what i'm working my way out of....

so if you have combed over every inch of this blog, as i'm sure you have, you'll notice my job is listed as, "musician guy that clark kent's as a handyman". if not, just take my word for it. anyways, i think this is a pretty simple thing to understand, so if you don't get what it means, then comment, and i'll comment back - or one of my loyal followers will beat me to the punch.

anyways, little of this is relevant except for a very interesting conversation i had yesterday. but it all starts at the beginning when i was hired, as a handyman, at a certain dollar amount per hour at the beginning of december, we will call this number X. on new years day, after landing back in new york, my boss informed me that my new wage was going to be X(2/3). i was a little shocked, but fortunately he gave me an additional 20 hours so i made the same dollar amount, i just had to work a lot more hours for it.

so word comes down the line that this certain boss of our is on his way out, and that there is another owner taking over - so i make certain to have a conversation to try and get myself back up to X. He'd said that i'd get back up there, but gave no specifics, with him leaving i thought it'd be good to readjust before hand so i didn't have to drag up old income statements as evidence. he agrees, to a point, he puts me up to X(2/3)+ X(1/5).

so here i am below my rate after receiving this so-called "raise". but i'd never thought of it as such, i just thought of it as a james bond-like falling off the side of a building, and climbing back up. but then that also perhaps fits from all of my ventures in the past few years.

anyways, when i asked about returning simply to X i was informed that my last "raise" was indeed a raise, and so i'd have to wait at least a few months longer for another raise, that is actually a "raise". i objected logically with, "well, you see, by the definition of the word, raise, i think..."

anyways, it got me nowhere. and with all this in mind only one thing remains at the forefront of my mind... with the advent of cellphones finding a phone booth to change in is really difficult, and thats really jamming me up.

doop doop doop

i've been spitting out songs like a baseball player in left field with a mouthful of that "black gum". i'm not saying that they're all great, but i actually laughed at myself over the whole matter as i found myself with 18 windows open in microsoft word yesterday and writing parts of lines to each one and then jumping back with another part line... and they somehow they seemed to make sense. i can honestly say that this is the first instance in my life where multitasking was even mildly successful. anyways, they're not finished, but a long two days of writing was summarized yesterday by writing a tune between 11:30pm and 12:30am, lyrics, melody and changes. it was weird. i actually did some sketches of a guitar solo, but thought it a little tasteless to mention until i remembered that i had this picture



anyways, the reason i'm telling you all of this is not to impress you, the reason i'm telling you all of this is so that i can offer some good reasons for why this might happen.

1. i've been listening to nick cave, chris isaak, bob dylan and the cure non-stop*
2. i wrote a song** asking someone to be my muse, and i think they took the job
3. i've been working out in the gym lifting weights for 3 days straight and found it to be a fountain of inspiration.
4. dianne warren challenged me to a write-off***
5. dale commented on my blog. the flood of great memories washed over me like the red sea over the egyptians, but in a good way - not a death way.

*while i do love chris isaac he hardly belongs in this list.
** title of the track is would you mind - pardon the self promotion... but maybe get used to it?
***not a tax season reference

norah song.

Tommy Hawkins

well, i'm back.

so, friends... i decided that it was time to get back into blogging. i'd taken a rather nice long vacation... and in retrospect i think it was the worst time to stop blogging - i mean, i move out of canada, fall out of contact with a lot of my friends and am trying to keep myself popular with todays young and hip ones, and so i walked away - leaving you all in absolute confusion as to where i might of gone. well, i'm not going to get into that now, all you need to know is that i'm here, i'm back, and i'm ready to rock.

the stats you need to know:

i live in brooklyn - south williamsburg to be exact for the williamsburg snobs, but williamsburg to the rest of the world.

my grammar is still bad, and you should not look for capital letters or a shortage of elipses on this page.

i sing songs and play guitar - you can hear some of it here www.myspace.com/tomtasticenterprizes

i recently tested myself and have an iq of 174. its amazing i haven't figured out grammar yet with a score like that.