A Follow Up

So when I first made the decision to do this blog, it was when things were going more better. I had a semi-stable life, I was writing a book, was doing fairly well on the music front, and was starting a label. Ironically, after I started posting I started going through the hardest year of my life. I held back from posting in the last year because I didn't want "Brain Doppings" to become "Suicide Corner With Dr Dave".

To recap, in the last year I've gone through a divorce, several jobs, some hopeless relationships, and gone through financial hardship... massive financial hardship. Everything was looking quite bleak. I'd get a job at one place, then they'd downsize, get a job at another place, and they'd downsize. This is not including the horrible sales jobs I also worked which were killing my soul.

I have been keeping myself afloat, am currently working a decent job, and I'm making steps to get into teaching; in fact I start taking some classes at the good ol' UW of M next month. I still have some great friends through all this (even though a lot of friends have exited my life due to the politics of my former marriage), and I'm getting back into music.

The music front was quite crazy in 2014. Two bands that I was asked to play bass for couldn't handle my negativity; I can't completely say as I blame them, and subsequently ejected me. This didn't wreck me on a creative level; as one band was a cash band I'd do for fun(?) and the other was a black metal band I joined as a favor to a good friend. Neither band really excited me that much, and apparently I didn't excite them either. The little bit of ego I do have didn't take this too well, and in usual Dave fashion, I burned some bridges and pissed on the ashes. In my depression, I haven't been nearly active enough in music; being my own music, or that of others. In all honesty I've gotten out of the scene to avoid certain people that pushed me out in a sense. The upshot of this has been poor attendance at Wisconsin Beef Commission shows. The last show was so dismal, I had all but decided to hang up Old Blue for good. There were all kinds of excuses thrown about as to the crap turnout, but at the end of the day, people seem disinterested.

I'm still in contact with Mike and Dana in Beef Commission; though we're in the process of developing new material and haven't done any shows in a while, and I've been getting into guitar more. I had to sell most of my gear after the divorce, so the Gretsch is gone, but thanks to the guys in American Radio police, I have a modded Tele on loan from Aaron that I've been playing a lot, as well as a Gibson SG Faded from Matt. I had to sell the Orange (guitar) amp that I was using in Beef Commission, but I've been using Aaron's Sovtek Mig 60 through my home-made 6x10 cab (modeled after the cabinet section of a Silvertone 1485 with 6 Jensen C10Q's), this is the amp setup I used in the begining of WBC, and is heard on every song on "Drankin' Songs" with the exception of "Born Bad". Aaron, Matt, and Joey have given so much support in everything I do, and have really reminded me why I've considered them brothers for all these years.

I just wrote a blog for Beef Commission; http://wisconsinbeefcommission.blogspot.com/2014/12/wrapping-up-2014.html where I mentioned our labelmates Billy Dreamer may be getting a new rhythm guitarist. What I didn't mention on that side is that the new rhythm guitarist is me. Though I have played a bit of guitar for over a decade, and have played a couple times on stage (in TomorrowsYestarday, Dennis and I would switch guitar and bass), this will be the first band where I've been a guitarist. A new challenge I guess one could say. Should be fun. I've been working with these guys for years, and they have become family to us in Beef Commission.

I'll try to get on here a bit more, and give some zany observations as I use to. Living the suburban lifestyle has taken some of my biggest fodder for posts; that being the laundromat, and riding the bus. Those who have followed me in the past on other media know what I'm talking about.  I'm sure some of you are wondering how the hell I ended up in the burbs, AND THE ANSWER IS YES. THERE WAS A GIRL INVOLVED.

And Then Some

So I was turned down for the "real job". I received the rejection email on Thursday while I was practicing with Wisconsin Beef Commission. This seems to be where I always get the bad news.

The job was with a large corporation which I'm not gonna name, because I don't want to burn that bridge at the moment. What I will say (and have said on social media) is that in the 2 weeks they kept me hanging after the interview, the person who emailed me continued blowing sunshine up my ass; saying how well I interviewed, how much she wanted to work with me, etc.

After receiving the rejection email, I responded with an email thanking her for the opportunity to interview, and asked for feedback as to how I could interview better in the future; a seemingly fair question. I received an email back saying the fact that I would ask that kind of question was further proof that I was a perfect fit for the job, and there was nothing I could have done better. Which poses the obvious question: WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T I GET HIRED THEN!!!!? Again, more sunshine being blown up said ass.

The email also states they'll keep me in mind if something opens in the future. Now I TRIPLE DOG DARE anyone to comment with a situation where they were turned down for employment ANYWHERE, and received a communication afterwards offering them a job at the same place. I know sure as hell I never have.

So now I'm waiting to here back on a door-to-door sales job I've interviewed for (twice) later today. I still have hundreds of apps and resumes out there as well.

I did interview for a place called CapTel as well. This is a place that does phone captioning for the hearing impaired. The interview went well, but apparently I don't type fast enough. This was a $9.00 an hour job ($8.00 the first 4 weeks of training). So basically, they're gonna have a ridiculous word-per-minure requirement, but pay less than McDonald's.

America's workplaces are getting ridiculous. Apparently the days of giving people a chance to impress have gone the way of the Edsel. It's funny how places bitch about getting hundreds of resumes online... THEN STOP REQUIRING US TO APPLY THAT WAY!! Plus a lot of places bitch about turnover. Maybe a living wage, and a reasonable work schedule would rectify that. What's infuriating is seeing the same places requesting workers week after week, but they never get back to those of us who applied for the jobs.

I still haven't given up, and I do still have a couple irons in the fire. I hope to be working soon. This has been so overly frustrating, because this is the longest I've been without employment in my adult life.

Hope to have some good news soon.

New Light Marketing

So here's where I stand. I started out in August with selling insurance for a company called American Income Life. The expected first year income through this insurance company was $45,000-55,000 for the first year. Well, the only problem with that is it's commission-based sales, and if you don't get sales, you don't get paid. When the sales aren't coming in, they sit you in the office, and an ex-high school football coach who is a manager tells you why it's all your fault. Their sales model is calling people at home from a list of "leads". Each agent gets 1 or 2 lists of 100 leads. 1/3 of these are wrong numbers, most are people who already have policies with the company and you're expected to sell them more insurance. Then you spend Monday and Thursday setting appointments. Then on Tuesday,  Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday you burn up your gas meeting with these people... if they're home (football coach tells you that the no-shows are your fault too). Then you show the people you can set up an appointment with these videos that explain "no-cost benefits", then explain why they need insurance right in their own home. When they feel like they've been had, you're expected to sell them overpriced life insurance. I went at this job for months thinking it was my fault I wasn't getting sales, and ran myself broke. I had invested in the licensing for the sale of the insurance and a computer to do the job.

When I knew the end was nigh, I started pounding the pavement looking for a real job. To this day, none of the staffing agencies have gotten back to me. Then I applied for a place called New Light Marketing.

New Light Marketing hires people with the idea that they'll be selling DirecTV at Best Buys and other retail locations. This didn't sound attractive at all, but in the interview, applicants are told the job pays a base wage vs commission,  ie if your sales are less than the base, you'll still get a decent paycheck. WRONG!! You're first day of work, they explain the "claw back", where if they have to pay you the hourly wage, they'll take from future commission gain that's higher than the base. Shitty,  but doable. I took this job thinking I'd at least have an income. WRONG!!

After the first week, if you don't have enough sales, and they have to pay the base, they tell you you're "not a good fit", and you're given the option of leaving, or working commission only. THEN, if you still don't have enough sales to make Mr Leigh Jackson happy, they let you go anyway. Basically, unless you're a whiz at ambush-sales, you don't stand a chance.

They have a plaque in the office that has a Best Buy logo, but I only worked at Sam's Club and Menard's. The job is to stand in the store "pitching" customers, or bugging every customer possible to try and get them to switch to DirecTV. You stand in these stores for hours doing this. You're expected to put in over 60 hours a week at this as well. When showing them what it'll cost for DirecTV, you're not telling them that you are going to give them a discount of $30 or so. They'll get this discount either way, but it's reserved as a bargaining tool, where you tell them you'll give them "my employee discount to earn your business today". The customer DOES save about $10 a month more than if they buy DirecTV over the phone or online, as well as receive NFL Sunday Ticket for a year, and a gift card for the store they're in (which arrives weeks after installation).

In training, they show you to do a side-by-side comparison showing them what they are paying for on one side, and what they'll get with DirecTV on the other. When doing these comparisons, you're encouraged to lie, for example: U-Verse offers HD in 1080, but employees are supposed to say they're only getting 720 pixel rating. One "manager" said that this was old information and we could still use it. Being a bit of a techy, I knew this was false, and U-Verse has always offered HD at 1080.

Also, keep in mind, people got burned in the early days of DirecTV with dishes losing signal. These people won't be persuaded.

To make a living wage, you need to get 3-4 sales a week, and they expect 2 sales a day during the week, and 4-6 on the weekend. Wednesday is the only day off, and you're expected to stay in a store from 1:00-ish (this time depends on when Leigh Jackson is done with his horrible pep-talk), until whenever the store closes (usually 8:00 or 9:00).

American Income Life technically isn't a scam, but runs an antiquated sales model that makes no sense and exploits people. New Light Marketing is a SCAM. Unless you have the sales, they're not even paying minimum wage (my coworker who shall remain nameless figured out he made $.60 an hour the previous week). One "manager" made these outlandish claims about how much money he was making, but then depends on other coworkers for rides, and lives on the Near-North Side...

So I'm broke at this point and am in DESPERATE need of a job. I have one place that I'm waiting to hear back on at the end of this week (this is a customer service based job for a mega corporation with an hourly wage, a real job), and my sources tell me it's looking like I've got the job, just waiting for corporate to give the final nod. I don't know where I'll be living in the next couple weeks, but I'll work something out.

So Long Marty

Today I received word of the passing of Dr Martin Jack Rosenblume, or Marty as we knew him.

For those not familiar with Marty, here's a very miniscule synopsis of who he was. Marty had been a professor in the music department at UW-Milwaukee for the past 30+ years. Almost every freshmen would take his American Popular Music class, a class that over time took on a life of its own. He also initiated the rock and roll certificate through the music department. As a recipient of the certificate, I had Marty as a professor for many semesters from 100 level classes to 600. His background was actually in English,  but his heart was in educating students on what rock really was. As a professor, NO student received more respect from ANY professor at ANY school. Marty was a professor who was a great resource of knowledge, but absorbed ideas and knowledge from his students. He took in anything a student would say, and work with it. He treated every student as a scholar, and never came across as being above a student.

Marty was also a historian for Harley Davidson (he can be seen on that History Channel documentary that came out at the time of Harley's 100th anniversary), as well as a historian for Gibson Guitars. As a writer, he has several books, and hundreds of articles published. Everything from poetry, to music, to reviews. The man was a true wordsmith.

As a musician, one only has to Google his name to read of his accomplishments, or hear his work. On a personal note, I'm so glad that I had a chance to share the stage with him for what would be his last live performance. The man was a musical gearhead when it came to guitars. We would spend forever talking guitars and amps, his knowledge being greater in the vintage guitars, mine in the current array of guitars on the market. His explanation of rock music was that it's supposed to be "guys taking guitars and doing things with them that were never intended", a concept I live, breath and die by every time I take a pick to a Fender Precision bass, or run a Gretsch hollow body guitar through an Orange amplifier.

Martin Jack Rosenblume was a great mentor, a great musician, and a great friend. It's with a very sad heart I say that we lost a great one this weekend. So long, old friend. We will continue the fight!!