I’m fried from dealing with tax shit and sick as a dog with some hideous goddamn flu. Kind of nice, as the cold medication mixes pleasantly with a few drinks, but nevertheless… Where was I going with this? Oh, right. It’s cold and I’m burnt and the forces keeping me hazy and feeble-minded compel me to keep this short. So here it is – two simple things of note:
1. Reviews
A while back I received two great reviews of the book. Not because they liked or lauded it, but in the simple sense that the authors of the pieces “got it,” understood it from each of its angles. They’re solid, balanced critiques, and I think they speak to some of paranoia soon-to-be college graduates are facing in this rotten year of our Lord, 2009:*
Happy Hour is for Amateurs: A Review
Trinitonian Book Review: Happy Hour is for Amateurs
2. A New Piece on Bitterlawyer
If you’re a lawyer, law student or simply interested in the legal industry and you haven’t been to Bitterlawyer, go there. It’s the only comedy site connected to the “Blawgosphere” with a decent set of balls. I did another piece with the guys over there, touching on an overlooked career option for the recently laid off set, darkly.
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* Considering the parallels between now and ’71-’74, I think the use of that recognizable descriptive is excusable, if not downright compelled.
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Well written, funny, yet so true (your blog on Bitterlawyer) – RBP
PL: Thank you. I think it’s important to give back to the industry. It does so much for so many.
I caught myself wondering whether or not the wave monologue from the Vegas book also applies to the world we’re living in now – whether or not we’re emerging from a very special place to be a part of. The more I think about it, the more I realize that this latter comparison isn’t valid. The late sixties were a time of terrible potential. I could blame the baby boomers from selling out their ideals and drifting toward mainstream conservatism and then raising generations that rivaled the Roman emperors in their levels of excess and selfishness. Nevertheless, there was potential, a spark Hunter alludes to, that I just can’t say has really existed for us, gens x and y and y-not and whateverthafuck. Our Woodstock had corporate sponorship, for Christ’s sake. Rather than going out into the world and trying to make an impact, I feel like we’ve sat on our asses waiting for the tide to find us, instead than striking out for the unknown. Maybe that desire to stay sheltered in the cove led to the instant gratification, no consequences gluttony that created a culture/society living so far beyond its means, so far beyond what ought to have been an accepted lifestyle that only a massive finacialocolipse could make us stop.
Or maybe it’s Friday and I’m just waiting for the kids to leave so I can crack open the whisky, listen to Tom Waits, and pretend that I’m poetic. Sigh….
On another note, I’m ordering your book tonight!
PL: I just opened a bottle of Bluecoat Gin myself, and on the Tom Waits thing, if you haven’t, check out “What’s He Doing in There?” on Youtube. It’s not a song. More a spoken word joke or parody of some sort, but it’s damned amusing in the right frame of mind. Or with the right frame of mind.
As to the ’60s thing, I can’t offer a definitive comment on whether now is different or like that era, as I wasn’t there, but if the art, personalities and sense of promise offered to me by historians is a guide, I agree with you. In general, we’re more openly vulgar than at any other time since the twenties. We don’t celebrate the art – we read books about how the artists became entrepreneurs and gobbled up producer credits and made a mint of cash. Most of our humor is snark, which necessarily compels the comedian to eschew any suggestion of emotional connection with an issue. We live in a weak, silly culture, but all that said, I think there’s a bright future ahead.
The economy’s going to continue to collapse because we’ve run into a nasty conundrum: You can’t make more money by creating new debt vehicles that kick off fee income or one time cash-outs for their structurers (both in the commercial deal realm and at the consumer credit level) but will never be paid off. An economy based on nothing but transactions is not an economy. There has to be something of actual value underneath, as we’re learning. As that reality takes hold, people will be forced to try to create more innovative products and technologies at an increasing pace, to deliver the next Ipod or Google to us. There will be a resurrection.
Thanks for ordering the book. It won’t live up to the one sparking our exchange here, but then, nothing would ever even be close. That clarity of voice – those unique voices created by the ’60s – died last year with Carlin. People don’t want to think about that stuff anymore. They want to jerk each other off about refinancing their homes, bitching about their 401ks and bantering about the Real Housewives of Prozac Terrace.
Neil Young said it well in his recent tune, “Fork in the Road” – “There’s a bailout coming but it’s not for me/It’s for all those creeps watching tickers on TV.”
Just who ARE those creeps watching tickers on TV anyway?
Know what’s humorous though? All the time this credit crisis was being talked about on Sitcoms. On every single one of ‘em. Character X takes out a credit card, buys stupid shit, can’t pay it back, has mommy and daddy fix everything. Moral of the story: Don’t be a dumbass, but if you are, mommy and daddy will save you. I guess that’s kinda how the country’s turning out, except the country is more of an emancipated minor who can forge checks pretty well. If watching TV has taught me anything, it’s that you shouldn’t use credit cards recklessly…or at all if possible.
Also: You will get kicked of the basketball team and turn into a degenerate if you do drugs or pot. Lolz.
PL: Narratives. We live in a country of narratives. Why do you think I loathe our jury system. It’s a couple of bullshitters manipulating Joe Sixpacks with stories that appeal to the jurors’ 100 IQs and kneejerk biases and worldviews.
Nice going with the posts. I finally bit the bullet and ordered an e-version of your book when I was in the U.K for a week. Worth every penny.
PL: I like to think of it as one of the best books people will never, ever admit enjoying to anyone at work. Thank you for the buy, and the compliment.
Well, people never really admit anything fun. I don’t know why they feel guilty about everything they do and enjoy? It’s almost as if they believe that you are supposed to be all grown up and act serious all the time. Work is work. Be professional about it, but you can also have a fun side too. Don’t have to be such a tight ass all the time.
Plus work for me is really a way to earn money and spend it on booze, drugs, chicks and cars. In that order.
p.s: You can still copy paste the “philalawyer” phrase into the box.
PL: “Fun” is a highly subjective noun/adjective. And office work for everybody with his head screwed on straight is just a means. What sick, goddamn degenerate would ever go to an office for any other reason?