Worked and paid our union dues—what did years of that produce?

[sovay]

When I got to Davis Square this evening to pick up a medication and meet spatch for dinner on his half-hour break, a busker with good queer style and an electric guitar was performing the English-language verses of Daniel Kahn's "March of the Jobless Corps." I left money in their guitar case because I spent a portion of this afternoon seriously considering applying for a job that would require me to move half a dozen states down the Eastern Seaboard, which is not my first choice despite a strong ancestral tradition of going where the work is, but there's real money in it and health benefits and I am sick of clearing the rent by an ever-narrowing margin of not being able to afford anything else. I think we exceeded the metaphor of drowning and struggling for breath some months ago and are now firmly in the realm of waterlogged corpse somehow keeps screaming.

Last weekend I patched two pairs of my jeans so that I could keep wearing them. Tonight the zipper on the less-worn of the two pairs abruptly broke. So I guess I get to spend this weekend replacing a zipper. It is not an option to replace the jeans; they have been discontinued by the manufacturer, which infuriates me because they were the one style of 100% cotton, non-stretchy jeans I was able to find in more than ten years that actually fit my body and didn't make me want to peel off my skin. They fit so beautifully that I bought three pairs. I expected them to last longer than two years. For that matter, I didn't expect them to be discontinued within two years. Nothing is made to last anymore and we are always supposed to have the money to buy the next thing.

I rewatched Metropolis (1927) this afternoon, the 149-minute Kino restoration currently on Kanopy that's as close as we're going to get to the full original release without another broom closet in Argentina. I'd seen it last in 2010, accompanied by the Alloy Orchestra. This one had a re-recording of the original score by Gottfried Huppertz, which oddly I feel I paid less attention to except when it was quoting from the "Dies Irae." I love the movie; I did from the time I saw a scratchy videocassette of the butchered short cut in high school; it is still such a weird and beautiful thing. I'd like to write about it properly sometime, but I am so tired that that time is not going to be now.

I am glad to see that HIAS is throwing itself into the border crisis. The Supreme Court decision on gerrymandering really scares me.

I've just been working so much and I want to do something else and instead I find myself thinking about moving to another state so that I can work more. That can't be right.

Comments

[sholio]

I love Metropolis. Weird and beautiful is a good word for it. At one point I bought it on DVD, but there's something wrong with the DVD and it won't play, which I didn't discover until it was (probably) far too late to return it, and now it is about 15 years too late to return it and I think I still have it in a box somewhere.

The court decision scares me a lot, too.

♥ ♥ ♥ on the job situation.

[sara]

I get very frustrated sometimes at the office (indeed today my entire workgroup was pretty much having a group therapy meeting in the technician's cubicle about how intensely frustrated we all are right now) but there is a great deal to be said for being able to buy groceries and take the kids to the doctor without checking my bank balance.

[poliphilo]

Hey, you just turned me on to Daniel Kahn. Ain't he great! Many thanks.

[selidor]

As another person had me realise the other day, I'm now up to 6 international moves in twelve years primarily for work; but I wouldn't have kept doing it if it wasn't something where I also got a lot life-wise out of each move, in learning new cultures and friends. If it's a place that would make you satisfied (and most important, feel better than things are now) to live there, that could be a good choice.

[choco_frosh]

We would all hella miss you, but you should apply. On the principle that 10 applications should yield at least one job interview and ten job interviews hopefully yield at least one job, if nothing else...

[thawrecka]

Metropolis really is magnificent, a striking expressionist dream of a thing.

As for everything else, I hope things get better for you soon.

Scream of Empathy About Clothing Styles

[dewline]

I have found that the most utilitarian styles of polo/golf shirt that fit me comfortably - such that I have pockets in which I also can stuff cellphones safely and/or display ID passcards from the "lip" of - have been discontinued at source without my consent.

"Nothing is made to last anymore and we are always supposed to have the money to buy the next thing."

SFX: Prolonged scream of clothing-shoppers' frustration!

[phi]

*hugs* I'm so sorry about the stress.

I've just been working so much and I want to do something else and instead I find myself thinking about moving to another state so that I can work more. That can't be right.

If I may offer a reframe, it's not to work more. It's to work for better compensation, which, one would hope, would afford you less stress and more leisure time.



I love Metropolis. It was the first b&w film I'd ever seen, when I was living near Coolidge Corner and they screened the restoration. It wasn't the screening with the Alloy Orchestra though, and it was before the material in Argentina was discovered. It was still powerfully haunting.

[wpadmirer]

Gerrymanding is horrifying and I despise those bigots who allowed it to keep going.

I saw Metropolis when I was in high school and thought it was one of the most ethereal and beautiful things I'd ever seen. I can understand why you enjoy it so much.

I understand the financial struggle, and I know that working more seems like a pain in the ass answer, but I am right there with you. Take heart and I hope that it works out for you.

[oracne]

I feel your jeans pain.

Applying for the job doesn't mean you're committed to it, and I think it's good to have choices.

Metropolis is so awesome. I saw the last theatrical release, that had some of the wild and crazy rich people in it, but not since then. Thanks for the heads up on the new restoration.

[moon_custafer]

I fell in love with it as the scratchy, semi-coherent version with a rock soundtrack that MuchMusic ran when I was high school. At university a friend of mine found an English translation of the novelization of Von Harbou’s script, which explained a lot of the missing plot elements (like what Jehoshaphat is off doing for half the story). Each restoration added a bit more back in, and there was a huge jump 10-15 years back when the Murnau Foundation did a frame-by-frame clean-up, and I could suddenly see that the acting and makeup had been much more naturalistic than I’d originally thought.

Recently I also found out that we kind of owe Curt Siodmak’s screenwriting career, and possibly his brother’s directing career, to Metropolis: Siodmak was a journalist who visited the set to write a behind-the-scenes article (I think he actually became an extra for the inside scoop) and decided to switch to moviemaking.

[moon_custafer]

I’ve noticed a frustrating corollary to Vime’s Boots Theory, which is that you supposedly get the quality you (can afford to) pay for, but in practice it’s the mid-priced items that really do you in.

Mid-range boots are expensive enough you think you’re at least getting something that will last, but I find quite often they cost at least twice as much, sometimes three times as much, as the cheapest ones, while only lasting one-and-a-half times as long; so that really if you can afford the mid-range brand, you’re actually better off buying two pairs of the cheap brand and switching them out as needed. In theory the Really Expensive Brand might actually last long enough to be worth the price tag, but it’s too expensive to find out, especially if you’ve already wasted your money on the Medium Brand.

I don’t know if it was ever thus, or if this is the result of companies with a good reputation based on past performance falling under new management who decide to coast on the name while cutting corners in the actual manufacture (probably then selling off the stock before anyone notices the drop in quality, paying themselves a dividend, declaring bankruptcy, and moving on to the next previously-reputable company).

[shewhomust]

I'm sorry things are so tight for you right now, and hope for better times.

Is the job attractive in itself - other than being in the wrong state, I mean?

I am so sorry about your jeans: it feels trivial to say this, because it's not the biggest problem in this post, and it's one you can take ation on. But it's so disappointing ewhen clothes you think werr going to be really good turn out not to be. And while I have replaced zips in the past, it's really above my competence level.

Sympathy all tound, in fact.

[asakiyume]

I'm curious about the job--but I guess you decided against applying. I would hate to have you not-in-the-Boston-area because having you there feeds into my imagination that I can see you sometime, even when, in fact, several years (including this one), I don't even make it out to Readercon. But your having health benefits and security matter much more than my notional, never-acted-on idea of possibly seeing you.

Glad you're keeping the jeans alive. I like patching jeans.