sup> etc. floors while doing data entry and answering phones.</div>
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Finally, close to the Hudson River on the west side, rescue workers spotted us. They practically tackled and threw us onto an ancient tugboat that was waiting for people who genuinely needed rescuing.</div>
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We were shipped across the river to Jersey City; eventually found PATH trains to Penn Station in Manhattan; had an argument on the train; went our separate ways. I went home to be with a wiser friend, to cry and pray for the many murdered, innocent souls.</div>
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To this day I wonder if I’d have been one of them, in pieces of fluttering gray ash, if I’d taken that office assistant job at AIG on the 102<sup style="line-height: 0;">nd</sup> floor of WTC One. . . .</div>
</div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-9904866265055314572012-08-28T21:38:00.003-04:002012-08-28T21:38:43.287-04:008-28-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #192 (Working Temp in NYC: Typing for the Wrong Man, part 5)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Besides
asking me to frequently update his list of many and sundry possessions for
insurance company updates, Raymond Joslin had a little side project going
(besides spending time on reviewing his investments -- he’d get Wells Fargo
Bank statements that I’d file for him, in the filing room behind “my” desk). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">He was
working on his memoirs: apparently, he was seeing a psychotherapist who told
him it would be good for him to reminisce about his early life and write it
down. So, being an old school kind of executive (who didn’t type), he’d dictate
these reminiscences and have his assistant type them up. Since his usual
assistant was away, he readily dumped those microcassettes on my desk and had
me transcribe for him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Admittedly,
I like to transcribe, but I couldn’t help smirking at the stuff he was saying
and having memorialized. I guess it was the tone of the memoir, not the
content: he sounded very first person Dickensian-cum-Horatio Alger. You know,
the poor little waif who, by dint of pluck, hard work, and luck, pulls himself
up by his bootstraps and makes something of himself. A sour note of resentment
ran through it, though. . . maybe his parents rejected him and his grandparents
raised him, maybe the people in his church didn’t give enough of a helping
hand. . . I just thought some of it sounded unbecoming.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I did
hope that he was going to do a LOT of editing. Or, I hoped that he could change
the way he was thinking about things from his past. As Epictetus was teaching
me by reading my little book of the Stoic philosopher’s quotes, daily, he
points out how we’re powerless to change anything in life but our attitudes
towards it and things that happen in life. . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">If
that’s not invaluable advice, nothing is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-26777191126518943052012-08-28T21:37:00.001-04:002012-08-28T21:37:38.767-04:008-27-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #191 (Working Temp in NYC: Typing for the Wrong Man, part 4) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I’m
getting a little fed up reading -- and writing -- about this temp job so I’ll
recount two little anecdotes about that time and then (thankfully) move on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Because
Joslin was so connected and knew so many interesting people in entertainment
and in syndication, one day his lunchtime visitor was a woman who wrote the
“Heloise’s Hints” column. Only, the latter-day Heloise was the daughter of the
original, who wrote about all kinds of household hints back in the sixties, and
was syndicated by King Features (a member of Hearst Entertainment and
Syndication Group).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">When I
met the woman -- a tall, slender, striking looking lady in her early forties
who had flowing, straight, mostly white hair -- I got up from my desk and
extended my hand: “I’m your biggest fan,” I enthused. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">She
reacted with mock horror. “I hope not!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">In a
split second, I realized she was referencing the Steven King movie, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Misery</i>, where the Kathy Bates character
tells the writer she idolizes that very same thing and kidnaps him, for
starters -- then it all goes downhill from there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Uh,
okay, well, not THAT big a fan.” We both had a laugh, shook hands, and I knew
that this new Heloise was a very cool person. When her mother, the original
Heloise, died in 1977, daughter Klah Marchelle Heloise took on the mantle and
kept the column going. Now she has a website, of course: <a href="http://www.heloise.com/index.html">http://www.heloise.com/index.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I was
very excited to meet Heloise, just because, I mean, here’s a person who’s kept
a very useful brand going for quite some time. . . she’s successful at doing
something unusual AND she seems very happy. Hooray for Heloise!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p><a href="http://www.heloise.com/watch_heloise_hints.html">http://www.heloise.com/watch_heloise_hints.html</a></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-64233007870184896922012-08-26T18:04:00.003-04:002012-08-26T18:04:52.036-04:008-26-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #190 (Working Temp in NYC: Typing for the Wrong Man, part 3) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">My
first day there, I noticed some blunt yellow No. 2 pencils in the out box.
“Clarice, what do we do with these?” I asked the other assistant. Mr. Joslin
was out at a meeting at the time, and I was barely on speaking terms with the
old grouch, anyway. He made it known that you only spoke to him when spoken to.
. .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“I
dunno,” Clarice shrugged, going back to her work, which was mostly as a
Portuguese/English interpreter, as far as I could tell. She fielded a
considerable volume of phonecalls from Brazil for Mr. Joslin. He had some
businesses going in South America as well as his work at Hearst, as far as I
could tell. . . <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I took
those blunt yellow No. 2 pencils from his out box to my desk and sharpened them,
one by one. I then placed the sharpened pencils in his in box, awaiting a
reaction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I also
put a draft of some typing I did for him along with the pencils in his in box.
Later on, when he came back from the meeting, I heard him say, “Sharp!” in his
office, with a happy tone to his voice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I never
knew by that monosyllabic reaction if he meant, 1. The pencils were sharp,
which pleased him, or, 2. That I was sharp, for sharpening the pencils, or, 3.
That I was a “sharp” temp who could type well. Beats me. . . other than that,
he was truly cranky and deserved every mean wrinkle on his wizened-apple face.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-35738987700303196612012-08-26T18:03:00.002-04:002012-08-26T18:03:54.963-04:008-25-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #189 (Working Temp in NYC: Typing for the Wrong Man, part 2)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">So, I
was sent to the corner of 57<sup>th</sup> and 8<sup>th</sup>, to the ultra
plush offices of Raymond Joslin, President of Hearst Cable Network. I remember
meeting him and feeling both scared and full of pity. He was about 5 foot 7,
probably in his sixties, but his face had so many wrinkles. . . and they
weren’t happy wrinkles by a long shot. His wizened-apple face had the angriest,
nastiest look to it of anybody I’d ever seen up to then. I heard a distinct
“Look out!” warning in my head.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">This
angry older man had the largest office of anybody I’d ever worked for,
consisting of a large reception area with two separate desk spaces (and an
impressive 8’ X 10’ filing room behind the desk where I sat), a waiting room to
the side, and finally, Joslin’s “inner sanctum,” an office that resembled one
for the president of a prosperous small country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">He had
plaques all over celebrating his status as a “Cable TV Pioneer.” Wa hoo. He had
weekly meetings with LifeTime, ESPN, and a variety of other cable channels, who
all reported to HIM.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">His
impressive office reflected the life of a man who had it ALL: The wood
paneling/plush carpeting/leather furniture/manly book and photographs-with-famous-Republicans
in his inner office. The leather-bound in and out trays on his massive desk
were all that we, the two assistants, were supposed to attend to. . . <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--EndFragment--></div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-33016053987886811832012-08-24T22:05:00.000-04:002012-08-24T22:05:01.440-04:008-24-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #188 (Working Temp in NYC: Typing for the Wrong Man)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">As for
the typing, there were different kinds of machines I’d work on. First, for a
brief few years, on a typewriter like a large, clunky, loud IBM Selectric. Then
came the in-between choice, an electric typewriter with memory that they called
an early “word processor. . . “ the text showed up on a small screen above the
keyboard and you could backspace and erase before hitting the “print” button. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Once
actual personal computers with floppy disks did the work, using MultiMate or
WordPerfect, soon enough Microsoft Office Suite took over and it was MS Word,
Excel, PowerPoint. I’d say that was in the mid to late ‘90’s, though. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Right
around that time, one of my tempjobs took me to work for Hearst. A super
conglomerate communications corporation, Hearst at the time had several
successful magazines and cable television companies that ran under its
legendary umbrella.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">(Hearst
was the company whose founder, William Randolph Hearst, the Orson Welles movie
classic, “Citizen Kane,” was based on. I used to walk the halls of the building
I worked in whispering, “Rosebud. . . “)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">When
one of the Presidents of the Cable TV operations, Raymond Joslin, needed a temp
because one of his two assistants had to take a few weeks leave, I was called
to fill in. I was warned from the outset, “He’s a very demanding boss -- with a
very short temper.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Optimistic
to a fault, and philosophical too (this was when I started reading Epictetus,
the stoic Greek philosopher, and carried a tiny book of his quotations around
with me for inspiration), I took the assignment, knowing it wouldn’t be a piece
of cake but probably incredibly interesting. . . <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-13345578865098688462012-08-24T22:02:00.003-04:002012-08-24T22:02:51.468-04:008-23-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #187 (Working Temp in NYC: What is so goshdurned great about TYPING, anyway? Pt. 2) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Maybe
keyboarding reminds me of piano playing. . . how I long to be a boogie woogie
piano player. . . I’ve always had a piano around, just hoping it’d beckon
sufficiently for me to get good at it, but then, that keyboard on the computer
beckons even more beguilingly and. . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Anyway,
when I worked tempjobs in offices, it was the last hurrah or the last gasp of
the old school executives, the ones who’d bark, “Take a letter, Joan!” or
whatever. Most of the older guys or the senior executive officers had no typing
skills, so they’d write out drafts on yellow legal pads and just hand the
writing to their assistants -- like me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I’ll go
into detail about him later, but probably the guy with the nicest handwriting
-- or the easiest for me to decipher -- was Norman Mailer. But, he wasn’t an
Accurate Temporaries client. That’s another story -- related, of course, but
later for that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Even
though some men had horrendous handwriting, I am very good at deciphering
handwritten script (it’s like a puzzle to me) so I did well at drafting copy
for bosses who couldn’t -- or wouldn’t -- type their own.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Not so
when it came to female executives; they’d invariably type their own stuff. The
women bosses were few in number but towards the end of my temping in NYC they
definitely were a force (maybe 1/3 of my jobs were with female bosses by the
end of the ‘90’s.). And then, the younger generation of male executives
(starting with guys MY age) were proficient on the computer; they didn’t need
assistance with typing, either.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Now,
when I first started the word processing/computer typing, I wasn’t so great at
formatting (on WordPerfect, then MicroSoft Word, all versions). But after
years, I got pretty good. . . also on Excel and PowerPoint. But then, I learned
everything on the job and couldn’t have been happier to be working and
learning. . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">But
then, every job I’ve ever had has been a learning experience!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-18762357031165329052012-08-24T22:01:00.002-04:002012-08-24T22:01:34.242-04:008-22-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #186 (Working Temp in NYC: What is so goshdurned great about TYPING, anyway?)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">That’s
the question I’m always asking: why do I like typing so much? Is it because, by
an inexplicable (this is when science seems like voodoo to me -- might as well
be, for all I can comprehend) muscle memory, a person can create words and
punctuation, on a page? Is it because it seems like a miracle that it all makes
sense and that we’re able to do this (when you REALLY think about it)? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Nowadays
they have classes to teach “keyboarding” in school, but back when I learned to
type by not looking at the keyboard, doing it by touch, it was called “touch
typing.” It took me forever to get the hang of it and to not look down at the
actual keyboard but. . . once it came to me, I loved typing. In fact, I must
still love typing because I average thousands of words per (average) day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Actually,
typing isn’t writing, so strike the previous sentence. Here and now just for
the record, when I worked temp and had to type for an employer, I didn’t mind
all that much. Typing was preferable to phones, or filing, or photocopying. . .
only transcribing was more fun, to me. I’m sure I’m in the minority, because in
one sense it’s kind of a pain in the ass to have to type up other people’s
thoughts and rough drafts (and make sense of their mumblings and meandering
thoughts, taped on the DictaPhone).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I can’t
say why I was so fond of it back then (wouldn’t be too crazy about typing up
somebody else’s work now -- but probably would depend on the person and
situation). But I do like “busy work” and respect the muscle memory of fingers
flashing fast across a keyboard. . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-893939555853872951.post-85851647925371879642012-08-21T22:30:00.003-04:002012-08-21T22:30:56.720-04:008-21-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians -- Starter Job #185 (Working Temp in NYC: Back to working for The Man and doing his/her filing. . . ) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Some
people can see/think in terms of black and white. Not me. I see things, people,
situations in other terms, in shades of gray due to their complications,
nuances, multi-facets. This extends to philosophical arguments and making
decisions (pros and cons become lines on a page highlighted in lighter or
darker gray tones). For an artist, it’s a great way to see the world; for a
worker bee, it’s . . . complicated. Third nature, maybe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">That is
why I’m, er, not ridiculously good at filing unless you specify the destination,
because I see so many choices when it comes to filing other people’s documents.
Actually, that’s when it comes to filing ANY documents, period. In my home, I
have filing cabinets all around me organized with a “logic” that’s personal,
whimsical, even. It’s a 50/50 chance I can find my own papers. . . but in the
computer age of scanned docs and such, it’s easier.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Back in
the day when I worked in offices for others, if you handed me a document with
the place you want it filed clearly written on top -- which 90% of the people I
worked for as a temp would do -- filing was a slam-dunk proposition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Some
offices had a “Filing” pile that they wanted the temp to tackle. I’d do filing
when more pressing tasks (like phones, copying, faxing, typing) weren’t
happening. But the smarter offices where I worked would tell the temps the Filing
pile was off limits. It was important work to be saved for the regular employee
(who’d, wisely, know exactly where to file the documents).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">That
was in what I call “the age of the hard copy,” back before so much work became
digitized by computers. Of course physical filing was more important back then,
before the Digital Age. . . <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Lauren Agnellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01102097832920651140noreply@blogger.com0