As we enter another calendar year of giveths and taketh aways, I face one of my greatest challenges... Working in a bar sober... As you may have heard, I was recently hospitalized for a pickled liver and its manifestation of an absurdly huge buildup of fluid in my body... After some fluid shedding meds, I feel like I was a balloon that was popped finally... Sadly, this development in my overall health has caused my permanent breakup with Jagermeister... It was a long exclusive run... I'll miss you!
That dreaded forced trip to the hospital did give me some peace of mind in other ways though... I now know for a fact that I don't have cancer or any of the other zillions of diseases they tested me for... The bonus zinger is that the illness was not because of smoking, which is the number one issue I get harassed by my family about... Anyhow, I am now on severe deadline for this column... I survived my first sober weekend at the bar although I feel like I was hung-over Sunday morning, just by boozy osmosis... Was it transferred by cuddles with alcoholized well wishers...? Maybe it was because I was LeBlanced at the Cum Soc show by being drenched in a beer and vomit transfer combo... Yay laundry time!
So here is a short list of some Yays and Boos of 2013 ~
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| Cat Ashbee photo |
Yay ~ punk and metal still surviving in the best dive bar in the downtown eastside! Thanx Funkys hierarchy!
Boo ~ even though the subculture is still surviving, I wish that more people took the time to attend local shows... That's where the next killer band is percolating from!
Yay ~ Toxic Holocaust is still touring and putting out killer albums while still playing small venues and braving the border bullshit…
Boo ~ the government border policy that changed this summer to try to wrangle more money by improperly classifying musicians in the same vein as corporate scab workers from foreign countries…
Yay ~ the public reaction and signings to said border policy change via the online petition that showed how unfair the new fees were to everyday struggling musicians and small non-exempt venues and how many people opposed it…
Boo ~ the fact that the online petition means nothing to affect government policy change and was never translated to a physical pen and paper version, which could be presented to the powers that be... Who would be able to take that feat on? I'm thinking it would have to be someone with some clout in the music industry and as of now no one has stepped up...
Boo ~ the fact that the new performer fees have no effect on the power broker type corporate venue owners as they are the ones that are basically exempt from the new fees in their exempt venues... These are the people with the most clout to change the policy but yet will not give a shit about it... Once again, it's fuck the little guy!
Yay ~ fuck the man! The only way the little music peeps can survive is to have more illegal venues... Let's just call them 'popups' from now on to get with the civilized lingo that seems to fly in this city!
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| Cat Ashbee photo |
See you at the shows!
-wendythirteen
