This week was difficult for a number of reasons I've already expressed in direct FaceBook posts. Without going into great detail, I will tell you that I've been able to weather the storm through my usual outlets: family, friends and music.
The well wishing that came out in the past 24 hours has been encouraging. And, thank you for that. Also, our family has been super supportive and understanding. Not everyone's is. And I bought my wife and I two things: tickets to see Keller Williams in Jersey City with friends (more friends) and then a trip for two to the New Orleans French Quarter Festival where I will most certainly gain exactly 13 pounds in mind-numbing oyster and remoulade binges whilst listening to NOLA's best local musicians. I may "Kemit and BBQ" as well. Zydeco and shrimp/alligator cheesecake? What's better than that?
Star Wars is a great teacher of balance and counter balance...the constant tug of power between good and evil, happiness and sadness, etc. We know that, without ruining "The Last Jedi" for the two people who haven't seen it yet (get to a theater you lazy bastards), the Force must be kept in balance. Anakin slaughtered prospective Jedis in the prequels, and Luke's/Kylo's fate in the latest installment once again evened everything out. So, with those life lessons first mentioned in the science-fiction best-seller The Bible, I think that my family and I are overdue for something spectacular. Why? It's been a rough couple of months. Now, if I could only get Rey to learn how to play the accordion. Oh, wait, food, star wars, accordion??? I guess I've got that too.
FaceBook is good for a lot of things, but advocacy probably isn't one of them. For starters, it's super easy to read a post about some issue that gets people's knickers in a twist and then click a button to "sign" in support or opposition.
People, this isn't helpful.
What happens after you've clicked the link? Most of the time it's out of sight, out of mind. On to the next atrocity. Digital signatures are largely empty without your willingness to take the next step: action.
That said, I'm calling "bologna" (my kid-friendly alternative to BS) on the petition to keep Starbucks coffee out of Yosemite National Park. Um...why? Because they're huge? Because they're synonymous with a consistent cup of coffee nationally and internationally? Is Starbucks the "Walmart" of beverage chains?
I think most signers of the petition see Starbucks as the commercialization of our National Park System. If they allow a Starbucks, people will probably rationalize that a McDonald's can't be too far behind, and Walmart after that. However, if you know a little something about some of our national parks (and I pretend I do) then you also know that some of our most visited parks have food and lodging services contracted out to a large national firm named Xanterra. And, from my experience, they do a damn good job.
Xanterra manages the lodges at eight of our parks: Crater Lake, Death Valley, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone and Zion. The business takes pride in serving these natural wonders and strives to provide excellent service without sacrificing the environment. How so? Soaps left in lodge rooms is biodegradable. They actively recycle and promote water use responsibility. The provide a host of products and food that is organic and sustainable. I mean, for an American hotel chain, they do more than a decent job.
Oh, and they try to, at the same time, provide some of the comforts of home, which includes beverage choices such as S. Pellegrino water, name brand juices, Coors Light, Sam Adams, Blue Moon, Sierra Nevada, and Stella Artois. As for the coffee offerings, you have, in many locations, Peet's. Don't get me wrong, Peet's Coffee has around 240 locations earning approximately $800 million (2016) per year. Starbucks dwarfs that with 22,000 stores and profits of $17 Billion with a "B." But, one could argue that both have strong philanthropic arms to help sustain an industry that depends on high environmental quality to ensure consistency across their many locations. Yes, Starbucks is bigger, but at revenues that top $800 million, Peet's is plenty big. Comparatively, $800 million is similar to the New York Times, Groupon, and what Star Wars, The Last Jedi pulled in for their first two weeks. This is real money.
All said and done, Starbucks in a National Park wouldn't be the end of the world, just a continuation of trends in our National Park system where these environmental locales strive not only to get you to visit, but to stay and spend some money too. And, if there are products you're already familiar with which would make your stay more pleasurable, then consider the value added vs. immediately assuming that household brands might ruin your experience. And leave your Crest 3D White Toothpaste at home. Those beads are terrible for the environment.
Look, there is a natural ebb and flow of jobs in the United States when you approach January 1st. There's tax incentive to tidy up your employee base before the beginning of a new year...so that you don't have to deal with it over the course of multiple returns.
But all is not how it seems. Let's take them one by one.
AT&T, as it's widely been reported, has recently laid off 2,000 employees. Some of them were from DirecTV where there may have been redundancies. There were over 200 "highly skilled" technicians from the south who were handed pink slips. And, there were others, but, using averages provided by GlassDoor.com, with lay-offs alone, the company just saved over $90 million to use for their newly announced bonus program.
Walmart, who owns Sam's Club, just surprised the business world by announcing the closing of 63 stores which employ, roughly, 175 employees. Granted, some may be reshuffled, but the lowest paid employees at Sam's will likely not be. Back of the envelope numbers suggests that over 11,000 Walmart employees just, suddenly, lost their jobs.
At Boeing in Seattle, over the course of 2017, 1,800 employees who would have been fired took buy-outs, and another 800 were laid off.
Wells Fargo just laid off 5,300 employees. Don't worry, they're bolstering their office in the Philippines, which went from a meager 100 employees to 4,000 in the past 6 years.
Business is business, and, frequently, jobs added don't make the headlines. However, it seems to be a trend with the companies who have announced how good they're about to be to their employee base. Before we credit the Federal government with creating an economic boon, consider those not reported in last month's unemployment statistics, which, economists agree, isn't the end-all be-all measure of a healthy economy. Also consider those who stopped looking for work (i.e. early retiring Baby Boomers), who are on the verge of over-taxing our pension and entitlement programs just due to sheer volume.
It may be easy for a conservative to point out that "hey, you Dems aren't even happy when things are great, just because he's not who you voted for...snowflake!" Yes, minimum wage increases and tax law-related bonuses are just part of the whole picture, and before we point out how peripherally beneficial the new tax law is, we need to understand the full stories around those companies and their one-off PR power play.
If the headlines next Christmas indicate that more $1,000 bonuses are being given, well, I'll be happy to be wrong.
I can't seem to find it. I thought I had written extensively about Phish in past posts. I guess not, so, at the risk of repeating myself, at the risk of repeating myself, here's the skinny:
There was no way I was going to spend money on the band. In 2003, a great friend from high school (Shaggy) had two interests: the now defunct Palmyra Tea Room that used to be in Bound Brook, and this hippy band Phish. Like devotees of the Grateful Dead, Shaggy would hoof it to the surrounding states in order to see multiple shows at a single venue. It was strange. I mean, at that time, I loved music, and had seen my fair share of "jam bands" like Santana and the Allman Brothers, but you knew, from year to year, you were going to see the hits...and the novelty of seeing a band that was supposedly improvisation/experimentation personified, wore off...especially when, back-to-back years they played nearly the same set. Yawn. Then, my girlfriend bought me a ticket.
She said, (and I'm paraphrasing), "Sweetness, this band, Phish, is the bees knees and I used to follow them, and it's 2003, and they're coming to the Jerz, and we're getting lawn seats with my friend, and maybe your obsessed friend Shaggy will be there too." Where is it, I asked? "Camden," she said. We lived in Montclair. An effing long haul. What's the weather going to be? It's going to pour. Great. And, I didn't know any of their music. I told her that, unless the band played someone else's music, this would be the first, and last show of theirs I saw. She didn't care.
We met her friend in the parking lot. I think the friend trucked in from NY State...with her dog. Stupid children were doing whippets a couple of cars away. Drugs were apparent. Authorities didn't care. Pre-show was already living up to my low expectations. I donned a rather unflattering plastic poncho from Sears. It was starting to drizzle. Once in the venue, and sufficiently buzzed (don't ask), the band started playing. And they were good. First observations were that they were super talented. Guitarist's fingers were moving quite fast a la Zappa...well, maybe not that good, but good enough. Tunes were varied and long. We had met up with Shaggy who was getting drenched with us in the grass. He gave me a play-by-play, Phish for beginners, explanation of each song. It was immediately clear to me that he wasn't the only obsessed fan. The show was good...the lights were amazing, and then came the encore: Frankenstein by Edgar Winters, i.e. someone else's music.
On New Year's Eve, 2017, My now-wife and I met up with Shaggy pre-show, which was number 35 for me, and 137 for Shaggy (wife doesn't keep record, but I'm sure she's in and around 100 shows). I had already met up with him the night before for that show, but NYE was the biggie of the run. On New Year's they play 3-sets instead of two, and the evening typically features a ridiculous stunt or gag between the second and third sets, just around midnight. By some strange coincidence Shaggy's seats were in the same row as ours...the next section over...about 10 seats away. Or maybe it's not coincidence...the night before I knew the people behind me, met them over 10 years ago...and others in my section...and bumped into an ex-co-worker who had his seats in the next section over with his very pregnant wife. I rode the train home with friends from college...and Shaggy. Chalk it up to Phish magic. But NYE was incredible. They played (mostly) songs I knew. The fans were ridiculously enthusiastic. The stunt was tech heavy (you know I love my tech). Everyone was in a great mood, the show flew by (from 8:30p-1:15a), they encored with our wedding song, and, at the end, I was ready for another set.
It was exactly what I needed. The news this year has been dismal. Environmental regulations evaporating. Taxes going up. Property values potentially going down. National Monuments shrinking. Global Warming (it's a real thing), and women's rights, and #metoo, and the 2017 list goes on and on. I desperately needed a break, and Phish was that break. Their music isn't overtly political unless you read way too deeply into it, so there was no potential for reminders of what was happening in the outside world. It was just fantastic that me and my 21,000 friends were able to recharge for 4 days before Washington's Captain Idiot and the Hatchetmen (might steal that as the new name for my band) got back to his work challenging things I hold dear and appreciate.
Phish wasn't what I wanted, but in the 15 years I've been following them, they are what I need from time to time. It's January of 2018, and I want to wish you a happy new year, and hope that, in the past week, you had your moment of distraction from reality, enough to recharge your batteries so that you can accomplish everything you want/need to. If not, no worries, I hear that the band is planning a summer festival at Watkins Glen, NY. See you there. And, if it's your first time, maybe they'll play someone else's music.
