I just came inside after about 15 minutes of literally hammering on Serena’s bike. I knew I had to stop “working” because I was just making everything worse. I was pretending to install her new headset but I was really angrily grieving the death of one of my favorite people in this world. I learned this afternoon that my old boss Chris Matthews passed away earlier today.
I started working at the Poet and Patriot in Santa Cruz in October of 2001. I’d heard stories about “the boss” but I didn’t meet him for a long time. I had never been much of a bar person and I was as green as could be when I started bar backing. I finally met Chris at Jersey Night 2001, the Poets ode to the Garden State which occurs every December. I apparently passed the test and was loving called a “foo foo head”.
Before the Christmas party that year I was told of the tradition of giving a toast, wherein all employees had to sing or toast in some manner before eating. I was so scared that I drank everything in sight and ate a pot brownie to try to calm my nerves. I was top shelf wasted but when it came my turn to toast I read a limerick that I had written the night before.. I killed it. Even in my wasted state I could tell that I had done good.
Later on I told my co-worker Andre that I had also brought a joke in case my limerick didn’t work. He then got everyone’s attention and he and Chris made me tell that to the small but packed room. It went as follows..
Q. Why don’t vampires live in gilroy?
A. Because it’s a shithole..
I killed again.. and I felt on top of the world. Later that night I had to be driven back to the pub by two co-workers.. I have no idea how I got home.
Working at the Poet and Patriot for three years changed the person that I was. First and foremost I soon realized that it was the only bar that I would ever work in. I respected the atmosphere that Chris Matthews had worked so hard to create and could only see myself backing a man of that caliber.
Secondly bartending changed my life. I gained confidence and learned to trust my instincts. I had amazing times and I had awful nights. I got hit on and I got in fist fights. Most importantly I met my wife.
Leaving the Poet was the hardest career move I have ever made. I knew I was doing the right thing but it felt so wrong.
Chris had always had my back and when I let him know I was leaving he shook my hand and let me know that I was always welcome back..
Four years later he let us have our after wedding reception in his bar and pumped our wedding party full of free beer all night. He always made me feel important and that I was part of something great.
There is so much more that I want to say but I can’t right now.. Goodnight Boss.
I’ve been building Eric Noren’s varioussites for a couple of years now. Perhaps I even bored you with the story about how I built the first version of Eyebooger in exchange for a burrito. I made the decision about a year ago that the only side work that I want to do is people and businesses that I totally believe in and am stoked on. Eric was already grandfathered in but he also falls under both of those criteria.
Working with Eric is funny because you won’t hear from him for months and then all of the sudden you’re getting multiple huge e-mails, phonecalls and txt messages in a period of 24 hours. Dude gets hyped like that and for a good reason.. he puts out really good work.
Anyhow this past week Eric was pestering me to put up his new film clip that he’d done for Adidas. I downloaded the file and uploaded it to my server without even opening it.. I always have him send me high quality screen grabs too so when he sent me this..
I knew it was for the Michael Sieben show commercial that’d I’d read about
I still hadn’t watched the commercial yet, not because I didn’t want to but because I was doing other things.. However I’ve now witnessed it and it is completely awesome. If you can carve out 4:35 minutes + 57.9 mbs of download time out of your schedule I highly recommend that you all watch this film and then buy some Adidas if you’re so inclined..
oh, here’s the other reason I like working for eric…
and Yacht Rock made a bunch of new episodes that I wasn’t aware of that are awesome!!
*I rode that hog to Stumptown to meet up w/ Brian and the whole way I was more worried about making sure not to put a scratch on his bike whilst conveniently forgetting that I was riding a brakeless fixed gear in a totally unfamiliar town and I didn’t know where I was going…
So how do you go from this
to this
in less than 24 hours?
well.. I found out about Wizard Staffs a couple months back.. and well damnit I just had to try it. Luckily I have a bunch of friends who are eager to try anything once. However, if I’m going to try the Wizard Staff game there is definitely going to be a wizard hat involved.. Harts Fabric probably didn’t realize what they were supplying purple and yellow felt for but I’m damn proud my limited sewing/glue gun capabilities!
Birthday boy Tex even gave it a thumbs up!
Anyways Rain, Jimmy and I set out to become wizards… Jimmy won..
and Rain and I came in 2nd and 3rd respectively…
one last photo of all this debauchery
me sending one of my many non-sensical text messages..
While trying to fall asleep last night I was youtubing music videos.. I came across this gem by Frightened Rabbit.
Similar to my weird meltdown re: Firehouse, while watching this video I remembered the weird sense of betrayal that I had when I first listened to this album.. a betrayal that was entirely my fault.
my reaction to first hearing “Midnight Organ Fight” was..
why don’t I already know about this album?? and why hasn’t anyone alerted me to it..
I almost had this weird everyone must hate me feeling..
In reality I’d had every opportunity to know about this record and had ignored all of them. Pitchfork which I read every morning reviewed it, Quickcrit a site that I read and contribute to reviewed it and All Songs Considered a podcast that I subscribe to had a glowing review of it as well…
Sometimes my own weirdness amazes me…
Like they say better late than never though.. The music video filmed in the classroom really made me fall in love with Frightened Rabbit even further..
