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July 12, 2010
The Case For Fiscal Restraint
I've commented a lot already on Canada's federal debt, and the fact that I think we should be trying to pay it down, but that doesn't seem to be the path that many of our "top economists" are suggesting we take. Some times I wonder if I'm in an absurdly small minority. However, once in a while I do stumble on an article or editorial that supports my idea of fiscal restraint and re-affirms my beliefs.
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This one is by David Brooks, called A Little Economic Realism. He writes in part:
I was against the massive stimulus packages that the US government handed out, and I was even more against the Canadian government's bandwagon participation. But since that is all behind us now, the most I can hope is that future effort is concentrated on balancing budgets again, and getting back to the task that we had at hand only two short years ago - paying down our federal debt.
I wonder how I'm going to explain this to my daughter. She's only 10, and she's already looking at the state of the environment, wondering things like "why do we drive cars that pollute so much?" and "why are so many things made to be disposable and not re-usable?"
Good questions. I'm sure the economics questions are only a few years away.
Posted by Hammer at 02:49 PM | Comments (1)
July 05, 2010
Sister Golden Hair
From spring 1991 until summer 1992, I worked a night job as a Karaoke Host in a small neighbourhood pub in Westbank, BC, called Tappers. I didn't realise how much I loved singing, and how much I actually didn't suck at singing, until taking that job. There is one incident that still makes me smile when I look back at it...
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I literally stumbled into the job, being in the right place at the right time. I was working a day job at an electronics repair shop named Valley Digitronics, and we received a call from a local pub saying that their karaoke machine wasn't working. At that time, the karaoke machines played very large 12 inch video laser discs. They were expensive units, so the pub owner didn't want to bring the unit into the shop for servicing - they wanted someone to make an on-site repair call. I was asked to take the call.
I drove out to Tappers pub on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, finding it nestled in the middle of a native reserve and right across the road from a trailer park. I walked in and was immediately subjected to a few glances from patrons and staff that looked friendly for the most part. I told the bartender I was there to service the karaoke machine, and was shortly introduced to one of the bar owners, Tim. Tim struck me as a very down-to-earth guy with a good solid handshake and a trustworthy but slightly weathered look.
We wandered over to the machine and Tim showed me the problem. I asked to have a few minutes with the machine so I could inspect it and render a repair estimate. Ten minutes later I told Tim that it wouldn't be hard to fix at all, it just needed a cleaning - it had spent too long running inside a smoky bar, and the smoke was blocking the laser operations.
After fixing the machine and re-assembling it, Tim suggested that we drink a beer and "test it out". I wasn't going to turn down a free beer, so I agreed and then sat back as Tim sang Green River by CCR. Tim was a true karaoke bar singer.... his pitch was sometimes on, sometimes a little flat; his tone was slightly nasal to imitate John Fogerty... but his enthusiasm just couldn't be matched. He knew he wasn't that great at singing, but he loved it!
After the song was over, he asked if I wanted to test it out and sing a song. Why not, I thought. I asked him to cue up Heartbreak Hotel, an Elvis song that I at least knew I could sing without too much trouble. I have to admit that I wasn't much better than Tim at that point, since Heartbreak Hotel isn't in the best range for my vocal capabilities, but I would classify the performance as "respectable".
Tim was staring at me with an incredulous expression. So was the bar staff and many of the patrons, most everyone in the bar had stopped what they were doing and were looking over at me. I wasn't sure what to make of the sudden attention - was it good or bad? Had I just impressed them all, or was I so bad that they were all disgusted with me?
Tim came over and shook my hand, congratulating me on a superb performance. I was humbled, and didn't know what to say other than "thanks". Then Tim came right out and asked me if I wanted a job.
"Doing what?" I answered.
"This," he said. The look on my face said I didn't understand, so he continued: "Every Wednesday night is Karaoke Night here at Tappers, and we need someone to host it. Our last karaoke host quit a few weeks ago, and I've been standing in since then, but you're much better than me. Can you do it?"
"Hmm. I haven't done it before, but I was a disc jockey for a few years, I guess I could try. When would I start and what's the pay?"
"The pay is minimum wage, and no tips, but you also get free beer. Can you start tomorrow night?"
After a few seconds of shock, I found myself answering, "sure!" Just like that, I was a Karoke Host! Tim and I then spent a few more minutes going over the equipment operation and the general format for the night - over another beer, of course. Which turned into another, and another, as we talked about music and people and pubs. I didn't get home until quite late.
The job of the karaoke host was to encourage people to sing, but if nobody wanted to sing at any point throughout the night then the host was expected to fill in the gaps between singers - of course, this meant the host had to choose a song and sing it themselves. I found that this meant I was singing anywhere between ten and twenty songs per night, which is quite a lot of practice.
On one of those nights when I was the one up singing, I chose the song Sister Golden Hair by America. I had already tried this song a few times before, so I knew the lyrics and melody fairly well. Also, the song key was a very good match for my voice, and there wasn't anything truly challenging about singing this song. It was just a nice easy choice to fill the gap.
After the first verse and chorus were over, one of the pub patrons walked up to me while I was singing, and with a slightly drunken slur stated, "you ain't singing that song. You're just pretending."
I smiled at him and kept singing, but he wouldn't let it be... he repeated his accusation, but a little louder as drunks tend to do. So I stopped singing in the middle of a verse, and magically the voice over the pub speakers also stopped singing! The patron's eyes went wide as he exclaimed, "holy shit! You are singing! That is you!"
"Yes," I agreed, "now can I please finish the song?"
"Yeah! Sing it!" and he then proceeded to wander back to his table, drink in hand, proclaiming all the way back out loud to everyone and no-one at the same time, "He's really singing! That's him!"
I know that such a compliment from a drunk in a small pub in the middle of nowhere doesn't make me any kind of star, but the expression on his face when he realized it was me was priceless, and is burned into my memories forever.
Posted by Hammer at 05:06 PM | Comments (0)