Your Unemployed Daughter

photo credit: Arnoooo

What, pray tell, does it mean when the banks run the media?

Per our old pal Keith Kelly: Read the rest of this entry »

All in all, this has been a pretty good summer for skies, hasn’t it? I mean, yes, often they’ve been cloudy, or grey and swamplike, or pouring rain for so many days we start to stockpile wine corks for our ark, or weirdly red and tornadoey, or even shockingly Ghostbusters-esque … and every so often, rather pretty.

But they’ve never been … boring. And at the end of the day, can you ask for more than that?

For your viewing pleasure, here’s TGMTU #8, “The sky looking like a painting after a storm.”

P.S.: I’m harboring hopes that June is the new April, July the new May, and August the barest hint of a willowy wisp of June, with jackets only being needed sometime around Thanksgiving. There you go, climate change in a nutshell. So prepare for a nice, long unemployment summer—there’s tanning time yet! As they say in the biz, it’s not over ’til the fat, bikini-clad lady sings. And even then it’s not so much over as just time to go.

photo credit: jaymzx

Here’s an Unemployment Mix submission from one D.H., who recently moved up to the big city from down South and has endured his own bout with unemployment, most irritatingly being turned down for work due to “lack of NYC experience.” Which is not very constructive, potential employers!

At any rate, D.H. has since prevailed and joined the ranks of the employed, and now has taken some time out of his busy workaday schedule to put together a list of tunes for the rest of us.

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Currently, I’m sitting in my apartment while two men work on my leaking toilet (lest you worry, it’s been leaking inside the tank, which is quite conscientious of it, but the noise has begun to drive me crazy).

Now I hear water flowing and the men laughing and am moderately concerned about the shape my bathroom will be in when they depart, yet…at least I don’t have to go to work.

Something like “waiting for the guy to come and fix my toilet,” would be a huge pain in the ass if I were employed at my previous job. I’d be impatient, cranky, and ready to go. I’d have promised to get there asap—it is, of course, a Monday. I’d already be late. Yet, one must repair one’s leaky toilet, no? If only for posterity?

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photo credit: aldoaldoz

Given my 33 years and my penchant for what Oprah might call “binge drinking,” it’s odd that I only recently—this year, in fact—discovered Alka-Seltzer.

It was in Arizona, just before my layoff, at a lovely place run by lovely people, the Intercontinental Montelucia, that this great moment occurred. I was on a press trip—my first and only, as when I returned to New York City and my office I would be fired, post-haste.

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It’s come to YUD’s attention over the past weeks and months that, just like not everybody is employed, not everybody is unemployed. And maybe there are a few things we can learn from each other.

Enter YUD’s new Q&A series, focusing on the—gasp!—”employed.” I think you’ll find that these interestingly jobbed folks have some inspiring (or at least intriguing) things to say.

Meet our first victim—ahem—participant, Dorian Stone, who tends bar to make money for his independent films.

Hey Dorian, what do you do?
I’m a bartender/”mixologist” at Barmarché, where I make classic and specialty cocktails with all fresh ingredients. I’m also a filmmaker.

How long have you been doing this, and why?
I’ve been a bartender for 4 years. It allows me the flexibility to pursue filmmaking.

What’s the best thing about your job?
Getting to know the customers, making sure they have a great time.

The worst?
When it gets packed and the specialty cocktail orders pile up, it can feel like a factory.

What do you wear while working?
T-shirt, jeans, clean pair of sneakers. It used to be shirt and tie but now we’re doing what might be termed “casual chic.”

If you could change one thing about your job, what would it be?
A longer bar and more stools!

Do you get paid: a) Enough b) Too much c) Too little d) Fill in your own response:_______________
Enough.

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Psychotherapist, novelist, deep sea adventurer

What’s your dream job now?
Independent feature film director, screenwriter

How long until you retire? What will you do then?
As a film director I don’t ever intend to retire.

What’s the one thing about your job that you wish others knew?
Well, I think it wouldn’t hurt if everyone had worked in the service industry at least once—the way military service is required in some countries. Our country being the bastion of capitalism it proclaims to be, why not require everyone to work in a customer service job, early in their lives? It can be quite an eye-opening experience…. There’d be less douchebags, I can tell you that.

Have you noticed changes in your business related to the recession? Think we’re out of the woods yet?
There’s been a sharp drop in business this year as compared to last. It dipped pretty precipitously from late spring to summer and seems to be getting a little better now. I don’t think we’re out of the woods. I think the landscape has changed.

Have you seen changes in people’s drinking habits in the last year? How about how they’re tipping?
Overall I’d say yes. My bar tabs have been smaller. I do feel that people are drinking less at my bar. They’re more inclined to take their time with their cocktails/drinks and less likely to order multiple rounds. However, I’ve been told by the servers that people are ordering more booze and less food at the tables. They’re tipping about the same, although there are less of those extraordinary tips in which customers drop a few hundred because they loved your service.

How many times in the last 6 months has someone come into your bar and told you they just lost their job? Do you give them a free drink?
About five people. No, I won’t give them a free drink just because they lost their job. (Heck, if it was a dive bar I might.) If they’re regulars and have several drinks, then I usually do a buyback.

Restaurants are closing left and right. Are you at all concerned about job security?
Sure. It’s a very tough business. Here one day gone the next. My current employer appears to be doing okay though.

Does recession/unemployment/the economy factor into your film-making work?
Yes and no. I am directly affected in so far as I have less money from the bartending to put towards my own films. I’d say the downturn has shrunken the pool of potential investors (producers). It just makes the process of funding a film more challenging, which I welcome—it forces you to be more creative.

Barmarché is located in Soho, New York. YUD has been known to enjoy the Falanghina. If you’re in the area, stop by and say hi to Dorian!

photo credit: hartboy

I stumbled upon this helpful information for job seekers just now from our friends at About.com.

Job Interview Answer: What Did You Like or Dislike About Your Previous Job?

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photo credit: subsetsum

Suddenly it’s 5 pm and I’m eating cold pasta out of an old (cleaned, I swear) plastic container that once housed sorbet. This is what happens when one doesn’t consume a drop of alcohol from Monday through Thursday, and then goes on a drinking spree with former coworkers to celebrate Thursday night. There’s something to be said for having a “base level” of booze in one’s system at all times, despite what my personal trainer might tell you.

At any rate, headache has largely subsided at this point, and pasta has been restorative, but I am certainly glad that today did not involve having to enter an office building. I am not sure I would have had the strength.

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photo credit: dead redhead

There’s a special type of person I’d forgotten about since I got laid off and all through my summer of working from home, when the only toilet was mine and mine alone—and heavens to betsy, I sat right down on the throne of that porcelain god, just like a red-blooded American.

It is only with re-introduction to a certain type of employment community, and bathroom, that I have refreshed myself regarding the existence of said person.

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photo credit: digital_monkey

You know how yesterday I was all moans and groans about my freelance gig for the next two weeks? All, Woe to the weary freelancer! So tiring, being in an office all day long! So hard to fit in your blogging, your workouts, and your social time! How do the employed do it?

It does take some getting used to. I am working on a theory about this, but I think it’s because it’s unnatural. People were not meant to sit in tall, heavily air-conditioned buildings staring at computer screens and reading Gawker all day long, listening to loud, plummy-voiced fellows talking about how to get relationship dish from underaged, inexperienced actors at film screenings. People were meant to be active, and enjoy life, and make a difference—do something good for themselves, and each other.

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